While the big story in America this week was Mitt Romney’s narrow win in the Republican caucus in Iowa, I was travelling the nation’s skyways and talking to regular citizens about their hopes for the coming year.

There’s a frustration that the economy is not moving forward at a quicker pace. But there’s also a forgetfulness that some of the proposed remedies, particularly those suggested in the past few weeks, have been tried and do not work.

Many like to talk about the outlandish in Iowa. Can you believe Michelle Bachmann loves assault weapons? Did Ron Paul really write the racist pamphlets that have his name on them? And what about Newt Gingrich calling Romney a liar on Election Day?

But the one point that unifies all the candidates is their willingness to cut taxes and reduce the size of the federal government. The thinking is this will attract business and create jobs. Even President Obama has gotten in on this act.

Such an experiment is already underway in Nevada, a western state known for Las Vegas, gambling and prostitution. The state is largely desert and looks like a huge swath of brown carpet from the air.

In Nevada, there is no income tax for individuals or corporations. Yet, the giant ratings house, Moody’s, has downgraded the state’s condition because of the gloomy outlook for the gaming industry. The reality is that the bust may get worse.

During boom years, Las Vegas overbuilt its hotel industry. Even at 80 per cent occupancy, there’s not enough business to support the city’s infrastructure.

Ten years ago, Las Vegas could be counted on to attract tens of thousands of high rollers from Asia. Big name entertainers from Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan were imported, particularly in the Christmas season.

Now, Macau is home to one of the world’s biggest gambling paradises in China. The casinos, which are larger and grander than those in America, pulled in record revenues in 2011.

Las Vegas has tried everything. It has even marketed itself as a family destination. But entrepreneurs elsewhere, including Singapore, are showing no mercy.

Gambling destinations have popped up all over America. Americans don’t have to travel to Las Vegas to gamble. They can do it in Mississippi or Ohio or Missouri. Even Indian reservations have gotten into the act.

In Minnesota, a small group of Native Americans owns a massive casino outside Minneapolis, and recruit Hollywood entertainment. Across the street from the casino, many members of the tribe have mansions.

What happens when the zero tax strategy does not work? Services are cut. And that means everything from education to social services to healthcare.

This is happening in Nevada. So the primary election rhetoric in Iowa does not match the reality. The backdrop is that the American economy is slowly recovering.

Republicans are noticing, but they’re claiming that Obama is hindering a quicker recovery. And a quicker recovery, they argue, means reducing taxes in every possible way. We Americans are impatient. We want it our way, and we want it now.

That’s the motto of much of the fast food industry, which Americans have exported throughout the world.

Could we learn something from our Kenyan brothers and sisters?

Absolutely. There’s patience and perseverance in Kenya, especially when dealing with hardship. And there’s a sense of innovation and willingness to try something new. Is America listening?

Source: http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/US+can+learn+a+thing+or+two+from+Kenyans+/-/440808/1301256/-/wekuj0z/-/index.html

By Henry Ongeri

Early this month, Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Issack Hassan and commissioners made whirlwind trips across the globe, ostensibly to gather views from Kenyans on the upcoming 2012 general elections.  OnDecember 12, 2011, I attended one such meeting inMinneapolis,Minnesotain theUnited States. IEBC Chief Executive Officer James H. Oswago assured the audience (to rare applause), that the commission was on a listening tour and IEBC was still considering various options for registration and voting options for Kenyan citizens in the Diaspora. His list included voting by mail, in-person voting at embassies and consulates and electronic voting via the internet.

Though the Mr. Oswago insisted that IEBC was yet to make a decision on the manner of registration and voting, Chairman Hassan swiftly overruled him, repeatedly stating that that the only realistic option for the Diaspora was in-person registration and voting at embassies and consulates. Further that somehow, this option fully satisfied the constitutional requirement of “progressive realization of the right to vote.” He even suggested that IEBC had considered denying Kenyans residing outside of the country its right to vote till the 2017 general elections due to a shortage of time.

According to Chairman Hassan, “progressive realization of the right to vote” means a couple of limitations: Diaspora Kenyans will only be permitted to register and vote at embassies and consulates; Embassy and consulate staff will serve as returning and presiding officers and Diaspora voters will only vote for presidential candidates, eschewing National Assembly,  County or Senate contestants.  In essence, this would be the substance of the regulations that IEBC was sending to Parliament for approval.

