WATCH WHAT YOU SEARCH....BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING

The National Security Agency has obtained direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet giants, according to a top secret document obtained by the Guardian.
The NSA access is part of a previously undisclosed program called Prism, which allows officials to collect material including search history, the content of emails, file transfers and live chats, the document says.
The Guardian has verified the authenticity of the document, a 41-slide PowerPoint presentation – classified as top secret with no distribution to foreign allies – which was apparently used to train intelligence operatives on the capabilities of the program. The document claims "collection directly from the servers" of major US service providers.
Although the presentation claims the program is run with the assistance of the companies, all those who responded to a Guardian request for comment on Thursday denied knowledge of any such program.
In a statement, Google said: "Google cares deeply about the security of our users' data. We disclose user data to government in accordance with the law, and we review all such requests carefully. From time to time, people allege that we have created a government 'back door' into our systems, but Google does not have a back door for the government to access private user data."
Several senior tech executives insisted that they had no knowledge of Prism or of any similar scheme. They said they would never have been involved in such a program. "If they are doing this, they are doing it without our knowledge," one said.
An Apple spokesman said it had "never heard" of Prism.
The NSA access was enabled by changes to US surveillance law introduced under President Bush and renewed under Obama in December 2012.
The program facilitates extensive, in-depth surveillance on live communications and stored information. The law allows for the targeting of any customers of participating firms who live outside the US, or those Americans whose communications include people outside the US.
It also opens the possibility of communications made entirely within the US being collected without warrants.
Disclosure of the Prism program follows a leak to the Guardian on Wednesday of a top-secret court order compelling telecoms provider Verizon to turn over the telephone records of millions of US customers.
The participation of the internet companies in Prism will add to the debate, ignited by the Verizon revelation, about the scale of surveillance by the intelligence services. Unlike the collection of those call records, this surveillance can include the content of communications and not just the metadata.
Some of the world's largest internet brands are claimed to be part of the information-sharing program since its introduction in 2007. Microsoft – which is currently running an advertising campaign with the slogan "Your privacy is our priority" – was the first, with collection beginning in December 2007.
It was followed by Yahoo in 2008; Google, Facebook and PalTalk in 2009; YouTube in 2010; Skype and AOL in 2011; and finally Apple, which joined the program in 2012. The program is continuing to expand, with other providers due to come online.

Do we need the railwayline, or is it a jubilee white elephant

So far, the raging debate on the proposed standard gauge railway is focusing on dodgy procurement. 

There are also questions about the cost although, on the whole, it is not evident that it is grossly overpriced. Many people seem to be under the impression that it is otherwise a good investment. It is not.

Three hundred billion shillings is not loose change. If it proceeds, it will be the biggest loan that we have borrowed to date. It will increase our external debt by close to one third, our debt to GDP ratio by nine percentage points and our interest payments on external debt by 50 per cent. 

The annual repayment of the principal amount translates to over Sh600 million per county - you may want to think what your county could do with an extra Sh600 million every year for the next 10 years.

If we are going to put ourselves in debt to this extent, we need to be sure we are getting value for money. Are we?

I have a simple back-of-the-envelope method I use to check whether a project makes commercial sense.

At the very minimum, a commercial project should pay the cost of capital. Let us put the cost of capital at 7.5 per cent per year, about the rate that we can expect to pay on the sovereign bond we are about to float. This means that the project needs to generate a surplus of Sh22.5 to pay for capital.

To generate this kind of surplus, the railway would have to have a turnover of at least Sh120 billion. Assuming that it charges the prevailing tariff of US$1,000 per container, it would need to carry 1.4 million 20-foot containers a year, 4,000 a day. That would take about 48 very long trains every 24 hours. The busiest single line railways in the US, for instance, run 20 trains a day.

What about cargo? The Mombasa port is now handling containers about one million TeUs (twenty feet unit equivalent). That means the new rail would have to enjoy a monopoly of Mombasa port cargo to pay its way. This is probably why the Chinese financiers are asking for guaranteed cargo. But what they do not seem to appreciate is that the Kenya State does not have the same command and control power that the Chinese State has.

One can argue that the cargo volume will grow. That is true. But we are not demolishing the old line. And the new one comes only to Nairobi at first.

It does not make sense to load cargo going beyond Nairobi on the new line only to transship it to the old line that could have carried it from Mombasa in the first place.

TANZANIA'S CENTRAL LINE

More importantly, the region is building competing transit corridors not least our very own LAPSSET. But the most immediate competition is Tanzania’s central line. This line goes from Dar-es-Salaam to Isaka, about 100 km south of Mwanza.  It is being extended to Kigali, with a branch line to Musongati in Burundi. At 1,400 km, the distance from Dar to Kigali is 25 per cent shorter than Mombasa to Kigali.

