Nairobi — Kenyan taxpayers were last week surprised to learn that more than 45 years after Independence, they were still paying $1.1 million each year to British colonial pensioners.

While some commentators said that they saw nothing wrong with the arrangement, others were not as accommodating.

Why, the critics asked, should Kenya's post-independence generation continue to pay those who invaded and colonised their country?

What's more, the British themselves have over the years refused to pay pensions to those East Africans who fought for them in the two World Wars, claiming that that responsibility now falls with the region's independent governments.

Pity the Mau Mau veterans who are so ambitious as to now hope for reparations...

The Southern Sudanese were not refugees in Kenya and Uganda for years for nothing, it seems.

Thanks to their sojourn in the two EAC countries, they seem to have learnt a thing or two about graft.

Last week, it emerged that the region's former finance minister, Kuol Athian, had irregularly signed grain supply contracts worth an incredible $2.7 billion, when his country's entire budget is just half of that.

Now, the World Food Programme has to feed the hapless Southern Sudanese like it did during the civil war.

The Cabinet that became a cupboard

And talking of learning bad manners from neighbours, Uganda will soon have a total of 71 ministers -- about the same as Kenya's unwieldy coalition government -- after parliament passed a motion to create two new portfolios.

A new post of State Minister for East African Affairs will be created, while the Office of the Attorney General will be split from the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, in effect creating an additional Cabinet post.

Currently, Uganda has 25 Cabinet ministers and 44 ministers of state (assistant ministers).

Ministers in matatus? Great idea

Kenya last week started implementing a programme to cut down on government officers' transport costs by replacing gas-guzzlers with cars with an engine capacity of just 1800cc.

Not to be outdone, Africa's latest trophy state, Ghana, unveiled what it called the Public Transport Day, in which all public officials except the president were expected to use public transport to work.

Most citizens described the effort as a poor "public relations gimmick."

Never look a gift envelope in the mouth

The World Bank and the IMF often preach to poor countries about the evils of corruption, but a recent incident seems to have confirmed suspicions that are the stuff of many a hushed conversation around Africa.

Senegal confirmed that it had given departing IMF official Alex Segura $200,000 as a parting gift.

When news of the "gift" leaked, the IMF tried to explain it away with a yarn only a kid could believe.

Mr Segura, the IMF spin went, had been given the money in an envelope that he did not open immediately as he was late for his flight -- which is why he didn't have time to hand over the money.