Politics, The Standard, and the Mau Forest Story

In the haze of accusations and counter-accusations reported in The Standard between MPs over plans to evict illegal settlers from Mau Forest, not even a paragraph is devoted to the views of the people most directly affected by the proposed policy—the settlers themselves. For The Standard, the frame is simple: a prominent Kalenjin politician (William Ruto) is feuding with members of his own party (who include Prime Minister Raila Odinga) over Mau Forest. We are asked, implicitly, to contemplate the possible consequences of this feud on Ruto’s fortunes, and those of Odinga in the Rift Valley. That’s the point of the endless quotes from MPs unhappy with Ruto’s position on the issue, which has now shifted from a story about the forest and the settlers living in it to a story about the future political fortunes of two prominent ODM politicians.

Dubious Survey on Kenyan Reading Habits

A survey reportedly finds that 85 per cent of Kenyans who can read had “read something in the last one year.” The figure is based on data from 950 respondents, who answered a questionnaire from the Kenyan National Library Services. While the number should please those hoping to make a living by writing, it doesn’t reflect the reality of reading habits in Kenya. For one thing, as the Daily Nation points out, the act of reading was too broadly defined. Second, anecdotal evidence shows that too many of us still read books ONLY to pass exams (after the certificate or degree is earned, few people ever look at books again.)

Parenthetically: Of course buying books and reading them are two different things. My social network includes people with advanced degrees. Except for those in academia for whom buying and reading books is a way of life, very few of us buy books, and some of those who buy books don’t actually read them. If you visit the apartment of a typical middle-class Nairobian, you’re more likely to find, not bookcases, but a TV set, a big stereo, CDs and video tapes. (Oh, and the daily newspaper is likely to be seen lying on an end table—unread.)

The Economics of Long-Distance Running

Yet another U.S. journalist ventures into the villages of Western Kenya to try to understand why Kenyan runners are so good at long-distances races. This time, the subject is Salina Kosgei, winner of the 2009 Boston Marathon. There’s no revelation in the story—we’ve heard all this before: the high altitude, the mild weather, the unpaved roads, and “poverty and lack of opportunity.” As an illustration of that last factor, Salina tells the reporter, matter-of-factly, that she runs for the money.

One interesting tidbit, though: the reporter observes that Salina “has a prison job [in Kakamega] waiting for her any time she wants to claim it.” No worries about losing a civil-service job that some might think she doesn't need. She has all the time in the world to train, exercise, compete and then try to reconnect with her husband and two children, who have to endure long separations while Salina seeks money and glory abroad.

The Kenyan government clearly bends over backwards to keep athletes like Salina happy (the benefits to the nation’s image abroad are obvious). It’s plain, too, that Kenyan athletes, at least those at the top of the heap, are becoming—as in some other societies—a privileged class by virtue of their talent, their earnings and our adoration of their feats abroad. It's hard not to envy them: the fame, the money, the houses, the cars, and that special treatment from the powers that be.

U.S-Based Somalis Answer A Call to Jihad

A domestic-terrorism probe focusing on 20 Somali-born youngsters is drawing attention in the United States. Most of the men lived in Minneapolis and St Paul in Minnesota. They are said to have traveled to Somalia beginning in 2007 and are suspected of joining the Islamist group Al Shabaab, the al-Qaida-inspired outfit that has forced Kenyan officials to re-examine the country’s security priorities.

The New York Times asked Zainab Hassan, a Somali community activist in Minnesota, to help shed some light on what might have lured these young men to join Al Shabaab. Hassan writes, “several factors might have caused these young men to go back [to Somalia]: lack of cultural identity and belonging [in America]; the involvement and atrocities committed by Ethiopian forces in Somalia during the time of their disappearance; and a desire to help solve the problems in their country of origin.”

Since many of these men went to America as little children, it’s hard to believe that a strong sense of nationalism for a “homeland they barely knew” impelled them to join Al Shabaab. While Ethiopian “atrocities” and the “problems” of Somalia may have provided some impetus, these factors are weak explanations for the men’s actions. The most convincing factor is hatred of America, or what Hassan calls “lack of cultural identity and belonging,” and what the the Times renders as “barriers of race and class, religion and language.”

Words, Words, Words...

Someone needs to tell Agriculture Minister William Ruto to shut up. Of course I understand the impetus: public gathering, television cameras, microphones. The self-respecting politician, the folk hero--the leader of his sheep, as Koigi Wa Wamwere might put it--feels compelled to speak up, though he has nothing urgent or interesting to say. There's the envelope of course, so he mouths off. Does Ruto know that the International Criminal Court prosecutes only suspects accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes?

Open the Envelope Now?

A Kenyan pressure group has urged International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo to open the Waki envelope “immediately.” Transparency makes sense: for one thing, disclosing the names of the key post-poll violence suspects would put the Internet rumour mills out of service. Those who have read the Waki report “closely” (admittedly, a minority of mostly lawyers, journalists and academics) say the unnamed suspects fall into two groups: those in the Rift Valley who planned initial attacks on non-Kalenjin residents; and those in central Kenya who masterminded the reprisals. Opening the envelope would end the speculation surrounding some big names who may have had nothing to do with the killings and displacements.

Two Options for KBC: Shutter It or Sell It

Kenya Broadcasting Corporation reportedly needs an infusion of up to Sh1 billion from the government or it might go belly-up. My hunch is that although the corporation is ailing, pumping more of our tax money into it isn’t the best option. The public broadcaster is a victim of its own incompetence, and giving it more money is tantamount to rewarding failure. It should be allowed to die or be sold to someone who can turn it into a viable competitor.

At a Parliamentary committee hearing on KBC’s future, Information Minister Samuel Poghisio is reported to have said, “KBC is still strategic and it should be subsidised and developed. It broadcasts in 19 vernacular languages reaching communities that private media houses avoid.”

I don’t know what the minister means by the word STRATEGIC, but I can assure him that, in our household, no one listens any more to those Kisumu-originating, annoyingly inaudible Medium-Wave broadcasts in Ekegusii. There’s a better alternative based in Nairobi that I’m sure the minister knows well about. Sometimes it seems that all of Kisiiland listens to Egesa FM these days. For us, subsidising the Kisumu Ekegusii operation makes little sense.