Scramble For Africa Reloaded: Lights, Camera, Action.

China's partnership with Africa, including our very own Kenya has been very welcoming and trusting to many powers in the first world. Global powers both old and new, are jostling for influence in Africa affairs. The renewed 'Scramble for Africa', albeit is largely to gain access to Africa's vast natural resources such as gold, diamonds, copper, natural oil and gas amongst a myriad others. Global titans like Tullow Oil, China National Oil Corporation, British Petroleum etc are investing huge amounts of money in the

quest to ensure energy security and satiate the ever increasing home and global demand.

Kenya has not been left out, though viewed as a backwater. According to a recent survey by a Fund For Peace, a Washington based think-thank Kenya is ranked among the world's 20 most unstable countries. You may not believe it but they say that we're the worst performer in the EAC, and Tanzania is in a league of its own at 65th. It means that Tz is in the class of China (66th), and Israel (67th). However skewed, anti-African and racist it appears it should stir our Hornet's nest to swing to more action and realize our rightful place. There are major potential benefits and pitfalls. The benefits are obviously insurmountable, which will emanate through the earnest competition between the West and The East.

Based on differences between the popular myths and realities of China's relationship with Africa, one can reasonably conclude that China offers a challenge to the West in terms of who should be Africa's primary strategic partner during our course of economic maturity. While China's assistance is not without moral conundrums, its interactions have had tremendous positive impacts on the continent's goals of technological development, infrastructure building and building exports. However, working conditions and the impact on the environment are often not a priority for the Chinese in their dealings with Africa, but their transgressions are no worse than any other powers operating in the continent.

The West should, in my view, respond by trying to compete with China by using its influence with African governments to secure deals for its companies and give what economic incentives it can to companies that operate on projects sought by the Chinese. That Chinese companies building Thika Road, were given a bank guarantee by the Bank Of China is no secret.

As a country we must take care of our own interests when dealing with China, the US, or any other state seeking to engage us with economic incentives. We must decide how to maximize the benefits from their dealings to bolster our political and socio-economic health.

The West should no longer use its Big Brother Attitude in influencing its policies. Their undoing in using the IMF as a battering ram, and insisting upon the priority of its development assistance program and the sending of more troops to Africa to offset China's influence will be their undoing. It wouldn't be long before the West realised China has been educating Africa. Western assistance has always prioritized primary schooling, but the Chinese approach in this instance recognized something beyond fundamental competitiveness-albeit in a distant future. It recognizes the psychological foundation a university degree confers in situations of underdevelopment. The graduate is credentialised as having escaped the structural constraints of poverty upon his/her capacity to understand and interrogate the world.

The current MDGs is just a coinage, nothing of a target, just a ceiling. I do not think the West wants to take any part of Africa into a millennium which, as China, can challenge the West. They are always imperialistic and godly, will always be. The processing of Kenya's tea and the value addition, for example, would destabilize processing, sorry packaging plants in Europe which package these products in their different fake names.

The African leaders to benefit from Chinese desire to win hearts and minds must be taken carefully. We need to renegotiate and take a step back. The world powers are now in a stampede for our resources and attention. All negotiations should be neutralised and no one should come holding a big stick, on do this do that. What should be focused on is technology transfer, promotion of export sector, creating capacity for future endeavours, fair trade, removal of non-trade barriers etc. The nitty gritty can come in through institutional frameworks. These should be able to safe guard cheap imports, labour issues, human rights et al. The golden rule is to play these two to our maximum benefit. Africa must follow suit and because we have some balls, must rightly lead the way.

If the uptake of our finished goods is not embraced overseas, there is the safety net of intra African trade. Europe's biggest market for its finished products as well as services is within Eurozone. The same will enhance regional economies and therefore create capacity and platforms for our take over in world manufacture. I foresee foreign conglomerates setting up shop in the back drop of a growing regional economy, cheap labour, power and energy products. It is not an underestimation to foresee us overtaking industrial giants 50 years to come. Right now African economies are the best performing in the world. To add on that many banks are setting shop after a devastating world financial meltdown, which proves the resilience of a cash-driven economy. Members of Trade blocks should fast track common market protocols and a unimonetary policy. This has an untapped market; East Africa has over 150 Million people! We're sitting on untapped potential.

The African Renaissance is sweeping like ghost fire, and from the prospects of the new World Order spear headed by the BRICS, I’ve watched with baited breath. I only hope the future this country is building will sooner make it the BRICKS. Africa holds the winning card and world powers are waking to that reality. We've beaten the bush too long and that time is coming when any time Africa sneezes the world gets a cold. It's no longer time to dream; let's embrace and fly. Lights, Camera, Action!