If our Chinese friends make good their pledge to build the mother of all ports at Bagamoyo, Mombasa will have a hard time competing for transit cargo to and from Rwanda and beyond. 

The Lamu port, if completed, will also take a chunk of domestic and northbound cargo. And Djibouti is also angling for South Sudan and Ethiopian business as well. No massaging of data, or growling at critics, will make this railway make commercial sense.  

The long and short of it is that the railway will be paid for by taxpayers’ money. Our constitution has set out five principles that public finance must fulfill. Two of these are pertinent.

Article 201(c) requires inter-generational equity that is fairness between current and future generations. Article 201(d) requires that public money be used in a prudent and responsible manner. Let us take 201 (d) first.

The fact that the railway cannot pay its way does not mean it is imprudent. It may be that it has huge indirect public benefits which are not captured by the revenues -- what we call in economics positive externalities, are very high.

A good example of this was JF Kennedy’s mission to put man on the moon. Its direct economic returns were zero, but the technological advances it engendered are said to far exceed its cost.

But it is hard to see what the public benefits beyond those that accrue to the owners of the cargo that is carried are. And the fact that alternative modes of carrying cargo on the same route, including modernising the existing one, means that even the additional economic benefits to those are not that significant.  

LAMU TO THIKA

If we must build a railway, it is doubtful that this particular one is the best value we can get for our money. It seems to me that a new line from Lamu to Thika represents better value for money. Three reasons.

First, it is a cheaper and faster alternative to the proposed LAPSSET route, as there is already a line from Thika to Nanyuki that only needs rehabilitation. All it would require to make LAPSSET a reality is a container terminal in Nanyuki and a good road from Nanyuki to Juba, as the road to Ethiopia is already under construction. The economic rationale for replicating the Mombasa-Nairobi line when we are struggling to secure funding for the LAPSSET infrastructure has totally escaped me.

Second, it would connect both the Northern Corridor and the proposed LAPSSET corridor to both Mombasa and the new Lamu port. Choice for the customer, and competition between the two ports, can only be a good thing.

Third, it will stimulate development of the historically marginalised regions along its route. It will carry livestock and livestock products to the ports for export, coal and cement from Kitui, and food from the million acres of the lower Tana that we are about to irrigate.  

Let us now consider 201(c), the inter-generational equity provision. This provision requires that we do not burden future generations unnecessarily, and vice-versa. It would be unjust to borrow money to consume today, for example, to throw the Golden Jubilee party, which would be repaid in 20 years.

That is obvious enough. What is less obvious is that it is equally unjust to tax poor people today for an investment that will benefit future generations who, in all likelihood, will be wealthier than we are today. 

It should be readily apparent that taxing people who don’t have enough to eat to finance a project whose benefits will be realised in 50 years is as unconscionable as burdening our children and future generations with debt whose benefits they will not enjoy.

BORROW LONG-TERM

So, how else then can we finance such a long-term investment as a good railway project? There are various ways, but the most obvious is to borrow as long term as possible. As it happens, we do have access to long term cheap loans from the World Bank -- 40-year maturity, 10-year grace period at 0.5 per cent interest. 

If it were World Bank IDA or the African Development Bank’s (ADF) money, the repayment works out to a third of the Chinese loan, and we will not start paying until 2024, by which time the economy will be much bigger, there will be a lot more cargo to carry, and in effect, the public financial burden less onerous.

But this funding will not be available for long, as it is only available to the poorest countries, a status that we will soon graduate from. What a smart government would do is take advantage of this to finance as many long term capital projects as the World Bank and AfDB are willing to finance.

There is no shortage of commercially viable infrastructure projects, energy ones notably, for the Chinese to finance. At any rate, the Chinese are likely to win most of the construction work even when it is competitively tendered.

It’s hard to see what is smart about getting into the kind of murk they now find themselves in on this project. All it does is to reinforce the negative perceptions that many people have about the way they are doing business with African governments.

It is a lose, lose, lose project. We lose, the President loses, the Chinese lose. It is not worth it.

David Ndii is Managing Director of Africa Economics.

Wikileaks exposes Kalonzo and Wambui

Mary and the Mercenaries

 

------------------------
¶4. (C) Musyoka also linked Wambui directly to the stories of eastern European (possibly Bosnian, Russian, or Ukrainian) mercenaries involved in the March 2 raids on the Standard media facilities.

