RESPONDING TO THE STATEMENT BY STATE HOUSE SPOKESPERSON ON THE MPEKETONI ATTACKS

“His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta is gravely concerned by the attacks in Mpeketoni, and the heavy loss of life.”

Thank you Mr. President, we appreciate your concern but we are afraid your concern doesn’t cut it anymore. We Kenyans should blame you… You should apologize to Kenyans Mr. President for under your watch we have lost count of the number of hard working tax paying Kenyan Men and Women who have lost their life in horrific terror attacks.

They have SHOT children too Mr. President… Children just like your own Mr. President.

You should be sorry Mr. President. Sorry for failing to protect your people. The people who elected and stood by you while you are facing criminal charges. The people who pay for your good life and ample security so that you can help them have the same. The people who trusted you with their lives. Their lives Mr. President.

“The President’s thoughts and prayers are with those who have suffered. He has sent a message of condolence to the families of the bereaved; and he wishes quick recovery to the injured, and those receiving treatment.”

Thanks for your prayers Mr. President. We will take those… We will not take thoughts, messages and wishes Mr. President… We need action. We will not take promises either.

These women have lost their relatives Mr. President. They don’t need condolences, they don’t need assurances, they need action, they need justice, they need security. Security Mr. President.

“He and his Government stand with the residents of Mpeketoni who suffered through the trauma and tragedy of last night.”

These Mpeketoni residents are not standing Mr. President… They have fallen in the hands of the enemy you have sworn several times with a lot of conviction that you will deal with severely. They seem to be winning Mr. President… We hear all these news about them attacking all over and escaping… They are now attacking police Mr. President. The men and women you send to protect us are being attacked by masked villains.

The men and women you send to protect us are being attacked by masked villains.

“The President has asked Interior and Co-ordination of National Government Cabinet Secretary Joseph Ole Lenku to take personal charge of the operation in Lamu.”

No offense Mr. President but I don’t think that was a wise idea. Your trusted security chiefs have failed you over and over again… We don’t trust them anymore Mr. President… Mr. President, We don’t think there is anything else they can do other than blunder and play with our lives. Kenyans lives Mr. President.

“To the people of Mpeketoni, Lamu County, and the nation: the President pledges swift action against all those responsible for the heinous attacks.”

Mr. President, We have heard that several times. I bet those fallen Mpeketoni residents believed you when you gave that very moving speech after The Westgate attack that had the same promise. I said we will not take promises Mr. President.

“In order to focus on the incident in Mpeketoni, the President has postponed a trip to Moyale, previously scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday 17 June 2014.”

Mr. President, We are grateful that you cancelled your trip to focus on the terror attack. Please focus on the right things to make it worth your presidential time. If your focus will be promises and condolences maybe you should just go on the trip Mr. President. Some of us have had to cancel numerous travel plans – not trips – for fear of being attacked. 

Kenyans have died traveling Mr. President. On buses and stations

GAY RIGHTS? I THINK

There is a very hot seat African leaders are occupying now. They are forced to choose between giving gays/lesbians their rights and criminalizing every attempt to have meaningful same sex relationships. They are stuck between Africa’s religious and societal morals -what the people want- and the ‘right thing to do’ according to the west.

In 2009, a Kenyan gay couple, Charles Ngegi and Daniel Chege caused a sensation when they tied the knot in the UK. This week, a prominent Nakuru writer Binyavanga Wainaina announced that he is gay. These are just two prominent examples among many other Kenyan gay couples including those under the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya.

Before I indulge you any further I should note that it is very annoying that western powers still see it necessary to bully Africa into doing anything at all. Threatening to cut aid, stopping investors or giving travel advisories won’t do the trick anymore. If anything, it makes our leaders act like hormonal teenagers, rebelling and rebelling. It’s pretty suspicious the amount of attention the US foreign policy is giving to gay rights in Africa – Less than 20 states in the US have legalized gay marriages. Worldwide only 18 countries have done the same. It should be easier to convince Africa if President Obama and all the other western heads of states started their campaigns at home.

Gay Right situation in Africa

That said I should also make a point that just like over 80% of Africans I have been against gay right for a very long time. Because I care about my society, the morals it holds dear and the culture it protects. I still do have a thing against homosexuality just like my grandfather will never let go of that anti trouser for women attitude.

