Kitale skies

Flames burning, 

Firery sky

In there hope lacking,

Sunset lyre

Changing light,gives hope benign

My night and day, where is the lie......

HeICh

Live the life you love, Love the life you live,

“There will come a time when all of us are dead. All of us. There will come a time when there are no human beings remaining to remember that anyone ever existed or that our species ever did anything. There will be no one left to remember Aristotle or Cleopatra, let alone you. Everything that we did and built and wrote and thought and discovered will be forgotten and all of this will have been for naught. Maybe that time is coming soon and maybe it is millions of years away, but even if we survive the collapse of our sun, we will not survive forever. There was time before organisms experienced consciousness, and there will be time after. And if the inevitability of human oblivion worries you, I encourage you to ignore it. God knows that’s what everyone else does.” ― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars 

Love and dust

Conscious flow, stand for true,they ask how I tell em for shoooo, maybe a pause, but never let go,karne nane bado nitasema the same ,nothing left no blame. the lips can't chase the words, so the same birds can't blame the wings for fly, life is but the roll of a dice,play what u got,battles fought battles lost, last ting me know is abundance, before that is love .......and dust

HEicH

A Life with Purpose _ In Memory of Dr Eunice Songa-Saraceno

I recently reposted a piece that moved me, entitled A Call To Action below is the story of the the incredible woman that wrote that powerful piece  Dr Eunice Songa-Saraceno, BA, MD

In Memoriam of Dr Eunice Songa-Saraceno, BA, MD and on why Kenya needs to change 

At approximately 4:30 pm of Friday the 27th of January 2017, my wife, my best friend, the love of my life, Dr Eunice Songa-Saraceno, died like a hero. Aged 34, she died young and beautiful, like the heroes of the ancient myths; willing to change her Country she died fighting inequality and injustice, like only true heroes do.

She knew and understood the challenges of her Country and fought for Kenya when, with a BSc in Psychology and Physiology at the University of Western Ontario, Canada and a Doctor in Medicine Degree Magna cum Laude at the University of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, she decided to come back to Kenya, to work in a Country where there is a patient / doctor ratio of 0.2 doctors for 1,000 people, that means one doctor every 5,000 people (any doctor, not a specialist!).  

I remember the day she came back home exhausted after she pumped oxygen into the small chests of children whose lungs got burnt by the flames of exploded paraffin lamps, the only source of lights in the many areas of Nairobi where electricity is a luxury

As Eunice said with some of her last words “We want leaders who put our interests and well-being first and their pockets second. We want leaders who take pride in their positions and use their power to inspire and create rather than trample on and destroy.”

Read More 

Mind Thoughts: Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.  

A Call To Action

I read this well thought out piece on the complacency of the Kenyan middle class and thought to share by  Eunice Songa

 

https://thenewmaumaurevolution.wordpress.com/2017/01/24/a-call-to-action-wake-up-middle-and-upper-class-kenyans/

Kenya is a beautiful place, isn’t it? Opportunities abound for those willing to work hard; the land where you can be born in a small village, work hard and enjoy your lifetime in lush suburbs of Nairobi.

But we get caught up in that rat race don’t we? The never ending pursuit to get a bigger, flatter TV, a smarter phone, a more expensive car and holidays to those exotic destinations we see on our friends’ timeline. While we make sure our children are in elite private school “A”, that our houses are on the right side of the CBD, while we are sipping our 500 shilling mojitos with colleagues at the hottest after work watering holes in the city, our beloved Kenya, our land of opportunity is crumbling right around us.

But hey we know these problems right? They are plastered across the dailies: “Doctors strike again!” “ 2.5 Bn shillings scandal in Ministry of “take your pick”” “KCSE exams leaked!” “Security at all time low in Kenya!”

What do you really feel when you read those headlines? I won’t lie, I am guilty of it as well. you skim the article to keep informed and have something to say during polite conversation and continue flipping through the newspaper. So when billions of shillings disappear, money that we break our backs to earn, why aren’t we up in arms about it? Why aren’t outraged, enraged by these scandals? Why isn’t there a fire burning inside of you when you realize the people you put in charge of the well being of your beloved Kenya do not measure up and are in fact draining us of the little we have.

We, the middle and upper class pay most of the tax but why don’t we demand quality service?

