Life and government.

I have seen lots of guns in my life, lots, on television and with the various gun trotting disciplined forces around the country. Well, but having a gun pointed into the middle of your forehead is another kettle of fish altogether. It makes appreciate the fact that the difference between life and death is line thick, it has no thickness.
My day at the barrel (of a gun) occurred when I was seventeen, still in high school and pretty much legally blonde. It was one of those high school mid-term vacations that I decided that I was going to give the opportunity with mum for the half week vacation a wide berth. I headed to Nairobi instead to be with my uncle and my cousin who both lived in Negara and were informal middle men in the same trade. When they say the city carries with it many perils believe them, they have seen most of it.
On the eventful Saturday evening I walked myself into the room my cousin my cousin and his colleague called their office, though technically it was a small room behind a dingy Ngara guest house. I got into the room without knocking on the door, quite manner less that was. Unbeknown to me danger lurk on the other side. I was welcomed into the room rather awkwardly by a disheveled gun wielding teenager with his weapon pointed directly at my forehead. It looked so surreal; I immediately went into a trance. The teenagers not quite older than proceeded to empty the contents of my pockets, which quite worthless to them and for that I received several kicks on my butt, they needed money I didn’t have any, they needed phones I did not have one. They were rightfully justified to scorn me I was a dog in manger, in the wrong place at the wrong time.
They proceeded to untie my shoelaces and gagged me with them, tied my hands at the back with sisal helped me get under a very small bed with more kicks and blows. It was not until I was under the bed and spent some few minutes that I discovered that I was not alone, I recognized my cousin and his colleague in a hazy memory recollection. It was then that I put body and mind together and pulled myself out of the stupor and realized that we had been robbed.
We immediately trooped to Pangani police station, where we went, we reported the robbery at the occurrence book. Many queer things happen at police stations, I noticed a police officer hand over some two roles of weed at a his funny looking friend which had been brought in by a woman accompanied by a police officer for alleged drug pushing. My evening was about to get worse though, we recorded statements at the OB.

Kenya’s Dairy Industry Illuminates The Way Forward.

Kenya’s markets have been under the crucible for experiments of various economic models and political ideologies for a while. From the nationalization of key industries at independence to veiled socialism espoused by the Sessional Paper Number 10 of 1965 under the colourful and nostalgic banner of African Socialism. However the dairy industry continues to issue useful and systematic illumination as to what market models, socio-political and economic models the country should adopt.
The foundations of the dairy industry in Kenya were laid by the European settlers who annexed various highlands for dairy and other assorted agricultural production. For the purpose of the dairy industry however the settler farmers established the Kenya Co-operative Creameries (KCC) in the year 1925. They used the KCC to institute a market monopoly that banished African farmers to subsistent dairy production rather than commercial dairy production. At Kenya’s independence in the year 1963 the government gave in to political pressures from the populace and nationalized KCC as well as myriads of other institution that were at the hands settlers.
The nationalization of various institutions heralded a dark era in Kenyan market history characterized by gross managerial inefficiency and rent seeking in Kenya’s public sector and state corporations. Kenya’s founding father’s (Jommo Kenyatta) Swahili rhetoric “ hakuna cha bure’’ was misconstrued to mean that government services would not be dispensed without palm greasing rather than the actual meaning that there were no gains without toil.
The first post -independent decade was modest for KCC. However years of mismanagement caught up with KCC during subsequent decades. Milk farmers went unpaid for elongated periods of time. Since KCC was the only player in the dairy industry farmers had no reprieve. The Kenya Dairy Board (KDB) on its part continued to overzealously implement a law that prohibited sale of milk to individual consumers; during those times riding with a jerry-can of milk on a bicycle without license from KDB was enough to land one in police custody. During this time Kenya’s second president Daniel Moi tried cover up the unusual happenings in the dairy sector by the pitiful provision of free milk for primary going children in public schools. The epitaph of KCC as a monopoly in the dairy sector had already been written. It subsequently collapsed in the early 1990’s, debt ridden and in a shambolic state, it owed farmers millions of unpaid dues. In the town where I grew up; Nyahururu a small town in Kenya I remember us turning the derelict KCC buildings into grounds for simulation of our childish war games.
The fall of KCC and subsequent deregulation of the dairy sector provided an opportunity for the sector to regenerate under the watchful management of savvy private entrepreneurs. The competition in sector ensured that dairy farmers were not exploited while at the same time keeping the prices of processed milk down. Today, Kenya ranks first in sub-Saharan Africa in gross milk production and second only to South Africa in the whole continent. This has been achieved through the re-organization of the dairy sector to incorporate the small scale farmer using intensive farming methods to increase milk production. This has meant that a hitherto non-monetized sector is churning wealth for millions of Kenyan farmers.
The writing is on the wall, the bureaucrats should decipher that the panacea to Africa’s development impasse lies not in more state interventions or market intrusion, but rather minimalist states which are responsive to free markets signals for the balance of economic order.