However, I also think that the direction Africa is going with this anti gay campaign is more political than logical. Truth be told, some dude marrying another dude doesn’t affect me or you in any way – Unless you are the dude getting married. It doesn’t infringe on anyone else’s freedoms and therefore should not be punishable by law. Now, throwing a death penalty at those dudes is pretty cruel. It’s criminal and unjustifiable.

Gays should have their rights. The basic right of associating, befriending, being in a relationship or marrying someone – same gender or not, younger or older – should not be something people have to fight for at this age. African governments using this particular issue to act defiant to the west is not fair for the Nigerian who will face execution or the Ugandans who will suffer 14 years for their sexual orientation. The fact that countries even go ahead to ban organizations that offer help to these people is just inhuman. There will be better opportunities for Africa to say no to the west. Opportunities that won’t need us to hurt our own people.

Christians would say that it’s wrong. God does not accept such unions. They will bring up the story of Sodom and call this the end of the world. Let me tell you a short story. A few thousand years ago in towns like Jerusalem adultery was punishable by death. Anyone speaking of any other god apart from the Jewish God was stoned to death. Prostitutes also suffered the same fate. But Jesus changed all that, by dying on the cross he gave everyone the freedom to choose between life and death, between heaven and hell. He took the burden of judgment from the masses and bestowed it upon himself, Upon God.

Now everyone answers to God for their sins. Every sort of sin. It would be very wrong for Christians to decide which sins will be allowed in the law and which ones won’t because as children of God our judge is God almighty. Jesus said pick up your cross and follow me. He said bring your burdens to me. He never said take upon you the burden of gays.

Africans like me would say that it is against our morals. It is wrong to legally accept gay marriages. It’s against our customs. Think about this; lying is wrong. Our politicians lie all the time, lies that have a very large impact in your livelihood, no one jails them for 14 years. No one stones them to death. What is important is that gays and lesbians follow the common rules of decency. Whatever people do in their bedrooms – so long as it’s consensual and not with a minor – should not be the government’s business. The police should focus on the crimes that actually harm people and the economy instead of hunting for homosexuals.

Like I stated earlier, I do not support homosexuality, I just don’t want to see people suffer for being who they are. The question is not whether or not I support it, homosexuality is in Africa and people need to start thinking straight about this issue. The Nigerian Government claims that 90% of the population doesn’t support homosexuality. But then, do they support killing homosexuals? If you were a parent, would you rather have your kid killed by the government or let him/her marry someone of the same gender? If your sister liked girls more than she liked boys would you be happier if she went to jail for that?

The Netherlands was the first country to legalize gay marriages in 2001. Since then, some 15,000 gay and lesbian couples have tied the knot. That is two percent of all marriages celebrated in Holland. Nothing has happened to their morals or their economy because 15,000 gay couples married over a period of 13 years. What happens if you arrest 15,000 gay couples and imprison them for 14 years? You have to build new jails. The funny part is, even if you take gays to jail, how does that prevent them from sleeping with other men in the jails? How does the government protect them in jail from being sexually exploited? Or will the government take gay men to women prisons?

The issue isn’t just allowing them to marry. It stretches to protecting them from the vigilantes who think they are God’s hand. The people who take it upon themselves to attack and punish homosexuals should be taught a lesson. Those are the people who deserve to be in jail for having nothing better to do than to dish out violence.

LET ESKINDA GO: LET DEMOCRACY PREVAIL

A fellow blogger texts me this story about a detained journo in Ethiopia. It’s on a weekend so my internet access is restricted to a 10 mb subscription, a 240 by 320 pixels screen and a booster that can’t provide 3g connection. So in view of these circumstances, I shelve my curiosity and wait for better times.

From Monday I try to find out all I can about this blogger. Today I decide much has been written and much has been said; it’s time to add my voice to the glorious chant for the freedom Eskinder Nega.

When someone or a group of people detain a man and his pregnant wife on fabricated charges because they said no to a fraudulent election; that is where I draw my line. When a government is hell bent to destroy an individual because it can’t stand a little opposition; that is where it goes too far. When the same man is afterwards sentenced to 18 years in jail for ‘incitement’ and ‘planning to verthrow the government’ i ask; what tha …?

