Showing posts with label famine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label famine. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

The brighter side of death...

Since all else has failed in Kenya we can always:

Buy a copy of Gathara's new cartoon book (part of the proceeds go to starving people):




















Hire the strange man below to run our country:

















Or sell our souls for a job at the United Nations:

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

UNEP - Kick The Hypocrisy!

So, everyone appears to be taking our planet in peril very seriously. And hands down to all these chaps who according to today's Nation, "started a meeting in Nairobi on Monday amid calls for a “new global green deal” – an ambitious initiative that would see the creation of more jobs, eradication of poverty while averting climate-related disasters. The high level meeting, attended by delegates from more than 140 countries at the United Nations Environmental Programme headquarters in Gigiri, comes hot on the heels of the global challenges facing various countries including food shortages and the financial crisis."

Things must be very serious for our dear President to take time off from sorting out who stole the maize and why no one wants to go to court for murdering lots of Kenyans and all the rest of those very important matters.

Mr. Kibaki has clearly done his homework. In his opening remarks he says, “We need to move towards a green and low carbon economy, for this will deliver multiple benefits and ultimately result in achieving sustainable development that benefits all.”

"Low Carbon Economy"

What sort of vehicles do you think these 140 important people rocked up to the meeting in? Perhaps one of these?


No, doubt our Very Important People's Government of Kenyan wanted to make sure they can live up to the very high standards set by the United Nations. And of course we all know that there is no shortage of fancy cars donated by Kenyan citizens the GoK. Between January 2003 and September 2004, President Mwai Kibaki's government spent at least Kshs 878 million in the purchase of luxury cars that were largely for the personal use of senior government officials such as ministers, assistant ministers and permanent secretaries. So which one do you think he might have used for this very important meeting? Could it have been this one?


Silly Sukuma!! Do you think such important people have time to worry about such trivial issues?? I mean even some of their senior staff told you that they have much more important things to be concerned about. It is for minions to start ensuring that we stop using electric alarm clocks and drive fuel efficient cars. As busy as they are, they still took the time to write to me and assure me that they are very very busy being fuel efficient. The UNEP spokesperson personally wrote to me to remind me, "You may also be pleased to know that, as a result of donor countries re-newed confidence in the organization and the leadership of Achim Steiner and the previous ED, Klaus Toepfer, as well as a recognition that we are doing an increasingly quality global job+ the urgent important of addressing environmental degradation, funding for UNEP is rising at a time when cuts are being registered in many other UN agencies and national environment ministeries."

In fact this very important spokesman was so friendly that he offered me a personal invitation to Dandora Dumpsite and also suggested, "that you can give me some tips on how the hell I stop black smoke pouring out the back of my elderly 1992 Land Cruiser."

He was even kind enough to send me their very important strategies for greening UNEP. I was really confused about this because I would have thought getting rid of his smoking landcruiser might be the easiest and cheapest starting point to greening UNEP...anyways, I haven't quite put my head around all this stuff yet, so I beg your forgiveness.

Silly Sukuma!! Didn't you read?? These guys have much more important things to solve! Wall Street is dragging us all into the dumps right now and our good man Obama is trying to do everything he can to stop the poorer getting poorer. He even told those naughty CEOs that there will be no more hefty salaries for them! Do you think President Kibaki might do the same or at least make those naughty MPs pay taxes?

Mr. Steiner is a very clever man and he knows that as the big guns get ready to pour money into the economy and stimulate Americans to BUY BUY BUY, we need to be very cautious: “It is the manner in which such funds are invested that will have a direct bearing on mitigating other environment and development challenges.”
Such funds are invested...

Mr. Steiner, how much do you think this meeting cost? What was the value of cars parked outside your office yesterday? How much of that was tax payers money? How much of that cash was meant for him:
You know as well as I do, WHY we have a food crises in Kenya. You know as well as I do how easily it could have been avoided and you know as well as I do that charity starts at home!! Everyone is busy intellectualising about saving the planet and you are standing there with the very people who are the cause of 10 million Kenyans facing starvation. You also know that your staff for the most of it don't really care about reducing their own carbon emmissions and reducing unnecessary waste of hard earned cash that could be used to really address issues. How can you stand there with my shameful government and intellectualise about droughts and CO2 gases when they are the ones who have stolen our maize?? Why are you all so busy pussy footing around the real issues?

