The elusive peace in South Sudan

The handshake that never held! 

When hundreds of political prisoners have remained caged, and rebel leader, Dr, Riek Machar insists on not arriving in #Juba at this particular time, even on official invitation of President Salva Kiir; And another rebel leader, Gen. Thomas Cirillo, insisting not to be part of the peace process; it leaves us all with more questions than answers.

QUESTIONS LINGER;

Already, many common people are creating scary rumours, about the war situation in the newest state in the world, South Sudan. For the umpteenth time, we read stories of accusations and counter-accusations; that some political actors in Juba are conspiring to make sure peace in South Sudan does not happen. People are asking some important questions of the two key actors; President Salva Kiir and Dr. Riek Marcha. That, why can’t they (#Kiir & #Machar) be true to their own words, and end the suffering of people in their country? That when will the armed conflict there end?

They see it has already led to serious human rights violations. Where there were mass atrocities against civilians and killings along ethnic lines. Abductions, rape, and sexual violence were rampant. Villages were destroyed. That is why people are right to demand that the key players show some honesty this time round in order to get peace.

MY TAKE:

If genuine peace should return to baby SS, all stakeholders involved ought to bring humility to the discussion table. Here, truth and accountability are high among the missing pieces of the puzzle in efforts to stop the five-year brutality that has no doubt, left an ineradicable mark.

It is commendable that the recent progress in peace process has brought Nairobi, Entebbe, Khartoum and Addis Ababa on board.

To join hands and try to make the government and the rebels of South Sudan and all others grow up and ink a permanent cease fire and power-sharing deal. The efforts are paying off because we see that President Kiir has already offered amnesty to all those who pointed a rocket launcher or a machine gun towards his direction.

United National Security Council (UNSC) intervened, threatening violators of the peace process with sanctions. Travel bans and asset freezes on individuals were also mooted. Even with these measures, there were still violations here and there, and there have been occasional setbacks in the peace process.

After Dr. Machar fled South Sudan in 2016, President Kiir always maintained a stance of unwillingness to talk peace. And the various peace initiatives that were proposed fell short of achievement. Against this non-commitment to peace as seen from the past, clearly, we know too well that signing agreements on paper is no big deal these days.

The big deal is to follow through with the implementation of the terms of the signed agreements.

Looking from the side-lines, the international community has been itching to weigh in, promising sanctions if Kiir and Machar do not comply. Mr. President accepted talks with his foe. And in September, an agreement was reached between Kiir’s group and Machar’s.

Now Machar becomes the first vice president of the south. And all the other loose ends of the agreement should seamlessly fall in place. Officials in Juba must now pull their weights in the same direction in order for peace to happen.

Otherwise, a regional force should be on hand to swing into action, to keep the peace process on track, so that the promises are not breached. The expectation is that the ugly days of the past are firmly behind to pave way for peace to prevail. But it will take honesty by all parties.

HONESTY OF PURPOSE;

We need president Kiir to be genuinely honest about the decision to call Machar to the high table and also free all the political captives from prison.

Likewise, we expect Machar to be humble enough to allow peace to happen in South Sudan. To avoid setting tough conditions that ensures all parties go divergent ways again.

Let us pray and hope for sustained peace to happen in South Sudan this time.

Being idle could be good

Tweeting on the ferry, blogging on the bus, chatting on the sidewalk, skyping on the zebra crossing, emailing at work. We are even raising our kids using gadgets!!
We communicate, constantly, everywhere. Every day I see people in Nairobi messaging while walking, crossing the street, up and down the stairs, on the elevator, in the bathroom and even while driving (yikes!).
The social urge of communication has grown exponentially in the past decade and is now filling every idle moment of our lives.
Some may argue that this continuous communication is annoying and mostly useless, it makes people unfocused and distracted.
Some may say that it is a way of relaxing, of feeling always in contact with somebody. The obvious fact is that these compulsive activities are occupying some specific spaces in our day, spaces that otherwise would be, or would seem to be, empty.
 In the visual arts, the urge by the artist of filling every empty space with details is called horror vacui, the fear of emptiness. The resulting style is frequently overcrowded and suffocating, and not surprisingly, it is originally the artistic style of mentally ill people.

