What if it happened here?

The 7.0 magnitude quake that has flattened the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, should give East Africans pause for thought. What if a similar quake hit here? How prepared are we? As it turns out, not very. And such an event is not as rare around these parts as some would like to think. According to Professor Chris Hartnady, a former Associate Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Cape Town, “Large areas of the African continent are in an unstable, tectonically active, state and, especially in the mountain regions, substantial danger is posed to growing populations.” Between 1980 and April 2002, the continent was hit by over 50 serious earthquakes, resulting in over 23,000 deaths and injuries.

Patrick Gathara lays it all out, and has some suggestions on how we can best protect ourselves-- without spending too much.

On Femmes

Rachel Gichinga is exasperated by the predictability of the Q&A at The Kenya We Want conference.

Institutionalism and its Limits

Daniel Waweru argues that institutions alone will not save us.

The Revolution in Middle Age

Will there be a revolution? While the scars of tribalism and the post-election violence persist, it is doubtful that there could ever be a collective repudiation of the current state of affairs.

Stephanie mulls over the Iranian revolution, and draws some lessons for Kenya.

News: East African Community

We continue to love the idea, at least the state does, our brothers south of the border it seems do not. East Africa Minister Amason Kingi just out of a Zanzibar conference quoted saying the Tanzanians are asking the other states to slow down in unification efforts. The Customs Union was supposed to have morphed by year end into a full common market, with equal rights for migration, property purchases, etc.

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A changing morality: Obama and Kenya

The Kenyan papers are filled with reports on the US election; the country is in a proper frenzy. The Prime Minister has declared that we do not expect Obama to win, we know he will. It is all very exciting. I had a meeting down for Wednesday, but it was cancelled last night as the other party was unsure how safe town would be on that day, the day after the US election. Things have come to that.

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Bush on Africa

US President George W. Bush departs for Africa in an effort to highlight his commitment to the benighted continent and burnish his foreign-policy legacy. In Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia, he'll tout initiatives to encourage democracy and combat poverty, disease and corruption. What follows here is his speech at the Smithsonian Insititute last evening.

Rising infertility in Kenyan girls

Rebecca Wanjiku pays a visit to the Kiambu District Hospital and comes face to face with a bevy of beautiful young women, all of them in perfect health, except for one thing- they are infertile. She takes us through the tragedy of improper contraception use and the side effects of contraceptives, and the whiplash on a generation of girls.

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No such thing as a Muslim vote

Amir Ibrahim argues that the courting of Muslims by politicians is not only unfair to Kenyans of other faiths, but also dangerous to the Muslim voters themselves as a perception of them as a fifth column, self-serving and inimical to the needs of other citizens is created and reinforced. He also argues that there really is no such thing as an Islamic constituency and pleads that Kenyans come to a universal conception of rights that are due to all citizens regardless of race or religion.
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The dollar, circumcision and AIDS

Readers will no doubt have seen the new American strategy on combating HIV/Aids in Kenya and the wider the region as is reported in the local press (Daily Nation 23/08/2007).

The reason for the change in strategy is said to have been occasioned by the recent studies in Kenya and South Africa that indicate that Male circumcision more than halves the chance of contracting HIV/Aids among males (by up to 60%).

Read more from Elijah Marangu here.

A different budget this time

Ahmed Mohamed while assessing the economy of Kenya addresses key economic factors and indicators that the Minister of Finance, Amos Kimunya, will have to include while preparing this year's budget.

Past Finance Ministers, including Kibaki himself had comparatively easy task of achieving popular acclaim. All they had to do was as simple as fixing the prices of certain class of consumer items at lower prices. Kimunya's hands however, are tied by both the liberalized economy and a question of balancing expenditure priorities. While it will be easy to reduce taxes especially on basic food items to influence price reduction, he will be required to off set the foregone tax revenue with a hike elsewhere. And that is where the complications will start to arise. Arbitrary tax transfers have their own risks including potential disruption of current economic buoyancy.

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My Kenyan Son, Listen to the Wisdom of Years

My son, I am now an old woman,I feel the ancestors beckoning to me,My heart is punctured and frayed,My body: old and frail. In the years I have been around, I've learnt so much 'bout the world, I feel the time is ripe, To share with you my arsenal. In recent months, I've been watching you, Watching you keenly; watching with eyes of steel, My eyes have not slumbered in my watch, My guard has not dropped in my sentry. My son, I am afraid of what I see; I am afraid of what I dream; I am afraid of what I see in your eyes; I am afraid of your zest and vim. My son, I am afraid, The more I think of what you are doing, The more I age past my age, The more people comment on how old I look.

Interesting narration by Richard Mbuthia, as an old woman advises her grandson on social issues.

Cane and School: are they still blood brothers?

When I was in school back in the eighties, the cane was the trademark of any 'proper' school. In other words, cane and school were twin brothers

When I was in Standard Four, for instance, my Mathematics teacher world 'burst' into class, a nyahunyo (Maasai whip made from car tyres) dangling under his arm and he would menacingly cry out, "Stand up...Tables!" This was a signal that we were to start reciting the Mathematical multiplication tables. Anyone showing signs of not knowing what was going on would be descended upon by his whip. I was a victim of the swish of his whip almost everyday: numbers and mathematical signs were as Greek (!) to me. We got used to such treatment and never at one time thought that our rights (what were children's rights at that time - they were gathering dust in the United Nations books) were being infringed on.

