Published in the Saturday Standard on 2 May, 2020 I am filing this column only a few hours before May Day. Also known as the International Labour Day, this holiday is celebrated all over the world, in honour of the dignity of labour. With a few exceptions, this festival comes on 1 May. I salute […]Read More

As published on The Standard. A reformist agenda should never be the instrument of coercion. Indeed, reform and coercion are mutually exclusive notions. To use them as complements in one sentence is an example of the perfect oxymoron. For, how could coercion and reform even be neighbours? I am constrained to return to this subject […]Read More

As a published on The Standard newspaper. Is the unremitting public display of fury against the Deputy President William Ruto (pictured), a diversionary and distortive ploy ahead of 2022? Does it have the ring of a red herring? It seems that Kenyans must be directed away from the great questions of the day, to angrily […]Read More

As published on The Standard newspaper. The passing on of President Moi (pictured) this week invites us to reflect again on the essence of the Nyayo Era. What is the enduring memory of that regime (1978 – 2002)? Where did it derive its energy? Long after Mzee Moi’s bones have been interred, Kenya will still […]Read More

History is full of lessons for modern-day society. What we do with them is entirely up to us, for better or worse. Appeasement was Europe’s policy towards Germany after World War I (1914 – 1918). The policy was especially in its element in the 1930s. After the terrible killings of World War I, Europe was […]Read More

You cannot help admiring the American political and legal rigour and tenacity at home. It is captured in President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan in 2016, “America first.” When everything is done, where does it leave the country? Hence the founders of America built strong institutions that always place America first. In foreign affairs, the law […]Read More

Congatulations to the Kenya women’s national volleyball team are in order. Malkia Strikers have this week brought down hosts Cameroon, Egypt and Nigeria to book a place in the July-August Tokyo Summer Olympics. It is a high moment for coach Paul Bitok and the Kenyan girls. They swept the boards clean to return an unbeaten […]Read More

Locusts have invaded northern Kenya. Millions upon millions of locusts have overwhelmed Mandera, Wajir and neighbouring counties, according to regional MPs. The insects have descended like a mighty army. They are everywhere, attacking every leaf in the way. When they are done, they will migrate in a mighty cloud, to find the next pasture. On […]Read More

We lost it somewhere, I don’t know where. But the ugly orgy of violence in City Hall, Nairobi, this week confirms that we lost it. Or, maybe, we never had it in the first place, so we didn’t even lose it? You cannot lose what you never had? Maybe Kenya has just never had leaders […]Read More

Massachusetts reminds you of the non-conformist American ace playwright, Arthur Miller (1915 – 2005) and his tragic hero, John Proctor in The Crucible. But it also reminds you of Bill Loman, the toiling low man in Death of A Salesman. “Massachusetts in springtime is a beauty,” Miller’s John Proctor says,” admiring candescent American lilacs in […]Read More