Musyoka said he had personally met some of these individuals, who seemed interested in arms deals in the region. ("How", they asked, "can we meet with (the DRoC's) Joseph Kabila?") The friend who had introduced them later came to Musyoka concerned that these individuals were hit men, not arms dealers, and had simply wanted to meet Musyoka to be able to identify their target.

¶5. (C) Musyoka said Wambui had been instrumental in bringing the mercenaries into play in Kenya.

Thanks to her good offices, they travel in Government cars with a security detail.

Wambui also apparently took a portion of them with her on a trip to Dubai, where she is alleged to have spent US$600,000 on unspecified merchandise.

Musyoka said he had heard of plans to secretly install a portion of the mercenaries in an office within the Police Criminal Investigations Division. One of them, in fact, was to be appointed de facto deputy of CID.

(COMMENT: While Post has heard repeated suggestions that Mary Wambui and Stanley Murage (her man at State House) are behind the presence of the foreign mercenaries on the Government payroll, it strikes us as true irony if Wife Two's hired guns were indeed used to avenge a perceived slight against Wife One. END COMMENT.)

Presidential Aspirations
------------------------
¶6. (C) Musyoka's presidential candidacy, and his calculations for the 2007 race, wove their way into several points of the conversation.

He flatly dismissed Odinga's presidential aspirations (conventional wisdom says Kenyans will not elect a Luo for president).

He expected Kibaki would not run for a second term. ("I don't know if it's the drugs they're giving him, but he's sleeping on the job.") However, there are no other logical candidates among the President's inner circle, so the current leadership would be forced to turn to Uhuru Kenyatta as the default candidate.


In a race between Kenyatta and himself, Musyoka clearly believed he would have a national advantage over Kenyatta, who he thought would be limited to the Kikuyu vote.

(COMMENT: A scenario in which the remnants of NARC pick the leader of the official opposition to be their candidate would involve a mind-boggling number of political contortions. We think it more likely Kenyatta will remain with KANU as a candidate.

POL FSN points out that, as Moi's chosen candidate in 2002 (and still today), Kenyatta may be able to draw on that
patronage in 2007, potentially pulling in a significant portion of Rift Valley support. END COMMENT.)

(C) Musyoka said his biography is in the works, likely to be published before the 2007 elections. Unlike Odinga and Kenyatta, who have pedigrees dating back toindependence, Musyoka rose from humble origins and feels Kenyans need to know more about him. An ethnic Kamba, he hails from a village far enough to the east that he had to worry aboutencountering Shifta rebels on his way to school. His mother received no education and speaks only a few words of Kiswahili; his father received only a limited education. This is the sort of background he wants Kenyans to know as they consider candidates for the presidency.

COMMENT
-------
¶8. (C) Musyoka kept to an ODM script regarding the need to maintain a united front in the Movement. But it was clear from his tone that rumors of trouble within the ODM are well-founded. The Movement will hold together as long as there is an issue around which members can rally - the constitutional referendum which brought them together in 2005 and the Government's recent media assault serving the purpose nicely. ODM is poised to put forward its own strategy for re-working the constitution, an exercise that may stick the individual members together a bit longer. Ultimately, though, the ODM is a marriage of convenience unlikely to withstand the pull of individual political ambitions. Musyoka, like many of his colleagues, will stay with ODM only as long as it helps advance his prospects for the presidency.

END COMMENT.

Muigai Wa Njoroge-No Thii Githumo

This is How To Stop Bank Robberies in Kenya!

DALLAS - Another "Scarecrow Bandit" has drawn a long prison sentence for a series of bank heists.

U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle sentenced 30-year-old Jarvis Dupree Ross in Dallas on Friday to 330 years in federal prison without parole for his part in a series of 2008 holdups in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

He's the third of seven "Scarecrow Bandits" to receive lengthy prison sentences without parole for their convictions.

Previously, 32-year-old Antonyo Reece was sentenced to 140 years in federal prison for his part in three Dallas-Fort Worth-area bank heists in 2008. Before that, Boyle sentenced 29-year-old gang member Corey Duffey to more than 354 years in prison.

A guilty plea helped 34-year-old Yolanda McDow get a sentence of 15 years and 10 months. Three defendants await sentencing

The group was called "Scarecrow Bandits" because of loose shirts and floppy hats worn during some robberies.

Friends

I got this from my friend, and it is one of the best of valentine gift i have ever received.It said.....
People are in your life for a reason, season or a lifetime.When you know which one it is, you will ALWAYS know what to do with that person.

When someone is in your life for a reason, it is usually to meet a need that you/they have expressed.They tend to come to assist you in times of difficulty, to provide you with guidance support.
To aid you physically and emotionally.They may seem to be Godsend, and they are really are. They are there for a reason that you expect them to be.And without any wrong doing on your part, or at an inconvenient time, this person does or says something to bring the relationship to an end.Sometimes they just walk away.Sometimes they act up, and force you to take a stand. What we must realize is that our needs were understand its time to move on.

