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: 7% [?]

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…

Popularity: 7% [?]