Thursday 19 June 2014

Brr………it’s freezing:

It’s the cold season in Nyeri but longtime residents are telling me ‘ngoja July’!

But if this is a ‘kionjo’ of July, then do I really want to be around when July comes calling? It’s just round the corner so it won’t be long now. In anticipation, and based on the fact that it is just me and my lonesome self, freezing my butt and every other appendage off………no wife, no housemate, no one but me (reminds me of a Mexican soap on TV some years back), I decided to find a companion to give me some warmth in the cold of the night.

So I went out and bought a room heater at the second of the local supermarkets (the first one having exhausted its stocks already) that I visited and not a moment too soon as I was told by the very friendly attendant serving me because once July and her arctic conditions kick in, the heaters literally fly off the shelves and become scarcer than a politician visiting their rural villages after an election. I think I shall call her Malina goddess of the sun in Inuit mythology. Even the locals are grumbling that this is the coldest it has got this early in the year so are we about to experience a snow fall in Nyeri??

As they say, this is the kind of cold that comes to claim old men and as I am now rapidly approaching the shorter side of life………shorter as in the journey of life that I have travelled so far is longer than the one I am expected to travel from here on biblically speaking………….I do not wish to be claimed prematurely so Malina was a necessity. She will see to my needs to keep warm without a grumble!

This is the kind of cold that permeates every nook and cranny of the house and the office and causes ones toes to feel as if they are frost bitten and the tiled floor to feel like a skating rink. This is the season when mugs of steaming tea are quaffed in huge quantities to try and maintain a stable metabolism and you can be sure that hotels, cafes and restaurants are doing a roaring business in this regard.

Even when outdoors and the sun is shining, it feels as if it is titillating you with its promise of warmth because despite its shine, little warmth passes through to warm the air so it feels like a sun unable to penetrate a bubble wrap of cold frigid air. Grey skies are the order of the day with short intervals of sunshine without warmth and therefore clothes take forever to dry despite the sun shining and Mount Kenya’s peaks have not been seen for more than a month now. I feel sorry for those with many kids and therefore heavy loads of washing. Maybe the mountain has moved a few miles closer to town hence the unrelenting cold.

The guys who sell used woolen ‘kabutis’ the type that you see people in Europe & North America wearing at the peak of winter are doing a roaring business. These items are flying off the hangers and come to think of it, I must also get myself one before they become expensive since my new found companion Malina cannot possibly accompany me wherever I go to keep me warm. Hers is strictly to do so in the house.

I see gloves have also begun showing up on roadside displays and shops as have balaclavas a.k.a ‘bochori’ and these will soon be acceptable dressing accessories. Anything to keep the cold at bay! I’ll have to ask Malina if the gloves are necessary though before committing to them.

So there you have it, my first winter experience on the slopes of the great mountain “na mambo bado” so I am told! I am not sure I am looking forward to it but again beggars can't be choosers.



Tuesday 17 June 2014

Where is justice for the victims of terror?

Clearly we are on our own! We are under siege and have nowhere to run because our government has seemingly abdicated its responsibility in ensuring security and safety of its people.
How can heavily armed raiders waltz into the country without so much as a blip showing on the intelligence radar? How in this day and age of the internet, heightened awareness, shared intelligence and other clearly failed initiatives like ‘Nyumba Kumi’ can what seems like a well-planned, coordinated and financed mission have gone on unnoticed ? When the British government chose to close down its Consulate offices in Mombasa last week probably as a result of resourceful intelligence gathering pointing at an impending attack somewhere in the Coast what did the security organs do with that information or is it still sitting on someone’s in tray unread and gathering dust?

As we mourn the 48 people that have now been confirmed dead in Mpeketoni, Lamu County though eye witness accounts put the deaths at many more, hard questions need to be asked. God knows how many other lie dead somewhere in the bush while many more are injured. Perhaps in the fullness of time we shall get the correct numbers of death and injured Kenyans if the government statements are to be believed which is becoming increasingly difficult given the confusing and conflicting information issued through government statements during the Westgate siege 9 short months ago.

Boko Haram tactics of wanton and callous massacre of innocents and destruction of property seems to be the modus operandi in this instance and probably portends to bloodier attacks in other areas where Kenyans live with no security sooner rather than later if the apathy and ineptitude of those supposed to ensure the lives and properties of Kenyans are safeguarded is anything to go by. What is to prevent these terrorists from raiding bigger towns and settlements in Kenya with more loss of life and property for they can only be emboldened by their past successes?