Some people come to our lives for a season.This is because your time has also come to share grow and learn.They bring you and experience of peace and make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never learnt or done.They also bring you an unbelievably amount of joy. Believe it, its real but its only for a season.
Lifetime relationships teach you about lifetime lessons, things that you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation.

You job is to accept the lessons, love that person and put what you have learnt in good use in other areas of your life.
I thank you for being in my life, whether it is for a reason, a season or a lifetime.

Man Arrested For Telling Police Dog to Sit

(MYFOX NATIONAL) – Ordering a police dog to sit netted a Gainesville, Fla., man an additional criminal charge during a traffic stop on Tuesday, according to the Gainesville Sun .

The Sun reported that Mario Duane Porter, 20, was charged with striking a police animal. The charge includes interfering with a working police animal, which a police officer said Porter did by stating loud commands like "sit" and "sitz" while the dog sniffed around Porter's car for drugs.

"The K9 stopped twice while walking the vehicle and looking in the direction of (Porter) who was giving those commands," Gainesville Police Officer David Blizzard stated in his report.

The Sun reported that the dog did finish its job and found a small plastic bag with marijuana under a car seat.

It wasn’t Porter's mouth that originally drew officers' attention. It was his stereo, which officers said they could hear more than 25 feet away, according to the Sun. He was also charged with disorderly conduct, possessing drug paraphernalia and his refusal to sign a citation for violating the city’s noise and window tint ordinances.

New Zealand Girl Auctions Off Her Virginity for $32,000

A cash-strapped New Zealand student who auctioned off her virginity to help pay her university fees says she has accepted an offer of $32,190 to sleep with a stranger, AFP reported on Wednesday.

The 19-year-old offered her virginity to the highest bidder in an online auction on the ineed.co.nz website and said there had been more than 1,200 bids.

"I have accepted an offer in excess of $45,000 New Zealand dollars (US $32,190) which is way beyond what I dreamed,'' the student said on her webpage when the auction ended.

"Thankyou to the more than 30,000 people who viewed my ad and to the more than 1,200 offers made.''

Calling herself "unigirl'', the young woman had described herself as attractive, fit and healthy, and said she had never been in a sexual relationship, though it was not clear how she would prove that.

She did not respond to media requests for an interview but the proprietor of the website, Ross MacKenzie, told the Waikato Times newspaper he had been authorized to confirm the transaction.

Committee of Nut Cases

As I have insisted in the past, this Committee of Experts (CoE) is a disaster. In fact, we should change its official name from CoE to CoQ: That is, “Committee of Quacks”. No. We should get dramatic. We should charge them all with high treason.

And I say so because their braggadocio will drive us to the brink of war. More so because they suffer from the “Messiah Complex”. A messiah does not consult. His instructions are from the “gods”.

And this is how the committee views itself. Its constitution is from the “gods” expressed through the “cleverness” of their heads. This is why they ignored our one million responses to the draft.

Our intention was to express the raw spirit of the nation. According to statistics, they read 50,000 responses per day. But in the end, they changed nothing.

Why? They knew what they wanted. They gave it in the first draft. They repeated it in the second draft. They will give it in the referendum draft. In sum, this is a rogue committee on mission.

In fact, it is a threat to national security. It must be disbanded. And the group to drive this is the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC).

Now you must allow me to address the PSC. Greetings! We are outraged by your salary increments.

But I hope you enjoy it with a clear conscience. On the matter at hand, you are our last frontier. If you falter, the country fails. And although we know you as greedy people, some of you are actually Christians. The good Muslims amongst you are also noted.

In your religious narratives, the story is told of a beautiful woman called Esther. She was an orphan adopted by her uncle, a man known as Mordecai. One day, Xerxes, the King of Persia, wanted a queen. And so the beautiful girls in the land were paraded before him. When he saw Esther, he was mesmerised. Without looking any further, he made her queen.

But there was a problem; his new beauty was a Jew, not Persian. Spying the opportunity, clever Esther did not reveal her “tribe”. She accepted the “queenship” knowing too well she was a foreigner.

Then one day, an evil and powerful Persian known as Haman decided to kill all the Jews. This was part of Palace intrigues. And not knowing that the queen was a Jew, King Xerxes agreed.

It meant that his queen would also die in the decree. But before he could sign it, Mordecai intervened. He convinced Esther to confront the King on the matter. If she contradicted the King, she risked dying. If she did not, she would also die through the decree. She had no option.

