Dispatch from Mombasa

  The world was silent when we died- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in Half of a Yellow Sun The attack on fisheries minister Amasson Kingi rally is an indication that something is seriously, seriously wrong here at the coast. The fact that a group of people can invade a meeting and order people attending a government minister’s function to leave  and even hack his bodyguard indicates that there is more trouble at the coast than we think. Yes, the police can easily blame the minister for having not informed them about the meeting but me thinks we are in a democracy where free speech and association should be part and parcel of our lives. Again Kingi and former industrial judge Stewart Madzayo had nothing to fear as they were on homeground. My worry is that the people who were attacked are not in the local lingo “Kenyans” as one would want to put it, but Coastal leaders who have an interest of the coastal resident at heart. I am worried because there is something ...

Burning tyres smoke along the King'orani road as riot police engaged Muslim youths in running battles after an Islamic cleric was shot dead by unknown people at Bamburi along the Mombasa-Malindi road. Photo by Gideon Maundu. Source www.nation.co.ke The death of controversial cleric Sheikh Aboud Rogo Mohamed under an assassin’s hail of bullet was enough to turn Mombasa into hell’s kitchen. Sheikh Rogo a controversial figure in life was followed by controversy in death and hours after his death his followers made sure that Mombasa burnt, death rent the air and property worth millions was destroyed. When the guns fell silent four people among them three police officers lay dead with another bigger number injured. It is still not clear whether the chaos that rocked the town and mainly targeted churches in Mvita and Kisauni had an unidentified hand as was claimed by the Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Further, no one can tell whether the chaos were spontaneous and meant to show di...

Garissa killings show need to expose extremist religious beliefs. by  Rev Fr Wilybard Lagho How long shall Kenyan religious leaders call attacks of places of worship the work of criminals and merely apportion blame to security laxity? Is this not a simplistic response to a complex problem whereby religious leaders too have directly or indirectly failed to prevent such horrendous incidents of violence?  This is the question I ask myself as I read the various statements made by political, Christian and Muslim leaders following the slaughter that left seventeen Christian worshippers dead and another forty-seven seriously injured. As religious leaders we must consider a new way of dealing with religious extremists and discover another approach to enhance peace in Kenya There are two reasons why religious leaders in Kenya are reluctant to address the religious mind set of armed gangs who kill people they demonize as unbelievers. The first is the leaders’ fear of ...

Since the country experienced the first grenade attack during campaigns for the new constitution in 2010, there has been a consistent rise in the number of attacks and the loss of life and property. Such attacks have been witnessed in Nairobi, Garissa, Wajir, Mandera, Eastleigh and now Mombasa and about 30 people may have lost their lives while many others have been maimed for life due to the attacks. Of all the places that have been attacked Nairobi seems to have a fare share of the unprecedented and cowardly aggression with such places as the Kampala coach bus station, Eastleigh and the Machakos country bus station having been attacked. On its part, the Government has blamed every explosion on Somali’s Al-Shabab Islamic militia group. For that, it has promised not to “leave any stone unturned” in the investigations to unearth the perpetrators of the heinous acts. It says that the attacks are carried out because the Kenya Defence Forces are in Somalia pursuing the Al-Shabab ...

The world has been shocked by an online video that shows the brutal treatment of an Ethiopian housemaid Ms Alem Dechasa, 33 by people who are said to be her employers. Ms Dechasa is said to have later committed suicide in a Lebanese hospital probably to escape from the jaws of her tormentors or because of stress. The story that was exclusively aired by the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation last month and is now posted on social network site You tube shows the late Dechasa being manhandled by two men as they try to subdue her and put her into a vehicle. The story of Ms Dechasa brings us close to what we have heard and seen about the treatment of women working in Middle East countries and if it is anything to go by, then the experience is not only brutal but a gross violation of human rights. You might wonder what the story has to do with Kenya. In the recent past there have been claims by many Kenyan women who worked in Arabic countries as domestic servants about the mistreatm...

