Articles Tagged Sunday Nation

And so we have a war. If you listen to George W. Bush, this is a noble war indeed. It is about freeing Iraqis from the shackles of a cruel dictator. It is about creating a model for democracy in the Middle East. It is about eliminating terrorism from its roots. Don’t listen to this […]

The emperor Nero, it is said, played the fiddle while Rome burned. In Kenya today, our new leaders are showing a frightening propensity for doing the very same thing. The Narc government swept into power on a wave of huge public sentiment. The people had had enough of entrenched poverty, enough of poor services, enough […]

I want to tell you about a country I know. This country has a population of 20 million people. Its citizens include doctors, scientists, technologists, industrialists, shopkeepers, salespeople, artisans and housewives. The average income of this group is approximately 8,000 US dollars per annum- more than 20 times that of the average Kenyan. This country […]

For years, Kenya’s corporate sector was in denial. Everything was the government’s fault: rotting infrastructure; imprudent monetary policies; corruption and malfeasance in public institutions. And, of course, that old favourite: the lack of a ‘level playing-field’. Meaning that while ‘we’ did things by the book, our competitors dodged taxes, maintained illicit relationships with power brokers, […]

A new song is on every politician’s lips these days: good governance. Every minister, every permanent secretary, every technocrat, in the new government can be heard singing it for the cameras. The president even made it the cornerstone of his address at the state opening of parliament, and announced the creation of a special department […]

The drums of war started beating around Iraq early last year. Today, a full orchestra is in place, led by its conductor-in-chief, George W. Bush. As the music of imminent destruction rises to a crescendo, we must ask ourselves here in Kenya: what is this war about? Does it have a rationale that we can […]

Kenya’s new government is off to a flying start. There’s no shortage of activity as ministers roll up their sleeves and try to outdo one another in their quest to impress Kenyans. Civil servants and technocrats are having to work all hours to build the iceberg of details that must be constructed beneath the tip […]