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It took a long time to build what South Asians have in Kenya today. Dana April Seidelberg called us ‘mercantile adventurers’: for more than 2,000 years we have been arriving on African shores as traders, investors and artisans, part of the age-old Indian Ocean trading triangle with its corners in India, Arabia and East Africa. […]

As the government passes its half-way mark in office, we can all be sure of one thing: we’re in for two-and-a-half years of high-decibel campaigning and low-principle scheming. Money will undoubtedly start to flow now: roads, clinics and schools will begin to emerge as judgement day starts to loom on the horizon. Equally, the number […]

My young son arrived on the planet last year and brought with him a message of profound importance. As I have spent the past few months playing with him and observing him, I have become aware of an unnerving fact: he watches me very, very carefully; and then behaves as I do. He sees what […]

The Sunday Nation dispatched a senior editor to the offices of the Government Spin Doctor: Dr. Abunwasi bin Uwongo, the Secretary for Policy Interpretation of Government Actions (PIGA). Dr. Uwongo, a graduate of the London School of Truth Economics, granted a rare exclusive interview to the Sunday Nation. A wide range of topics was covered, […]

Have you heard about Mr. and Mrs. Arrowsmith of Hereford in the United Kingdom? They have been married for 80 years. Yes, eighty. Percy Arrowsmith, 105, and Florence Arrowsmith, 100, married on 1st June 1925 at their local church in western England. The Guinness Book of Records has reportedly confirmed that the couple holds the […]

The news that East African Breweries Limited became East Africa’s first billion-dollar company is indeed noteworthy. It is a milestone that reflects the company’s relentless march to levels of market capitalisation, turnover and profit not seen before in this part of the world. EABL is a path-breaker: it is a great engine in the economy, […]

Do you ever wake up in the morning and think you’ve arrived in a world gone completely mad? A place where the ridiculous is very real, and the idiotic is the norm? What is a “sane” person to make of some of the developments taking place in our modern world? China recently held the first […]

Chief Executive Officers of Kenya should read John Donne: “No business is an island entire of itself; every organisation is a piece of the economy, a part of the main; if a consumer be washed away by the sea of poverty, Kenya is the less, as well as if a company were, as well as […]

Chief Executive Officers of Kenya: please pay attention. Your country needs your services. We are going to hell in a mkokoteni cart, and all men and women of vision, authority and management expertise need to step in to avert disaster. Assume, for a moment, that Kenya Ltd is your company, and you have just taken […]

Oh, colonisation! We’re still paying a heavy price, after all these years. We seem unable to move on, leave our history behind us and just get on with things. New books like ‘Britain’s Gulag’ and ‘Histories of the Hanged’ have disturbed our old wounds, have rekindled the demands for reparations for ancient atrocities. But that […]

Is our Jua Kali (informal) sector a good thing? Opinion differs. The government clearly takes some pride in telling us that most of the 500,000 jobs “created” every year are in the informal sector. Like it or not, Jua Kali is a fact of life in modern Kenya. It is everywhere: on the streets of […]

Insecurity will be our undoing. If there is a single thing that stands in the way of economic growth and development, it is the fact that violent crime is out of control. If a populace does not feel safe then there is no future. It’s really as simple as that. It doesn’t really matter what […]

April 1st is the day that newspapers traditionally try to make fools of us. All sorts of spoof stories are planted in the paper to mislead, beguile and amuse us. This year was no different. I opened the Daily Nation with a keen eye to try to isolate the satires and the parodies from the […]

We are again engaged in endless debates in bustling bar rooms and virtual chat rooms about who our next leader should be. What qualities should he or she have? How do we ensure that we avoid the failures of the past (and present)? Which party really stands for the people? Here’s a thought: forget the […]

We are a strange species, we human beings. We alone have been granted higher consciousness; yet we use this to treat the planet as our exclusive domain. All other creatures and life forms must be regarded as ‘resources’: to be exploited and controlled for our economic gain and personal comforts. Or, to put it politely, […]

“If you want to go east”, a famous Indian sage used to say, “you mustn’t go west.” Underlying this deceptively simple aphorism is the realisation that we often profess to have certain goals, yet all our actions work in entirely the opposite direction. In a week when an international UN study has ranked us 11th […]

Are we a very poor country or a very rich one? I only ask because I find it very confusing most of the time. Read the statistics books and you will be left in no doubt: a country with one of the lowest per capita incomes in the world cannot be described as anything other […]

Once upon a time, we looked at the people around us and respected many things in them. We saw certain virtues and placed a high value on them. We had quite simple people as our role models, and we tried hard to emulate them and live up to the ideals we saw embodied in them. […]

Watching Kenyan television news is a depressing pastime these days. After a few days’ continuous intake, thoughts of hibernation, or worse, migration, tend to grip the sensitive soul. Why is the country in such a pathetic state? Who is at fault? Why do we all seem to hate each other? Why are we all shouting? […]

Awaaz has done a great deal to set the record straight about South Asians in Kenya. For too long, we were the ‘in-betweens’, the ‘unmentionables’ who were expected to know their ‘place’ (the duka). Eloquently, methodically, Awaaz has been filling in the missing gaps in Kenya’s modern history. Its achievement cannot be overrated, and it […]

You don’t need to be a biologist to know that biodiversity is a good thing. A multiplicity of species of plants and animals on our planet increases everyone’s chances of survival. Genetic variety matters a great deal: it ensures that there are always organisms on the planet that can cope with seismic or climatic upheavals. […]

Oh, we’re in big trouble again. Accusations are flying, the mob is baying, the suspects are denying. Investors are nervous, donors are suspicious, civil society is riotous. The Executive sleeps, the economy creeps, and the poor Kenyan weeps. Another fine mess we’ve got ourselves into. What is it with us? Here we are again at […]

Do you dream of being a leader in Kenya? Do you want to be a cabinet minister, and see that flamboyant flag fluttering on your bonnet? Perhaps a permanent secretary, in total control of thousands of minions? Do you want to see Kenyans gape at you in open-mouthed awe as you pass by? Do you […]

We are all getting very excited again. Kanu’s elections, political realignments in Narc, shifting alliances, third forces…Kenya is abuzz again, just like in 2002. The air is filled with new possibilities. Can Uhuru Kenyatta now revamp and revitalise Kanu again? Can there be an emphatic change of guard, and will the youngsters finally make their […]

Conflict. Of. Interest. Three simple words in the English language which, when put together in Kenya, create a concept that appears to be a mystery to most. Judging by recent pronouncements by high-ranking people who really ought to know better, there is a need to go back to first principles where conflict of interest is […]

Last week, we looked at the quantity aspect of education in Kenya – how many get through the system. This week, let’s talk quality – let’s take a trip inside the classrooms to find out what those little boys and girls are being taught. We all know that most of our children are being educated […]

After 30 years of neglect, 6,000 rats were reportedly killed at Wakulima Market recently, with another 6,000 allowed to escape. After 30 years of neglect, our education system now annually allows 350,000 children to proceed to secondary education. Another 350,000 are told “Sorry, house full”. Why am I comparing our children to rats? Because as […]

On Boxing Day 2004, the word “tsunami” was imprinted on our collective consciousness forever. The sea, exploited and polluted by mankind for aeons, bit back. On that day, we finally understood the cruelty that nature is capable of. The giant waves came crashing in all over the Indian Ocean, destroying everything in their path. The […]