Saturday, June 09, 2007

McDonald Mariga Shut Out Of English Premiership Deal

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One of the most talented soccer players Kenya has ever produced now seems to have been locked out of the premiership over a technicality.

Portsmouth F.C. manager Harry "Houdini" Redknapp has been quoted as saying that his club (and probably all other English clubs) have now given up on Mariga. The reason is that it is unlikely that the British home office will sanction a work permit for the Kenyan midfielder (who is widely being called the “next Patrick Vierra”) because of Kenya’s low FIFA rankings.

Now this is an excellent opportunity for Sports minister Maina Kamanda to get into the good boks of Kenyans. He should get the entire cabinet and indeed government to interceded with the British authorities on behalf of Mariga. All he needs is an assurance of a work petrmitt from the home office, after that there are several clubs and not just Portsmouth who want him badly.

There is no doubt that the English premiership is the biggest and most visible in the world and a breakthrough of the first Kenyan player is a landmark that is so important that we should pull all stops to make it happen. Kenya has a very low FIFA ranking of 124th and apparently this had been overlooked as at least 7 English clubs fought over this “made in Kenya” raw talent.
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Kumekucha Golden Oldie

Kenyan who appeared on the cover of Time magazine
This was one of the earliest posts on Kumekucha
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I get very emotional about things like this and this is one thing that if Hon Kamanda were to pull off for Mariga, I would change my political stand and campaign for the Minister’s re-election. That is how important it is to me and indeed should be for every Kenyan who understands what we are talking about here.

We all know that this would open the door for hundreds of other talented Kenyans now wallowing in poverty to hit the big time. Imagine what that would do for hundreds of families across the country who right now as you read this are staring at the roof like zombies in hopelessness? I meet them all the time.

Hon. Kamanda this is not a bribe but I am a patriotic Kenyan who sees the immediate impact a single action can have on the lives of so many Kenyans.

Read McDonald Mariga’s profile now

Internet Home Based Business: All You Ever Wanted To Know, As told to you by an expert who makes a good living online

Mystery of sleeping arrangements in a polygamous home

Please Wake Up About South Africa Hon Kamanda… And Kenyans

South Africa is due to host the soccer World cup in 2010. Kenyans are not interested because their world ends and starts in December 2007.

South Africa recently run a feature on the opportunities that will be available for other African countries, and the report quoted the South African Ambassador lamenting on the Kenyan government’s reluctance to cash in on this event.

You and I know the soccer world cup is the biggest sporting event in the world. South African will feel the benefits of hosting this tournament for many years after it is all over. Yet again Hon. Kamanda and company seems not to be interested and no one in government seems to be aware of this potential. For instance if we could just have one of the top teams camp in Kenya prior to the tournament, it could be a very significant injection into our economy and it could also boost our Kenyan game. Many industries, most of all tourism will greatly benefit.

We already have the necessary infrastructure; world class hotels, fairly developed telecommunications, strategic location as a regional airport hub, not to mention a world class airline. So what is the problem?

Why isn’t anybody seeing this golden once in 100 years opportunity? To be fair there are at least some Kenyans who are awake. Actually one local insurance company that has started a savings scheme for Kenyan fans intending to travel to South Africa for the soccer bonanza.


Internet Home Based Business: All You Ever Wanted To Know, As told to you by an expert who makes a good living online

Mystery of sleeping arrangements in a polygamous home

Friday, June 08, 2007

Kenya, On Fire

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I have never been so sad in my life. As usual when I am in this kind of mood, I head to the official Abba site. Remember the hit group of the 70s/80s?

Guess my favorite song? It’s called Thank you for the music. Some of the lyrics go something like this;

I’m nothing special, in fact I am a little bit of a bore

If I tell a joke you’ve probably heard it before.

But I have a gift, when I open my mouth to sing

People listen. I’m so grateful now. So I say…

Thank you for the music the songs I’m singing,

Thanks for all the joy they’re bringing….

…what would life be, without a song…



But today for some strange reason the music will not play.

Why am I sad?
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Kumekucha classics from the past

The following post was made in this blog on 13th May 2005 but is still so accurate in describing life in Kenya today;

Kenyan describes life in Kenya today
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Because every Kenyan, irrespective of their tribe or color has a gift that they are supposed to bless the great nation of Kenya with but the conditions and the environment now are such that this is very difficult and bordering on being impossible. So this business of working hard to feel the improved economy does not even arise. Work hard doing what?

But most of all I am sad that as innocent Kenyans shed their blood and as mothers with children are made to lie down on the dusty ground as a policeman walks around trying to sniff who is Mungiki in the mass of humanity, some Kenyans are still talking about an improved economy. Go tell that to somebody in Mathare and even if they are non-Mungiki, they will relieve you of the weight on your shoulders and neck.

Most of all I am saddest that for some dear Kenyans, the minute they hear some criticism leveled against President Kibaki, they see red. They can’t even read further, all they can see is some “Jaluo” ruling Kenya and if they were asleep they wake up sweating profusely and with their hearts beating so hard against their rib cage that it feels like it is about to burst out. What's all the terror for Vijana? Please take careful note of all those guys who are so obsessed with who I am supporting even as the body count rapidly mounts?

Those of you patriotic non-tribal Kenyans who have left sober comments here. Let me start by thanking you for what you have done for your country. But I have another question for you.

Is there really any hope for Kenya with this kind of behaviour amongst the elite computer-literate of Kenya?

Sorry folks I can’t write anymore today, I just can't bear it. Let me seek solace in something else. Don’t worry I’ll be back tomorrow recharged and ready to start from scratch again.


P.S. My heart goes out to all those innocent Kenyans who have lost their lives over the last few days for no other crime than being poor and living in the sprwaling Mathare slums. (Has it crossed your mind that the reasons why bodies are missing at the mortuary from the Mathare massacre of alleged Mungiki suspects could be that they are the bodies of women and children?)

Hopefully their deaths will not have been in vain… That is if all you folks out there can shed your tribal skins for just one minute.

Internet Home Based Business: All You Ever Wanted To Know, As told to you by an expert who makes a good living online

Mystery of sleeping arrangements in a polygamous home

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Is President Kibaki Fit To Rule?

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Some of my dear beloved readers have made fun of what I have always said here in the past calling President Kibaki “sick.” But I would like you to soberly consider the situation in the country at the moment very carefully. Please let us leave party and tribal politics out of this, this is a matter of national security.

And after you have done that ask yourself just one simple question; who is incharge?

It saddens me that after decades of excellent service in public life Mwai Kibaki’s political career is going to end in such a sad way. I say this because I have admired the president for many years. One word has always stood on my mind to describe him; Brilliant. It is also true that many others have always seen him as the constant fence-seater, doing everything to avoid making a decision. But them one probably has to take into account the fact that Kenyan politics for such a brilliant mind is quite a challenge and the fact that he survived at all is quite an achievement.

But now after at least one stroke suffered after the road accident that almost took his life in the run up to the elections in 2002, (rumours has it that the strokes have been more than one) we are now faced with a Mwai Kibaki who is a stranger to those who know the real Mwai Kibaki.

Most recently the president told us that Kenya has the best roads in the world. I need not comment further on that except to say that Kenya is the only country in the world where the car driving in front of you completely disappears and then suddenly appears miraculously from a deep hole. And this happens in the capital city of Nairobi.

But of all incidents that have happened during the Kibaki administration, the one that will never leave my mind is the time the president used abusive language on his own driver in full view of the public and with TV cameras rolling. His driver's crime? Well, moving the president’s vehicle and parking it elsewhere. What does it concern his Excellency where his vehicle is parked? That should have clearly told Kenyans that there was something very wrong somewhere and that the man speaking was some imposter and not the Mawi Kibaki we have known for years. The most successful finance minister Kenya has ever had, the first African to score 6 points in his O-levels.

Now just because a few “thieves” want to steal for 5 more years, they are very determined that Kibaki should remain in office for another 5 long years. At what cost to his own health? At what cost to the people of Kenya? Folks can you imagine what will happen in 5 years after seeing what has happened in the last 5 short months?

Are those Kenyans pushing for the re-election of this man into office for another 5 years serious? Probably not. Those who are calling for Kibaki’s re-election and who are not known thieves have also probably had a stroke. Maybe we have a stroke epidemic in Kenya current albeit concentrated mostly around Central province. Probably the cold, or is it the jiggers?