I have a lot of respect for you Mr. Achim Steiner and I really hope you might follow in the footsteps of a handful of humans that know that the first step to addressing any problem is to start dealing with the hypocrisy and get the log out of our own asses...

Monday, February 16, 2009

10 million cuttings for 10 million Kenyans: A Valentine Story.

By Philo Ikonya

I stepped out wearing my sackcloth and many cuttings of the starving people of Kenya that have been coming in our main three newspapers in one brown envelope. It's Valentines Day so I will also drape a red sash and speak to the ladies in red without alienating them and ask them and the men in town to remember to make a donation to the dying.

I cut out faces of children, old women lying down, old men with long rib cages seated stooping forward with all their flesh turned into little sacks of skin sagging down to their loins. Life petering out in this Kenyan famine of 2009 in Baringo, Ukambani, Pokot. Three dry provinces but also in the dry zones of our more fertile areas such as Ndeiya in Limuru.

And yes, I found her too. The woman my friends and I had called the ‘face of famine.' She demonstrated the plight of this hunger so well as she lay out there in Pokot land; rising and falling with her bony frame with eyes already wide open with pain and long limbs devoid of flesh, a shrill voice, that told of pain. She hit the headlines for a few weeks and then stopped. Is she still alive? The media had explained that maize had been transported past this woman and many like her - to Sudan passing by a road a few kilometers from where she lived.

The stories were heartrending telling of how mothers fed their children on wild berries that kept them from going to the toilet often so that their tummies would hold. Mothers asking their teenage daughters to sleep with truck drivers (this is a live wire of the HIV/virus) to get a meal for the family for the day.

I cut out photos too of our politicians. The famine is artificially created by graft in the country and yet, the president sat with guests from the Diplomatic Corp and others in a sumptuous breakfast one morning to proclaim that 10 million Kenyans were faced with starvation and death. An emergency; he declared. And some 35 billion Kenya Shillings were needed. The good people responded to the appeal with some money. Kenyans too quickly organized interventions such as collection points for maize flour despite the shooting food prizes that other governments in the world were trying to mitigate. Here Kenyans had been arrested before the famine for sounding the alarm that the prices were skyrocketing and that people in Nairobi slums and other places were living on Ugali (maize meal) and salt instead of vegetables and meat. I cut out their fat and oily faces… and their disagreements on many fronts the latest having been the failure to establish a Tribunal to investigate political violence.

I also cut out faces of ordinary Kenyans struggling and winning in athletics, masses of people under the banner of People Power. These I put in my victory envelope. There were great things to celebrate here and our failures in politics are the exception to the rule in Kenya’s other actions. This is what we have to win. The battle of getting every Kenyan to redeem their vote from association with war and bloodshed and then to vote without considering tribe but looking for change.

Cut out of course, were the scandals that hit the headlines. The stolen and imported maize involving not just the agriculture ministry but also a cross section of our very well paid MPs. I cut out maize stems looking good and full. Kenya never lacks maize because of the rain. And the fuel scandal expressed with a pump over stacks of bank notes. Stolen too.

As I set out with all these cuttings to buy manila paper and glue and stick them and use them not only to discuss generosity in donations but also the Change our country must allow or fall again, the song; Someone is dying Lord Kumbaya,” came to mind. I remembered the last time we sang it, this time last year, Kenya was on fire.

In the first spot I stopped, someone tapped my shoulder and asked me if she had seen me speaking somewhere. I told her yes, and there was a flow of compliments… I had just been wondering what the town mood would be like when as she introduced herself, I looked into her face and we said it together: "Terry Kariuki. The Late Josiah Mwangi Kariuki’s widow. JM."

She stood there looking into my eyes and telling me how voices were important. I felt my skin creep and tears came to my eyes as she spoke of what happened to her vocal and popular husband who was so angry about greed in Kenya. He spoke very strongly for the poor and suggested well thought out policies in Parliament. He was assassinated on March 2nd 1975. Terry and I parted on the note of how much work remained to be done. I did not lose a chance to speak to people and to tell them to speak to others about our country, and the hope we have for new political leadership.

