I’m writing to you from a chilly Japan today. I seem to have mistimed my first international vacation in four years, and now I’m stuck

Perhaps that is why we cat lovers fall over ourselves to please them, because we are so enchanted by these self-assured creatures that are so unlike us. They have none of our insecurities or uncertainties, they know they can never fail. Imagine moving through the world with the knowledge that you could never fail. Imagine the things you could do, the life you could live, the magic you could create.

Parliament, in particular, continues to hold back information from the public regarding its operations. Recently in the Senate, the Azimio La Umoja One Kenya coalition accused their Kenya Kwanza counterparts of being against devolution. Instead of KSh 407 billion as the Senate’s standing committee of budget and finance had recommended, the house approved KSh 385 billion in equitable share to the counties. Senators from Azimio staged a walkout to show their displeasure, but what they did next revealed how transparency in law-making is manipulated for political ends. 

It’s the new year and for most people that means goal-setting time. Not me though, this whole season is too triggering for me to do

On 20 April 2023, Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk retired all legacy blue checkmarks. Musk chose the date because it’s 4/20, get it? 😅 This

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

In November 2022, Akinyi, a domestic worker from Kariobangi, was thrown off the fourth floor of an apartment building in Kiamaiko by her employer after

Fela Anikulapo Kuti, one of the most talented and famous sons of Nigeria and Africa, and the founder of the AfroBeat genre of music, sang

“Authority assigned to a State officer is a public trust…”  Article 73 (1) of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 Since the county-assembly-impeachment of Meru Governor

One change that still seems far from Kenya is the cashier-less supermarket, where money leaves your account as you walk out of the store. Of course, cashier-less services such as Amazon Go are only ever possible because of all the personal data that is continuously collected. Security of the data and privacy are obviously concerning, but its seamlessness makes it very alluring. 

A permanent campaign mode; political parties that are used as special purpose vehicles for elections only, then quick to fold up upon delivery; politicians who

I’ve been renting in Nairobi for nine years now, and in that time I have lived in nine different houses. My first was a bedsitter

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

There are national subjects that require assemblage of evidence and closure. The land settlement deals with the British and the fate of the Mau Mau

Either politics is Kenya’s chakula cha moyo (soul food) or it is a way of life. Because we are back at it!  Kenyans (at least

Ever since Kenya was a republic, dominion, colony, or left alone the way its people liked it, wildlife meant wealth. People made great fortunes by

I do not seek to get into the pros and cons of the recently enacted Finance Act by the Kenya Kwanza government, even though it elicits a remark or more. Rather, it is the emotion that the bill – and later on the Act – has aroused across the country that most pricks my curiosity. In my view, there have been fewer times when national discourse has been characterized by great animation like has been the case as regards this piece of legislation (first proposed, then passed, and now challenged in court). 

The tragic happenings at Mukumu Girls and Butere Boys schools in Kakamega have shed light once again on the state of boarding schools in our

I spent Monday this week waiting for an email that never came and that’s when I knew I had gotten rejected for something I really

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 limits of free speech and political propaganda have just been made clearer in the United States where Dominion, a vote machine manufacturer has just

I remember the first time I candidly told a friend what I earned. I had received a job offer and was trying to make sense

The intention behind people pleasing is usually a very strong, almost alarm-like need to keep the peace, even if nothing about the situation logically calls for such extremes.

My name is Soila Kenya and I have a confession. All the jokes you’ve just thought up in your head right now? I’ve heard them

“I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this – who will count the

As you watched the BBC Africa Eye documentary about the endemic sexual abuse of women casual labourers on the plantations Lipton Teas and Infusions and

This was not the story BBC Africa Eye had set out to do. Tom Odula had pitched to the decision-makers at BBC Africa Eye a

We are living in strange times. Scrolling through the Twitter handle of Dr. David Ndii makes for some disturbing reading. Responding to a tweet by

Did you know that Kenya’s Parliament exempted our first two presidents from having to pay a tax known as estate duty? I didn’t. In this

An interesting thing happened in February. An organisation called the Alliance for Science published a report pointing out that misinformation on genetically modified organisms had

A former British politician once told me “Decoys and distractions are a government’s number one strategy to keep the populace from demanding accountability.” I have

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.

