Is Kenya or Africa in Leadership Crisis?

Year 2012 still recycling the same leaders!! :(

Guys it's very interesting that right now in Kenya we are in an election year and looking at the possible people varying for leadership post in this years Kenyan election, its makes me wonder.. ARE WE OUT OF LEADERS? When are we young people going to be leaders? or the so called "leaders of tomorrow" doesn't exist, for the literal meaning their is no tomorrow...

For instance look at this interesting observation...Sounds like a joke, but... 45 years ago, Kibaki and Michuki were in the Kenyan Cabinet and J. F. Kennedy was running for President in the USA. Obama was only 1 year old.

45 years later, Kibaki and Michuki are still in cabinet, and Obama is PRESIDENT for the same seat Kennedy was running for. In 45 years, USA have had Johnson, Carter, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Clinton, Bush 1 and Bush 2 in between as presidents but in Kenya the same guys in their 70's and 80's are still trying to tell Kenyans they can make development models that work?

Makes me wonder, Is something seriously wrong with Kenyans? Or is something wrong with Africa? (looking at the likes of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and the list is still growing)

May be something is wrong with me too! Am i the only one seeing this?

What’s your story for 2012?

Its another new year again, well to be precise its 2012. Yes, 2012 the so called END OF THE WORLD, according to the ancient Maya civilization prediction. It kind of make me wonder, suppose the world actually ends in 2012 and that we all have to meet with our creator, what will be the story of my life?

To start with, I used to think that my story was one of small town boy born in the slopes of the Ngong Hill on the outskirts of the hustle and bustle of Nairobi city life, the story of a boy who will make a name for himself in the big city. I was going to study hard, work smart and climb the corporate ladder and become the CEO of a large organization or the president of Kenya one day.

But…as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to realize that my story is changing.

I no longer want anything to do with being employed by a large organization. I’d rather be a part of small group of people doing something fun and important in the society.

My story has evolved and I’m evolving with it. I’m no longer interested in the office politics that some people play. I’m more interested in finding that smart group of people who want to do something fun and challenging. Maybe wanting to be a part of (and perhaps starting) a social enterprise with people that see that things CAN be different.

My story includes me working hard and playing hard. It includes me spending more quality time with my friends and family, traveling around the world to see the wonders of nature, sitting in front a desk to ensure that over 400,000 rural community members in Kenya has access to safe water rather than wishing i could do all that.

My story isn’t the classic dream of a young African man trying to strike it rich in life, but I think it’s one that will become the neo-classical young African story of a man who improved or changed his surroundings.

That said, my story is my story and I’m living it as though I’m the lead character. My story is one of hundreds of millions around the world, but its an important one to me. I look out at the people I interact with on a regular basis and realize that, for the most part, I don’t really know their story. I have almost 380 friends that I have kept on Facebook, those that I know fairly well but there are still people who I don’t really know what well.

Of course, there’s no way for me to know everyone, but I do get curious about what drives people in life, what makes you? etc. So to start 2012 I’m interested in hearing your story or simply what’s your story? all of you my friends and followers of this blog?

At least i know how my story will continue...

Kisumu's Lake Victoria, a must place to visit in Kenya

A Brighter Kenya? The New proposed Draft Constitution of Kenya.

The Kenyan Parliament has approved a draft version of the country’s new constitution, which will now be sent to the nation for approval in a national referendum that is planned to take place towards the end of the year.

The government support of the draft has however but the government on a collision course with church leaders considering that Kenya is a deeply religious country, which includes 24 Christian denominations. The christian leaders are citing that Parliament’s approval of the draft, which included a government supported Sharia law court system through its inclusion of the Khadhis courts and omitted to outlaw abortion, was unacceptable.

"We insist that the constitution must protect all human life, which begins at conception and ends at natural death," said Peter Karanja in a press statement. Karanja is secretary general of the National Council of Churches of Kenya.

Kenya currently outlaws abortion unless three doctors certify that the pregnancy puts a woman's life in immediate danger. In a sign of official acknowledgement of the widespread use of illegal abortions, however, post-abortion care is legal and available in hospitals.