As we speak there is a blood bath going on in the country. Of course the authorities are making all the right noises. Sample this;

We are on the ground.
We have stepped up our campaign and soon this Mungiki will be a thing of the past
We know them, it is just a matter of time…
We are winning the war
We appeal to Kenyans to remain calm (even as they lose their heads, literally)

As this rhetoric continues the statistics speak a different story. Two days ago 22 people were killed by the police in Mathare in an operation designed to smoke out members of the sect (don’t be too sure that they were all Mungiki).

Did you also know that the number of Mungiki who have been arrested so far are in excess of 2,500? Just think about that number? It clearly tells you that the country has already been overwhelmed. This is cause enough to call in the army.

But instead our leaders are quiet. As Taabu says, their silence is deafening.

Internet Home Based Business: All You Ever Wanted To Know, As told to you by an expert who makes a good living online

Mystery of sleeping arrangements in a polygamous home

Who is scared of Mungiki?

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Why hasn’t Martha Karua said anything about Mungiki? She has talked herself hoarse about just every other subject, what is it with the Mungiki thing? Why is the Narc Kenya high command behaving as if nothing is happening? Are they also scared of losing their heads to Mungiki?

Why is it that you cannot convince wananchi that the government is backing Mungiki?

Do you realize that Darfur is a picnic compared to Kenya now? Whatever happens there, folks do not lose their heads. Is the idea to make the country ungovernable and call off the elections?

Will somebody in government say something? And please Dr Mutua, don’t try and spin this. We need you to confirm whether we have had a change of guard in Kenya because the only authoritative voice we now hear is that of Mungiki.


Internet Home Based Business: All You Ever Wanted To Know, As told to you by an expert who makes a good living online

Mystery of sleeping arrangements in a polygamous home

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

What Is The Suddenly Evasive Uhuru Up To?

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Leader of the official opposition Uhuru Kenyatta jetted back into the country this morning brimming with confidence and told his supporters at the airport that he was still in the running for the presidency. He was however very evasive with reporters, more so when they asked him about his future within ODM-Kenya.

Speculation is rife over the reason why the oldest political party in the country, Kanu and it's current chairman, Uhuru have called a delegates conference for next week. All we are being told is that there is a big announcement coming.

However it is rather obvious that one of the issues that will be discussed will be Kanu's future participation of any in ODM-Kenya. However insiders have been giving hints that the announcement to be made at the delegates conference is even bigger than leaving ODM-Kenya. It is not clear what sort of announcement this one can be although Kanu politicians have always been known for exaggerations.

But another question, I would like to ask; what has Uhuru been doing abroad for the last 2 weeks? And why is it so hash hash? The last time the official leader of the opposition was out of the country, he had taken his children to school in the United Kingdom and he made no secret of it, although he had the right to because it was a personal trip. This time round all indications are that it was an official trip and yet he does not want to talk about it? Could his trip be linked to the forthcoming Kanu national delegate's conference of next week? Could this be a major step in the formation of the third force out to steal these elections?

One thing is however very clear. Whoever is backing Uhuru and the other politicians in his camp has seen something that the rest of us mortals have not seen. It could be that they have realized that both ODM and Narc-Kenya are bound to spit out disgruntled elements and Kanu is positioning itself to receive them back into the "mama na baba" fold.

But there is one more thing that keeps on disturbing me. What have the Mungiki killings got to do with all this? Nobody wants to talk because it appears that Mungiki "ears" are everywhere and nobody wants the weight of their heads taken off them. But something keeps on nagging me about the timing. The terrible timing of the killings and the emergence of the so called third force. Keep your eyes very closely focused on the major players of the so-called third force.

Internet Home Based Business: All You Ever Wanted To Know, As told to you by an expert who makes a good living online

Mystery of sleeping arrangements in a polygamous home

Government Should Declare A State Of Emergency Over Mungiki

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Yet another headless body was discovered this morning in the sprawling Mathare slums. This is too much. It seems that it is only a matter of time before the beheadings spread into people's homes in Nairobi, just like it happened in 1952.

The President needs to do two things pronto. Firstly, declare a state of emergency and secondly look for a new internal security minister. Somebody who will inject some new ideas into this, the biggest crisis in independent Kenyan history.

Incidentally the last time we saw so many beheadings (1952), it was being done by the Mau mau for reasons very similar to the alleged Mungiki ones. But the colonial government then took swift action and made it clear that my collaborators with Mau mau (that included people who failed to turn them in) would be considered part of the terror group. The mau mau rebellion was then viciously and decisively put down. The Kibaki administration needs to borrow a leaf from the colonial administration. We can't keep on having innocent Kenyans losing their heads. For what?

Internet Home Based Business: All You Ever Wanted To Know, As told to you by an expert who makes a good living online

Mystery of sleeping arrangements in a polygamous home

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

The Third Force Is For Real

Just hours after I posted a fascinating story about the rapidly developing [political situation in the country, ahead of the forthcoming general elections, one of our regular commentators confirmed my story with his own additional claims.

His remarks deserve to be repeated here;

Phil said...
Chris, we've heard from the grapevine that the 3rd force have actually taken over the Democractic Party and they have been actively financing it over the last few months. They were actually the 4th force before Kombo betrayed Ngilu over EALA nominees stand-off last week. Many people are not happy with NARK-K politics and ODM-K is just too hot (read too democratic) for some to handle - actually none of them luminaries can beat RO in a fair contest be it delegates or consensus. I am not sure about your line-up for the 3rd force but I am informed principal players are Uhuru, Saitoti and Kalonzo. Mudavadi is out, he has never forgotten the 2002 debacle. The criminals of the last 4 decades cannot just imagine a Raila led government - chances are high that they will be made to pay either through jail or through public apologies and amnesty. Meanwhile Kombo knows FORD-K doesnt stand any realistic chance in the national platform and he knows exactly which side of the bread is buttered. Infact what Kombo is doing might not be illegal, but it is highly immoral. Ngilu is awaiting Kalonzo's defection from ODM before she joins in. She, Bishop Wanjiru and Sally Kosgei are Raila's bet in wooing the women and youth vote. One of them will end up being VP in a Raila led govt. But then again, who is the hidden hand meddling in national politics? Why cant Moi relax and enjoy his retirement? Is he fearing a Charles Taylor-like arrest? I wonder.


Ladies and gentlemen, this is what the wolves are up to now. Tukae chonjo

Marianne Brinner’s Deleted Jeff Koinange Blog Returns Hours Later

For most of the last 24 hours, Marianne Brinner’s controversial blog Distant Lovers has been unreachable. Actually it emerges that she had deleted it herself.

In a brief interview earlier today with this blogger, she said the reason was that she had gotten upset and distressed over the nasty comments being made by persons who generally do not seem to believe her side of the story. So she has decided to take a new approach and tell the whole story from the beginning by publishing the entire set of email exchanges between herself and Jeff without changing a single comma. She hopes that when readers get to read the whole story from beginning to end, they will be able to make a better judgment of where the truth lies.

So now the blog is online once again (use this link) but Marianne says she will start publishing on Friday.

From what this blogger knows about Narianne, and without wanting to vouch for a news source, I can say that whatever her weaknesses, she is known for sticking to the facts and never talking about anything that she cannot prove with documents or some other hard evidence. The Sunguh Parliamentary Committee in Kenya that was constituted by parliament to delve into the still unsolved murder of former foreign minister Robert Ouko will remember Marianne as the witness who had documents detailing dates and other facts to back everything she said before the committee.

Countdown to Elections 2007 Candidate Interview

Dancan Muhindi*******Councillor*********Westlands




Fellow Kenyans,

Those who have been regularly visiting this blog will see that potential voters are using this forum to engage candidates and I think this can only be a useful thing. For this reason I would like to invite all political contenders to prove to us here that it is not the big alary and perks that have caused them to seek public office.

Those standing for any political opffice who are interested can contact me directly using the email address umissedthis at yahoo dot com

Also, in answer to criticism about earlier interviews/publicity that I gave another Westlands candidate in this blog, there is no way I can fail to promote the new generation of political leaders in Kenya. This is one of the reasons why I launched this blog in the first place.

Today I feature Dancan Muhindi also an aspirant in Westlands but for councilor.



