Author: Mike

I have opinions. I come here to state them. Sometimes I tweet and you can find me on Tumblr here: http://sweetestshaboo.tumblr.com/
Uncategorized

Boning up on the constitution

Mike

I’m currently reading The Constitution of Kenya 2010 & remembering the excitement with which I voted for it and received the news that it would be promulgated.

How time flies, it seems. Facebook recently reminded me I posted a picture immediately after I left the polling centre. It felt bittersweet.

The copy I have is a small pocket edition released by Kenya Law Reports. As I rode the bus today morning, the child seated next to me kept looking at it and I wanted to tell him just how much this means.

Here’s hoping that re-reading the constitution can rekindle the fire that once burned in my heart. It may just recharge whatever social justice batteries I feel are running low.

Note: This post is part of #CuminWrites366, my year-long attempt to write a post a day. Find the rest over at readability.com/cuminwrites/

Questions, comments, suggestions or Constitutional stories to share? Send them to cuminwrites@gmail.com 🙂

Uncategorized

Lady Democracy

Mike

The first time I encountered Chelagat Mutai, it was in the pages of Coming to Birth by Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye. The most recent was when her photo floated down my Twitter timeline as part of the Courage exhibition outside the Kenya Archives.

I am curious about how her story has disappeared from the public conscience. If this post is anything to go by, it makes some sense that she never really featured.

Chelagat Mutai is an alumna of what is now Moi Girls School Eldoret, a fact I gleaned from reading a profile of Nyeri MP Esther Murugi. Is there an award or  scholarship fund dedicated to her memory there?

In the 70s, Chelagat was arrested for her efforts to make sure there was fair land distribution. With that in mind, it’s a tragedy that over the three decades that followed, Kenyans would go at each other’s throats over land-related issues.

What inspired a young leader, a woman in a time less liberal than this, to run for the Eldoret North seat? How is it she was able to win a seat at 24 (24! Imagine that!) and yet had to flee from the country?

Somehow, between her time associating with the bearded sisters and the rise of the NDP and other opposition parties, our lady disappeared from the political scene. This makes, to me, no sense. There was more freedom in the early days of the Kibaki administration, it seemed, yet it took Raila’s ‘rescuing’ for her to get  much-needed medical care.

I’d like to know why she disappeared for decades, why on her return she lay so low, why she yields more questions than answers. For a woman whose legacy is so rich to have such a remarkably sad end beggars belief.

Note: This post is part of#CuminWrites366, my year-long attempt to write a post a day. Find the rest over at readability.com/cuminwrites/

Questions, comments, suggestions or Chelagat Mutai stories to share? Send them to cuminwrites@gmail.com 🙂

Uncategorized

Introducing Women’s Kenyan History

Mike

My friend Roo put me to task last week when I complained about the male-centric looks at Kenyan history that litter the internet. My argument was that even highlights in history are experienced differently and that some things that are a blip in the radars of men are major events for women. We have had a variation of this conversation more than once but this time, there was a twist: Do it yourself, he said.

Why not, I thought? I am interested in Kenyan history, I am a woman, and I listen to women’s tales in my family in the context of history. It would be interesting, I agreed, to tell stories about Kenya and say, “Hey, Kenyan women went through this period like this.”

In what could be interpreted as a message from the universe, I met the interesting Cera Njagi of Kenyan Feminist and we had a wonderful conversation around this. I see interesting conversations and writing coming of it.

Where do you come in? Please send me stories, leads, ideas, questions or books. If there’s a time in history you are particularly knowledgeable about and want to talk about it with a writer or a book that you’ve read that was particularly illuminating, shoot me that message.

I intend to make it a fortnightly event, starting this Wednesday. Here’s to the first instalment this Wednesday!

Note: This post is part of #CuminWrites366, my year-long attempt to write a post a day. Find the rest over at readability.com/cuminwrites/

Questions, comments, suggestions or thoughts on privacy? Send them to cuminwrites@gmail.com 🙂

Musings

The face of service

Mike

One of the things I actively try to do is praise people who are good at what they do; especially to their faces. In an age where spaces such as Twitter and Facebook have been captured by corporate accounts, that online praise may just fail to ‘kindly’ get to its destination.

Which leads me to the events of Sunday morning. My cousin-sister and I went to Kawangware Market to buy belts and walk about in search of deals.

