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Is There A Food Crisis In The Making?

Hunger will be defined differently, we will no longer see the dying malnourished sad faces of starving kids, but one of food in stores with people with no money to purchase the food, riots as people force the government to bring prices down, long queues for food, insecurity and worse still total anarchy as the countries spiral out of control Admittedly I have being engrossed elsewhere, the recent cabinet fiasco, the Elitist Obama and the Safaricom IPO, that something else is happening, Kenya is tip toeing at the brink of a food disaster. Prices of food have steadily been rising across the globe, with the price of Thai rice, used as a benchmark for the price of rice having shot up to around 75 percent, and with the same token the price of wheat has climbed by 120 percent over the past year, more than doubling the price of bread in most countries. In Kenya the price of the same commodities has gone up about 20 to 30 percent, but has been masked by the current political instability, We sh...
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Someone! Please!

We all saw this "I saw with my own two skeptical eyes last Thursday the enormous patience and trust that the people of Kenya were willing to invest in the democratic process? I was there myself, going from polling station to polling station, to record this moment, this ridiculously awesome expression of the popular will. I saw them: the grandmothers and the dreadlocked young men, the mothers with children strapped to their backs, the guy in the wheelchair, the wide-eyes schoolkids watching their elder brothers and sisters exercise their constitutional rights. I saw them, and rejoiced..." we did, did we not, just to get this "the sheer bare-faced effrontery of fraud meant to thwart the popular will and carried out in naked defiance of international observers and Kenyan media" we were all sitting infront of the TV, with our mouths wide open, tears streaming down our eyes as " Kikuyus think we are about, saying complacently that “we” won the election when even Eur...
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Faith-Based Politics

Have you off late wondered what happened to the church being the moral pillar of the community. Have you wondered about the current transformation to it being a stepping stone for political office? Are you disgusted? If you are, I am to, it is painful to realize that I missed this opportunity by refusing to take a more conspicuous role in my local church…. If I only knew it would lead to the CEO salary that Members of parliament get. then I would have taken a different approach. Each one of us professes some kind of religious affiliation, and for the atheists, well, it is a free world. The reason I bring this up, is I have waited to see if someone more eloquent than myself will point out the attempts of the church and or its disciples hijacking the political process in Kenya . The politicians are at least at some level are elected and represent the interest of the constituents unlike the religious leaders who are appointed in various ways and definitely not through the democratic rep...
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Open Letter

This is an open letter to YOU Mr/Mrs Politician aka MP’s As a Kenyan I’m tired of being against that, I’m tired of being told that this guy is not good because of what he did back when. I want to be told what you stand for, why I should queue in the line on a hot sunny December day to put a check by your name, so that you can get diplomatic immunity and a free ride on my taxes. Tell me that you will look out for the things that I want. Please don’t give me the old song and dance about building roads, schools and dispensaries, tell me why Kenyans have to pay to enter Tanzania and we have an East African Community tell me why the person in the Northeastern province has to live in fear of raiders from our neighbors to the north, hell tell me how you are going to make Nairobi safe for me. Tell me what your government is going to do to stem corruption. I don’t want you to tell me you will eradicate poverty, tell me how you will do it. Aids is killing everyone, tell me what your government w...
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Uchumi: The misuse of taxes

The supermarket chain founded in 1975 has been a household name to many Kenyans for over 25 years. The chain has been one of if not the only retail store that most of our age mates or older will relate to. Uchumi has been around with the like of Woolworth and Sunbeam, and tuskermatt and now nakumatt being it’s biggest competition. The national icon has withstood the tides, and posted profits every year for the last 14 years; it has maintained a significant growth in turnover over the same period; had no long-term liabilities and has had none for the last 10 years. In fact, Uchumi is so liquid that it has been investing its excess funds in treasury bills. What begged answer was why the supermarket chain was not investing these "excess funds" in its core business while Nakumatt was aggressively breaking into new markets. If someone had seen the necessity of investing in the company's core business, Uchumi's leadership position in the East African market would be unrival...
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Constituency Development Fund (CDF)

I happened to come across this article from Kenya Law Reports and had to rant about it. The Constituency Development Fund (CDF) has raised many questions in the recent press in regards to the benefits that local communities will get from the fund. There are many supports of the fund many who are beneficiaries of the CDF. The thing that stands out about the fund is the numerous irregularities that are associated with the whole projects. The fund was setup with the noble intention of decentralization development and putting it in the hands of the affected communities. I wish this were true about it, there are many things that have been outlined wrong about the whole fund, but the most glaring is the political implication of the fund. The fund will setup District Project Committees comprising of MP (politician) mayors and chairmen of local authorities (politician) DC (political appointees) chairpersons of the CDF (political appointees) did I hear this right, it is the fund that MP's...
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Kalonzo for President

Mr. Kalonzo Musyoka has already put out his request for the bid for the presidency, taking from the article got from Kenya Times . with the declaration for the presidency Kalonzo has just opened added another problem to the possible ODM supports. Kalonzo has kept his presidential aspirations close to his chest, but with his admission of his intentions than we can start to review him as a viable person for the Presidency of Kenya. The general concession on the ground is that he is a good guy, but he has an impediment to his election, ie Raila Odinga. Kalonzo would have to show that he has support from the Kin maker himself to be ale to carry support across the country. This is going to be a problem for kalonzo, Raila is hell bound on becoming president this time around, so no endorsing anyone. Hypothetically if Kalonzo wins the LDP elections that are currently being done, we will see a major fall out from the OEM support base, as Raila and company will bail from the party. Mr Kalonzo w...
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