Like hundreds of thousands of Kenyans in the Diaspora, I fundamentally disagree. Such  constricted reading of applicable law is disconcerting, to say the least. Indeed, it may be a violation of Section 38(2) of the Constitution, which guarantees every Kenyan citizen the right to a free, fair and regular elections based on universal suffrage.  For this piece, I do not address the wisdom or otherwise of using embassy staff-who are political appointees- to oversee and report the outcome of, such supposedly free and fair elections.

Under Section 82(1)(e) of the Constitution, Parliament is mandated to enact legislation providing for the progressive registration of citizens residing outsideKenya, and the progressive realization of their right to vote. One such law is the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Act. Section 31(2)(e) of the Act requires the IEBC to make regulations providing for registration and for putting into effect the progressive realization of the right to vote for Kenyans residing outside of Kenya. Like other functionaries of State organs, IEBC commissioners have taken an oath to, at all times, obey, respect and uphold the Constitution of Kenya and all other laws.  Naturally, any statutes enacted pursuant to Section 82(1)(e) and regulations promulgated thereunder, must conform to the dictates of the Constitution.

While seemingly rational on the surface, the IEBC proposal for Diaspora voters is tantamount to denial of the fundamental right to vote by bureaucratic pronouncement.  First, it practically strips away the right of every Kenyan to vote if they are unable to travel to far-flung diplomatic installations in their country of residence. For example in theUnited   States, the Kenyan embassy is located inWashington,D.C., with consulates inNew York,New YorkandLos   Angeles,California.  Thus, only than Kenyans in contiguous states likeVirginia,Maryland,Arizona,Nevada,New   Jerseycan afford the time and money to register and vote.

Locating voting and polling stations at only three cities across the entire breadth of theU.S.is preposterous. It flies in the face of the undeniable reality of the enormous concentrations of Kenyans in the Midwestern and Southern states and cities.  Just to name but a few, these are:Minneapolis,Minnesota,Chicago,Illinois,Kansas   City,Kansas,HoustonandDallas,Texas,Detroit,MichiganandAtlanta,Georgia.  Ironically, IEBC visited most of these cities during its recentU.S.tour!

Second, the proposed regulations would purely be technical obedience to the law, while in practice, eviscerating a fundamental right. It is a time-honored canon of statutory construction that in enacting legislation, Parliament could not have intended an absurd or manifestly unjust result. In other words, IEBC must read laws in a manner that makes sense and avoid inevitable absurdity.  Nothing could be more absurd than requiring Kenyan citizens to travel thousands of miles just to register and vote.

Additionally, arguing that “progressive realization” only requires IEBC to locate a registration and voting desk in Washington, New Yorkand Los   Angelesmakes nonsense of the spirit of the new Constitution.  Per Webster’s Dictionary, “progressive” means moving forward, evincing progress or favoring improvement, change or reform.  It defies logic that erecting unreasonable hurdles for the Diaspora in exercise of the right to vote may somehow, be progressive.

Third, the IEBC proposal would be unduly burdensome and prohibitively expensive for Kenyans not residing near embassies and consulates.  For example: for a Kenyan inMinnesotaair travel fromMinneapolis–WashingtonD.C.- $500 (Kshs. 34,069);  accomodation – $250 (Kshs. 20,825) per night, food – $50; lost income (minimum of 2.5 days, depending on wages, may range from $1,000 (Kshs. 83,000 per day).  Come voting day, whether in August or December, 2012, the poor Kenyan has to do this all over again.  In contrast, Kenyans back home can literally walk to their stations, at minimal or no expense.

Fourth, the proposal would set a terrible precedent by sanctioning IEBC’s race to the bottom. In other words, doing the bare minimum to satisfy literal constitutional and legal mandates would now become legally acceptable.  Parliamentary approval of the regulations by IEBC would inevitably lower the bar for performance of public agencies in matters affecting the citizenry.  It is ironic that IEBC continually brags of the technical competence and expertise of its commissioners and staff while at the same time viewing the relatively uncomplicated additional voting stations as a “logistical nightmare.” For this reason, reasonable people can legitimately question IEBC’s competency and ability to handle the intricacies of the 2012 elections.

