We have become psychotic
The novel is set in a town aptly named He-Who-Drinks-Water-Is-An-Idiot. As the name suggests, everyone in this town is drunk on something so much so that being sober (drinking water) is the exception. It is a town characterised by drunkenness, crime, prostitution, violence, and general social and economic instability.
By Jennifer Muchiri 8 years ago
We have become psychotic
Youth must be taught how to be responsible
Who is willing to teach the youth that tribalism has no place in the making of a united nation? How will our young people know that leadership positions should not be determined by one’s ancestry or the depth of their pockets?
By Jennifer Muchiri 8 years ago
Youth must be taught how to be responsible
Mother's Day should be marked daily
The story of Ezi and Mma reminds us that mothers are unrivaled in their love and desire to tend to their children; that they will sacrifice their own lives if they have to if only to see their children safe and happy.
By Jennifer Muchiri 8 years ago
Mother's Day should be marked daily
Tribute to South Asian journalists
This book reveals that although South Asians may occupy an “in-between” space in Kenya, journalists of this heritage have played a major role in the making of this nation.
By Jennifer Muchiri 8 years ago
Tribute to South Asian journalists
Living with and conquering prejudice
Human beings often experience prejudice of one form or the other but each person deals with it differently depending on personality, exposure, or the circumstances in which one finds oneself.
By Jennifer Muchiri 8 years ago
Living with and conquering prejudice
Watch out for the stealthy investor from the East
About a week ago, Kenya police officers arrested 41 foreigners (22 Chinese and 19 Taiwanese) who were found setting up communication equipment in a house in Runda.
By Jennifer Muchiri 8 years ago
Watch out for the stealthy investor from the East
Making and unmaking of a terrorist
It is one year since the Garissa University terror attack in which 148 young men and women, both students and security officers, were senselessly killed.
By Jennifer Muchiri 8 years ago
Making and unmaking of a terrorist
Men need to support women
There are very few African novels that openly proclaim their feminism in the manner that Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter does.
By Jennifer Muchiri 8 years ago
Men need to support women
Embu residents opposed bid to raise circumcision fees
Embu residents are up in arms over an attempt to increase male circumcision charges in public hospitals.
By Jennifer Muchiri 8 years ago
Embu residents opposed bid to raise circumcision fees
Africa is a house of hunger
Africans are hungry for employment, democracy, honourable leadership, freedom, peace, justice, education, healthcare, equity in allocation of national resources and unity.
By Jennifer Muchiri 8 years ago
Africa is a house of hunger
Hatred is source of many of today’s wars
Five years since the war in Syria escalated, there does not seem to be any signs that the crisis will end soon.
By Jennifer Muchiri 8 years ago
Hatred is source of many of today’s wars
Golden dream can easily become worst nightmare
A few weeks ago it was reported that Chief Justice Willy Mutunga had said that Kenya has become a bandit economy — that Kenya is under the grip of mafia-like cartels and if we do not fight them we will become their slaves.
By Jennifer Muchiri 8 years ago
Golden dream can easily become worst nightmare
Which way for Kenya’s youth?
Where did we go wrong as a society? What drives these young people into crime? How can a person who seems intelligent or reasonable suddenly change and become a criminal? Indeed, what ails the Kenyan youth?
By Jennifer Muchiri 8 years ago
Which way for Kenya’s youth?
Can Uganda break Amin’s curse?
Uganda goes to the polls on February 18, 2016 to decide who their leaders for the next five years will be.
By Jennifer Muchiri 8 years ago
Can Uganda break Amin’s curse?
Where is hope for Africa?
Conflicts have been part of Africa for a long time. Currently there are conflicts, rebellions or civil unrest in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Burundi, Somalia, South Sudan
By Jennifer Muchiri 8 years ago
Where is hope for Africa?
Let’s Sing Marjorie’s Freedom Song
A literary elder has gone to join her peers in the land from which no one returns.
By Jennifer Muchiri 8 years ago
Let’s Sing Marjorie’s Freedom Song
'Arts and Crafts' will humanise Kenyan youth
In the past few months, there have been very worrying reports about students engaging in alcohol, group sex and truancy.
By Jennifer Muchiri 9 years ago
'Arts and Crafts' will humanise Kenyan youth
Dilemma of being Somali today
The unending state of lawlessness and instability in Somalia has seen desperate citizens seek refuge in many parts of the world.
By Jennifer Muchiri 9 years ago
Dilemma of being Somali today
Doctor Aluoch gets it off his chest in an autobiography
Medical practitioners are often very busy people. Most times they are in hospital consulting rooms listening to patients’ tribulations or rushing from one ward to another to attend to patients.
By Jennifer Muchiri 9 years ago
Doctor Aluoch gets it off his chest in an autobiography
Wanjiku wa Ngugi's novel a metaphor for greed
The word saint evokes in us expectations of piety, kindness, love, honesty, integrity, and other such terms associated with virtue.
By Jennifer Muchiri 9 years ago
Wanjiku wa Ngugi's novel a metaphor for greed
Yes, Europe is not the heaven illegal immigrants are made to believe
The current migrant crisis in Europe should be a concern not just to European countries to which the immigrants are running but to all other countries especially in Africa.
By Jennifer Muchiri 9 years ago
Yes, Europe is not the heaven illegal immigrants are made to believe
Kenya needs a fresh coat of paint
As women in leadership and civil society agitate for increased representation of women through legislation, another group is raising its voice in a different forum — art.
