Articles Tagged Life & Society

May 25, 2008
Eating into the time of others is an offence

Does this happen to you often? You show up for a meeting, five minutes ahead of time. Fifteen minutes after the agreed time, some of the other participants start to filter in. It takes another fifteen minutes before you have a quorum. Hardly anyone is apologetic. Some invitees never show up at all, and never […]

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May 04, 2008
This prisons debacle was entirely predictable

Our management deficit was in sharp focus again this week. Armed officers of the republic went on strike, and in the process threatened to endanger the fabric of the nation. The fact that they were prison officers, rather than policemen or soldiers, may have led many of us to trivialise the matter. That would be […]

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Apr 27, 2008
Apply the law fairly and equally

In the interests of openness and transparency, I would like to admit to my readers that I am now a convicted felon. I’m not kidding. I was recently up before a magistrate at the High Court on a charge of dangerous driving. I pleaded guilty and was fined the sum of Sh. 11,000, with the […]

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Apr 20, 2008
Time to stop singing ‘Malaika’

I have a lifelong love affair with Kenya’s coastline. Our great ocean exerts an irresistible romantic pull on me. No matter how many other great seas I visit, I invariably return to the warmest embrace of them all: the Indian Ocean. Much of the money I make in this life is spent sitting at the […]

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Mar 22, 2008
The Edge – A New Order for Kenya

The Edge (Issue 2) is out – and it focuses on the re-invention of Kenya. I am the Consultant Editor, and in conjunction with Business Daily and Strathmore Business School, collected a wide range of contributions from thinkers in Kenya and beyond. Writers have offered their (often radical) prescriptions for land reform, slum rehabilitation, political […]

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Mar 16, 2008
Why we must build a united Kenya

Suddenly, the country was split asunder. Led by self-seeking politicians, the people of the land suddenly began viewing their neighbours with suspicion and mistrust. They had spent centuries together, and shared languages, songs, cuisines and even blood. But now, because a few people had said so, it was no longer possible to live together in […]

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Mar 09, 2008
A time for hope – and vigilance

How things can change in a week. This week, it was a pleasure to watch the news on TV and read the papers. For there was scarcely an item of bad news coming out of Kenya – after two full months of doom scenarios. Kofi Annan’s expertly mediated accord has allowed this nation to emerge […]

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Feb 17, 2008
Our flawed sense of identity caused this crisis

I listened to Amartya Sen lecturing many years ago, and knew I was in the presence of great wisdom. A decade later, he won the Nobel Prize for Economics. This Indian-born professor has also been the first non-white Master of Trinity College, Cambridge – a position that is regarded as the apogee of British academia. […]

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Feb 15, 2008
The roots of our anger lie within us, not outside.

“Anger is rooted in our lack of understanding of ourselves and of the causes, deep-seated as well as immediate, that brought about this unpleasant state of affairs. Anger is also rooted in desire, pride, agitation, and suspicion. The primary roots of our anger are in ourselves. Our environment and other people are only secondary. It […]

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Feb 10, 2008
Kenya’s biggest problem: its young men

In all the scenes of mayhem, chaos and looting we have observed over the past few weeks, one fact is inescapable. In virtually every case, the trouble-makers are young males. Older men, and women in general, have little interest in burning, harming, killing or general disorder. That is an affliction peculiar to the young male. […]

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Feb 08, 2008
Singing an anthem does not a nation make

“Our (society) is thrown open to the world, and we never expel a foreigner or prevent him from seeing or learning anything…we rely not upon management or trickery, but upon our own hearts and hands. We are called a democracy; for the administration is in the hands of the many and not the few. No […]

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Feb 03, 2008
Which hate-filled Kenya is this?

It is nearly five years since I started to write this column. And today, for the first time, I have nothing I want to write. Today, for the first time, I am staring at the blank white screen before me without anticipation, without ideas, without purpose. Indeed, an honest act would be to submit a […]

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Feb 01, 2008
It’s decision time. Let’s play big

“…one quality that leaders I admire have in common is knowing when to act decisively…Effective leadership inevitably means taking decisions – and often pretty tough ones at that. Good leaders have to have the drive and ambition to lead from the front. They don’t accept the necessity of always doing things the same way simply […]

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The Harpreet and Clement Affair: Some open letters

Dear Harpreet and Clement Ah, young love! The thrill, the joy, the agony. It was written in the stars, it was sung on the wind, it was meant to be. When romance is in the ascendant, nothing else seems to matter. Congratulations, youngsters. We can only wish you well. May your love blossom, mature and […]

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Jan 27, 2008
Foreign media a convenient bugbear?