Finally, the casual dismissal of the role Kenyan Diaspora is disquieting.  If it is the Diaspora is Kenya’s 48^th (and financially affluent) county, why treat it as though they were composed of second class citizens? Given the undisputed role that remittances play in propping the Kenyan economy, the IEBC’s disdainful attitude towards the Diaspora is inexcusable. By squandering its opportunity to engage the Diaspora in a meaningful dialogue on HOW to most effectively handle the registration and voting, IEBC is now left to tis own devices. Kenyans in the Diaspora will incessantly demand realization of their right to vote, with only equitable and justifiable constraints.

All Kenyans of goodwill must rise up and stop IEBC from unilaterally disenfranchising Kenyan citizens under the guise of “progressive realization” or some other lame excuse.  An online petition challenging IEBC’s proposed regulations is available at http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/kenya-diaspora-right-to-vote.html.   Kenyans and friends ofKenya are signing up in large numbers to support the right to vote. Will you be one of them?

IEBC would be loath to make the argument that Kenyans (to whom sovereign power ultimately belongs) intended to hand over such a fundamental right to the whims and convenience of IEBC commissioners.

At a minimum, IEBC should locate registration and polling stations within reasonable traveling distance (by airplane, train or automobile) of the cities with the largest concentration of Kenyans across the Diaspora. If resources were the issue, then Chairman Hassan and IEBC should initiate a sober and purposeful discussion on that particular challenge to find sensible solutions.  And come 2017, all Kenyan citizens should be able to vote electronically, regardless of geographical location or time-zone.  Now that is progressive.

*The author is an attorney and counselor at law in the States of Minnesota andNew Yorkin theUnited States of America.  He is also an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya.

Reports of rampant cheating on standardised tests in the summer of 2011 by schools across the United States may surprise Kenyans who have a  lofty image of US institutions.

Cheating there is more widespread than portrayed by the media.

Citing pressure to meet the federal ‘‘No Child Left Behind’’ mandate requiring schools to meet rigorous performance benchmarks, teachers and administrators routinely erased wrong answers on student papers, and replaced them with the correct ones.

In other incidents, teachers allowed students to copy answers from one another.

Suspected exam violations were reported in the states of Maryland, Georgia, the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Departments of education in all these states take matters of examination irregularities seriously, and those implicated face severe penalties.

For instance, the certificates of some teachers named in the Georgia scandal were revoked for two years, while administrators’ licences were permanently revoked.

For Kenyan students, suspicion of involvement in cheating leads to cancellation of one’s test results. It’s not entirely surprising if test results of an entire school are cancelled due to alleged irregularities.

In a stark contrast with their US counterparts, teachers and principals at the centre of the scandals in Kenya march away scot-free, or the consequences, if any, are not widely reported in the media.

In a survey by Donald McCabe, a lead researcher and professor at Rutgers University, New Jersey, students at US institutions of higher learning cheat on tests, homework and assignments.

Bill Bowers conducted the first large-scale study of cheating among US colleges and university students in early 1960s. In 1964, he reported that three fourths of more than 5,000 students ‘‘had engaged in one or more incidents of academic dishonesty’’.

In the most recent study, McCabe surveyed more than 14,000 undergraduate students. Two thirds of respondents admitted cheating.

Students easily cut and paste passages and articles from the Internet. Sites like cheathouse.com, cheater.com, schoolbytes.com and many others offer downloadable papers for a fee.

Rapid developments in technology pose a challenge to authorities and individuals responsible for combating the trend. Luckily, software companies have developed plagiarism-detection systems to counter cheating attempts.

Turnitin.com is just what colleges and professors need. No wonder prominent colleges and universities in the US and Europe constitutes its core clientele. Other sites include checkforplagiarism.net, scanmyessay.com and writecheck.com.

Pressure to secure a spot in top colleges, or enrol in coveted programmes has prompted students to cheat on college entrance tests such as ACT, SAT and GMAT.

Back in Kenya, it’s common knowledge that some students, parents, teachers, exam supervisors, and others engage in cheating every year.

It’s definitely encouraging that cases of exam malpractices are down 1.5 per cent compared to last year, but the Kenya National Examinations Coucil must constantly devise measures that will ensure test integrity once and for all.