Perhaps some spaces are meant to be left empty, to give harmony and breath to the whole picture of our day.
While endeavoring to use every single moment of “blank” time to indulge in addictive and distractive habits, indeed something does get lost.
As an audit consultant, my work requires intense focus on problems for long periods of time. The more I grow older and (hopefully) wiser, the more I appreciate the few pauses and moments of idleness in my day and protect them from any other casual distraction.

When riding the matatu home, for instance, I make it a point to do nothing else, not to force upon myself any phone calls, e-mails, video games or activities other than being aware of my surroundings.
It takes a good self-awareness to understand the importance of doing nothing.

Just sit there and enjoy the scenery. You will probably learn something that you'd have otherwise missed if you had your focus on you smart gadget!

80% women are prostitutes

Question: Who is a prostitute?
Answer: 80% of the women populations are prostitutes!

Now, dear ladies and women alike, before you start throwing your tampons and pads at me, you may have to sit back and let me defend my research! You see, in my theory, there are 2 kinds of prostitutes: the WILD and DOMESTIC prostitutes!

The wild ones are the ones that stands in the hotels, bars, lodges and back-streets for
commercial sex trade while the domestic ones are the so-called girlfriends we keep at home with the false impression that we have a decent clean babe all to ourselves, but unfortunately when we are away they sneak out to have sex with other guys and sugar daddies, now tell me how are they different from the roadside prostitute?

My Brothers, I see, it is the same thing. So whether you admit it or not if your wife sleeps around with your milkman when you are not in town, then you have a domestic prostitute in your house. So don’t judge other men who sleep with the wild prostitutes in hotels because you are in their shoes too.
Having said that, let the men speak based on the below observations:

1. Believe it or not, prostitutes are more disease free than the so-called clean babes. This is coz every man thinks her job is risky so there is need to protect himself with a condom and at the end 100 men may sleep with her but with a condom but with the so-called decent clean and homely babes, the man-friend thinks she is decent so he doesn't need a condom, tomorrow another man will think the same and do it with her again without using a condom and the cycle continues. At the end she has 100 men who have slept with her without condom yet she still parades herself as the homely, decent, clean, mummy’s pet babe, and the cycle begins again. What a shame!

2. A prostitute does not expect you to remember her birthday, not to talk of buying her gifts. You don’t also have to take care of her responsibilities like buying her body cream, paying for her hair do, etc. Yet you still enjoy maximum sex for a little fee which cannot be compared to the expenses we spend on our so-called clean babes. 

A friend of mine said his girlfriend won’t let him touch her or even talk to her because he didn’t give her a particular amount of money she requested. If this young man must give her that money before he would touch her then what is the difference between her and the prostitute out there?

3. You don’t need to remember the safe period of prostitutes because none of them would come back telling you they are pregnant.

4. Prostitutes won’t compel you to get married to them as the last thing on their mind is marriage.

5. A prostitute does not expect you to satisfy them, they would do anything to satisfy you and make you come for them again unlike the clean homely babes who expect you to take them to
cloud nine while they only lie on their backs and spread their legs like frozen chicken.

Now, with the aforementioned reason, why won’t MEN go for Prostitutes, tell me? And why are we still seeing the same old WILD prostitutes in the bar corridors while decent babes die of HIV out there?

Africa is taking over the Tech world

Africa’s embrace of technology turns two common assumptions inside out – that tech breakthroughs happen in rich countries, and that Africa needs basic services before it can use high-tech solutions. What Africa’s start-ups are doing is using technology to build those basic services – and a whole lot more.

In fact it’s in Africa where some of the world’s cutting-edge innovation is happening right now.

Technology is improving people’s lives – especially mobile services and applications. With minimal fixed line phone infrastructure, the continent has embraced the opportunity to leapfrog existing technologies, becoming a world leader in the delivery of such critical services through innovation.

Take JamboPay, for example.

JamboPay, which was founded in 2009, now has more than 5,000 institutional clients and processes more than $500 million in payments every year. The company has a presence in Kenya, Tanzania and Senegal and is expanding rapidly.

Jambopay has facilitated low-cost solutions to critical public problems and transformed the relationship between citizens and their governments. This is an African solution to a world problem.