Our post-elections crisis has been characterised by many types of intolerance, many of which have resulted in mayhem. But one particular type of strange provincialism is happening all the time, and passing without comment: our peculiar loathing of the international media. Many respected Kenyans have hurled vitriol at the foreign press and electronic media in […]

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Jan 20, 2008
Why aren’t Kenyans killing each other in Diaspora?

A question: why are all those Kenyans in Diaspora not chasing each other with pangas? I’m being entirely serious. There are hundreds of thousands of Kenyans out there, in dozens of countries. They come from all tribes and all social classes. Some are very well educated, but many are not. They are not necessarily in […]

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Jan 13, 2008
We will have to re-imagine Kenya

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; Where there is sadness, joy. Saint Francis of Assisi’s famous prayer is widely quoted and cherished. Its sentiment is […]

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Jan 02, 2008
Time to return to fundamental human values

Where did my country go? Just a few days ago I lived in a seemingly vibrant country that was going somewhere. A country that was attracting the attention and investment of the entire globe. A country that seemed set to resolve its differences through a properly conducted, peaceful ballot. Today I find myself in a […]

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Dec 30, 2007
Let us know ourselves in 2008

The elections are done. It is now time to stop asking what your leaders can do for you, and start asking what you can do for yourself. For that is how development and progress actually happen: by one’s own efforts. But there is a very important step we must take before we rush to action. […]

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Dec 23, 2007
Time to vote wisely

All the hullabaloo is nearly over. It’s time for the day of reckoning on 27th December, in the only place that matters: the voting booth. The right to vote is the fundamental tenet of democracy. None of us should take it lightly. It is one of the most important powers granted to you by your […]

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Dec 16, 2007
Needed: An election-proof country

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for the elections to be done with. Regardless of who wins what, this campaign has not done the country any favours. We have all conducted ourselves very badly. Campaigns seem to bring out the worst in us. Who gains from elections? Certainly, the people who peddle […]

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Dec 09, 2007
Crown Your Customer – Book Signing

I will be signing copies of Crown Your Customer at Books First, Nakumatt Ukay on Tuesday 11 December from 7.00 – 9.00 pm. Muthoni Garland will also be in attendance, signing Tracking The Scent Of My Mother.

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Time to say goodbye to the ‘Mkokoteni’ economy

When I was a student in London, there was a particular Kenyan T-shirt that I would wear with great pride. It depicted a cartoon of a man pulling a ‘mkokoteni’ cart. This T-shirt reminded me of my roots, and of the idiosyncrasies of the country from which I had emerged. I told my fellow students […]

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Nov 25, 2007
Time to get angry – about ourselves

I have been fortunate enough in my life to have visited many of the world’s great cities. When I was younger, that was great fun. These days, I just get angry when I travel. Why angry? I get angry when the plane approaches a new city at night, and I can see a dramatic display […]

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Nov 18, 2007
Crown Your Customer – post your favourites here

I am delighted to announce the launch of my new book: CROWN YOUR CUSTOMER. CYC is a short polemic about the state of customer service in Kenya – and what to do about it. Click here to read an excerpt. The book is available in Kenya from the end of October, and is published by […]

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Let’s put nobility back into festivals

One man and a small child dead; another child in the intensive care unit. That was the net effect of last week’s Diwali celebrations in Nairobi. Diwali is the Hindu festival of light, and is meant to signify humanity’s evolution from darkness to light, from the forests to civilisation. An apt metaphor for where we […]

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Nov 04, 2007
Don’t shout about poverty – do something about it

A few days ago we were being asked to stand up and shout. In Kenya, we are always shouting about something or other – so no news there. What was different, however, was that this was an organised campaign to get people to express their concerted outrage over a particular issue. That issue? Global poverty. […]

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Oct 24, 2007
The Edge – out on Friday 26 October

I am the Consultant Editor for THE EDGE – a new management knowledge series that will come as a free pullout in the Business Daily. Each issue of THE EDGE will feature a specific management topic, and will appear approximately quarterly. This launch issue is on LEADERSHIP, and features the work of thinkers from Kenya […]

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