And so she decided to confront. After a number of parties, she told the King that someone was planning to kill her. The King was furious beyond. He ordered for the head of this traitor.

But little did he know that this was his best friend and second in command. When they revealed his identity, it was too late. He had to die. Esther’s gamble paid off.

Generally, I am not an expert on “God matters”. But when I was a boy, my late mother literary beat me into joining Sunday school. And on this Bible story, my Sunday school teacher gave me two lessons.
As you go on retreat starting tomorrow, I want to draw your attention to both. The first is about Haman, the evil Persian: “... if you dig a hole for your enemy, dig a shallow one. If you dig a deep one, you might just fall in it yourself”. And this is what happened to Haman. Instead of killing the Jews, they killed him.

Similarly, if you go into this retreat to dig holes for your opponents, you will fall in them yourselves. Choose a win-win approach. Her second lesson was on Esther. When Mordecai approached her, he told her “...Do not think you will escape ... if you remain silent, deliverance will come from another place.

But who knows, maybe you came to the King’s palace for such a time as this?” In other words, if you fail to take the right action, our deliverance will come from somewhere else.

However, maybe you are in the PSC for “... such a time as this”. If this is true, you have only three options.

One, you must take us to a “Yes-Yes” referendum. A Yes-No referendum can only plant the seed of destruction. But how do you do this? Borrow from the church’s submissions to CoE. Instead of giving us one draft, give us two drafts.

One draft should propose an Executive President, the other an Executive Prime Minister. Everything else should be the same. At the referendum, instead of voting against either, we should vote in support of one.

This way, and whichever we choose, we are assured of a new constitution this year. Two, if option one fails, you must abandon the review process altogether. Similarly, you must disband the CoE. And I say so because, to pursue a defective process is foolhardy.

Moreso because the president and the prime minister will be on opposing camps. And if they are, it will be impossible for them to work together after the referendum.

In fact, PNU and not ODM will pull out of the coalition. Contrary to what people think, we will not go into an election. That part of the Peace Accord was deleted.

So long as executive power is in the hands of the president, government will continue. In fact, this will be a coup against the Raila wing of ODM.

If the Accord collapses, they can be kicked out. But is this possible? No idea! Is it probable -- constitutionally? Most definitely yes! If you take the path of the “quacks”, we will end up here.

Your last option is also borrowed from the church. In my considered opinion, the CoE process will collapse for a fact. And when it does, we lose. If this is so, you need a fallback position.

This is why you must listen to the prophetic voice of the church. As your Plan “B”, develop some minimum reforms. Should the CoE process collapse, make Plan “B” your stabilisation package.

Kenyan get 8 years For stabbing teen 13 times

North Andover man gets 6 to 8 years for stabbing teen 13 times Victim saved by heroic bystander

A North Andover man who stabbed a teen 13 times during a fight over a girl has been sent to prison for six to eight years.

Bryan Kangethe, 22, of 31 Lincoln Street, was sentenced Wednesday in Salem, Mass., Superior Court by Judge Timothy Feeley. Kangethe was convicted on July 20 of assault with intent to murder by a jury that deliberated two hours after a two-day trial.

Essex Assistant District Attorney Greg Friedholm proved that on Nov. 17, 2007, Kangethe stabbed John Dorceus 13 times in a brawl after a Saturday night party on Camden Street in North Andover. The fight was sparked, at least in part, by an argument over a girl, prosecutors said.

Dorceus was 17 at the time and living in Methuen. His life may have been saved by a witness who jumped in to help, in Hollywood fashion, as Kangethe was still on the attack.

Scot Foster, of Camden Street, grabbed Kangethe by the wrist and slammed his hand against his own knee to dislodge the knife, a folding model with a 4-inch blade. He then kicked the knife out of reach as his wife called 911.

Dorceus was taken to Lawrence General Hospital and then to Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. He has since recovered.

Kangethe was represented by attorneys Jessica Pacheco and Michael Ruane.

What Love Has To Do With It?

A couple's age, previous relationships and even whether they smoke or not are factors that influence whether their marriage is going to last, according to a study by researchers from the Australian National University.

The study, entitled "What's Love Got to Do With It," tracked nearly 2,500 couples -- married or living together -- from 2001 to 2007 to identify factors associated with those who remained together compared with those who divorced or separated.

It found that a husband who is nine or more years older than his wife is twice as likely to get divorced, as are husbands who get married before they turn 25.

Children also influence the longevity of a marriage or relationship, with one-fifth of couples who have kids before marriage -- either from a previous relationship or in the same relationship -- having separated compared to just nine percent of couples without children born before marriage.

