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.

10 Evolving into something else..

The handshake between the 2 protagonist leaders did not help my country much. The violence continued. More people were injured, more people died. It's not like I really expected every hatred directed at the 2 men and their allies to disappear immediately. But I hoped that it would be a stepping stone to some form of sane mediation.

We later saw Kibaki addressing the people of Kenya and calling himself the duly elected president. ODM was outraged. Meanwhile Nakuru and Naivasha have been hit by waves of violence.

My take is the leaders took too much time to meet and negotiate. The hatred started filling amongst people the day Kibaki was wrongly sworn in. And it continued filling, till it blinded them. And of course, now its too late. They have lost control. I do not know what is going to happen tomorrow or in the future. All I hope is for a good fate for Kenya and its people.

ODM calls three days of mass action
Story by NATION Reporter and REUTERS Publication

The Orange Democratic Movements is set to resume street protests against President Kibaki following the collapse of talks to broker a peace deal over the contested presidential poll.

The party has announced three day of mass protests countrywide on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday next week, even as former UN boss Kofi Annan is expected to reopen mediation and the new Parliament has been summoned for Tuesday.

“Talks between ODM and the other side have collapsed due to the resufal of that side to negotiate with us. We are not ‘unresponsive’ at all. We worked hard, together with other parties, to come up with a just solution,” said party secretary Prof Anyang Nyong’o at a Press conference.

ODM listed 15 venues countrywide where they will hold protests beginning 10am on each of the three days. The rallies will be held in Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Kakamega, Eldoret, Kapsabet, Kisii, Kericho, Nyeri, Embu, Machakos, Voi, Garissa, Narok and Siaya.

Previous demonstrations have led to riots and bloody clashes between ODM supporters and riot police, adding to a total death toll of over 500 since the December 27 vote.

The Government has previously maintained that public rallies are outlawed until the political mood in the country calms.

"Dialogue is not engaged in the streets. Dialogue suggests that people resolve their differences peacefully, over a table, not through destroying property and killing innocent Kenyans," Local Government Minister Uhuru Kenyatta told reporters.

Yesterday's failure of African Union head and Ghanaian President John Kufuor to broker a deal has sent panic across the country with many fearing a fresh riots.

On his way back to home, President Kufuor said Mr Annan, another Ghanaian, would lead a group of eminent Africans in another push to resolve the crisis.

The ODM leaders skipped a meeting that President Kibaki had called for 2.30pm, maintaining that they would only engage the Head of State in talks chaired by an internationally recognised mediator.

The West, including the United States and Kenya's former colonial ruler Britain, has expressed displeasure at irregularities in the presidential vote count, and is pressing for some sort of power-sharing agreement.

In the latest statement from abroad, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband urged both sides "to engage without any pre-conditions" and "agree on a way to share power so as to reflect the clear democratic will of the Kenyan people."

At the same time, ODM-Kenya’s Kalonzo Musyoka has come out to explain why he accepted the Vice-Presidency offered by President Kibaki. Mr Musyoka came third in the disputed presidential poll but has since joined President Kibaki’s Government.

Mr Musyoka said he wanted to ensure the nation remains intact following the violence that rocked the country after President Kibaki was declared the winner of the presidential election.

Addressing a Press conference at his Jogoo House office earlier today, Mr Musyoka said the move was also dictated by the party’s policy to work in a coalition.

He said ODM-Kenya now has an opportunity to push for the implementation of some of its policies as opposed to common belief that its goals and principles will be swallowed by those of President Kibaki’s Party of National Unity (PNU).

“ODM-Kenya has entered a coalition Government. I am here to tell you that the party’s principles and goals are closer to being realised today than at any other time in our party’s history,” Mr Musyoka said.

2 A song for Peace

nationmedia.com

This song on being Kenyan and the Kenyan flag:

...na ishi na tumaini na jitolea daima kenya hakika ya bendera utabidi wangu
nyeusi ya wananchi
na nyekundu ni ya damu,
kijani ni ya ardhi
nyeupe ya amani,
daima mimi mkenya mwananchi mzalendo....