DEAR MR PRESIDENT

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Your Excellency sir, I hope this letter finds you in very good spirits and great health. I do not know if this letter will reach you but am hoping the state machinery is effective, as it should be. It will be delivered to either one of your desks either in statehouse or harambee house. If not, the editors will spare my worthy letter to you from the recycle bins in their desktops. I will also lease a copy to my blog, http://www.benard-limo.blogspot.com

 

I am a voter number 0093231212111234-5 In this great area code (+254), my motherland, Kenya. I must admit that I voted for you in the March 4^th elections which you have subsequently won with a resounding clarity.

I voted for you because I knew there was something about the two of you that I could relate to. Maybe it’s your aural easy going nature, liveliness, or meticulous  performance in public affairs. Maybe I admire the strong back you have got, boys; coz you seem unbreakable with the ICC tag and managing a seamless hi-tech quest for presidency, its not an ABC game. I have seen your lows and highs, best and worst. Either way, I may not always have believed in some things you did. It’s human anyway, c’est la vie’!

When i woke up that morning, I was very conscious of the environment around me. Straight from my bed, my county, East Africa, Africa and the world. And I wanted to vote that team with the zeal, energy, will power, enthusiasm and a track record like yours. I voted a team I believe will make my existence in this world more meaningful and with purpose. Then, I will stop asking God when Africa’s turn and its daughter Kenya will come of age to take on to the world arena and take its coveted place in the pedestal of respected nations.

I wish for a Kenya that will be respected for its democracy, piety, resourcefulness, peace and many good things. I wish for a Kenya where you, Mr. President, will do away with the modus operandi of our politics and public affairs. I want to always lift my shoulders high, face high, whenever am with the wazunguz abroad and telling them am a very proud African from Kenya. As I write to you, I’ve posted in my face book account and twitter handle @lampapalizmo that I am writing to you and that am welcoming any messages to pass to you. I hope in a few minutes I will have passed most of their wishes.

Sir, I do not wish to be given things on a silver platter, but I just want an environment that will create ambience that will appreciate and reward the efforts and struggles that I endure myself to daily. I wish that the kids I’ll have one day will check in into a world full of promise, harmony and happiness. I do not wish to live in a country where rockets, missiles and bombs are the musical menus of the day. I wish for a leadership that will give me the peace of mind to enjoy my sweat and toil. After all, there cannot be peace until the owner of yam is left to eat his yam (Nigerian proverb).

Your Excellencies, UK and WSR this great country is being held together in one piece by some 40million Kenyans and many of them share my personal dreams and aspirations. Young men and women like me are more energized and psyched up to play our rightful role. Steer our mighty MV Kenya without loosing sight of the shore. I remind fellow African youth of our legend Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi who is remembered in our streets and monuments erected to honor him. We have been endlessly too lazy to fight like them. We all carry a national guilt of waiting for our leaders to offer solutions yet it all begins with us. Ideas do not need shrines and that’s the reason why Kimathi’s name survived those of his executions. You have a mighty responsibility before you, lets hope together we will fulfill all our aspirations as a nation and emerge as an impeccable people in Africa. Our forefathers and those who have honorably shed their blood to this future, down the hallmarks of history are indebted to you, Mr President, to realize what they had in mind of our perfect world, the perfect Kenya. Many generations to come are more indebted to you.

Spare me the memory, your Excellency, of a future when I will be having grey hair and am trying to explain to my grand kids where it went wrong. I wish that what I will be doing then, will be telling them how and when it got right. I wish that time will be your time, good luck in that, I wish you well.

Your Excellency, promise to defend the constitution; use it as your playbook. This life is a game and very game has rules. You are the son of our first president, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. You knew your old man better than us and I know somewhere he must have wished for the country he nurtured from the yolks of white imperialism to be safe and prosperous. Your mother Mama Ngina, a very proud African mother, married to a president and gave birth to a president. She holds an enviable pride which I can only compare to the late princess of Wales, Diana. Whatever pride she has, she deserves it. Give a meaning to her pride your excellency.The best gift is delivering your promises. End the inequality, tribalism, corruption, poverty and disease.

Make friends with the nations of the earth, let us benefit from them, and ask them how we should be to be like them-prosperous. Follow that path, you may make mistakes as you go, but don’t dwell on them, learn from them. But avoid mistakes either way. We won’t be easy to forgive, ask us, we know you watched that movie, The tyranny of numbers. I even suggest Wanjiku's sculpture in C.J Mutunga’s office, should be duplicated to your two offices and also other departments of government. Each time you enter or leave that office, she should remind you that the smile on the face that should be held at the end of each day, should radiate more on the face of that lowest person in the society, the poor widow or helpless orphan. It should elicit your thoughts of them into action.