And now the work begins on the preparations for the next elections in 2027. The select panel that will pave way for the new appointments

From the foregoing, it is clear that the investigation into what exactly Mackenzie was up to and what crimes were committed at Shakahola is, at best, at its halfway point. This is further emphasised by the fact that investigators have begun a second phase of exhumations from Shakahola, raising the death toll and further horrifying an already shocked nation.

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

“The struggle of people against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.”  – Milan Kundera. This month marks fifteen years since Kenya’s journey to

In the Bible, Abraham is referred to as the father of faith. He is the pioneer of all three Abrahamic religions namely Judaism, Christianity and

Will the day come when Kenya’s urbanites use maps to report potholes and other municipal flare-ups to City Hall? It’s a long- awaited technology milestone

Soon after ringing in the new year, Kenya’s education ministry ordered vocational training institutions in Kenya to cease providing business education via a circular. The

This is the same Nairobi in which public green spaces are grabbed, buildings collapse, residents can’t sleep on a weeknight because bars won’t let them and drainage can’t stand the rainy season. The story revolves around a property on Kilimani’s Kindaruma Road whose construction in April 2022 was not as far advanced as it is today.

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

“The state is not God. It has no right to give away that which it cannot give back, if it should so desire.” – Anton

The Constitution of Kenya 2010 provides any Kenyan with the right to propose its rehabilitation. This may be through a parliamentary or a Wanjiku-driven (popular)

Kenyans are a skeptical lot (who can blame them, seeing the sorts of governments and leaders we’ve had?). That cynicism could be interpreted in any

I was only two days in, too early in the game for me to land a jab with any precision, let alone successfully block any attacks. Giving up this early would mean I didn’t really have to suffer the indignity of failure because I wouldn’t have given boxing any real chance. I could then tick it off my list as one more thing that’s “just not for me”. Like swimming. Or learning French. Or what sometimes I want to do with writing.

Despite what Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua says, the Government of Kenya is not a company with shareholding. But rather, the government is a duty bearer exercising public trust according to law, staffed by people appointed and regulated by national law, and financed by the entire public. This is the short answer to Rigathi Gachagua’s jocular transgression against Article 10 of the Constitution. 

Raptors, the generic name for birds of prey, are hyper-carnivorous bird species that survive by hunting and feeding on other animals. Currently, Kenya has 103

One must-do if you ever travel to Japan is signing up for a Japanese tea ceremony in Osaka.  You will end up in a ragtag

The book highlights the high-level political negotiations that are undertaken just to decide on who becomes a member of the commission and the top officials of the secretariat. These negotiations take on regional, political, ethnic, and even fraternity associations aspects. One must get the blessings of these associations to even make a cut for consideration. It involves shuttling from one office to another, meeting top political leaders, key door-openers (including brutes) and opinion leaders.

Last week I had breakfast with a colleague. As we exchanged pleasantries waiting for our meal, she mentioned in passing that she’d be attending a public participation meeting that could clash with our next planned meeting. It turns out that she is an active participant in her neighbourhood’s local resident association, and she has been joining forces with others to oppose the runaway illegal construction projects mushrooming in the area. 

“The great marriages are partnerships. It can’t be a great marriage without being a partnership.” – Helen Mirren On 27 January 2023, the Supreme Court

Among the demands that the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party (Azimio) made in its call for protests against government inaction, the one that

What state do our mother’s live in, constantly knowing that they have to carry their children horizontally twice – before the age of 18. Once,

My 20s were mostly employed on the political street beat with maandamanos that took place in the agitation for an end to the one-party rule

The year 2023 is monumental for the Pan-African movement and Kenya. On 25 May 1963, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was founded in Addis