FROM KOSPRIN'S DIARIES-2

The witty Chris Hart wakes me up every morning. His show brightens up my day even though his yuppy counterpart doesn’t quite hit my nerves. In the thrill of things, my lousy neighbor likes cutting me to the quick with his disturbing Maina Kageni's mambo jambo. I am then left with no choice but to go perusing the latest from the likes of Clay Muganda.

If I am not audience to the poetically licensed, you will find me seeking my own license. I recognize how far I am from obtaining one but I am not a worried man because social media will soon get me there. It has rendered us with unprecedented platforms upon which writers (pros and wannabes) often expose their minds. I like tweeting clever staff but digging into my friends’ facebook notes is my specialty. Some of my friends have a way of boggling my mind with their stuff.

Let me begin with Tom Munira  munira Jalio, this guy was clearly born to write. From his Journalista days to his current excitement in sports and sporting events, he really takes his writing seriously. I am yet to understand his love for Spain when most of us care less about it (I am talking about Rafael Nadal and La Liga’s Real Madrid).

His easy to read pieces coupled with attention to detail will leave you with no doubt that he is indeed a descriptive writer. One outstanding thing about him is how he inspires passion in all he does. As long as a writer of his caliber exists, the Sammy kitula's of this world will always be insecure with their jobs. I wait  to meet him at the Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon, for I know he will be there.

Godfrey Kimega is a passionate writer too, all be it seldom. The guy stretches my imagination with his insightful vigor for international affairs. His well researched pieces are loaded with maturity and a sense of awareness.  You will notice his outright lambasting of western democracies’ unfortunate role in Africa. This will tempt you to contradict him but the weight in his arguments will knock you down.

I have read Obed Mutua’s articles since his days in Journalista. The guy can write about anything. Be it what it may, he will still make it very interesting. I am particularly excited about his recent entry into poetry and I can only hope he will do it more often. Even as I wait upon his humanitarian articles, there is no doubt that his writing is worth its weight in gold.

Did you ever wonder whose novels we shall be reading in the near future? Julia Wanjeri may want to raise her hand. She can comfortably write perfect scripts for ABC TV drama series if you ask me. I like how she depicts a great sense of humor in her writing. What title will she give her first novel? It’s a game of wait and see.

I don’t know what kind of books Njeri Justin reads but the man knows his English, he often baffles me with the way he plays with words. Justin is simply a goose soon to lay a golden egg in the media industry. His style is so uniquely insightful; Jeff Koinange would call it waxing lyrical. Anybody who reads his articles will agree that Clay had better up his game. Even better, CNN had better come and get him.

Kosprin

The generation factor

Guys born in the 50’s and 60’s must have been boom babies, a generation of our fathers who had twelve siblings or thereabouts all from one mother. Unlike their folks, many boom babies opted to beget only up to five or six; forget about the mad ones who went beyond six.

Even though raised in tough colonial times, boom babies are the most brilliant breed of a generation as prevalent in society today. Some of them though turned themselves into educated idiots who came back from the likes of India with nothing more than what they took there.

Interestingly, we are sons and daughters of boom babies. I am told they call us generation Y, guys born after 1975 and before 1986. Our collective IQ is deeply rooted in the 8.4.4 system of education.

The 70’s and 80’s were dead years technologically across the world but full of political drama, perhaps the reason Y bears marks of rampant street activism. You don’t need a mention of recent UK riots to dig this.  

We certainly had it easier than boom babies but 8.4.4 really never stopped whipping our damn asses only to cool us down with maziwa ya Nyayo.  

Generation X or dot com as double villagers will loosely refer to them is a generation raised on a silver platter. These kids grew on bread smeared with butter and rode on buses to their private schools.

Substance has however remained insignificant to the spoiled brats; after all they are the cut and paste wizards with extra ordinary affinity for quick success.

From play stations to ipods and iphones, their sense of entertainment cannot be over-emphasized and social media has been a talisman of sorts to X. With 'face-tweet' and You-Tube on the bargain, Y stands no chance against X in the 21st century, let alone boom babies with their tantrums.

That my friend is the end of this lesson. Now answer the following question;

Which generation does/did your grandmother belong to?


Kosprin

Gratitude to the Kenyans for Kenya crew

The Kenyans for Kenya campaign has remarkably been heart touching and successful. Although this is not the first time it was happening, this year’s campaign was all inclusive and more strategic that before. It is encouraging to hear that the targeted donation of KSH 1 billion will not just be used for immediate relief but also for more sustainable ways of curbing hunger.

