Gertrude Mungai

Kenya’s first and only sex therapist is making headlines. In a country where eroticism and female libido are still taboo subjects, Gertrude Mungai’s business begs to differ. A place where the art of Kama Sutra, among other things, is taught, the sex therapist’s outfit also displays an audacious collection of sex toys. Gertrude Mungai has just released a DVD titled: “modern sexy woman”. Interview.

Gertrude Mungai, wife and mother of two, has witnessed the Kenyan society change; a phenomenon she has actively contributed to. The 35 year old sex therapist’s consultancy in Nairobi,— opened since 2005,— comes at a time when more and more Kenyan women are seeking to find a balance between their daily chores as wives, mothers and career women, and sexual satisfaction. Her newly released DVD “Modern sexy woman” deals with those challenges.

Afrik.com : You are a Kenyan sex therapist, why did you chose this profession?
Gertrude Mungai : According to several friends’ testimonies during a party seven years ago, I realized that most of the women were rarely satisfied by their relationship with men. Many of them consider that marriage is a shape of slavery and think that sex is only for reproduction. In this case, only men would take pleasure in sex. I had to do something to help women. So, I educate them to be good wives, mistresses and businesswomen. It’s just a question of balance.

Afrik.com : How did you acquire your knowledge?
Gertrude Mungai : was born on the Kenyan coast and was raised in the Swahili culture. There are the oldest women who teach the girls, from their puberty, realities concerning sexuality. The young generations are (therefore) not faced with surprises when they get married. So, I acquired an African traditional knowledge and my marriage is now a real success. I also studied the Kama Sutra art and the secrets of the Middle East. I travelled a lot to meet other sex therapists.

Afrik.com : Who consults you?
Gertrude Mungai : It is especially middle class women who live in Nairobi. But I have already given free lessons in rural regions to develop the customs. The oldest customer was 58 years old! Married women who want to discover sexual pleasure are the most interested in my consultations. I also propose therapies for couples and special lessons for men.

Afrik.com : Can you describe your sessions for women?
Gertrude Mungai : To educate a woman, is to educate an entire nation. My sessions are very diversified. Advices and practices are part of the program. I teach the art of love making by showing how to practice “vaginal gym” or how to move the hips to facilitate penetration. With time, we succeed in having fun whilst trying different Kama Sutra positions.

Afrik.com : And for men?
Gertrude Mungai : I explain to men the feminine genital anatomy and how to stimulate the erogenous zones. I insist on the importance of preliminary sex to help women reach orgasm. I try to explain that a satisfied woman is more affectionate. The results are positive because some women say they have had multiple orgasms.

Afrik.com : You also run a shop. What do you sell?
Gertrude Mungai: Undergarments, massage oil, sex toys and condoms. My DVD, “Modern sexy woman” is the latest novelty.

Afrik.com : Are you engaged in the fight against AIDS?
Gertrude Mungai : In Kenya, especially between married couples, we don’t speak openly about sexuality. Now, this lack of communication is the main cause of infidelity and distribution of HIV. People should use condoms every time. This use does not necessarily mean boring sex!

Afrik.com : Doesn’t this profession go against the taboos of the country?
Gertrude Mungai : It was a real challenge. My friends and my husband encouraged me to make this profession in spite of certain reprobatory glances. I think that old cultures and taboos tend to give up, the African society being in the crossroad between traditions and the realities of the 21st century. More and more women earn more than men and get married mainly for love more than for financial safety. My teaching is possible thanks to all these evolutions. More than 5000 women have come to see me. My DVD was even approved by the government.

Afrik.com : For you, who are the best lovers in the world?
Gertrude Mungai : The Ugandans. They taught me many things.

-Afrik.com

Mukuru Kwa Njenga- Thousands of girls from this slum as well as millions of others from poor families across Africa have been forced to stay out of class every month because they cannot afford to cope with menstrual cycles. They have no access to sanitary towels which are inaccessible and unaffordable. But majority will be able to continue with their  classes without obstacles due to introduction of re-usable sanitary towels here in Kenya.

The program dubbed Huru which means free in swahili is an initiative from corporate America and Elton John’s Foundation and aims at giving millions of under priviledged girls a ray of hope to continue with their education without any hindrances. Each girl receives a kit consisting of eight re-usable towels, five pairs of underwear, soap, a plastic bag and a carrier bag.