The committee of experts that was put in place and was charged with drafting the constitution had placed a provision allowing for abortions under certain emergencies in order to comply with international treaties on human rights that Kenya has signed. The provision would permit abortion if a pregnancy brought danger to life or health of the mother. Such phrasing could be interpreted to allow for the termination of pregnancies that pose both physical risks as well as psychological ones, such as when a woman has been raped and this is what our Christan's leaders are afraid about.

On the issue of khadhis courts, Muslims in Kenya complain that the current hybrid court operates inadequately and does not serve their purposes. Hence they would like to review its structure, hierarchy and procedure, and have proposed the creation of Khadhis' courts of appeal. Opponents of these proposals, who also call for the removal of the Khadhi's Court from the Constitution altogether, argue that the exclusive appointment of Khadhis is discriminatory, and that appointment of Khadhis as public servants and the funding of Khadhis' courts by the exchequer when they have no secular purpose amount to an unlawful establishment of a state religion.

They further argue against the creation of a separate court system, which would include Khadhis' courts of appeal, solely for Muslims. If such a court were established, the High Court or the Chief Justice would no longer have any oversight over it without diluting its functions and independence says the opponents of Khadhi's court proposal.

However despite the concerned appeal of our Christan leaders which to some point might be valid, my concern as a Kenyan citizen is that we all know that the constitution making is a political process and in making of any laws, the law must be a consensus of the wider majority of the society it will apply to. However in Kenya the current constitution hasn't been perfect all together that is why for over 40 years concerned Kenyans have been yearning for a new constitution that reflects their values and aspirations as a nation, so my dear church leaders should we throw away this lesser evil that will help us to deal with impunity and one that curbs the presidential powers and throw away our hopes of getting a new constitution that is much better than the current one? or should we go with the greater evil that leaves room for negative ethnicity that has divided this country for over four decades?

My appeal to all is that before we vote in the upcoming referendum, let us all read the document and then vote as you think the constitution might help you or not because its the wearer of the shoe who knows where its hurt, so if the constitution provides a situation of seeing a better Kenya for you, where you can get services not because you are from a specific tribe or region or it can help you have food on your table and a better future the choice is yours likewise if it isnt good for you, make your own informed decision but don't be influenced by our church and political leaders who have their own interests to protect.

So first things first, lets all go and get our voting cards ready....
would love to hear what you think.

How One Blue Sweater Started A Book Club And Changed Lives

People being one of the the mentioned organizers of the Blue Sweeter Book Club and Challenge of Kibera, i remember that day very well sitting in the crowd listening to Jacqueline speak, it was so inspiring to see and hear what others are doing to change the face of poverty and the whole idea of AID in Africa.

Thanks Acumen team because with such ideas and steps that you people propose we can actually see Poverty being History because i believe people are not poor because they want to, its simply because they don't have the opportunity to change their life. The market approach on the other hand is also proving to be a good listening deceive for the poor.

I really hope African leaders and Governments can see this and learn from great people like Jacqueline Novogratz and Dambisa Moyo because a poor peasant farmer in Mbita island in western part of kenya doesnt want free maize that can only last a day the poor fellow only want is how he can plant his own food and be able to feed his family and kinsmen and have surplus to sell or keep for the future. its the high time african leaders start thinking of alternative forms of AID or Developmental Assistance.

Anyway here is what Jacqueline had to say of the event in Kibera:

By Jacqueline Novogratz: February 16, 2010 07:30 AM

In "The Blue Sweater", which comes out today (February 16) in paperback, I share the story that gives the book its title as an example of the interconnectedness of people around the world:

It all started with the blue sweater, the one my uncle Ed gave me. I loved that soft wool sweater with its striped sleeves and African motif -- two zebras in front of a snow-capped mountain -- across the front. I wrote my name on the tag to ensure it would be mine forever, and I wore it for years. At least, until freshman year, when my high school nemesis -- in one of those humiliating adolescent moments -- mocked my blossoming figure in the sweater. Mortified, I donated it to the local Goodwill, glad never to have to see it again.