Alex Njeru.
Ndungualexx@gmail.com

dream and let dream; Any on can dream themselves into Kenya's Presidency

Dreams are an important part of human existence, become the bridge between the possible and the not so possible, dreams fuel the human spirit and make life worth living. In-fact that dreams are part of the reason I publish this third rate blog dreaming that some pays attention and gives me a job. So when this past week two very likable gentlemen and a hitherto unknown fellow throw their heart in the ring and announce their candidacy for president come 2012 we can only wait and see whether their dreams will come to fruition.
Mutava Musyimi and Peter Keneth are what one might call outsiders to Kenya’s political equation, expendable variables that can be done away with without adversely the political dispensation of this country. Conventional political though in this country uses ethnic algorithm and inept matrices to determine who becomes president in this country. So Mr. Mutava allegedly lacking ethnic Constituency is derided as an outsider to the succession debate and Mr. Kenneth a man whose ethnic constituency depends upon others namely (Uhuru Kenyatta) is also shrugged off as an outsider, a man without ethnic clout. Enter Isaac Jaffer a little known Kenyan from a minority ethnic group and we are almost pissing on ourselves with laughter when he announces his bid to become Kenya’s president.
We need to ask ourselves some pertinent questions. As a nation we blame the government for mismanaging the country, yet we are the same tribal ass-h*les that vote less on principle and more on ethnic bigotry. Who are we as tribal ass-holes to put a cap on individual dreams.
As a nation we have to dream and let dream. We have to change our wanton ways and give everyone explicit opportunity to express to politically express themselves either through voting or having their names on the ballot paper.

On a lighter note how on hell does your lecturer call you at 5.00 A.M in the morning? I understand though he is calling from a different time zone; the county of United Kisumu (UK).

THE STATUS OF KENYAN WOMEN

Engendering Kenya’s Fiscal Budget at the Hotel Hilton.
Date: 30th June 2011
Venue: Hotel Hilton
I decide to take my chance and attend a seminar at the Hotel Hilton for a few reasons; (i) it is free (ii) it is at the Hilton, da that means something (iii) I have been out of school for a while now and I am definitely I little rusty and can do with some new bywords in the world of gender.
I land at the hotel Hilton at 4.00 P.M. big places are disorienting and I am not disappointed with myself that I am disoriented. I sit down, an extremely dark chick in black clothing and handbag sits next to me. She seems snobbish so I busy myself with the seminar.
The business of the day though understands what the Kenyan budget has in it for gender (women). As you would expect the who is who in civil society is here. Women who brag about being Juliah Ojiamabo’s contemporaries, others who assert that they single handendly lobbied for the creation of the Women Enterprise Fund and a few others.
The form though is sponsored by Heinrich Boll Foundation. Among the panelist is John Mutua from (Institute of Economic Affairs), Hulda Ouma; (Society for International Development) and Godfrey Ndeng’e ( Social Policy adviser Ministry of Finance). The forum is excellent as you will expect. They gender by-words grandiose, here’s some of them.
Gender Responsive Budgeting
Sectors that have explicit impact on gender ( Health, Education and such)
Sectors that have implicit impact on gender ( Transport, Construction and such)
Gender Situation Anylsis.
Difference between allocation of funds to gender issues by the government (Obligation of Conduct) and implementation of projects funded (Obligation of Result).
Apparently Kenya is also moving from its current fiscal mode of Budgeting to a new mode called (Program Based Budgeting), now this is where the government gives funds to specific projects say build (n) number of schools rather than give it to Ongeri and his Permanent Secretary (who is also a man) to eat.
So this is what the Kenyan budget had for women;
1. 300 million for sanitary towels,
2. 440 million KSHs for the Women Enterprise Fund
3. 48 million KSHs to fight cervical and breast cancer
Some few facts were also unearthed by the panelists,
(i) 0.9 boy/girl ratio in the education sector
(ii) Only 2.7% of agricultural extension of officers are women
(iii) Kenya’s population grows at an annual rate of 2.72%
(iv) Every day 23 Kenyan women die in child birth related deaths.
(v) The sexual offenses act has never been fully implemented because of lack of funds.
So there you go that is how those meeting at the Hilton conceived the status of Kenyan Women as being. Of course we had some tea at the end of it all though I insisted on coffee. We latter retired to our different directions and the women of Kenya are not any better because we discussed them.
(Apparently this is my most broken English blog-post ever and I still trust my English teacher, my English unlike anything else of me is not modest in-fact it is far above Average.) have a woman minding day.