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Kenya’s Bold NewspaperMonday, March 25, 2013

Uhuru and Raila lawyers called to set petition rules

By WAHOME THUKU and MARTIN MUTUA

The Supreme Court which now has only till Saturday to rule on three elections petitions against President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta’s formal assumption of office today convenes a status or pre-trial conference.

This is the legal phase through which all the parties to the petitions agree on how the cases will be heard before the six Supreme Court judges led by the President of the court, Chief Justice Willy Mutunga.

Top on the list of petitions are two by Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

The conference is provided for under Rule 9 of the Presidential Election Petition Rules and must be held nine days after the filing of the petition.

Today the court shall deal with preliminary and

The Perfect Way ToKick Off Your Week.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

Pope Francis leads Catholics in Palm Sunday Mass, P.2-3

TOP ROW: The six members of Supreme Court handling three presidential election petitions at a past sitting. Cropped out of the photograph is former Deputy Chief Justice Nancy Baraza. At the foreground is a court official.

Election dispute

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MondayPullout Section B Monday, March 25, 2013

MondaySTANDARD

WITH THE

Oyunga Pala: Married but still playing the game,P4

Lack of decorum ends marriage talks,P16

Leafy suburbs not as cosy as we think, P8Leafy suburbs not as cosy as we think, P8

DYING TO BE DYING TO BE DYING TO BE DYING TO BE DYING TO BE DYING TO BE

By EvERlyN KWAMbOKA and MIcHAEl WEsONgA

President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta landed in Eldoret for prayers while Prime Minister Raila Odinga who is disputing his declaration as winner was in Kisumu for the first time after the March 4 elections.

While Raila exuded confidence his Coalition for Reforms and Democracy would be “happy soon,’’ while maintaining, “without truth there will be no justice’’, Uhuru instead continued with his call on Kenyans to uphold peace.

“Without truth, there will be no justice and without justice, there is

Kenyatta sticks to peace message as Odinga calls

for truth, justice

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

With ruling expected by Saturday, CJ convenes status conference today

Raila Odinga

Japhet Korir wins the Senior Men 12km race at the World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Emily Chebet won the Senior Women while Faith Chepng’etich won the Junior women title. Story Pages 43-44

Uhuru Kenyatta

Kenya’s big win

Kenyans urged to preach, practice

By STANDARD TEAM

Catholics worldwide gathered in church to celebrate Palm Sunday, which commemorates the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem a week before his death.

And the message that reverbrated across the church was that of peace ahead of the ruling by the Supreme Court this week over a petition by Prime Minister Raila Odinga chal-lenging the announcement of Uhuru Kenyatta as winner of presidential election of March 4.

In Mombasa Archbishop Boniface Lele appealed to Kenyans to maintain peace and avoid fighting among themselves despite being affiliated to different political parties. He said there was need to maintain peace in as we await the outcome of Supreme Court petition.

“We should wait for the outcome of the court petition. We should not fight even if the outcome does not favour the side were are in,” he said.

Lele spoke at the Holy Ghost Ca-thedral during a mass to mark Palm Sunday which is the start of the Holy week within the church that will cul-minate in Easter Sunday.

He asked Kenyans to learn how to co-exist with one another regardless of where one had come from during his three-hour sermon.

MESSAgE foR ThE youTh“Kenyans should live in peace

among themselves like in the US where immigrants from different parts of the World have been living with each other peacefully despite having different backgrounds,” he said.

In Nairobi, President Kibaki joined other faithful for a Palm Sunday Mass at the Consolata Shrine Catholic Church in Westlands. The service was conducted by the Consolata Shrine Parish Priest Fr Eugene Ferrari.

Also Archbishop John Cardinal Njue led hundreds of faithful in a mass at the grounds of St Mary’s School at Msongari. Njue, who steered clear of politics, appealed to the youth to use the Easter special opportunity to rededicate and reunite themselves with Christ. The day coincides with the 28th World Youth Day.

In Nakuru Catholics were urged to be cautious of words they speak in public as the church prepares for Eas-ter. Nakuru Diocese Bishop Maurice Muhatia Makumba said most believ-ers are never careful of the words they speak which have resulted to hatred and violence in the society.

“Killing is not only using a sword,

words are the worst killers,” he said, adding that Christians should always speak words that bless.

In Makueni Kenyans were urged to trust the Supreme Court as they await its ruling on the presidential petition. Makueni Catholic priest Fr Charles Musyoki cautioned Kenyans and politicians against making own judge-ments as that would undermine the expected outcome of the court.

“People should not be pessimistic about the ruling. We must prepare ourselves for any outcome for the sake of unity,” he told a congregation at the St Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in Wote.

In Nyeri the message was the same with Catholic priest Fr Joseph Kathu-rima appealing to Christians to main-tain peace as they wait for the out-come of the case before the Supreme Court. He urged Christians to ensure they follow footsteps of Jesus — preaching and practising peace.

