@wmnjoya's Threads
For almost three years now, I've been struggling to answer this question: what is the relationship between race and ethnicity in Kenya?
THREAD.
THREAD.
Reason: I've found two things puzzling:
1. Uthamakistan often sounds like white supremacy
2. Public issues, especially tourism, education, police brutality and marginalization, are talked about with the same racist narratives as in the West.
1. Uthamakistan often sounds like white supremacy
2. Public issues, especially tourism, education, police brutality and marginalization, are talked about with the same racist narratives as in the West.
One direct answer to my question is in Amy Chua's "World on fire," in which she argues that capitalism uses markets to appoint and favor a "market dominant minority" ethnic group, and then demands "democratic" elections to manage the inevitable resentment of the rest.
You cannot get freedom from a deal that was negotiated by people's whose kids don't attend public schools, or who dont get treated in public hospitals.
We will remind Kenyans of this after the euphoria of this latest spectacle from politicians dies down.
We will remind Kenyans of this after the euphoria of this latest spectacle from politicians dies down.
Before 2022, there'll be another #BBIReport. Politicians need to stay in the limelight, but not on issues, because issues would make them irrelevant. They hold our attention by implied threats of tribal war, so that we celebrate every time they shake hands. BBI is spectacle.
So #BBIReport will dominate headlines for a few weeks, maybe months, as politicians loot the country and distract us from the sinking debt and the broke government. And we won't realize, because we've been trained by our education system to forget. Our public memory is very short
The one thing that pro-competition people dont say is that competition introduces conformity, not variety.
Just look at the way people do business in Kenya. All the businesses in one area are literally the same. We think it's because Kenyans are copy cats, but that's not it.
Just look at the way people do business in Kenya. All the businesses in one area are literally the same. We think it's because Kenyans are copy cats, but that's not it.
If I sell shoes, and a business opens next door and starts selling dresses, I will start selling dresses like my neighbor. And my neighbor will start selling shoes like me.
Then we would start have to compete not on offering better products, but entertaining customers.
Then we would start have to compete not on offering better products, but entertaining customers.
I will get someone to sing outside my shop,.my neighbor gets a DJ to play outside my shop. It looks like variety, but it's such small variations in literally the same thing, in this case music. And soon people start undermining each other.
This article is so stereotypically neoliberal, I wish the author had even tried, at least, to pretend it wasn't. @dailynation @KNH_hospital
nation.co.ke/oped/blogs/dot…
nation.co.ke/oped/blogs/dot…
The first paragraph I agree with..Kenya is infected with policy hysteria, with the belief that we have good policy and bad implementation. But that's where my agreement with Kane Owino ends.
Policy IS its implementation. Kenya has BAD policy. That's why it's (not) implemented.
Policy IS its implementation. Kenya has BAD policy. That's why it's (not) implemented.
I'll take a detour here about what that statement means, which an economist may not understand.
When people say we don't implement our otherwise good policies, what they are saying is that Government is good and we are bad. We the people should fix ourselves, not the government.
When people say we don't implement our otherwise good policies, what they are saying is that Government is good and we are bad. We the people should fix ourselves, not the government.
Bedroom, womb, circumcision and other forms of sexualized talk from politicians are a declaration of war. They are a declaration of war on our minds and dignity as Kenyans, and a declaration of phyiscal war, given the sexual crimes of rape and mutilation committed in 2007-8.
Politicians use sexualized talk because they need to excite us about something other than what's important. We need to be angry about 8,300 Kenyans owning more than us, about debt, poverty, corruption and Muigai's mega projects from the sea port, air port, and his Naivasha farm.
Instead, we're being led to focus on politicians' physical attributes rather than on the ideas and decisions they have made over time. Our social services are a mess, @KNH_hospital is being stolen as we speak. What have any of these politicians said about that heist? Nothing.
When politicians pick stone and arm others to fight, you laugh, because you don't have the intellectual skills to ask what kind of so-called middle income country has gynaecologists paid by PhD holders behaving like that in the 21st century.
And you don't have the intellectuals skills to ask those questions because the person making bedroom jokes also says you don't need to learn history. And the person in State House writes history in his family's name on your money, your institutions and a Mombasa ocean front.
And then they violently destroy your school system and all the accumulated knowledge teachers had gathered, telling you that we are exam cheats and that theives think we are unemployable. And then you ululate about #competencybasedcurriculum
We cannot keep on with this mediocrity and stupidity in politics. In 2008, we went down a bad road because we were unable to talk coherently about injustice in Kenya. Politicians are destroying our capacity to think and talk intelligently, and people are trying to be funny.
