The Never-ending House

While there are IDPs still living in tents, it is difficult to see why we should let the Vice-President have 17 million bob worth of toilets.

Updates has an open thread about the Vice-Presidential house.

New York Times issue on women insulting

On Sunday I got to read the much-anticipated New York Times Magazine issue dedicated to women of the developing world. Before I comment on “The Women’s Crusade,” the lead story by Nicholas D. Kristof and his wife Sheryl WuDunn, let me make one thing clear: I have deep respect for the couple. In 1990, Kristof and WuDunn became the first couple to ever win Pulitzer Prize in journalism for their coverage of China’s Tiananmen Square. In his career, Kristof has gone where few of us journalists would dare go. His continuous commentary from Darfur exposed the Sudanese government’s atrocities against civilians and earned him another Pulitzer in 2006. 

Condescending? African mass of one people?

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The Artificial Construct of Keeping It Real

Wannabe. Oreo. Coconut. Fake. All of these contumelies will be familiar to anyone who, at some point, has been accused of "acting white." It could be something as simple as preferring heavy metal over hip-hop, or having the "wrong" accent. Whether warranted or not, the insult serves to put the recipient on notice that their behaviour has been interpreted as a form of cultural betrayal. While the situation may be more familiar to black people in the West, the accusation is not limited by geography. Even in Kenya, where we do not suffer the social disadvantages of being a minority, and where the effects of colonial racism have arguably been less devastating than the United States, it is still possible to face the charge of somehow letting the side down through one's behaviour.

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Negative Ethnicity and North-Eastern Province

Once the tribe became the symbol in elections and employment, discrimination and subjugation of minorities followed; and so completely eclipsed have they been that their plight remains unheard.

Negative ethnicity is still alive in North-Eastern Kenya: it is perpetuated by criminal yet tolerated practices that turn individual grievances into clan conflict, guaranteeing constant tension in the region.

Xudayi returns with a long and comprehensive look at the NEP variety of our national pastime.

Why is there such uncritical acceptance of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi's conviction in the US?

Lost in the diplomatic outrage, the headlines and the motives of Libya - which, again, are not implausible - is a simple matter of legal rectitude. Libya may or may not have been responsible for the attack - its previous admissions of responsibility are not to be taken at face value - and Megrahi is probably no angel either, as few people working for the Libyan secret service (or any secret for that matter) are. The problem is one of due process and the irregularities are so glaring that Scotland's own legal review board has called the conviction into question. Convictions can only be secured on available evidence and testimony, which, in this case, are flimsy to threadbare. We mightn't like it (or like Gaddafi's squalid, brutal regime) but it is highly unlikely that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi planted the bomb on Pan Am Flight 103. That the US media is failing to report this side of the story is a dereliction of journalistic duty.

Read more from Oliver Farry who shows the flimsy evidence that was used to convict Megrahi. 

Traffic Management in Nairobi

Yesterday the City Council of Nairobi unveiled a new set of rules to help manage the traffic flow in and out of Nairobi that left me wondering if the council's measures would help with traffic congestion. Planning seems to have taken a back seat when it comes to looking at how some of these decisions impact on the residents of Nairobi, people whom the Council should strive to serve. I say this because, how do you terminate commuter transport into town so far away? What are the options and where are the options?

Read more from Odhiambo Oketch here. 

Caster-away

Several hours ago Caster Semenya received her gold medal for her outstanding victory in the 800m women's race at the IAAF's World Championships. Sadly, that success has been overshadowed by claims that it was undeserved, allegations that she was ineligible for the race,that her competing was unfair to the other athletes. The stage whispers declare her a man and explain her victory with the unfair advantage conferred on her by androgens.

Discuss your thoughts in our Open Thread. Is it fair that we are discussing so publicly Semenya's gender? And how does one determine gender?

Justice for the Judge and Justice for the Unwashed

I know that there are cases pending before the High Court, which were filed when I was a child. I am now qualified to be appointed a judge of the High Court, meaning that they have wallowed in the registries and diaries and mentions and call-overs and whatnot, long enough for me to actually hear and try them. Dearest Lord. And then Ombija files a suit. And it is over in ten quick months. Ten months.

In such a scenario, it is difficult to ignore the fact that the plaintiff is a judge of the High Court. It is also mightily difficult to resist the suggestion and appearance that perhaps in our beloved Republic, there is justice for the judge, and then there is justice for the unwashed, and that the two are starkly dissimilar propositions.

Eric, on the Ombija lawsuit. He doesn't hold back.

The Wagalla Massacre: what really happened

The target community were the Degodia but it is believed a number of Somalis of other extraction were caught up in cases of mistaken identity. The operation targeted male members of the clan above 12 years of age but women were raped, houses were burnt and property was looted in every locality where the operation took place. The men rounded up were subjected to torture in an effort to force them to confess to owning a rifle. Some died of their wounds before they reached Wagalla Airstrip. Those who reached the airstrip were sorted into sub-clans and up to 30 members of Jebrail sub-clan were burnt alive in an orgy of unprecedented violence.

Xudayi, who's published a book on the massacre, gives a brief overview of the events. Harrowing reading (and yet another reason Bethwell Kiplagat should be relieved of his TJRC duties).

Hand in Mouth: National Security, food and Doha

The question really is, instead of wasting time and resources on trade deals that will always find some loop hole within which to screw developing countries, why don't we focus on developing infrastructure for regional trade-so that Africans for instance, can trade amongst themselves? Why don't we focus on increasing the capacity of African farmers to meet the huge demand for food on their continents and supplement their efforts with aid money instead of importing American wheat few of us will ever have the heart to eat?

Come over and welcome Olakunle Aboyeji to our pages. For a fan of Yoruba polytheism, he sure has a lot in common with Hillary Clinton.

Our Ass and the Mau

There is every reason to conclude that the hyped-up urgency over Mau, the proposal to violate the law and the preferment of singular brutality in eviction has everything to do with the ethnicity of the majority of the title holders in Mau. Whilst the 'clever' formal media commentators and 'wise' analysts gloss over the issue, it may be time to talk to each other sincerely. The Hague, Mau and other controversies stem partly from a widespread feeling that the Kalenjin are unforgiven, that they are guilty of too many unforgivable things, have got away with too much for too long and that no opportunity should be wasted, but instead, must be used to extract retribution, revenge, justice, punishment, closure and settlement, and that forgiveness will only ensue after full vengeance has been exacted and they are suitably contrite, and not in everyone's face as they presently seem to be.

Eric returns; he's his usual forthright self.

Voluntary Drinking Overseas

It was Potash's birthday a while ago; we're helping him celebrate by putting up this lovely little piece from back in the day.

My Husband, the Pastor and I

But my mother is poor; my babies and I would have been a burden to her. So I vumiliad and went back. Ngai! Those were the days I wished I had gone to secondary school instead of getting pregnant and getting married.

Juliet Maruru is back; it's short and bittersweet.