Kenya in 2008 – PHOTO CREDIT: Simon Maina

In theory, everyone agrees that tribalism is one of the biggest problems that Kenyans face and everyone seems to have ideas on how to fight it or eliminate it. And I guess it has been this way for years but tribalism does not seem to go away, is it that there is not enough effort on the war or has it actually become a part of our everyday living?

Tribalism just like racism is a problem that exists around the entire world but it is widely felt across Africa, mainly due to leadership woes and selfish circles of power. Kenya specifically has been greatly affected by the vice and we have serious lip service from our leadership although nothing seems to change.

About 20 years ago, majority of Kenya never really felt the effects of tribalism and people co-existed peacefully. There was a little chaos here and there in the cases when one tribe stole from the other but never anything major. The youth went to the same institutions and you would never tell the difference between them. I remember I went to a primary school in Nakuru that was mainly dominated by the Kikuyu and Kalenjin communities and we lived in a neighborhood where everyone was from a different tribe and nothing seemed wrong with that, according to my 13 year old eyes and mind. We all went to the school to learn, we did not care what community our fellow students were from neither did we bother about the tribes the teachers came from. When someone pronounced a word wrongly we did not bring about the fact that they pronounced it wrong due to their ethnicity but we laughed about it because it was the wrong pronunciation. We played together as a community that lived together. We learned a few words from each other’s languages and life was just as easy.

In Nairobi, right before the 2002 elections, no one wanted to oust Moi out of power because he was Kalenjin, everyone was discussing his bad leadership and the opposition was united regardless of their ethnic backgrounds. Majority of Kenya, including Moi’s own tribe voted against Uhuru Kenyatta who was Moi’s appointee and preferred successor.

Slowly after that, political parties were registered and built around ethic support and every leader who thought was supreme in their community formed their own parties. Politics slowly became a tribal affair and every leader started pointing fingers on the leaders of the other tribes. We slowly let the monster that had eaten so many countries in Africa get a grip of a nation that was always referred by the rest of the world as an island of peace. We made our tribal differences a blame for our shortcomings and we looked at each other as enemies while we had lived in the same neighborhoods since time can document. Now it is such a reality, negative ethnicity has overtaken each and every problem we had as a nation. Each person is looking at a friendly tribe to work with politically, seeking a political party directly affiliated to their tribe.

While our politicians have had a great chance to kill this vice, they have actually taken advantage of it to create hierarchies within their regions and this has continued to fuel hatred among communities. It is a reality that Kenya witnessed the worst tribal violence that it has ever seen back in 2008 after the general elections. While most of us would like to say the violence was just political, the general assumption was that some tribes “must” have voted for specific people and so when there was a dispute, tribes turned against each other.

As a Kenyan, all I did was leave my house early for the polling station in Nairobi, voted for my preferred candidates and returned home to await the outcome. Now when one decides to engage in any kind of a competition, whether as a candidate or just as a participant on any level, they should always expect the competition to go either way – win or lose. I did not discuss with anyone who I voted for apart from maybe a few people I campaigned to convert to my camp before the elections and even then, we talked about it in a friendly way, and each one of us told the other “we shall see who wins eventually”. There was people of my own tribe that were not voting for the same candidates I was voting for and we would all try win more people into our camps. We made fun of each side’s advertising campaigns and eventually shared drinks at pool bars and went home in the same cars. Where the shift came from just amazes me.

So this is where we are, no need for details, but how do we deal with it? Is it a crime to be a member of any tribe? NO, you did not even get to choose what tribe you were born into. My tribe should just be an identity, just as Kenya is, a cultural heritage and a way of me tracing my historic roots. While I carry a name from the Kikuyu, my father was not even a Kikuyu and my kids whose mother is from another tribe have no point to pick up what tribe they are from. But the simple fact that they carry my name as Kenya is today they will face persecution as any other Kenyan will due to their tribal associations. Where are we taking this country? Are we going to have to split Kenyan into small tribal countries?

