Sh40 million from the Exchequer...just like that!
Kenya is a rich country. In fact it is a very rich country. Otherwise, how do you explain that within a week, the government got Sh40 million to transport an ostracised Muslim cleric, Al Faisal, to Jamaica...because the "Big Brother" said so?
Immigration Minister Otieno Kajwang' had said it would be expensive, but the riots that rocked the city made the Sh40 million look like pocket change. That the government mishandled the whole saga is not in contention. The publicity that accompanied it is also amazing.
One thing I can't rule out, is a remark by John Allan Namu, the award-winning CNN journalist from Kenya, when he said that perhaps the Kenyan media had swallowed anti-Muslim rhetoric propagated by the Western media.
I have listened to Al Faisal's preachings and I find him blatantly liberal and even militantly forthright in what he believes in. He might have said what has been attributed to him, but then again, doesn't everyone have a right to free speech? Sometimes, the tongue is mightier that the pen and the sword. Now see, the messenger is being persecuted, but what a message this Al Faisal preaches.
Do I support what the cleric preached....you bet I liked the lecture on "Blind Following", I really did.
But then, we are one rich country...Sh40 million just like that?
PS: Yesterday I had lunch with the American ambassador to Kenya, Mr Michael Ranneberger. I like the way this fellow plays his politics. I really do. And when he looks at Kenyans and investors (even those in the tourism sector) and tells them point blank that "travel advisories are here to stay" I get the feeling that he means it....Did I hear him say Kenya lives in a very bad neighbourhood. Hahaha...I guess we have to live with that because we can't move this country.
Immigration Minister Otieno Kajwang' had said it would be expensive, but the riots that rocked the city made the Sh40 million look like pocket change. That the government mishandled the whole saga is not in contention. The publicity that accompanied it is also amazing.
One thing I can't rule out, is a remark by John Allan Namu, the award-winning CNN journalist from Kenya, when he said that perhaps the Kenyan media had swallowed anti-Muslim rhetoric propagated by the Western media.
I have listened to Al Faisal's preachings and I find him blatantly liberal and even militantly forthright in what he believes in. He might have said what has been attributed to him, but then again, doesn't everyone have a right to free speech? Sometimes, the tongue is mightier that the pen and the sword. Now see, the messenger is being persecuted, but what a message this Al Faisal preaches.
Do I support what the cleric preached....you bet I liked the lecture on "Blind Following", I really did.
But then, we are one rich country...Sh40 million just like that?
PS: Yesterday I had lunch with the American ambassador to Kenya, Mr Michael Ranneberger. I like the way this fellow plays his politics. I really do. And when he looks at Kenyans and investors (even those in the tourism sector) and tells them point blank that "travel advisories are here to stay" I get the feeling that he means it....Did I hear him say Kenya lives in a very bad neighbourhood. Hahaha...I guess we have to live with that because we can't move this country.
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