Dispatch from Mombasa

Deputy president William Ruto raided CORD co-principal vote turf and made fleeting donations that might make the principal curse in envy. The DP toured Akamba handicraft in changamwe, Kalonzo Musyoka's vote basket  where he assured the crafter's of government's support in improving their business. The crafter's had petitioned the government over tax returns, land rates, construction of a show room and sheds and salary arrears to employees. The DP said he had requested the taxman to recompute the tax arrears for the artisans. "However, we have paid the Kshs 300,000 land rates. I also pledge Kshs 5 million for salary arrears and today I present to you Kshs 2 million," he said amidst claps of joy. He observed that the NYS will he involved in the rehabilitation of the area at a cost of Kshs 10 million. "The NYS will in the next two weeks bring their architect to work with management on the designs. We will also fence the premises," he said. The mo...

Source: World Vision Zambia Many years ago when I used to work as a Government reporter, we used to accompany the long serving Cabinet Minister Katana Ngala and MP for Ganze for relief distribution efforts in the Constituency of the then Kilifi District. Hon. Katana was not particularly known to keep time. He was the kind of a guy who would slot a meeting for 2.00.p.m. but would not appear until the sun was setting in the west. What particularly touched were the very many helpless women and children who would wait for eons on end for the hallowed Minister. They would have to brave sweltering heat and dust as they waited for “ Mubomu ” (The Leader). Many women with strapped little frail children in their backs hid under scanty brush and would only come to life when the perennially late Minister would put two two-kilogram “ Gorogoros ” of maize into their baskets. It used to be heart wrenching moment witnessing frail old women and sometimes men open their bags expectantly for ...

"….. 90% of any decision is emotional. The rational part of us supplies the reasons  for supporting our predilections." - Justice William O. Douglas, Supreme Court Judge USA), * As the dust settles in the just concluded American elections, questions are likely to arise on what went wrong in Secretary Hilary Clinton’s campaign camp. Many people were of the opinion that Hilary Clinton was likely to win. Their observation was backed by opinion polls that gave her a between 4-8% lead over President-Elect Donald J. Trump. Secretary Clinton had a good message going. She spoke policy and the continuation of President Barrack Obama’s legacy which had seen the American economy register significant growth compared to when President George Bush left White House in 2008. What concerns me is the role played by strategic communication advisers for Donald J. Trump that left the Clinton camp stun and with egg on the face. Their role provides crucial lessons to any practising or a...

Moments after Washington outsider and business mogul Donald Trump was elected US President, Facebook was ablaze with a bitter war of words between ODM and Jubilee over who should learn from the win. The election of Trump stunned both supporters and opponents the world over with stock markets reacting angrily to the election of a man who is widely considered to be an outsider. In Kenya, ODM and Jubilee decided to trade accusations over who supported him in the elections. The first to fire a salvo was ODM’s Director of Communication Phillip Etale who in his Facebook page accused Government insiders saying they had a lot to learn from the win. Dennis  Itumbi The PSCU Director of Digital Communication was the first to respond saying that the winning lessons were mainly meant for former PM Raila Odinga. He gave a link in which the former PM and ODM flag bearer had supported Hilary Clinton and even attended the Democratic Party Congress in which she was d...

Former Devolution and Planning Cabinet Secretary Ms Ann Waiguru Source: www.politics.co.ke If the Government through its hallowed institutions like the EACC and Parliament’s PAC cannot nail Former CS Ann Waiguru for the theft of Kshs 791 million from the National Youth Service, they should let her go. Period. This is because the probe by PAC and other associated institutions has turned into a circus. In my opinion, the probe has not yielded much and instead of exposing the alleged scam, it has turned into a political witch hunt where the opposition takes advantage of the alleged graft in Government to advance its course.  On the other hand, Government MPs take sides and only offer placates when it comes to probing the scam because it doesn’t want to be seen as playing into the hands of the opposition. Ms Waiguru has been presented before the court of public opinion, tried, judged and found guilty. Her identity, image and reputation have been compromised and as things s...

