Toe Dipping Not Recommended Here!

I just got back from a very relaxing 2½ days at the Kenyan coast. What a treat, and a very welcome break from the cool July temperatures of Nairobi! Colleagues working in Uganda and Tanzania hold their annual conference at an all-inclusive hotel in Watamu in July, and the rest of us are able to benefit from the discounted rates that they as a large group have negotiated. It’s a great place. The beach there is beautiful – mile up mile of white sands, lined with palm trees. Great for walking (at least when the tide’s out), though I generally wind up with blisters on my toes from the extreme exfoliation factor after hours of walking. It’s also very nice to go exploring the rock pools when the tide’s out, and have the benefit of observing from ‘dry’ land just what you’re swimming amongst there when the tide’s in! Crabs are all over the place, scuttling across the rocks. A first for me was seeing what I think must have been squid (though I think our guide said it was a sea slug). With a little bit of encouragement, he caused it to spew forth beetroot-coloured ink, which made swirly patterns in the water. Most of the fish in the pools are small and prettily coloured, but there are some rock pools you just don’t want to stick your toes into! There’s a colony of Moray eels that weave in and out of the pools, coming up when people are around in the hope, no doubt, that someone may have brought a tasty morsel from the hotel. King George has dined on sausage for many a year and has grown to a significant size as a result. At least I assume it’s been the same one since I was first there in 2004. It could be King George XII by now I guess! We didn’t see him this time, but we did meet Queen Mary and King Henry. We were also told that there was an Obama lurking around somewhere! You never know who you’re going to meet here!

Kenyan Political Happenings

I was reading through a fellow blogger’s site last night, and came across an interesting article she’d written summarizing the current political scene in Kenya. I have taken some of what she said, and made a few changes, but the bulk of it is down to her (see http://www.africaexpatwivesclub.blogspot.com/).
1. A few weeks ago, Kenyan MPs quickly voted to vastly increase their monthly salaries to 1.2m Kenyan shillings including allowances (about £10,000). This would make them amongst the most well paid MPs in the world. And given the current number of MPs in the coalition government (222), this amounts to a vast sum of money for a third world country where the average annual income is about £490. Thankfully, the Finance minister, Uhuru Kenyatta, pointed out that there isn’t the money available to fund these increases. Someone had evidently been doing creative / pie-in-the-sky budgeting! In addition, there was an outcry against the increases by the Civil Society and the public, and an organised demonstration was held last Thursday. We were warned to stay clear of that area, though as far as I’m aware it passed peacefully.
2. Current talk is all about the upcoming referendum on August 4th regarding the proposed constitution. The choices are either ‘yes’ or ‘no’, i.e. you either accept all of it, or throw it all out on account of however many things you don’t agree with. In spite of initial hopes, the campaigns have got ugly and political with the 2012 election in sharp focus for many of the politicians. A month ago, the detonating of grenades in a large church prayer meeting in Uhuru Park caused some deaths and multiple casualties. (I’d actually driven by there just earlier than evening.) In addition, 2 MPs and a junior minister on the 'no' side were arrested and brought before the courts for peddling 'hate' speech, ie manipulating rural communities by using tribe in their arguments to persuade the public to vote no. That in itself is positive. A lot of hate speech was going on prior to the 2007 elections, and nothing was done about it then. Seemingly something has been learned from the post-election violence.
3. A development brought in a few weeks ago in an attempt to control crime and monitor hate speech/incitement etc, is that all pre-paid SIM cards in Kenya must be registered by 30th July (noticeably a date selected pre-referendum). The threat is that lines will be cut if registration hasn’t happened in time. This is something that I’ve heard of in other African countries as well. A recent serial killer case that had Kenyans gripped a few weeks ago illustrates the benefit of doing this. A young man in his thirties who had killed 17 people, and drunk their blood for good fortune, and was working towards a target of 100 victims, was finally tracked down and arrested thanks to a traceable mobile phone trail of SMS messages.