Kenyan Pundit

- Gossip of the day: Minister of Agriculture, Kipruto Kirwa, is supposedly building a “ridiculous” house in Karen i.e. ridiculous even by NARC new money standards. Will work on trying to obtain photographic evidence.

- The referendum campaigns keep heating up with reports of violence when the “Yes” campaigners landed in Garissa today…they were forced to cancel their rally. My take on this whole “Yes” “No” thing…in true Kenyan politics fashion, the two sides will reconcile at the last minute and announce a “town XYX consensus.” Why is that? Because the financial (read personal) stakes are getting too high. Business people, who have been the biggest beneficiaries of the NARC government besides the politicians (supposedly all companies listed on the stock exchange have been profitable in the last financial year, even the Unga Company MD was shocked), have begun making noises about the uncertainty the review is causing. Many of the leaders of the yes and no camps are in big business…very often together (e.g. Uhuru and the ‘baks are supposedly shareholders of the Woolsworths/Deacons franchise and everyone is doing business with Merali) and if temperatures keep rising it will be bad for business. The referendum is two months away…that’s a looong time as far as Kenyan politics is concerned… a lot can still happen.

- Some things change, some things remain the same.

- It is supposedly costing the government Kshs 200 million a month to keep Telkom Kenya afloat.

- On a lighter note. New Jack Swing night at Carnivore is the place to be for those of us stuck in a 1988-1995 musical time warp. Pinye and Adrian were spinning last night, and they KILLED it. I was literally on my feet all night and went prepared with comfortable (but still cute) shoes.

Interesting Slate article on the miraa industry in Kenya. Here’s an excerpt:

Miraa is certainly a striking example of business ingenuity rising to meet formidable challenges. The chemicals that give chewers their high start breaking down as soon as the twigs are picked, so time is of the essence. Somehow, an industry with no coordinating body, whose players are mainly small farmers or modest middlemen, manages to get tens of thousands of neatly packed kibundas (bundles) of fresh miraa loaded onto the “miraa jets”—the Toyota pickups that line Maua’s main drag; down the long, potholed road to Nairobi’s Wilson Airport; crammed aboard the notoriously overloaded flights; and onto the coffee tables of expectant chewers in foreign capitals in under two days. “This is a business which has always operated informally, in which accounts are kept on the back of cigarette packets, yet it’s the most efficient agricultural industry on the planet,” says Paul Goldsmith, a Meru-based development expert. “The commodity has a 48-hour shelf life, but it goes all over the world.”

Quote of the day: Nairobi resident being interviewed while waiting in line to receive a copy of the draft constitution, “I’ll be happy to have a copy of the draft constitution so that I can read it for myself since I don’t trust the politicians…they are only after their own interests.”

- I think their should be a media blackout on all referendum campaigns from now on because they are totally nonsensical and are serving no purpose other than to heighten political tensions. Example of the kind of useless stuff that’s going on, here’s Mwiraria’s two cent’s, “Tusemee nini? Ndizi.” Uumm..alrighty then.

- There’s going to be a public forum tomorrow - Draft Constitution Bill, 2005: Gains and Losses (focus on the following chapters: Devolution, Media, Land, Women’s Interests, and the Structure of the Executive) - at Nairobi Safari Club from 9:00-4:00. The lineup of speakers is pretty good and I’m going to try and live blog (sort of) the whole thing.

- Kind of neat seeing companies advertising their VoIP services in the newspaper given that VoIP was illegal a little more than a year ago.

- Inmates at Lang’ata Women’s Prison receive drama therapy.

- Anyone remember Barbara Kimenyi’s Moses series? It came up during a dinner conversation I was having last night…talk about blast from the past, I loved her books.

In a rush…

- Ati there used to be a local wine called MEDUSA, which apparently stood for Mengi Duniani Sahau (complete with a picture of Medusa on the bottle)…I thought that was hilarious. Does anyone remember this?

- Quote of the day. Murungaru to Musyoka on his “No”/Orange stance, “You don’t even have to be sacked, you’ll find yourself in an impossible situation….” Murungaru should know one or two things about impossible situations, right?

- Speaking of Murungaru word on the grapevine, repeat grapevine, is that the UK ban had nothing to do with Anglo-leasing (or Landrovers) but was all about the Ksh 6bn cocaine haul. SUPPOSEDLY some…ahem…interested and powerful parties, who are not very popular in the UK and countries like ehh Italy, have been trying to make the story (and the cocaine) disappear and a certain person was their hatchet man. He went to the UK (of all places) to finalize the deal and was promptly caught on camera by the British secret service.