During crises, people prefer stories of the miraculous rescues and escapes, acts of heroism, bravery and selflessness. Rarely does anyone focus on the grim, monotonous, and challenging aspects of disaster response.
I am writing this after being deeply disappointed at the Boyz II Men concert held in Nairobi on Saturday, June 10. Deeply disappointed is the
If there’s one thing that Kenyans love it’s gossip, especially when that gossip is around a celebrity. Even better when that gossip is around something
I slide and lean back on the leather seat watching my feet soak in a pedicure massager. It is a few minutes past 2 p.m. My eyes pace around the room on the fourth floor of a building on Nairobi’s Moi Avenue.
The courtroom was empty. Gleaming wood-panelled walls, a black leather seat on the bench and a door leading to the judge’s chamber stared back at
The short life of Samantha Pendo became a metaphor of Kenya’s 2017 electoral violence.
Bayana maintains that Nema has become too hasty and radical in its approach. He tells me that the deadline issued demonstrates a government whose priorities are reversed. Unsettling a whole community’s economy, he explains, will come at a great cost – it is Nema’s job to provide more options, not less.
The debate on school unrest can easily get convoluted, with different players pointing fingers at each other. The reports offer many solutions – many of which we have not explored here. One is left wondering what should be the priority.
The case of forced evictions – or threats of the same – in informal settlements isn’t new to Mukuru or Nairobi. In August 1996, the eviction of 20,000 people from the Mukuru shantytown was ordered by the Moi regime and then quickly suspended. Two days later, it was the turn of Mbagathi Village (between South C and Langata Road) to be destroyed. Going further back, in 1969, in Kaburini in Eastleigh, 370 families were evicted from their homes only to be awarded a Site and Service Scheme near Karura Forest five years later.
Despite the many hoops that we’ve had to jump through during the trip to Brussels, we’re lucky that as journalists travelling on the invitation of an international organisation, our visas, COVID tests and transit costs have all been covered by our host newsroom. Not everyone gets this sort of support.
