Dispatch from Mombasa

"….. 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...

A mud walled tin-roof thatched house in Githumu, Gicici area. Efforts need to be made to improve the lives of people  living in such houses.  There is an untold story in central province. The story is lost largely due to statistical figures that claim that living standards are very high.  What with the coffee, tea and food sufficiency stories that say relax, Central Kenya is better than the rest of country. There can be nothing further from the truth than this. I have just returned from a journey I dubbed “Tracing the roots of my fathers” in which I went to Githumu market in Kandara Division of Muranga County. I witnessed firsthand how the first quartile of the population in the area is reeling under the immense weight of poverty. For them, only God knows what next and this will not be said because it is not part of the statistical mean. Like any other poor place in Kenya, a good number of the residents live in mud walled tin-roof covered houses that I am reli...

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...