The totem of private property was raised early after independence. Vast farms and ranches were transferred to our new elite, together with the large populations of wildlife upon them. Near where I live there are still a few multi-thousand-acre private wildlife sanctuary ranches. But development is winnowing the animal numbers at an alarming rate. One used to encounter zebra on my road every day. That’s a rumour today. 

The Malindi doomsday cult is global news and the Kenyan Government is keen to catch up. The Shakahola massacre was revealed not by police detective work but by media stringers and correspondents who doggedly tracked the weird goings-on at the Good News International Ministries ranch of Pastor Mackenzie Nthenge. This year, during a four month period of official oblivion, Mackenzie and some acolytes allegedly killed and secretly buried more than 145 of his church congregation. We are told by the Kenya Red Cross that over 500 other Mackenzie followers are reported missing and believed to lie undiscovered in more of the shallow graves that are scattered across the 800 acre ranch. 

To begin with, considering the number of accidents that occur, causing death by dangerous driving is not a much charged offence. Latest statistics for 2020 show that there were 290 charges brought against 26 female drivers and 264 men. So I expected that courts would be throwing the book at accused persons. But alas, the courts are imposing sentences that cannot be seen to address the carnage on the roads with any measure of seriousness. The lawyers, defending accused persons, have had it so good that a fine of just over KSh 600,000 for killing three and injuring a fourth was in the estimation of one defence counsel so excessive and draconian that he has promised to appeal against both the sentence and the conviction.

A few months from now more than 1.5 million wildebeest will cross the crocodile-infested Mara River into Kenya from Tanzania, in what is recognized as one of the “Seven Wonders of the Natural World.” Many thousands of them will be eaten by the crocodiles and the scavengers who lie in wait.  

The limits of free speech and political propaganda have just been made clearer in the United States where Dominion, a vote machine manufacturer has just settled a defamation suit against Fox News for over 106 billion Kenya shillings. Since former American President Donald Trump’s electoral defeat in 2020 Fox News had become a redoubt from where his baseless and fraudulent claims were trumpeted. Signaling how weak its case, and Trump’s claims were, the staggering figure Fox News has agreed to pay is actually half of the damages claimed by Dominion. The case was settled on the first day of trial.

The President of the Kenya Editors’ Guild recently called a press conference to allege that they had received reports of an imminent phone and internet shutdown. Despite providing no evidence or substantiating detail, the allegation was hours later addressed by the President of Kenya, who assured us all that there is no possibility of such a shutdown in this day and age. Breathing a sigh of relief, Kenyans got on with their usual browsing, gambling, gossip and political commentary. 

One of the ten demands made by the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition leader Raila Odinga when he appointed a team to talk to President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza seeks to enforce a Turn-Coat Rule requiring rebel Members of Parliament who cross party lines after election to resign, and to allow parties to replace nominated MPs. We are lucky as a country that MPs cannot be removed from Parliament in Kenya willy-nilly.

15 years ago, in January 2007, Nairobi hosted the World Social Forum at the Moi International Sports Centre Kasarani. Attending

Watching the mother-of-all-protests and Raila Odinga’s cavalcade traverse Nairobi the other day, I learned a new phrase. Stochastic terrorism is observed where a charismatic leader uses mass media as a platform to incite violence, while simultaneously disclaiming responsibility for the violence.  Carefully choosing his words he (the leader) – for it is invariably a ‘he’ – identifies a population that he can manipulate, groom if you like, over time, and prime them with a steady stream of conspiracy theory, slogans and identifier labels. The labels concretise groupthink. Them against us. Us against them. Us against him. You get my drift.