 

 READ MORE

 Mind Thoughts : 'The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity.'_  Andre Gide

She got me inna Grip

I miss u anytime ur away, such as the ground misses rain in january I dare say,
You got me heart gripped, ur sweet essence every time I wanna take a sip

The same thing that pulls the moth to the light, is the same same thing that pulls the heart so tight..... The love of love, the wings of doves, ...... The option to love......

But still we just two souls flirting in the gentle night, the mood jus right, wings that could take flight, a dreamy future so we hold on to the present for it is a gift.

So see Esh got me in a twist, her passionate roots me can't resist, her craving still persists, a longing so deep, anything I would do for just one sip, see Esh got me in a twist

Words ooze out, thoughts never shared, memories still hearts paired, in life's full glare we demand our piece, our moment, our place, for we belong, we matter, the moment we sieze, for when am with u am at peace

To think of another gives life meaning, to know that another matters, tells me am alive, to true that without her how did I survive, my heart stops,her touch revives, whatever life brings lord knows I will survive, see Esh got me in her grip , her essence I take a sip

HEicH

By a scribbled name

The hand that signed the treaty bred a fever,
And famine grew, and locusts came;
Great is the hand that holds dominion over
Man by a scribbled name.

The hand that signed the paper felled the city
Five sovereign fingers taxed the breath,
Doubled the globe of dead and halved a country;
These five kings did a king to death.

The mighty hand leads to a sloping shoulder,
The finger joints are cramped with chalk;
A goose's quill has put an end to murder
That put an end to talk.

The five kings count the dead but do not soften
The crusted wound nor pat the brow;
A hand rules pity as a hand rules heaven;
Hands have no tears to flow.

More

Pepe Blessings

May you always have walls for the winds,
a roof for the rain, tea beside the fire,
laughter to cheer you, those you love near you,
and all your heart might desire.

May St. Patrick guard you wherever you go,
and guide you in whatever you do--
and may his loving protection be a blessing to you always.

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields and,
Until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

May you have love that never ends,
lots of money, and lots of friends.
Health be yours, whatever you do,
and may God send many blessings to you!

May the sun shine, all day long,
everything go right, and nothing wrong.
May those you love bring love back to you,
and may all the wishes you wish come true!

May you have:
A world of wishes at your command.
God and his angels close to hand.
Friends and family their love impart,
and Irish blessings in your heart!

May you alway walk in sunshine.
May you never want for more.
May angels rest their wings right beside your door.

May God grant you many years to live,
For sure he must be knowing.
The earth has angels all too few.
And heaven is overflowing.

May you have the hindsight to know where you've been
the foresight to know where you're going
and the insight to know when you're going too far.

May God grant you always...
A sunbeam to warm you,
A moonbeam to charm you,
A sheltering angel, so nothing can harm you.

May you have warm words on a cold evening,
a full moon on a dark night,
and the road downhill all the way to your door.

May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light.
May good luck pursue you each morning and night.

For each petal on the shamrock.
This brings a wish your way
Good health, good luck, and happiness
For today and every day.

May the Irish hills caress you.
May her lakes and rivers bless you.
May the luck of the Irish enfold you.
May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you.

May peace and plenty be the first,
To lift the latch to your door.
And happiness be guided to your home,
By the candle of Christmas.

May the embers from the open hearth warm your hands,
May the sun's rays from the Irish sky warm your face,
May the children's bright smiles warm your heart,
May the everlasting love I give you warm your soul.

May you always have work for your hands to do.
May your pockets hold always a coin or two.
May the sun shine bright on your windowpane.
May the rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near you.
And may God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.

May your thoughts be as glad as the shamrocks,
May your heart be as light as a song,
May each day bring you bright, happy hours,
That stay with you all the year long.

Leprechauns, castles, good luck and laughter.
Lullabies, dreams and love ever after.
A thousand welcomes when anyone comes...
That's the Irish for You!

May the good saints protect you,
And bless you today.
And may troubles ignore you,
Each step of the way.

May joy and peace surround you,
Contentment latch your door,
And happiness be with you now,
And bless you evermore.

May the saint protect ye-
An' sorrow neglect ye, 
An' bad luck to the one
That doesn't respect ye
t' all that belong to ye, 
An long life t' yer honor-
That's the end of my song t' ye!