Customers enjoy a meal at the Classiq Cafe in Elburgon. Food: Excellent Decor: Great Ambience: Good Service: Good Nothing is as good as having a tasty meal served with the best and courteous of services. While many hotels may have good food, the party is often spoilt by dirty and non-caring attendants or even dirty environments. No so for the Cafe Classiq in Elburgon Town, situated on the Molo Nakuru road and about 180 kilometres west of Kenya capital Nairobi. Amid the hustle and bustle of log carrying tractors and lorries criss-crossing the town and farmers going on with their activities, the hotel offers a fairly quiet ambience where one can eat and at the same time hold a coffee chat. The hotel represents the new Elburgon, a break from the past in which investment never seemed to be in a hurry for change. Perhaps meant to taunt the old town, the hotel sits directly opposite the low lying; dark asbestos roofed Model Butchery which for years on end was the face ...

In John Grisham's " The Testament ," there is a character in the legal drama novel named Snead who is identified as the driver and assistant to the main protagonist billionaire Troy Phelan. He is reported to have witnessed and knew everything about Phelan. He knew his philandering ways and even witnessed when he committed suicide. However, when Snead discovered that his master had died without leaving anything for having worked for him for many years and as he had on various dates promised, he decides to yarn an account that would suit him to inflict revenge and earn from lawyers who were seeking to challenge Troy’s holographic will. Snead's account reminds me of journalism and eyewitness accounts. More often than not, the media is not a first-hand witness to events and mainly rely on eyewitnesses to tell the story. It is assumed that the eyewitnesses will tell the story as they saw and the journalists can only use their skills to document and attribute the h...

Journalists in Nairobi Mombasa have within the last one month held demonstrations over what they claim to be the diminishing space of their operational environment. They have argued that they are undergoing threats, intimidation, and harassment, trolling and a tapping of their phones by people whom they claimed to be allied to Government. The journalists particularly in Mombasa documented cases in which their colleagues either died under mysterious circumstances or suffered in one way or another at the hand of powerful. They created hush tag #Journalistsundersiege to make a case for their grievances. Looking at it deeply, you realize that the journalists are more than justified to express their rage. They are justified to vent their frustrations, express their fears and even draw the eye of power towards the increasing number of cases of threats, harassment and intimidation some of which have been at the hands of security agents. They are justified to express their frustration...

Mr. Mwangi (in cap) joins former students for a photo when they paid him a visit in his home  Alumni of Michinda High School in Elburgon, Nakuru County collaborated online to raise funds for their ailing former principal Mr George Mwangi. The former students of the school on the hill many of whom are Y generationers created a Whatsapp group in which they reached out to each other to come to the aid of the long serving educator. “We formed the group because we realised that Mr. Mwangi who helped nurture many of us needed help and there was no easier way than to organise an online collaboration,” said founder Mr. George Kung’u. Working in conjunction with the family of Mr Mwangi, the group consisting mainly of the class of 1989 and 1990, created a Safaricom pay bill number 775871 in which students some of whom live in different parts of the world could contribute. According to a co-founder member of the group Mr Peter Kimanga, donations were received from as far as Can...

Gavana Mvurya aungana na kina mama kucheza ngoma ya kitamaduni katika mojawapo wa hafla katika kauti ya Kwale  Imetolewa: www.standardmedia.co.ke Gavana wa Kwale SalimMvury a ana sababu za kushangilia baada ya Kaunti ya Kwale kutajwa kama mojawapo wa kaunti ambazo zinatumia pesa za miradi ya maendeleo kwa njia sawasawa. Taarifa katika gazeti la Nation zinasema Kaunti ya Kwale ilitumia asilimia 57.3 ya matumizi yake ya maendeleo, hiki kikiwa ndicho kiwango cha juu zaidi cha matumizi katika mwaka wa serikali ulioisha Juni 30. Zamani, Mvurya alikuwa afisa wa maendeleo ya kijamii akifanya kazi na shirika la Plan International na huenda hapo ndipo alikereka na umaskini mkubwa ulioenea katika eneo la Kwale. Alipochaguliwa Mvurya aliyapatia kipaumbele maswala ya kuimarisha jamii kama vile kutengeneza   barabara, maji   na elimu na kutenga zaidi ya shilingi Milioni 400 kwa miradi hiyo.   Taarifa hizo bila shaka huenda zikaweka kicheko cha ushindi katika mid...