....and I live and hope to forever give the Kenyan flag its right,
black is of the people
red is for the blood
green for the earth
White for peace
I will forever be a patriotic Kenyan citizen...

Thanks to Sakeena for the final translation

5 Hope for amani (peace)

Things are slowly coming back to normal albeit a few commodities still have high prices tagged on them.Nevertheless things are looking brighter. Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga are finally going to talk this Friday and put forward their demands.

In Kisauni, Mombasa - a shop owner threatened to read Al-Badiri (some form of black magic) on all those that took part in the looting spree in his premise. He's given them 6 days to return his items or else they face the curse. Many returned his property and others complained of having experienced some supernatural effect.

One man said he could feel a person sleeping near him on the mattress he stole. Another complained of an eye ache after staring at the stolen mirror.

2 Situation in Mombasa

The queuing for kerosene continues in Mombasa. Kerosene is used by many for lamps and cooking.

A GSU Police patroling an area.

Sakina Mosque, a few minutes after demonstrators took to the street after Jumah prayers from this place.

The road beared stones which lay scattered. Najib Balala a member of the ODM pentagon vowed that this demonstration will continue till the governement agrees their wrong doings. In response to the protest, police fired tear gas to stop the opposition supporters from moving forward.

0 Headlines for the wrong reasons

Last week around this time Kenya was making headlines for all the right reasons, Now its making headlines for all the wrong reasons.I take back all the confidence I expressed about my country. I was shortsighted, and failed to realise that Kibaki could care less about the humans beings of this country.

Behind the car, people que up for kerosene in Mtwapa (North of Mombasa)

Kibaki told reporters that he was ready to have dialogue with the other parties once the nation is calm. Raila has agreed to talk to the president if and only if he-Kibaki resigns.
Can someone tell me what is wrong with the "Presidents"? Calm can only be restored in this country if and only if they accept the will of the people. Kibaki cannot expect Kenyans to abandon the fight for democracy so as to negotiate with him. As for Raila, he needs to swallow some pride in him!

Kenyans have been calling for the two leaders to talk to their people and ask them to stop the fighting. But with the leaders making such claims I think this is a dangerous line they are forcing Kenya to tread upon.

Town was quiet in an uneasy way. Some streets are deserted whilst many shops remain closed

A deserted petrol station after Nyali bridge

Schooling will now resume in Kenya from 13th January instead of 8th January.

0 A blissful new year

So I got back from lighthouse a few minutes back. Its a local spot for celebrating New Years. Today was different to normal New Years celebrations, with it being the quietest celebration.

Anyways I hope 2008 is peaceful and prosperous for Kenya!

H A P P Y N E W Y E A R!

Edit: Just noticed My blog's still stuck on London time. lol

2 Kenya's ongoings..

I wonder what happened at 2 P.M with Raila odinga, the man who perhaps would have been Kenya's president to be sworn in as the people's president today at Uhuru Park, Nairobi 2 pm. The government has termed it illegal to visit.

The situation currently in Kenya bears resemblance to the situation in Nigeria during 1993 where chief Moshood Abiola was running against Bashir Tofa. Abiola won the results but was denied to presidency.

An American observer then wrote:'the elections had been the fairest, whilst the unofficial results showed a clear victory for Abiola'

Parts of Kisauni were being vandalised. Items such as mattresses, carpets, TVs, computers were a few of the items I saw being stolen.


In Othaya celebrations in honour of Mwai Kibaki were violently going on. With tires being burnt. The scene was difficult to distinguish from that of a protest.

Meanwhile I appreciate Kalonzo's attempt in trying to bring peace between the 2 Presidents!

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11 60 hours

Its been 60 hours since the ballot boxes were opened to the public for voting, and no results of who Kenya's next president will be yet!

Tensions are high all over Kenya. In Mombasa many marched down Jomo Kenyatta Avenue demanding the electoral commision to speed up the delivery of results.

ODM has announced Raila Odinga to be the president of Kenya. However these claims were dismissed by the ECK. Meanwhile us Kenyans wait to hear from official results of the man who will be president.