Mr Edward Musungu, a former teacher, is a recent graduate student from the University of Nairobi, while Mr Amos Wasike is an educator based in Baltimore, United States

By Njeru Gathangu

The world has been on fire for the last one hundred years. Colonization, first world war, resistances against occupation, the second world war, the cold war, liberation war, mutinies and coup d’tats, political/ethnic cleansing and clan wars in Africa (Sudan, DR Congo,North Africa, Rwanda, Somalia,Kenya and many others).

Of all the wars witnessed so far, imperialist maneuvers clothed in diplomacy and foreign aid conceal deadly conspiracies that whither and dry up the “victims”. Actually any resistance to such conspiracies is met with resounding declaration of war against states.

Latin America, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, North Africa, Middle East and the entire African continent have a bitter story to tell.

With this disturbed world, those inKenyawho witnessed hatred caused by colonialism, marginalization and deprivation; political isolation and ethnic cleansing and particularly the post elections violence of 2008 which by and large loams around the Land Question, must soul search themselves and choose the role to play in peace creation and become witnesses to the world on how usurpation, hatred and violence cannot build, cannot create hope and or assure any community of their future.

2012 is another election year inKenyathat brings with it unresolved burdens and tensions, constitutional confusion, political ambition and mistrust among age old friends and partners. The country has started noticing few issues emerging that need to be addressed urgently, lest the centre cracks.

(i)        The attempt by the executive and to some extent, the parliament to create confusion and misunderstanding among Kenyans on the date of the next elections.

(ii)         Politicising the ICC process where some of the communities appear to be saying, ?hatutakubali wetu kuhukumiwa?-we shall not accept conviction of our kinsman. This by all standards is arrogance and disrespect to laws and the constitution.

(iii)        Absence of visionary leadership viz a vis values and the virtue of democracy. That a seat like the presidency can attract 20 aspirants is disaster and a crisis.

(iv)        Kenyan may not have appreciated the fact that the country is at war (declared by the president). To fight Al-Shabaab, a guerilla militia, our forces have to enter Somalia. Is it moral or ethical? Might we have created other enemies in the process?

Who would they be and so how does the country protect its citizens? Shall we be able to afford the whole programme and, for how long?

(v)        Is it possible that number (iv) above may drag to the elections and if so, how do we manage both?

(vi)        Politicians are busy popularizing themselves, who will inculcate the values and the virtue of peace among Kenyans?

(vii)        The social movement appears to have been ?mentally commercialized? or if you like, kept busy by donors and forced to wear blinkers not see anything but the “project”.

Let the country wake up to the reality that we are forty two nationalities and apparently most of them do not care much about others. In the coming year the region and the world need a peacefulKenyamore than any other time. Why? The whole region and indeed continent, its neighbours theMiddle Eastand the Arabian peninsula are in lots of trouble and apparently are somehow served from and through this country.

To assist the people, we must think, talk and live PEACE.

As for me, my friends and groups that I work with, we shall be propagating, living and spreading Peace through Kenya Horizons of Peace (Ken HoPe) to share with and tell our people that there can be life without the glimpse of hatred and violence.

Peace is the Ultimate.   Ken HoPe

I  have always been fascinated by what you might call the “asymmetrical con”.

That is the con in which no one is killed, injured, or gets unjustly cheated. It is one reason I love the TV drama, Leverage.

The big powerful people engage in grand corruption. The “small” men and women engage in cons.

Thus, the state of a country’s con industry is quite revealing about how the society is evolving.

I am in good old Uganda; the fair nation Winston Churchill called “the Pearl of Africa”.

I was talking to people who are good watchers of the country’s ways. We got round to chatting about a popular East African subject — the ever-growing excesses of our weddings.

Two new developments in Ugandan weddings grabbed my attention. For a long time, many wedding couples would open their presents, only to find empty boxes.

Some would be stuffed with newspapers, others with stones. This development puzzled Uganda’s marriage trade for a long time.

Recently, the mystery was solved. Turns out it was the wedding reception crashers doing it.

They figured out that no matter how determined the wedding committee was to keep the party crashers away, there was one type of person who would never be stopped at the gate: The one who came bearing a big “present” wrapped in expensive-looking paper (note the operative word here is “expensive-looking”, it doesn’t have to be expensive).

However, because it is very easy to detect that someone is carrying an empty box, they stuff it.