Women who want children much more than their partners are also more likely to get a divorce.

A couple's parents also have a role to play in their own relationship, with the study showing some 16 percent of men and women whose parents ever separated or divorced experienced marital separation themselves compared to 10 percent for those whose parents did not separate.

Also, partners who are on their second or third marriage are 90 percent more likely to separate than spouses who are both in their first marriage.

Not surprisingly, money also plays a role, with up to 16 percent of respondents who indicated they were poor or where the husband -- not the wife -- was unemployed saying they had separated, compared with only nine percent of couples with healthy finances.

And couples where one partner, and not the other, smokes are also more likely to have a relationship that ends in failure.

Factors found to not significantly affect separation risk included the number and age of children born to a married couple, the wife's employment status and the number of years the couple had been employed.

The study was jointly written by Dr Rebecca Kippen and Professor Bruce Chapman from The Australian National University, and Dr Peng Yu from the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.

the road to heaven is not paved in mink, it passes through a somewhat difficult place -- death.

If I were on talking terms with Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta, here is what I’d say to him: My brother, Africans have a saying that a woman who wants children does not sleep in her clothes. She does not shrink from the hairy animal snoring next to her.

On the contrary, she positively invites its attentions. Even the road to heaven is not paved in mink, it passes through a somewhat difficult place -- death. It’s a politically clever budget that makes everyone happy (with the exception of ministerial mistresses, newspapers, stockbrokers and scrap metal dealers).

It wants to achieve growth, spends a whole load of money but gives tax breaks to nearly every breathing thing. (It goes after the unpopular largesse and waste of government fatcats, particularly their limousines and endless junkets, but in this case, the proof of the pudding is in the eating).

It also gives a friendly nod to majimbo, sending money to the villages where, no doubt, the chief, the headman and the local wise men will be waiting. I remember once visiting Mathira in Nyeri and seeing what the villagers had done with their CDF and coming away thinking: We have cracked it, we have found the elixir of development. Then I visited my own constituency and sobered up.

It’s not a Narc budget (tough, soaked in the disdainful arrogance of accountants with skeletons of Anglo Leasing buried in it); it’s more of an ODM socialistic humbug budget (prices are coming down, nobody pays for anything (not even rent), we are all equal so let’s have a rally in party colours and blame Mt Kenya Mafia for the drought in North Korea).

It’s a fairy tale budget for a fairy tale country; the mission is clear in the dashing hero’s mind – to rescue Cinderella from the clutches of the evil stepmother. But there is no evidence of the balls to put up with the pain of the journey. Lots of gain, zero pain.

Smokers are wheezing in delight, and drunkards are toasting into the wee hours, for this is the first year in recent memory when sinners have not been punished. Even adulterers, fornicators and latter-day Casanovas are winking with glee at all that beauty now that the price of powder will be coming down.

Do I blame Mr Kenyatta for writing a feel-good budget? Alas, not at all. Nigerians have a saying that a man who touches the bottom of a soup plate with a ball of foo foo is no longer searching for soup. I can’t blame Mr Kenyatta for touching the bottom of the soup plate when others like Ms Martha Karua, who are already campaigning, have poured out the soup to better expose the chunks of meat down there.

My concern is whether we still have the capacity to make tough choices, whether we still have the character to invest in pain for the prospect of gain. My own view is pessimistic. We are, as one guy put it, away with the fairies, living in a dream world where values float in the air, often changing shape and meaning, where the truth is false, and lies are true; depending, of course, on your tribe.

Many’s the time I have watched in disbelief as an established thief projects himself as a champion of the masses, a killer with red hands talks eloquently about human rights and an arsonist, with fresh soot in his nostrils, talks about the pain of the so-called IDPs. A civil servant inserts errors in the budget, but rather than having him tried and shot, we accuse his minister of incompetence.

A man recently told me the story of a West African dictator who came to power, lined up the ruling elite on stakes on a beach and shot them. For many years, that country’s capital city had open sewers and no roads, though residents faithfully paid taxes. The dictator looked at the taxes and what it would cost to transform the city and was greatly angered.

Then he summoned the city fathers for a friendly chat during which he said that if, by the end of the year, the city did not have modern infrastructure, he would string them up on stakes and shoot them. The city fathers believed him for, in their vigor to fulfill his wishes, some are said to have sold their own property to raise the money. Today, the city is one of the most orderly and cleanest in Africa.

Since I was a boy, we have been having arguments about reforms, particularly to our imperial presidency. The focus of reforms has been to remove the excess powers of the president and vest them in other institutions. Now what I am hearing is the desire to transfer all of the powers of the president to an unelected prime minister.