Stories by Lorna Kibet, Willis Oketch, Mercy Kahenda, Onesmus Nzioka and Job Weru

Page 2/ NATIONAL NEWS Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

President Kibaki attended the Palm Sunday church service at Consolata Shrine in Westlands, Nairobi. [PHOTO: PPS]

Glow, Sheila, Zippy and Leila make a sign of the cross from palm leaves outside Kakamega St Joseph Cathedral Church during yesterday’s Palm Sunday service. [PHOTO: BENJAMIN SAKWA/STANDARD]

Catholic faithfulís in a procession along Nakuru town streets during the Palm Sunday; Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Jesus’ triumphal entry into JerusalemBONIFACE THUKU

Catholic faithful from Holy Ghost Cathedral march along Mombasa streets to mark jubilant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, a week before he was sentenced to death on a cross. [PHOTO: OMONDI ONYANGO/STANDARD]

Event comes at a time citizens are anxious about a Supreme Court ruling on presidential petition, also coincides with youth’s world day

PALM SuNDAy

NATIONAL NEWS / Page 3 Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

Catholic faithful in Kisii town streets to mark Palm Sunday, yesterday. [PHOTO: ERIC ABUGA/STANDARD]

John Cardinal Njue delivers a sermon at the St Mary’s School Msongari church, yesterday. Thousands of Catholic faithful attended the mass. [PHOTO: MBUGUA KIBERA/STANDARD]

By AGENCIES

Pope Francis celebrated his fi rst Palm Sunday mass as pope in St Pe-ter’s Square, encouraging people to be humble and young at heart, as tens of thousands joyfully waved olive branches and palm fronds.

The square overfl owed with 250,000 pilgrims, tourists and Ro-mans eager to join the new pope at the start of solemn Holy Week cere-monies, which lead up to Easter, Christianity’s most important day.

Keeping with his spontaneous style, the fi rst pope from Latin America broke away several times from the text of his prepared homily to encourage the faithful to lead simple lives.

Palm Sunday recalls Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem but the Gospel also recounts how he was betrayed by one of his apostles and ultimately sentenced to death on a cross.

FORGOTTEN PEOPLERecalling the triumphant wel-

come into Jerusalem, Francis said Jesus “awakened so many hopes in the heart, above all among humble, simple, poor, forgotten people, those who don’t matter in the eyes of the world”.

Francis then told an off-the-cuff story from his childhood in Argen-tina. “My grandmother used to say, ‘children, burial shrouds don’t have pockets’”, the pope said, in a varia-tion of “you can’t take it with you”.

Since his election on March 13,

Francis has put the downtrodden and poor at the centre of his mission as pope, keeping with the priorities of his Jesuit tradition.

His name — the fi rst time a pope chose to be called Francis — is in-spired by St Francis of Assisi, who renounced a life of high living for austere poverty and simplicity to preach Jesus’ message to the poor.

Pope Francis wore bright red robes over a white cassock as he presided over the mass at an altar sheltered by a white canopy on the steps of St Peter’s Basilica.

RECOUNTS JESUS’ DEATHCardinals, many of them among

the electors who chose him to be pope, sat on chairs during the cere-mony held under hazy skies on a breezy day.

In his homily, Francis said Chris-tian joy “isn’t born from possessing a lot of things but from having met Jesus”. That same joy should keep people young, he said. “From seven to 70, the heart doesn’t age” if one is inspired by Christian joy, said the 76-year-old pontiff.

Francis said he was looking for-ward to welcoming young people to Rio de Janeiro in July for the Catholic Church’s World Youth Day. So far, that is the fi rst foreign trip on the calendar of Francis’s new papacy.

The faithful knelt on hard cobble-stones paving the square, and Fran-cis knelt on a wooden kneeler at the point in the Gospel that recounts the moment of Jesus’s death.

Pope Francis with a palm frond during the Palm Sunday mass at St Peter’s Square at the Vatican, yesterday. [PHOTO: REUTERS]

peace during Easter festivitiesPope Francis says Christians’

mission is to care for the downtrodden, poor

PALM SUNDAY

Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka with Kitui Senator-elect David Musila (cen-tre) and Kitui Women Representative-elect Nyiva Mwendwa addresses the Press outside the Nairobi Baptist Church on Ngong Road in Nairobi yesterday after attending a Palm Sunday service. [PHOTO: COLLINS KWEYU/STANDARD]

National Assembly Clerk Justin Bundi says it could take a record two days to swear in all 349 legislators.

Swearing in may take two days, clerk saysBy GEOFFREY MOSOKU

The swearing in of 349 legis-lators and the election of the Speaker and his deputy is turn-ing out to be a nightmare for Parliament.

Though it is a simple exercise of taking oath of offi ce, Kenyans may have to be glued to their TV sets for a record two days or 24 hours nonstop to watch their MPs transact the fi rst business of the House.

If MPs will be sworn individu-ally, each is expected to take at least two minutes to recite the oath before appending his/her signature on the oath of affi rma-tion paper.

The 349 MPs against 2 min-utes is equal to 698 minutes; which when divided (by 60) into hours is equal to 11.6 hours.

The election of the Speaker is estimated to take at least three hours as the legislators will vote manually.

If no candidate garners man-datory two-thirds majority (233), then the vote goes to a second round pitting the fi rst two candi-dates against each other, with another three hours required. This will total six hours.

The election of the deputy Speaker may also end up con-suming another six hours if it ends up in a second round. This is compounded as the MPs will

vote manually.This may turn out to be a

nightmare, as it may take almost 24 hours, meaning MPs will be in the House until Friday evening.

FORMS OF OATH Friday will again be a public

holiday as it falls on the Easter weekend. However, the time may be shortened if MPs resolve to take a group vow after signing the forms of oath individually.

Yesterday, National Assembly Clerk Justin Bundi, said they were prepared to work round-the-clock, adding that a prece-dent has been set where the House extends its sitting past midnight.

Bundi cited the 2008 swear-ing in and election of Kenneth Marende as Speaker and Farah Maalim as his deputy, having lasted up to 2am.

“We will work until the work is complete even if it extends to a public holiday (Friday). Even today is a weekend but I am in the offi ce to receive applications for speaker,” he said.