Your Excellency sir, your deputy as we know, has come from a very humble background. The synergy that oozes from performance and the fact that you, with different opposite backgrounds made it to the highest office in the land is an inspiration to us, as a people that despite what barriers we may have, within and amongst ourselves, God has the best for each of us.

Mr. President, maybe you can highlite in your ipad’s reminder this letter to you and read it every New Year’s Day and that final day parliament will dissolve for elections, hopefully, sometime in 2017. I hope you will fold the letter with a smile, knowing that wherever I will be, I will be smiling all the way to the bank because you enabled me to succeed in my endeavors and that I will still vote for you a million times with a reason, of course or better still, I will be a leader too, like you, trying to lead my march too, for a better Kenya.

Sir, i want to congratulate you finally for bringing back the Pan African agenda. it is on this realization that our people will know Africa will only move forward as one if she starts liking herself. Spread the word far and wide, kudos. 

Sir, it has been a pleasure to let you know that I had in mind. Let me log off now, my world is waiting. I’m wishing you good health, great courage, commitment and God’s favor as you begin this journey. I hope and wish that historians will scramble for pens and space and words when they will marry pen to paper with a legacy that all will be willing to emulate (here and beyond). Pass my greetings to the deputy president Mr. Ruto of kusema Na kutenda. I wish you guys the best. Thank you for sparing a moment, Mr. President. See you again in another episode. Bon voyage!

Yours faithfully,

Benard Limo.

PROUDLY KENYAN

THE UNFAZED WILL

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We owe every strand of our muscle and flesh to God. We oftentimes sweep tragedies underneath and taking adversity as just a rite of passage, sometimes things we experience are the proverbial “last straw that would break the camel’s back”. When you feel the burden, the toil, the pressure, and the heartbeat increasing alarmingly, and the ground beneath curving in-you’re running the risk of going soft in the head. It’s that time when you question the purpose of life, why you exist, why things happen or misshapen while for others’ seems perennially on the fast lane, working perfectly- like the smile of God. Many things by then are funny when they aren’t happening to you.

The world order shifts abruptly when we least expect. Colleagues, friends and even family could at times be belligerent and arrogant. Adversaries could plan day and night to take you down with infatuated hate, business deals go sour, life’s ineptitude could tilt the scales on how you live, your targets could be missed, you could be a victim of an abusive affair, a botched marriage, a failed exam- name it! That fresh moment in melancholy when you see that life’s purpose is no longer useful and its objectives are nauseatingly reversed. Courtesy of all the ups and downs, whether you are a pauper, a professor, a business mogul, atheist, royalty or anything. The experience not only leaves a bad taste in the mouth but churns stomachs, too. When your stratagem has failed, you cannot allow the sepulchral mud of the dead to besmirch the spectacular mind of the living.

It is through the intricate personal experiences I noticed life doesn’t always give what we want. But it is only how we handle our moment of pressure that begets that one biggest break. The best thing God gifted us is the will. I read certain book I stumbled upon mysteriously called The Science of Getting Rich. Wallace D. Wattles postulates that when you want to get something, you only need to use your will power upon yourself. That, you do not have to use your will to conquer an unfriendly deity or to make stubborn and rebellious forces to do your bidding like breaking a glass when you are angry. The more steady and continuous your faith and purpose, the more rapidly you will prosper because you will make only positive impressions upon substance, and you will neutralize or offset them by negative impressions. For instance, if I wanted to deal away with poverty I don’t have to get pictures of poverty into my mind but pictures of wealth, abundance and possibility into the minds of the poor.

I go through a lot daily in my growth and at times when the hill is no longer ascendable, or a spate of anger rushes through my nervous system, I take a few moments even in oblivion and whisper something to God. After that prayer comes a certain inner strength, and renewed hope- that it’s gonna be alright, that everything will work out, it always does unless we lose the will. The complex melodramacy of life’s intrigues could at times overwhelm to the point I question God, or, ask myself what if there was no God? How would I have gotten through that desperate moment?

My fellow soldiers in the struggle, let’s not lose our willpower, because it’s always darker before dawn. I wish you good tidings in your life’s endevours. Alluta Continua…

Prayer for the Nation

Let us pray,

Dear Lord, as we mourn the departed leaders and rejoice at the onset of the dry season, I pray for your guidance and wisdom.

