Watching the mother-of-all-protests and Raila Odinga’s cavalcade traverse Nairobi the other day, I learned a new phrase. Stochastic terrorism is observed where a charismatic leader uses mass media as a platform to incite violence, while simultaneously disclaiming responsibility for the violence. Carefully choosing his words he (the leader) –...
Raptors, the generic name for birds of prey, are hyper-carnivorous bird species that survive by hunting and feeding on other animals. Currently, Kenya has 103 species (including owls) of birds of prey ranging from the tiny Pygmy falcon to the Lappet-faced vulture, which is the largest raptor on the...
Uganda has just passed one of the harshest anti-homosexuality laws in the world. Individuals engaged in same-sex sexual relations could face life imprisonment, while anyone who “knowingly promotes homosexuality” could be sentenced to up to 20 years in jail. Even organisations working with the LGBTQ+ community could face a...
A recent video clip that went viral was at best painful to watch and at worst an unmitigated embarrassment for African audiences. It showed 90-year-old Cameroonian President Paul Biya who has been in power since 1982 attending a plenary session of the US Africa Leadership Summit that was held...
It is mind-boggling that the Kenya Kwanza government believes it can get away with raiding Kenyans’ salaries through the proposed Housing Fund, which will see salaried employees part with as much as KSh 5,000 a month (with the matching amount paid by their employers) to contribute to a fund...
President William Ruto gave his first full media interview as head of state soon after the New Year. Just like in 2018, when President Uhuru Kenyatta’s now-famous exchange with Mark Maasai immortalised Japan’s ‘weird borrowing habits’ (h/t Michael Joseph), a group of journalists interviewed the president in a joint...
The Malindi doomsday cult is global news and the Kenyan Government is keen to catch up. The Shakahola massacre was revealed not by police detective work but by media stringers and correspondents who doggedly tracked the weird goings-on at the Good News International Ministries ranch of Pastor Mackenzie Nthenge....
The recent coup d’etat in Niger that toppled the democratically elected government of president Mohamed Bazoum has highlighted a disturbing trend emerging in several West African countries: the resurgence of unconstitutional means to bring about regime change. In the last three years, there have been military takeovers in Burkina...
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...
I am a Time Traveler. I live in the nebulous space between today and tomorrow; somewhere between this second and the next. I see the future laid out before me during every waking moment. All the endless possibilities compete for my attention and I, a mathematician by default, continually...
It’s the new year and for most people that means goal-setting time. Not me though, this whole season is too triggering for me to do anything that requires that much brain power and intentionality. But what I do have in mind going into the new year is a small...
