30 June 2006

Party !


happy Blogversary.
Thanks to all named and anonymous who passed, read and those who read and left a comment. KBW family, you are the best. Now go on have some cake we are 0ne year old today!

26 June 2006

untitled



The Art of Letting Go
by Consrael

It's over. He's gone.

Why do we have to part while
the love is still there?
Why do we have to suffer?
Why do we have to cry when
somebody bids goodbye?
Why do beginnings have an end?
Why do we have to meet
only to lose in the end?

There are questions left unanswered,
words left unsaid, letters left unread,
poems left undone, songs left unsung,
love left unexpressed,
promises left unfulfilled.

In a relationship,
one of the hardest things to do
is saying goodbye and letting go.
It is as hard as breaking a crystal
because you'll never know when you
will be able to pick up the pieces again.
More often than not, they who go,
feel not the pain of parting:
it is they who stay behind that suffer,
because they are left
with memories of a love
that was meant to be,
a love that was.

At the beginning and at the end
of a relationship,
we are embarrassed to find ourselves alone.
Unfair as it may seem,
but that's the way love goes.
That's the drama, the bittersweet
and the risk of falling in love.
After all, nothing is constant but change.
Everything will eventually come to its end
without us knowing when,
without us knowing how,
without us even knowing why.
And we must forget not because we have to
but because we have to.

In letting go, sorrows come
not as a single spy but in batallion.
It seems that everywhere you go,
everything you do,
every song you hear,
every turn of your head,
every move of your body,
every beat of your heart,
every blink of your eye and every breath
you take always reminds you of him.
It's like a stab of a knife,
a torture in the night.
Funny how the whole world
becomes depopulated
when only one person is missing.
Just imagine,
there are billion people on earth
and yet it seems you feel lonely
and empty without the other.

I don't know if it's worth calling an art,
but letting go entails
special skills sparkled
with a considerable space and time.
Time heals all wounds but it takes
a little push on our part.
Acceptance plays a part.
Not all love stories end with
"...and they live happily ever after."

Sometimes we have to part because of
circumstances beyond our control.
We have to suffer if it would
mean happiness for others.
We have to cry to
temporarily let go of the pains.
Every beginning has its end
like every dawn has its dusk.
It's something we can't control,
something we had to live up.

It's over.
He's gone. But life has to go on.
Goodbye doesn't always mean forever.
There will always be a place and time
where questions will be answered,
words will be spoken,
letters will be read,
poems will be recited in the night,
songs will be sung in harmony,
love will be expressed in solitude and
promises will be fulfilled.
Somewhere. Somehow. Someday.

23 June 2006

Ambushed!

When I got home last night there was a blackout thanks to KPLC. That was not the problem as such since I had candlelit everything. See there is no better time than when there is blackout and all is quiet to the point where sounds you normally don’t hear seem to permeate through the walls in some special diffusion (was that the point of high concentration to points of low concentration?) the likes of conversation between neighbors.
I have a tendency of killing without fear or prejudice all mosquitoes within my reach and that of my odorless doom. Despite the fact that they claim that its odorless, it irritates my nasal like heck am left in fits of wheezing and sneezing. I have a feeling that the Mosqi Rights Association had called a meeting with yours truly as the agenda and her destruction f the species. I must confess that I do take pleasure in mosqi hunting, picture this me with a slipper on one hand and doom on the other.The slipper is for those near and the doom for those without reach. Lately I have noticed that I no longer see their light weight carcasses anymore all that is left are bloody marks.
Last night it seemed as tough a troop of mosqi army and reserves had been deployed and a few form their kiganjo on attachment since the buzzing was unceasing. I could hear the buzz harmoniously sounding like “You killed my brother dieeeee”. I could see a whole legion of ninja mosqis leaping,appearing and disappearing behind puffs of smoke like in those Jackie Chan movies.
Eventually I gave up on swinging the slipper and finally the last doom ran out. Having saved the best and last, I unleashed what the atomic bomb was to Hiroshima, am smiling smugly and unleash my mosqi net ti hi hi hi and am thinking suckers! Now am good to sleep and live to fight or is it die another day.

17 June 2006

Economy???

Got this via mail,interesting....
TRADITIONAL ECONOMICS
You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies and the economy grows.
You retire on the income.

INDIAN ECONOMICS
You have two cows.
You worship them.
Oh and you fight with all your might to prevent the Pakistanis from
getting anywhere near them!

You don't have any cows.
You ask the US for financial aid,China for military aid,
British for warplanes,Italy for machines,
Germany for technology,French for submarines,
Switzerland for loans,Russia for drugs
Japan for equipment.
You buy the cows with all this and claim exploitation
by the developed world.
You claim that the Indian cows belong to you and you start a long, bitter
fight to reclaim "your property".......

AMERICAN ECONOMICS
You have two cows.
You sell one and force the other to produce the milk
of four cows.
You profess surprise when the cow drops dead.
You put the blame on some nation with cows & naturally
that nation will be a danger to mankind.
You start a "shock and awe" campaign against that nation.
You wage a war to save the world and grab the cows.