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Pictures taken on Jomo Kenyatta Avenue, Mombasa. Near the market. When I got there tensions had reduced and the army had intervened to keep the town calm.

4 Roads of Mombasa

Today was declared a National holiday in Kenya by the president as its Eid Ul Adha. The evening seemed to pass rather slowly and so we thought we'd go out for a drive of Mombasa.

With the elections round the corner we were met by some members of the ODM campaigning on the roads of Mombasa. They chanted amusing slogans whilst the song 'Najib Balala Najib Balala wakati wako sasa' (Najib Balala Najib Balala it is your time now) played in the background.

I captured some of the drive on video below, including bits of Light house and a drive past the goat sellers.

5 Know Safety No pain

Loved the way this saying's been put..

Location: UAE

0 Cairo Rihlas V

Cairo Rihlas V

9th November:

I'm on the plane now, on my way back to London. In a way I'm glad to be going back. Cairo was too noisy. The car drivers are really impatient and they would make use of their horns constantly. Their roads make Digo Road - One of Mombasa's busiest roads look like child's play! Crossing the roads was another big hassle and the Zebra Crossing is just a decorative ornament for the road. But well you learn to get used to it.. lol.

In the last 2 days I visited the Khan el Khalili Market twice. I enjoyed it more each time.
'Spend your money here' 'Just looking no buying here' 'India ya bakistan?' 'babyrus for 10 pound' were few of the phrases I heard.

I had a good time, learnt quite abit and well I'm now glad to be going back to London:)

Picture Gallery

Rihla means travel, made famous after Ibn Battuta's Narratives called Rihla. I liked the sound of Rihlas.. and so I chose to call my Visit: Cairo Rihlas

0 Cairo Rihlas IV

Cairo Rihlas IV

6th November:

Today was well let's say exhausting. lol. I find Shopping an ardent task, it's really not my thing. The market was called khan el khalili. Its a shopping maze with narrow alleys running around everywhere.

The shops had good touristy stuff. Items made of papyrus, egyptian footrests, sheesha pipes ...As we walked around many kept shouting 'India ya Bakistan?' And we either ignore or reply hind, occasionally Kenya but this means explaining how we came to be Kenyans. To them its really confusing that we're Kenyans.

Anyways in some narrow alley outside a shop some man asked us the above question, and well as usual the reply was 'hind'. But this man had Kenyan features. You could tell. And so my dad asked him where he was from. His reply well...put a smile to our faces, yes he was Kenyan. lol.We conversed with him in Swahili for a while. I like Swahili, it's a good language. So anyways this man's a student at some university there and he was studying linguistics. He mentioned that Moody Awori (The vice president of Kenya) was there a week back. His shop was a mix of Egyptian and Kenyan curious. I recognised some Kenyan key chains and masks.

Near the market is the Imam Hussein Mosque.

0 Cairo Rihlas III

Cairo Rihlas III

5th November:

Today was good. I enjoyed it more possibly because there was less walking involved.So I went to the Egyptian Museum which is located near tahrir (liberation) square. There just too much history to absorb and currently I'm trying to write this in the midst of tooo many facts buzzing through my my mind.The museum did not permit cameras inside, but that did not stop others from taking videos and photos from their phones :)

So anyways I saw the statue of Queen Hatshesput (she married her half brother thutmose II) and bore a child Thutmose III, who is known as the napoleon of Egypt)

In 1925 the tomb of Hetepheres was discovered, and on display were her alabaster sarcophagus, baldachin, bed (made with gold and papyrus), headrest(looked really uncomfortable), jewellery box and carrying chair.

Saw ancient wall drawings of Amenhotep IV who later took the name Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti worshiping Aten.

There was great queuing in the room for Tutankhamen. His golden mask, sacrcophagous, jewellery and all were visible

And lastly saw the mummies! :D They had some 12 mummies, those that I can remember included seti, Queen Hatshesput, her wet nurse, and Ramsis II.

Later we visited the citadel of Saladdin. In the 14th Century they built a mosque within its premises, which is now known as the Muhammad Ali mosque. In 1811 Muhammed Ali called the leaders of the Mameluks for a feast to his citadel. When all the leaders had arrived, he ordered his men to shoot them. Very few out of the 470 men survived.