May good luck be your friend
IN whatever you do.
And may trouble be always
A stranger to you.

May your blessings outnumber
The Shamrocks that grow.
And may trouble avoid you
Wherever you go.

These things, I warmly wish for you-
Someone to love, some work to do,
A bit of o' sun, a bit o' cheer.
And a guardian angel always near.

Whenever there is happiness
Hope you'll be there too,
Wherever there are friendly smiles
Hope they'll smile on you,
Whenever there is sunshine,
Hope it shine especially for you to make each day
for you as bright as it can be.

May your troubles be less,
And your blessing be more.
And nothing but happiness,
Come through your door.

May brooks and trees and singing hills
Join in the chorus too,
And every gentle wind that blows
Send happiness to you.

Lucky stars above you,
Sunshine on your way,
Many friends to love you,
Joy in work and play-
Laughter to outweigh each care,
In your heart a song-
And gladness waiting everywhere
All your whole life long!

When the first light of sun-
Bless you.
When the long day is done-
Bless you.
In your smiles and your tears-
Bless you.
Through each day of your years-
Bless you.

May the raindrops fall lightly on your brow.
May the soft winds freshen your spirit.
May the sunshine brighten your heart
May the burdens of the day rest lightly upon you.
And may God enfold you in the mantle of His love.

He who loses money, loses much;
He who loses a friend, loses more;
He who loses faith, loses all.

Read more

The Catcher in Rye

“She was terrific to hold hands with. Most girls if you hold hands
with them, their goddam hand dies on you, or else they think they have
to keep moving their hand all the time, as if they were afraid they'd
bore you or something. Jane was different. We'd get into a goddam
movie or something, and right away we'd start holding hands, and we
wouldn't quit till the movie was over. And without changing the
position or making a big deal out of it. You never even worried, with
Jane, whether your hand was sweaty or not. All you knew was, you were
happy. You really were.”
― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

All Along

The minute I heard my first love story,
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.
Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.
They're in each other all along.”
― Rumi

Paint you pink

What we is ,
        Not what we not,
What we see ,
         Not what we thought,
Cruel reality,
         Swindling what we bought,

What we give,
        Suffices what we receive,
The air we breath,
        In gloom we sink,
A cancerous need,
        I paint you pink,
And to think,
What I see,  ain’t what it be
Tha purple haze…….,
Destined to carry me away

                        heich

To Chi and Beyond

Maybe am afraid It'll spit fire
In this hearts streets and illuminate like night

Or perhaps spit water
Into these barren womb and give life
now see the things that pulls the heart to fight
Is the same things that pulls a human being to the light:
The love of love
A means to cope

They say that love will come
Like a whisper in the night
yet perhaps we shall see love come
through the pen when we write
In the pain that we bleed
perhaps in things that we read
And the things we recite

So I try to inhale her dreams and exhale hope
my man told me either she  feel it or don't
So all you want, you can inhale her dreams and exhale hope
But you better also treat her right and understand what she wants

"The most high will not change the persons condition,Until the person changes the condition that's in themselves,"

In short, empress believe, I won't falter
Steady as island rock
Swift traversin' waters
Verses  authored,

I offer
As a solemn sacrifice upon her altar
In order to alter
The current conditions
make we better lovers, better Sons and better Fathers

Because we are caught in a culture
Of defeatism, worshipping victims and martyrs
empress divine we are not victims but victors
If we but witness or honor
your brilliance, your resilience and for sure your beauty is farther
with or without the don chici, fendi, Gucci and Prada

thoughts of loosing you got me shook in a trauma
heart in terror that supercedes Al Qaeda and Osama
palms sweaty damm Karma
moist lips damm mama
like in a dream
But we caught in a coma
Sleep

so see you came to me
Like a whisper in the night
But if you're awake, you'll hear it
through the pen when we write
In the pain that we bleed
In the things we recite
love will come
Like a whisper in the night
Being awake, I've learned
Is the essence of life

Bismillah ir Rahman ir Rahim

10 Reasons Why Democracy Doesn’t Work

It is an accepted fact that liberal democracy is the worst possible political system—except for all others (thank you, Sir Winston). This list doesn’t aim to advocate tyranny, but to review the flaws and failures of the democratic process.

We are not perfect—and neither are our governments, since they are made by humans too. It is most advisable to be skeptical, even of democracy itself. After all, even Thomas Jefferson was wary of the “tyranny of the masses”.