Great people have suffered for worthy courses. A great man in a movie once said ‘if you can’t die for what you believe in, then you are just as good as dead already’. The Ethiopian government is creating a legend out of Mr. Neja, they just don’t see it yet. At the end of the day I might never learn the name of the minister who ordered the arrest, I might never remember the name of the very paranoid president, I will definitely never know the name of the prison warden who is keeping him locked up but just like Ethiopian history and world history I will never forget the name Eskinder Neja.
Sycophancy

It’s very surprising that in the times we live in, there is still room to join the league of legends like Madiba in issues of freedom. More surprisingly in a country that is hailed in Africa for successfully resisting colonial rule. Ethiopians refused to be oppressed – or at least their ancestors did. Now, their government is run on fear, fear of detention, fear of torture, fear of being labeled a terrorist or a traitor, fear of wasting 18 years of your life in jail, fear of telling the truth.

Globally, press freedom has come a long way and what is happening in Ethiopia takes us back very many years. Since 2012 the Ethiopian government has imprisoned 13 journalists according to the Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ).

Journalists in that country go through thick and thin to get the truth out there. But to who? People who would read the story of a detained journalist like it’s just another story? People who don’t care for the people who care that they are oppressed? People who would rather conform and die from disease and poverty than object and risk jail? The same people, who will be ordered to arrest, torture and detain the journalists? One might wonder why a person would risk their life for such a people. But the truth is that they do it for the truth, for the greater good.

There is a very big difference between respect and fear. Fear breeds hate, respect breeds admiration. Leaders are respected, dictators are feared. Leaders are elected, dictators are overthrown.

The Ethiopian government should understand that elections are not the only measure of democracy. To a very large extend press freedom determines the maturity of a democratic state. The moment people start fearing their government that is when it stops being a government for the people. I know someone would say I am comfortably writing about other countries while my own is not any much better but this is not a message to Ethiopia its just in the context of Ethiopia.
democracy 3

When we say democracy

Looking at this 2013 press freedom index done by reporters without boarders I am not surprised to find Ethiopia at 137. Zimbabwe and Afghanistan give more press freedom than our sorry neighbors. Kenya is hovering at number 71 – maybe because of that media bill. The first African country is Namibia at number 19. It is very shocking that there are over 40 more countries under Ethiopia. One wonders what could be happening to journalists in these countries.

It’s a global truth that when a government is paranoid about being overthrown that is the time it deserves to be overthrown the most. There is a reason the Ethiopian government is detaining journalist at the rate it is. And that is because they are not providing the rightful democratic rights and privileges they ought to give their citizenry. So instead of accepting criticism, they would rather violently silence any form of dissent.

Today I join the global call for the freedom of Eskinder Nega and all the other journalists whose only crime was telling the truth.

MY 2014

This year I am determined to achieve my resolutions. I have never been serious with this resolution thing. Ok, I have been very serious when am writing them but then three months, six months, nine months down the line I get lazy. The resolutions become that distant thought in my subconscious. Like me thinking right now ‘it’s not Friday yet.’

So this year, I am going to write a very short list. One I can achieve fast. Nowadays I don’t start thinking from scratch, I start from google. I found a few ideas online that I will incorporate in my reinvented resolution system. I want to do general stuff and be specific about them (I don’t understand that either). So here is part of my short list.

I WANT TO BE NICER

That is the general part. The specific part is this; I will do favors to at least 12 strangers this year. They must be people I won’t expect anything in return. They must be in need of my help and they must be gender balanced.. hehee

It’s easy to say you are nice because you help your family, you bail out your friend when they get too drunk and pee on a police patrol car, you go to church and submit your tithe and offering and you buy old hustlers in your home village several budgets. But you get something in return for all these; you keep your family, friends will bail you out later on, you get fed spiritually and the old hustlers wet your face with ‘budgeted’ saliva in the name of blessings.

Jesus said whoever invites a complete stranger has invited him. So am going to help Jesus 10 times this year. This is where you say AMEN

I WILL DO SOMETHING REALLY CRAZY

I haven’t figured this one out yet. From today, I will google all the crazy things one can do, pick a number of them and write about them on this blog. Then I will do the one with the most views or comments sometime in June. That way if I die doing it, I will have some people to blame in the afterlife.