So we have all talked about the fight against tribalism but are we really going forward on it? My answer is NO, in fact we are far from it, I would say every day we are widening the gaps between our communities and fueling hatred due to small things that we can avoid.

I specifically have an issue with one of the ways the government has decided that tribal balance in resource allocation is a factor to consider. Tribalism will never leave Kenya with this mentality and attitude. Every Kenyan should have equal chances and all regions should be developed on the same pace.

The government should distribute resources according to needs, not according to “tribal balance”. North Eastern is behind in development due to challenges that require more resources and the fact that this region has not been able to produce enough resources to promote its own economy. While it may not be rich in agricultural resources, this area has a huge pastoralist culture that spells great wealth. If the government provided more security along our borders and built meat and milk processing plants in these areas, they would eventually support their own economies and educate their children for a better future.

Centralization of government services (which I hope will be a thing of the past with the new constitution) encouraged urbanization of only very small portions of the country leading to major rural-urban migrations. Somehow, most of the people who are educated end up moving to the urban areas leaving no innovation for the villages. This means poverty continues to grow. If the government can quicken the devolution process and educate people on ways of self sustenance and empower their trades by growing relevant industries and creating the infrastructure required to facilitate inter-regional trade, people would stop viewing other tribes as a threat to their being.

The human mind is quick to seek scapegoats and blame for every situation we get into. The first thing the government should stop is referring to tribal balance as a point in selection of appointees to any office, go purely on qualification and also ensure that every Kenyan has access to equal resources and opportunities. The more we talk about tribal or regional balance, the more Kenyans see themselves as their own tribes.

I dream of a Kenya that will only give me a job because I was the best qualified and not one that will give someone less qualified a job because they come from a tribe that was less represented. Tribalism is being elevated by these standards that our leaders have selfishly imposed. While there has been massive injustice in previous governments that rewarded people from specific tribes, we will not solve anything by using the same vice to “benefit” other tribes that did not gain from it before. Our only solution is to clean out the system, encourage every Kenyan to academically fight for every available opportunity and build systems that the people of Kenya can believe in. I might not make sense to a lot of people but take my word, unless we change this system, we are heading to a place where every person will see the other for their tribe.

Kenya is the only country I would claim I own and it is home to my grand parents and my grand kids to come. I want a better place for my kids than I lived in. I want a better life for them and the only way it starts is to first accept that we are in a whole that we already got into and the first step to getting out is by not digging anymore.

In conclusion, I repeat, we are creating a monster by stating that every appointment or board created needs to have tribal balance. What it needs is qualification. And what every Kenyan needs is equal opportunity, right to education and every human right. What the government (current and future) needs to do is fight to create a balance in development and resource distribution in the country and fill the gaps that we so wrongly created. I love Kenya and if we let it go down to what we almost fell into in 2008, some of us might afford to leave the country for peaceful havens but remember, no one can ever take all their roots and cultures out. We need to protect this country and tribalism is the fastest way we are killing it.

This interview mentions Wikimedia Kenya, The Kenya ICT Board, Ushahidi, iHub, Nailab, Pawa254, ipaidabribe.or.ke, Chief Kariuki, Boniface Mwangi, Bernard Kioko (Bernsoft), Kaburo Kobia and a few more people. Take a moment and watch it.

I booked my flight from New York to Minneapolis last minute so it cost quite high compared to the usual rates. My flight was scheduled to leave at 8pm and I just decided to get to the airport early. When I went to check my luggage in, the US Airways rep told me they had moved me to the 5pm flight. I thought it was okay with me since I was already there and that gave me enough time to even catch a drink with a friend in DC before my 10pm connecting flight.

A few moments after the security process, I received an email from US Airways notifying me that the 5pm flight will be delayed and new expected departure time was 5:40pm. By this time I had already asked a friend to meet me at the airport in DC for a drink. 40 minutes was not such a big deal so I let her know. At 5:50, we still had not boarded and this was starting to get on my nerves. Eventually we did and left the airport at 6:35pm, 10 minutes to the earlier expected landing time in DC.

