Stalking and eavesdropping made easier

The internet, that's what did it: email, twitter, Facebook, etc. And in Kenya that privacy rights are virtually non-existant, it makes for very easy prey. Syzygy Mandaea :

Privacy rights are not the rave in Kenya, the paradigm ‘if you’ve nothing to hide you will not mind intrusion’ seems to hold sway here, and the human rights groups remain detained in a 1980s mindset where the primary infringement on one’s rights derives from state action intended to stifle dissent.

Kibaki Addresses Parliament (text)

Published here is the text of President Kibaki's remarks at the opening of the 4th session of the 10th parliament.

Finding my Identity

I am usually excited at the start of a new semester – I generally love new beginnings. When I was younger I hated introducing myself because the question that always followed was, “Oh that’s a pretty name. Is it Igbo? What does it mean?” I did not like the meaning but now I love it. I secretly,not much of a secret anymore, love hearing "ooh that’s a pretty name" whenever I say, 'Hi my name is Edia and I'm from Nigeria. I'm an International Affairs major and a Journalism minor...' I feel that they are itching to ask more about Nigeria.

What does it mean to be someone who doesn't hold any of the stereotypes of "your people". Edia Uko tackles identity.

In her place; the unmuffling of Esther Arunga

Our tabloids were happy for spectacular sales last week. Good for them, but not so good for individual freedoms or for the liberated 21st Century Kenyan woman. Sometime last week it came to the media’s delirious attention and consequently to that of the country, that former KTN newscaster Esther Arunga was in some sort of trouble. Her family was desperate for her, and for her career. She had left her job at the Standard Group’s television station, moved out of home and into the palatial residence, also church, that belongs to a distant relative - and her present spiritual leader- one Joseph, also named Hellon.

Stephen Wanyama makes the case that Arunga is a thirty-year old woman, old enough to make decisions on where she can stay and how she worships. With the little we know about her church, why do we, Kenya and its-all-knowing-media, infantilize her?

Addressing the Senate and Devolution

If the Committee Of Experts has decided to eschew the Parliamentary Select Committee's (PSC) proposal on the makeup, role and functioning of the propose senate, as has been reported in the press, and has instead recommended an empowered senate with legislative powers and directly elected members, the question that presents itself is what will become of the PSC's proposal on devolution.

Read here, as Jones Mereu challenges the creation of a devolved county (unit) with only administrative powers.

Steve Clemons interviews Kalonzo Musyoka

A few weeks ago, the Vice President, Kalonzo Musyoka was in Washington DC for America's annual National Prayer Breakfast, an event he has attended seven times in the past. We found an interview by Steve Clemons of the New America Foundation. A gem. Really. They discuss everything from Christian democracy, security in Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Musyoka also speaks on Barack Obama's deep Kenyan roots and his increasing popularity in Kenya. Watch the 8-minute-long video here.

Ignore the AG: There is no Constitutional Crisis

The Attorney General, Amos Wako, says the stand-off between Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki over cabinet ministers’ discipline could lead to a constitutional crisis and precipitate early elections. [Find the AG's statement here] Ignore him dear Kenyans, he’s just trying to scare the political class straight and to get them to see their common interest in perpetuation of the Grand Coalition status quo.

Read the rest from Mwalimu Mati here.

Timeline of Raila/Kibaki Feud

On Sunday, Raila Odinga suspended Ministers Ongeri and Ruto. A few hours later Pres Kibaki rescinded the suspension setting off a series of events chronicled here.

Film Review: Seeking the Soul of the Soul Boy

Four days in Nairobi is all Hawa Essuman has as she shuttles from Rotterdam to Berlin. Essuman arrived at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) from Sweden’s Goteborg Film Festival and the world premier of her new film Soul Boy. On February 19th, Soul Boy screens at the Berlin Biennale and everywhere it goes, so Hawa Essuman will go.

Njorogo Matathia gives Soul Boy a glowing review, but wonders about the makings of an "African" film. What defines African. Read more.

Coming into the Cold

If you're in the diaspora and find yourself staring hatefully at banks of snow, think about adopting a new sports team or athlete this winter. The Olympics are kicking off today, and if you are housebound it might be a harmless distraction to cheer on “your” side on television.