COMPLETELY QUIT SMOKING

This was part of my resolution for last year. So far am doing better than this monkey.

I stopped regular smoking. Now I only smoke when am partying. I am going to stop that too this year. Either I stop the smoking or I stop the partying (making my serious face).

In Other Related News:

Tobacco kills nearly 6 million people each year. More than five million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while more than 600 000 are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.

LADIES IN BOOTS

Most of your adult life you are sure, very sure about one or two things. Things like I can never fit in a bikini, I can never wear a hawk on my head; I can never drink cheap alcohol. Omera. Just like I have started to be sure I can’t write now in the middle of my intro, at some point in my life I was sure I am not really a poetry guy. Just like sitting with a guitar on the pavement or wearing a sleeveless shirt thanks to a number of weeks at the gym, I thought poets were sissies, – and I quote – ‘poetry, guitars and biceps are desperate attempts to get noticed’. This is not a complain, it’s not a revolutionary call, it’s not what you want to think but you can think what you want, and above all it’s not personal. Sissy.


This is an arrangement of words that tell you the Adventures of Josh. Am writing this in the middle of a hangover, I need some water. In my head I have gone over the different ways I want this to come out but like teenage daughters, stories have a way of taking their own stand, either wrong or right from where you are stand is. Am going to be a very bad father to this story, am going to stand where I want and watch the story ruin its life- get pregnant, abort it or smoke it to leprosy, do a lot of alcohol, guys and useless stuff; whatever it wants. Brace yourself, you are about to get Harry Potterized.


It all begins before the beginning. It’s Sunday morning and my eyes are closed. My lips pulled to form this curve are forced by linguistics and traditional codes into calling a smile just so that you understand. I am smiling because am imagining myself somewhere else. At home. That shows you how much I was bored with Maseno.


I could have smiled imagining myself anywhere else; at that bus station where you play grab with a number of drunk or stoned(there is a very big difference)formerly gym going or guitar playing guys who will threaten to beat you up if you don’t get on the bus they show you; in the same bus -you are not in because you are afraid of settling it like a man, rather, unlike them you have brains that feed you and you don’t want them bouncing on the cold, wet pavement- this mother who keeps sleeping on your shoulder and smiling sheepishly when you wake her up only to sleep on you again in a few minutes. You could be anywhere, happily getting pushed shoved and threatened, bearing the weight of a mother's world, breathing, and smell of strange perfume on your shoulders. Sadly I was there, eyes closed. But I was not going to be there for long, am leaving.

SPOKEN HEART STORY

Most of your adult life you are sure, very sure about one or two things. Things like i can never fit in a bikini, i can never wear a hawk on my head; i can never drink cheap alcohol Omera. Just like i have started to be sure i can’t write now in the middle of my intro, at some point in my life i was sure i am not really a poetry guy. Just like sitting with a guitar on the pavement or wearing a sleeveless shirt thanks to a number of weeks at the gym, I thought poets were sissies, – and I quote – ‘poetry, guitars and biceps are desperate attempts to get noticed’. Continued………….

THE CONTRACT

I sat through a three hours class of psychology of communication this week. The topic was self concept. I don’t want to turn this into a review of that class but am going to tell you this; those quotes we write in facebook, hear from our preachers, told by our teachers about self esteem, happiness and personal behavior and their relationship have a strong psychological background.

The basic idea is that everyone has a painting – or several paintings depending on your creativity, sanity and emotional state - in their head of their own physical, behavioral and psychological attributes. The issue is not the number; the issue is the polarity of these paintings. Some people actually have a painting of themselves that they are proud of – they are very positive towards themselves. Most people have mixed feelings when it comes to looking at the picture of them. The rest hate that picture, they think it’s not good enough, they should have been taller, browner, sharper in class, their hips should have been fuller, their parents should have been a little richer, they should have had better social skills, their breath should have smelled a little better.

The relationship between these paintings and happiness, success and our behavior is very simple. By creating this picture, we are not only painting how our life is at the moment but most important we are casting an image of how we want our lives to be in future. Positivity draws positivity, negativity draws more of it.