But surely, we can’t keep on saying that we have competent security in place in Kenya while heavily armed raiders, looters, poachers, bandits, militants…….or whatever other name you want to call them come into the country with impunity, carry out their dastardly raids and attacks on our animals, innocent people and our police stations and then just vanish into the night after an orgy of violence lasting several hours. Is there no rapid response machinery in place to respond to just such situations? Don’t we have any military bases close to our borders with our neighbors that should respond to external threats from our warlike northern neighbors close to Mpeketoni, Lamu and other towns lying along the access route into Kenya from Somalia?

And why are those tasked with ensuring the safety and security of Kenyan still in office promising fire and brimstone to those responsible for the continuing terror attacks but doing nothing that seems to remove the threats from our midst? They should have been relieved of their duties through summary dismissal a long time ago and charged for dereliction of duty for they have the blood of almost 150 people that have been killed in terrorism related attacks since that fateful day in September 2013 when 67 people lost their lives at Westgate.

A nation under attack needs to be more responsive and better able to respond to well publicized threats to the security of its people and their property and it appears that they are clearly off the mark on this. We have been promised swift and tough action by the responsible government functionary, but this is not the first time that this tough talk has happened and nothing concrete can be seen.

Kenyans are crying out for justice for those who have lost their lives and been physically scarred by terrorism and the government must be unrelenting in the quest for the perpetrators and financiers of these terror activities before they close our country down.

Wednesday 4 June 2014

Of Brutal Husbands and Cuckquean wives:

Someone came to see me at my work place recently. It was a lady accompanied by her brother. The reason that she came to my office was to narrate a rather incredible story that she had been turning around in her mind in a state of indecision whether to visit or not for a few weeks or so she said.

Her story starts with seeing an email sent to her husband supposedly originating from Nyeri branch where I am based in regards to obtaining a loan to purchase a truck. Now the business of banking is all about confidentiality and there was no way I was going to reveal whether this person was a client of the bank or not or even if he had applied for the loan. In any case she had received such information from his private email which meant that she had breached the privacy that personal email entails.

So she starts on her spiel telling me about how she was the party behind the success of their businesses because when he married her he had nothing and then goes on to reveal the husbands lack of financial discipline and how their joint property was now the subject of court cases and auctioneers because he had not been servicing his personal debts including loans taken from other financiers for purchase of trucks. I let it go on for some time…..nothing like a good vent every now and then bofore I asked her if they still lived together and Part 2 of her saga began.

He had taken up with another woman after the successes she had brought him in life and in business even owning a residential / commercial building in one of the towns close to Nyeri jointly with him. He had then abandoned her for the bosom of another woman and was a brute of a man ready to pummel her at a moment’s notice. She in fact did look a little dented possibly from previous encounters with this man and even this visit to my office she revealed would get her killed by him if I was to say a word to this mysterious man.

With little else to say other than to give her assurances that the notes that I was writing would be of immense help to me were he to come calling for a loan, I wished her well and she went off her brother in tow.

I didn’t know what to think! If I had known the man, would I have alerted him to the fact that his wife had visited and I wanted assurances that he would service his loans? What if he went straight to where she was and killed her? Would I not be an accomplice to murder because she had mentioned in the presence of her brother that he was capable of killing her?

Could I rely on the testimony of a clearly bitter woman who had neither taken the trouble to identify herself nor brought any evidence to suggest that theirs was a legally binding marriage? What if this was just a jealous busy body intent on spoiling the reputation and goodwill of an innocent hard working man?

Today in banking we have various tools to confirm the credit worthiness or otherwise of anyone with a borrowing record so any red flag would surely pop up should I make an enquiry as I was required to do for any new loans. In addition we request for bank statements going back for the past 6 months to see someone’s financial history at whichever bank he has an account at to see that his financial dealings have been above board and then require that an account is opened with the bank thereafter. Were all these tools available to me in vain and should I therefore rely on the narrative of a total stranger for my appraisal should the man surface? What if she was telling the truth and the man was indeed a scoundrel?

Let’s wait and see if he turns up then I shall decide what to do!