But how hygienic are these re-usable sanitary towels?

Wanjiru Kefa is the administrative manager fom American Share one of the corporate partners in this initiative.

“The material we use for the pad is 100% cotton. We train the girls to wash the pads, make sure they understand that it is important for the pad to dry completely before they re-use it,”  Wanjiru said. “To facilitate that, we give them eight pads per kit so that they have enough to change and they will also have enough time to dry the ones they had used the day before, before they need to re-use it again,” she added.

According to the United Nations Chiildren’s Fund (UNICEF), one in ten school going girls across the continent skip school during menstration losing close to four days every month. In extreme cases the stigma attached to the menstrual process coupled with lack of clean sanitation facilities at school has brought the premature end to to some girls shooling.

They say neccessity is the mother of invention and the lack of sanitary towels in most cases has forced the girls to use creative and sometimes unhygenic alternatives.

“We were using magazines and some clothes when we were not having sanitary towels,” said one of the girls.

 “Did it make you miss some classes?,” asks the interviewer.

“Yeah, because you find that we are shy because blood might come out during classes and so may we sit home during times of periods,” the girl adds.

“ I was using a cloth or nothing and just stayed like that. We were not able to attend classes as we feared standing up when a teacher asks a question,” says another.

The re-usable towels will be provided at no cost to the girls. They will be accessible to millions of girls assures Wanjiru Kefa.

“We will give them for free to the girls so the girls will actually not have to pay anything. We are still working on the process with the Kenya Bureau of Standards and as soon as we are through with them, we will be able to put it in the market and make sure it is accessible to as many people who might want to buy as possible,” Wanjiru said

Days free from embarrassment of having to hide oneself during the menstrual will now be a thing of the past something the girls across Kenya will be happy to sing about.

Material derived from an audio from the BBC world service put together by Angela Ngendo.

Audio: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/2010/02/100212_kenya_towels.shtml?bw=nb&mp=rm&news=1&ms3=4&ms_javascript=true&bbcws=2

Paris Essoumba, a high school senior found dead in Maryland

A Kenyan, Paris Essoumba, a senior at Blair High School in Silver Spring Maryland was found dead at his home on 1^ST February 2010.He was 17 years old and was expected to graduate in June this year. Paris was the son of Dorcas Munyelele Essoumba from Kenya and Parfait Essoumba from Cameroon . He was an honor student, a passionate musician, football player and an accomplished martial arts student .

This is the second young man to die in Maryland in a period of two weeks after the death of King Mungai whose body was repatriated to Kenya on Wednesday February 3^rd. Due to the wave of deaths of young Kenyans in America, pastors have come together and have already called for a prayer and fasting on 7^th February when all Kenyans are asked to participate wherever they are or go to a Kenyan church and pray for a healing of our people and our land.

Family and friends are meeting at Dorcas’ house daily at 55 Kinsman View Cr, Silver Spring MD 20901.

Weather permitting; there will be a fund raiser on Sunday 2/7/2010 from 12:00 noon at the same address.

Service will be Monday, February 8, 2010

Viewing: 10 AM – 12 Noon

Service: 12 Noon – 1:30 PM

Repast there after also at:
Unity of Washington DC Church

1225 R Street NW

Washington, DC 20009

For more details, please contact:

Mukami Mugo- (301) 758-4336

mukami@mris.com

Dorcas Essoumba-301 754 0616

 Diasporamessenger.com

It reads like a movie script.

If it is to be believed, it is the sad tale of one of Kenya’s aspiring internet hackers who spent last week dodging the police.

He was on the run following harrowing digital surveillance.

It landed in my inbox last week, forwarded by a source in the security industry, with the addendum “this actually happened”.

Efforts to reach the police to verify what happened proved fruitless by the time we went to press, but the story is too good to let go.

Hoping to test his newly learned hacking skills picked up from the internet, a Kenyan gentleman (name withheld at his request) created a website that looked like the genuine Facebook site but which was actually put in place to capture unsuspecting visitors information, such as passwords.

Using his rudimentary knowledge of hacking internet sites, he then posted the stolen passwords on Facebook, for fun.