In Sierra Leone, fishing communities have used a combination of mobile phones and GPS-enabled cameras to report on foreign fishing boats stealing from their waters.

Many of these systems struggle to bridge glaring gaps in existing services. African farmers, for example, need better access to data, which means establishing more and efficient weather stations. The agricultural information service, Esoko, can provide weather data to farmers in Ghana, for example, which suggests that meteorological agencies need to partner with the private sector.

One hurdle that technology innovation faces in Africa is the lack of power. About 620 million Africans live without access to electricity, but mobile phones need to be charged and transmitter towers need power. Access to energy is a constraint for social and economic progress all over the continent.

Africa is a continent of innovation and creativity, though – so technology itself is helping to break down the barriers to energy. Off-grid electricity is growing fast. Solar-powered phone chargers are becoming more common across the continent.

Technology could also help to bring down another barrier to progress in Africa. East Asian countries successfully converted their domestic savings into investment, facilitating their transformations to middle-income countries. But Africa has so far largely failed in this respect.

In most parts of the world, banks provide the major interface for savers. But Africa lacks bank branches, especially in rural areas, and the costs of banking are prohibitive for the overwhelming majority.

So how can Africa mobilize domestic savings? Technology can enable peer-to-peer lending – cutting out the middleman, removing the need for retail banks, and even leapfrogging existing business models.

Using mobile phones to make payments is another promising avenue. In Africa, just 23% of people have a bank account, but majority have access to a mobile phone.

Kenya’s mobile payment system, M-PESA, has shown the way. In just 10 years, M-PESA has enabled 25 million Kenyans to send and receive money electronically.

A promising offshoot is a micro-insurance health cover service that allows subscribers to contribute to health insurance via M-PESA. NHIF for example has adopted this concept while all banks have since integrated mobile transactions into their banking products and services.

Technology has been key to many of Africa’s most exciting developments in recent years. Watch out for new pan-African social media platforms emerging to challenge the global giants of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. WhatsApp will be relegated to the periphery as the world looks to Africa for tech solutions.

New technologies will rapidly transform societies in the future. The robot generation will start in Africa. The action is already happening in Nairobi. Africa is leading

Shylock business is a rip-off

Walking around Odeon Cinema in Nairobi, you can’t miss the signposts: Instant Loans on Items. Here, you submit an electrical appliance for a loan and then sign a contract. Breaching the contract means you lose the item and you cannot claim it once the repayment deadline has passed.

Shylocks, who are basically loan sharks, bank on the sanctity of a contract law that a borrower signs. These contracts are worded to act as a snare to the borrowers who usually misinterpret them. Most end up failing to meet the deadline and their items get auctioned.

The popularity of Shylock dens in Nairobi is usually fueled by lengthy and tiring procedures in obtaining loan from mainstream financial institutions.

From the horse’s mouth:

“I’ve been in Shylocking business for 5 years now and it’s thriving because people want instant cash and the prolonged bank processes make Kenyans avoid the financial institutions,” says Mr Makanyaga* who operates around Odeon Cinema in the capital Nairobi. “We give you cash against a product, preferably an electrical appliance. By looking at the item, I can tell the amount it will fetch in the market if one fails to comply with the contract.”

This acts as security, often for a shorter period typically seven days.

 “If you don’t repay the loan with the interest we can either negotiate you pay the interest first and I keep the item as you continue looking for money or I sell it,” adds Mr. Makanyaga*.

The risks:

Shylocking is not a bed of roses.

Sometimes the sharks have to deal with stolen items and this makes them prone to being sued in case they are caught. Besides, they may be given faulty or obsolete items and end up losing money since they cannot resell them.

While talking to Makanyaga*, a guy who looks drunk arrives and asks him for a Ksh500 loan. Taking his Samsung phone, Makanyaga* takes his contract note book and after scribbling something he counterchecks the phone and gives him the money. With a repayment period of seven days, the borrower is supposed to bring back Ksh650, a 30% interest. “That’s how we survive and we barely make losses,” he chuckles adding that he once gave someone Ksh50, 000 as a loan.