By Jennifer Muchiri 9 years ago
Kenya needs a fresh coat of paint
Despair to renewal: How to ‘re-member’ Kenya
An honest and critical look at Kenya today would reveal that our moral, social, cultural, political, and economic fabric is utterly dismembered. News about all sectors of our nation is often negative and citizens are overwhelmed by the immense sense of dysfunction.
By Jennifer Muchiri 9 years ago
Despair to renewal: How to ‘re-member’ Kenya
Bad politics to censorship, ‘slave descendant’ tells where the rain began to beat us
Reading autobiographies is always exciting as one gets to hear the real story from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.
By Jennifer Muchiri 9 years ago
Bad politics to censorship, ‘slave descendant’ tells where the rain began to beat us
Winnie Mandela recalls her struggle against apartheid
Last year marked the 20th anniversary of the end of the apartheid system in South Africa.
By Jennifer Muchiri 9 years ago
Winnie Mandela recalls her struggle against apartheid
Who really benefits from Western aid?
A few weeks ago, a number of NGOs in Kenya were deregistered after they were found to have contravened rules governing such organisations. Many were ‘briefcase’ NGOs whose mandate, source of funding and activities were suspicious.
By Jennifer Muchiri 9 years ago
Who really benefits from Western aid?
Achebe’s prophesy in ‘A Man of the People’ comes to pass here
Last week, Kenyans were treated to an entertaining circus when our honourable Members of Parliament ended the year in style
By Jennifer Muchiri 9 years ago
Achebe’s prophesy in ‘A Man of the People’ comes to pass here
Would Jesus choose to be born in Lodwar?
It is Christmas, yet again, and many people the world over are working overtime to prepare for the holidays. Businesses are busy as shoppers overwork their wallets and credit cards to ensure that their families and friends receive the best gifts.
By Jennifer Muchiri 9 years ago
Would Jesus choose to be born in Lodwar?
Nobel Prize: Why we should not weep for Ngugi wa Thiong’o
Ngugi wa Thiong’o, the father of Anglophone Kenyan literature, did not win the 2014 Nobel Prize for Literature, again.
By Jennifer Muchiri 10 years ago
Nobel Prize: Why we should not weep for Ngugi wa Thiong’o
Terrorist’s 25-year-diary of life at ‘holy war’ battle front
This month, Kenyans remember the atrocious terrorist attack at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi where 67 died, hundreds injured and property worth millions destroyed.
By Jennifer Muchiri 10 years ago
Terrorist’s 25-year-diary of life at ‘holy war’ battle front
Revisiting the horror of Rwanda genocide
This year marks the 20th anniversary since the genocide in Rwanda when millions of people lost their lives, scores were maimed, thousands displaced while property was destroyed.
By Jennifer Muchiri 10 years ago
Revisiting the horror of Rwanda genocide
Rebuking our love of belly politics
Kenya is undergoing massive change as the new Constitution is implemented and citizens learn to live with devolution. In this kind of political environment it is important conversations on governance be held in a language common to all people.
By Jennifer Muchiri 10 years ago
Rebuking our love of belly politics
Getting into belly of beast that is Nairobi
Plays in Six and the City darkly and starkly remind you about precariousness of life in capital.
By Jennifer Muchiri 10 years ago
Getting into belly of beast that is Nairobi
The value of plays in Kenyan native languages
There is something stimulating watching a play in one’s mothertongue. Last Saturday, I watched a play in Gikuyu, Horera Irurume, at the Kenya National Theatre. The play ran from May 1 to 4, with nine shows in total.
By JENNIFER MUCHIRI 10 years ago
The value of plays in Kenyan native languages
Use spirit to conquer sword
Clan conflicts in Moyale; tribal conflicts in Nyakach; bomb attacks in Westgate and Likoni; grenade attacks in Eastleigh…. What, pray, has become of our society?
By JENNIFER MUCHIRI 10 years ago
Use spirit to conquer sword
Can we run away from destiny?
“Regrow our Si-mot and always move with it if you want to survive” are the words the elders tell one young man on the eve of his initiation into manhood.
By By Jennifer Muchiri 10 years ago
Can we run away from destiny?
Understanding ‘Wanjiku’ and ‘her’ sociopolitical roles
The name Wanjiku is often mentioned by Kenyans, not in reference to a common name for females among the Agikuyu, but to mean ordinary Kenyans. The term was coined by former President Daniel arap Moi in the late 1990s in a debate regarding constitutional review. Politicians, activists and the civil society movement were agitating not just for the constitution to be reviewed but for the review to be people-driven where Kenyans’ views were to be collected and incorporated in the new constitution.
By JENNIFER MUCHIRI 10 years ago
Understanding ‘Wanjiku’ and ‘her’ sociopolitical roles
Escapades of city night runner
Thoughts of night running usually evoke images of scrawny men and women running about the village naked, throwing pebbles on their neighbours’ roofs and banging their doors. No self-respecting night runner allows themselves to be seen, or to have dawn appear when they are still going about their business.
By Jennifer Muchiri 10 years ago
Escapades of city night runner
Revisiting poetry: A new voice in the wilderness
Many Kenyans who consider themselves book lovers will confess that most of the literature they read is in prose.
By JENNIFER MUCHIRI 10 years ago
Revisiting poetry: A new voice in the wilderness
Mandela makes many stories worth reading
On December 6, 2013 the world woke up to the sad news of the demise of Nelson Mandela, arguably one of the most respected figures of our times. Mandela has always cut a godlike image, especially for black South Africans and Africans.
By JENNIFER MUCHIRI 10 years ago
Mandela makes many stories worth reading
KRA goes after nil tax filers and visitors in fresh crackdown
National
By Brian Ngugi and Kelley Boss
2 hrs ago