Dr William Ruto has a PhD. He can find other words to talk about politics other than taunting Raila with bedroom talk. It's insulting to our intelligence and dignity, and a way of withdrawing politics from public conversation, since bedroom talk is about privacy and intimacy.
And the media and Raila are being irresponsible continuing with that metaphor, instead of calling it out for what it is. And as we laugh, we continue to forget the "harmless" metaphors we used before we landed in the mess of 2008.
This isn't funny, and Kenyans know it.
This isn't funny, and Kenyans know it.
I going to do a thread breaking down this article that @NimiHoffmann was kind enough to send me some months back, when she saw me asking about the connection between @DFID_UK, Bridge, and CBC.
I'm doing this because Kenyans paid for me to be trained to spot this stuff.
I'm doing this because Kenyans paid for me to be trained to spot this stuff.
@NimiHoffmann @DFID_UK That said, those who would like to read it for themselves can find the non paywall version I initially read.
@NimiHoffmann @DFID_UK To get what is at stake here, let me start with something we are all familiar with.
Every time GoK wants to implement a policy, they tell us that they are basing their policy on benchmarking and case studies abroad.
Every time GoK wants to implement a policy, they tell us that they are basing their policy on benchmarking and case studies abroad.
"So far, Aadhaar — “the foundation” in Hindi [and equivalent of #hudumanamba] — seems to have helped neither with welfare nor against corruption, all the while creating new problems, including by exposing people’s personal data to theft or predation by the private sector."
#hudumanamba An 1-year-old girl there died of hunger after her family was struck off the beneficiaries registry because it had failed to link its ration card to an Aadhaar number." nytimes.com/2018/01/21/opi…
"Aadhaar was supposed to showcase the government's forward thinking about efficient administration; it has only exposed the state’s coerciveness. It was supposed to ease the poor’s access to welfare; it has hurt the neediest."
#hudumanamba
#hudumanamba
This is a side show, and I wish I had paid attention to it when it was being formed. But I was too busy focusing on the education our children are getting.
NEA is just a step up from work houses and jail enterprises. Do young people want their data collected by gava like this?
NEA is just a step up from work houses and jail enterprises. Do young people want their data collected by gava like this?
Unemployment comes from a bad economy, not lack of centralization of unemployed people. And it is also not even old people. It's the act that these old people are old money with no ideas.
Sakaja is just being a populist and promising to keep a lid on youth for his elders.
Sakaja is just being a populist and promising to keep a lid on youth for his elders.
The causes of unemployment are obvious, we don't need more commissions and commissioners to fix it. We need to review land ownership. We need to review labour laws. Institutions should not be allowed to avoid employing people by dishing out consultancies.
.@AmnestyKenya @thekhrc The government is determined to profit our data by hook or crook. HELB and @CUE_Kenya have made a deal with banks to require smart cards of university students that are also ATM and swipe cards. Biometric data will soon be part of the deal #hudumanamba
Enslaving university and college students to debt is a sweet deal for businesses because this is an educated population which is likely to earn a higher income. It also eases GoK surveillance of educated citizens @AmnestyKenya @thekhrc
The HELB smart card is government blackmail. Instead or providing education as a human right, GoK is making education conditional on people being entered into a database that companies have access to @thekhrc @AmnestyKenya #hudumanamba
My generation, those born from the 70s to the 80s, were children during the Moi era.
We never knew dialogue. We knew silence and fear. The idea that the public had a say in this country was dismissed with "Wanjiku doesn't need a constitution."
We never knew dialogue. We knew silence and fear. The idea that the public had a say in this country was dismissed with "Wanjiku doesn't need a constitution."
Moi corrupted everything with money and surveillance. I know friendships that broke, families betrayed, because Moi compromised a brother to betray a brother. Moi supported dictators like Abacha and rescued Rwandan genocidaires in 1994. That the evil that runs in Kenya's blood.
But Moi's presidency followed the Uthamakistan era which was worse. Jomo killed many heroes, including the Mau Mau leaders. He tainted the souls of his people with oaths. He exported land greed from the white highlands to Coast and the Rift Valley.
8,300 Kenyans own the same amount of wealth as the rest of us.
Let that sink in.
And these wealthy get tax exemptions, still our taxes, take loans for Kenyans to pay and then steal those too as we pay back the loans.
Let that sink in.
Let that sink in.
And these wealthy get tax exemptions, still our taxes, take loans for Kenyans to pay and then steal those too as we pay back the loans.
Let that sink in.
And then using the money they steal from us, they buy and compromise the media and the church, they conduct election campaigns, they pay foreigners to brainwash and polarize with lies, and then they get themselves "elected."