Fast forward eleven years. I am jogging in Kigali, Rwanda, where I'm working to establish a microfinance institution for poor women. Several yards ahead of me, I see a young boy wearing the sweater -- my blue sweater. I run over to the child and turn down the collar. There, thousands of miles and more than a decade from where I last saw the sweater, my name is still visible on the tag.

The story of the blue sweater has always served to remind me of how we are all connected, and how our actions -- and inaction -- touch people every day, people we may never know and never meet. The story is also my personal story in understanding better what stands between poverty and wealth.

My experience with the book club in Kibera was a similar reminder of how fundamentally alike we all are in seeking the dignity and opportunity to shape our own lives.

We are in the Kibera slum, on our way to a meeting of the Blue Sweater Book Club. We turn through a gate and see Mama Hamza's community center, a building made of corrugated metal sheets for the walls and roof that glistens in the afternoon sun. The young men who have organized the event are outside, and everything looks beautiful.

Suraj, the lanky, boyish looking Acumen Fellow who works with our team in Nairobi, met a guy named Kevin last year, and began talking about his work with patient capital and development. Recently unemployed and living in the slums, Kevin was interested in the ideas, so Suraj gave him my book, "The Blue Sweater", on the condition that Kevin would read it and send him a review. Kevin kept his promise and wrote me a thoughtful e-mail that I will keep forever.

That first exchange encouraged Suraj to give the book to two more young men, including Alex Sunguti, the 22-year-old with the beautiful unedited smile who cleans the Acumen Fund office. After writing a moving, honest, open review, Alex decided to start a book club.

Now, there are seven organizers and book clubs in five slums around Nairobi. The seven organizers -- Alex and Kevin, along with Jeremiah, Dennis, Chris, Herbert, and Dickson -- are increasingly committed to being leaders in their community despite the challenges of being unemployed and of little education. Indeed, the talents of this group alone should convince the world of just how much potential the human spirit holds if only we would get rid of the structures that bind and oppress.

We pull into the community center at 4 o'clock. By 4:30, more than 90 people are seated in the room. Many are carrying "Blue Sweater" books: Jeremiah tells me that they'd asked each reader to come with at least one question about the book. For tonight is to be a conversation and not just a speech.

Alex takes the stage to introduce me. Beaming radiantly, he is most powerful when he speaks of his own experiences and provokes the audience to think about theirs:

I may not share the same experience with Jacqueline, but her story inspires me a lot. I didn't make it to advanced education after O Level. I was told to join one of the various arms of the government - like Kenya Army, Police, Navy, Security, media, banking sector among others - but I haven't gone through. It's not that I don't qualify, but I don't have money to bribe. People bribe to get a well paying job. What about the poor who have no money to bribe but have huge potential to transform the world?

He doesn't feel sorry for himself, but rather challenges the room to remember how powerful each of them can be. I sit in the front row listening, transfixed by the beauty and generosity of his words. I've never been given a more meaningful introduction.

After my talk, Kevin opens the room to questions. Mama Hamza, the woman who runs the community center asks about balance. "I want to be a leader on a better level like you are," she says. "But I am a grandmother and have so many children to care for in this community. What can I do?" I look at the petite woman with a rust-colored scarf wrapped around her head, and imagine the challenges she's overcome and the leader she must be. I start by saying we aren't talking about "better" levels, just different kinds of leadership, and go on to answer as honestly as I can.

A young woman named Khadija stands and in a voice filled with anger, lashes out, "I'm a teenager, a single mother and I don't know who the father of my child is. I have no money. I have no job. How can you say we can all be leaders? Who will follow me?"

To my right, sits Jane in her red dress with her hair pulled back. In 2001, Jane was a prostitute, HIV-positive, had no money, three children, and no prospects. By taking tiny loans from Jamii Bora, Kenya's fastest-growing microfinance institution, she was able to start a tailoring business, repay and invest again, until she had reached the point where she was a thriving business woman, a community leader consulting people with HIV, and a home owner. Jane stands, "If you would have known me ten years ago, you would never believe that I am here today, telling you that every one of you can do it. Don't give excuses. Don't blame others. Places like Jamii Bora can help you, but you have to do this for yourselves."