Kumekucha: What is your vision for Westlands?
My vision is for the country, and it begins in Westlands. I envision by next year, a constituency that will have elected a responsive and professional local government leadership that will be at the forefront of facilitating innovative projects such as
well-structured, low-cost housing units to replace the slum settlements in areas such as Kangemi, Waruku and Ruaka.

I have a vision for an enlightened professional leadership at the civic level. Just the fact that residents will have a councillor they know, can meet and discuss their problems regularly, will be a very big first step. For more on this vision and other local government issues, please visit my interactive online campaign at

http://nairobicouncillor.blogspot.com


Kumekucha: Why did you choose to stand in Westlands?
I have lived and worked in the constituency over the last ten years. It was only natural that I would want to serve at the local level where I reside.

Kumekucha: Younger candidates have often been accused of not being in touch with the needs of the people. Please comment.
That is quite a sweeping statement that does not have any validity. I think the exact opposite is in fact the truth. Young Kenyans have suffered greatly through unemployment and rising crime as a result of bad leadership and corruption in our country. How can young and emerging candidates not be aware of this?

Kumekucha: Who is your preferred Presidential candidate? Please give reasons
My preferred candidate would ideally be a person that is ready to tackle head-on, the ills bedeviling this country as a result of gross mismanagement and corruption over the last four decades. He or she should demonstrate through word and deed that they are not willing to sweep under the carpet past misdeeds. Unfortunately, the candidates I see today are busy hob-nobbing and getting cosy with personalities said to have greatly benefited from corruption to the detriment of Kenyans.

Kumekucha: Tell us a little about your background (including professional experience).
I was born on 26th September 1973. A first born in a family of five children, I grew up mostly in Nairobi, though I've lived in different parts of Kenya through diverse experiences which have shaped me into the person that I am today.

I attended Harambee primary school, situated in Eastlands, Nairobi, before moving to Arya primary school in Kisumu where I completed my primary education in 1987. I was fortunate to attend Lenana school in Nairobi, from 1988 to 1991. In 1993, I joined the University of Nairobi to pursue a Bachelors degree in design, graduating in 1997. In 2006, I enrolled for a Masters degree at the University of Nairobi's
school of Journalism.

Over the last ten years, I've been fortunate to work with leading organisations in the country as an ICT professional, such as the Kenya Literature Bureau and the Nation Media Group. Am currently working with an International NGO supporting small-scale agricultural development in the East African region.

Kumekucha: Westlands is a constituency where there is a lot of racism targeted at ordinary Kenyans. How do you plan to help fight this?
I am not certain whether this statement is true...the issue is more complex than race but...perceived racism, though not commonplace, is usually exhibited at the workplace where employees feel exploited because of their skin color. This arises due to lack of knowledge about their rights and lack of government support and education through the Labour Ministry. I plan to use my position as an elected City Hall official to initiate programmes within the council aimed at tackling this issue once and for all, rather than waiting for the central government to act.

Kumekucha: How are you funding your campaign?
The campaign is being funded by friends, family, well wishers and myself.

Kumekucha: What word of encouragement would you give to other young candidates?
I would like to urge them to hang in there, reach out to other like-minded candidates who have a selfless vision for this country and support each other to persevere through the challenges of electioneering. Above all else, let them not adopt the violent and crude ways of campaigning exhibited by many of our Kenyan politicians.

If just one Kenyan was to die for you to get elected, then it's not worth it.


Kumekucha: What have you done for Westlands constituents so far?
Through board membership to a volunteer international youth exchange organisation, www.cisv.org, I've been working with children from diverse community backgrounds in initiatives to foster cultural understanding through experiential learning. Among these initiatives is a chess clinic am running at the Shangilia Mtoto wa Africa
orphanage in Kangemi. This is aimed at nurturing the children's intellectual development.

This follows a successful relationship established between our youth volunteers and Kibera Olympics primary school last year, which saw a number of children participating in international youth camps in Europe. A chess clinic is also planned to start this term at the school with an aim of establishing a thriving club.

It's important for me to clarify that this volunteer work is done over the weekends because am otherwise fully employed. I would love to give much more of my time to such initiatives, especially as an elected Councillor. At the moment, that's the little I can give at my local level, with the resources that I have.

Kumekucha: Any other comments/message you have.
Over the last three multi-party elections that we've had in Kenya, it's unfortunate to note that our City Council, and many of our local authorities have ended up being managed by people best known for heckling, fighting and bizarre outbursts. This happens because we as voters, have not taken the time to scrutinise aspiring candidates and their backgrounds as thoroughly as we should.

I would like to urge Nairobi voters to reject the culture of the "three-piece" voting pattern in this year's elections and vote in professionals such as myself, irrespective of party affiliations. Let us identify selfless individuals capable of tackling modern metropolitan challenges to vie as Councillors. I was inspired to note
that voters in Embakasi recently elected a Councillor from the little known Kenya People's Party (KPP) despite serious campaigns from the two main parties. Clearly, they must have made an informed choice.

I firmly believe that our dream of reforming Parliament and hence the country, will not be achieved unless we start at the grass roots, in our local authorities. Let us lift the cloak of ambiguity from the current Councillors and other aspirants, so that we have a City Council that we can all be proud of next year.

Feel free to engage me on these issues at my blog
http://nairobicouncillor.blogspot.com

The Dreaded Third Force Is Actually Taking Shape

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Phil, one of our regulars made an interesting comment here about a third force handing over victory to President Kibaki in the coming general elections and he was right. Except that the third force that seems to be now taking shape in Kenyan politics seems has an uncanny resemblance to the third force in 2002-Narc or the National Rainbow Coalition. And rather than handing over victory to anybody, they will have a decent chance of winning.

If I can jog your memory a little. Narc was formed from the fallout in Kanu after Moi declared Uhuru Kenyatta to be the Kanu presidential candidate. So effectively the third force was a merger between elements in NAK (quite a number declined to join Narc) and rebels from Kanu.

This time it would seem that the third force will benefit almost equally from both Narc-Kenya and ODM-Kenya to form a formidable political alliance that could easily end up stealing the elections from right under the noses of Narc-Kenya and ODM in December.

And more and more, it seems that the catalyst of that third force will be (surprise surprise) Kanu. Yes, the former mama na baba party that ruled Kenya with an iron hand for 40 years.

It is no secret that the main driving force in Kanu is retired President Moi and the party is cleverly positioning itself to embrace the inevitable fallout that will occur after the ODM presidential nomination. In fact there are those who believe that the ODM split has already started happening, just watch carefully all those candidates who did not hand in their presidential nomination forms. The fallout in Narc Kenya will be even larger and will happen over a much longer period of time. It has already started and will end up with the nomination exercise for parliamentary candidates. Disgruntled elements after the nomination for parliamentary candidates within ODM will be less than those in Narc, but some of the big names here will join the third force ad will carry the day in their constituencies.

Fascinatingly this means that the chances are high that nobody will even realize what is happening until the election results start trickling in.

The big question now is who the presidential candidate of that third force will be. My eyes are on three names. Uhuru Kenyatta, Kalonzo Musyoka, Musalia Mudavadi.

----------------------------------------
The Jeff Koinange saga has taken a new twist with big questions being asked over what really happened in the Niger Delta and what CNN's role was? Herein lies the real reason behind the sacking of Kenya's most famous international journalist. Read a candid tell-all article and get updates on this developing story now only in the free Kumekucha weekly newsletter, Kumekucha Confidential. Email now to subscribe
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Menstruation Odor Causes Marriage To Elude Woman

Mystery Of Sleeping Arrangements In A Polygamous Home

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It is amazing how small children can bring things into perspective with a few simple questions.

Here is a conversation that took place yesterday between a 6-year-old child and an adult. I listened in to it and was amazed.

Child: Is Lucy the president's wife?
Adult: Yes she is.
Child: How many wives does the president of the whole of Kenya have?
Adult: (Hesitantly) Two
Child: Why?
Adult: (Confused) I don't know
Child: But grown ups know everything
Adult: Nobody can know everything?
Child: Who is the real mummy of their children?


This whole fascinating conversation got me thinking. In all our efforts at constitution making it has never crossed anybody's mind to address marital law, even as our society clearly falls apart. Amazingly no Kenyan wants to link family stability, or rather the lack of it, to the current escalating crime wave. What would you expect bringing up a child in a conflict zone as is every polygamous home, more so where the wives live under one roof as is the case with many polygamous families across Kenya?