The prime minister will apparently be picked by our MPs, about whose corruption a lot has been written in recent times. The worst and most dangerous thing you can do in a Third World country is to make it easy to remove the ruler.

You will say you want to make it easy to kick out the non-performers, the corrupt, the tribalists and so on, but he will be removed for the simple reason that someone else wants the power. The more I think about it, the more I realize how exceptional it was for retired President Moi, a dictator, to hand over power to the opposition in a smooth and peaceful transition.

There is many a democrat who may have serious problems following that example. Everywhere you look, there are reasons to despair, so maybe Mr Kenyatta was right in giving Kenyans a fairy tale budget. As for his fellow politicians, I know they don’t listen. They think they can fool us all the time with their endless tricks.

Me, I think they are setting themselves up for a fairy tale with a most tragic ending. (P.S. A man gave me a book of African proverbs. Put up with them for a month or so, will you?)

Mutuma Mathiu is the managing editor, Daily Nation

I Told You So

One year ago, i predicted that muzungu would and never serve life in prison in Kenya. I also had a count down for his release,using my little knowledge of our Kenyan judicial system. As sad as it seems, his Lord will have to be pardoned after serving three months in prison. You would serve 2 years just for disorderly conduct!. But the bottom line is that he is white as a pig, and his victim is black; period.
I am now on my second face of worrying; do we have a nice jail enough for him? i will not be surprised that the "jail" "sentence" will be served in one of the Kenyan Hotels. I know this hypothesis sounds too far fetched. But we are talking about a country where judges are taking bribes from both the plaintiff and defendants.

Lord, Change the Principles... or Take them

As we all know, our finance minister is not credited with mastery of numbers.Uhuru Kenyatta biography makes me freeze when i imagine that he is in charge of the lives of 30 million Kenyans. No one, i mean no one can really tell you what the red eyed drunkard was doing with his life, until when he surfaced in the public arena nine years ago. We know that his time in US was not all roses in the academic arena. Why would emilio entrust him with the ministry if the crown can't even count backwards 5 to 1.And which constituency is Jimmi Kibaki representing; Kikuyu's?
Until when we will do away with dynasties, our lives will be under Raila untill 2022,Jimmi 2030... do we all get the point here?. I have one prayer, if the lord would not change Kibaki and Raila, at least he should take them. They are making so many lives miserable.

Anyone Who thinks Kibaki is not Nuts, Raise Your Hands Up

As i wrote on this blog a few months before, baba jimmi has really lost it.I don't mean in the English literary terms, the man i doubt can spell his name in public. The killings in backyard, the man has never set foot in the area, nor just mention or offer public message to the victims. The work of a leader is not to call people mafi ya kuku and repeating hapa hapa, but to inspire and motivate. I just can't imagine four more years with this crown.

Mzungu Can Not Hang For Murder In Kenya

As i predicted in this blog as early as last year, Mr. Delamere's is not guilty of murder, as the court want you to believe; in effect getting away with two kills in two years and surely getting away with it.
As we all know, hung jury is possible if you can bribe can we say Amos Wako. do you remember that wako traveled all the way to Nakuru to "hear" Delamere's part of the story; what a coincidence.
Until we get rid of mzungu syndrome in kenya, where brainy Africans believe mzungu can not go to jail, we have a lot to learn from neo-colonialism

The oil barons in Kenya

Towards the end of 2008, Kenyans were forced to grapple with an unreliable supply of fuel and artificial rise in its pricing.

On more than one occasion, the Managing Director of the National Oil Pipeline Mr George Okungu gave widely televised interviews to reassure Kenyans that there was no fuel shortage or crisis as such in the country. But between December 28 and 29th 2008, most filling stations upcountry had no fuel. Workers returning from holiday, particularly those travelling from Western Kenya back to Nairobi got stranded in Kisumu and other towns.

During the same period, a medium sized oil firm called Triton Limited, which is run by a Kenyan of Asian origin, Mr Yagnesh Devani, and another trader Mr Pankaj Somaia, became legally bankrupt.

Yagnesh Devani and Prankaj Somaia have their roots in Kisumu and it is in Chemelil area within the Nyanza sugar belt, where the first Triton fuel outlets were set up. What was most intriguing is that in-spite of its definite inability to source and service the largest oil order in the country, Triton Ltd, is alleged to have secured a government tender to purchase national oil supplies for a six month quota through the alleged intervention of the Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who is said to have personal and family interests in the oil industry as a major player. Triton Ltd beat all other seasoned firms such as OilLibya (formerly Mobil) and Shell/BP.