Here was a lady, clad in wonderful clothes, an expensive coat and shoes, she held a wonderful bouquet of roses. The flowers were set beautifully and the flower pot covered with love hearts and a cellophane paper for their protection made a soft swish sound. Angela about 4ft8, looked great, her dark skin beamed delight, a strong and confident woman, after a compliment on the love those flowers told, she spoke to me in the Nakumatt Lifestyle corridor as if we had an appointment. Tears came to her eyes, and I had not yet even put up the pictures on my poster, as she listened to why I was on the streets that day. She was moved to act and she said she would support our cause and left her contact. She understood how important it was for her to get many others in her social milieu to think of change. Later I would weave between wealthy looking men buying flowers, why even some big shots and a reminder of the unga touched them with one I once worked with even hugging me. But in all conversations, it was clear, the middle and upper class are anxious.

At Jeevanjee gardens, a Bunge la Mwananchi session was on. It was about change in leadership. I made my contribution and also talked about flour- the Wabunge were already organized and had a book of goods collected for the poor. I made my contribution as Mumbi and Nduta, two sisters present went to a bench with me to stick the cuttings to the manilla paper.

The theme: Corruption = Death.

As we were about to finish, we noticed the return of a big police vehicle (we had been told it had been driven from there earlier and thought we were safe) and we left the garden as they reversed in. I was doing a solo thing because groups of Kenyans on the streets talking change are often arrested. I have one court case for singing about freedom and that is enough.

Joined by another activist and the two girls we set off carrying our graphic poster. A pair of sisters were eager to know what this was all about and explaining to them, they gave thanks and promised to spread the message: Support the dying today, vote in new leaders tomorrow.

Two seconds into Tuskys supermarket and a former classmate bought flour for contribution, a woman alone with her little one also paid up for more and I bought 20 kilos. Our kitty had started to swell. With the receipt stapled onto the poster we could now stand outside the supermarket and urge others to make a contribution. We paced the Muindi Mbingu Street and in the end we had spoken to about 300 people. They kept coming out to listen to us in little constant groups of between 15 and 30. It was at this point when I looked up and saw activist George Nyongesa in the crowd. He took to this so heartily and when we finished, he asked me to go with him on the following day outside some churches. He told me he believed now change can only come to Kenya if we speak to people one by one with the zeal of missionaries. It was not going to come through organizations. We have started to move.

We have just come from four more hours of activity and we estimate about 500+ people listened and some spoke to three of us, activist Kamotho having joined us. Many said they had given up on their vote but now they would go out and tell others there is hope. Others gave their addresses urging us to stay in touch with them. Many were raging with the desire for change and saying they only wish we could all meet.

You see, on one side of the banner we had a victory message with someone lifting a trophy out of a mammoth crowd with the heading: People Power. Here, hope and victory were discussed and we shared that we would not believe in hopelessness ever but that we would do our best, especially as Christians- most of the people were going to three churches in the area- to move our country ahead. All the people we spoke to were encouraged to speak to many more and to keep doing it. They could not hide their happiness and some of them thanked us profoundly ( even prayed and blessed us) as we thanked them for the work they had prepared to do by stopping to share – just for a few minutes.


It is impossible to forget the faces of the poor men who listened so keenly and spoke of the pain they bear in their hearts and the faces of rich and happy girls. And Terry Kariuki’s? Her look and words will remain etched and recorded somewhere no camera or TV can reach. Her sparkling and searching eyes with a smile of life turned pain will not go away. Will what her husband and: Mboya, Ouko, Bishop Muge died for, one day be achieved? JM is the man who said Kenya will become a country of 10 billionaires surrounded by beggars.

Today, 10 million die, they are not just food insecure- that is a polite name for death.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Ksh 97, 652/= for drought victims


There are a lot of amazing initiatives across the country to raise funds and deliver food and other necessities to the 10 million or so people facing starvation in Kenya. The Kenya Red Cross as always are at the forefront of logisitics. As always the Media play a critical role in raising awareness and keeping Kenyans on their toes reminding us just how fortunate a handful of us are in Kenya. And of course there are a handful of Kenyans who just get on with what needs to be done. I have never ever understood this about being a Kenyan. On the one hand, just about every Kenyan who can afford to shop at Nakumatt or any other supermarket will spare whatever they can for those less fortunate. That says so much about a people.

Yet, we have criminals in charge of the country. This drought is their fault. How is it possible to even conceive of stealing purely for profit at a time like this? Yes, every MP is responsible for the millions of starving Kenyans. I stand here and accuse each one of you for allowing a genocide to take place in Kenya. What difference does it make whether a person is being hacked to pieces or starving to death for the personal gain of someone else?