This is an issue that no politician can dare touch with a 20-foot pole because it can lose a candidate a lot of votes. So that means that we will forever avoid the hard choices that have to be made. Which means we are just postponing a problem, postponing a huge explosive disaster waiting to happen. Nay, one that is already happening before our very eyes.

The Kenyan constitution which was carbon copy of Westminister with a few alterations here and there, mostly from the American constitution allows for only one wife. But it deliberately leaves a loophole that allows a man to marry even 100 by customary law.

Not that our leaders have not led by example. Kenya's founding president Mzee Jomo Kenyatta had no less than 4 wives whom he lived with at different times of his long life. President Moi was even worse as a senior bachelor with no wife. His supporters would have us believe that he was hardly human and therefore did not have any of those feelings ordinary mortals have and was able to ignore the inevitable that happens when a powerful man has no spouse. And that is women tend to literally throw themselves at them.

Once in my life when I was down and out I lived in a Nairobi suburb with my then-growing family in a tiny mabati (corrugated iron sheets) house that had only three rooms. There were about 7 houses all squeezed into one small compound. The facilities (nothing more than a pit latrine) were naturally outside so woe unto you if you had a running stomach one night. My immediate neighbor had 3 wives, actually four, but he lived with 3 at a time in those cramped facilities. The fourth one lived in his rural home and took care of the tiny shamba. In fact all wives did shamba duty on a rotational basis. What would happen is that the wife who displeased the man of the house would be "disciplined" by being "exiled" upcountry where they would relive the one who was there who would happily head for the city and that tiny 3-roomed house.

The sleeping arrangement in that house was the subject of heated and sometimes hilarious discussion and debate in the whole neighborhood. It was known was that there was one large king-size bed in the man's bedroom and of course the children's double-decker where all their four children slept. The eldest was about 14 years old (a girl).

Some kinky friends of mine with some rather wild imagination were convinced that all wives slept in the king-size bed with "the king". This is not realistic and neither is it African. The much more likely scenario was that the "wife of the evening" slept with "the king." And the other wife slept on the sofa while the other squeezed in with the children.

But the even bigger question was the mode of "daily selection".

You can imagine the man reading the Nation in the sitting room and one of the wives approaching him meekly to ask him which of them it would be for the night. And then the man still behind his newspaper muttering a name: "mama so and so." Really hilarious stuff.

But the joke is not funny for the women who have to put up with it. I have absolutely no idea how they do it. Every woman wants some space in her own house to do things her way. And every woman has her own way of doing things. Recently I accommodated a relative and his wife and child in my house for a brief period and although the house is huge, there were fireworks because the man's wife is a cocky know-it-all young girl in her early twenties who attempted to over-step her mark and take over the household. I often wonder how Asians manage to all live under one roof and retain their sanity.

Now just imagine a situation where three women are living under one roof and they are all married to the same man.

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The Jeff Koinange saga has taken a new twist with big questions being asked over what really happened in the Niger Delta and what CNN's role was? Herein lies the real reason behind the sacking of Kenya's most famous international journalist. Read a candid tell-all article and get updates on this developing story now only in the free Kumekucha weekly newsletter, Kumekucha Confidential. Email now to subscribe
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Sunday, June 03, 2007

Is there a link between the Strengthening Kenyan Shilling And Mungiki Violence?

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In recent weeks as the Mungiki violence has escalated, so has the value of the Kenyan shilling. The Kenyan shillings has strengthened remarkably and is now firmly between the Kshs 65 and Kshs 66 band against the American dollar.
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Also published today

Next Oprah Winfrey School Will Be In Kenya

Does Uhuru Kenyatta have a bright political future?

Why tribal comment against me made my day

Quip of the day
Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not.
Oprah Winfrey, in Good Housekeeping
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I can’t help thinking that there could be a link. To start with it has already been established that the killings are linked to politics. By the way yesterday there were more beheadings when a Matatu was hijacked by Mungiki in Maragua. It was the driver who lost his head). Golly, this is beginning to sound like another Baghdad, is it not? I think the president should look for a new internal security minister, John Michuki looks like he’s drowning… in the blood of innocent Kenyans.

Anyway, we already know that just now there is a lot of political activity in the country and quite a few people are taking advantage of a weak laid back president to do all sorts of crazy things. A lot of this activity involves huge funds. We have also seen the Nairobi stock exchange index fall dramatically, which would suggest that there could have been a large amount of stocks cashed in. This is a brilliant way to keep campaign funds, is it not. Plug it into the stock exchange in 2003 when there was a very dramatic appreciation of share prices, and then dump them in 2007, taking a huge profit (the prices have fallen but not crashed because there were many new genuine investors who were attracted into the bourse in 2003.)

Now could it be that whoever is funding Mungiki is bringing in their cash from their secret accounts abroad? Cashing in dollars in large quantities would have the effect of weakening the green buck in this market. Is this what is happening?

And then we hear that Kanu has called an extra-ordinary delegates conference and rumours are flying all over the place that they are going to make a big announcement. I am not accusing anybody but I can’t help thinking that these events may just be linked in some way.

I concur with the reader who suggested here that this Mungiki thing is adversely affecting Narc-Kenya the most, which is confusing because all the people who have been linked to Mungiki in the past are Narc-Kenya. But then it has been said that Mungiki are for hire and so it would appear that a new master has hired them.

Yours truly is keeping his ear very much on the ground and will keep you informed.

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Next Oprah School After South Africa Planned For Kenya

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Gosh!! Of all the places to get this kind of important information!!

You will not believe it, but it is contained in one of the controversial Jeff Koinange emails currently being published in the Distant Lovers blog. No doubt most of the colossal number of regular readers who have been visiting the blog for the sex will be disappointed, but this is good news for Kenyans who have been starved of any good news for a long time (Announcements of economic growth which most people cannot see or feel is not good news).

According to the latest post in Distant lovers, Our own Wangari Maathai visited Oprah in the States to seal the deal. Jeff Koinange asked Marianne Brinner whether she was willing to take part in the project and work with Oprah and Prof Maathai in establishing the special school for the underprivileged. You can read the details at the blog for yourself including Jeff Koinange’s own planned initiative. Actually today’s post is an open letter to Jeff reminding him of the project.

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Does Uhuru Kenyatta Have A Bright Political Future?

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Many Kenyans do not realize the fact that Uhuru Kenyatta is to date the youngest person to ever stand for the highest office in Kenya and he came a very credible second to Mwai Kibaki in 2002.

This year, as I have said before the presidential field will be very crowded and I am expecting a few youngsters which means that chances are high that Uhuru's record will be wiped out. But that is beside the point.

Indications are that Uhuru is losing the battle to remain relevant in the fluid political situation that is Kenya today. Some cheeky friend argued that the fact that Uhuru has yet to present his papers for the ODM nomination process is because he does not want to waste Kshs One million when he knows very well who the ODM presidential candidate is going to be. I of course quickly pointed out to this guy that Kshs 1 million to Uhuru Kenyatta is probably the equivalent of Kshs 5 to most Kenyans. It is nothing. Secondly if ODM were to reason soberly, they would realize that the best way to neutralize the popularity of president Kibaki in Central province would be to nominate Uhuru Kenyatta the presidential candidate for ODM-Kenya. Sadly you and me know that that is close to being an impossibility.

The bitter truth is that a Uhuru Kenyatta who is not a presidential candidate in ODM-Kenya is a man with no options and a parliamentary candidate who could even lose his parliamentary seat. This is the truth that Uhuru's very able think tank must have already communicated to him and my guess is that they have advised him to stay out of ODM and bid his time, because the next few months are going to very eventful and who knows, fate may just throw him a rope. For those who are unaware Uhuru Kenyatta created a think tank around him shortly after the 2002 general elections whose sole purpose was to get him to State House in 2007. They have done an excellent job but alas, the nature of politics is such that the only thing one can be really sure of is the unexpected.

My wild guess is that Uhuru's think tank believe, like I do, that the major alliances for the coming elections have not yet been formed and that chances are high that a third force will position itself for victory fairly close to the time of the polls.

Few Kenyans realize that Uhuru Kenyatta's carefully constructed image today where he is one of the few leaders from the house of Mumbi who is not viewed as a tribal leader, despite representing a Central province constituency, is the result of some very hard work and careful reposition by a think tank that is the best money can buy.