A few stones making noise can sound like expensive China that has been badly packed.

So you pick an empty box from the supermarket, buy a cheap gift wrap, borrow some cellotape, grab old newspapers, and you have a fail-proof ticket into the most exclusive wedding.

Then, in Uganda, betrothal (better known as introduction) ceremonies are big affairs. And they just keep getting bigger.

Matters have reached a point where introduction parties have “delegations” numbering over 1,000.

Not surprisingly, they have become the place where the groom must make his most dramatic impression.

As happens with these things, the reputation of the groom is as important as that of the future in-laws.

Many families want the world to know that their daughter is marrying “somebody”, a law-abiding voter with a well-paying job and prestigious address.

As a result, a con has developed in Uganda that draws grooms into conspiracies with their future in-laws.

At these introduction ceremonies, the groom will look for the right moment to blow away the folks who have assembled.

After getting the nod that he can have the girl, he does his thing. If he is fabulously wealthy, he will unleash a house as a present to his future in-laws. But if he is one step below that in the food chain, a second-hand car will do.

So he will conspire with his future wife and mother-in-law and stage a car give-away. He will go to a showroom, borrow a car for half a day, and take it to the introduction ceremony.

There, at the appropriate moment, the announcement will be made that the car is a gift to the prospective mother-in-law for bearing such a wonderful daughter.

There will be ululations all around, but it is all fake. However, the purpose will have been fulfilled.

Both the bride-to-be and her parents look good because they are getting a serious son-in-law; and the groom-to-be also shines because he gives the impression he is a man of means.

With the ceremony done, the car goes back to the showroom. So what story does the mother-in-law tell if asked about the car?

Simple. She can say she sold it because at her age, she didn’t want to blow away her pension maintaining a vehicle.

We have not yet reached the “post-industrial” society level of countries like Japan.

I am told that in Japan, because many families scatter and it is almost impossible to get them together again for something like a marriage ceremony, fellows rent fake brothers, sisters, relatives and friends to fill the family chair at weddings.

When I look around the East African Community, the race for this kind of ultimate wedding con of the future is really between two countries — Kenya and Uganda.

SOURCE: http://www.nation.co.ke/blogs/Great+wedding+cons/-/445642/1296618/-/view/asBlogPost/-/7yyfaaz/-/index.html

Last week two people were shot by policemen in Kawangware. Two police officers came across an elderly man and a youngster at 3am, and suspecting them to be criminals, shot them dead.

The initial reports from the police indicated that the two victims were criminals and a vernacular radio presenter even informed the public that the two were carrying machetes, and had left the officers with no choice but to shoot and kill them. This incident was well on the way to being another statistic of criminals killed by police until Kawangware residents took to the streets stating very firmly that these killings were unlawful, and that the two Kenyans were innocent.

The media then went into the details of the story and we learnt that the older man was 46-year old Ebrahim Ombasa Ondego, and the youngster was his 14 year old son Joseph Nyaberi Ombasa. We learnt that Ebrahim was on the way to the market to set up shop for his wife, and that he did this every morning as a means of booking space for her as she organized the household.

The wife would then come to the market at 9am and release him to go to Industrial area to look for casual work. At the end of the day Ebrahim would be back to take over from her again, releasing her to go and prepare supper for the family. He would then close down their small business and go home late at night. Joseph Nyaberi had just completed his KCPE a week or so ago.

Clearly this two were not criminals and the police apologized, both for the shooting, and for providing the public with false information. The officers involved were also charged.

I had a chance to meet Ebrahims’ 36-year old wife Joyce Ombasa and the other two children: 21-year old Violet, and 17-year old Isaac. Listening to their story and watching the helplessness on their faces made me want to weep. The fact is that despite the well-meaning police apologies Ebrahim and his son were dead leaving an already very poor family to struggle and raise money to bury them. The ironies of life are such that the family is even liable for government charges for the two’s mortuary fees!

Whats even sadder is that Ebrahim and Joseph are but two of a long list of innocent Kenyans killed by what can at best be called overzealous police officers. Others include Hon Muiruri’s son, initially booked as a suspected mungiki shooting before it became clear that he was another victim of a police officer gone bad. Add every other Kenyan you know has been shot by police ‘by mistake’ and you will realize we have a problem.