10 Aphoristic Equality

One of the foundations of democracy is the assumption that all votes are equal. Well, that’s the theory—but in fact it is rarely so (more on that later). It assumes that all opinions are worth the same, which is quite a big leap of faith, since we are putting the same value on the opinions of the educated and the ignorant, and the law-abiding citizens and crooks.

Even if you think that all people are created equal, it is obvious that their environments are very different—and as a result, so is their character. By assuming that all opinions are equal you are also assuming that most people are able to reach a rational, informed decision after seriously exploring all pros and cons.

9 Populism

A common criticism of democracy is that in the end it devolves into a popularity contest. Polls don’t decide who is right—that’s simply decided by whoever is most willing to say what people like to hear. As a result, many candidates to political office resort to populism, pursuing policies that focus on the immediate satisfaction of whims instead of long-term improvements.

Populist leaders focus on emotion before reason and “common sense” over more academic wisdom, which often produces bad ideas that will be defended with the stubbornness of a mule, regardless of whether they are good or bad.

8 Tribal Mentality

Let’s be honest here: mankind has not evolved much since the Stone Age. Yes, we have tamed the forces of nature and discovered a lot of things—and this Internet business is amazing. But human nature remains the same, more or less. We still think in tribal terms, “my people vs. your people”. Call it class struggle, xenophobia, nationalism, or whatever you like—the thing is that most of us identify with one group or another, and almost every meaningful group has alliances or enmities with other groups. This is part of human nature, and can work peacefully . . . or not.

In a democracy, tribal mentality is very dangerous, because it will make you vote “for your team” instead of voting according to issues. That means that whoever leads “your team” can rest assured that they have your vote, and instead of focusing on your interests, they can proceed to deal with their own. Unfair legislation can be passed if there are vocal groups in the majority (by oppressing the minority) or in the minorities (by entitling them to privileges that the majority can’t enjoy).

7 Corruption

This is not a specific flaw of democracy, and in fact it can be argued that democracy tends to be less prone to corruption than other systems, since it leaves open the possibility of ejecting someone from office. But that possibility also favors a very specific kind of corruption: machine politics, a political organization in which the bosses dole out rewards in exchange for the vote.

It can be as simple as paying money to someone in exchange for their vote, or giving someone a job in the office of the politician who commands the machine. A softer form of machine politics (or “clientelism”) involves the earmarking of federal funds for certain districts or states, so that Representatives and Senators vote for the programs those funds are allocated to.

6 Entitlements

Another side-effect of democracy is that if the State starts providing a service or a pay to someone, they begin to feel entitled to it. So if someone tries to stop providing it—well, they just made a large number of deadly foes. When Margaret Thatcher cut coal subsidies, for example, coal miners felt that their jobs had been threatened and became bitter enemies of Thatcher and her ilk. Most people will never vote for the party of someone who “took their jobs”, no matter how long ago this might have happened.

  

5 Mob Rule

An unrestricted democracy means that the majority decides over the minority. This leaves the minority relatively powerless—and the smaller it is, the less power it wields. Which means that the smallest minority of all—the individual—is effectively depending on his agreement with the majority.

To account for this problem, mature democracies have developed a set of checks and balances in an attempt to make sure that it doesn’t happen; chief among these is the separation of the powers of the State. But this actually makes a system less democratic, since it interferes with the principle of “people’s power.”

4 Complex Accountability

When a dictatorship falls, it is fairly easy to hold someone accountable for any crimes committed by the State. It is certainly easier than in a democracy, since in that case, officials have been elected by the people. If those officials have committed a crime in opposition to their official platform and without the knowledge of the public, it is simply their own fault and the people who voted for them are innocent. But if a candidate advocates curtailing human rights for a minority, and upon finding himself elected to office, carries out his plan . . . are not the voters also responsible in some degree?

3 State Secrets

All states have dirty skeletons in the cupboard. In a dictatorship they are just discreetly hidden, sometimes in plain sight. In a democracy, which tends to rely on moral superiority, this is difficult to carry out.

People have a right to know—at least in theory. Spying and covert operations are part of the daily workings of the state, admittedly sometimes for the greater good (such as when the police infiltrate a criminal organization to put their members on trial). But their efficiency runs against their transparency. A perfectly democratic system would be transparent, and as such, no covert operations could be effectively carried out.