The clerk, however, said the time may be shortened if MPs accept his proposal to be sworn in in batches as opposed to indi-vidually. If the legislators take this route, the clerk will distrib-ute the forms of oath, and they are called in batches of 20 or 50 to take the group vow.

Page 4 / NATIONAL NEWS Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

housekeeping matters before the ac-tual hearing begins. The rules require that the hearing must start within two days after the pre-trial conference and will continue uninterrupted.

The judges have in the past week been holding long private sittings with the Supreme Court Registrar, go-ing through all the papers and other material fi led in court since Saturday last week.

“By the time the parties are com-ing to court for hearing, the judges will be knowing what kind of case they have,” said Chief Registrar of the Judi-ciary Ms Gladys Shollei on Saturday.

The court shall also formerly con-solidate the three petitions and give directions on how they shall be heard and determined expeditiously.

It shall frame the contested and uncontested issues in the petitions. Some of the parties have fi led their questions, which they want the court to determine and make declarations on. Raila has sought several declara-tions from the Supreme Court, among them those that could, if granted, force fresh presidential elections through invalidation of the recent poll.

The Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) presidential can-didate in the just concluded race also wants the court to declare the entire voters’ register as well as the election itself fl awed. The Prime Minister is also seeking a declaration form the court that it fi nds no presidential can-didate met the threshold of 50 per cent plus one vote to avoid a runoff.

Continued from P1

Case: Status hearing set for todayThis is contrary to the IEBC’s insis-tence that Uhuru meet the threshold and should be sworn into offi ce.

Raila is also seeking to have the court, which has the exclusive and original jurisdiction to hear presiden-tial election disputes, reverse IEBC’s declaration of Uhuru as President-elect. At the same time the PM wants the Supreme Court to declare that voters’ constitutional rights were breached and violated by IEBC right from the time of organising the elec-tions up to the end.

DECLARATIONHe is also seeking to have the court

fi nd that IEBC committed electoral offences under the Elections Act. If this declaration is granted then it means in the event that the Supreme Court rules in his favour and probably orders for a repeat of the polls then IEBC might be found ineligible to conduct the second round.

Raila has also fi led an application in the same court seeking a forensic audit of the entire process. But both the IEBC and Uhuru have since re-sponded to Raila’s application and dismissed it with several arguments.

On its part the IEBC accuses CORD of using incorrect provisional fi gures to challenge the voters’ register’s ac-curacy. It dismisses allegations of ir-regularities and say it declared the Jubilee alliance candidate “properly and constitutionally”.

IEBC argues the petition fi led on behalf of CORD’s candidate, challeng-ing the outcome of the elections is riddled with “misrepresentations” and “misconceptions” about the vot-ers’ register, the tallying process and the legal framework guiding the elec-tion.

The commission led by its chair-man Mr Ahmed Issack Hassan further says electronic technology was meant for transparency and cannot be a sub-stitute to the manual process required by law. The electoral body further ar-gues that Forms 36 (constituency to-tals) were not manipulated and that they contain no grave errors.

IEBC also says the voter identifi ca-tion results transmissions system was

not designed to fail and was not aban-doned. They further want the judges to fi nd that the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction to set aside the entire election as CORD wants.

In another petition fi led by three voters, the court is being asked to determine whether rejected votes should be included when working out the 50 per cent plus one vote rule.

ONGOING DEBATEAnother issue likely to be con-

tested is whether the court can issue any other declarations in the petitions other than dismissing the case, vali-dating or invalidating the elections.

There is ongoing debate as to whether or not the judges can order for a run-off between the top two candidates, or whether it can only send the country into another presi-dential election including all the other presidential contenders.

The parties have fi led affi davits and statements by various witnesses whom they will be relying on to strengthen their arguments. Uhuru dismisses Raila’s petition saying it is replete with falsehoods and is a robust effort to exaggerate facts to secure him an unfair advantage.

The President-elect argues that the Constitution does not require IEBC to use electronic election transmission system as Raila argues. He further notes that the petition is an expres-sion of bitterness from Raila’s loss of the poll and that the ultimate objec-tive is to carry out a constitutional coup through the Supreme Court.

Both Uhuru and his designated deputy Mr William Ruto have pro-duced video clips in which Raila and his supporters are captured making statements and comments on the elections before and after fi ling the petition.

By GEOFFREY MOSOKU

Six people who served in the post-colonial Senate have been invited to witness Thursday’s historic swearing in of 67 leaders in Nairobi.

They are Philip Toikam Lemein (Narok), M Ali Msallam (Lamu), Julius Muthamia (Meru), William Rotich (Baringo), G N Kalya (Nandi) and Na-than Munoko (Bungoma).

These are the only known surviv-ing senators out of the initial 41 who were in the fi rst Senate, anchored in the then independence Constitution, that formed one of the two Houses of Parliament.

The fi rst Senate was abolished in 1966 and Kenya reverted to a unicam-eral system of Parliament, with addi-tional constituencies being created to accommodate all the senators who were amalgamated to the Lower House as MPs for the remainder of their terms.

PIONEERSYesterday, Senate Clerk Jeremiah

Nyegenye confi rmed he had sent per-sonal invites for the six pioneer sena-tors to grace the occasion with the State footing their travel and accom-modation costs.

“We want to make the day truly historic by inviting the old men to wit-ness those who will take over from them,” Nyegenye said at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) where the Senate will be housed temporarily.

