Alphonce SHIUNDU

One of Kenya’s foremost public intellectuals, Dr David Ndii had a very interesting interview with KTN News’ Sophia Wanuna. I enjoyed it! Immensely. In it, he had surprises and thought-provoking views, about the country’s politics and policies. Let me put some of the quotes to whet your appetite to view the whole interview . Yes, if you like cats, there are two beautiful cats playing in the background. You’d love those. One surprise: Anne Waiguru, the former devolution secretary and now Kirinyaga Governor was Ndii’s “research assistant: when they produced a report on harambees for Transparency International in 2001. Githongo was TI’s boss. “Anne Waiguru was my research assistant at the time,” he told Sophia. I looked it up. Let me leave this excerpt here: About Mutahi Ngunyi, well, well, well…. “I don’t think people like Mutahi Ngunyi are intellectually qualified to label me. “Most of the things I say and do are written. I have been part of the political oppo...

Wow! That’s all I can say. So, in summary, Mwende Gatabaki, is an accomplished IT professional . She had a great job in Tunisia. She worked at the Africa Development Bank. One day in 2014, her boss at the AfDB walked in and told her that President Uhuru Kenyatta wanted her to return to Kenya and do some work on digital transformation. “I actually have a letter with my name on it signed by the President” she says. She left a great job. To come back build her country. The President explained, he wanted her to create a ‘single source of truth’. She requested him to table the issue at Cabinet for ‘buy in’. The idea was to have an identity infrastructure. Think of it this way, she says, when you are born and they process your birth certificate, by the time you get to 18, the government should call you and tell you, ‘come for your ID’, so you show up, surrender your biometrics, and the ID is processed. What she had in mind, was an integrated solution to show data about ...

My mind is at it again. It is “seeing things”. First a disclaimer: What you’re about to read is just one of those flights that my head takes to paranoia. Three weeks ago, someone earned the tag “bloody bure kabisa” (very useless) for exposing a contradiction in the President’s message as to the date of Kenya’s next elections. You see, the President said the courts had instructed the country that the elections will be held in March 2013, I know that’s not what the courts said. But that’s not what I want to say today. Days later, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission announced that the election date is March 4, 2013. . I see a connection, but I have no evidence or as we say, I don’t want to impute improper motive on such a young commission or the Head of State. See what I mean? Then, there’s the Gema meeting , just days ago, which, though planned weeks early, was full of its own intrigues. I didn’t attend the meeting, but the footage that I have seen shows that t...

I woke up to this video and it just hit a chord with me. I looked at the guy, Aalam Wassef, and he speaks like many Kenyans I know. For the first time in their lives, Kenyans queued for fuel. They raved and ranted, called the minister names, blamed the cartels on radio and TV, wrote commentaries , the crisis even made national headlines. Then they forgot about it, and now, life goes on. But trust Kenya’s government. It knows how Kenyans behave. They talk a lot and do nothing. So, after the rant, Kenyans decided they’ll queue; those who could make money out of the crisis, made their millions and life goes on. A look at North Rift, the country’s bread basket is a little of the same. I said here, someone was perhaps laying ground for the importation of maize later this year or early next year, following the shoddy delivery of seed and fertilizer to farmers. Kenyans have ranted about this; the government listened, tried to mollify them, I think, they forgot, life goes on. Then, t...