At night I went for the sound & light show. We sat at a point where all the 3 pyramids and the sphinx were visible. Images and lasers were then projected on the 2nd pyramid with stories being recalled.

1 Cairo Rihlas II

Cairo Rihlas II

4th November:

[Outside the tomb]

We first visited the tomb of Mereruka in sakkara. It's the largest tomb in Sakkara. Cameras were not allowed here. The walls were filled with drawings on all over describing the daily life, dances, punishments and other..

Next we saw the step pyramids of king zoser, It was one of the first pyramids that the Egyptians built.

In Memphis which was the capital of Ancient Egypt more than 5000 years ago we saw limesone statue of ramses II :

alabaster sphinx

and a statue of some pharoah

This pharoah was alive when its statue was made as its left leg is forward.


Our guide then took us to Siwa perfumes who dealt with flower extracts. I was suprised to learn that they exported their essences to major companies like estee lauder, calvin klein, channel, D&G etc. These companies would mix 20% of the essence with 80% alcohol.To recognise true essence add a drop of essence to water and it will sink to the bottom before mixing in.. Students of chemistry will probably know better.I got myself Golden wattel (said to help in concentration) and Ramsses (the Egyptian equvalent to l-eu de issey).




And lastly we went to see the 3 pyramids and the sphinx. They were all massive. Each pyramid had sooo many million stones and each stone weighed about 2 tonnes. The stones came from Aswan by the Nile, they were then raised by ramps. Our guide mentioned that the location of pyramids was chosen according to some stars.

0 Cairo Rihlas I

Cairo Rihlas

3rd November:

So I left for Cairo today from Heathrow airport. The flight was good, and the food even better :) Some lady mentioned that on Egypt Air's website the baggage allowance was 20kg, but at check-in she was told 40kg. The reason..well Egyptians would otherwise have carried 60kg if 40 was the limit. lol..

I was barely 7 kg :D

0 Mr Bean goes to the Mosque

Source: http://youtube.com/watch?v=lZLCmxfufI0

0 Good weather

"My father said its always good weather in bed"

'Long Tongue' by Anne Hartigan

0 It's about time...

..that i write
whisper the words
speak my mind
free my thoughts
challenge my brain
broadcast my opinons/

but the ink
my mind uses
is slowly
fading/

silently,
like the warm breeze
I am bounded
by time and space
nowhere to run
nowhere to hide
just capturing
silly thoughts
in a mediocre poem/

0 Waste Sculpture

Recently I came across this sculpture made out of I'm assuming lol waste metals and materials at the Mall of the Emirates.

4 On Zanzibar

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23 4 5 6 7

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[1][2] By Air between Zanzibar and Daresalam (15 min)
[3][4] Streets of stone town
[5][6][7] By sea between Zanzibar and Daresalam (2 hours)

0 On Morogoro

1

2 3

A rare sight of some bird of prey with a snake

4 5

The Park Entrance

6 7 8 9 10 11 12

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[1][2][3] From the Morogoro Hotel
[4] [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Mikumi National Park-Morogoro

0 Road trip

I have returned from Tanzania, and this time surprisingly I really enjoyed myself.

We decided to drive instead of flying the usual way as there have been alot of delays reaching over 5 hours by the only airline that flies between Mombasa and Daresalam. The drive was pleasant :) I loved it!

One thing I learnt was how road drivers communicate with an upcoming vehicle to ask of any police nearby. lol. They flash once. If a police is not present nearby then wave, if he is, then some hand action is done which I did not see properly lol.

Near Daresalam, a man stood in the middle of the highway, at first we thought he was probably a maniac, on reaching nearer he moved to the edge of the road and we realised he was trying to make sale of the maize corn in his hand.

Anyways more on Tz later lol.

0 Tamu Mdomoni

Tamu Mdomoni * Sweetness in the mouth
Raha Moyoni * happiness in the heart
Shillingi Mkononi * Shillings in the hand

Something I came across today at Mubins (one of the best in Mombasa for Nyama choma/grilled meat/mishkaki) :)