The clerk’s reference to ‘take over’ was used symbolically since the Sen-ate was abolished in 1966 only to be reintroduced following the promulga-tion of the new Constitution in August 2010, thus making the current sena-tors as the only second in post-inde-pendent Kenya.

Ex-senators to attend

oath of offi ce ceremony

By the time the parties are coming to court for hearing, the judges will be knowing what kind of case they have — Chief Registrar of the Judiciary Ms Gladys Shollei

Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard Page 5

Governors seek professionals for county Cabinet posts

By EVELYN KWAMBOKA

Governors have an uphill task in appointing members of their Cabinets.

The governors, who are set to be sworn-in this week, are grappling with whether they should go political or follow merit.

Most of those who have decided to go the professional way are busy recruiting a panel to serve in the county’s Public Service Board, a body that will be mandated with recruitment of county executive committee (Cabinet) comprised of ten people.

PSB is an equivalent of Pub-lic Service Commission that is mandated to employi and de-ploy staff within the country.

Siaya County governor-elect Rasanga Amoth said he requires seven people to serve in the board. They include Transition Authority’s county secretary, county ward repre-sentative, the council town clerk and some council senior employees.

He said the board will ad-vertise the Cabinet vacancies to be filled by qualified candi-dates.

“It is time to work, politics aside. We want knowledgeable

and professional candidates to apply for the jobs. A Masters degree would be an added ad-vantage,” he said.

The governor and his ex-ecutive committee are expect-ed to focus on running the af-fairs of the county.

Rasanga said he is in close contact with the professionals’ group in Siaya, adding that serious candidates, who qual-ify for the jobs would assist in developing the area.

The County Assembly‘s im-mediate task after the swear-ing-in ceremony is to approve the list of officers to be ap-pointed by the governor.

Page 6 / NATIONAL Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

no reconciliation. The truth shall set us free. We are going to be happy soon,” Raila said. He was accompa-nied by his wife, Ida, elder brother Oburu Oginga and sister Ruth Odinga. Uhuru who was welcomed to Eldoret by his designated deputy Mr William Ruto asked Kenyans to maintain the peace and tranquility attained after the elections even as they wait for the verdict of the Supreme Court.

He thanked Uasin Gishu residents for voting for him and the Jubilee Co-alition and promised to faithfully de-liver service to Kenyans in line with their campaign promises. Both Uhu-ru and Ruto reminisced how Kenyans suffered as a result of the 2008 post-election violence as they celebrated Palm Sunday at the Sacred Heart Ca-thedral that hosted 8,000 displaced persons in 2008. Mass was celebrated by Eldoret Catholic Diocese’s Bishop Cornelius Korir.

Raila who was at St Stephens An-glican Church in Kisumu called on residents to remain calm and con-tinue praying as they wait for the Su-preme Court’s verdict.

His running mate in the March 4 race Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka said the ruling on the CORD petition by the Supreme Court this week was a matter of “great national interest” that would be followed keenly.

“Kenyans will be keenly following developments at the Supreme Court to their logical conclusion,” he said after prayers at Baptist Church along Ngong Road, Nairobi. The VP pointed out that it was going to be “an exciting week as Devolution reality takes ef-fect”.

old systemThe VP disclosed there would be

heightened activity within political circles as coalitions and political par-ties negotiate how to clinch various positions. “We are prepared for any eventuality and are strategising to emerge victorious,” added the VP.

Like Uhuru and Raila, he urged Kenyans to remain peaceful. “Even as we enter into a crucial week, we should maintain unity of purpose,” he urged, adding that this is Easter Week and, therefore, the country should seriously reflect on the latest happen-ings. Raila also told County Commis-sioners to stop interfering with Gov-ernors elected by the people. He said there was need for governors to resist

Continued from P1

Polls: Jubilee, CORD leaders visit political turfsthose trying to bring back the old sys-tem, adding that unlike members of Provincial Administration, the people elected the governors.

“Governors must resist attempts to try to bring the old order back. Forces of impunity must be shown the door,” he told 47 governors elected in the March polls. The PM’s remarks at the cathedral came after Kisumu Gover-nor-elect Jacktone Ranguma claimed the area commissioner who operates from the same building had instructed him to wait until she shows him where to operate from.

“I wonder whether the governor will report to the PC or the PC report to the governor,” he posed.

The Transitional Authority had earmarked the building for the Gov-ernor’s offices and County treasury, a decision that has not been changed to date. The High Court revoked the ap-pointment of 47 county commission-ers in June last year, on grounds that President Kibaki had failed to observe the Constitution in appointing the officers.

Palm sundayIn September last year, the PM told

Parliament that under the new Con-stitution, those serving in the Provin-cial Administration would have no place in the new dispensation.

The PM pointed out that their ex-istence would interfere with the run-ning of county governments, adding that they should instead be absorbed in the new units within the devolved government. Still in Eldoret, Uhuru promised to improve the living stan-dards of Kenyans through poverty eradication by creating employment for youth, deliver affordable health care and better the infrastructure.

“Five years ago this (church) was a field of agony filled with people who were bitter for losing their beloved ones and property. But today we are celebrating Palm Sunday here in the year of Jubilee,” Uhuru said.

Ruto who was also touring his home turf for the first time since the elections told Christians they were back for thanksgiving and to build togetherness, brotherhood, peace and success. “God heard us when we vowed that Kenyans will not fight gain, shed blood and destroy prop-erty for political contestations again,” Ruto said. He said they had chosen this particular church to celebrate the overcoming of death, bloodshed, des-peration and hopelessness witnessed

in the 2007-2008 chaos. “It will be our business and responsibility to forever unite the people of Kenya beyond tribe, religion, creed and political af-filiation,” he vowed.

