It's been a year of podcasting here at Otherwise?, and to mark this occasion we have Owaahh of Owaahh.com with us this week to discuss what we call the Kenyan experiment. In what order did the communities currently settled in Kenya arrive? How did they interact? What impact did colonialism have on tribe/ethnicity in Kenya? How did this change or remain the same at independence? Why have we entrenched ethnocentrism as a means of organization in our successive governments? What do we know about secessionist movements in Kenya? Has the Kenyan experiment failed? Do we have any hope of ever making it work? Press play!
Resources
The Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) Report
The Kroll Investigative Report on Wealth of President Moi and Associates
The 2017 general election is now behind us, and we are still asking ourselves questions and processing how it went. This week, we are joined by Mark Kaigwa of Nendo and Odanga Madung of OdipoDev to discuss how the election season played out online. How many Kenyans are there on social media? How does the diaspora feature in conversation? Is fake news new to the Kenyan scene? What role did Cambridge Analytica play in this election? What can we learn from the April Primaries? Were there any missed opportunities in the vice-presidential and presidential debates? What did a robot learn when it watched Raila Odinga's debate performance? How did online media drive conversation before the election? How did the election play out on social media? Who is #GitheriMan? What is Sarahah, and why is it suddenly so popular? Now that the election is over, where are we now, and what can we expect moving forward? Press play to find out!
Resources
Track, Capture, Kill: Inside Communications Surveillance and Counterterrorism in Kenya
Kenyatta Wins Big in Kenya–But U.S.-Style Election Skullduggery Taints the Results
Voter profiling in the 2017 Kenyan election
Kenya’s elections show how the media has sold its soul
3 Things We Discovered From 3 Months of Investigating Fake News in Kenya
A Robot Watched Raila’s Debate Performance, Here’s What It Found
Photo credit: Ian Kinuthia
Tomorrow is D-day – we will have our second election since we got the 2010 constitution, and our sixth as a multi-party democracy. What do you need to be aware of as you head to the ballot? We’ve got you covered, press play!
Resources
FACTSHEET: What you need to know about Kenya’s 2017 general election
Women gear up for elections in Kenya
Why Are Kenyan Elections So Expensive?
How to be a citizen Observer without hanging around the polling station all day
NOTE: the figures quoted for the number of women running were from UN women and UNDP. According to Africa Check, however, we have 9 women running for Governor, 131 women running for Member of National Assembly, 21 running for Senator, 299 running for County Woman Representative, and 900 running for Member of County Assembly. That comes to a total of 1,360, out of a total of 14,523 candidates, coming to 9.36%.
We are now four days away from the 2017 general election. This week, we are joined by Nerima Wako, Executive Director of Siasa Place, to discuss the role of women and youth in Kenyan politics, and their place in society as a whole. These two groups of make up majority of Kenya’s population but somehow receive few, if any, of the benefits. This government came in on a promise to increase their representation and improve their status. Have they fulfilled their promises? Why have they failed to pass the Gender Two-Thirds Bill? What are the challenges that women and youth face in public and political life in Kenya? How can solve them? Press play!
Resources
My Day at Industrial Area Police Station
We are only 11 days away from the 2017 general election, and this week, we are joined by Dr. Njoki Ngumi of The Nest Collective and HEVA Fund to discuss sports, arts and culture, and what it means to be Kenyan. Has the Jubilee Coalition delivered on its promises that were focused on bolstering sports, arts and culture? Why is Kenya so hostile to its artists? What can we learn from the closure of Phoenix Theatre? What challenges does our sports sector face that prevent it from being as vibrant as we'd want it to be? What role does culture play in Kenya? Do we have a national identity? How can we build one? Press play!
Resources
We are 18 days away from Kenya's 2017 general election, and this week, we are joined by Nanjira Sambuli, Digital Equality Advocacy Manager at the Web Foundation and awesome digital citizen to talk about ICT (Information and Communications Technology) in Kenya, which is billed as the Silicon Savannah. Has the Jubilee Coalition delivered on its 2013 manifesto promises? Will we have an internet shutdown during/after this election? How is Kenya's tech ecosystem doing? How does it compare to the rest of Africa? Is the KFCB overstepping its mandate? Is what Ezekiel Mutua is doing censorship? How about the NCIC and its work on "ending" hate speech? Is this approach the right approach? How do ICTs change what it means to be a Kenyan citizen? How do they affect our present and future? Press play to fins out! :)
Resources
National Information & Communications Technology (ICT) Policy (2006)
Track, Capture, Kill: Inside Communications Surveillance and Counterterrorism in Kenya
Serianu Kenya Cybersecurity Report 2016
The Information Communication Technology Practitioners Bill, 2016
NOTE: The Isiolo International Airport has since been completed and is operational.
