Author: Mwalimu Mati
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Thank you, Rasna Warah. Aluta Continua!
There is so much to say in this sad moment but I can only profess that Rasna Warah was one of the bravest and most truthful Kenyans I have known. She stood on principle and exposed mischief within the United Nations at the cost of her job. She quit a prominent columnist role at the…
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Why Charging for ID Cards Is A Bad Idea
Getting a National ID, the universal Kenyan rite of passage, has just been tapped as a money-earner by the Kenya Kwanza government. According to a (revoked after public outcry) error-filled Gazette Notice signed by Prof. Kithure Kindiki, the Cabinet Secretary for Interior and National Administration, the State Department for Immigration and Citizenship Services intended to…
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Ghost Payrolls and Budgeted Corruption: Are We Listening to Dr Nyakang’o?
Kenyans should rally behind Dr Nyakang’o
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The Tall Order That Is Wanjigi’s and Omtatah’s Call for Declaration of Odious Debt
Over the last many months, my two good friends, businessman and presidential aspirant Jimi Wanjigi and Busia Senator Okiya Okoiti Omtatah have variously made claims that Kenya’s domestic debt is illegal, odious and should not be repaid. This is big. Wanjigi and Omtatah argue that Kenyans should declare the domestic debt unenforceable because the debt…
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The Impending Political Deal, a Struggling Economy and a Disaffected Populace
So, assuming that Azimio la Umoja One Kenya can sustain either the Bomas of Kenya Talks or yet another wave of protests, what is the end game really? Kenya’s history shows that the prize is likely to be an elite compromise by which a power sharing arrangement of some form or shape may be struck.…
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Chapter Six Is Under Attack. Does Anyone Care?
In 2016, a near-brawl broke-out in the Kenyan Senate. The respective combatants were Evans Kidero, the then Governor of Nairobi County, and Mike Mbuvi Sonko, his Senator. It is not clear who won the actual fight, but we now know that Nairobians lost because the Auditor General just told us so. You see, during the…
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Sticky Presidential Pardons, and A Call for the Pardoning of Dedan Kimathi and Others
Just over a month ago, it came to light that President William Ruto has, on the advice of the Advisory Committee on the Power of Mercy, freed 5,058 petty convicts, commuted sentences for death row prisoners to life imprisonment, and pardoned 37 convicts including Dr. Davy Koech, once famous for his attempt in the 1980s…
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What Are Our Leaders Reading?
What are our leaders reading? Some may read nothing at all, if you see the bare desks and shelves in the offices some parade on Twitter and Instagram. Many, though, read the softer stuff of motivational literature. I saw a recent example, as Sabina Chege was being gingerly placed in the back seat of her…
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The Case Against Private Conservancies, and Dissolution of Parliament
Occasionally, some of us get to legally breach the fences of private wildlife conservancies which apparently hold up to two-thirds of our wildlife and occupy over 7.5 million acres, for example, to watch the 2023 WRC Safari Rally live. For the rest, streamed dashcam footage placed us in the driver’s seat at thrilling speeds. But…