  

2 Democracy Is Unsustainable

As seen in points three, four, and five, a perfect democracy is unsustainable—but a mostly democratic system can (and does) work. In many democratic countries, your vote only measures up against other votes in your district. So if your district runs a majority system and you vote for a losing runner, then your vote was useless. You can use a proportional system, but that doesn’t solve the problem: the issue still remains that large numbers of people can effectively “waste their vote.”

1 It Can’t Really Work

That pure democracy cannot work is not a personal opinion—it is a mathematical result of Arrow’s impossibility theorem. According to this theorem, so long as there are more than two candidates, there is no possible voting system that can ensure the satisfaction of three crucial criteria for fairness:

– If every voter prefers alternative X over alternative Y, then the group prefers X over Y.

– If every voter’s preference between X and Y remains unchanged, then the group’s preference between X and Y will also remain unchanged.

– There is no “dictator”; no single voter possesses the power to always determine the group’s preference.

If these criteria are left unsatisfied, it effectively means that democracy—at least in its purest form—cannot work.

READ MORE A. J. SIMONSON

Stori Ni Mob

sio lazima nikuambie ati ukimwi inamadaa,
sii ata wee unajua wasee wamedie juu ya kitanda
juu ya udanda,
juu ya....
kutotumia rubber...
baggy clothes kuteremka ni faster
milima na mabonde, kushuka kupanda
panda lift na stairs za kenyatta,
hadi gorofa ya saba
uone vile wasee wanaukata,
ni kijana lakini place tuu anaona ni langata.
Stori ni mob zingine sijataja

Kwisha

For-Profit Juvinile Prison Accused of 'Disgraceful' Conditions

G4S already stands accused of human rights violations from Israel to South Africa to the United Kingdom

The firm G4S operates the Highlands Youth Academy in Avon Park, Florida, where young men and boys from 16 to 19 years old are incarcerated. A riot at the prison two years ago prompted the investigation.

"The buildings are in disrepair and not secured, the juvenile delinquents are improperly supervised and receive no meaningful tools to not re-offend, the staff is woefully undertrained and ill equipped to handle the juveniles in their charge, and the safety of the public is at risk," the presentment states. "Yet, G4S has a 9 percent profit margin and expects to make $800,000 in profit this year from the operation of the Highlands Youth Academy."
G4S runs 28 other juvenile detention centers in Florida alone. According to The Ledger, G4S has a $40 million contract to run the Highlands Youth Academy for five years. The presentment emphasizes: "While the citizens are essentially being ripped off—the juveniles are being even more poorly served."

Read More

Odde To Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi

In 1967 Colonel Gaddafi inherited one of the poorest nations in Africa; however, by the time he was assassinated, Gaddafi had turned Libya into Africa’s wealthiest nation. Libya had the highest GDP per capita and life expectancy on the continent. Less people lived below the poverty line than in the Netherlands.
After NATO’s intervention in 2011, Libya is now a failed state and its economy is in shambles. As the government’s control slips through their fingers and into to the militia fighters’ hands, oil production has all but stopped.

On one side, in the West of the country, Islamist-allied militias took over control of the capital Tripoli and other cities and set up their own government, chasing away a parliament that was elected over the summer.
On the other side, in the East of the Country, the “legitimate” government dominated by anti-Islamist politicians, exiled 1,200 kilometers away in Tobruk, no longer governs anything.

America is clearly fed up with the two inept governments in Libya and is now backing a third force: long-time CIA asset, General Khalifa Hifter, who aims to set himself up as Libya’s new dictator. Hifter, who broke with Gaddafi in the 1980s and lived for years in Langley, Virginia, close to the CIA’s headquarters, where he was trained by the CIA, has taken part in numerous American regime change efforts, including the aborted attempt to overthrow Gaddafi in 1996.
In 1991 the New York Times reported that Hifter may have been one of “600 Libyan soldiers trained by American intelligence officials in sabotage and other guerrilla skills…to fit in neatly into the Reagan Administration’s eagerness to topple Colonel Qaddafi”.
Hifter’s forces are currently vying with the Al Qaeda group Ansar al-Sharia for control of Libya’s second largest city, Benghazi. Ansar al-Sharia was armed by America during the NATO campaign against Colonel Gaddafi. In yet another example of the U.S. backing terrorists backfiring, Ansar al-Sharia has recently been blamed by America for the brutal assassination of U.S. Ambassador Stevens.