The moment I landed in Washington, I put my phone on and got an email from US Airways again, this time notifying me that my connection flight had been cancelled, “due to air traffic congestion and resulting lengthy delays to this flight.”

The email gave me a number to call for “re-accommodation” which when I called was on an IVR system that did not understand my accent so I gave up and went to try and get help from the help desk. This was about 7:40pm and I went on a line to get help. There was about 10 people ahead of me on the line and since I had no option, I waited. This was slow and long, it took approximately 10 minutes to serve one person. Nearly 2 hours later, with my friend still waiting in the parking lot, I got to the customer care desk. Explained that my flight was cancelled and I needed help getting a new flight and accommodation/food.

First the lady said that they had no space since all hotels in the area had been booked and I asked her so what are my options? She said first let me get you on a flight tomorrow and let’s handle the rest of the details after that. She managed to get a flight on the next day at 2:40pm, almost 17 hours after the initial time I was supposed to fly. I was too tired and had no energy to even complain so I decided that was alright. Then came back the accommodation topic. She changed the story and now she said the flight was cancelled due to “bad weather” and she explained that due to the fact that it is not a situation in their control, they cannot compensate me or offer me accommodation. She actually went ahead to advise me that I should stay at the airport until my next flight, I almost screamed.

To cut the long story short, I am not sure I get the “bad weather” and “air traffic congestion” in the different explanations from the airline and maybe someone should explain to me why with all the forecasts and flight planning would US Airways let me pay for a flight only about 9 hours before its departure time and end up cancelling it and leaving me to spend about $400 in paying for accommodation and taxis to get back to the airport after paying $315 for the ticket. This is the worst experience I have had on any travel and the simple explanation from US Airways did not really show why I had to waste my time waiting in a line for 2 hours, spend 17 hours in a city I was not supposed to be in and eventually waste my money on unnecessary costs since my trip was planned and I knew I was going to be in Minneapolis on time.

Next time you travel, I recommend avoiding US Airways all together. Their customer service is too machine driven and if you do not have an American accent, you are bound to have issues. My thoughts.

The African Story – Cover page

You will not find animals on the streets of African cities as it is common belief

We do not live on trees, neither do we feel on wild fruits and grapes

A skyline of Nairobi, a great African city

The only surviving wonder of the World in Egypt

Facts about Africa

Facts about Africa

Many Africans are innovators from a really tender age, this is a toy made by a 4 year old African child.

The Story of M-Pesa is a great case study worldwide – It is another innovation from Africa

The Story of Chief Kariuki and how he uses Twitter via text to help the community fight crime and solve problems

How Africa has used technology to get information to people even with the lowest class of cellphones with basic text features

Ushahidi is a great case study of how Africans use their own problems to create solutions that eventually affect the whole world.

International media has played a big role in getting the wrong picture about Africa out there. I suggest that international media employs more locals to work on delivering local stories as opposed to bringing foreigners to tell our story

NGOs and AID organizations are great and most of them are doing good work in Africa but there is a good percentage of those that are exploiting Africa and telling the wrong stories to get more funding everyday.

The education levels and quality in Africa contribute to the lack of digital content in Africa

I place Wikipedia as part of the problem in Africa currently, specifically because its growth everywhere is is getting to be relied as a credible source of information everywhere and when there is very little content from and on Africa, it creates an impression that there is nothing to say about Africa. I propose more concetration on creating African content.

This is Obama’s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham – I was surprised that even Americans in the room did not at first recognize her… but either way there is a really long article about her on Wikipedia

Obama’s other grandma from Kenya – she has a 2 line article on Wikipedia

This is the page

This is an article about Bonoko, a young man with a great story of how he got from the streets to being a popular radio presenter in the country but it was deleted from Wikipedia since there was no references

Africa’s challenges on Wikipedia

Africa’s challenges on Wikipedia

My proposed solutions

Stats from 2010 on mobile advertising in Africa. Infographic from inMobi

Some points to ponder

This is how to contact me, picture of my lovely daughters, Charlene and Charnele, Thank you.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions on this. You can also download a PDF full presentation from SlideShare or below:

How do you ask the matatu industry to ignore the law? How do you just decide that a law that is part of the constitution of Kenya is easily by-passable by your position as the PM? How do you engage rioting people in street solutions for something that the law has in place? I fail to understand how far you can go to sound powerful. Please tell me, who did you consult on this? I am asking because I want to believe that you did not decide it and we can have someone else to blame.

