Kenyan Pundit

For those you are interested in following the discussion, the event will be webcast here.

Still not ‘getting’ London…I keep feeling like I’m getting jacked every time I open my wallet. How do you UK-based folks survive in this place? So far the only redeeming things about the city are good sandwiches/sandwich shops, English breakfast, it’s a pastry and sweet tooth heaven, and the opportunity to see some fine-looking-well-put-together-brothas (I’m with Prodigal Daughter on this one, there is hardly any eye candy of the male variety in Nairobi).

WTF Moment: There are no street lights in my estate in Nairobi and the City Council wants to refurbish the Nyayo Monument? Seems like there’s lots of folks smoking crack in Nairobi nowadays…

WTF Moment 2: Cabinet disaster/circus. First thing I thought when I saw the picture of Kirwa being sworn in…he must have been thinking, ‘Man! Gotta finish that Kshs 47 million Karen house in a jiffy (why hasn’t any journalist done a story on this house and Raila’s for that matter). Other clowns…ever reliable Kiunjuri…for a minute I was like dang! even Kiunjuri has declined a position. Mwenje is back on the fence as usual…might not want to be on the wrong side of his constituents again.

BTW, the biggest losers in this whole scenario are women…more on that later. Edit: See this Nation editorial on the absence of women in the new cabinet.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Actually this is a little belated. I’ve been been at this for a little over two years (some of my my earliest posts). Still can’t believe I’m going.

I’ll take this moment to send out a special request to my readers and Kenyan bloggers who are based in Nairobi . Are you interested in helping make our politicians more accountable on a volunteer basis? Have a little time on your hands to sift through copies of the Hansard? Got programming/web design skills? Drop me an email.

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First I want to know why getting a UK visa is such an ordeal. This place is grey, miserable, and freaking EXPENSIVE. I’m almost scared I’ll be charged to breathe. For real. I think every tourist visiting Kenya should be made to go through the ordeal that Kenyans go through.

Then Kibaki has managed to surpass his usual lack of imagination. Full-fledged rant later.

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I’m off to London tonight to attend the Global Voices 2005 Summit. Hard to believe that it’s already been a year since Global Voices was conceived, and I look forward to catching up with everyone and meeting all the people I’ve only known electronically. I’m also looking forward to talking about how the Kenyan blogosphere has blossomed in the past year….y’all make me proud.

Of course the new cabinet will probably be announced as I’m on my way to the airport so my punditing on that will be late. At this point I’m not expecting anything that will dramatically change the political situation in Kenya. It’s actually sad that things have been operating pretty smoothly without a Cabinet…a testament to how ineffective and lazy our politicians are…except when it comes to campaigning and traveling overseas. It would be interesting to see how much money has been saved since everyone was sacked. I just hope Kibaki was smart enough to at least trim down the size of the Cabinet It’s pretty obvious that we will be politiking all the way to 2007.

AOB: Check out Uncle Bob Mugabe’s homepage. Hilarious…

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A Der Spiegel interview with Kenyan economist James Shikwati was probably one of the most linked to articles during the Live 8 debate (excerpt below). Now it looks like he’s putting his money where his mouth is…so to speak. Kudos to him and everyone else who is working on alternative solutions to Africa’s problems.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Shikwati, the G8 summit at Gleneagles is about to beef up the development aid for Africa…

Shikwati: … for God’s sake, please just stop.

SPIEGEL: Stop? The industrialized nations of the West want to eliminate hunger and poverty.

Shikwati: Such intentions have been damaging our continent for the past 40 years. If the industrial nations really want to help the Africans, they should finally terminate this awful aid. The countries that have collected the most development aid are also the ones that are in the worst shape. Despite the billions that have poured in to Africa, the continent remains poor.

SPIEGEL: Do you have an explanation for this paradox?

Shikwati: Huge bureaucracies are financed (with the aid money), corruption and complacency are promoted, Africans are taught to be beggars and not to be independent. In addition, development aid weakens the local markets everywhere and dampens the spirit of entrepreneurship that we so desperately need. As absurd as it may sound: Development aid is one of the reasons for Africa’s problems. If the West were to cancel these payments, normal Africans wouldn’t even notice. Only the functionaries would be hard hit. Which is why they maintain that the world would stop turning without this development aid.

Addendum: Some interesting post-Live 8 commentary.

Popularity: 11% [?]