He promised that next in line would be the fight against tribalism, hunger, disease and poverty. Bishop Korir praised and thanked the two leaders for working together for the country’s unity.

“I am joyful and at peace seeing the two of you succeed and thank residents for demonstrating to the world that Kenya was indeed a unique country,” he stated. The bishop called for respect for one another and thanked other religious leaders for working together in peace-building.

translates to Peace“What was formerly branded a

hotspot has, through God’s miracle, turned out into an ‘Amani (Peace) Spot’. This means peace in Uasin Gi-shu translates to peace everywhere in the country,” he said. Uhuru and his wife Margaret were later hosted by Ruto and his wife Rachael at their Sugoi home. Those accompanying Uhuru included Nairobi Senator-elect Mike Mbuvi Sonko.

–– Additional reporting by Roselyne Obala.

TOP: President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy-elect William Ruto (sec-ond right) with other worshippers at Sacred Heart Cathedral Catholic Church in Eldoret, yesterday. Mass was led by Bishop Cornelius Korir. ABOVE: Prime Minister Raila Odinga (right) with his wife Ida at St Stephens Anglican Church in Kisumu, yesterday. [PHOTO: COLLINS ODUOR/STANDARD]

ADDENDUM

NATIONAL NEWS / Page 7

BY PAUL WAFULA

The electoral commission boss Is-sack Hassan did not chair the evalua-tion or tender committees that awarded South African firm Face Technologies the Sh1.3 billion con-tract to supply the controversial poll books.

In an email to The Standard, Mr Hassan noted that the procurement law prohibits him from sitting in these committees.

“It is the law that I don’t chair evaluation committee or the tender committee that made the award. The management reports to the chairman and commissioners on all procure-ment matters,” Hassan said in an email to The Standard clarifying his role in the process.

tendering ProcedUreThe Standard on Sunday reported

how the electoral commission, which conducted the March 4 General Elec-tion, bought voter identification gad-gets, some of which collapsed under unclear circumstances on Election

‘I didn’t chair tender committee’IEBC boss Hassan clarifies role in process, notes procurement law prohibits him from sitting in committees

Day, and which are the centre of an election dispute.

A review of the tendering proce-dure by the Public Procurement Ad-ministrative Review Board found out the tender to supply poll books was awarded to the South African firm on September 29, last year, three weeks before the technical evaluation among the shortlisted bidders.

“It’s indicated that I, Mr Hassan personally awarded the tender that had many questions. The implication is clear that I gave an award to a com-pany under questionable circum-stances. Nothing could be farther from the truth,” clarified Hassan.

The public procurement regulator came short of cancelling IEBC’s ten-der but allowed it to proceed for the greater public good because of the little time that was remaining to the election day.

FAiLed to FUnctionThe Election Observation Group

said in about 8 per cent of the streams observed electronic poll books were either missing or malfunctioning as at 11.30am on the Election Day and by 8.30pm, 55.1 per cent of the polling streams observed the electronic poll books failed to function properly.

This comes at a time when the IEBC has been dragged to the Su-preme Court by the Coalition for Re-forms and Democracy (CORD) after disputing the outcome of the recent election.

CORD wants the electronic system

Tender dispute

IEBC chair Mr Issack Hassan. He has clarified that management reports to the chairman and commissioners on all procurement matters. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

BY nAFtAL MAKori

An Administration Police officer in Nyamira County allegedly stabbed his colleague in the neck after they dis-agreed on how to share a bribe.

The two officers based at Nyama-sebe chief’s camp in Masaba North District allegedly raided a chang’aa den last Thursday where they arrested the dealer who gave them Sh2,000 in exchange for his freedom.

When the officers arrived at their work station, the junior officer de-manded a share of the “small token” but the assailant objected to the de-mands and a scuffle ensued.

The senior officer, whose rank is sergeant, took a kitchen knife and stabbed his junior on the neck, ac-cording to witnesses. Other officers working at the station rushed the vic-tim, a constable, to a private hospital in Kisii where he is recuperating.

Masaba North DC David Rop con-firmed the incident and termed it most unfortunate. He said the assail-ant had been arrested.

“Like any law breaker, he would have to face the full force of the law. It is uncouth for a police officer to injure another for whatever reason,” Mr Rop told The Standard.

He said investigation on whether the two were fighting over a bribe was going on.

Officer stabs another over share of bribe

Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

used by the polls body audited.However, in its defence, IEBC has

maintained that the kits were not faulty and that it never abandoned the system for a manual one on grounds that the law in fact demands that the IEBC uses the manual system to declare the final results of the elec-tion.

Apology & clarificationIn our sister paper the Standard on

Sunday yesterday, we published a story headlined “Minutes reveal how IEBC bought faulty gadgets”. In the story we indicated that the IEBC chair, Issack Hassan, had chaired a tender committee meeting. In fact, the truth is that the IEBC chair never chaired that or any other tender committee meeting and in any case the law bars the chairman from participating in such meetings.

We take this early opportunity to unreservedly apologise to Mr Hassan for the wrong impression.

Monday, March 25, 2013 / The StandardPage 8 / NATIONAL NEWS

Dock Workers Union draws radical proposals to stop port privatisation

By PATRICK BEJA

Dock Workers Union (DWU) has drawn radical proposals to make the port of Mombasa ef-ficient and avert privatisation.

These proposals include amending the Kenya Ports Au-thority Act to make the port’s managers more accountable and their hiring transparent and competitive.