The questions continue for nearly two hours. I am humbled by the many that start by thanking me for writing about my failures. They say the fact that I kept failing gives them hope that they can fall down and try again and maybe succeed. These words cause a choking feeling -- how can they see me as someone with challenges similar to their own? I live in a loft apartment in New York City. I am privileged, yet here I am standing in front of a group of people who are seeing themselves in my stories, connecting to the human spirit that persists, to a determination to make things better, no matter our starting point.

Our human bonds make me feel I am standing on sacred ground: I'm not sure whether I can bear this gift, this truth somehow that is hovering right there in the hot little metal box of a room. I have a deep urge to weep, but know that if I start, I might cry until I float away. Still, I know that in those tears is also a searing hopefulness that we can and do connect, that we can see ourselves in one another. I think of Ubuntu -- I am because you are.

We can choose to feel overwhelmed with sadness or we can choose to be inspired by possibility. The challenge is to be tough and focused and to hold people accountable in concrete ways while showing up without the posturing and masks that keep us distant from one another. This night, maybe more than any single evening, reminded me how possible this is. Indeed, it convinced me it is the only way.

Africa Day is not Socialism Day!

By James Shikwati
African Executive

Talk about Africa Day and the image that comes to peoples' minds is music, drums, dancing and food! In the 2005 celebrations, I was a guest to African friends in Muscat Oman, and they requested that I should show case a 'thinking Africa' as opposed to the traditional dancing and drunk Africa!

Every year, Africans mark May 25th as an official Africa Liberation day. The date is celebrated to push for an onward progress on the liberation movement and symbolize the determination of the people of Africa to free themselves from foreign domination and exploitation. A casual observation of many groups that celebrate this great day reveals that we are still entrenched in the mindset of entitlement - the belief that some other entity owes us, due to past misdeeds. Not that we are not owed- but the question is: should we put all our focus on what we are owed?

It will be difficult to effectively follow up what we are owed if we constantly stand on the international streets with a begging bowl. Entitled or not, we must build our economic muscle. This in my view, cannot be achieved through socialism where everyone is expected to be equal to everyone else. We cannot build our economic muscle by putting too much trust in our leadership who preach socialism (for populist purposes) while practicing what Hon. Prof. Anyang' Nyong'o refers to as 'parasitic capitalism!'

Guess who is holding your government hostage? Isn't it some freedom fighter elite, or friend and/or relative of the same who has been supplying biro pens, papers, chairs and fuel to the government? New leadership and new thinking have been thwarted because the 'parasitic capitalist' cannot fathom a world where he/she doesn't supply the poor African government with biro pens! Whereas capitalists create, parasites drain the system. We do not have enough of the capitalists on our continent.

Since independence, our elites have been vilifying capitalism in Africa. Unknown to them - it is purely the death of capitalism in Africa that has made foreigners to continue dominating us. That is why we are unable to exploit our subsurface wealth. Whereas capitalists see people as a resource and market; we choose to view our population as a burden; where capitalists engage in creative economy to earn a living; we simply dance and cry off our frustrations. Clearly, we must change the way we celebrate our Africa Day and turn it into an African open day for trade, travel and cultural exchange.

Our problems and challenges are of our own making: talk of press freedom, bungled elections, food crisis...the list is endless. Listen. Journalist Robert Mukombozi is deported from Rwanda; Andrew Mwenda is arrested in Uganda and his newspaper The Independence impounded. Zimbabwe joins the Kenyan queue on vote tallying fiasco. Guerilla war rages in Congo and Northern Uganda; Darfur is on fire and over 300 million Africans might starve due to ongoing food crisis. The old political order has refused to give way across the continent. Why did the African nationalism experiment collapse?

The post election violence in Kenya brought to the fore the fragile nature of our nationhood. Ethnic equations became so glaring that 'born - city' residents suddenly found themselves digging for identity. Matters were made worse for inter-ethnic marriages where groups suddenly put pressure on individuals to retreat to their ethnic safe havens.

