Kenyan Pundit

- Does Safaricom Bambanet herald the dawn of affordable internet access in Kenya? Lets hope the connectivity speed matches up to the pricing. Users of the service, please let us know.

- No afro’s please, we’re a law firm. What the hell? I’m a bit sensitive to this issue being a black, afro-rocking, nose-ring wearing, woman who spent time working at a law firm that’s about as white shoe as it gets. I wasn’t rocking a ‘fro at the time, but a clean-shaven head (and hoops!)…which I guess also qualifies “political.” I did try and compensate for being “political” with Ann Taylor and Banana Republic..hehehe…my clad game was always on point. I remember wondering whether I needed to tone down my “political” look when I was interviewing with firms…I ended up deciding that any firm that had a problem with my look and that chose to focus on that rather than my abilities was not a place where I wanted to be anyway. A bit naive? Perhaps. But we all know that zungs get away with a lot stuff that’s a lot more unprofessional looking in my opinion (like khakis that look like, as my mum would say, they’ve just been spat out of a cow’s mouth). I had a point. I really did…

- Why the hell was Sisi Majitu so scary (there is a wikipedia entry on Majitu!)? I was thinking the other day, it was just a bunch of painted guys running around but it might have as well been Freddie Kruger as far as tois were concerned. Goes to show you what potential locally produced content has. The program came to mind when I was thinking about just how different Baby KP’s childhood will be from mine, with the Disney channel and the cartoon network and no neighbourhood kids and no bladah and no Kini Macho…it’s so ironic…I’ll be able to provide her with a lot of the material things I didn’t have growing up, but not the ability to leave the house and play outside with akina-nani…ati we’ll be of playdates and ish…very strange for the esto product that I am.

Side story: Sisi Majitu was filmed on one of my rela’s property in Maseno. He was an artist with a huge gallery on his property. Anyway, during one of our trips to my dad’s shags he took us over to visit. Me and my cousins were petrified all the way…it’s just that you didn’t negotiate with parents…we were convinced that majitus would attack us the minute we left the car We survived and lived to brag to our classmates when the hols were over.

Eh, this was supposed to be a quick hits post. I got a bit carried away.

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…gosh, the days are flying…can’t believe it’s been over a week since I posted. Not suffering from writer’s block, just trying to juggle motherhood, work (which is suddenly crazy busy and has to fit into a part-time schedule), and a long-overdue Mzalendo ramp up especially with elections around the corner.

Oy vey.

Speaking of writer’s block, you have to read this wonderful article about Ralph Ellison’s struggle to complete his second novel. Suddenly a few days lapse doesn’t seem so bad

Popularity: 6% [?]

- Competition is good :-), probably in response to Sambaza Now, Mama Mikes is running the following airtime campaign:

Airtime ordered before 5pm Kenyan time is topped up the same day
All phone numbers are verified before topped up (no making mistakes)
You can top up more than one phone in one order
Our service charge is now only $2.49

- LSK vows to find Media Law in court if the President assents. I’m curious as to how successful a challenge to the shortfall in quorum when the Bill was passed would be. And where were all those MPs who are now critiquing the Bill when the Bill was being passed? Kenyan politicians = useless.

- Ethan is incrementally building his ideas around incremental infrastructure. I’m wondering whether he’s too quick to extrapolate the mobile phone phenomenon to other areas - I’m especially thinking about big ticket items like roads and power generation/transmission that don’t have the same option of being subsidized by the consumer. Also the incremental and even moreso the “pico” approach does not address needs on a macro-level that most countries in Africa need to address, having power in the village is great but if factories / business can’t operate at an optimal level because of power shortages or costs there’s still a big conundrum that needs be address (and unfortunately the role of government can’t be wished away).

- Finally, this link
is worth a post on it’s on, but I’ve been sitting on it for a while with no post forthcoming so here it is. It has to be the ABSOLUTE worst piece of journalism on Africa by a Western writer that I’ve ever seen. I don’t know where to start as far as my issues with the piece. That this is considered journalism? That the Salon, no less, deemed it worthy of publication? That the author was a awarded a grant to prance around Africa and produce such rubbish? Me vex (can you tell?).

Popularity: 12% [?]

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Originally uploaded by ateka.

We can sit up on our own for a bit, ears got pierced with minimal fuss, still hate carrots, don’t care too much for any kind of cereal either but mama is insisting.

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The first series of talks from TED Global have been posted, so you can now all see what we were raving about. Two of my favorites are up - Ngozi Okojo-Iweala’s nuanced summary of the themes that permeated the conference (best line - infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure) and William Kakwamba’s earnest story of his journey to TED (best line - I try and I make!).

Popularity: 12% [?]