The UN Special Rapporteurs for Extra-Judicial killings Prof Phillip Alston officially stated that the Kenya police force seems to operate a shoot-to-kill system, including having killer squads that are let loose on perceived and/or imagined criminals. The government’s very own Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) has produced several reports on this issue, the most famous being the ‘Cry of Blood’ that indicated over 500 killings and/or forced disappearances of young Kenyans from Central & Nairobi provinces.

The fact that we have a new constitution has done nothing to change this. The Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU) has documented over 200 such incidences since promulgation last year.

Other organizations like Release Political Prisoners, etc, have their own reports. The common denominator in all these reports is that fingers are pointed at the police as being behind the killings.

I am convinced that 99% of our police officers are hardworking and brave officers who work in extremely difficult circumstances, to keep what is usually an ungrateful citizenry safe. They are ill-equipped, and face life-threatening situations literally every day they walk out of what are also unmaintained government houses. They are also treated as second class citizens by civil society and the general public.

However what disturbs me is how we have allowed this to excuse the 1% bad apples who will shoot rather than arrest anyone they suspect of being a criminal, whatever the circumstances. A song has even been done of the existence of ‘bonoko’: firearms laid besides victims to justify the shooting as legitimate. Then there is the administrative reluctance to accept that that we have too many illegitimate shootings going on. The police bosses will only respond if there is a public outcry.

We are in the era of ‘Siasa Mpya’ so my challenge goes to our 290 elected political representatives. Is there an official policy to consider innocent Kenyans killed in pursuit of dangerous criminals as collateral damage?

Source: NAIROBI STAR

One of the houses that were demolished at Syokimau near Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Lands commissioner has now admitted to knowing all along that the Syokimau titles were fake, even after millions went down the drain. File

The insurance industry has to have some of the most imaginative clients in the service industry when it comes to making insurance claims. Using excerpts from claim forms, here are the top five most creative causes of accidents.

Number 5: “The accident happened because I had one eye on the lorry in front, one eye on the pedestrian and the other on the car behind.” Number 4: “I started to slow down but the traffic was more stationary than I thought.” Number 3: “I didn’t think the speed limit applied after midnight” Number 2: “I knew the dog was possessive about the car but I would not have asked her to drive it if I had thought there was any risk.” And the number one most creative reason for an accident:  “Coming home I drove into the wrong house and collided with a tree I don’t have.”

I’ve been watching the gut-wrenching saga going on with the Syokimau demolitions and have concluded that the flip flops being undertaken by all the concerned government agencies are as good as insurance claimants: “The land which was ours, was taken away by those guys who then sold it to those other guys and then we woke up and it was a dream.”

I am confident of one thing: we will never find out what truly happened, our moral outrage will fizzle with time and be reignited by yet another – yawn – scandal of volcanic soil proportions and only the homeless Syokimau families will remain with the painful scars.

I bought land in Syokimau. Oh yes, I am a victim of the must-buy-land-now-in-a-good-deal frenzy. It was in the dimming light of the year 2002. A close relative told me about how Uungani Settlement Scheme Self Help Group(USSSHG) had a huge parcel of land in Syokimau and only members would get land allocations. I went, I saw and I conquered. I paid Sh 2,000 for shares and another non-refundable fee of Sh 1,500 as membership. Four months later in April 2003, I then paid a deposit of Sh 13,000 into a bank account for my half-acre plot number 851.

Who wouldn’t pay for a half-acre being sold for Sh 35,000. This was followed by total silence. 2003 rolled by and we were told to wait. 2004 rolled by and we were told to wait. 2005 rolled by and we were told to – you guessed it – wait. In October 2006, I received a letter signed by the Chairman and the Secretary of USSSHG giving a written account of the project status update. The letter played back the discussions and revelations that had taken place at a General Meeting of the group in July 2006.

It turned out that there had been a case pending in the High Court between USSSHG and the Kenya Airports Authority that had been filed by the latter in the year 2003. [What?!] The letter stated in part “ The lawyer for our group….informed members that the case has collapsed and encouraged us to proceed on with our development projects and to pursue the title deed for the whole parcel of land, which in any case is in Mavoko Municipality and not part of the JKIA, which is in Nairobi Province.” [Pardon?!]