Read more as Richard Mbuthia hopes that the ban on corporal punishment in schools is not lifted.

A Grimm Tale

As fairytales go, this one has all the ingredients for a compelling classic. A foreign prince, king's daughter, swords (guns) drawn, a wicked step-mother, senseless courage and the promise of a wedding.

In order to pass this piece by this paper's usually hawkish editors, I guess I must qualify my opening statement. The Armenian star of this tale is only allegedly related to the Armenian Prime Minister, and the palace has disowned the king's daughter. The wicked step-mother is much loved by most but the rest of it is pretty real, although coming in a period when we are already overloaded with the tragedy on Mt. Elgon and the clamour for minimum constitutional reforms, it is a tad rich.

Tim Norwood, "The chronology may be a little off, there may be a distinct hint of levity, the details may be dodgy and Artur is neither planning a roundtable nor pulling swords out of rocks. Still it sounds like a fairytale, and the only real thing is my wish that it would all go away."

Somalia: Calling on Europe

The Iraq war continues to spiral out of control, the year leading up to its fourth anniversary this week the deadliest so far.

Unless a political solution is sought, the destructive toll in lives is destined to reach an astounding one million in the next year, since it was already 650,000 a year ago according to the Johns Hopkins University study.

The world has also never been so unstable or threatened. With Somalia invaded, the world and our region are even more so, with four countries now occupied, all of them Muslim. Once a war deepens, positions become entrenched and finding a peaceful exit becomes harder by the day.

Peace and human rights advocates in Kenya must therefore take the lead in emphasizing the need for a democratic, inclusive government devoid of the rampaging warlords rather than support the current aggression. We must lead this campaign because we are next door and directly involved, and the whole region could be engulfed by this crisis, as Ambassador Bethuel Kiplagat emphasized on Monday in these pages, although he advocated use of force as the way to end the resistance.

More on this from Salim Lone here.

ODM-K council to select Presidential Candidate

After months of haggling over what system was best suited for choosing its Presidential candidate to face Mwai Kibaki later this year, the ODM seem to be considering the idea of selection over election.

This controversial decision is the subject of our poll this week , you may vote on the bottom left of the homepage. We ask in our poll whether our readers prefer this system which some in ODM-K are claiming will ensure that the candidate who wins the party's blessing is one who can actually beat the incumbent, and do so by a wide margin.

Click here to share with other Kenyans what you think about the Kenyan presidential elections polls, and ODM-K's quest for a presidential candidate.

Kenya a Tiger without Stripes?

A recent article in the New York Times cites 'good things happening in Kenya' and has also been quoted by Kenyan mainstream media.

Kenya has been in excitement mode, anticipating the coming of the fiber optic link to the world, hoping for the cost of communication to come down drastically so that Kenya can cash in on the call centre business currently dominated by India. One reason given for this is that Kenyan speak better English.

Kamale T urges Kenya to aim higher than call centres.

Money Talks: Louder Than Ever

One of the reasons democracy was invented was to ensure that all the citizens of a state had equal say in the decision making process; the poor cobbler had as much say in the conduct of the state as the wealthiest land-owner.

That this is a utopian fantasy is best illustrated by the example of the latest news from the America, the home of world's 'oldest democracy.' To witness the obsessive attention given to the amount and the origin of the money raised by respective candidates, and the way this is spun as indicative of their chances at the national election is to see democracy on its death bed. The power of the lobby groups in raising these colossal sums, and the inevitable payback shows clearly the extensive webs that greed and money can weave.

Vitalis Oyudo on the influence of money in politics.

Poverty and AIDS

Bosibori Ndemo's article of the 19^th of February got me thinking about the reality of HIV-AIDS and the power of the media in shaping our perceptions on disease.

The dominant view is that the high prevalence rates in Africa are caused by the nature of sexual behaviour there. This view excludes other important factors such as poverty and biological factors. However only the most prejudiced would choose to ignore the fact that HIV has only a 1% prevalence rate in permissive American society, but reach 25% in Africa. Partner exchange rates and unprotected sex have no reason to be higher in Africa than anywhere else. The charge that it is sexual behaviour that sets African infection rates apart has not been made, but it is implicit in an HIV combat strategy that has the ABC doctrine at its core.

Stephen Wanyama links the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa with poverty advocating for improved health care and nutrition across Africa.

The lion and the fox

Love him or hate him the MP for Lang'ata and ODM-K Presidential Candidate is the man most able to animate Kenyan political society today. He may be in a far-off tour of Minneapolis making pronouncements on the stock exchange, or innocently attending his son's wedding party, contemplating a visit to London, being anointed by a local shaman or simply playing with his new toy; either way Kenya never seems to tire of him.

Vicious, unrelenting, concerted, often manic even; Kenya's media, online and offline have arrogated to themselves the role of deciding for Kenyans not just who to vote for, but also what to think, what to see and worst of all what to feel. When Raila or wider still any ODM-K candidate is the subject of the day's carving the knives seem to come out even sharper, ever readier. Slaves to their masters and their basest instincts, large swathes of the media have sought not to inform Kenyans, but instead to whip their passions into such frenzies as preclude any meaningful analysis of the candidates and party positions in this the run up to the second elections since the ouster of KANU.

Amir Ibrahim challenges the ODM-K leadership to step up and take on the national stage on national issues.