Businessman Sulaiman  Shahbal says he is in Mombasa to stay and those wishing that he will shift his political base to Lamu are day dreaming. Shahbal said although he has roots in Lamu, his political base is in Mombasa. Popularly known as SS among his supporters, Shahbal said that what his detractors were engaged in was wishful thinking that he would ease himself out of their way. The soft spoken politician enjoys significant following across voters of different persuasions and is seen as the main contender for the Mombasa gubernatorial position. He is currently behind a grassroots  movement calling itself "Change Movement" that has sent chills down the spine of his opponents both in Jubilee and Cord. A section of the opponents have suggested that Jubilee Alliance Party should conduct grassroots election to determine who should be it's flag bearer in Mombasa, a challenge that Shahbal welcomed with open hands. "Who expects to be given a position on a silver plat...

Claims by President Barack Obama half-brother Malik Obama that he will be voting Donald Trump in the upcoming American general elections has torn down the middle the President’s ancestral home in Kogello in western Kenya, with village leaders opposing the views. Responding to a report in the New York Post , the chairman of Kogello Nyang’oma village, in Siaya County, President Obama’s ancestral home, Mr. Vitalis Awandu Ondewe said that the village was solely behind Democrats presidential flagbearer Hillary Clinton and their son Barack Obama. “I was shocked to read the report. We are for the Democratic Party fulltime. We are supporting Hilary and she is going to win,” Mr Ondewe said in a telephone conversation with the writer. Ondewe said he was unconcerned about the support of Malik to Donald Trump because that was his opinion as an individual and did not have the backing of the community. “Majority of this community or Luo community or many Kenyans we are for the Democratic p...

Source: Standard Media Eight members of parliament   had their day in court  where they were charged with incitement to violence. The eight had been languishing in police cells since Tuesday when the magistrate ordered that they be incarcerated pending completion of investigations into their case by the Director of Public Prosecutions. As I reflect about the plight of the six, a question that keeps coming to my mind is aren’t we all haters? Shouldn’t all of us have our day in court? Shouldn’t all of us be locked in the filthiest of police cells so as to reflect on the amount of hate that we spew whether online or socially? While the eight may have been open in their alleged divisive rhetoric, a good number of us are closet tribalists (I borrow the term from Miguna Miguna’s Peeling off the Mask). We hate, divide people send signals of hate, we polarise, we just do anything that would justify our hate of other people but hiding under the freedom of expression and othe...

I cannot fully recall how the debate started but all I can remember is that we were having a debate about the communicative power of silence. I found the debate intellectually stimulating and decided to on my own learn a few facts about silence and communication. Of course I had to try and see how it links to my two pet areas of preoccupation –politics and internal organisational communication. Meaningful silence as advanced by Johannsen (1974) and Jaworski (1993) is where thought processes are involved and the hearer of the message intentionally withholds a response to the speaker. The speaker is left to use his/her own means to find out the response which more often is gotten from the nonverbal cues. Now, the 2017 general elections are just around the corner. Aspirants and incumbents in equal measure are running like headless chicken in early campaigns earnestly  trying to convince voters that they are the best choices. For incumbents, anything that seems to oppose or spea...

The location is the Chief’s office Likoni. The time is 11.00a.m. The sweltering Mombasa heat makes you feel like you want to go topless. *wink. Being a Monday, a crowd has already built at the office waiting to be served by the Chief. And he does not disappoint. His office keeps spitting out client after client. However, the number of service seekers doesn’t seem to dwindle and are increasing by the minute. When it is my turn to be served, I cheerfully greet the chief who responds with an air of indifference. He already looks tired. He momentarily puts his hands behind his head and yawns. Behind him is an open window from where not less than three metres away is a roadside hotel. Whenever the lazy wind changes it direction, smoke mixed with the smell of chapatti wafts into the Chief’s office distracting his attention. His office, a residential house turned office must be the most uninspiring place to work in. The last time it saw a coat of paint must have been when it was occupi...