FRENCH ECONOMICS
You have two cows.
You go on strike because you want three cows.

GERMAN ECONOMICS
You have two cows.
You reengineer them so that they live for 100 years,
eat once a month and milk themselves.

BRITISH ECONOMICS
You have two cows.
They are both mad cows.

ITALIAN ECONOMICS
You have two cows.
You don't know where they are.
You break for lunch.

SWISS ECONOMICS
You have 5000 cows, none of which belong to you.
You charge others for storing them.

JAPANESE ECONOMICS
You have two cows.
You redesign them so that they are 1/10TH the size of
an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
You then create cute cartoon cow images called
Cowkimon and market them worldwide.

RUSSIAN ECONOMICS
You have two cows.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
You count them again and learn you have 17 cows.
You give up counting and open another bottle of vodka.

CHINESE ECONOMICS
You declare it the Year of the Red Cow.
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim full employment, high bovine productivity
and arrest anyone reporting the actual numbers...


NIGERIAN ECONOMICS
Me broda yo.....
You come up with a very lucrative deal to export cows.
You don't actually have any cows but manage to somehow get a deposit from
the farmer on the deal.
You hire a cow from somewhere and export it to the farmer, but not before
it ingets some "high performance nutrient pellets"
You sell the cow but only after you have passed the airport and somehow
extracted the high nutrient pellets.
You deliver the cow which dies within days.
By then you have already moved 3 continents away and started the process
all over again.

TANZANIAN ECONOMICS
You have two cows, you borrow two cows.
No one feeds them.
You hire expatriates to confirm starvation.
You hire South African expatriate veterenarians to feed the cows.
You deny the Kenyan veterenarians (who would cost much less than the South
Africans) work permits.
You claim neo-colonialism!

UGANDAN ECONOMICS
You get the guerilla cow from the bush.
It starts off by being quite productive.
The guerilla cow "styles up" and moves in to take control of the farm.
The guerilla cow becomes savvy and outsmarts all other cows on the farm.
It arrests other cows for treason and rape.
The guerilla cow then unofficially declares itself Leader of the National
Farm Movement and changes the constitution to give itself an extra term in
office.

KENYAN ECONOMICS
You have two cows.
You eat both of them.You organize a large nyama choma bash.
Complete with a one man guitar-(by the way did you ever hear of a guitar
played by more than one man?)
Your bash irks the neighbours who cause a scene (Lucy Kibaki style) and
generates scandal in the local papers for at least a week.
You blame the former President and his regime for any shortages or
shortcomings.
You start a Commission of Inquiry to look into the matter, then vow to
have radical surgery to address the plight of those lost cows.
You hire Kroll and Associates to recover those lost(or dead cows) from the
stomachs of those who ate them.
You ignore their findings and constitute a Committee of Eminent Persons to
look at the issue afresh.
You ask donor partners to give another two cows ............to eat!

13 June 2006

Well said


‘No, Mr President’
from the East African Standard, 13th June 06
The last six days have been humiliating for this nation. Our sovereignty has been violated. Our nationhood has been insulted. Our borders have been encroached by hostile forces. And our hospitality has been abused.

What is even more humiliating is the casual manner in which the Government has treated genuine public concern over national security.

We are concerned that the President and his minders are conveniently becoming impervious to threats to national security, prosperity and unity and are exposing the Presidency to ridicule.

Monday’s suspension of CID Director Joseph Kamau and the formation of a commission of inquiry into the Armenian saga is a good example of this for it is too little too late. As a nation, the Presidency is the one institution we all identify with, one that is supposed to be above reproach.

While the President and his family have the right to privacy, that privacy is not the single most important issue in Kenya today. Many things have gone wrong in this country, which the President’s voice — only his voice — would help straighten. Yet the only time we hear the President’s voice is when he is clarifying his family situation.

The President has failed to take unique opportunities to address much weightier matters of national concern. In the light of recent events, security is top among them.

Your Excellency, when the Armenian saga broke out in March you held your tongue, and just when Kenyans thought you had your fingers on the national pulse, you took to the podium on national television last Sunday to clarify the composition of your family. You seem to have forgotten that when you assumed office four years ago, your family grew from a nucleus to encompass all Kenyans.

As the Leader of the Official Opposition Uhuru Kenyatta said on Monday, the blame for the Armenian saga and political and security paralysis rests squarely with the President. What Kenyans want urgently is reassurance about their safety, national sovereignty and competence of institutions and the rule of law.

We have heard for a long time that the police force is divided , with the Commissioner Major General Hussein Ali trying his best to run a disciplined outfit but with the now suspended CID Director meddling. That the Commissioner was kept in the dark about the raid against the Standard Group in March — a raid planned and executed in the name of State security — is evidence of those divisions. Why do you sit by and wait for such a key institution of governance, one tasked with maintaining law and order, to degenerate?

That police received conflicting instructions as they tried to arrest the alleged Armenians last week is further evidence of these divisions. Your Excellency, don’t these things bother you? As a company we have taken unjust blows from your Government. Only in March did hooded policemen, in an operation that was patently illegal, raid us. We have sought the return of equipment confiscated from us then to no avail.