And the game of 8,300 vs 49,991,700 starts again.
And the game of 8,300 vs 49,991,700 starts again.
So the one thing the 8,300 won't let us talk about is wealth. They fill the public space with noise. Kieleweke, tangatanga, Embrace, referendum, Competency-based curriculum, huduma namba, corruption court cases with no convictions...
Anything so we dont talk about the 0.1%.
Anything so we dont talk about the 0.1%.
Every sector in Kenya, from education, employment to business, runs on one fundamental law which we inherited from Anglo-Saxons.
We must have it ALL.
And having it all is proved by others having NOTHING. Even if someone has less than us, we must get it so that we have it all.
We must have it ALL.
And having it all is proved by others having NOTHING. Even if someone has less than us, we must get it so that we have it all.
Having it all is a psychosis which makes the UK and the US be in constant war with everybody and the planet. And it is a white supremacist psychosis. Whites would rather die in the streets than have universal healthcare from which non-whites would benefit.
And because having it all is a disease, a contradiction of humanity, white supremacy needs rituals of violence to affirm this psychosis. Racism and lynchings of both people and animals, and destruction of the planet, become necessary to feed this psychosis. @ErrantNatives
Dear Kenyans, if I don't live to 2030, please ensure you refuse another education system. Get your mps to write a law barring system replacement in under a century. Because this CBC is cheap, unnecessarily disruptive, and ridiculous #CBCConference2019
.@EduMinKenya took the cheap way out. Instead of putting Kenya's minds together, introducing equity into education and expanding education beyond the schools, they opted for a completely new system with a poor track record. It's intellectual laziness typical of bureaucrats.
No developed country has done this, not even the Anglo Saxons who are mentally unstable because they need to exploit and be in constant war with the planet. The French, for example, introduced a new orthography a decade back, and it's still struggling to implement it. Why?
To understand the corruption and theft of Kenya's ruling elite, we must understand the virus of European neurosis and insecurity, and that it has infected our ruling elite since colonial times. We cannot end corruption unless we address this Euro-psychosis #wasiwasizawazungu
The virus of Euro-psychosis that causes corruption has these characteristics:
1. Extreme insecurity - an instinct to grab and accumulate because you don't know about tomorrow
2. Extreme individualism: you can't collaborate with your neighbor to solve anything #wasiwasizawazungu
1. Extreme insecurity - an instinct to grab and accumulate because you don't know about tomorrow
2. Extreme individualism: you can't collaborate with your neighbor to solve anything #wasiwasizawazungu
3. Extreme laziness - you don't want to work. Notice that aspiring and current politicians can't carry out a single task
4. Extreme alienation - you don't want to work, but still want to profit from the work of others, so you keep scheming to distract people #wasiwasizawazungu
4. Extreme alienation - you don't want to work, but still want to profit from the work of others, so you keep scheming to distract people #wasiwasizawazungu
Here is why journalists should study literature.
There is something we call melodrama, which is the use of intense emotions in a piece of work.
The problem with melodrama is that it leaves the audience overwelmed with emotion but helpless to do anything about the situation.
There is something we call melodrama, which is the use of intense emotions in a piece of work.
The problem with melodrama is that it leaves the audience overwelmed with emotion but helpless to do anything about the situation.
A story becomes melodramic is when its plot has so many victims but no perpetrator whom the audience can hold responsible for the catastrophe.
Tragedy, on the other hand, is when the plot identifies the powerful as responsible for catastrophe. So victims dont dominate the plot.
Tragedy, on the other hand, is when the plot identifies the powerful as responsible for catastrophe. So victims dont dominate the plot.
#CribOfDeath and #HardshipAcademy, two
documentaries by @KTNKenya and @ntvkenya, are problematic because they are melodramatic, instead of tragic. They have shock value, but no bureaucrats or politicians for us to crucify to redeem our education amd healthcare.
documentaries by @KTNKenya and @ntvkenya, are problematic because they are melodramatic, instead of tragic. They have shock value, but no bureaucrats or politicians for us to crucify to redeem our education amd healthcare.
#HudumaBill2019 defines “birth” as "means the issuing forth from the mother after the expiration of the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy, whether alive or dead"
In other words, your kid gets recorded on the slave plantation manager's books for being alive #ResistHudumaNamba
In other words, your kid gets recorded on the slave plantation manager's books for being alive #ResistHudumaNamba
Before #hudumanamba, I would have agreed with having one database with all of one's information. To save yourself the trouble of reproducing the same data at different places.