Sorry. It is impossible to write anything about Kenya these days without having to refer to the murderers that run this country. Alas, there is a little breathing space and we were fortunate enough to receive a donation from Ladies In Action (my folks) and the Klara Foundation (a Dutch couple with a love for Kenya) to go and purchase up to 100,000Ksh of food items which we did yesterday. The Radio Africa group (East FM, Kiss FM and the Nairobi Star) have been stationed at just about every Nakumatt in Nairobi alongside the Red Cross encouraging people to buy that extra packet of unga. I believe there has been an amazing response and they will the Radio Africa group will work closely with the Red Cross to ensure everything collected under their initiative will reach its destination.

Elodie, Maya and myself went to Nakumatt Prestige yesterday afternoon and purchased Ksh 97,652/= worth of maize meal, wheat flour, uji mix, sugar, salt and oil and handed it over to the Red Cross and Radio Africa. Please note of this, ksh 3,902/= is a compulsory donation through tax that will go directly into the pockets of MPs and other civil servants. They will then do what they always do - arrive at a press conference in a convoy of mercedes', prados and lexus worth no less than Ksh 100million and beg to the west for alms to help prevent them from killing more Kenyans.

And life goes on...

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

OKOA MAISHA HUNGER WALK - Mombasa

OKOA MAISHA HUNGER WALK
Saturday the 7th of February.


Save A Life Today, For A Better Tomorrow.

TEAM PREPARING FOR HUNGER WALK.

The Okoa Maisha Team met on the 2nd of February to discuss the way through for the hunger walk set to happen on the 7th of February. The planned routes is as follows:

Starting Point: Jocham Hospital

Check Points:

1. Buxton
2. Saba Saba
3. Lebanon (Mombasa Penetcostal Church)
4. Koblenz Hall (Okoa Maisha Secretariat)
5. Cassablanca
6. Nakumatt Likoni
7. Aga Khan
8. Post Office
9. Makadara Grounds (End Point)

We urgently need volunteers to help out with the checkpoints. If you can put in your assistance please let us know on the wall and we will get back to you.

The walk is set to start at 8am to about 1pm.

Be there and save a life.

15 ARTISTS COME TOGETHER TO RECORD FAMINE RELATED CAMPAIGN SONG CALLED OKOA MAISHA

15 of Mombasa's Finest music talent have been fused together to form the finest song that was recorded on the 1st of February called Okoa Maisha.

The studio of choice wass 2008 Nzumari Award Winning Studio JUNGLE MASTERS RECORDS.

The song was worked on by 3 producers: Emmy Dee of Jungle Masters Records, Nje of Ufuoni Records & Bably of Tabasam Records.

Initially Cannibal, Gabriel & Johny of Skani Flani were supposed to be part of the team but snubbed the idea courtesy of manager related issues & personal reasons.

Directing the song was DJ Lenium who says, "The artists have never worked together like this for a charitable cause. It was amazing to see even more artists interested in having a part in the song which took a rough span of 3 hours to record but unfortunately a long song doesnt sell."

According to Okoa Maisha Initiative Chairman George Owino, "This song has touched base on every issue concerning the famine and the relief needed urgently. We have tried to speak for the victims but at the end of the day, only you can help! We are planning a major concert on the 15th of February where the entrance is a packet of unga at the Mombasa Municipal Stadium. Top artists are set to perform including the 15 artists who did the song. We are inviting artists from NAirobi also to join in the cause."

The song is getting airplay on local stations

The 15 artists include:

1. Nyota Ndogo
2. Prince Adio
3. Kingsting
4. Susumilla
5. Bantu
6. Rojo
7. Daddy S
8. Bedbug
9. Salvage
10.Ally B
11. Mwaka Owino
12. Sketcher of Rude Boyz
13. Shy Bull
14. Twenty Two
15. Fidempa

STORMING PROVES GRACEFUL.

The Okoa Maisha Team are proud to say that after Day 1 of The Supermarket Storming done at Budget Supermarket & Nakumatt's, alot of stuff was collected:

*75 Bundles of Maize Flour
*A Sack of Salt
* 45 Litres of Cooking Oil
* 33 Bags of rice

among other collectables

We still need your help. One thing you can do is sponsor the OKOA MAISHA TAG. Whenever you update your status on Facebook, please put a capital OKOA MAISHA at the end. Whenever someone asks you, just refer them to the group. Thankyou for sponsoring the event.

DJ Lenium
OKOA MAISHA
I.T. Manager
Email: okoamaisha (at) gmail (dot) com
Join the Facebook Group HERE

ShareThis