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Showing posts from 2010

Why Assange deserves to be Journalist of the Decade





Cunning Nairobi Hawkers

Have you ever wondered how easy it is to de-fraud the public? Do you think that you need to be a politician to defraud the public? It is quite easy to defraud the public, and secondly, politicians work very hard and in fact most of their income is handed to them on a silver platter, been the gate keepers of Government contracts. Whether politicans defraud the public shall be left to another day. As for how easy it is to defraud the public, Jeffrey Acher, in one of his novels, illustrates a couple of guys who send in a classified Ad to the dailies reading "Deadline near. Send your money quickly." According to Archer, the guys received money. Whether it was just a piece of imagination or an actual occurence we leave it to the author.

Yesterday, I happened to take a Kenya Bus Services Management bus, yes , one of the buses responsible for intoducing a large hole on half of my pin striped suit with their crude seats. I boarded the bus travelling from Teleposta towers, previous …

Hurrying Matatus

For months, I have felt the urge to write about the many accidents we see on Kenyan roads, but like many times before, I will leave that for another pots. However, closely related, I shall be post about matatu's and the fact that they are always in a hurry. This results in accidents on several occasions.

Friday afternoon on Murang'a road was the scene of a vehicle partly submerged in a water hole resultant of an unfilled trench on the ongoing roadworks. This was the second vehicle that day in that same position, and was a matatu.

To make matters worse, it looked like the culprit driver drove right through into the water. Given it was a route 6 matatu, am figuring the driver may have mistaken the more than 1 metre deep trench to be one of the ponds that he encounters in Eastleigh.

My next ride home was similarly dramatic. The Citi Hoppa bus driver could not join Moi Avenue since he had parked ahead of the exit and the traffic policeman insisted that the guy could not reverse…

Tuskys Bread Versus Ukwala Sukuma Wiki




The Traffic Police Matatu Uniform Act

A lot has changed along Tom Mboya street in downtown Nairobi. It's not the hawkers who occupy the pavement and who will pick up a quarrel with you if you stand in front of their wares showing no intent to purchase them. It does not occur to them that you have the right to be on the pavement Its even worse when you step their wares when trying to avoid one of those Nairobi Jay Walkers. One thing about hawkers though, don't purchase any clothing item at night. You will end up with a pink sweater, like the one am wearing as I type this, while what you had intended was a beautiful cream one. Credit this to the yellow street lights , which if you forgot your science classes , produce other colors when mixed with actual colors.

The changes along Tom Mboya street also have nothing to do with it been a street where any Tom, Dick and Harry can try out their U turn and 3 point motoring skills. It's hard to cross this street as it is quite impossible to predict the general flow of t…

Positive Feedback

Engineers are one of the best people to have around or even sit around. Why? engineers offer solutions, and do not have empty words, despite been simple. Dressed simply in jeans and t-shirts, engineers will solve your problems without lots of bureaucracy , like management.

Well, I discovered this recently when I was sitted in a roomful of communication engineers at the just concluded Africa Interconnection and Peering Forum. In a rare opportunity given to me to voice some opinion, they handed me a microphone, but when I tried speaking, the sound system responded with a high pitch whistle. Several attempts resulted in the same high pitched whistle. The engineers told me to move a few metres and the whistles dissapeared.

Demons! That would be the response of a priest, if he chose not to blame the devil for the same happening in a church, and which it more often than not happens. Well, the priests will be saddened to learn the devil is usually busy elsewhere, probably attending bend…

Choosing your Creditors wisely

Over this week, I have learned a few lessons about lending and borrowing , of money, given that there is a lot to be lend and borrowed. Let me first of all make sure that I had not taken a break from blogging due to matters related to borrowing and lending.

Apparently, apart from carefully choosing who to lend, you should also make wise decisions as to who to borrow from. First of all, if you do not intend to return the money in a timely manner, or in this case never return it , you must devise a way of ensuring that your lender doesn't contact you in the period the money is overdue. Let us look at two case scenarios.