We are now 25 days away from the general election, scheduled for 8th August 2017. This week, we talk about Kenya's economy with Kwame Owino, the CEO of the Institute of Economic Affairs. Has the Jubilee Coalition delivered on the promises in its 2013 manifesto? Is our approach to infrastructure such as roads and rail the correct one? Have we managed to make Kenya a manufacturing hub as we envisioned? Do Kenyans have access to decent and affordable housing? If not, why is that? Why don't we have food security, and does our approach to agriculture make sense? Press play to find out!
Resources
We are 32 days away from the 2017 General Election. This week, we are joined by Dr. Wandia Njoya to discuss education in Kenya, with a focus of curriculum reform. What do we want to achieve when we educate our children/citizens? Are we focused on the right things? How did the missionaries and colonialists affect how we still educate our children today? Why did we switch from the 7-4-2-3 curriculum to 8-4-4? What did this switch do to our country? What are we hoping to achieve by switching from 8-4-4 to 2-6-3-3-3? Is our education system still colonial? How can we decolonize it? Press play to find out!
Resources
We are now 39 days away from the 2017 General Election. This week, we speak with Dr. Mercy Korir, a medical doctor and healthcare correspondent, on the state of health services in Kenya, with a focus on the last five years. Has the Jubilee coalition fulfilled the promises they made in their 2013 manifesto regarding healthcare? Why is it that healthcare practitioners have been on strike so much? Are we in the middle of a Cholera outbreak? What role does leadership and governance play when it comes to healthcare? What is the role of NHIF? How can we make Kenya a healthier nation? Press play to find out!
Resources
We are now 46 days away from this year’s general election. This week, we talk to Christine Mungai, a writer and journalist, about Kenya’s media. We talk about the July 2013 media breakfast at State House, the laws this government has passed to undermine press freedom; the impact media ownership and advertising have on what gets covered; the intimidation of journalists, bloggers and social media users; censorship by Ezekiel Mutua and the KFCB, and the 2017 general election. How are we doing as compared to the rest of the region and the world when it comes to media freedom? How does the state undermine this freedom? Press play to find out!
Resources
We're now two months away from the 2017 General Election, so we thought we'd do a status check. As we've learnt from past Kenyan elections, and recent elections worldwide, election coverage is very important, and we’ve seen media coverage get used to results in wild directions. So today, we ask and answer a few questions. Why is this election important? Who are the key players? What is at stake? Press play!
Resources
Statistics of Voters IEBC Registered Voters Per Constituency 2017 Half of 19mn Kenyan voters are from Rift Valley, Eastern and Central 1,500 Kenyans in diaspora listed as voters Party primaries slotted for April as IEBC reviews timelines ahead of polls IEBC releases final new voters figures, Nairobi and Kiambu lead IEBC clears 914 candidates in first day of nominations IEBC campaign spending limits for candidates Know your new IEBC commissionersThis week, I share some interesting highlights from a daily writing experiment I'm running over at adventuresandexperiments.com where people send me writing prompts on issues that are of interest to them and I respond with my perspective. For example: What are your views regarding the criminalization of attempted suicide [in the Kenyan context]? Shouldn’t anyone choose if they want to die? Why do we need borders in today's society? Aren't we all the same people after all? Thoughts on Afropolitanism aka ugali fries, muratina mojitos etc? Press play! :)
Resources
#13: Should attempted suicide be decriminalized?
Yet again, because we are experiencing the effects of a drought, we have a food shortage, and food prices have gone up. 2 kilos of sugar are going for 400 shillings, and until very recently, 2 kilos of maize flour were retailing for 150 to 200 shillings. Recently, to reverse this, KRA lifted the import ban on maize, and opened a window for duty free imports of both yellow and white maize. The first shipment of the maize got here in record short time. People suspect that we are in the middle of yet another maize scandal, so we will talk about this entire event this week. Press play!