In a statement issued in Mombasa yesterday, the union leaders came up with a seven-point proposal to raise perfor-mance of the port without re-sorting to its privatisation.

DWU national chairman Jefa Kiti Kalu, general secretary Simon Sang, treasurer Patrick Atinga, gender chairperson Sharifa Mwamzandi and chief shop steward Juma Thoya signed the statement.

They want the Government to support the review of the Kenya Ports Authority Act Chapter 391 to provide for bet-ter governance including ap-pointment of board of direc-tors, managing directors, heads

CIC starts process of amending laws on

National Police Service

By CYRUS OMBATI

There is a move to amend sections of the National Police Service (NPS) Act and National Police Service Commission (NPSC) Act in a bid to weaken the commission’s mandate.

This has elicited protests from some police officers and members of the commission who term the move unconsti-tutional and ill-intentioned.

Apparently, the Commis-sion for the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) is lead-ing the campaign for the

changes on the pretexts that the current status undermines the implementation of Articles 238, 245 and 246 of the Consti-tution.

“CIC notes the urgency re-quired in addressing the pos-sible overlaps and ambiguities in the aforementioned Acts that may undermine the im-plementation of Articles 238, 245 and 246 of the Constitu-tion,” adds a letter by CIC.

TOUR Of EUROPE“It is our proposal that the

amendments to those Acts be prioritised and tabled in Par-liament as soon as possible,” says part of a letter by CIC vice chairperson Elizabeth Muli dated March 12.

The proposal to make the changes to the Acts was de-cided in February when the Commission was in Europe on an official trip to familiarise

Changes to the Acts were necessitated due to a constitutional conflict

themselves on how they need to operate.

The first meeting was held on February 19 at the CIC of-fices and was chaired by chair-man Charles Nyachae.

According to Mr Nyachae the meeting was necessitated over a constitutional conflict between NPSC and the Inspec-tor General’s office.

In a letter dated February 22, Nyachae notes their meet-ing agreed through possible amendments to the NPSC and NPS Acts on the general neces-sity to clarify the mandates of the NPSC, National Police Ser-vice IG and the Independent Police Oversight Authority.

“The meeting agreed on the necessity to ensure indepen-dent Command of the IG and to ensure the service remains a disciplined force,” reads part of the letter.

Part of the changes that the officials want effected are on the provisions that give the NPSC powers to keep under review all matters relating to policies and standards or qualifications required of members of the service.

Further, the team wants the commission to receive regular

reports from the IG on disci-plinary matters and review or ratify action taken by the po-lice boss.

The team wants the provi-sion that gives the NPSC pow-ers to monitor the operations of the NPS deleted.

They also propose changes in the law on the provisions of recruitment, appointment, transfer, promotion and disci-plinary process.

A section of members of NPSC have accused unnamed officials at the Office of the President and the IG of being behind the proposed changes and are calling on stakeholders to reject them.

By LINAH BENYAWA

Two patients have been di-agnosed with symptoms of the deadly dengue fever.

Coast Provincial Director of Medical Services Dr Khadija Shikely confirmed that tests done by the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) in Kilifi County returned positive results for the deadly fever on two samples taken from two patients at the Aga Khan Hos-pital in Mombasa two weeks ago.

“Two cases of dengue fever were confirmed from The Aga Khan Hospital from specimens taken two weeks ago,” Dr Shikely said in Mombasa and announced that the patients were treated and discharged from hospital.

She also disclosed that five new samples from private hos-pitals in Mombasa are under investigation at KEMRI.

“Five more suspects are be-ing investigated,” said Dr Shikely who said all health in-stitutions have been advised to be on the lookout.

The fever is said to be the most common mosquito-borne virus in the world.

KEMRI tests confirm

dengue fever

Commission for Implementation of the Constitution chairman Charles Nyachae at a function. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

ers on through bill of lading by road concept.

Another radical proposal was the establishment of a proper logistics office to be headed by a professional logis-tics officer to be appointed through vetting.

The union also roots for urgent construction of Free Port Facility in order to in-crease the level of business in the port to justify the con-struction of a dual carriageway between Mombasa and Nai-robi.

National security

PROPOSED changES • Changes in provisions that give the NPSC pow-ers to keep under review all matters relating to policies and standards or qualifications re-quired of members of the service• NPSC should receive regular reports from the IG on disciplinary mat-ters• Delete provisions that give NPSC powers to monitor NPS

See what others are saying, join us Online: www.standardmedia.co.ke

of division by vetting or com-petitive selection.

The officials also proposed the creation of the position of Port Manager to who all port stakeholders and organisations such KPA and Kenya Revenue Authority (port branch) are answerable to.

REvIEWThe union wants the Gov-

ernment to liberalize transpor-tation of containers from the port to Inland Container De-pots (ICDs) of Kisumu and Nairobi by licencing transport-

what iS tO bE intRODucED • The union plans to prepare a Bill on governance of the port through a review of the KPA Act• The Bill will create the office of the Port Manager• They want the Government to liberalise transportation of containers from the port to Inland Container Depots of Kisumu and Nairobi• The establishment of a proper logistics office to be headed by a professional logistics officer • Urgent construction of a Free Port Facility

NATIONAL NEWS / Page 9

BY VINCENT BARTOO

The lawyer for a witness who re-canted his testimony against Deputy President-Elect William Ruto at the International Criminal Court (ICC) rejected a request to meet with The Hague offi cials in Nairobi.