Hifter is currently receiving logistical and air support from the U.S. because his faction envision a mostly secular Libya open to Western financiers, speculators, and capital.

Perhaps, Gaddafi’s greatest crime, in the eyes of NATO, was his desire to put the interests of local labour above foreign capital and his quest for a strong and truly United States of Africa. In fact, in August 2011, President Obama confiscated $30 billion from Libya’s Central Bank, which Gaddafi had earmarked for the establishment of the African IMF and African Central Bank.
For over 40 years, Gaddafi promoted economic democracy and used the nationalized oil wealth to sustain progressive social welfare programs for all Libyans. Under Gaddafi’s rule, Libyans enjoyed not only free health-care and free education, but also free electricity and interest-free loans. Now thanks to NATO’s intervention the health-care sector is on the verge of collapse as thousands of Filipino health workers flee the country, institutions of higher education across the East of the country are shut down, and black outs are a common occurrence in once thriving Tripoli.
When the colonel seized power in 1969, few women went to university. Today, more than half of Libya’s university students are women. One of the first laws Gaddafi passed in 1970 was an equal pay for equal work law.
A decade of failed military expeditions in the Middle East has left the American people in trillions of dollars of debt. However, one group has benefited immensely from the costly and deadly wars: America’s Military-Industrial-Complex.
Building new military bases means billions of dollars for America’s military elite. As Will Blum has pointed out, following the bombing of Iraq, the United States built new bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
Given that Libya sits atop the strategic intersection of the African, Middle Eastern and European worlds, Western control of the nation, has always been a remarkably effective way to project power into these three regions and beyond.
NATO’s military intervention may have been a resounding success for America’s military elite and oil companies but for the ordinary Libyan, the military campaign may indeed go down in history as one of the greatest failures of the 21st century.

 Read More by Garikai Chengu research scholar at Harvard University

Dr Patrick Ngugi Njoroge - An Independent Mind

INDEPENDENT MIND

“Totally devoid of ego and instinctively averse to self-advertisement” is how a senior Treasury official and long-serving central banker described him.

His style brings to public service a rare quality of humility and an aversion to the trappings of power and opulence.

During vetting Dr Njoroge demonstrated an independent mind, taking a different position to what MPs were pushing and also going against the government position on some issues.

He was, for example, forthright that he considers Kenya’s external borrowing excessive, saying the country must be careful in considering more debt and where the money was going.

This contradicted the National Treasury position, which is that the country’s borrowing is healthy and within the limits.

He also dismissed proposals by MPs to form a government bank to provide cheaper loans and bring interest rates down or simply introduce legislation to control bank lending rates.

“I think it would be a big mistake to even think that we can control interest rates through legislation. It will not work. That is why we moved from price control. Commercial banks just need to get confident to move ahead with market-based solutions that are sensitive for their businesses like control on inflation. This is something we have done in other countries by assuring the banks that the economy is under control, we will come up with a plan that is acceptable to all,” said Dr Njoroge.
 
The man in charge of Kenya’s money has turned down the offer to live in an expansive home in Nairobi’s Muthaiga and ride in a motorcade.

Dr Patrick Ngugi Njoroge, will instead be housed in communal accommodation in Nairobi’s Loresho estate with his fellow members of Opus Dei (Latin for "work of God"), an institution of the Catholic church.

The institution teaches that everyone is called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity. Most of its members are lay people, with secular priests under a bishop.

When he was being vetted by MPs before his appointment by President Uhuru Kenyatta, Dr Njoroge was asked why he does not own property in Kenya and is still single at 54 yet his monthly salary at the International Monetary Fund was Sh3 million a month.

A MATTER OF CHOICE

“Yes I don’t have a single asset here in Kenya and this is where I am at this point and it doesn’t mean that this how it will be forever. I subscribe to being very deliberate about that. This is my economic model and may be years after retirement, I would want to invest in other things. That should not mean I have any financial inabilities. It comes with the profession,” the country’s ninth Central Bank governor said.