Eunny*, an accountant with a city-based company, is a frequent visitor to loan sharks’ dens. She says that when she has a pressing need, she turns to the Shylocks because they are the last option and getting money from them is easy. “Sometimes you find yourself in a fix; there is a pressing need and with a budgeted salary you have to turn to the Shylocks to meet this emergent need,” She volunteers to tell.

 “When you know there is a place you can get easy cash, you become addicted to it. Although the interest is high and the initiative makes people lazy, you are left with no choice.” Eunny*, like many urban dwellers, have resigned to this kind of rip-off.

Eunny was introduced to the Shylocking business in 2014 by her then workmate and she has created a rapport with the sharks since she is a regular borrower. “When you become a regular customer you create a mutual understanding with the lender and he may decide to scrap off some money when you don’t default; that way the loan burden becomes less.”

Because they are unregulated, Shylocks take advantage of gullible Kenyans and weave the contract in a way that sets the borrower to default so that they can sell the mortgaged item at a higher price than the loan. This is how they thrive.

Professional opinion;

The government should legalize shylocking in Kenya because the aim is to help a needy Kenyan at a fee. There is need to draft laws that can regulate the business so that they can start competing with the regulated financial institutions.

Only this way will there be sanity and benefit for the government. Otherwise, this is a rip-off to struggling entrepreneurs and businesses.

I can’t even talk about virtual money lenders like Tala, Branch, M-shwari and the like!

Making a case for youthful Agriculture

For a while now I’ve wondered about the future of agriculture in Kenya. It has been the Country’s predominant sector since the early days of independence, and even though a lot of activities are undertaken, the potential for growth still remains. Question is; are Kenyans willing to take up that charge? Or more specifically, are Kenya’s youth willing to do so?

One of the typical composition questions featured in English debates in primary schools when I was younger was: “The Farmer and the Doctor: Who Is More Important?” I always grappled with that question, but more often than not, it came down to the farmer. Why? Because basic human instinct seeks nourishment before other needs or wants. Maslow’s theory confirms this, and it’s also true in our everyday lives. 

Also, when you think about traditional African societies, medical practitioners (herbalists) relied on plants (grown by farmers) to treat their patients. So it would seem like the presence of the farmer with his food and plants for medicine gave birth to the doctor. In essence,

Either ways, I’m not here to argue about whether the doctor or the farmer is more important.

If my guess is right, thousands of school children are still contemplating that question in their essays. What I’d like to talk about though, is the youth’s perception of agriculture.

Thanks to globalization and western influence, many African youth look down upon careers in agriculture. Particularly with regards to farming and fishing! They think it’s beneath them. Let me correct myself. Since I’m also an African youth, we, as a collective, think it’s beneath us. This is really incredulous! How can an honorable trade such as farming, that essentially offers the opportunity of life and health, be a second-thought or second-class career option?

And it’s not just the youth who think this way. Adults do too. Many parents will say, “oh my daughter/son is going to grow up to be a medical doctor, lawyer, or teacher.” Very few say “my child will be a farmer or fisher when he/she grows.” Why is this the case? We seriously need to think about this. Especially since our main economic strengths lie in agriculture. If we ever want to advance into strong manufacturing and services sectors, we’re gonna need to fill up our breadbaskets to the brim and have extra in storage.

The agricultural sector needs us. Without the human resource base in that sector, we’re basically screwed. We’re letting our key strengths go to waste, and in addition to that, we’re paying a dear price for it by having to import food we can grow ourselves and dealing with food shortages and crises.

Food security is the essential ingredient to keeping humanity afloat. A hungry (wo)man is an angry (wo)man. And when Otieno, Kemboi, Wafula, Mumbua or Habib are angry, nobody else is happy. When you’re hungry, you’re not only irritable; you can’t concentrate until you get something in your system.

The great news is that in this era of technological advancement, there are many sexy agricultural jobs out there. Yep, you heard right. We need to change our idea about what agriculture entails because there are so many components to it. For instance, If you feel like you don’t have the muscles necessary to till the soil, you can concentrate on helping design and invent new technologies to make that process easier.

Not convinced yet? Okay. Let’s say you’re more interested in legal structures. You can do research and evaluate current labor laws governing the agricultural sector – both at the local and international levels (within the framework of the WTO for instance).