So my brain spark plugs began firing. This deal of a half acre for Sh 35,000 is on disputed land? Which land has been claimed by a government agency? Hit the brakes. I kept on reading. “Members were encouraged to move to their plots, start fencing, plant trees, present their building plans to our offices for approval by the Planning and Development Committee who will also arrange for approvals by Mavoko Municipality.”

Put engine on idle. I kept on reading. “Members who have not cleared their outstanding balances were encouraged to pay these balances immediately. A penalty for delay has been imposed on unpaid dues by doubling the amount outstanding on each plot.” Since my outstanding balance was Sh 22,000 I now owed the princely amount of Sh 44,000  because of waiting for communication about what the next steps were for THREE years!

Furthermore, members were being asked to pay an extra Sh15,000 for re-survey of the land, replacement of destroyed beacons and payment of rates. Engage reverse gear! The whole deal was starting to smell worse than a skunk I once ran over one late night on the lonely stretch between Syracuse and Ithaca in upstate New York. I bailed out.

But others chose to forge ahead with the project and the result was the growth of a housing development using hard earned savings and borrowings. On the one hand, buyers of the Syokimau plots cannot plead ignorance. The Kenya Airports Authority had laid claim to that land from as far back as 2003. But on the other hand, the Mavoko Municipal Council cannot claim innocence either as they were fully aware that there was a claim on the land by none other than a government agency, court outcomes notwithstanding. Mavoko should not have provided the planning and building approvals with such relish and glee.

What Mavoko Municipal Council has now done is to destroy any modicum of respect, reputation or integrity that was ever accorded to it. Forget what USSSGH did or did not do, or whether it was ill advised by its lawyer. The local authority had the fiduciary responsibility to provide planning approvals on land over which it had legitimate authority as the approvals only served to validate what is now being revealed as fake titles.

What this essentially does is to put doubt in anyone’s mind about the veracity of any title issued within the Mavoko Municipality. In my view, the overheated property prices in this area should essentially get a much needed dousing of cold water as they clearly are not worth the paper that their titles are written on. The council’s behaviour is an insurance case of driving into the wrong house and crashing into a tree that you don’t own.

Carol.musyoka@gmail.com Twitter: @carolmusyoka

Source: Business Daily Africa

By Ciku Kimani

We stood in awe. Random strangers standing on either side of the streets, all eyes on the taxi driver who stopped long enough to let the old man and his walking stick snail-pace across the unusually traffic-clear street.

Shocked, we forgot to cross the road ourselves, but we were probably afraid the sane taxi driver might regain his insanity and step on it, killing everyone in his way.

Well, he did not regain his “insanity” as he continued to shock us further by beckoning everyone to cross the road, and that was when we all looked at each other in shock.

First, he was a taxi driver and we expect his road etiquette to be as good as that of a matatu driver, which is not saying much.

Second, the lights were green for him, he had right of way, yet he chose to let a frail old man cross the road without hooting and then, to add that, he let everyone else pass. What was wrong with the scene?

Well, ideally, nothing, but we are now living in a world where bad manners are the norm — we are shocked when people behave well.

When we were children and “children’s rights” was a phrase only used in the West, we did not realise that we had any rights.

We got education, food, clothes, and shelter — everything else was a privilege. Questioning a parent was unheard of. Who even thought of that?

Our relationship with elders was clear black-and-white — they spoke, we listened. We did not negotiate.

While this was a little militant, I would rather have the good old days of knowing that I would get the cane if I did not sweep the compound.

A child today would argue that it is child labour, an infringement of his rights, while in actual sense it is being taught the value of work.

Somewhere on the path of evolution, we have been brainwashed (brainwasher still unidentified) into believing that having good manners is not cool.

We have been made to believe that helping that blind person cross the street is a sign of weakness while, indeed, it is the humane thing to do.

That letting a pregnant woman cut the queue is spoiling her while, indeed again, it is the civilised thing to do.

When walking our crowded streets and you accidentally step on someone’s toes or bump into them, do you glare at them daringly or do you politely say “sorry” or “excuse me” and move on?

If you do the former, you are laced with bad manners and you do not take responsibility for your actions. Saying “sorry” does not make you weak; it just saves everyone time and agitation.

When it is raining and you, being four feet tall, carry an umbrella without the slightest care of whose eyes you poke, do you think you are being cool, that to hell with anyone who does not have an umbrella?