Dr. Odinga, please explain to me how we can now differentiate genuine people in the matatu industry and the hundreds of cartels that extort the industry and rob commuters everyday. How are we supposed to spot the criminals that and know who to avoid at the stages? If you do not realize it, you have just given criminals a smooth operating license. I would think that you were wrongly advised and you are going to recall your statement.

Hon. PM, please also explain to me what exactly you mean by “Citizen arrest”. My simple reasoning tells me that is incitement of the highest capacity and you should desist from such statements with your position. You know by now that some people will use any chance given to fight the police. There is law and procedure in handling such matters. I would say if there are challenges in this it is because the government in which you are an “equal” partner has failed and instead managed to encourage corruption in the public institutions.

Sir, if your policies for solving problems include street justice and mass action, we are headed to failure as a nation. Try imagine a scenario where a Kenyan is trying to “citizen arrest” a police officer who is armed and in uniform. You should know that it is law for a citizen to respect the police uniform if not even the officer himself. If this armed officer shot anyone and claimed he was defending himself, how would you ever repay the life of these people you are advising to take law into their own hands?

As a leader with influence, I believe it is very irresponsible to make such statements and I am a believer of justice and democracy. If you are trying to play the populist card which I think you are very good at, this time you are going too far. Remember where the call for mass action took this country? We need to be responsible and encourage everyone to use the law and the correct procedure to tackle some of these issues.

Hon. Raila, I would like to urge you to please revisit this issue and make it clear that people cannot take law into their own hands and that there is not need for such a thing as “citizen arrest” which to me is equal to mob justice.

Again, please also give us a guideline on how to differentiate the people who are genuinely working in the matatu industry and the criminal groups that extort and steal from innocent Kenyans. You have just given them cover according to what I think. Even if it is a quest for votes, there is a better way to get easy with the industry.

Explain to me how you will handle a situation where the doctors go on strike. Will you ask them to let people die? or probably kill them? Seriously, it is your responsibility to make sure Kenyans obey the law and keep peace. I feel you owe Kenyans an apology for making such statements that could cause tension and create conflict in the industry which millions of Kenyans depend on.

I hope to hear something on this from you.

4 months ago, we were recognized as an official chapter of Wikimedia and we are now finalizing registration with the government. We have an elected board which I chair and a lot is moving. We are slowly building partnerships that we intend to use for achieving both our long term and short term goals.

These goals include getting more people to contribute to Wikipedia and other projects operated by Wikimedia and teaching more and more people on how to do this effectively. It is a goal that will see more African content on Wikipedia that will actually be more accurate and precise as opposed to content written by foreigners.

It is a chance for us to tell the African story ourselves as opposed to waiting for international journalists like Alex Perry to do more global mistakes that leave people with a totally wrong picture of Africa.

Using Wikipedia as a channel to tell the African story is a great direction but the standards imposed by Wikipedia on article contributions restrict a lot of content from Africa due to the fact that more than 70% of the African story is not documented elsewhere.

My talk at Wikimania aims at showcasing what heritage we have as a continent and how much the world is missing without having this content on Wikipedia. It proposes ways for improving accuracy and authenticity of articles even bypassing the usual rules at Wikipedia.

My talk will be available live on a stream and you can also follow it on Twitter using the harsh tag #Wikimania on Saturday 14th (I will be on stage at 12pm DC time which will be about 5am Kenyan time) but will also try and get content on YouTube. I will share my powerpoint presentation with notes on this blog after the presentation. Please feel free to mention anything you think I need to touch on within my presentation.