But then the tables turned.

After receiving several phone calls from mysterious international numbers, the hacker found that his own Facebook account had been infiltrated, apparently by one of his online contacts.

What he didn’t know was that the contact had been recently arrested for his involvement in a more serious crime – helping the Chinese government hack into Google’s China website.

The young man then became a fugitive in his own country.

Nearly always one step ahead of the local police, he ran to relatives houses in Nairobi suburbs, Mombasa and finally Nanyuki after learning the police were hot on his trail, had already raided his home and taken his laptop for evidence.

Unfortunately, he was nabbed in a bus on his way to the Nanyuki safe haven, apparently after the cops trailed his movements using signals from his mobile phone.

The fugitive then underwent extensive questioning at the police headquarters that traced his life history, relationships and even uncovered his less than desirable exploits on the internet – which he thought he had deleted.

The reason for the dramatic hunt was the alleged involvement of one of his contacts in the controversy that has surrounded internet giant Google’s involvement in China.

Early in January, Google said it had endured a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on its corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of its intellectual property.

International hunt

The attack was aimed at Chinese human-rights activists using Gmail, with an estimated 30 international corporations also victims of the cyber attack.

It sparked off an international hunt for the perpetrators.

True or not, the Kenyan incident reveals just how small the global village has become and highlights how easy it now is for the authorities to apprehend suspects using technology.

Although the victim revealed to Business Daily that the incident actually did take place, it does however, contradict the apparent picture on the ground, where the police still utilise near primitive means to capture suspects, namely the traditional physical interrogation and monitoring.

The good news is – and maybe this incident is proof – it may be an early indication that the police force is attempting to change its archaic ways. We can only hope.

Source-Business Daily Africa

By Helen Nyambura-Mwaura

NAIROBI, Feb 1 (Reuters) – A 325-km (202-mile) fuel pipeline from Kenya’s capital that will initially nearly double supplies to the western town of Eldoret will start in 2011, the head of the country’s pipeline agency said on Monday.

China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Corp has been awarded a contract for phase one worth 13.4 billion Kenyan shillings of the estimated 14.2-billion-shilling ($187 million) cost of a larger project, said Selest Kilinda, managing director of the Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC).

The pipeline will run parallel to the existing Western Kenya Pipeline, which has a flow rate of 220 cubic metres per hour. That is not enough to meet demand in Kenya or in neighbouring countries, Kilinda said.

“The Western Kenya Pipeline system capacity enhancement will be … operational from 2011 to 2021 with a flow rate of about 394 cubic metres per hour,” Kilinda told Reuters.

“KPC will fund the project to the tune of 8 billion shillings from internally-generated resources while banks will loan the company 8.2 billion shillings.”

Work in the initial phase, scheduled to be completed in 2011, includes construction of the 14-inch channel, three booster pumps, four mainline pumps and product transfer facilities.

CFC Stanbic Bank (CFC.NR: Quote, Profile, Research) is the lead banker, Kilinda said, in conjunction with Commercial Bank of Africa and Citibank.

Subsequent phases will increase the flow rate to 534 cubic metres per hour by 2022 and to 709 cubic metres per hour by 2025, Kilinda said.

KPC doubled the pumping capacity of its refined products pipeline running between a refinery in the port city of Mombasa to the capital Nairobi to 880 cubic metres per hour last year.

KPC’s network runs from Mombasa to the town of Nakuru in the west, then branches to Eldoret and Kisumu. Kenya hopes to extend the pipeline past Eldoret and possibly into Uganda.

The plans have not progressed much since Uganda said it wanted to construct its own refinery to process that country’s newly-discovered oilfields.

A refinery at Kenya’s coast serves most of east Africa. KPC’s constrained capacity means a lot of the refined oil has to be trucked to neighbouring countries, increasing the degradation of Kenya’s already dilapidated roads.

KPC is one of several Kenyan companies that the government wants to privatise. It made 8.3 billion shillings in revenues in the year ending June 2008, from 8.8 billion a year earlier. ($1=76.05 Kenya shilling) (Editing by Daniel Wallis and Ed Lane)

Source: Reuters

Arrival terminal at Jomo Kenyatta Airport

Kenya Airport Security officer yesterday arrested  a woman with of consignment of heroin worth KSh80 million although the figure was likely to go up once all the consignment was analysed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) shortly after it arrived from Tehran, Iran. The suspect, Scola Namunyu Mwangi, 40, a businesswoman, had arrived at the airport to collect the consignment that originated from Tehran last Friday and  she was impounded at the cargo section by Anti-narcotic police.