The most exciting thing about this whole campaign was that every Kenyan had and still has a chance of making a difference in somebody’s life. One thing though that should be admired by all is how corporate organizations put aside their competition to raise funds for hunger stricken Kenyans. In fact this time they only competed to save lives albeit in camera.

Kenya Red Cross however deserves the biggest applause for effective coordination of the campaign and distribution of food stuffs. The vigor with which it has continually dedicated itself is something to be emulated by the Kenyan government. It may seem like it’s their duty to do what they do but its not easy considering the difficult circumstances under which they operate.

The government was deservedly put to shame by the private sector but this does not give anybody bragging rights. The blame game does not therefore help, otherwise you don’t give and blame. Instead, everybody should keep urging our government to be awake and more accountable to its people. It should already be harvesting water from the ongoing rains for instance.

Our media should also keep up its good job of spreading the word especially about Kenyans for Kenya. Kenyans may also need to consider people in their immediate neighborhoods who may be suffering from hunger even as they empathize with those hard stricken in arid areas.

Kosprin

The CBK governor should cut the jargon

The Central Bank of Kenya governor Professor Njuguna Ndungu has continually failed to communicate to Kenyans. It is hard for any ordinary Kenyan to follow his press briefings because they are just so full of financial jargon.

It was difficult to understand what he meant when he went public explaining why the Kenyan shilling has been depreciating against major world currencies. If his communique was only supposed to be understood by a selective few other than the general public, then he had no point of addressing a press conference. He could easily have sent press statements to media houses and save us the trouble of having to listen to his jargon.

Its time he understood that CBK’s target audience is not just the media and financial institutions. Any communication to the general public ought to be easy and comprehensive. It may be expected that the media will always unpack his jargon but more often than not, it only replicates what he says.

Financial information is not a reserve of a few. Ordinary Kenyans are major stakeholders in the economy too and they deserve to get the whole picture of what is happening to the economy. Professor Ndungu will therefore need to find an effective way of communicating to all stakeholders. CBK might just have to consider hiring communication specialists as well. 

Kosprin

PR practitioners gone rogue

Despite Public Relations (PR) being a popular course taught in Kenyan colleges today, it may soon not be a career of choice for many students. PR is ordinarily communication and activities designed to promote good-will and understanding among the publics and the media. The practice of PR by most companies and institutions is however not portraying well our PR practitioners.

In most cases PR practitioners are the spokesmen and faces of their organizations. They also take charge of customer relations and public information activities. It doesn’t seize to amaze though how worse customer service can get in some companies despite having fully equipped PR departments.

The way KPLC handled its power rationing communication for instance was not the best way whatsoever. There surely had to be a way of preparing customers for the bad news. Dropping the bomb-shell as they did especially on the backdrop of re-branding and committing to enhanced customer service was a raw deal to its customers.

Dr. Alfred Mutual is another example of bad PR practice. No offense to the government spokesman but it is hard to admire his professional skills; especially because he is the senior most PR practitioner in Kenya. He has deliberately perfected himself as a cunning sophist who only understands PR as spin.

PR can only add value when it’s not reduced to just a mare self defense and clean up affair as eminently done in Kenya. A few companies take PR seriously though, but more needs to be done. Practitioners need to carry themselves professionally; otherwise PR students will have no one to look up to.

-kosprin-

Index Insurance key to the agricultural sector

The effects of global warming are now on their worst following the severe drought that is being experienced in parts of Kenya and the horn of Africa. Droughts have consistently destroyed our crops and killed livestock which are the mainstay of our economy. We haven’t quite found a reliable solution to this annual calamity but index insurance may soon be the sustainable way to mitigate its effects.

Index insurance is a brilliant idea which if effected will be a significant risk management tool especially in our agricultural sector. The policy which was recently launched in Geneva will compensate financial loss for properties exposed to climate related risks such as drought.

This is obviously good news to farmers who suffer losses every year due to outcomes beyond their influence. Livestock holders in north eastern Kenya where drought is eminent should brace themselves for this insurance policy which may just be a solution to their perennial problem. Rural smallholder farmers too should not suffer unnecessary losses any more when they can easily be compensated.

More insurance companies need to come out and float this product to Kenyans. This, coupled with large scale farming projects as pronounced by government in Turkana last week will go a long way in eradicating famine in Kenya.