Kenya needs you, What is your part?

I have to say I feel saddened by the events happening everyday in our country. Every single day is a tragedy, news is never good news. Someone was killed, people died of hunger, an innocent little girl was raped, a blast here and a blast where most Kenyans gather, most innocent Kenyans looking for a way to make ends meet in a scrambling economy, a life that has become a hand to mouth for most.

Most Kenyans feel let down by the same government that is supposed to protect them. When the government should have controlled fuel prices, they shot to the highest they have ever been. When the government was supposed to be killing Al Shabaab Militants, they invaded our businesses and killed our relatives and friends. I have to look back and ask why, why do we have to suffer so much when we have policies and laws that should be protecting us?

Kenyans go on record as being the most patient people in the universe. We also serve a short memory, it takes a new headline to forget the last one. Why do we still have goldenberg ministers in government and running for offices in the next government? Why do we recycle our trash without cleansing it? Why did we refund the Kazi kwa Vijana money to the world bank? Is it to say we had no need for it? Our youth are still jobless, why do we have increased crime? I would like to ask these questions to every individual. Why do we have Anglo-leasing ministers and MPs in power? Why have we made governance of Kenya a popularity show?

We have taught our young voters that the most popular politician is the best politician, regardless of their chance to change anything in government. We have used the words of politicians in their popularity wars as the gospel and continued to preach the same trash they keep preaching against each other. We have laughed when they make stupid jokes about each other, we watched them break up and make up in public and we remain their experimental crowds. Why do we agree to be used like this? When did democracy run from our country?

I feel saddened by the fact that we shall go back to elections and vote the same people. Worse, we shall watch some processes that we can get involved in go away because we were too busy to take part and we can only accept what is eventually presented to us. Please take this as a challenge, be part of the change. The positive change. Do not let things go wrong when you can change something. There is always something you can do. Open someone’s eyes. Tell them the truth about each politician. The truth that you know will help someone make a decision. Take up your position, run for a seat. Be part of the change.

Today I read a post from a friend on Facebook saying that she has decided not to vote – and I am sure there is a lot of us who have come to the same conclusion after looking at the situation we are in. That is not the solution though… we can’t stand back and watch others make decisions for us. Your one vote counts, it is your biggest chance to be part of the change.

Kenya went into flames because of selfish politicians back in 2008. The people who made us get into this phase of our history were enjoying armed security while Kenyans were either entangled in battle or fearing for the next minute. I remember it too well, too clearly. I had 6 kids in my house and no maid or any adult I could leave them with to go anywhere look for food. I could not leave them in the house and I could not go out with them, people were burning tires and beating others up. There was too much tension and that is a point in life we should never go back to.

God gave us a chance to sort our mess, we should never go back there. At the end of the day, we are Kenyans. Tribal divisions will hurt all of us, no one is safe. Politicians can all afford to fly their families out of the country and leave us in chaos. It is time to take charge, be the change.

While the grand-coalition government was born out of the peace initiative, Kenyans have had to fund an extremely expensive government that has had no opposition meaning a lot of imbalances in governance. We need a stable government and a stable opposition. We need a restoration of democracy in Kenya and we need enactment of the new constitution. Kenyans need to enjoy the new law.

So what is your part? You need to study leaders and their motives. You need to understand who has a chance to bring any change or press the rule of law in Kenya. We need to look at who has personal agendas and self-actualization goals. We need to look at their tracks, we need to stop voting in thieves over and over again. Kenyans are hard workers, we managed to get up on our feet after 2008, we can go to the highest points if only our taxes were properly managed. It is your choice, the future of Kenya depends on you.

Kimathi street on fire... Picture taken from a BlackBerry device, not the best quality

From my (very unprofessional in fire fighting skills) view, the fire was at a stage that needed only a single fire truck and a few fire fighters to contain. It was still in one room. What amazed me is that the truck packed on Kenyatta avenue was doing nothing at all while we watched the fire move from that one room and quickly spread to other rooms. An hour later, no drop of water had come out of the truck and a second truck came, tried their luck on it but their pressure was only enough to get to the 3rd floor of the building. At this point the entire wing of the 5th floor facing Kenyatta avenue was on fire. The fire was getting wild and scary.