The moment you view yourself as the best, as the brightest, the moment you tell yourself that ‘maybe am not doing good now but I know and I have always known that I have the potential, the connection, the will and the power to be the best and eventually I will’ you have painted a picture of success for yourself

A negative painting is a killer and a positive one is more of enduring happiness. One week ago I was looking for a movie to watch among the several in the computer. I’ve watched all of them so I settle for this documentary titled the secret.

The documentary simplifies the reasons for success and failure into one very subtle secret: we draw these things towards us by our thoughts. We succeed because we think of success, we are happy because our thoughts appreciate the reasons for us to be happy. We fail because we keep thinking of the failure, we keep thinking of those obstacles of reasons why we could not succeed.

To make this clear, think of it this way. Your brain is your life magnet, successes and failures are tiny iron pieces hanging in the atmosphere, and your thoughts are the power that draws particular pieces to your life. The more you think of failure, the more pieces of failure you attract and in the end you are one big magnet covered in failure. The opposite applies to success. The stronger and more frequent your thoughts are, the more your chances of achieving either. To some the power that rearranges everything in this world to fit into your thought is the universe. To me, it’s God

Two weeks ago I was travelling back to Maseno after attending a funeral of a very close cousin of mine, he died very young and in that bus from Magadi to Nairobi I was feeling like shit. I was counting the things I’ve done wrong, the mistakes I haven’t apologized for, the people I haven’t told I loved, the wrongs I’ve never made an effort to make right and wondering if my cousin had his wrongs, his mistakes, negligence instances, things he wished he could say but never got the chance to. My question to myself was, will I have a chance to? What really would have changed my mood that day was the opposite of my line of thoughts, the positive things I’ve done, what I have been able to accomplish, and the far I’ve gone. Even with those few mistakes in your life, the things you have done right are way much more. The problem with us is we overlook a dozen good things about ourselves and obsess over that one thing we think is wrong.

In Nairobi I spent the night with another cousin of mine. In the morning before I leave I pick one DVD with messages from Joel Osteen. I’ve always admired the way he speaks but mostly for the humor and the stories, not really listening to the message. So I watch one sermon and I wake up to take a shower. I leave with that DVD in the Drive. I only notice that I have it when I get to Maseno and I get it out of the drive and put it on shelve. Am back to watching movies.

The same thing that happened one week ago happened last night only this time round I find that Joel Osteen DVD and I continue watching from where I had stopped. The next message in that DVD is called ‘not being critical about yourself’.

What I got from that message is that even though we have a painting of ourselves and we believe that we know ourselves the most, God has a painting of us too. He is the master painter, He painted the universe, all those natural landscapes and features you see at and say wow, He painted them. And then He painted you. What our paintings say is that God made all these paintings we admire so perfectly and then when he got to us, somehow, He made mistakes. That is not even remotely true. You are as good as those things that make you wow in fact even better because God actually took His time, got His hands dirty to make you in His image and breathed His life into you.
You did not get the wrong hips, a smaller mind, the wrong nose, the wrong eye color, the wrong parents, or the wrong neighborhood. What you got is the perfect of all those for you. Joel Osteen said that we are living in defeat because we don’t recognize the value of what we are. You are a masterpiece painting and all that is in your life plays into making you that. Get up in the morning; look in the mirror and say, ‘Good morning you wonderful being’

We are Masterpieces of God. We don’t get our worth from what people think about us. We get it from who the painter is. An original Picaso, no matter how bad it might look would sell for millions of dollars. What would the worth of God’s work be?
Everyday you have to pray that, that painting in your head about yourself draws closer to what God made you and the only way we achieve that is to think positive, to praise ourselves for the good things in our lives, to appreciate our achievements. Too often we tend to obsess over how far we need to go that we forget to look back and say ‘This far am doing very good’. God did it, why not you? Every time he created something, the bible says, and God saw that it was good.

Last night I prayed. It started ‘God, I know its been long…..’. In the end I have decided to make this contract with God and myself. For every negative thought that I can consciously pick, I am going to make an effort to counter it with five positive ones. I am dedicated to painting a picture of my success and that I will start now. You can also do the same. Don’t you dare let yourself go through life with that negative painting in your mind