Resources
Episode 24: Drought Begins With You Episode 28: Why is Food So Expensive? Importation of maize is insufficient to address shortage What Kenya can do about the end of cheap ugali KRA opens window for maize imports Mexican maize was shipped from South Africa, says Transport PS Maize is from Mexico but was shipped from SA – Govt Imported maize ‘was surplus of old stock in South Africa’ Billionaire millers who shipped maize to Mombasa unmasked Kenya’s first major graft at independence was about maize Still Standing: Kenya's Slow Recovery From a Quadruple Shock [World Bank Report] Kenya lost Sh23b in maize scandal Image Credit
This past week has been a downer for me news-wise, what with the news that the US government (through USAID) is suspending its support of the Ministry of Health's departments due to corruption and weak accounting practices. This support is worth KES 2.1 billion, and affects crucial health services. We also found out that the Jubilee campaign has engaged Cambridge Analytica, a firm said to be behind Donald Trump's victory in the US and the Brexit vote in Britain. I've been asking myself: what does this mean? Press play to find out. Resources USAID suspends funding for health ministry departments United States Agency withdraws Sh2.1 billion health support Launch of $650 Million U.S. Government KEMSA Medical Commodities Program The #LipaKamaTender Movement What is 1.66 Billion? On Resistance Dear Uhuru Kenyatta The Anatomy of a Lootocracy Kenya at 52 Uhuru hires data firm behind Trump, Brexit victories Cambridge Analytica Explained: Data and Elections Trump Data Gurus Leave Long Trail of Subterfuge, Dubious Dealing The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked
This week, you guys wanted to talk about democracy and development from a Kenyan lens (to vote on what we discuss, follow us on Twitter @thisisotherwise, we run a poll each week). Is democracy the best form of government for countries like ours? Why is it that it is the form of government most associated with development? Is it because democracy is inherently and instrumentally good? Does democracy lead to development? And if so, how is Kenya doing on the democracy vs development scale, seeing as there is a positive correlation between wealth and democracy? Press play!
Resources
Aristotle's Political Theory Democracy and Development Analysing The Relationship Between Democracy And Development: Defining Basic Concepts And Assessing Key LinkagesOne of the most iconic things to happen on our continent is when Thomas Sankara came to power and changed the name of Upper Volta to Burkina Faso - the land of upright men. How may we best carry out Sankara's vision for Africa? This week, I wish to share a pet topic of mine with you - the continuing debate on the role of Africanization and Decolonization on our lives. Are these two movements still relevant? Still necessary? Must we Africanize or decolonize, or must we do both? Press play!
Resources
Revisiting the debate on the Africanisation of higher education: an appeal for a conceptual shift Africanisation: A rich environment for active learning on a global platform The danger of a single story "Concerning Violence," by Frantz Fanon Mau Mau torture victims to receive compensation THE FINAL REPORT OF THE TRUTH JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION OF KENYA (2013) Image creditKenya's longest serving Finance Cabinet Secretary (this position was formerly known as Finance Minister) read the budget statement for 2017/2018 on the 30th of March 2017. This is a special reading since it is this government's last budget in their first term, and this being an election year, there is a possibility that they may or may not be re-elected. It is also full of interesting-ness, in as far as budgets can be interesting, so we think it's a good idea to take a closer look at it. Press play!
Resources
Budget Statement for the Fiscal Year 2017/2018 Episode 24: Drought Begins With You Episode 28: Why is Food So Expensive? Episode 25: An Opposition Scorecard Episode 23: Fascism is The New Black Episode 31: The Political Con Episode 1: The GamblerLike many other Kenyans, I find myself constantly wondering about the hold our political class has on us, and why they continue to hoodwink and oppress us with impunity and consistency. I have analyzed our systems, institutions and approach to governance for over five years in my work – yet somehow I still find myself coming back to this. This past week, my run in with a street con artist gave me insight as to how and why this happens. Press play!
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The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It . . . Every Time Can You Spot A Liar? Maria Konnikova on How we Get Conned Episode 27: How Do We Heal?Last week, on March 18th 2017, Uhuru Kenyatta traveled to Dhobley Military camp in Somalia to visit the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) troops stationed there as part of the African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission stationed there. He wore his military fatigues (they come with his role as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces). This happened just a few weeks after a US Congressman blew the whistle on a US$ 418 million arms deal that Kenya has with a US based company to buy 12 weaponized crop dusters and two other weapons that he claims involved faulty contracting practices, fraud and unfair treatment of Kenya. So this week, we talk about militarization and its dangers. Press play!
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President Kenyatta commends KDF's efforts to boost security
10 Countries With The Fastest Growing Militaries
Why fishy smell on US arms deal just won’t go away
Militarism as a cause of World War 1
Rising Kenyan defence spending to hit $5.5 billion by 2018 How NYS will become 'social change army' My Land Is Not Kenya: The Folly Of Patriotism The Militarization of US Police Kenya defence forces arrive in Baragoi for disarmament exercise The Paradox of GovernmentThis week, we begin to focus on our upcoming general election, starting with the political party nominations that are in the near future. Our representatives have been making many promises and inflammatory statements across the board, and there has also been a lot of party hopping. We take a look at why the nominations are so important, why there is so much party hopping, and what we can expect of the nominations. Press play!
Resources
Uhuru signs new law allowing politicians to merge parties
Basic requirements for political parties Elections Act