According to the lawyer Mr Paul Gicheru, the meeting was allegedly to be held on either Thursday or Friday last week, but he declined.

Yesterday, the Eldoret-based advo-cate claimed he told ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s representative he did not have permission from his cli-ent for the meeting.

“I have told them my client stands by his sworn affi davits and that there is no need for a meeting over this,” said Gicheru. Meanwhile, the witness has also come out alleging that people claiming to be ICC offi cials who are already in the country have made frantic efforts to reach him.

Former ICC witness’s lawyer snubs meeting with offi cials of The Hague

Gicheru says his client had not given him permission to meet team of lawyers from Fatou Bensouda’s offi ce

In a signed statement, he claimed to have received 20 calls from among others, a Mr Lucio, requesting a meet-ing between him and the alleged ICC offi cials.

“Recent developments and deal-ings by the ICC has forced me to break my silence and go public as the deal-ings are bordering on harassment, intimidation and intruding into my private life,” he claimed.

INVESTIGATIONICC Trial Attorney Cynthia Tai

wrote to Gicheru on March 19 inform-ing him that representatives of the Offi ce of the Prosecutor would be fl y-ing to Nairobi to investigate circum-stances that led to the witness recant-ing his testimony.

Bensouda has in the past claimed ICC witnesses were bribed and others intimidated against testifying. Wit-ness found to have lied to the court are also liable for prosecution under the Rome Statute.

“The Offi ce of the Prosecutor re-jects outright the allegations made against the Prosecution in the (Wit-ness) letter and attached affi davit and also rejects many of the statements contained within them,” reads the let-ter.

She said to fulfi ll the court’s man-date of investigating such matters, the

Legal standoff

Lawyer Paul Gicheru says his client, a former ICC witness, did not want him to meet offi cials from The Hague [PHOTO: KEVIN TUNOI/STANDARD]

Aenean pretium, facilisis

BY ALLY JAMAH

Civil society leaders have termed as ‘illegal’ the move by the Remunera-tion body not to slash the salary of a top Government offi cial.

The leaders argued the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) had allowed Commission for the Im-plementation of the Constitution (CIC) Chairman Charles Nyachae to earn more than the incoming presi-dent.

Speaking yesterday in Nairobi, the leaders said it was unacceptable for Nyachae’s Sh1.24 million salary to remain off limit while that of other State offi cers had been brought down.

They dismissed the argument that his salary was fi xed before SRC came into being. Mr Nyachae earns a basic salary of Sh849,360 and a house al-lowance of Sh140,000.

His monthly extraneous duty al-lowance is Sh120,000. He is paid a similar amount as entertainment al-lowance while his domestic staff al-lowance is Sh15,600 a month.

“The commission is responsible to Kenyans and not to CIC or any other body. We call on SRC Chairperson Sarah Serem not to engage in illegal actions that undermine SRC’s man-date,” said Morris Odhiambo, Presi-dent of the National Civil Society Congress.

Civil society claims Nyachae salary ‘illegal’

Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

Prosecutor’s representatives would like to meet with the lawyer.

The witness gave two local num-bers from which he said he claimed to have received 18 calls and two others from a concealed number.

“I have told them that I stand by my sworn affi davits and no amount of persuasion or harassment will make me recant from my position,” he said

from an undisclosed location.The witness questioned why the

callers wanted to meet him alone without his lawyer, and alleged that his life was in danger.

“By attending the meeting alone, this can easily leave me vulnerable to acts such as kidnapping or hijacking, or even being maimed or worse, being killed,” he claimed.

Page 10 / NATIONAL Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

Hard task for top court judges to opt out of case

Disqualification of a judge happens only when court is certain it will not be incapacitated due to lack of quorum

The writer is a court reporter with the Standard GroupEmail: iwahome@standardmedia.co.ke

BenchwatchRepublic of kenya

SUPREME COURT OF KENYA

PETITION 4 OF 2012

JASBIR SINGH RAI AND

THREE OTHERS…... PETITIONERSVERSUS

ESTATE OF TARLOCHAN SINGH RAIAND FOUR OTHERS………………………………RESPONDENTS

BENCH: JUDGES PHILIP TUNOI, MOHAMMED IBRAHIM, J.B. OJWANG, SMOKIN WANJALA AND NJOKI NDUNGU

JUDGEMENT: 06.02.2013

By wahOMe thUKU

The Supreme Court will this morn-ing begin to hear and determine three petitions challenging the results of the March 4 presidential election.

Today’s session will be a pre-trial conference during which parties will sort out preliminary issues before starting formal hearings within two days.

Under the Constitution, at least five judges must sit to hear the peti-tions though Chief Justice Willy Mu-tunga has indicated that all the cur-rent six will be on the Bench.

For several days, there have been debates as to whether any of the six judges should or can be asked to dis-qualify himself or herself from the Bench for various reasons. Those claims have been advanced in public. Since it was set up in 2011, the Su-preme Court has had to deal with the question as to whether any of its judg-

es can be asked to disqualify him or herself only on one occasion. Promi-nent lawyer Pherozee Nowrojee made the application in the high-profile case. The lawyer wrote to the court early this year asking that Justice Phil-ip Tunoi disqualify himself from hear-ing an appeal filed from the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court.

The reasoning was that while the matter was at the Court of Appeal, Judge Tunoi had disqualified himself from hearing it. Tunoi was promoted from the Court of Appeal to the Su-preme Court.