But wakenya, it is isphilosophically bad and fundmametally inhuman #HudumaBill2019 #ResistHudumaNamba
But wakenya, it is isphilosophically bad and fundmametally inhuman #HudumaBill2019 #ResistHudumaNamba
First, it is not our job to make GoK's work easier. It is the job of different agencies to liase with each other about what they are doing. But instead of that, they are branding HUMAN BEINGS with 666 at birth till death. #resisthudumanamba
If you hate theory, and think philosophy is useless, this post is not for you. Don't waste your time reading useless stuff. Go fix a tap or mix cement. Be relevant.
For the rest of us humans, this is a lesson in what is wrong with #competencybasedcurriculum
For the rest of us humans, this is a lesson in what is wrong with #competencybasedcurriculum
Now, when you jump with your kids, it's supposed to be spontaneous. Maybe you're playing a game. If you're a teacher, you want kids to have fun as they learn. If it's sports, you want to teach a particular skill. If it's with music, you want to teach dance.
The point is that you don't analyze the techniques and purposes of jumping, unless you are in college (TVET or Uni) taking a class in kinetics class or maybe physical therapy.
But from the picture from @KICDKenya documents, you will see that KICD has spoiled all the fun.
But from the picture from @KICDKenya documents, you will see that KICD has spoiled all the fun.
For those wondering why a young man could not get a job, then got 1000 offers when his story was told, don't wonder any more.
Businesses and the government create and love unemployment. It's part of the game.
Businesses and the government create and love unemployment. It's part of the game.
Companies need unemployment because it allows them to blackmail workers to shut up and accept any crap thrown at them. Even TVET campaigns are about creating unemployment for technical people.
If you believe the story that there are not enough plumbers, masons etc, and yet they earn alot of money, don't focus on the part of "there are not enough..." Focus on "they earn alot of money." Because what pains companies is having to pay good wages.
Thank you Kenyans for raising this issue, but surely, calling on the government to do something is really part of our problem.
GoK only knows how to issue orders. How does telling schools to open at 8am help? Kids wake up at 5 to reach at 8. citizentv.co.ke/news/photo-of-…
GoK only knows how to issue orders. How does telling schools to open at 8am help? Kids wake up at 5 to reach at 8. citizentv.co.ke/news/photo-of-…
Any time you want to talk about education, you must go beyond the schools. Because education is one of those things. It's a micro-cosm of society itself. You can't have functional schools in a dysfunctional society.
What are the issues?
What are the issues?
As some of you celebrate taking the SGR in 4 hours to your beach property, remember that those billions could have been used to make a public transit system that would make people leave their cars at home. Without traffic, kids wouldn't need to be on the road 3 hours in advance.
Part of the passive agression in Kenya is the attack on social commentary. If you comment on something social, people hit back with "speak for yourself," or "not everyone is..." This attack is designed to isolate Kenyans and deny us ability to talk on anything beyond ourselves.
When we are denied the chance to comment on the social, we are being told that all our problems come from nowhere but us. This isolationism encourages suicide because every time a person loses at a very unfair system like CRB, they think that the problem is them, not the system.
Of late, it has become fashionable for media and their pundits to advice people not to take rejection by lovers so seriously as to become deadly. That is stupid advice. The question is why do people feel so desperate when they are rejected? Or when they lose money?
Kikuyu people are burying their historical trauma with alcohol, suicide, domestic violence and trooping to the polls for Muigai, but the elites keep cheating them that those problems come from neglect of the boy child.
Then clueless Kenyan men from other communities join them.
Then clueless Kenyan men from other communities join them.
The Kenyattas have retraumatized the Kikuyu since 1963. At independence, Jomo told them to forget the Mau Mau because they now had "arrived," and that celebrating or extending the demands for land would cause turmoil in Kenya. So they covered the pain of the emergency.
Then in 1969, Kikuyus were forced to oath to protect Jomo. Kikuyus my age will tell you that parents completely refused to talk about that oath. It's only when Rev. Gatu's book was published that families reluctantly revealed the secret. Imagine that pain. standardmedia.co.ke/article/200022…
It is only this year that I recognized how brutal and passive aggressive Kenya is. We hate those who excel, and we also hate those who do not win the rat race. So our lives are a constant and painful bumping between the two walls of the national path called average.
We punish each other with violence for going above the boundaries of average, and we punish those who go below the boundaries of average. As Sitawa Namwalie told me, every reponse to imagination in Kenya is "No."
If you perform above average, Kenyams punish you for being different. They tell you
1. you are a know it all
2. on whose behalf do you speak? Talk for yourself.
3. why are you talking about only X and excluding everyone else?
1. you are a know it all
2. on whose behalf do you speak? Talk for yourself.
3. why are you talking about only X and excluding everyone else?