Two ladies were offended when we revealed that we were just looking and one went to the lengths of shooing us away. This was frankly ridiculous but also telling – if you’ll not give me your money now, you’re worthless.

It was so refreshing to come upon Stano. We had spotted his ‘Dresses 100’ sign while at another seller’s stand so we made a beeline for his after we had seen what little there was on offer (Sunday isn’t great for visiting a market. Pro Tip™).

He welcomed us warmly and was a good sport when I asked him to take pictures of me as I tried different outfits. When it started to rain, he made space for us in the pile of clothes and urged us to stay as long as we needed to. We didn’t need encouragement.

My sister greatly appreciated the gesture and told him about our strange experiences with the two other sellers. He told us that his policy is to make his customers welcome; because they could come back…with friends. We saw it in action as a girl walked over and called her friend to come get a deal-both got two dresses apiece.

Yours truly got a dress for herself and one for Mama Cumin. More importantly, a vital reminder that fantastic service people exist in the city. Here’s to many more such rays of sunshine.

Note: This post is part of #CuminWrites366, my year-long attempt to write a post a day. Find the rest over at readability.com/cuminwrites/

Questions, comments, suggestions or thoughts on privacy? Send them to cuminwrites@gmail.com 🙂

Musings, Privacy

Consider the lols

Mike

As some of you may know, last week saw a church group’s WhatsApp chat paraded on social media and lots of brands hop on the trend. Couldn’t be me, we all thought, couldn’t be me.

The day after a certain follower of Christ became the basis of a trending topic, I sent my uncle a message in which I asked him to meet me somewhere & get me something. Nothing salacious (4th floor of the building I was in & a lemonade, respectively) but I felt my face grow hot as I explained why he had received the message (Facebook Messenger was still open and I had typed a message intended for a contact on WhatsApp onto it).

Privacy kept coming to mind every time I saw something related to that trend last week. There were versions of the chat in which members’ names and numbers were not redacted. They are now in the public domain for all manner of people to do as they please. Not what they had in mind when they cast their lot with their fellow believers.

It reminded me about one of the most common pro-surveillance stances: If you have nothing to hide, why be afraid or concerned about privacy? The question is, what is the measure of ‘nothing to hide’? Look at the paragraph in which I detail the contents of my message and remember that human nature could turn even that innocuous message into a tale for corporates to latch on, for a random character to harass one of us, for brands or government to target us. Now, consider privacy. Nothing to hide, yes, nothing to share with the larger world, either.

Kui Kihoro Mackay wrote better than I can about the events of last week and what it says about the situation we find ourselves in: no space is wholly separate from another. Read her brilliant blog post here.

On the topic of privacy, I am reminded of Jill Lepore’s essay, “Privacy in the Age of Publicity”, which traces the path of American thought on privacy as well as her New Yorker Festival lecture on the topic. Worth a (re-)read in light of recent events.

Go then, to the lols, and consider their ways and what they stand for in our lives.

Note: This post is part of #CuminWrites366, my year-long attempt to write a post a day. Find the rest over at readability.com/cuminwrites/

Questions, comments, suggestions or thoughts on privacy? Send them to cuminwrites@gmail.com 🙂

Education, Musings

What’s the point of school?

Mike

Really, what’s the point?

There was recently a call-out for people to share their views on 8-4-4 & our education policy on the whole. This year has seen leaders in the management of education (your ministers, your ministry officials) conceptualise education as an anti-terrorist, patriotic venture.

Each of these conversations makes me think that maybe the thing we need to question is the very idea of school. Why do we attend it? What would we lose if we had less of it? Who does it benefit?

Increasingly, lately, what sort of school? Why send our children to school?

I think of the fee paying schools (as the World Bank calls them) sprouting around (Bridge comes to mind) and how they are supposedly delivering better education in the same institution: school. What part do these places have in the gradual (further,  even) divestment government may be willing to conduct in the education sector?

Does it help to consider school an embodiment of things that are right – or wrong – in our society? And once we do, what then? Would we then have to think about what our values are and what we want to pass on?

In the midst of all this, I think of people who are currently getting a raw deal out of education as it is currently framed: girls and boys from desperately poor families, children with disabilities, vulnerable children. What does school mean to them, what can reform offer them?