I bring before thee politicians who are known for their wickedness to stop their sinning ways and seek your redemption.

 What I have in mind are not small cheats who falsify mileage claims, but those who routinely gang up foreigners to plunder this land.

There are scandals as tall as Mt. Kenya, the holy shrine on which you dwelt before we cut down the trees, and many more are still being hatched in white-washed board-rooms.

In this regard I pray that, as we approach next year’s General Election, you will give them wisdom to understand that they don’t understand your son’s gift- the sort that helped him multiply loaves, fish and wine.

So when our politicians want to multiply paper money, and distribute it in sacks, may you curse them and unleash on them the curse of devalued currency that will haunt them and their children after them.

There are those who tell lies every day, and if their spouses are to be believed, even lie in their sleep. For such characters, may the deceit lure of sleep deliver them closer to the fireside till their bellies touch the flames.

Lord, there are many things that have gone wrong in this land, but there are equally many things that are going right.

You have revealed unto us, for instance, that it is wrong to fight over fruit. So when politicians brought oranges and bananas, people devoured them and smiled. But there are many others still fighting over water and pasture.

Some do it to provoke others, like in the Tana Delta, but then there are those in genuine thirst of you. For you say in your holy book that you are the fountain of the water of knowledge.

Dear lord, let that knowledge trickle down to us, that we may know you and learn to value fellow human beings, who you created in your own image.

There are those who say we deserve the leadership that we elect. But i also know that many have ascended to power through deceit, by pretending by pretending to deliver the children from the wilderness to the Promised Land.

Many others come and display their distended bellies, but fail to reveal the source of their wellness- if one can call it so- for their bellies are stuffed with public funds.

When the election period comes, Lord, help us separate the wheat from the chaff, and get to see through the aspirants lies.

And when electing new leaders, make them understand that driving those monsters that guzzle oil like the air we breathe will not drive our problems away.

My heart is heavy with grief when I think of the hardships I have seen in our midst, as widows and orphans struggle to make ends meet.

We used to think that once the struggle for freedom ended, no Kenyan would suffer from want. But the multitudes of children in the streets, and those who suffer cruelty in the privacy of their homes, are too many for our comfort.

But you also teach us to remember to count our blessings. We are blessed to have our country, with all its imperfections.

About those people who risk life and limb to protect your children, may you embolden them even more. And give them extra valour to pluck from their midst the oil-sniffing policeman.

We used to think only street boys had an appetite for ngata, but now we know that fully grown, uniformed officers also do. They like a bit of petrol on the nose.

For, we pray this trusting in your holy name.

EMPTY TALK -The Unwritten speech

Ladies and gentlemen, and other people, hata mimi najivunia kuwa mkenya. Poor men, women and children, women and children who are dying from hunger and starvation and a myriad other diseases, I am proud to be a Kenyan because our Government of National Dis-Unity has made very many things possible.

I know you are not proud to be Kenyans. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t either.

Who, tell me, would be proud to be a citizen of a country where there are 40 billionaires and 40, 000, 000 beggars exclusive of numerous unborn and aborted children thrown in? Who would be proud to be and who are handicapped when it comes to running public institutions?

But thanks to you, I am proud to be a Kenyan you have to work to make this a Working Nation.

But just because you work doesn’t mean you can enjoy the fruits of your labour. Such fruits are for the chosen few and yours disappear between 30% taxation and the stratosphere, now that we have to get tax from every nook and cranny, including shanties and roadside vendors. I trust you catch my drift.

But you can always look on the bright side. My government has given you very many freebies. Free education, free tuberculosis and malaria drugs, and free poverty, meaning you are free to be poor without any assistance from my Government, which is dishing out poverty tokens. This is why our GDP (Gross Domestic Poverty) stands at 5%, a figure never before experienced in the 49-year history of this Great Nation.

Other freebies are the anti-retroviral drugs for people living with HIV/AIDS which my vice president once said huenda sambambana umasikini (goes hand in hand with poverty).

As for ARVs, you will have to cover long distances to reach the farthest Government hospitals and clinics to receive them. What is wrong with walking a mere 100 km on an empty stomach? To localize a Chinese saying, the journey of 100 km, to your suffering and painful death, starts with a single step- on an empty stomach. Take that step while the privileged are driven around in convoys of expensive fuel-guzzlers bought with your taxes.

Some wayward doctors talk about ART, as in Anti-Retroviral Therapy, meaning thast you need to eat well besides taking your medicine to prevent opportunistic infections, but that is their problem. My Government has gone past the T to the V, yaani ART to ARV. We are following the alphabet.