All this seems to have come to nothing. In fact to be brutally honest fate seems to have spat out Uhuru. His best chance to have won the presidency was in 2002. This time around he would have had an almost as decent chance of winning. However 2012 will be a very tall order indeed. The reason is obvious. Kenya has so far had two Presidents from the Kikuyu tribe and chances that we will have another after Kibaki are very slim even to the wild optimist and virtually impossible in the eyes of the realist who understands Kenyan politics.

Only one Kenyan has the ability to excite voters and get them tribally blind at the moment and he does not even seem to be interested at the moment. That man's name is John "One-man-army-against-Anglo-Leasing" Githongo. Incidentally he was also at St Marys High School at about the same time both Uhuru and Jeff Koinange were there.

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Why Tribal Comment Against Me In Jeff Koinange Post Made My Day

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Finally, finally I have shed my Luo label. It was a great day yesterday when an angry visitor to this blog played the tribal card and made a nasty comment about me being Kamba.

Recent readers of this blog may not understand what I am talking about here. You see for months visitors to this blog have labeled me "Jaluo" because of my admiration for the late Tom Mboya and my articles, which seem to have been more sympathetic towards ODM-Kenya and have more often than not ended up being anti-Narc-Kenya.

I took time to carefully explain to my readers that my mother hailed from Western Kenya and was a Luhya (she passed on when I was still in school) and my father hails from the second oldest major town (after Mombasa) in Kenya—namely Machakos. But all this fell on deaf ears.

That was until yesterday when somebody actually referred to me as a Kamba. I have no pride in my tribe, because as Taabu would put it, this is a biologically accident I had no say in. But at least I am not being labeled a certain tribe because of my political views. That is a big step forward more so because the time has come for Kenyans to appreciate the fact that ODM-Kenya houses many more different tribes than does Narc Kenya.

That is the good news. The bad news is that once again a fairly educated Kenyan (educated enough to know of the existence of blogs and to be able to post a comment) has failed to think outside the tribal box. Very sad. Very sad indeed.

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Saturday, June 02, 2007

The Jeff Koinange Saga: Why You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet (There’s More To Come)

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My policy is to publish all views. One of the dangers of that is a person can easily post numerous comments so that it looks like the general feelings of most readers favors their view. More so because I allow anonymous comments in this blog (note that all the nasty comments are usually annonymous).

But I think this is a risk worth taking, we're not having an election here and nobody is trying to spin anything either. My objective is to publish raw facts that others may not want to touch.

Let me just tell you all that there is a lot of information on Jeff which in my opinion is much worse and more damaging than this date rape incident. But I have very deliberately not published it here. I am sure others will post it on the net soon (indeed some already have and you can use your favorite search engine to find it.) The reason why I have not published that information here is because I do not have the evidence and proof like I do for the date rape. Secondly I do not want to be a Jeff-Koinange-scandal-authority.

However I would like to raise one key point about why Jeff was fired, that I had overlooked earlier.

It is not cheap to make telephone calls and send out emails to the other side of the world from remote parts of Africa where the locals can’t spell the word Internet, let alone pronounce it.

The unfolding drama at the Distant lovers blog has revealed that Jeff would usually send more than a dozen emails on a good day and call several times. So who was paying those huge bills? This question was posed to him once and his reply was that it was CNN International. Now that organization has some very clear and strict rules about this so it is highly likely that on leaving CNN Jeff may have been asked to pay up some of the exorbitant telephone and email bills.

The other issue that so many people have harped on in comments here is the claim that Marianne is using this as a way to sell her Ouko book. I have also been informed by some visitors to this site that I am working on a book on Tom Mboya. Strange, because I am unaware of it. It is possible that since this blog has some of the most detailed information anywhere on this great son of Africa, somebody somewhere thinks there is no way I will fail to publish a book on Mboya one day soon.

Let me make it very clear that I have no such intentions.

Marianne Brinner too, released a statement a few minutes ago that read in part;

One thing I want to make clear: this whole story about Jeff and me has nothing to do with trying to 'promote' my book.

Up to now I have not received any royalty since my co-author was so clever to put the contract with the Publisher in the name of his company (first Sahelbooks and now Sahel.Publishers).

So even if the book is sold, I have never and will never receive any money - so the accusations that I am trying to 'sell' my book are wrong (and Jeff knows very well about this).

So much to this subject ..... some people will laugh, I know 'she deserves this' .... and may even agree with them up to a certain point ...... trusting a Kenyan has always been my 'weak' point



If you are joining us late, here's how the date rape happened. This was my first story on the subject and I was yet to reveal the identity of the Kenyan date rape journalist.

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What Some Of Our Visitors Are Saying About The Jeff Koinange Saga

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Kenyan Date Rape Journalist: The Plot Thickens":
CNN did not have a choice but to sack/fire Jeff from their organization after the reports of bribing Nigeria officials for a story. CNN claims and the do not pay of stories (forgive me for laughing loud) After all we are talking about Nigeria --who is surprised that officials take bribes?


Dan has left a new comment on your post "Jeff Koinange Was Already In Trouble Long Before T...":
Jeff was an a**h#le at saints, bashing people around with impunity. He's still the same big bully and I aint suprised.

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Friday, June 01, 2007

Why This Blogger Did Not Stay Silent About Jeff Koinange's Actions Even Though He Is A Personal Friend

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A few Kenyans have totally ignored the facts and are mostly angry at this blogger for exposing Jeff Koinange. Many of them are convinced that had I not revealed the infamous date rape in London, the most famous Kenyan journalist would not have lost his job with CNN international—although there is plenty of evidence that suggests differently. For those who care to examine the facts it is clear that Mr Koinange was in serious trouble long before a single word was written in this blog.

The general feeling amongst this small clique that has gotten very busy leaving comments here, seems to be that because he is one of our own, I should have protected him and never revealed the story to the world. So is this how journalism is practiced, by being selective of who you are going to expose and who you will spare? So it is okay to expose former President Moi but it is not okay to do the same with Jeff Koinange? Is this the corruption we want to entrench into this scared calling?

To them it matters little that sooner or later the whole story would have gotten out anyway, because all the damning emails are preserved somewhere at CNN headquarters in Atlanta and one day somebody else would have broken the story.

To these people (mostly men but also a few women) it matters little that the victim will carry more than just scars from the incident for the rest of her life. As you read this, she is trying to come to terms with what doctors have just told her. And you can be sure that it is directly related to the date rape incident. She will have to live with whatever she has for the rest of her life.

This is a story that is being followed by people all over the world who must find these angry Kenyans a very strange breed of people who are difficult to understand. Many of them have repeated over and over again that I should have told Jeff's side of the story as well. Well, for starters, he has refused to comment here. This blog as you can see allows for all sorts of comments even when it is so easy to selectively delete them. Still a keen reader of the distant lover's blog will clearly see Jeff's side of the story. Which is the fact that he is guilty. He seduced a news source and the whole affair (well documented in numerous email exchanges) ended up in the date rape incident. Rape is rape and even if a person desires you, if you force yourself on them and have sex without their consent, the word for that is "rape." It is as simple as that.

Jeff would have been the last person that I would have a personal vendetta against. More so because I know him personally and he has been my friend for many years. He did Kenyans proud by practicing his journalism with the very best in the world at CNN. But he put the country to shame with his actions and behavior out there which some Kenyans don't seem to realize will affect them badly for a long time. Can you imagine being introduced at some party and somebody asking you knowingly, "You said you are Kenyan?"

But most of all, I keep asking myself the question, would I have been able to live with my conscience keeping this information away from the public? The fact that the victim did not go to the police matters little. Many rape victims never go to the police and you probably have to be raped to fully understand why. There are many things in this life that cannot be explained using sheer logic.

Briefly I have no regrets over what I did and would, without hesitation, do it all over again if faced with a similar situation.

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Suspected Mungiki Killings Now In Othaya And Kangema

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One prominent cabinet minister missing from today's Madaraka Day celebrations in Nairobi was Internal Security chief John Michuki. No, he's not out of the country. He was busy and actually has his hands very full just now.