Figure yourself as more of a business person? No worries. You can help develop and implement marketing schemes to help farmers get as much profit as their hard work deserves.

Interested in climate change? You can help develop new, ‘green’ initiatives to keep the agricultural sector, well, green. And for those of us who think women are no good as farmers, think again. Women contribute the most to the subsistence agricultural sector in many African and developing nations.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to perception. If your window of perception about agriculture is limited to days under the sun toiling for hours on end, then you’ve got another thing coming to you.

We’re in a new era with new possibilities. And even if you do end up sweaty and panting under the tropical sun in a field of crop, is that so bad? You would be participating in one of the most honorable trades (in my opinion) out there, and you’d be contributing more than your quota to humanity. Think about it. It’s time to make agriculture sexy.

A country on its knees: A tale of Agriculture in Kenya

The Kenyan Government considers agriculture as the cornerstone for socio-economic prosperity. Agriculture is placed at the helm of all national development blue prints; vision 2030 and the Jubilee government manifesto among others. In fact a mega project like the Galana Kulalu irrigation project fortifies this!

With our state of economy, agriculture will for many years to come remain key to ensuring food and nutritional security for Kenyans, mostly small-scale farmers who draw a living from it. It is also a main propeller to our industrialization (as we await coal and oil exploration and exploitation in Lamu and Turkana) by virtue of being the principal wellspring of raw materials, thanks to the adoption of modern farming technologies. All these success stories about agriculture become more real only with favorable policy framework.

 Kenya, like many other countries, is faced with the challenge of increasing population and rising competition for agribusiness both in the regional and international arena. Meeting this would mean breeding a crop of young farmers who will in days to come fill the gaps left by ageing farmers considering that the average age of a Kenyan farmer is 65 years. Basically, agriculture is practiced by pensioners! A retrospective follow up of these “young farmers” depicts the policy injustice that the Government is doing to this golden sector.

 Related notification uncovers that the formal platforms, more so in the primary and secondary institutions, for the dissemination of farming techniques to the “hope of tomorrow” are either breaking down, inadequate or lacking trainers as a result of the emerging socio-economic challenges.

By nature, human beings will only pick what is perceived to be important. It may be a shock that agriculture education may no longer be a single entity subject in secondary schools, as it happened in primary school. This is imminent. There is a decline in the number of students taking agriculture in secondary schools, where it’s also an optional subject. Now is it really logical for a system to function without a spine?

 The negative discernment that agriculture does not compete equally in the job market could be one of the major reasons. The subject itself is downplayed by both parents and students, who by their gender and social upbringing opt for the ‘marketable subjects’. Agricultural programs in schools are stereotyped to be primarily for the males. How practical is it that a kid raised up in the city will pick up agriculture after school, which throughout their education has been an option? Their parents, who by default are the role models, do not practice agriculture.

 An ‘enterprising parent’ would rather use theirs plots available to establish a real estate rather than use it for agriculture. Those with interest lack the adequate exposure to the practical aspects of the subject, with teaching increasingly becoming superficial and exam oriented. Consequently, for a long time, there hasn’t been an effective way to integrate secondary agricultural education with most of the lucrative courses that are offered in the universities, which almost all the students are nowadays struggling to pursue.

As such, it would be more appropriate for guardians, educators, contrivers and policy makers to encourage agriculture education right from primary school.

 To develop self-dependence, problem-solving abilities and resourcefulness, learning agriculture will occupy students with activities that direct them to various agricultural ventures which may not exigently require high capital to head start, but significantly boost the economy. Agriculture can never flourish in isolation; increasing budgetary allocation for research may make it regain the lost glory.

I don’t think people in Europe got handouts in order for them to innovate and eliminate poverty. We would therefore greatly enhance this conversation by suggesting how we can create value in our people without paying them to be helped.

I have noted with gratitude that some of my readers make very constructive comments.  This form of crowd-sourced solution is what will lead to a sustainable solution, and I urge them to please let us continue thinking together.

Share this article to the corridors of power. All stakeholders and law-makers need to support agriculture - it is the only way out of poverty for the multitudes.