These questions keep me going; they make me keep reading (what are you currently reading?) and they keep me talking to people who know so much more. (Reminder: the #ed10reads meeting is tomorrow. Grab your ticket!)

For a long time, I thought school was a place one went to meet agemates, to learn new things (not exclusively from teachers; think about playground lessons) and to get ready for ‘the real world’.

I’m not too sure it’s that simple any more but I’m hopeful that I’ll keep learning about more aspects of this complicated business that is schooling and sharing some of my reflections with you.

Note: This post is part of #CuminWrites366, my year-long attempt to write a post a day. Find the rest over at readability.com/cuminwrites/

Questions, comments, suggestions or a recipe for a cure for insomnia? Send them to cuminwrites@gmail.com 🙂

Uncategorized

The week ahead

Mike

That’s a strange title to have as Monday draws to an end, maybe. Just a reminder to myself that the week will be interesting (and an open invitation to those who’d be happy to come along).

25th – 28th of this month sees a host of African Futures events around the city. Beverly, my co-host on the literary podcast Two Girls And A Pod, & I are especially excited about the book-related things that will come of them.

Thursday is the day of the first #Ed10Reads meeting at Spire Education & you can tell I’m excited. I think it will be an exciting event and I look forward to seeing those of you interested in education at Spire (6pm-8pm) or on Twitter. 🙂

Laila Le Guen and I love to read and that led to us starting LGM Editing. To celebrate our website launch (12.30pm-1pm on Friday), and start off the weekend, we’re going to have a show-and-tell event at iHub where we are community members. Come and find out what two editors who span continents and languages have to offer.

The week may yet serve up more delights…

Note: This post is part of #CuminWrites366, my year-long attempt to write a post a day. Find the rest over at readability.com/cuminwrites/

Questions, comments, suggestions or post-event plans? Send them to cuminwrites@gmail.com 🙂

Education, Musings

Introducing #Ed10Reads

Mike

For a while now, I have been part of a group of 10 education enthusiasts and entrepreneurs called The Ed 10 Consortium. We started off as a motley collection of people who are interested in education in some way. My thing is writing; now is a good time to say the message I’m sending out to the universe is ‘Send me my education-related writing fellowship!’. I have taught in primary schools (most recently in 2012) and the issues facing education are important to me.

In the corner I live in, there is a lot of talk about education reform. The biggest voices are those of people who want to bring technology into the classroom and there’s a lot of money and support for this school of thought. I am currently ambivalent about it but that’s a conversation for another day.

It’s become apparent over time that enthusiasm can only go so far. It’s vital for us to school ourselves on the underpinnings of education thought that lead to the things we see in the education system. There’s an information gap; leading to situations when the only people who know any education theory are teachers; and talking at cross purposes with people who work in education reform.

Thinking about this led me to think of the possibility of an education reading circle; a group of people interested in learning the thought and trends that have led us to this day. Speaking to my friend Laila after the inaugural Ed 10 Drink Up led to us thinking about what this would look like. Right now, it looks like #Ed10Reads and we’ll hold our first meeting on Thursday 29th October 2015 from 6pm to 8pm at Spire Education. This first meeting is about the integration of technology in assessment; not a big issue in Kenya at the moment but something to think of.

To sign up for the event, please go here, get your ticket and read up, tweet using #Ed10Reads and tune in. Better yet, see you then!

Note: I have undertaken to write a post a day for a year. I’m collating all the posts (spanning 3 blogs) using the hashtag #CuminWrites366.

If you have questions,compliments, or want to find out what education issue keeps me up at night, the address is kenyanwithattitude@gmail.com

Travel

To Hell & Back

Mike

Actually, to Hell’s Gate.

I went there on the Sunday before Madaraka Day with a friend to camp over one night.

It was my first time camping without a large group (Scout/school group) and I was filled with anxiety. What if it didn’t work out & there we were; stranded in a national park? I shudder to imagine.

We took public transport till the road to Elsa Gate. It was slightly under KSh 300 to get there (Ksh 200 from Nairobi to Naivasha Town, KSh 80 to the Elsa Gate bus stop) and then KSh 100 for a boda boda to the Elsa Gate.

