Orange launches mobile in Kenya

So, after taking its majority stake, the good people at France Telkom finally launched its global Ornage brand in Kenya. So now Kenyans have three mobile service providers.

Quite some good rates as well; Ksh 7 to call any landline, Telkom wireless (now called Orange Fixed Plus) and any other Orange number. And the assault base: Ksh 14 to call any other network. Now in Nairobi and Mombasa, and coming soon countrywide.

The good Frenchmen feel they will break Safaricom’s jinx on we good Kenyans. Will they? Well, the good people at KTN, the home of business will let us know.

7th August 1998, 10 years on; we live

May you find serenity and tranquility in a world you may not always understand. May the pain you have known and the conflict you have experienced give you the strength to walk through life facing each new situation with courage and optimism. Always know that there are those whose love and understanding will always be there, even when you feel most alone. May you discover enough goodness in others to believe in a world of peace. May a kind word, a reassuring touch, and a warm smile be yours every day of your life, and may you give these gifts as well as receive them. Remember the sunshine when the storm seems unending.

Teach love to those who hate, and let that love embrace you as you go out into the world. May the teachings of those you admire become part of you, so that you may call upon them. Remember, those whose lives you have touched and whose have touched yours are always a part of you, even if the encounters were less than you would have wished. It is the content of the encounter that is more important than the form.

May you not become too concerned with material matters, but instead place immeasurable value on the goodness in your heart. Find time each day to see beauty and love in the world around you. Realize that each person has limitless abilities, but each of us is different in our own way. What you feel you lack in the present may become one of your strengths in the future. May you see your future as one filled with promise and possibility. Learn to view everything as a worthwhile experience. May you find enough inner strength to determine your own worth by yourself, and not be dependent on another’s judgment of your accomplishments. May you always feel loved. – ANONYMOUS
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. – ALBERT EINSTEIN

RIP Lorna Laboso, Kipkalya Kones and other crash victims

Again.

This time it took Kipkalya Kones and Lorna Laboso. Also his (still unnamed) bodyguard and pilot.

Rest in Peace.

Grass will grow

TELEVISION

By Roald Dahl

The most important thing we’ve learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set —
Or better still, just don’t install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we’ve been,
We’ve watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone’s place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they’re hypnotised by it,
Until they’re absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don’t climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink —
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE! HE CANNOT THINK — HE ONLY SEES!
‘All right!’ you’ll cry. ‘All right!’ you’ll say,
‘But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!’
We’ll answer this by asking you,
‘What used the darling ones to do?
‘How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?’
Have you forgotten? Don’t you know?
We’ll say it very loud and slow:
THEY … USED … TO … READ! They’d READ and READ,
AND READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching ’round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious, it’s Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There’s Mr. Rate and Mr. Mole-
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They’ll now begin to feel the need
Of having something to read.
And once they start — oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They’ll grow so keen
They’ll wonder what they’d ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.

————

My, my, this has got to be one of my best poems of all time. 😀

The Real Achievers are in Sports!

As as a matter of principle and practice, I do not usually republish my pieces published elsewhere in my blog. However, I will make an exception for this particular opinion from the Daily Nation of Friday 11th April 2008. So here goes:

THE 14th US CHIEF JUSTICE, Earl Warren, was quoted by Sports Illustrated in 1968 as saying: “I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people’s accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man’s failures.” Of late, with the political temperatures in the country at fever pitch, I have come to a new appreciation of both the quote, and the truth in it. And after paying closer attention to the back pages of the papers, I was pleasantly surprised to note  that a great deal is happening in the world of sports. But, naturally, these have been eclipsed by the cat-and-mouse game played by politicians as they figure out how best to run our country down. It is as though they have not already done us the worst possible damage with their two month-long blame game. In fact, I now hold the view that even if the Cabinet issue is finally resolved, it won’t be too long before they find something else to disagree on with equal gusto. You will be amazed at the tomes of useful information tucked away in the last pages of newspapers. Believe it or not, the much derided Kenya Football Federation may be making more progress than our Government has done in the last four months. The Kenya Premier League matches are now being beamed live to a continental audience thanks to a unique partnership with continental pay-TV channel, Multichoice. This will be on for the next four years, at the end of which, the standard of Kenyan football is expected to be much higher than it is today. CLUBS ARE EARNING MONEY OUT  of the deal, and locally, football is now going professional. Coaches, players and fans are all upbeat about this development and the only reason why it probably didn’t make headlines is because we were all transfixed on the words ‘‘stalemate’’, ‘‘collapse’’, and their respective derivatives. Kenya’s rugby has never been better. The Bamburi Rugby Super Series just ended a very successful run last weekend with the Lions franchise taking home the crown. Not that it wasn’t contested; it was bitterly fought over. The newly-formed Nguvu Sharks side that brought together Nairobi-based universities posted  an impressive showing to emerge third overall. Now, that is what I call achievement. Internationally, the Kenyan seven-a-side team made great showings at both the Hong Kong and Adelaide outings. They fought gallantly, taking some deep bites and cuts and giving a few of their own in games that were certainly entertaining. It is for all of these reasons that the whole idea that President Kibaki and Prime Minister-designate Raila Odinga are unable to agree on a Cabinet appears like pure balderdash. After having hammered out the more contentious National Accord that ushered in peace, the small matter of who gets appointed to help in healing this country should be a walk in the park. At times like these, calls like those appearing on Facebook to privatise government are not only plausible, they may even turn out to be desirable.

