Dispatch from Mombasa

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 epit...

Could EPZ factories in Kenya and particularly Mombasa be running gulags or sweatshops? Could employees in these organizations be subjected to more than other employees normally go through? Why are the organizations so guarded about their operations? As a Corporate Communication Proffessional I can smell a skunk in these organizations. The first communication reference point for any organization is at the gate. At the EPZ, the gateman is not just a guard but a menacing bulldog- meant to scare away would be job seekers and other miscreants. He will not just scare you away; he will also ensure that you don’t go past the gate. He gives you a snap shot of the organization’s communication culture and by extension how the organization treats its employees and as far as I am concerned all is not well. EPZ seem to have the same problem, wherever they are located. Last month a building housing garment factories in Dhaka Bangladesh collapsed and press reports indicate that more than 1000...

I had to impress. It was the only way that I could prove I was capable of loving. After all I had been accused of being a dull lover; too conservatively stuck to tradition and incapable of expressing emotional attachment to the one I claimed to love most. I had spent sleepless nights planning for the day. My only intention was to make it a surprise to her. I had already in my wardrobe full red-hot-love attire, a red shirt, a red tie, red suit, handkerchief, socks and shoes. I had even gone to the extent of ordering for fresh carnations which would cap the day. My baby had to love me and for her I would do everything. In any case as my people say kwa mwendwa gutiri karima. So I set off for the office in high spirits. My heart beat and footsteps rhymed. I carried along a smile that refused to die, whistling a love song after another and planning for that evening. What will go wrong definitely will and the first indicator of wrong turns for the day was a missed step at door to t...

  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 ...