Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year

Its festive season once again and therefore I take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy festive season, Merry Christmas and a Wonderful 2008.

Lets enjoy and remember the less fortunate in our society. After Christmas lets turn out in large numbers to vote on 27th December to bring the change we want in Kenya.

Best Wishes and be blessed!

Did the MC at State House function deserve First Lady’s slap?

Latest hot news in Kenya now is not about political parties and their last campaigns trail as we countdown to elections in 13 days. I also thought there would be nothing interesting from news in Kenya to blog about as I look forward to Christmas holidays and the New year, alas I was wrong, there will always be something interesting coming along.

First Lady Lucy has done it again, she slapped the MC at the Presidential award ceremony yesterday at State House, Nairobi for referring to her as Wambui, a lady that has been referred to by many as her co-wife but the President has denied in public that she is not his wife, read here story by E.A. Standard

I want to put myself in First Lady Lucy Kibaki’s shoes, being the first and only wife of my husband, then he gets another woman or another woman appears in public to claim she is my husband’s second wife and has a daughter with him, I will definitely loathe that woman with a passion and insist my husband clears the air about the other woman. I may even contemplate leaving him but one funny thing about married women, we threaten to leave, then again we decide to stay on and fight this intruder or enemy in the form of a co-wife, mistress or concubine. We call the woman all sorts of names, husband snatcher or gold digger and forget to blame the man who went after this woman.

However in First Lady Lucy’s case, it seems like this has been a long relationship (if what Wambui claims about the marriage is true) and the fact that her daughter is an adult so she must have been aware of the relationship for a long time. Her main problem with this other woman could have come out when her husband became a President making her First Lady, so she could not stand the idea of sharing her public figure husband.

On the other hand, if I were a public figure like First Lady Lucy and having to deal with the idea of a co-wife or my husband’s mistress, I would not have reacted the way she did in public. In order not to shame my family or tarnish my husbands name at a crucial time like now (elections), I would have summoned the senior administrative officer who was the MC after the function, get some explanation from him, if I don’t get a satisfactory explanation then I would give him a piece of my mind and a warning, but Madam Lucy being the Lucy we know could not hold her dignity and decided to do what she is known best to do.

Drive carefully these holidays

Cases of grisly accidents on Kenyan roads are on the rise now, most of them caused by public service vehicles (PSV). We see and read in the news of terrible accidents involving matatus and recently a bus from Akamba Bus company in Vihiga, read more from E A Standard .

Apart from public transport drivers being careless, the authorities are also to blame for these accidents. I talked about laxity during election campaigns, where police stopped arresting matatus like they used to and so they drive the way they like. On another post I mentioned about the request by a former MP to the President that matatu touts uniforms should be abolished. I believe this triggered matatu touts to go back to their old ways.

They now don’t wear uniforms, speed governors have been disconnected or thrown in the garage, just take ride in a matatu one of these days on a highway, you will gasp for breath most of the time because of the speed and pray you reach where you are going safely. There are police checks everywhere but most of them defy when stopped or the police only check the front for insurance or proper lights and wave the matatus on. A few of them check the driver’s documents.

When the police are not serious or go slow in their duty may be because they have been told to do so at this time of elections, passengers of public transport and even motorists are left at the mercy of careless drivers with no documents or fake ones, we now have drivers of all characters on the road some could even be under alcohol or drug influence when driving. Un-roadworthy public vehicles are also back and we are back to the days when matatus charge whatever they want and carry more passengers and some even standing.

This is why accidents are on the rise now, many people loose their lives causing a lot of pain and suffering to their families. Other motorists are also caught in the mess when public service vehicles are driven carelessly on the roads.

The authorities should act fast before more people loose their lives and to motorists who will be driving upcountry this holiday season, take care!

I just love December

December is normally a relaxed month for me as I normally look forward to Christmas, the holidays and the New Year. It’s a relaxed time for kids and parents when schools close early in Kenya, so the holidays are normally longer than other school holidays. It is also a good time for parents to organize for items, uniforms and news schools for their kids. Our company also closes over December holidays, this time we will close on 21st, that means I have over 10 days holiday. It is not normally free because the working days get deducted from my annual leave, but I can’t complain because I need the holiday.

When it gets to December the workload also gets less so I find myself free most of the time. I normally get time to do my errands sometimes in the morning or take a long lunch to do some shopping or window-shopping. I also loose interest to work with nothing much to do and my mind is fixed on the coming holidays, when I can get time to relax or travel upcountry to my home and visit relatives in the village.

When I travel upcountry the moment I get out of Nairobi and start the upcountry stretch from Limuru, Gilgil, and Naivasha onwards to western part of Kenya, I normally feel like I have left behind all problems we face in the city and wish I would never come back to them. Unfortunately its only for a few days and would still have to come back to the city because I don’t have an alternative to my job upcountry.

This time if I decide to travel upcountry it will be short because I have to be back in Nairobi by 27th December to vote, if not I would have to travel on 28th December after voting. I cannot complain about elections coming in between my holiday because it’s a worthy cause that only comes after every five years.

As I relax in my office this December, I can plan how to go about the coming holiday with elections coming in between.

Otherwise it is not too early to say

Poor infrastructure nearly ruined my weekend

I started my weekend early to sort out a few personal issues that marked a big achievement in my life.

I was preoccupied with my plans and thinking about the activities for the weekend in a quiet and relaxed upcountry like atmosphere away from all the pollution in the city and current news in Kenya, I decided to ignore the newspapers and TV and only preferred listening to music occasionally.

Just when I thought I could get away and also forget about politics, an incident brought me back to reality. The vehicle we were traveling in got stuck in mud and took us hours to get it out, the delay caused us to arrive at our destination when it was nearly dark.

That is when I realized there is government that people are complaining about because of poor infrastructure amongst other issues, I really cursed this regime and the previous ones more than ever. I asked myself how can we live like this with terrible roads for so many years, we cry for change all the time, then elect the same people who cause us untold suffering yet they don’t go through this kind of experience.

When it rains they either use their powerful vehicles and helicopters, some even have airstrips on their vast land for smooth landing. They only remember how other Kenyan’s suffer when its time for elections and promise to build the roads. Our politicians have been building ghost roads since independence. How I wish Kenyan’s would vote 90% of them out if not all.

Otherwise I reached my destination away from all campaign hullabaloo, propaganda and accusations. Its all crazy such that I wish ECK Chairman would stop all campaigns and tell everyone to shut up and wait for elections day.

My quiet weekend made me realize how peaceful life can be without politics, so am now looking forward to the festive season more than ever.