Situation #1, these 2 associates of mine. Associate 1 asks associate 2 to lend him some cash over a short period since his salary arrives a few days later than associates 1 salary's. Associate 1 agrees and associate 2 gets the money.

In a few days, associate 2 gets paid, and luckily looses his phone. How is this lucky, you ask? Well, associate 2 takes this opp…

Under Arrest For Selling Liquour Without a License

Yesterday was Monday the 21st, where under Kenyan Law, I, Gramware (that's not the name on my National ID) was supposed to be standing before a magistrate at a certain Nairobi court.

It all started on Sunday, after waking up early in the morning at quarter to noon. For those who are wondering, among my peers 4 am is late in the night while 11 am -12 am is early morning. In case you are an Administration or Regular police officer reading this, be rest assured that we engage in completely legal activities at this hours.

So after waking up, I took brunch as normal. Amongst me and my peers (I shall resist from using "my peers and I" because I come first amongst them) brunch is the first meal of the day followed by supper, because lunch is entirely a waste of time and energy, unless you woke up late at night at about 7am.

After taking breakfast, I ventured out to buy some soap to wash the breakfast utensils. For this noble task, I was dressed in a blue pair of jeans, Barca…

The case of the sleep-hunger syndrome and how poor people put much effort to collectively remain poor

Again, frequent readers of my blog may have noticed that I have fallen into a bad habit of ensuring they are no longer frequent readers, by ensuring that there is nothing to be read frequently. You see, due to other engagements (non-marital at the moment) I have less time to do the blog. The problem is not the 'less time', which I assure you is quite enough to update several blogs daily. The main problem is the sleep-hunger syndrome.

To successfully blog, one must be fit and fully attentive, and this is hampered when one of Maslow's hierarchy of needs is not met. Of late, I have been having issues with especially 2 of Maslow's physiological needs which is common among people exhibiting the sleep-hunger syndrome. The sleep-hunger syndrome is a situation which starts by one feeling so hungry that they find it difficult to attend to any task. To solve the issue, one has to eat, and this then presents the next problem. After eating, the sufferer becomes so sleepy that ag…

Eastleigh, the Shopping District of Nairobi

It reached a point where I was getting envious, envious of the Nairobi beggars , the ones who are disabled, mostly amputees. I was not envious of their begging, but more of their begging while dressed in pretty cool garments, more so designer jeans. You see, you cannot beg in designer jeans and expect people to listen to your plight when they are dressed in garments that are almost wearing thin.

So after been approached by several beggars who I felt were better dressed than I was, I decided that it was time to upgrade my wardrobe. The first place to look was my dirt-cheap stockist in downtown Nairobi, but I found that when it came to jeans, the stock reminded me of some jeans that I once saw when I was in primary school, popularly known as Savco.

Remembering a story I had been told about Eastleigh having a large enough stock of textiles sold at a subsidized price(apparently)by pirates, I decided to pay the place a visit. The place, might be thse source of the billions of dollars in …

The Bible. Why you should read your Bible.









Well, it has been quite a while since I last posted anything here, or even visited this blog. Yet another proof that the blog is quite boring that it does not warrant my visiting it. As for me not updating it, I could have blamed the numerous blackouts, or even blamed the alcohol(proliferation of Chang’aa in Kenya).

But here is a perfect reason that I was not blogging. See, I come form a very green area in Kenya called Mwingi. O.k. , I now admit that it is a dry area often plagued by drought , but the area is quite green due to the continuous rains in Kenya starting last November. In case you are wondering, neither drought, rain or lush greenery is to blame for my failure to blog. A more closer fit would be the constitutional system of the country. See I come from Mwingi south , a constituency that was once split from Mwingi constituency. Before the split, Mwingi constituency had its M.P. as Kalonzo Musyoka , the country’s V.P. Kalonzo Musyoka is still the M.P. for Mwingi North. Rece…