Last night two assistant chiefs were murdered in cold blood in two different constituencies in Central province. The first incident took place in Kangema (Hon Michuki's constituency) and the other murder happened in Othaya (President Kibaki's constituency). What is even more worrying is the fact that initial reports indicated that both incidences were Mungiki-related. It is hard not to imagine that somebody was trying to pass a message, albeit in a rather bloody way.

Assistant Chief Geofrey Mwangi of Kangema and two of his relatives were shot dead at his home last night. The incident is said to have occurred at about 8 pm. The gunmen did not even bother to disguise the murder as a robbery, as they often do these days and did not demand for any cash and nor did they take away anybody's mobile phone.

In the Othaya incident, Assistant chief Richard Maina Chege was waylaid as he arrived home at about 11 pm and shot in the head and chest. He died instantly.

It is interesting to note that the Mungiki killings so far have mainly been in Kiambu and of the two incidents of last night are confirmed, then it will be the first time that Mungiki activities have reached the normally peaceful Othaya (previously under Nyeri District) and Muranga.

Yesterday in this blog I talked about the behind-the-scenes politics in the governments firm decision to deal with the Mungiki affair and it would seem that the murders of last night confirm that there is a very serious war that is now going on in Kenya.

In his Madaraka speech earlier today President Kibaki issued a very firm no-nonsense warning to those who thought that they could go ahead and kill other Kenyans and still expect to continue living in peace. The President even said that such people should expect to be killed without mercy for their actions.

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"You Can’t Kill And Expect To Go Scot Free"

- President Kibaki In His Madaraka Day Address To The Nation Today

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Today is Madaraka day but another Madaraka Day—June 1st 1969 was a very memorable day in the history of Kenya. It was then just 5 years since Kenyans had officially started running their own affairs without recourse to their previous colonial masters.

If you were sitting in Uhuru Park that morning waiting for the celebrations to begin you would not have failed to see the cabinet ministers arrive. One couple and family arriving for the celebrations would have stood out above the rest in your mind. That of the Minister for Economic Planning Hon Tom Mboya. His beautiful wife Pamela spotted dark glasses and they both held on to their young son and daughter. The sort of scene that would bring a smile to anybody's face and aptly captured on black and white film by an alert press cameraman.

If at that time you understood the kind of politics that was going on in Kenya then you would have known that this was no ordinary member of the cabinet. He was envied and feared by most members of the Kenyatta cabinet and already there had been one attempt on his life. Just a few months before a policeman supposed to be guarding his residence had come out of nowhere and opened fire on the back seat of his official Mercedes Benz. Luckily he was not in the car at that moment. Still, if you were able to look into the future you would know that barely a month later, this young intelligent cabinet minister full of life would be dead, felled by an assassin's bullet. He was 39 years old at the time of his brutal assassination in the streets of Nairobi in broad daylight. To date Kenyans have never been told who the "big man" who ordered that hit was.

In today's speech the president was very firm in saying that no Kenyan should expect to kill another Kenyan and continue to live in peace.

It would be a good thing if the Kibaki government proved this statement in actions by starting right at the top. To date the killers of former foreign affairs minister Robert Ouko continue to operate in the country peacefully and more powerful than ever. Some of those involved in the murder of JM Kariuki and Tom Mboya are also still alive and very wealthy today mainly as a result of getting away with murder. That's Kenya for you.

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Thursday, May 31, 2007

Jeff Koinange Was Already In Trouble Long Before This Blog Or Marianne Brinner Came Along, New Information Now Reveals

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Latest research by this blogger clearly shows that sacked CNN African correspondent Jeff Koinange, had numerous problems with work colleagues, bosses and news sources long before the alleged date rape incident, exclusively reported in this blog.

Sources say that he was not a team player and in fact resisted working with others. He once referred to a well known female colleague as "stupid school girl" (see distant lover's blog).

Then the huge incident that was really the beginning of the end for Kenya's most famous International journalist was the Niger Delta incident where furious Nigerian authorities accused him of paying alleged militias to pose for the CNN cameras. Although CNN officially denied the accusation, it is instructive that they quickly followed up the controversial incident with placating news items on Nigeria that were all positive. Many people even complained online at various forums that "CNN was missing" in the recent Nigerian elections. They were of course referring to the bitingly critical reports about Nigeria that they had become accustomed to. Interestingly Nigerian interests are a major source of advertising revenue from the African continent for CNN International.

This blogger has also found out that CNN monitor all staff emails that are sent and received through the official company email channel. Jeff Koinange sent most of his controversial emails to Marianne Brinner using this channel and it appears he was unaware of the snooping CNN executives. According to a female friend of Anderson Cooper’s within the CNN organization she has had a problem with her budding romance with Cooper over their emails being monitored and the relationship being discouraged by senior executives at the organization as a result.

Jeff Koinange has also been accused of accepting money to report favorably on the Nigerian government, long before the controversial Niger Delta incident. No doubt CNN executives were able to investigate all these allegations extensively given that unknown to Jeff they were monitoring his emails. Both Jeff and CNN strongly denied these accusations. CNN also moved the Africa base from Nigeria to South Africa and it is possible that this decision was made in the wake of the accusations.

Let me say that I have no satisfaction whatsoever in Jeff’s sacking from CNN and I cannot speculate as to the reasons why. I however take pride in the fact that no single story I have covered here has been proved inaccurate so far. It is a reputation that I will go to great lengths to protect.

Read further proof on the real reason Jeff was fired and why it had nothing to do with this blog (see entry for 31st May 2007).

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KissFM's New Daily: What Most People Don't Know About Circulation And Advertising

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Yesterday one of our regular readers, I believe her name is Mumbi wa Gikuyu, gave us a very interesting analysis of the advertising revenue possibilities of the much-anticipated new daily newspaper from one of Kenya's most popular radio stations.

The analysis was accurate and reflected very much the direction I think the management team at KissFM will take in structuring their brand new newspaper. Already there is plenty of evidence to support this, including the fact that the radio station has aggressively been airing spots advertising for sales representatives that are especially gifted.

But all this ignores an all-important structural truth about newspapers. And hat is the fact that it all depends on how an organization's revenue structure positions circulation.

In America the newspapers have traditionally relied heavily on advertising and that is why when Life magazine was first launched by Time Inc. (in those days. Today it's called Time Warner, after the merger with Warner Brothers), it almost shut down the media house because of it's higher than expected circulation and a decision taken to print enough copies to meet the huge unbudgeted-for demand. Structurally, the magazine was profitable assuming a certain level of circulation. But as circulation mounted and bearing in fact that the first photo magazine in the world was losing a certain amount per single copy printed, you begin to see the kind of problems that success can cause. Incidentally one solution would have been to raise the already high ad rates, but contracts had already been signed and besides it would not have been enough to cover the colossal unexpected circulation costs.

In Britain the newspapers are generally less bulky than in the US and are worked around the more traditional newspaper publishing business model of printed copies being able to pay for themselves and advertising coming in as an extra but also vital profit center. Meaning that it would be impossible for the Life magazine scenario to be played out in Britain.

The question here, is what makes more money? Advertising or circulation? This is a question that has been argued over for decades. However if we put the career of the most successful publisher in the world, Rupert Murdoch under a microscope, the answer is clear. The money is in circulation. It comes in cash and it comes every day, meaning that a successful newspaper must also have a very competent finance department that knows exactly what to do with a cash windfall to enhance profits. There are even those who believe (including this blogger) that a successful high circulating newspaper is also a financial company. Murdoch's largest cash cows that at one time accounted for more than 60 per cent of the News Corp revenue have for many years been The Sun, News of the World And The weekly American magazine that periodically carried stories on space alien and flying saucer sittings, The National Star (later renamed The Star). All three relied so heavily on circulation that the editor's job in one of them The Star was described as a "revolving chair" because Murdoch had no patience for editors who did not deliver massive circulation. It is hard to believe that the same publisher owns the highly prestigious Times newspaper in London and The Australian in his native country. In fact most of Murdoch's media empire as we know it today was financed by "sex story profits" from The Sun and News of The World.

The Daily Nation was founded on a policy of high circulation to the masses at a time when all the alternatives in Kenya were colonial mouthpieces like the Standard. In fact the Nation media group that you see today has over the years been built and financed mainly on circulation as The Standard enjoyed superior advertising revenue well into the late eighties. But a significant change of direction decision was made in the early 90s when the Nation started investing heavily in full color printing presses and emphasized on advertising while downplaying the circulation side. Accordingly circulation fell and today the Nation revenue strategy still leans heavily on advertising.

