Our depart­ed for­mer Pres­i­dent Mwai Kiba­ki was my friend and boss. I was priv­i­leged to learn five key lessons from him that can trans­form our nation.

Our depart­ed for­mer Pres­i­dent Mwai Kiba­ki was my friend and boss. I was priv­i­leged to learn five key lessons from him that can trans­form our nation.

Have you ever heard of con­ver­sa­tion­al recep­tive­ness? This is a tac­ti­cal approach that seeks to improve engage­ment with oppos­ing views. It enables ami­ca­ble con­flict res­o­lu­tion which ensures that when peo­ple dis­agree, they do so in a non-vio­lent manner. 

Last week I trav­eled to Tan­za­nia on a busi­ness trip. Although I have vis­it­ed this coun­try many times before, I am always amazed at the sheer strength of their nation­al cohe­sion. It is very dif­fi­cult to find a Tan­zan­ian who is vehe­ment­ly opposed to a giv­en leader pure­ly by virtue of that leader’s eth­nic community. 

A rare spec­ta­cle swept across Kenya last week as our oil pumps ran dry. Ini­tial­ly, long queues were wit­nessed at petrol sta­tions as motorists jos­tled for petrol. 

In 2019, before COVID-19 rocked glob­al tourism, twelve Euro­pean coun­tries were among the top most vis­it­ed coun­tries in the world.

Roads, jobs and food. These three are often top demands of Kenyan vot­ers. Wher­ev­er you trav­el in Kenya, peo­ple will com­plain about bad state of local roads, lack of local jobs, food inse­cu­ri­ty and food prices. 

Where do you live? Maybe you live in a flat some­where in Math­are North or pipeline in Nairo­bi or Nyal­en­da in Kisumu. where build­ings are packed so close­ly togeth­er that nat­ur­al light is a pipe dream.

Where do you live? Maybe you live in a flat some­where in Math­are North or pipeline in Nairo­bi or Nyal­en­da in Kisumu. where build­ings are packed so close­ly togeth­er that nat­ur­al light is a pipe dream.

In Decem­ber 2018, a senior Gov­ern­ment offi­cial from the Min­istry of Trans­port vis­it­ed Lamu Port and revealed some dis­turb­ing information.

There are 143 mil­lion acres of land in Kenya. If this land was to be divid­ed equal­ly to each of Kenya’s 12.2 mil­lion house­holds, each house­hold would get about 12 acres of land. 

There are 143 mil­lion acres of land in Kenya. If this land was to be divid­ed equal­ly to each of Kenya’s 12.2 mil­lion house­holds, each house­hold would get about 12 acres of land. 

Pic­ture two women each car­ry­ing twen­ty-liter con­tain­ers of water on their heads. One in Nairo­bi and anoth­er one in Kitui Coun­ty. For both, access­ing water is a strug­gle. The one in Kitui has to walk for almost five kilo­me­ters to access water from a sea­son­al riv­er while the one in Nairo­bi has to queue for as long as an hour to access water. Sep­a­rate­ly, res­i­dents of Wasi­ni Island in South Coast, have to cross the ocean in small boats to fetch clean water. It is dev­as­tat­ing, isn’t it?

I would like to con­grat­u­late our Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment for the excel­lent show of pas­sion that they waged as they exchanged angry words, blows and water bot­tles in the Nation­al Assem­bly dur­ing the recent debate on the Polit­i­cal Par­ties (Amend­ment) Bill. The nor­mal prac­tice after such an episode is to con­demn with the strongest terms because the par­lia­ment is an august house, the most hon­or­able space. As such, I wish to clar­i­fy that I am acclaim­ing their show of pas­sion and not the fight or rea­son for their fight. Now that we real­ize that we do not need to use a ‘pas­sionome­ter’ to appre­ci­ate their desire to fix nation­al issues, I sug­gest that they chan­nel this pas­sion and fight to deliv­er the fol­low­ing five major solu­tions that will endear them to the electorate. 

I would like to con­grat­u­late our Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment for the excel­lent show of pas­sion that they waged as they exchanged angry words, blows and water bot­tles in the Nation­al Assem­bly dur­ing the recent debate on the Polit­i­cal Par­ties (Amend­ment) Bill. The nor­mal prac­tice after such an episode is to con­demn with the strongest terms because the par­lia­ment is an august house, the most hon­or­able space. As such, I wish to clar­i­fy that I am acclaim­ing their show of pas­sion and not the fight or rea­son for their fight. Now that we real­ize that we do not need to use a ‘pas­sionome­ter’ to appre­ci­ate their desire to fix nation­al issues, I sug­gest that they chan­nel this pas­sion and fight to deliv­er the fol­low­ing five major solu­tions that will endear them to the electorate.