|
|
Kenya: The Cutting Edge
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Nation (Nairobi)
COLUMN
26 April 2008
Posted to the web 25 April 2008
The ideal place to house ODM-K's Mutula Kilonzo and the Nairobi Metropolitan Development ministry, says J. Seda, is at the Mayor's Parlour. A rather cynical Seda adds: "After all, he is the minister for City Hall."
And it's perhaps because Seda can't see the potentially vast docket Mutula has to oversee the development of the metropolis that is home to 3 million people and the numerous fast-growing satellite townships around it.
Shame on the mannerless driver of a silver Mercedes 300 car, Reg No KAS ...Z , who stopped bang in the middle of Kigali Street, Nairobi, on April 21, at about 11.15am to buy airtime! yells BKN. "He called a shop attendant, who appeared with a scratch card, took the money, and went back for change. All this time, he held up traffic, with other motorists hooting impatiently. The driver proceeded to talk on his phone while driving down Kimathi Street, up Kimathi Lane and into the Kimathi Chambers car park."
Could the Kenya Bureau of Standards not be aware that those selling TV sets are short-changing customers? asks Abigon Mwasiri, who is now convinced that the sets are always an inch or two smaller than what they are purported to be. "What is said to be a 29-inch TV set in most shops and supermarkets, is actually 26 inches. The 32-inch TV I saw was three inches smaller. I just hope KEBS will do something about this."
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni didn't endear himself much to many Kenyans last December, when he rushed to congratulate President Kibaki after he was declared winner of the bungled presidential poll. Once hugely admired for his no-nonsense talk, having delivered Uganda from dictatorship, he is losing many of his old fans, including Pilot Juba, who says: "Museveni lost the fire when he changed into a dictator from a reformist. He seems not to know the difference between giving a speech and storytelling."
The shilling is divided into 100 cents, but the decimals are always rounded off to the nearest five cents, notes Mungai Kihanya, adding: "The reason being that this is the smallest denomination coin available." And that to Mungai, is the crux of the matter. Says he: "Some organisations, including the mobile phone service operators, don't round up the figures anymore. Can the Central Bank of Kenya confirm if this is legal?"
Maybe this will cheer up Jim Webo, who was disappointed about fast-rising Kenyan Hollywood star Edi Gathegi, being cast as a gangster in the newly-released film, Gone baby gone, in which he stars alongside Americans Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris, says Margaret Mugo, adding: "The actor, who was raised in California, has also played a doctor in the popular American medical TV series, House."
The talk about a looming food crisis must worry everybody, says Maina Gathu, adding: "But even without a problem of this magnitude, Kenya has never had a food surplus for about 30 years." With the escalating prices of food, Maina warns, many of us will soon drop into abject poverty. Food shortages are also likely to trigger a deadly conflict.
|
Have a surplus day, won't you!
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 The Nation. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
