Category: Public Square
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IEBC And The Cookie Crumbs
Do you remember your parent ever warning you not to touch the cookie jar until he or she comes back? Many a mother can testify to the rampance of children swearing on oath that they did not take any cookie from the jar, only to be caught with sugar plums stuck to their lips or…
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The Good, The Daunting and The Unsaid in Presidents’ Pressman
Lee Njiru has written a memoir sprinkled with humour, full of personal insights into the Kenyan presidency and the people who have worked closely with Kenya’s first two presidents. Njiru should have an idea about the Kenyan presidency because he worked for the Presidential Press Service (PPS) for about 25 years, from 1977 to 2002.…
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‘We’re not Freaks’: Tales of a Kenyan Geek
How does the Kenyan mainstream hivemind treat people who are into comics and animation? Horribly. Excuse me for being salty, but I have a bone to pick with you all. I’ve been walking around with snow white braids for the past one month because convention season was upon us and I was going to cosplay…
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Kenyan MPs Can No Longer Hide Behind “the Ayes”
Our thirteenth Parliament has well and truly begun work, and whatever honeymoon period may have existed is winding down. Soon Kenyans will want to know if the National Assembly and Senate will achieve much to speak of. As things stand, we would be wise to moderate any hopes. The legislature will always be hobbled by…
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There Aren’t Enough Women in Kenyan Newsrooms, and it Shows
When I walked into my first class at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in 2010, I felt right at home. I looked around and girls made up over two thirds of my class. We were studying journalism, a career that I had been made to believe suited women, so the class composition felt…
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Kenya’s Explosive Mix of Corruption, Debt and Rising Expectations
When the Goldenberg scandal was exposed in the early 1990s, Kenyans thought they had seen the last of grand corruption on that scale. That scam involved none other than the Central Bank of Kenya and cost the country the equivalent of 10 percent of its GDP – money that was lost through a shady export…
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A Case for the Pursuit of Peace in the DRCongo
The people of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) surely need reprieve from constant violence and war. From Belgian King Leopold’s crimes against them, through the secessionist wars of the ‘60s and ‘70s, into the ‘90s Congo wars, this country has known little peace. The humanitarian impact of the Congo Wars is staggering, with 5.4…
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It’s The Little Things
I am trying to design a life I like. A life I don’t need to run away from, or sedate myself to get through. It’s a trial and error thing, one whose rewards manifest in rest, ease and quiet joy, nothing glamorous. An inner-life thing, you know? Central to this design is the question, “how…
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Under Collapsed Buildings, Real People
As often happens, the collapse of a building in Kasarani was just another trending story, until reports of yet another collapsed building in Ruaka flooded the news cycle and the Kenyan Twittersphere on a rainy Thursday morning. Was it a streak of bad luck, that the gods of construction were angry with us for some…
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The World Cup Of Corruption
The World Cup is the football tournament I gladly set aside time for. It is a joy finding out every four years who are the new rising stars of men’s football. And four years later, it is a welcome surprise to see who among them has now matured to become anchors of their teams. France’s…