It is instructive that the highest copy sales in history ever achieved by a Kenyan newspaper happened in 1991 when the Nation carried a splash about the arrest of Nicholas Biwott and the late Hezekiah Oyugi. Around 330,000 copies were sold that memorable day. Today the Daily Nation usually struggles to break the 200,000 copies mark. Looking at demographics, including increased population and literacy, this is a big drop in circulation, but most of it is mainly self-inflicted. You cannot be both a good circulation newspaper and a good advertising newspaper. You have to have one as your main strength because many times some of your stories will upset advertisers (as clearly happened in the CNN Niger Delta instance that I talk about in my main post today. The difference is that this organization is in the kind of broadcast journalism where virtually all profits come in from advertising.)

But the very valid point raised by another Kumekucha regular (Taabu, I think) is the fact that hungry people hardly have the inclination to read or engage in national gossip. So would an emphasis on circulation work in this case? Actually, it probably would because this is an election year. The year in which newspapers always make windfall profits and mainly from copy sales, therefore having a circulation strategy and going very aggressively for circulation would be a good strategy for the new KissFM newspaper.

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All Mungiki Trails Are Leading Back To Politicians: Do You Realize What That Means?

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The Mungiki Order To The Police That Only President Kibaki Would Have Given

One of the facts that many Kenyans are determined not to believe is that the Mungiki menace is being financed and directed by leading politicians in the country. However arrests by the police over the last two weeks have proved this fact beyond any reasonable doubt. All their leads keep on ending up on the door step of politicians some of whom lost the last elections and are desperate to get back to parliament.

One thing about the Kenya police, however corrupt or whatever your views on their competency may be is that the record clearly shows that more often than not, they usually get their man. That is when politics is not allowed to interfere.

But the really big news in all this Mungiki chaos is that those who understand the behind-the-scenes turf wars that usually go on are more than a little puzzled. Take for instance the case of Juja MP William Kabogo. The stinking-rich MP has been hitting the headlines all week as his lawyers have been scrambling to court to keep him out of police cells. On Tuesday Police ignored high court orders, picked him up and held him overnight for questioning anyway, in connection to his links with the Mungiki affair. It seems that police have reason to believe that he has links with the outlawed sect. His lawyers however managed to get him out by enforcing the high court orders this morning.

So why is Hon Kabogo a special case? The facts are that in the past this man has been a very powerful figure in the country. Part of the reason has to do with his vast wealth and the other has to do with the kind of business Mr Kabogo operates. This is shrouded in mystery, which usually means that it is the sort of underworld-high-returns business one cannot talk about in a press conference. In fact Mr Kabogo is in the league of people who can easily finance a major presidential candidate's campaign on their own. Some analysts (including this blogger) even mentioned his name as a possible financier of President Kibaki's re-election bid. And that is why the fact that a man so powerful is having problems with the police is such big news.

It is clear from the way the police are behaving (ignoring high court orders) that they have received instructions from the highest authority in the land to get to the bottom of this Mungiki issue. The president deserves praise for this very brave move. I would confidently say that this is the bravest thing he has done in his entire term. It is also the right thing to do. Although politically it would be suicide because it is rapidly emerging that many of his strongest backers have links to Mungiki.

The really bad news from all this is that it is now crystal clear that The Mungiki objectives are purely political and are financed by politicians. And not some dark unknown figures with an unknown agenda to destabilize the country as most Kenyans are desperate to believe. In other words what we have here is politically instigated and financed violence. Period.

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Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Stop Press: Jeff Koinange Fired From CNN

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A leading American website quoting official sources has announced that Jeff Koinange is no longer with CNN.

This information comes after weeks of uncertainty when the most famous Kenyan journalist was off-air from CNN for long stretches of time. Jeff was CNN’s Africa correspondent.

The site says that while acknoledging that Jeff had left the network, CNN declined to give further comment over the issue.

Read the website report on Jeff Koinange leaving CNN

Jeff Koinange has been involved in two controversial incidents in recent months one where the Nigeria government accused him of paying people to pose for CNN cameras over the Oil Kidnappings in the Nile Delta. The other was a London date rape incident exclusively reported in this blog. This blogger recently discovered that our headlines which referred to Jeff as a Kenyan were in fact inaccurate as he now travels on an American passport.

Past stories in this blog on the Jeff Koinange date-rape saga
What furious date rape victim said
Breaking news, date rape incident
Date rape journalist's link with Nicholas Biwott

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My Westlands Homosexual Friend

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Homosexuality is an extremely sensitive topic and I am well aware that there are a number of my regular readers whose sexual inclinations would be shocking to most simple ordinary Kenyans.

However this is a story I want to tell to prove that there is a link between poverty and the increased inclination towards homosexuality in the country.

I met John (not his real name) for the first time in 1986 when I joined a leading marketing company in Nairobi. I was soon appointed his boss although I had found him at the company. Gradually I came to learn the story of his wife including how he had gotten his current job.

Although John was always very smartly dressed and even drove a small car (something he certainly could not afford from his salary), h came from a very poor family. I never got to know what became of his father but his mother was employed as a cleaner in one of those Asian hospitals in Nairobi. She had struggled and taken her son through school from her meager salary cleaning all sorts of dirt at the hospital.

Inevitably John got stuck in life immediately he completed his O-levels. He did not do well enough to proceed to A-levels and neither did his mother have the contacts to secure him a job. However somebody told John that he had some assets that would transform his life. To cut a long gory story short, he ended living with this mzungu man in Westlands as his "wife".

All his needs were supplied, including the job he had and other bigger jobs he moved to later on and of course his car. I was his boss but I did not have a car.

One time I heard that the circumstances under which John had moved from under the roof his mother to his "husband's" house were controversial. There was even talk that his mother had one day stormed the Westlands residence to protest the living arrangement of her son. I'm not too sure what happened because there were conflicting stories. Some people said she was paid off and grudgingly accepted. Others said that she had cursed her son and stormed off.

I'm not too sure where John is now, but if he reads this I would like to appeal to him not to take it personally.

I remembered this tale when a reader here commented that Westlands is home to more than one nightclub for homosexuals. I've not been to Westlands for years but I can imagine the "business" being transacted at the clubs.

You can be sure that this subject of homosexuals is one that will not go away more so now when they are increasingly "coming out of the closet" as they say. And although it is certainly not going to be a national campaign issue and I also doubt whether it will carry significant votes in the Westlands Elections, it is an issue that I believe Kenyans need to make a clear policy about early. I for one would hate to see the country go in the direction of South Africa where gay marriages are now legal.

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William Ruto's Efforts To Bond With The Common Man

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Yesterday ODM presidential hopeful William Ruto was deep in Kalenjin country in the heart of the Rift Valley pushing selling himself to the people.

There are few things that I have ever agreed with Ruto about but in one of his speeches I did find myself nodding vigorously. Ruto says that the people making the decisions in Kenya have no idea what it is like sleeping hungry, an experience that is all too common with many Kenyans these days. He added that many of these leaders on seeing grown up Kenyans walking bare foot (and there was a sizeable number of wanainchi at this meeting in Kabarnet that were bare foot) think that they have just decided to leave their shoes at home. They do not realize that they do not own a single pair.

But while many Kenyans can identify with what Ruto is saying, images of anniversary Towers in 1992 will not leave my mind. This was the headquarters of the notorious Youth For Kanu so-called pressure group. But in actual fact it was a conduit for distributing vast amounts of cash to ensure that the electiosn went in favor of President Moi.

There are many dirty tricks and cash distribution incidents that have happened since (including throwing cash from a helicopter recently done by Moneybags Livondo) but all of them pale in comparison to the goings on at Anniversary Towers in 1992. Cash was being distributed in boxes that filled large halls and were piled right up to the roof. Jus try and imagine that.

We now know that a lot of that cash found its' way into William Ruto's pocket. To his credit he had the sense to invest it. Some of his colleagues are now dead and lived the last few months of their lives unable to afford shoes to put on (I kid you not). Still this money was not earned honestly and chances are that Mr Ruto is still greedy for more cash deep I his heart and has no interest in improving the living standards of the Kenyan people. Okay chances are that he will not be president, but the truth is that he is positioning himself as a tribal chief for a cabinet appointment in one of the "big ministries" where he will use his position to enrich himself. It is laughable that ODM should even have sanctioned such a man to run for the presidency, but that's Kenyan politics for you.