Silly woman, you say. The Olympics were in 2008! Yes, but those were the summer games. This February, we can watch the Winter Olympics . There'll be skiing, of course; and curling, which is a perplexing combination of bowling and housework on ice. There's also ice skating, both artistic and speed ; ski jumping; all manner of ways of throwing yourself down a frozen water slide; and we mustn't forget the ice hockey.

How about it, more Kenyans in winter sports?

A peek into the past and future of Pan Africanism

To quote Prof Zeleza, “‘Africa’ the map and the place is becoming increasingly ‘Africa’ the idea and the consciousness, buttressed by an intricate web of continental institutions.” In the second decade of the 21st century, the continent is “perhaps more ‘African’ than it has ever been… more interconnected through licit and illicit flows of commodities, capital, ideas, and people... more conscious of its collective identity.” As the pressures of globalisation continue to buffet and mould the continent, as they always have, a continental economy and, eventually, government is inevitable — with or without Gaddafi’s harangues.

More.

Death by Dominoes

When the assassins come they kill everyone. That is what you must understand. Death is coming. It's at the door. Though uttered weeks earlier, on a different cellblock, I still recall leaning forward in concentration, struggling to hear the words, striving to discern the meaning, if any, conveyed by Wannamaker's frog-like voice.

The old man didn't speak his words so much as he breathed them out, in a guttural rasp, as weak as a politician's promise, like a man talking reluctantly through a mouthful of marbles. Weeks later, perched on an overturned mop bucket wedged in the open doorway of my single-man cell, Wannamaker's enigmatic words were still gnawing along the margins of my mind. Those whispered words...How was I to know they'd be so prescient?

Fascinating short story. Read on.

Draft Constitution from PSC on Constitution Review

Published here is the actual proposed constitution for Kenya that came out of the Naivasha conference of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional Review. The document has been forwarded to the Committee of Experts appointed to collect views and put them together in a form that could be presented to the Kenyan people for their approval.

PSC report on the Draft Constitution

Published HERE is a report from the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional Review.

Death by Dominoes

When the assassins come they kill everyone. That is what you must understand. Death is coming. It's at the door. Though uttered weeks earlier, on a different cellblock, I still recall leaning forward in concentration, struggling to hear the words, striving to discern the meaning, if any, conveyed by Wannamaker's frog-like voice.

The old man didn't speak his words so much as he breathed them out, in a guttural rasp, as weak as a politician's promise, like a man talking reluctantly through a mouthful of marbles. Weeks later, perched on an overturned mop bucket wedged in the open doorway of my single-man cell, Wannamaker's enigmatic words were still gnawing along the margins of my mind. Those whispered words...How was I to know they'd be so prescient?

From Imperial President to King: a people betrayed

Members of Parliament have betrayed the people of Kenya, particularly the majority poor and exploited and the struggle for a new progressive national constitution.

No wonder the majority of the MPs that are tampering with the constitution in Naivasha have never been involved in the struggle for democracy in the country. They were part of the dictatorship that was opposed to democratic reforms.

While patriots and progressive Kenyans were being persecuted by the Moi and Kenyatta regimes for struggling for liberation from dictatorship, those who are now purporting to decide about the constitution for Kenya were accumulating wealth through corrupt deals. The few of the MPs at Naivasha that were reformers yesterday have now turned into opportunists and traitors and are either silent or collude with those who are manufacturing the constitution which Kenyans should reject.

Social Democratic Party chair Mwandawiro Mghanga weighs in on the Naivasha Consensus.

Drunken Policeman Ruined my Christmas Holiday

Dennis Langat shares his Christmas holiday misadventure.

According to the police officers, my traffic offense was traffic obstruction. In my defence my movement was restricted as there was a matatu parked right in front of me. I later learned that this was a tactic used by the traffic police to solicit bribes from already poor wananchi. The proper action for me to take would be to toa kila kitu, people told me. I wondered how non-Kenyans driving through Kenya would understand this sub-culture, and how bribing by traffic policemen had become an acceptable culture. What happened next can only be described as surreal.

Read more.