6 The little terrorist

Jamal, a Pakistani Muslim, crosses the India-Pakistan fence to fetch his cricket ball..
[The first few seconds is blank]

0 Wimbo wa Miti - The Song of the Trees

This poem is an allegory in which trees play the roles of Women from Lamu who have some misunderstandings. It is an oral tradition translated by Joseph Mbele from swahili.

Jana niwene kisa adhimu
Yesterday I witnessed a notable episode
tena tafusirini walimu
And will you, the experts, explain it;
Miti ya li kipijana mtende tina mdimu
Trees were fighting, the date-palm and the lime tree

Hima ukaya mbiyo mpwera
Promptly the guava tree came running,
Nyuma muembe una hasira
And close behind it the furious mango tree,
Mzabibu ukisema kunyamaa ni ujura
While the grapevine declared: 'Passivity is stupidity.'

Mara ukadhihiri mtesi
Suddenly the mtesi* appeared
sura zina ushi una kasi
Its face full of impatience and intensity
Ukiwambiya mpwera kwetu hakuna rakhisi
And it told the guava tree, 'With us there is no easy way.'

Papo ukaya mpili pili
There and then came the pepper plant
Hapo ukinena kwa ukali
And it was speaking angrily
Ukiapa kwa ziyapo miti pia siijali
And swearing with oaths: 'I don't give a damn for trees!'

Punde wasiyesa kani zao
Before their fury was spent,
Nde wawene mti uyao
They saw, outside, a tree coming,
Nao ni mberemende una panga na ngao
And it was the mberemende**, armed with sword and shield:

Zita hatuchi twapo uwawa
'War we fear not, though we get killed,
Uta na zembe tume tukuwa
For with bow and arrows we are armed.'
Mbuyu ulipopita uka simama kwa muwa
When the baobab tree passed by, it stopped to mediate

Hela watani yenu mayowe
'Come, now, cease your noisy squabbling;
tela bure asiwazuzuwe
Let not Tela confound you
Kuna mti unahila humshinda kitunguwe
There is a tree more cunning than Hare

Shina la mambo haya nayuwa
The stem of these things I know;
Sawa nimezi ye kutambuwa
Very well have I realized it.
Muyungu ndio fitina waloalisha mauwa
The pumpkin plant is the agitator that has called forth these blossoms.'

---

* The swahili believe mtesi is a branch/leaf which should never be brought to the house or conflicts will arise.
** No idea what that means

11 Worthless Girl

~
Worthless girl performed by a school in Kenya.
Worth watching
~

4 Finally

Finally the tribes have come together
Realised their wrongs and repented.
The refugees have been welcomed back
by those that chased them away.

We also have a leader,
He is not Raila nor Kibaki.
A new one who hails from no political dynasty.
It is peaceful.

This is complete utter nonsense.
I must stop day-dreaming..

26 A Mother in a Refugee Camp

No Madonna and Child could touch
Her tenderness for a son
She would soon have to forget...
The air was heavy with odors of diarrhea,
Of unwashed children with washed-out ribs
And dried-up bottoms waddling in labour steps
Behind blown-empty bellies. Other mothers there
Had long ceased to care, but not this one:
She held a ghost-smile between her teeth,
And in her eyes the memory
Of a mother's pride....She had bathed him
And rubbed him, down with bare palms.
She took from their bundle of possessions
A broken comb and combed
The rust-colored hair left on his skull
And then--humming in her eyes--began carefully to part it
In their former life this was perhaps
A little act of no consequence
Before his breakfast and school; now she did it
Like putting flowers on a tiny grave

~Chinua Achebe
in his book Collected Poems

4 Updates on Kenya

2 Mp's killed this week. 'Mugabe Were' Mp for Embakasi and 'David Too' Mp for Ainamoi. The latter's murder is termed by the police as a crime of passion. Too's death has increased havoc in the country. The traffic policeman - a Kisii, who shot him was murdered by angry mobs. The killings sparked clashes between the Kalenjins and the Kisii. Overnight 13 people have been killed in Western Kenya after clashes between Sotik and Borabu districts. A primary school was torched in Chebilat.

On Saturday, a mob surrounded a church near Eldoret and burned it to the ground on. Those inside managed to escape unharmed.

Some victims of the violence have been thrown into the deep crater of the extinct Menengai crater north from Nakuru. There they are preyed upon by wild animals. The volcano is named "kirima kia ngoma" (Devil's place) by the locals, as they claim it is under the control of evil spirits.