I hate to break it to you, but you give the impression of a foul-mannered person who is probably angry with everybody who is taller than you.

When you splash dirty water on pedestrians or drive fast on a dusty road without the slightest consideration of anyone who is not riding in the car with you, you are a classic candidate of a bad-mannered driver and everybody assumes that you have borrowed the car just for that day and that your intention is to have everyone notice that you are driving; you a bad mannered show-off. Sounds bad, huh?

I blame the rat race that seems to have swallowed us all. We are always in such a hurry to get somewhere that we forget to be good to each other.

We have allowed the pressures of life get to us, leaving us all angry and with no space for niceties towards fellow humans. But how about “do unto others as you would like done to you?”

Source: DAILY NATION

I was quite amused to learn recently that, once upon a time in England, the ultimate contraceptive – according to Hera Cook in her 2004 publication, The Long Sexual Revolution: English Women, Sex and Contraception 1800-1975 – was “I have a headache tonight, dear”.

This ‘‘headache’’ tagline kindled memories of callers to Kenyan FM stations, mainly ladies, engaging presenters in tales of woe with their husbands or boyfriends.

I was particularly amused because, besides the pretensions to artificial headaches being alive and kicking in popular banter on the radio talk-shows, they are neither new nor strange.

The difference, however, is that this time round, man-made headaches are no longer prevalently the contraceptive they used to be in England some time back, but an expression of gender power – whatever that might be!

Similar headaches and related creative thrusts have today become a major source of inspiration for public debates in secular FM shows.

On the other hand, I was alarmed to realise that matters that ideally ought to be directed to the priesthood and counselling outfits have now been assigned to FM radio presenters by the public.

Notably, some of the concerns – regarding relationships gone or going awry – are actually quite grave as they reveal ugly fissures that, if neglected, will certainly cost our society dearly.

In the prevailing crisis, the family unit will suffer the worst blow.

The voluntary choice by the public to anoint FM stations as centres of excellence for relationship counselling should shame the institutions and instruments that ought to handle such matters.

The very sensitivity of relationships calls for a meticulous approach to thoroughly resolving the disquiet there may be between the individuals involved, for it is true that the effects of troubled families and individuals endanger the quality of citizenship as well as productivity.

Therefore, those on whom the burden of relationship counselling falls should get very concerned that Kenyans have chosen to dump them and instead wash their dirty linen in public.

In fact, it is particularly disheartening that some of the sassy tales oozing from FM callers on air day in day out are from disenchanted faithful calling right from inside the priesthood or choir. If the callers from these quarters are not phoney, then this tells it all!

In the prevailing circumstances, it seems the confidence that congregants should adopt when forwarding their worldly afflictions and tribulations to religious ministers and counsellors has hopelessly waned.

Could it be that the priesthood is viewed just as hopelessly inept, aloof or judgmental and therefore no different from any uncontrolled audience after all?

The source of this liberal outpouring of anguish from broken hearts on air is most disturbing.

I read in it the demolition of boundaries of honour and shame quite tellingly pointed to by this liberal sharing of relationship miseries whether between spouses or boyfriends and girlfriends.

If so, this is a dangerous indicator of the collapse of the vital meshwork on which character and morality, and by extension, ‘‘souls’’ of nations are constructed.

I find it difficult to lay blame squarely on local FM stations insofar as the burden of counselling or offering relief to those bursting from the seams with pent-up frustrations is concerned.

In fact, the FM show hosts are largely innocent and do, perhaps, deserve commendation for providing a platform.

But in the first place, a breakdown of the set of rules of engagement or trust between those charged with the task of counselling and persons desiring counselling, must have occurred.

Alternatively, perhaps as society succumbed to the dynamics of change, religious outfits may have been left stuck in a time-warp where denial or a live-and-let-live attitude may have lulled monks, imams, ministers and priests into some deep sleep.

Whatever the case, if the chagrin expressed on air by FM callers – let alone the tonnes of telephone messages expressing the same – serve no notice to the gatekeepers of our national values, we must brace ourselves for unending live soap operas right in our homes cheered on by no other than our children.

God  forbid!

Dr Omondi is a social science researcher, University of Botswana

Source: http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/-/440808/1257050/-/item/1/-/11bi4pgz/-/index.html