Ms Namunyu showed up at the Airport to collect the consignment and that is when she was arrested while another woman identified as Mama Lela, whom police argued was the owner of the intercepted haul escaped the dragnet Police said they were also questioning a clearing agent who was scheduled to clear the consignment. The drugs in powder form had been tactfully sewed on 45 leather jackets as inner coats, in what police described as “the latest technology by drug traffickers to conceal drugs. According to police, the woman’s passport showed she had lately travelled extensively to a host of European and West African countries. The consignment of  narcotics is believed,  was to pass through Kenya to other parts of Europe.

-Newstime Africa

By Rod Huntress

Actress Lupita Nyong'o in a scene from the Kenyan TV drama ‘Shuga’.Courtesy MTV Stay Alive

NEW YORK, USA, 27 January 2010 – Partnerships play a vital role in UNICEF’s efforts to halt and reverse the HIV/AIDS pandemic. When it comes to delivering messages about HIV prevention, the organization’s work with media and entertainment partners such as MTV provides a valuable – and credible – connection to young audiences.

 Yesterday at its New York headquarters, UNICEF highlighted a recent collaboration with MTV with a screening of ‘Shuga’, a three-part TV drama about a group of young friends living in Nairobi, Kenya. As they explore the complexities of love, the characters confront the risk of HIV infection – and learn that a positive test result for the virus is not a death sentence.

MTV produced the programme in collaboration with UNICEF and other partners, including the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.

‘Meaningful engagement’

UNICEF collaborated with MTV to create ‘Shuga’, a TV drama set in Nairobi, Kenya. It includes messages about HIV prevention for young people.

“It’s fast, it’s furious, it’s cool – and that’s exactly how we filmed it,” said actress Lupita Nyong’o, who plays a lead role in ‘Shuga’ as Ayira, a college student who finds herself torn between a boyfriend her own age and an older man. Ms. Nyong’o attended the screening and a panel discussion that followed, along with representatives of key partners in the project.

The series shows how some kinds of behaviour – including sexual involvement with multiple partners, sexual exploitation and alcohol abuse – can make young people more vulnerable to HIV.

During the panel discussion, PEPFAR Senior HIV/AIDS Prevention Advisor Tijuana A. James-Traore noted the programme’s power to speak effectively to young viewers.

“This is really what we mean when we talk about the meaningful engagement of young people in issues that impact their own lives,” she said. “No other person or persons, I think, could have communicated the messages in the way these young people have done.”

A regional priority

Messages about HIV and AIDS prevention are especially crucial in eastern and southern Africa, the heart of the global epidemic. Sixty per cent of HIV infections among young people last year occurred in this region alone.

“Young women in Eastern and Southern Africa are particularly severely affected by HIV,” said the Senior Specialist in HIV Prevention with UNICEF’s Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS campaign, Susan Kasedde.

“In some countries, as many as three young women to each young man are infected,” she added.

Starting a dialogue

Lupita Nyong'o, a star of the Kenyan TV drama ‘Shuga’, attended a screening of the programme at UNICEF headquarters and took part in a panel discussion that followed.

While popular dramas like ‘Shuga’ will not end the epidemic on their own, they can lead to dialogue about the risks of HIV infection. They can also help to combat the stigma that people living with the virus sometimes face.

“We’re not the silver bullet,” said MTV International’s Vice President for Social Responsibility, John Jackson. “We’re not going to solve this problem. But we’re a critical player in getting a certain section of our community to think, to have a conversation they might not have otherwise.”

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is assessing the effectiveness of ‘Shuga’ in changing behaviour within its target audience. For some members of the cast, that change has already begun.

“Especially where we were doing the scenes where we were doing the HIV testing,” said Lupita Nyong’o, “there was a hush on the set. It was a heavy time for us, and a lot of the actors said, ‘This is real. Yeah, this is real – and I need to make a change in my life.”

 Source: Unicef.org