We had thought of hiking to our campsite but the urge to cycle was strong so we thought of renting a KWS bike. There were none (they rent bikes out at KSh 600) so we got one from one of the bike rental guys at the bus stop for KSh 500 and paid the KSh 250 entry charge to take them in.

A word to the wise: get to the gate early so you can get your choice of KWS bikes. Use your negotiating chops to rent the bike overnight at a day rate (24 hours!) as they’re usually returned by day’s end.

We had bikes, entry tickets (KSh 350 apiece) and had paid the KSh 500 camping charge (for a 2 person tent). Great, we were in…but how would we cook? We spoke to the lady at the entry and she recommended the resident firewood guy, Wafula. He dithered for a while but it’s safe to say a pile of firewood will cost you KSh 200. That’s about enough for dinner, breakfast and getting toasty…or roasting marshmallows 🙂

We rode till the Buffalo Circuit Road but we were weighed down by our backpacks and we were going up a gentle slope so we ended up pushing our bikes till our campsite. We had chosen to go to Oldubai campsite (on the cliff top south of Fischer’s Tower) as the Nairburta campsite was full and Endchata campsite (across the gorge on the northern cliffs) was a tad too far. One more reason to arrive early; you have a choice of sites though on this weekend groups had arrived early on Saturday.

Wafula helped us set up a fire, we set up the tent after I was done being The Kenyan Camper‘s superfan (that site got my friend & I stoked about camping, check it out!) and set about dinner in this place where there were less than 10 people in sight (a family of 4 and ourselves).

To give you a sense of the campsite: it doubles up as a picnic site so there are benches all around. There is a communal tap, a banda where you can prepare meals, a hearth with a grill (nyama choma fans!), a rubbish pit and washrooms (2 units, one of which doubles up as a bathroom, for both women and men).

This post is proving to be quite utilitarian (I usually gush here) so I will say these things: the views are amazing, there flora and fauna make you stop and stare and the nights so quiet you can hear the Ol Karia geothermal plant like it’s next to you. Though the closest sound may be a hyena…or your camping neighbours.

Head to Hell’s Gate one of these weekends…you’ll enjoy it 🙂

Some more utilitarian stuff:

You can get matatus to Naivasha at the end of Ronald Ngala Street at the petrol station. The fare is KSh 200 except for holidays, when it goes up to KSh 300 or more

Naivasha is a small town, the matatus to Oserian will get you to the Hell’s Gate bus stop and are easy to find as the bus stop is under 5 minutes from the main Naivasha bus stop where you get off when you come in from Nairobi

Check out the bikes before you pay. My friend’s bike’s brake failed on the morning after but thankfully the slopes are not significant. This would otherwise have been a dangerous situation.

There is a charge for bringing in cars, too. Should have checked it out (and asked if they charge you for bikes in your car!) but plan with that in mind if you intend to drive in. Last time I was there in a car we paid KSh 500 but I’m not too sure.

Get there early so you have time to pitch a tent, ride/drive/walk around, and take it all in 🙂

Correction: An earlier version of this post had misstated the cost for a 2-person tent as KSh 200; it is actually KSh 500.

Education

KNLS Library Membership is Free \o/

Mike

The Kenya National Library Service (KNLS) has a wide library network across Kenya with 60 or so branches, one close to you. Thanks to a recent change to the law governing its operations effected by Hassan Wario, Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Culture and the Arts, membership is free as long as the prospective member produces passport photos (some libraries will take your photo themselves), fills a membership form and gets a commitment from an institution (an employer or school, for example). This is a dip from the KSh 300 it previously cost for employed adults, and KSh 3,000 for self-employed people), to sign up (with a KSh 100 renewal fee) and a welcome development for those who may not previously have been able to afford it.

The scrapping of membership charges comes with a new introduction: a KSh 20 fee for each book one borrows and a 100% increase in late return fees (from Ksh 5 to KSh 10 per day). For heavy users, such as yours truly, this will result in much more than the KSh 100 annual renewal fee previously charged (a book a week=26*20=520) but it has a positive effect that I’m excited about. And it is this:

Members do not have to pay entry charges (which remain at KSh 20 a day) and that means that more people have a chance to use the library. For people looking to learn, they have a range of books that would aid anyone’s education. The Nairobi Area Library (my local) has an internet connection so you can use the internet, too. For free!

Libraries are a great way to explore the world and educate yourself. Get your KNLS membership today!