Kibaki attacks my PC (str8 after the other 2)

OK people, I have reason to be proud. Straight after Raila nearly brought our entire network to it knees, Kibaki has checked in. Albeit more kindly. He just tells you why you need to keep him on the Big House on the Hill and what he has done, even giving you a choice to send him on his way.

Am talking about viruses. Like the Raila one, and the Kalonzo one rumoured to be spreading in a section of our network, this one came the same way.

Take a look. (I coudnt upload directly so Flickr came in handy)

And to make it even worse, it has a copyright (all rights reserved) and a designed by, of course both of which do not point to its creator. Whom by the way I must credit with some ingenuity. 

And (too many of these in this post) as I was writing this, it happened again!

Am out, peace

Mwakwere behaving badly, and on national TV!

Watching KTN Leo on their new political segment on Friday that kicked off with Transport minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere, I couldnt help thinking of ‘The Special One.’ For indeed that was what former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho thought of himself and as I must think the despicable Mwakwere thinks he is. Host Anne Ngugi had a hard time interviewing him and it was most commendable how she remained professional all through where most mortals would have lost their tempers. Immediately after asking her first question, Mwakwere rudely corrected her then kept mum without answering her. In fact, he kept his blunt and arrogant demeanour throughout the show even after two viewers pointed it out in the live call-in.

The most shocking was when a viewer asked about him having been spotted in the infamous Koinange Street red light district and he retorted ‘Huko Koinange nilienda na mamako?’ Mr Mwakwere, for a public figure, and a cabinet minister no less, that was just plain stupid, thoughtless and shameful. And it was on live TV! Its quite obvious your lousy Shirikisho party is a tribal outfit and no amount of arrogance can change that. And for God’s sake learn some manners! What if your child was watching that? Am ashamed to have a minister like you supposedly serving this country. The old adage says “pride comes before a fall.’ Be afraid Mwakwere, be very afraid.

I think there are two things that can be done to teach Mwakwere a lesson.

1. The media should give him a total blackout for a few days to show him just how important its role is and

2. Kenyans should call for an apology for his indecent behaviour on KTN this Friday September 21st, 2007.
Go, bloggers go! Go, KBWers go! Write at least one post censuring this fossil.

I wonder why anybody would throw away such a chance to tell the public what he is all about and what his party stands for. Knowing what television advertising costs and aware that any publicity is publicity, Mwakwere must be straight out of the second century AD. All he knows is insisting that he is in fact, the Party Leader of Shirikisho and not the chair, like we care. And you wonder why mayhem and pandemonium has creeped back to the matatu industry.

And all this time I thought Martha Karua was Kibaki’s most arrogant
minister!

 

The ice is melting, as is everything else noteworthy

 

 

You have probably heard this before: Mt Kenya and the other snowcapped mountains are losing their snow, and fast. Fall guy? Global warming. Experts predict that there could be no more snow left as soon as in the next 20-30 years. Incidentally, the theme for this year’s World Environment Day is ‘Melting Ice: A hot Topic?.’ It is normally formulated in Kenya, am told, over many ‘hot’ cigarettes if my source is to be believed.

In the meantime, innocent Kenyans continue to be beheaded every day and night thanks to the monster we call Mungiki. Particularly painful for me was the story of the twenty year-old tout who was beheaded and his private parts severed by suspected adherents of this sect. For some ‘leaders’ like George Nyanja, it is a funny weeping affair.  Only in Kenya.

Anyone noticed the rapid speed in which presidnetial visions are being launched? Does anybody really care about them? Me, I (the Kenyan I am) just need to know how my income is going to improve and how fast. End of story. Oh and if you promise to deal with Mungiki, +2.

But its not all bad news everywhere, the Nairobi Stock Exchange is growing. Apart from the already existing four segments, a new one- Technology – has been added to the roll following the listing of corporate ISP Access Kenya.