The road to political Siberia for Mvita MP Najib Mohamed Balala began when he dared criticize the political high priest of the Orange Democratic Party Prime Minister Raila Amolo Odinga by claiming that the party lacked internal democracy and stifled dissenting voices. On top of that Balala went to bed with the sworn political enemies of the Prime Minister and especially the group allied to William Ruto and Uhuru Kenyatta. For him it was not a matter of if but when he would find himself out. This would be confirmed by a show he did with K-24 dubbed “Face the Nation” in which it came out clear that the relationship between him and the Orange was damaged beyond repair. The forces allied to Baba worked round the clock to ensure that he was severely punished for daring the gods of the most popular party in Kenya. So as Balala retreats to his cocoon to count his loses one by one, and to also strategize how he is going to rise from the ashes there are those who are busy toasting their...

I am writing this like a man who grew up in an era when men were men. It was a time where if a man took out a woman for dinner he would foot all the bills regardless of whether they had enough money all not and still leave with their ego intact. It was a time where taking out a woman was the pride of the man and he would look forward to it. It called for psychological and financial preparedness. Again not just any woman would be taken out for dinner, only special ones would. Enter the era of poking, connecting, sharing, and everything becomes virtual including relationships between men and women. It is also at this time when a principle called equal equal emerges. If you didn’t know, equal equal is a new found practice (I am not sure whether it was invented in Nairobi) where men and women split bills equally depending on who is in the party. The woman is not the man’s burden and neither is the man the woman’s burden. I had read about equal equal in Wanjohi daily (by the way ...

I am writing this from my hotel room in Kisumu. Well there is nothing to write home about the Hotel which though a masterpiece of its time, it is now run down and a litany of complaints is what I have heard from my colleagues and those who have been here before us. In fact one of the thoughts that hit me was that it must have a connection to Government and which was confirmed by one of the employee who told me that it’s a ministry of tourism run establishment. What hit me was that the government has been spending millions to promote tourism abroad for the benefit of the private sector but its very own establishments are run down. What a contradiction. However what concerns me is not the discomfort of my room and that I have had to shift rooms because an attendant broke a key to the lock while I was out, but what is happening in Kisumu. In 2008, Kisumu was at the centre of the post election violence. We saw images of wanton looting and burning and to an outsider this was the ...

Today is not what you would particularly call a good day. It began with me visiting a client whom I had to deliver a project to only to be told that the client was in Nairobi. What made it worse was that I had spent the whole of yesterday frantically trying to reach the said client but she declined to pick my calls. At one time she told me she was going to call but never did it. So when I woke up early to deliver a job that I have been working for a whole week, I was told that she had travelled, I felt wasted. So as I am nursing the wounds of rejection and being ignored, there is this other client who is supposed to MPESA me pap. I even talk to the guy and he tells me that he is in the middle of something and that I should just chill. Just let him finish what he is up to and he will sort me out. My eyes therefore become permanently glued to the phone and just waiting for that crucial MPESA message alert. As I am licking my lips and thinking how I am going to at least and for...

Chikoo Guantai, though shabbily dressed moved on the silver screen with the grace of a cat. I noticed that her hair was not completely kempt and in my mind I was telling myself that during my heydays I would not have wanted to date her.  I was still doing an analysis of her looks in my mind when I was woken up from my reverie when she announced my name.  “Today’s winner in our continuing Tazama Chapaa 8028 is ….” You win yourself Kshs 500,000 I was not sure that I had heard her clearly and wanted to confirm that it was me. “She just mentioned your name…” my wife told with a girlish look in her eyes. “Okay, Okay, let’s wait and confirm that it’s me, there could be other me’s out there. The winning telephone number is 0 7 2 xxxx Yes that’s mine, “xx,” “ Ngai namba iyo nita yakwa ”, “x” By now my heart was pumping in my ears. I could hear the drums rolling in my stomach and every muscle was tense and twitching as I waited for the final confirmation. “”...