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– Great piece about Kenyan blogger (and Mara park ranger) Joseph Kimojino. Got me wondering if local experienced bloggers could other organizations develop their online presence (I know Daudi’s doing a great job with Kwani and Generation Kenya). – Always uber-helpful Life hacker roundup. – 6 most frequently quoted BS stats. – Hash covers techpreneurs in Africa. – To everyone who took the time to navigate the registration requirement and vote for us at NetSquared, thank you, thank you, thank you again. We made it to the finals and the winners will be announced next week…keep your fingers crossed! We have been busy working on growing Ushahidi (details to come soon) and I’m so excited about the possibilities…nothing more inspiring than demonstrating what talent we have in Africa. One last thing, we have some uber-cool Ushahidi t-shirts on sale, if you want to show support in other ways. Thanks for the emails, sms’s, comments etc. Me and the fam are safe and sound. Most of the targets of the attacks have been those who were already vulnerable and living in the townships/poorer parts of town. That’s no comfort to us though, because the violence seems to be spiraling out of control with no end in sight. In the news this afternoon there was a report of a businessman who was killed because he hired foreigners and parts of down Joburg are a no-go. In addition, many of us, including yours truly, have hired “foreigners” in our homes/businesses etc. and are worried about their fate and the fate of their families. There have been all sorts of attempts to analyze what has led to the current outbreak of violence and link it to various things like the high cost of living, crime levels, lack of service delivery by the government, and a third force. Politicians are especially jumping on the “criminals taking advantage” line. I beg to differ…while poverty, etc. may be contributing factors…what is going on is out and out xenophobia (and at the risk of generalization)….they is no way around it. The interviews I have seen on TV with mobs laughing as their victims are dying, and openly saying that foreigners will be killed if they don’t leave have no other explanation. A call-in radio show by a reputable host that I was listening to yesterday had quite a number of callers agreeing with the rampaging mobs…these foreigners need to go. A few days ago, when the violence started in Alexandria, the Democratic Alliance (an opposition party) saw it best to respond by carrying out an investigation into how many government houses have been allocated to foreigners in Alexandria. They came up with a grand total of three. This was breaking news on the radio. Never mind that the allocations were to foreigners who were permanent residents in South Africa and entitled to housing benefits. These kinds of reactions by politicians, he media, and a general lets pin the problem on everyone else especially Mugabe/Mbeki are making things worse. This is not something that has just suddenly erupted, xenophobia in South Africa has long been documented (since immigrants started arriving post-1994)….and in my experience it is very difficult to find any African immigrant in my circle who feels integrated or genuinely welcome here….most people carve out their only little niches and circles and focus on what brought them here, because it is really difficult to become “local”…even with effort. At the moment, there is no sense of when and how this will end…just a desperate hope that it will be soon. EDIT: For a more comprehensive view of the situation, read this post. CP meeting notes – Mwangi Kihara, the Chairman of the Mathare United Landlord organization (MALUO) reported that negotiation between Landlords and illegal occupants of houses in Mathare ongoing. So far at least 111 illegal tenants have agreed to leave the houses. KVP (Kenya Veterans for Peace) has been facilitating this process. – It was reported that some illegal occupants were being supported by the area Chief. – Residents in Mathare still fear that they are being marked. – Gangs involved in harassing residents mostly come from Baba Dogo area and are largely responsible for the massive destruction of infrastructure. Names are known to police and DC, but nothing being done to stop them – It was reported that an initiative by UNDP – Use a thief to catch a thief – an initiative where known thugs were trained in peace building had contributed to the return of relative calm in Kibera. It was suggested that the same initiative should be transferred to Mathare. Gitathuro near Muthaiga Police Station – Pastor Chege is currently hosting 157 orphans at his Zion Children’s home. The Children are aged between 2 – 13 years. All the children’s records were destroyed in the post election violence. – He also reported that all the Church property had been stolen but some of it had been recovered from neighbours who ‘lent†it back to them. Pastor Chege appealed for assistance but was also grateful to members of CCP who had visited his community. Other concerns raised – Writers also requested to profile the Kenya Veterans for Peace ( KVP) efforts in the negotiation process. They have been instrumental in preserving calm in areas that are currently tinderboxes. Contacts Kenya Veterans for Peace (KVP) Mathare Landlords Organisation ( MALUO) Interesting analysis of how the (in)famous Sessional Paper no 10 authored by edit Tom Mboya (mea culpa for previously attributing to Kibaki and thanks to those who corrected, great background on Mboya can be found here) is relevant to the current situation in Kenya. EDIT: (Woz, here’s a better link, Cheers). Full text of the paper can be found here. Obama Snr.’s critique can be found here. So me and the fam were out of town for the holiday weekend…while driving to one of the tourist sites we visited, we came across groups of people parked on the side of the road waiting for cars participating in the Sasol Rally (never heard of it before) to drive by. It reminded me of the good old days of the Safari Rally (aka Safo), and I felt bad that Gabriella will grow up without some of the simple thrills that were a regular feature of my childhood. I was a Shekhar Mehta fan (who wasn’t?) and Toyota Celica gal…ignore the conflict. Remember all those Finnish names? And I yes I was nerdy enough to track the drivers and stages with that ka-insert that was in the paper. Unfortunately, I lacked the skills to craft my own mng’are. We always walked to Mombasa road to watch the cars come in from their final stage. You had to get their early to get a decent viewing spot. I remember the road would be packed with kids, families, and further away from the city people even picnicking by the side of the road. It was exciting stuff. One year the company my dad used to work was one of the sponsors of the rally and I got to go to KICC for the kick-off…bragging rights in the esto’ ensued…hehehe. In the spirit of 8-4-4 memories, please share your Safo memories. Deadline for entry is May 8. Details are here. – Interesting perspective on Kisumu youth who took part in the riots (if you ignore the author’s tendency for the overdramatic). I really wish more of our Kenyan writers / journalists would make an effort to talk to and write about the often faceless and nameless “violent youth with nothing to lose”. – And another example of underreported stories, two young Kenyan brothers helping kids who have been affected by the post election crisis. – How Kenyan journalists were affected by the post-election violence. – File-share among different social networking sites made easy with Oosah. – Busting up toys for Darfur, WTF? And I thought the “I am an African” campaign was bad. |
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