Read More

The Royal Hunt of the Sun

Have you ever climbed a mountain in full armour? That's what we did,
him going first the whole way up a tiny path into the clouds, with
drops sheer on both sides into nothing. For hours we crept forward
like blind men, the sweat freezing on our faces, lugging skittery
leaking horses, and pricked all the time for the ambush that would tip
us into death. Each turn of the path it grew colder. The friendly
trees of the forest dropped away, and there were only pines. Then they
went too, and there just scrubby little bushes standing up in ice. All
round us the rocks began to whine the cold. And always above us, or
below us, those filthy condor birds, hanging on the air with great
tasselled wings....Four days like that; groaning, not speaking; the
breath a blade in our lungs. Four days, slowly, like flies on a wall;
limping flies, dying flies, up an endless wall of rock. A tiny army
lost in the creases of the moon.”
― Peter Shaffer, The Royal Hunt of the Sun

The New Louvre - The acceptable face of the Emirates

While Qatar and Dubai are bywords for excess, vulgarity and human
rights abuses, the UAE's capital affects a higher calling. So,
alongside the Emirates Palace Hotel (1,022 crystal chandeliers), the
Grand Mosque (capacity: 40,000) and four million foreign workers,
there are galleries, museums, seats of learning – and the stated aim
of being a 'role model' for its neighbours. Has Abu Dhabi found a way
to blend petrodollars with principles

The Abu Dhabi Louvre looks like the top of a giant, primordial
eggshell pushing its way out of the sand. Its giant dome already
glisters under the sun, its construction workers moving like spiders
over five layers of cladding, steel and aluminium which will give this
extraordinary museum a combined weight of 7,000 tons, just a little
less than the Eiffel Tower. Already the concrete base of a man-made
lake spreads around the construction, for architect Jean Nouvel's
Louvre will be on a miniature island, its works of art transported to
its gallery through an underground tunnel, light sprinkled into its
interior as if through the fronds of palm trees.

Very romantic. Very French orientalist, I say to myself. Very Arab
too, perhaps. The idea is that art will move chronologically through
centuries inside the new Louvre, oriental and Western paintings next
to each other.

Abu Dhabi is so rich, and its ambitions so mystical, that people speak
in whispers.

But if all this is educational, what to make of the Sheikh Zayed Grand
Mosque? The truly gigantic carpet, the chandeliers, the fact that it
was constructed by men and materials from Morocco to China and can
hold more than 40,000 faithful – all give it the feel of cathedrals
built in the Middle Ages.

Abu Dhabi is the sensible, adult version of Dubai, the capital of the
United Arab Emirates, smaller than its neighbour, but probably the
wealthiest city in the world. It's still ruled by the al-Nahyan family
whose Bani Yas tribe migrated to the north Arabian peninsula Gulf
coast, opposite what is now Iran, in the late 18th century. So rich is
Abu Dhabi, with an oil producing capacity of 2.3 million barrels a
day, that even its total investments – statistics it prefers to keep
secret – must be calculated to the nearest £70bn. The total figure is
probably close to £650bn.

''I'm here as a servant of the country. I know if I don't want to be a
servant any more, I can get on a plane and go home."

Then he thought for a moment and captured the venality of it all.
"We're all here by invitation – or temptation."

Robert Fisk in Abu Dhabi: The acceptable face of the Emirates

Symptoms’ za freedom

Like the brother Yeshua Ben Josef gave proof humanity cannot stand the nakedness of truth,

Look at what Adam did after they ate the fruit, even in death they still wanna clad you in a suit.

Of this endless pursuit I could give more proof but what is the use?

Coz you see them architects of this here society,

Influenced by left wing spirituality

Sealed upon mankind a perpetual calamity,

Damming the majority to live blindly in endless pursuit of vanity

Bent on eliminating each other with such barbarity.

Crack babies

War fare

Starvation,

And if you believe them nuclear annihilation,

And all for what? To satisfy some baldheads dream of world domination.

What we need is a revolution

A different perspective of this here our situation,

We need to do all that we can, we need to turn the hourglass,

We need to stop looking at our sisters like just a piece of ass,

We need to protect and preserve mother earth,

We need to open our prayer books and have another glance,

Open our hearts and chant another psalm

And just for once,

Lets take our ego and indiscretions and at the going down of the sun under supervision of the first star let us strike a match and watch them burn….. now won’t that be fun.

By Dongagah