Over 44 years of independence for most African countries and the political leadership has failed to deliver nationhood and Pan Africanism. An aerial view of Africa, especially Sub-Sahara Africa, reveals a leadership faced with double political and economic systems. Colonialism succeeded in driving native political systems underground but never extinguished them - what was in the traditional times an element of communities paying homage to the king through gifts was converted to the modern king (presidency) simply dipping their hands into the modern kitty of tax payers and donor funds. It is the kings of today who dish out to cronies.

The traditional utilitarian economy (hand to mouth) thrives among the masses while the African leadership leapfrogged to global economic system (saving and investments). It seems to me that the political leadership might well be privy to some feeling that their constituents do not need roads and other basic infrastructure as long as they can get a meal in a day!

African people have not been inspired by their leadership to seek higher goals. That explains in part the calamitous consequences the few Africans who seek to inspire go through. Why on earth would a Pan African leader deport an African journalist, detain others or raid media houses if he/she really stood for a brighter future for Africa? Why would simple summation of polls become very difficult for modern day Africa equipped with calculators and computers? "Son, you have no idea. A lot is at stake - the imperialists are using opposition elements to destroy Africa. That is why we must clamp down on their agents!" an African leader whispered to my ear. Pray tell – if the logic of imperialists is true, what type of soldiers do our African leaders wish to present to the war front? Sick, emaciated, ill informed, poor, tribal, and already mutinous soldiers!

Africa is too important to be left to the political leadership. Each of us must take responsibility to push our leadership to allow for openness on the way they run matters of state and government. We must be on the frontline to excite and incite our farmers to produce enough to feed the continent and engage in business. We should creatively merge the modern and the traditional to build a new Africa. We should not celebrate leaders who steal; rather let us produce so as to reward the best among us. Talk on fight against imperialism (if such a fight indeed exists) must provide reasoned strategy on how ordinary Africans can productively participate so as to avoid individuals enriching themselves by riding on the plight of the poor.

Open up Africa for business; free Africans to engage in business. Let African sons and daughters speak and move freely on the continent; generate a constituency of wealthy and well informed Africans - and this is achievable only through an open mind. A freed African mind is the best weapon one can use against imperialists!

Mr. Shikwati is the Director of Inter Region Economic Network

Techonomics - Cutting the Ribbon

This post is contributed by Ben Lyon.

TECHONOMICS, a new AshokaTECH Blog series devoted to shining a spotlight on the technologies that are fundamentally altering—and have indeed altered—the financial landscape in emerging markets. From prepaid debit cards to mobile banking and payments, the pace with which information communication technologies (ICTs) are bringing financial services to the previously unbanked is staggering.

Before jumping into a particular technology, though, it's important to step back and ask “Why do ICTs matter?” Put simply, the operative word in the acronym is information. Information allows us to know the market value of a good or service, avoid manipulation, determine whether or not a journey is worth our time, educate ourselves, and so on. The more information we have, the better positioned we are to make the best decisions and receive the greatest benefits.

When one party in a transaction knows more than the other, an 'information asymmetry' occurs. That is, the more knowledgeable party can—and has every incentive to—take advantage of the less knowledgeable party.

Image source: kiwanja.net

Whether CellBazaar in Bangladesh, eSoko in Ghana, Trade at Hand in Liberia, or Zain Info Services throughout Africa and The Middle East, ICT services are popping up at lightning speed to meet the demand for information outlined above. By simply typing a text message command or thumbing through an interactive menu on a mobile phone, millions of people in emerging markets now have a range of information at their fingertips. Making that information universally accessible should be the paramount mission of ICT practitioners worldwide.

the phrase “Knowledge is Power!” is deeply engrained in our psyche. Knowledge disrupts hierarchies, fosters understanding, insulates us from abuse and generally levels the playing field. Due in large part to an influx of accessible ICTs, an information revolution is sweeping the emerging world. Where and to what extent this revolution promotes financial inclusion will be the subject of future posts.