Now we have reason to be concerned at reports that tapes similar to the ones taken from our studios were found in the Armenians’ house last week. We have reason to be concerned that hoods similar to the ones worn by those who raided our premises were found in the Armenians’ house. We have reason to be concerned that the key person who ordered the raid against a legitimate business — Mr John Michuki — one who is on record defending the Armenians, continues to serve without as much as a bother about the serious implications of these revelations.

In March we recorded a statement with the police about suspicious surveillance of our offices by the Artur brothers in an unmarked car, which we saw in their compound when the police raided the place recently. Nothing was done.

As a conscientious corporate citizen, we called for the deportation of the alleged Armenians before anybody did after they asked your minister for internal security to shut up. Nobody heeded us. In fact, the minister in question subsequently defended them in our own Parliament!

When Kenyans voted for you they did so because they trusted you. In you, they saw the embodiment of national aspiration, growth and all that is good for their prosperity.

Sadly, Your Excellency, your Government has progressed from managing by crisis to thriving in paralysis. For how long can a nation operate this way? When foreigners ambush our national airport, the internal security minister goes underground. Yet the same minister does not hesitate to raid The Standard Group or other media houses critical of impunity. Indeed, the minister only a few weeks ago threatened "to do it again".

Does Government only act at the behest of foreigners? Until they drew guns against us at our most respected airport! And what a cache the police found on subsequently arresting them! Guns reserved for the presidential security unit, documents declaring them deputy police commissioners, bullet-proof vests, Government vehicles or vehicles bearing Government registration plates, gun holsters, passes giving them access to all parts of all our airports. If this does not warrant the intervention of the President what does?

Because the Government sat back as Armenians turned our national airport into poodle, the country risks isolation from the international community. The British Government is demanding an explanation for the security breach at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport by the Armenians and is concerned over the safety of their airline.

The breach could lead to suspension of British Airways flights to Kenya. Other international airlines might follow suit, and the tourism industry would be hardest hit. Should Kenyans suffer such loss for the comfort of a family, a few individuals and foreigners?

Does it occur to the Government what last week’s airport drama has done? Kenya as a transit point for serious investment and as an investment destination is severely compromised by this gangland behaviour. And all we can do is clarify family ties?

With these banana republic antics, is it difficult to see why foreign missions will now be coming to this country with their own security detail since they can no longer trust the Kenyan security agents to guarantee their safety? Imagine the number of job opportunities thus lost!

The Government appears rudderless today, and this hurts millions who invested so much hope and trust in you. We speak plainly because we believe that there is time to redress the mess. You took an oath to protect the country and the Constitution, an oath you must live to.

No Mr President: We respect your fourth clarification about your family. But, Your Excellency, it is time you looked at those who advise you with honest eyes. Michuki, his Defence counterpart Njenga Karume, Permanent Secretary Stanley Murage and Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura are leading you into an abyss.

You must also take action against the Managing Director of the Kenya Airports Authority George Muhoho for he has failed to protect our airports. And you must take action against your associates — or those using your name for ulterior motives — for their behaviour has besmirched your good name and that of your family.

And if nobody else will tell you this, we will.

2 June 2006

Much Ado about Madaraka


We have all heard about them, the great heroes of kenya’s independence.
Koitalel Arap Samoei, Mekatilili Wa Menza , Waiyaki Wa Hinga Dedan Kimathi
Harry Thuku, Ezekiel Apindi ,Mzee Jomo Kenyatta ,Ronald Ngala ,Oginga Ondinga
James Gichuru, Daniel Arap Moi, Tom Mboya.
Yesterday I got to watch the usual independence documentary that they show on KBC, as that went on I got to think of the unsung heroes. Those whose names didn’t make the cut yet they were part of the struggle and gave up their lives for me to enjoy the freedoms that I have now.
What about the wives who had to raise children alone?
What about the children who had to live without daddy around?
What about the house helps who acted as spies knowing that if caught it would mean death?
What about those whose loved ones died at war and they never got to say goodbyeor even at least bury their dead?
What about the women who risked their lives while taking food to the warriors in the bush?
What about young men who never knew youth who had to be men before their time?
What about these people and all others whose recognition and the pat on their backs have gone to the dogs?
What about them?
I wonder what all these great patriots would think of this nation at these moments, 43 years later the nation they once shed blood, tears and sweat for.
I wonder how it felt the morning after Madaraka day, waking up a free man truly that is one feeling that we will never comprehend in totality.
So this late post is a tribute to all the unsung heroes of independence…
Last but not least “ in his book, the bridges of Toko-Ri, novelist James Michener writes movingly of heroes who fought in the Korean conflict. In the book’s final scene, an admiral stands on the darkened bridge of his carrier, waiting for pilots he know will never return from their mission; and as he waits, he asks in the silent darkness “where did we get such men?”.
Now 43 years plus later I muse to myself “where did we get these men and women?”
They say life begins at 40 I wonder if that also applies to countries if so we are lagging behind…
After all is said and done gotta say: Niu nkugwirua kutherwa mukenya meaning am proud to be Kenyan.