We need more sustainable ways of curbing hunger

Kenyans continue to experience food shortage and skyrocketing food prices. Learning at schools has already been adversely affected with the government being forced to supplement food budgets. Even regions traditionally known for food sufficiency like Central Kenya are facing hunger this time.

This is not going to be easy since the national strategic reserves are reportedly below capacity. While the expected harvests may mitigate the current hunger, they will surely not guarantee our food security next year. It therefore can’t be said enough that we need to employ more sustainable ways of curbing hunger now.

Our food situation will not change if we keep relying on harvests from our small scale farmers. Importing maize is not sustainable either. Government officials and scholars have made numerous trips to food secure nations like Israel. They surely must have learned enough lessons to apply here at home.

Instead of waiting for another famine next year, the government needs to invest in large scale farming projects across the country. This will not only guarantee our food security but also provide jobs for the youth. At a time like this, early campaigns for 2012 elections are unpalatable. Politicians should rather engage themselves in campaigns to save Kenyans from another famine next year.

Kosprin

Nothing is worth trying not-e

No phrase gives me self assurance like ‘why not’. Unlike the word yes which I often use when I ought not to, why not is the most genuine thing that will ever come out of me. I‘ve never thought of any better way to use it than quietly. And when loudly used, it often turns out to be that yes for an ear.

Evidently herein, I wasn’t born to write. I try to put some words together nevertheless. Why not, my best buddy has got my back.

                                                                   

How could I have made it past elementary if why not wasn’t so true to me. Of course its school we’re talking about, approved for that matter. From an approved case to improved as I may have become, it goes without saying that why not is worth her weight in gold.

I remember how I fancied walking along the corridors of justice with some useless wig in my head. That’s right, a damn useless wig if you ask me. It was all in my head, but it’s that clown barrister I indeed wanted to be. Mhh! Nothing could have become further from being fulfilled.

The other option though less attractive had to become an absolute why not. It certainly appeared more practical; mass media practical to me? Ask why not, she will tell you how it has come to dominate every sense I have. If you’ve not thrown some grasp into the bargain yet, I’m in it to stay- I put it.

Of late I have become so obsessed of her. By now my friends may have found a freak in me. I wouldn’t care less anyway, not until she gets it right. She has to get me what I want.

Speaking of what I want, this little damsel in my neighborhood, damn her- she gives me creeps. What a terrible hard nut to crack! But wait, she hasn’t met my buddy yet. It’s just a matter of time before we put her in her place.

By the way, right here in my arms is her place. Yes….ooh! I mean why not?

-kosprin-

STOP THE LOOMING DISASTER IN DADAAB

Recent media reports put the figures in Dadaab refugee camp at approximately 350,000. The current influx of 1800 daily for a camp originally designed to accommodate only 90,000 people is worrying. Most of these refugees who are from Somalia are said to be fleeing ongoing droughts and harsh economic conditions.

Dadaab refugee camp is obviously overwhelmed by this numbers and there may soon be a humanitarian disaster if this trend persists. Due to this reason, the government needs to hasten the re-opening of the new Ifo II camp in Dadaab if the looming disaster has to be contained.

Revelations by the minister for immigration and registration of persons Otieno Kajwang that the provincial administration is opposed to the entering of more Somali refugees into Kenya are shocking. Host communities in Dadaab have for a long time been receptive and coexisted well with refugees even with scarce resources. It therefore needs not to be an issue now. After all, turning away wounded and malnourished refugees at the boarder points cannot be an option especially because most of them are women and children.

The government will therefore have to put its act in order and ensure that the new camp is opened as quickly as possible. Somalia having been rated as the most disastrous country in the world, the least we can do as a country is to host its suffering citizens fleeing disaster. 

-duke kosprin-

Dear South Sudan

As-Salaam-Alaikum my friend, I hope you are doing well. I haven’t heard from you since our famous disagreement a couple of years ago. Quite honestly, I am still interested in your daughter but there is no way on earth I can afford two hundred heads of cows as dowry when I don’t even own a goat. However, you still remain a friend and I know I am your greatest inspiration. That’s rather obvious from your flag if you are asking yourself how I got to know that. 

I hope you don’t mind if I am the first one to congratulate you on your independence day. You have come a long way my friend and you deserve to throw yourself the biggest party of your life. By the way thank you for your invitation which I gladly accept, After all it’s long since I saw your daughter.