As you are aware, my government is trying to weed out corruption and we are getting to the point where corruption is not the weed, but the main crop because of its popularity.

Members of parliament are corrupt, as are civil servants…the whole caboodle. Why should we Waste time fighting the culture that drives our economy? Let it stay for the benefit of those who earn six figure salaries for fighting it.

Hapless Kenyans, it is during my error that a media house was raided by forces that I do not even know. Another was stormed by someone, all of you know, but I am not naming names. Everything was carried out in the interest of State security, as my capable minister told you. Whenever state security is threatened even from across our porous borders, he will raid a media house.

As for those Kenyans from Dukana in Marsabit who cannot walk to Kenyatta National Hospital, we will fry them for free provided they have been maimed by bandits from a neighboring country.

Some of them will die without flying and how they know our benevolence if we do not let them get maimed and killed? You will bear with me because the police are engaged in more important duties arresting cigarette smokers while the armed forces have to prepare for national day parades.

Starving Kenyans, there are numerous gains and we need more time to tell you about them. The biggest gain so far has been an influx of foreign dogs and investors whose countries of origin not even my minister in charge of immigration knows. To show how serious they were, the investors targeted the most gullible Kenyans and threw a party before, during and after an award ceremony in which winners were picked by toddlers and kindergarten children.

But their party was different from the kind of parties my ministers form every hour. Due to the increased democratic space, each one of them is free to form his or her own party and I am free to be a member of all, such so that I do not know which party I belong to. But that is a state secret and ours is a multi-party state. Anyway, never give away state secrets.

With those few remarks, poor Kenyans, you are now free to go and jienjoy. After all, hata mimi najivunia kuwa Mkenya.

The Six Enemies of Greatness (and Happiness)

Courtesy Forbes Magazine

The Six Enemies of Greatness (and Happiness)
These six factors can erode the grandest of plans and the noblest of intentions. They can turn visionaries into paper-pushers and wide-eyed dreamers into shivering, weeping balls of regret. Beware!

 1) Availability

We often settle for what’s available, and what’s available isn’t always great. “Because it was there,” is an okay reason to climb a mountain, but not a very good reason to take a job or a free sample at the supermarket.

 2) Ignorance

If we don’t know how to make something great, we simply won’t. If we don’t know that greatness is possible, we won’t bother attempting it. All too often, we literally do not know any better than good enough.

 3) Committees

Nothing destroys a good idea faster than a mandatory consensus. The lowest common denominator is never a high standard.

 4) Comfort

Why pursue greatness when you’ve already got 324 channels and a recliner? Pass the dip and forget about your grand designs.

5) Momentum

If you’ve been doing what you’re doing for years and it’s not-so-great, you are in a rut. Many people refer to these ruts as careers.

6) Passivity

There’s a difference between being agreeable and agreeing to everything. Trust the little internal voice that tells you, “this is a bad idea.”

Dear Comrades,

After a long, deliberate and consultative spell of time I have searched my conscience and let the past be gone. We must take the bull by its horns and face the reality that we all need each other for the sake of tranquility and peace to prevail. The election has been hotly contested and the winners triumph by a meager 57 votes shows how it was too close to call.

Albeit, despite irregularities, happenings and mishappenings there is the need for continuity and peace – a prerequisite to the smooth flow of the exam period. There is also the need to address pertinent issues affecting the students that will never be solved through bickering, back stabbing, hell bending and blood shade.

Stars don’t struggle to shine, rivers don’t struggle to flow and we will also not struggle to excel in life- but we must struggle to ensure that the dignity of Chepkoilel students is brought back by ensuring the leaders we elect perform according to our expectations. Our dreams as a campus will never die, neither will our plans for changes fail- our destiny will NEVER be aborted. We must stay alert with the militant righteousness and bring every incapacity to book.

To my worthy supporters- to lose one battle is a preparation to wining many battles ahead. Even a child stumbles before he manages to stand and walk straight, we are still strong and God is always on our side. Don’t give up, have that strong will and courage to move on because we are winners no matter what. It’s hard for an empty sack to stand upright, let’s all heed this clarion for peace, togetherness and brotherliness. Maintain that wisdom to lead by example, even under provocation, because I know had we not held to these ideals the outcome would be unimaginable. We should do all to avoid the ugly orgy of violence that erupted in our country in 2007.

For my opponents, please let’s embrace each other and work together for the betterment of Chepkoilel. No competition is worth its salt without an opponent. Let’s forget the past, heal the wounds and move on. We have a future to take care of.

Alluta Continua.

Love and Blessings…

Yours Sincerely,

Benard Limo.