After a few moments, private fire fighting companies joined the efforts. At this point, more than 1000 people were gathered around the building. G4S’ truck was succeeding in getting to the 5th floor and they managed to put off the fire at the edges of the wing facing Kimathi street. The fire was still far from over. More and more fire trucks came in, more from the city council and a few private companies, including KK security.

At about 9pm, the fire on the 5th floor started dying after consuming everything that was flammable, but there was a corner fire on the 6th floor that was just starting. There was more than 8 fire trucks around the building but none had the hydro-cranes to lift fire fighters to the level of the floor that was burning.

A few minutes later, a modern city council fire truck with the cranes arrived at the scene, leaving everyone wondering where it has been since 7pm while the fire station was only a few metres away from the scene of the incident. What was even more amazing is that it took more than 30 minutes before they could move up the crane and even when they did, they could not aim at where the fire was, in fact, they were watering the trees around the building. By this time, KK security and G4S had manually elevated ladders on the building and there were people up on the 5th floor putting off the fire. Eventually, these efforts saw the fire die.

I (as you probably do) have many questions. We have had city council fire fighters blame their inability to stop fires on roads, people and a lot of other reasons, what was their excuse for letting this fire go that fire into destroying people’s businesses and property? Their offices are 200m away from the building and even when they were all at the scene, it was private companies that put out the fire, do we really need a fire department in the city? I know the answer is yes we do, but there is a need for the government to take action on the city council before it lets people die of fires while they pay fire fighters every month to do nothing.

The government should engage the private sector which seems to deliver anyway and fully outsource the services from them with set regulations and I think every Kenyan will agree that we shall all feel safer this way.

Another thing I noted is that Kenya Power showed up at the scene at 8:55pm – while they had put off power on Kimathi street, the building has an automatic generator and it went on soon as the power was cut. All buildings should have adequate fire control measures and again, these are rules set and regulated by the same city council. The government should assign private firms these roles because we have buildings in the city that are just a disaster waiting to happen. Unfortunately, these are the buildings whose rent is low and that is where we have most people operating from.

Someone do something before it is too late.

The election was held at a meetup in Upperhill’s Public Service Club at the snooker room and it was by secret ballot after a set of rules and regulations set by the election team, headed by Chris Riwa.After the tally of the votes, the new board was announced as follows.

• Oscar Limoke
• Stephen Wanjau
• David Mugo (Myself)
• Ann Njeri
• Alex Wafula

All of the elected board members have been working with Wikipemedia Kenya for at least two years each and for sure it is a team that will make history in executing projects for Wikimedia Kenya, now a registered society in Kenya.

Part of the mandate of the board will be creating relationships with organizations and government ministries and departments to document more of Kenya’s rich culture, history, leadership and more. The board will also see further involvement of Africans in Wikimedia and Wikipedia. Kenya is only the second chapter in Africa and this means we have to work hard to grow this.

This again is something I am highly proud of and I will work my best to elevate Wikimedia Kenya to great heights.

Stand for Kenya #Kenya28Feb

This year, it is bound to be even bigger with more Kenyans on social media than last year, this being an initiative totally driven by social medians in Kenya. More so, being an election year, Kenyans need to demonstrate that unity more than ever. The agenda is quite simple. Get the country to sing the national anthem in unison, reminding them of the commitment and covenant that is the lyrics of our national anthem. It is a bond that cuts across our ethnic backgrounds, cultures, geographical locations and brings us together as Kenyans. As a nation that shares national values and truly depends on God above for all.

I would like to take a moment to request you wherever you might be, in or out of Kenya to unite with all other Kenyans and let us together sing the national anthem on Feb 28th at 1pm, (GMT+3).  Find out more details at the official #Kenya28Feb website and let us stand for Kenya.

You can follow #Kenya28Feb on Twitter and Facebook