We have been friends for a long time and that will not change even as you celebrate your achievement of self rule. If anything, we need each other now more than ever. In your celebration mood though, I would like you to know where you are going as much as much as you know where you have come from. I tell you this because I do not want you to make the same mistakes I made forty seven years ago when I became independent.

I remember how I had to begin from scratch just like you intend to do as soon as the party is over. I scheduled my priorities and promised to prioritize my schedules. I even had economic blue prints like Sessional Paper No. 10 of 1965 drafted. This was my strategic plan which was intended to eradicate poverty, ignorance as well as disease.

I regret to tell you that drafting of ambitious economic blue prints is as far as I went. I don’t remember how I became vulnerable to dictatorship and tribal politics which beget bad governance. When my good friends Malaysia and Singapore went about catching up with the rest of the world, I unfortunately became a powder keg of ethnic mistrust and corruption which brought me down on my knees. Today 60% of my people live below the poverty index.

I do not want to bore you with my mistakes; neither do I want to scare you. My only wish is that you try to avoid the route that I took at all cost. At least your independence comes in a century of technological advancements and great international vigilance. I know you have some issues you need to sort out with your sister North but that should not prevent you from seeing the big picture. Remember you have a population of 11.5 million than you are now obligated to feed, educate and protect.

Hey, 375,000 barrels of oil at your disposal is quite something to be proud of but nothing to brag about. Remember I have heard world class tourist attractions for many years, some of them like Nairobi national park uniquely located within my capital city. However, my GDP per capita still remains under $1600. You therefore need to focus on maximizing the potential of whatever little you have.

I am told more than 50% of your people live below the poverty index. That should not worry you much because you are just beginning. What matters most is the pace at which you are willing to move forward. Empower your people by entrenching democratic politics in you governance as soon as now and avoid political squabbles by all means.

Attracting investments should be your key priority. The only sure way of achieving this is by building a reliable infrastructure all over within your boundaries. With your rich oil production capacity, you shouldn’t hesitate to supply all of us with energy.   

Finally my friend, I know your human resource is below capacity but you can count on me to start you off. In the mean time, you need to invest heavily in education. What I am telling you is rather obvious but not easy to implement without commitment and accountability. I only realized this a few years ago. That is when I embarked on another blue print of Vision 2030 which I hope not to mess up with again.

I wish you the very best even as I wish I had enough cows to finally get to marry your daughter.

Yours truly,

Kenya

IT’S NOT EASY HOSTING REFUGEES.

Kenya could be home to well over 400,000 refugees, a ratio of almost 1:100 to its total population. This is not easy for a country with an estimated per capita of $ 1600 albeit most of the funding is done by developed nations through UN agencies. It’s encouraging though that the government of Kenya continues to commit itself to protection of refugees under the Refugees Act 2006.

Recent media reports put the figures in Dadaab refugee camp at approximately 350,000 with an influx of about 1,000 refugees daily. It’s amazing how UNHCR copes with this population in one camp, the reason why the government ought to always accord it with all the support it needs.

The host communities in Garissa and Turkana districts where the refugee camps are based however deserve the biggest applaud. For a long time, refugees have coexisted with these communities and shared scarce resources available within their semi arid regions. This is unique and commendable considering that some groups in Kenya continue being opposed to the resettlement of internally displaced persons in their constituencies.

Being a refugee is surely not a thing to be proud of, much less in your own country. In this regard all refugees need to be empathized with even as we hope that our government will find a permanent solution to its internally displaced refugees.

-Kosprin-

FROM KOSPRIN’S DIARIES

I couldn’t have been anything less than surprised the other day when a woman suddenly appeared in my village looking for me. She has since gone around preaching to everybody that she wants her baby back!

No stretch of imagination can dislodge the woman who raised me and inspired the man in me as the best mother in the world. I don’t remember anything from my childhood that could make me doubt her as my mum. I couldn’t care less if she isn’t my biological mother.

My lifetime mum couldn’t have been any nicer than when she offered to adopt me from that south rift hospital where I had been abandoned. With little means, she raised me alongside her man who gave me the fatherly love I would otherwise have missed.

In her endless trips down the tea estate where she traded guava fruits to make ends meet, she always had me in her back. Like her own, she taught me her language and took me to school. Even when her family perpetually pushed me away as a little brat from the other tribe, she embraced me and sealed me from their cancerous hatred.

Now the woman who only did as much as carrying me around for nine months is in town. My village 911 tells me that the doctor by profession is already planning popping bottles when I finally run into her arms. Nothing could be further from happening!

-kosprin-