Triton had no capacity to deliver such a huge consignment of oil to the nation, and immediately after securing the government tender, they set upon sub-contracting to rivals at a profit without any actual direct importation.

To compound the saga, Afri Global Ltd, a firm belonging to Raila Odinga’s elder brother Dr. Oburu Oginga, who is the Finance Assistant Minister, and which is run by Dr. Oburu’s son - a pint sized fellow called Elijah Abonyo Oburu - was one of the key beneficiaries.

After this scam Elijah Oburu bought a brand new showroom Mercedes Benz limousine valued at Kshs 24 million (US$320,000) which he now drives around Kisumu City.

Another firm, African Oils Ltd, which belongs to the Prime Minister’s son Fidel Castro Odinga also profitted from the scandal.

And not to be out done was the Prime Minister himself with his company Bakri Ltd, operated by one Mr. Mike Njeru who joined the list of compliant firms that allegedly benefited from the tender pool sharing and in turn selling the same to the highest bidder.

Raila Odinga’s younger sister Adhiambo is the managing director of Petro Plus, a firm involved in bulk oil sales in the high seas, thanks to the closeness of the Prime Minister with former Nigerian ruler Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo.

So entrenched is the Odinga family in the oil industry that players advise it is practically impossible to do serious oil business in Kenya without roping in a family member.

It is widely rumoured that Devani heavily funded last year’s 2007 general campaign for ODM team and that those who benefited from Devani were only returning a favor.

***********************************************
Top govt officials on the spot over maize importation saga (article extracted from the Kenya Times)

Even as the country stands on a brink of starvation more twists are emerging in the maize importation deal that has shifted from an intervention measure to what appears to be a mega scandal.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga is the latest victim of the emerging saga. Legislators accuse the PM of favouring a member of his family in the maize importation process that is becoming more of a financial scandal than crisis solving mechanism.

The latest hint that taxpayers in Kenya are losing billions to corrupt elements in the government was dropped by Justice Minister Martha Karua who blamed some cabinet colleagues for the looming food crisis stopping short of calling it artificial. An estimated Sh2 billion could have already been lost in the corrupt deals involving maize importation.

Though Agriculture minister William Ruto has banned all exports of maize, rogue middlemen are still getting away with it. Once in Southern Sudan, the commodity goes for more than three times the cost compared to Kenya.

While NCPB sells the maize to millers and middlemen at a price of Sh1750 (US$23) per 90 kilogramme bag, the middlemen repackage the commodity and export it to Southern Sudan where it goes for about Sh6000 ($80) for the same quantity.

The situation is compounded by the fact that thousands of maize bags valued at over Sh150 million ($2 million) have been allocated to questionable millers in what is fast developing into a huge scandal in the wake of a seemingly divided government. Middlemen and brokers that the Prime Minister and Agriculture minister William Ruto promised to eliminate in the maize importation deal are reported to be on the loose and more vicious than before.

That's why we love the old White red and Blue

When you look at our country called Kenya, you feel sorry for it's future. We are told that unless we pay the crime boss more than President Obama, he can't do the job. Unless we pay the MP's more than US Senators, they can't perform. They remind us that democracy is not cheap.When judges are court red handed being bribed by the plaintiffs and the defendants, they are promoted. That's why we love our adopted land of the old glory.

we should send kibaki and Raila for mental check up

There is a famous mental institution in Boston that i do believe we should send kibaki and Raila for mental check up.I may excuse Kibaki mental state from his auto accident;but Raila really needs help. As i write this, these two crowns are calling from tree tops asking for the world to help them with US 150 million dollars or Kenyans would sterve to death.
The same catoons spent 878 million shillings ($12.2 million) on new vehicles - enough to see 25,000 children through eight years of school. As the law courts are clogged with cases as old as 1988, the justice ministry spent 82 million shillings on 13 Mercedes Benz for the High Court judges.
There is a fine line between stupidity and lunacy, and the two men have now clossed it.Not to be outdone, just last week alone, the government spent 700 million to buy Raila an office (which he will only use one office anyhow).But this is the same coalition government we all killed each other for.I hope the image of starving Kenyans may compel or ruling class to contribute to the tax man too.Someone should tell Raila that “The price of inaction is far greater than the cost of making a mistake.”

What really Happened in Molo Fire

The madness that we have been witnessing in Kenya is just numbing to say the least. We have "leaders" who are very good at screaming change, and all what they are doing is screwing the public. In just two weeks, we have come to learn that Raila needs 700 million office and Kalonzo wa musioka's wife get paid more than US president.
But what can we do? I think we need to look for leaders outside the mantle of parliament, and away from our tribal circles. That will be our salvation grace, otherwise we are this for a long haul.