Driving along the Mombasa-Malindi road recently, this blogger decided to stop at Watamu, about ten kilometers from Malindi town and went to the sandy white beaches to cool off from the unbearable heat currently being experienced in the coastal area.
At the public beach in Watamu, nobody speaks English. Only three languages can be heard here, Italian, Kikamba and Kigiriama in that order. Italian happens to be the nationality of the aging white women who flock these beaches in search of sun, sand but mostly sex. And they seem to be getting all three in plenty to the extent that they tell their friends back home who subsequently visit in droves. The result is that the place is choking with Italian tourists.
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Also published today
Are These Signs Of Panic At KTN?
Now Top Ministers Says He Will Not Pay Narc Kenya Monthly Subscriptions
What Are All These Killings In Mount Elgon About?
The divide between the haves and have-nots is probably too wide to ever bridge. Here's a classic example. Ordinary Kenyans are discriminated against because of their tribe every day while privileged Kenyans seating in air-conditioned luxury in Europe or the US castigate this blogger for discussing tribalism which they are sure exists only in the minds of a few.
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Just as I removed my sandals to walk on the water, I could not help seeing two young men wearing tight 'biker' shorts with their manhood bulging conspicuously from the costumes as they flanked an elderly Italian lady who could easily pass for their grandmother.
The lady who looked seventy something walked about proudly with her 'catches' the same way a hunter would parade his game trophies. The two young Kenyans carried the lady's belongings including sun oil, handbags and all. They were conversing in Italian all this time.
I learnt later that the two boys were locals from the Giriama tribe who double up as beach boys besides working as Gigolos in business to meet the “desires and needs” of mostly aging Italian women who are heavily laden with euro's and willing to spend on the local studs.
A few meters away, a group of boys speaking Kikamba dispersed almost immediately when they saw a group of elderly and young Italians approach the beach and rushed towards them offering several items for sale in fluent Italian that also mesmerizes the visitors who stop to converse with these ‘black people speaking their language'
Many strike a deal and manage to sell items like small carvings but more strike the moreb lucrative “deal” which is friendship with the visitors who are easily convinced to hire them temporarily as tour guides since they speak their language. Those young youths who take elderly women as lovers usually start like this.
Just near the entrance to the beach, I notice a young local guy, barely 20 years old, spotting dreadlocks and wearing dark designer sun glasses. He is busy on his expensive Nokia camera phone speaking Italian to the person on the other end of the line. I later learn he is a prominent broker here and gets the Italians stuff they can't get in the supermarkets, like studs and drugs.
Many of the boys here have tales to tell of how they have traveled to Italy on several occasions with their lovers or how they live comfortable lives as their subsistence is heavily subsidized by the elderly foreign women who always return to Malindi for their annual vacation but will frequently send money to their local lover's by money transfer. (Are all the big figures of money remitted back home by Kenyans abroad skewed by this activity?).
On getting to Malindi town, somebody coming here for the first time may think that they are in Italy as there are plenty of roadside boards written in Italian and lots of restaurants and even supermarkets specializing in Italian stuff.
Almost all the white people and tourists in Malindi are Italian and legend has it that the first Italians came here in the seventy's and were mainly Mafioso looking for a place to hide as they had been marked for death by rival gangs. A visit to the Malindi casino may help you believe this tale. My jaw almost dropped clean off just looking at the kind of money being spent here. A colleague quipped that it made Nairobi Casinos look like insignificant kiosks.
How Creativity Made Kenyan Man $1000 Daily
Buru buru wife teaches barmaid-addicted husband a lesson he will never forget
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Has KTN Panicked?
Kenya television network popularly known as KTN seems to have gone on panic mode after losing their top anchors Swaleh Mdoe, Catherine Kasavuli and Louis Otieno to the relatively young Citizen television.
KTN is now the home of blunders as the station makes major changes in its news production and presentation which has caused laughable mistakes that were glaring in its bulletin last night, including using wrong footage to sound going off and even echoes as they struggled through the maiden new format CNN-like live news edition.
It is worth noting that all these changes started when the top anchors left the station and many saw it as a necessary step to ensure that the anchors move was not quickly followed by the viewers hence the new presentation which seems to have heavily “borrowed” from the cable news network, CNN way of news presentation.
However, Kenya's television viewers are a sophisticated lot who will not switch stations just because their favorite anchor has. Most viewers stick to stations because of their form of presentation and most of all, the content of their news items.
Citizen has never been popular with the majority as it is considered a government-friendly station in that its owner, SK Macharia is a bossom buddy to president Kibaki. The station was extensively used as a propaganda tool for the government during the referendum campaigns along with the national broadcaster, Kenya broadcasting corporation.
KTN should not panic but instead maintain their boldness in news coverage and they will realize that there is much more to a station than popular anchors. On the contrary, they can nurture those they have been left with as there is a lot of potential and talent in them.
Beatrice Marshal, Anne Ngugi, Ahmed Darwesh and Lilian Muli are among the most promising anchors in the country and have the ability to maintain the standards at KTN. In this bloggers view, KTN should never have panicked from the start, and should have just continued doing what you have always been doing and everything would have been fine.
Introducing the new format need not have been hurried to coincide with Catherine Kasavuli and Loius Otieno’s maiden appearance on Citizen yesterday. I didn’t catch it, did any of the readers, and if so, what do they think?
How Creativity Made Kenyan Man $1000 Daily
Buru buru wife teaches barmaid-addicted husband a lesson he will never forget
KTN is now the home of blunders as the station makes major changes in its news production and presentation which has caused laughable mistakes that were glaring in its bulletin last night, including using wrong footage to sound going off and even echoes as they struggled through the maiden new format CNN-like live news edition.
It is worth noting that all these changes started when the top anchors left the station and many saw it as a necessary step to ensure that the anchors move was not quickly followed by the viewers hence the new presentation which seems to have heavily “borrowed” from the cable news network, CNN way of news presentation.
However, Kenya's television viewers are a sophisticated lot who will not switch stations just because their favorite anchor has. Most viewers stick to stations because of their form of presentation and most of all, the content of their news items.
Citizen has never been popular with the majority as it is considered a government-friendly station in that its owner, SK Macharia is a bossom buddy to president Kibaki. The station was extensively used as a propaganda tool for the government during the referendum campaigns along with the national broadcaster, Kenya broadcasting corporation.
KTN should not panic but instead maintain their boldness in news coverage and they will realize that there is much more to a station than popular anchors. On the contrary, they can nurture those they have been left with as there is a lot of potential and talent in them.
Beatrice Marshal, Anne Ngugi, Ahmed Darwesh and Lilian Muli are among the most promising anchors in the country and have the ability to maintain the standards at KTN. In this bloggers view, KTN should never have panicked from the start, and should have just continued doing what you have always been doing and everything would have been fine.
Introducing the new format need not have been hurried to coincide with Catherine Kasavuli and Loius Otieno’s maiden appearance on Citizen yesterday. I didn’t catch it, did any of the readers, and if so, what do they think?
How Creativity Made Kenyan Man $1000 Daily
Buru buru wife teaches barmaid-addicted husband a lesson he will never forget
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