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Tuesday, May 29, 2007

New KissFM Daily: Why The Nation Should Be Worried?

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There has been much talk about the soon-to-be launched KissFM daily newspaper.

The skeptics feel that the Kenyan daily newspaper market is already overcrowded with no less than 6 daily newspapers and it is highly unlikely that any new entrant will cause any waves. The six are, Daily Nation, East African Standard, Kenya Times, Taifa Leo, People Daily and the most recent entrant Business Daily, from the Nation Media group.

Still there are those who are highly excited because they believe that the strong marketing approach that has made KissFM so commercially successful can be transferred to the proposed new daily making this new daily the most exciting thing that has ever happened on the Kenyan publishing scene for a long time.

Most keen observers agree that although daily newspaper publishing is quite a tricky game, chances are the new daily will create lots of waves in the market and the giant Nation media group does have cause for worry. So why should the Nation be worried?

I believe that the market has changed so much that the very strength of the Nation can easily turn into a disadvantage. Regular readers of this blog will know what the Daily Nation's key strength is. It is an amazing unmatched distribution system that reaches deep into rural Kenya. Smart Nation managers looking to cut down on the high expenses of this network as circulation continued to fall, stumbled on the idea of a courier service and today the Nation courier services division is one of the key profit centers and the fastest growing division in the media group.

But now there is a clear emerging market segment of younger workers and professionals with different needs and interests from those of the much older editors who call the shots at Nation. This is the soft underbelly of the Nation that the new daily will no doubt seek to capitalize on. It is instructive that the KISS radio station has been very successful in reaching this market segment and it likely that they will be able to find the right formula to reach the same market in the print media.

There is little doubt that the successful radio station will be heavily relied on to market and promote the new newspaper. It will be very interesting to see the direction the new daily takes.

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Why The Standard Newspaper Is A More Profitable Property Today

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In recent times there has been a lot of criticism against the Standard Newspapers newfound personality. It is obvious that some Kenyans are very uncomfortable with the new sensational approach.

Yet the numbers from the newspaper's accounting department tell a different story. After years of losses, the Standard group is now in the black and is consistently churning out profits. Circulation has also now started creeping upwards after years of stagnation.

So why is it that so many Kenyans seem to be upset?

Actually the problem is that these disgruntled Kenyans want the Standard to be another Nation, which is the mistake managers at the newspapers have been making for a long time. There can only be one Nation. Basic marketing tells you that you need to develop your own character and curve out your own niche in the market so that you are distinctly different competitors more so where a newspaper is concerned.

Kenyans are not aware that in the UK the highest circulating daily is not the highly respected Times or even the Observer, but is in fact the tabloid The Sun which was the first daily newspaper in the country to feature a topless page 3 girl. Today the page 3 girl is usually completely naked.

For media magnate Rupert Murdoch, this tabloid newspaper along with the even more notorious Sunday newspaper, The News Of The World have been the biggest and most consistent and valuable cash cows. They usually sell millions of copies while the times do only a few hundred thousand.

It seems that the East African Standard has editorially taken that direction in recent times, although this has been done rather hesitantly a clear sign that there are still some old hats in positions of power and influence at the newspaper.

My own experiments in the Kenyan print media have proved to me that there is a huge untapped and mostly ignored market for a sensational mass-market publication. More so in recent times when major changes have transformed the Daily Nation, more and more into an elitist daily. Even the Standard would be better off launching another title since it is still difficult for it to shake off its' up market colonial past, being the oldest newspaper in the country. The Standard was born in 1903.

It is interesting how none of the daily newspapers have ever considered launching a mass market daily or weekly. Even when the gutter press in Kenya still thrives on big headlines, typos, misty photographs and stories lifted from the daily press.

The situation is very different in neighboring Tanzania where at least two of the major daily publishers have an afternoon newspaper targeted at the mass market for which they sell more copies than the morning titles. The afternoon newspaper, Alahsiri from the Reginald Mengi group leads the pack. Mengi's entrepreneurial rags to riches story reads like a fairy tale that is a little hard to believe. The business was started as a small family enterprise assembling ballpoint pens in the living room. Today it is one of the largest privately held group of companies in East Africa.

Interestingly in Kenya we even have some gutter press publishers desperately trying to imitate the Daily Nation, not realizing that their readers are with them precisely because they do not resemble the now elitist daily.

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Monday, May 28, 2007

Nation Sex Dossier Authors Are Back: What Is The Real Motive?

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The Nation sex dossier authors have emerged again after a long quiet period when readers wondered (here and elsewhere on the net) where they had disappeared to or why they were lying low.

Interestingly they went quite immediately after the dramatic arrest of former Nation crime editor Stephen Muiruri and many suspected that the arrest and harassment of Muiruri has scared them into hiding.

Meanwhile the management at Nation media house bent over backwards to please the journalists and take “the fire” off the strange but effective muck campaign.

Now earlier today, the “dossier authors” posted another of their typical long posts in the Kumekucha comments area. Nor surprisingly the writers wonder what business the largest media house in East an d Central Africa has writing a strong wordede editorial on the resignation of World Bank President, Paul Wolfowitz over a scandal involving his girl friend.

The latest dossier then goes on to detail what has been happening at the nation during this “quiet period”. The big news is that the document claims that there are several senior journalists on their way out of the media house. It is revealed that experienced News Editor Catherine Gacheru has already left for the upcoming daily newspaper being launched by popular FM station, KissFM

Read the dossier for yourself HERE where it was posted today. Please scroll down to the second comment.

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Violence Marring Voter Registration

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Electoral commission chairman Samuel Kuvuitu admits that voter registration has been slowed and hindered in some cases by the state of insecurity in the country.

He mentions the Mt Elgon area and the notorious Molo at the top of his list. Also included is the Kiambu area where fear has gripped residents like never before.

One wonders iof this was not the whole motive in the first place behind all these strange so called land clashes that only happen on the eve of a general election.

Incidentally yesterday was a particularly bloody night in kariobangi where two police officers were killed and several wananchi in a shootout that suddenly ensued between the police escorting some suspected Mungiki members and gunmen who must have been their colleagues trying to rescue them. Among the dead was a 10 year old boy whop had been sent to the shops but was caught in the crossfire

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Raila’s Other Hammer

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It is quickly emerging that these elections are going to be remembered as the “spin doctor” elections.

After Raila’s Hummer vehicle caused so much excitement amongst his supporters, Raila quipped that it was the same “Nyundo” (swahili for hammer—the tool you use to drive in nails) that he was going to use to deal with the Kibaki administration.

The Sunday nation newspaper reported yesterday that Raila has been seen on the campaign trail carrying a hammer. Quite rightly the writer wonders why, since the ODM symbol is an orange. Phil, my man, do you have any idea what is going on?

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Sunday, May 27, 2007

How This Blog Will Soon Be Illegal In Kenya

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If this government and the ever smiling Ag Amos Wako have their way Kenya will soon have a ridiculous law on its’ books that will make opposition politics virtually impossible to practice in these shores.

The proposed law seeks to criminalize incitement and hate speeches. At a casual glance, this may appear to be just what the doctor ordered because the country is currently reeling under increased incidences of sop called ethnic/land skirmishes most of which have been linked to politics and inflammatory remarks made by politicians.

But the truth is that there are so many sensitive issues that can be termed inflammatory today that the law would in effect just shut down all manner of opposition politics.

For instance, there is the issue of the increasing divide between the rich and the poor in the country. The truth is that this situation has been brought about and perpetuated mainly by corruption in high places including land grabbing. So if the law is passed, any discussion of this matter can easily earn somebody 7 years in jail.

And there are many other examples, including the thorny issue of tribalism which if discussions in this blog are anything to go by is just the sort of subject that makes most Kenyan’s blood “boil” rather quickly.

There is a real danger that such a ridiculous law could just be passed. Looking at the numbers on the side of the government of national unity and the numerous defections expected as politicians realign themselves with the most popular political vehicles on the ground, this law could sail through just like the other ridiculous media bill is destined to sail through the August house.

One wonders how these guys have the audacity to squeeze in such bills in a very busy schedule that has a lot more pressing issues on its’ plate, like the constitutional review for instance.

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