Mr Nowrojee argued that no rea-son had been given when Judge Tunoi recused himself from hearing the case at the Court of Appeal and that what-ever the reason, it should also apply for him to disqualify himself now that the case had found him again at the Supreme Court.

caSt In StOneThe judges frame several ques-

tions on how, why and when a Su-preme Court judge should be asked to disqualify himself or herself from a case.

The point of concern is that the Supreme Court has a specific number of judges – seven, as set by the Consti-tution and the minimum number of five who can sit on any Bench.

Further, this is the court with the final judicial authority on any matter

and has the responsibility to define the country’s development of the law. The Supreme Court Act Section 8(2), however, bars a judge from sitting in a case in which he or she had previ-ously heard at the lower courts.

The judges considered the defini-tion of recusal, which is to remove oneself as a judge or policy maker in a particular matter because of a con-flict of interest.

“Calling for recusal of a judge is by no means cast in stone. Perception of

fairness, of conviction, of moral au-thority to hear the matter, is the prop-er test of whether or not the non-par-ticipation of the judicial officer is called for,” the judges held.

The judges considered that the Su-preme Court did not have one judge, the deputy CJ. Also half of the current judges had served in lowers courts and there was a possibility of sitting on cases they had heard before.

UltIMate devIce“Recusal, in these circumstances,

could create a quorum-deficit, which renders it impossible for the Supreme Court to perform its prescribed con-stitutional functions,” the judges ruled. “Such a possibility would, in our view, be contrary to public policy and would be highly detrimental to the public interest, especially given the fact that the novel democratic un-dertaking of the new Constitution is squarely anchored first on the supe-rior courts, and second on the Su-preme Court as the ultimate device of safeguard.”

The judges held recuse for Su-preme Court judge should not be done without weighing the merits against the constitutional burden of

the court and the public interest.They ruled that a decision on the

application for disqualification of a judge would be given after consider-ing the merits of the claim, in the con-text of the constitutional design and obligations o the court.

And even the question as to when a judge of the Supreme Court should consider disqualifying him or herself as a matter of personal conviction, or objective ethical considerations will be determined by other colleagues.

“The recusal of a judge of the Su-preme Court is a matter, in the first place, for the consideration of the col-legiate Bench, whose decision is to set the matter to rest,” the court ruled.

Besides the unanimous decision, Judge Mohammed Ibrahim wrote his additional remarks emphasising the point.

He pointed out that the only allow-ance given by the Constitution of the judges who may be away for whatever reason, including illness or worse still, death, is two.

hIgh lIKelIhOOd“If one of the remaining five is re-

quired to disqualify him/herself, it may be argued that out of necessity, the judge would have to sit to ensure that there will be no failure of justice due to the Bench being below the quorum set by the Constitution,” he added.

“It would be of utmost importance that the judges of the Supreme Court sparingly and cautiously allow dis-qualification to ensure that the court is not at any time incapacitated due to lack of quorum. Indeed, the court should consider the high likelihood that several judges may be required to recuse themselves in the same case. Any slight reason that would make the number of judges fall below five such as illness means the functions of the Supreme Court would stall.”

In its conclusion, the court unani-mously rejected the application for Judge Tunoi to disqualify himself holding that the doctrine of necessity had to operate for the court to per-form its constitutional functions.

Justice Philip Tunoi

IT’S HEREBY NOTIFIED for general information that the pieces of Land Title Deed number as captioned situated above in KITENGELA SHOLLINGE area in Kajiado County are registered and owned by our client by name ISAAC TUMPES.

The mentioned parcels are NOT FOR SALE .noitisopsid rehto ro It has also come into our client’s knowledge that the Green Cards of the above mentioned parcels are missing at the Lands registry in Kajiado.

Any transaction entered or about to be entered will be a fraud.

No other PERSON has an interest or right to and over the said piece of land and any person trespassing or encroaching on or attempting or purporting to deal with, use or occupy the said piece of land without our client’s written and express authorization does so in breach of our client’s legal rights and at his/her/its risk and will be dealt with accordingly.

Dated at Nairobi this 25th day of March, 2013.

Rogers Ombachi & Co. Advocates.

Rogers Ombachi & Co.AdvocatesNanak House1st Floor Rom 103P.O. Box 11460-00100NAIROBI

CAVEAT EMPTORKAJIADO/OLOLOIKITOSH/

KITENGELA/2490/2491

Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard NATIONAL / Page 11

Seeking compensationJunior police officers protest

‘violation of rights’They are against an order issued by IGP Kimaiyo telling them to keep off social sites like Facebook

By CYRUS OMBATI

Junior police officers are up in arms against what they term as viola-tion of their rights by their seniors.

The officers have produced an in-ternal memo sent by the office of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) tell-ing them not to attend any interview for a job without informing their se-niors. Some officers say IGP David Kimaiyo has refused to clear them even after landing jobs elsewhere.

They are also protesting against an order issued by IGP telling them to keep off social sites like Facebook when “presenting their grievances”.

A memo issued by Deputy Inspec-

Security

tor General of Police to all senior po-lice officers dated March 12 says some officers are circumventing the stand-ing police orders.

“A case in point are the recent transfers/deployments where officers have either defied or contested in court the transfers,” reads part of the memo. The memo added that some officers have even attended interviews in other Government organisations and purportedly be selected to work in those organisations without the authority and knowledge of IGP.

dISCIplInARY ACTIOn“This is serious breach of the ser-

vice standing orders and discipline. You are directed to warn personnel under your command to desist forth-with from acts that will attract severe disciplinary action,” adds the letter.

The letter signed by K.S. Kiptoo explained that the service standing orders have not been amended and, therefore, the provisions therein are still in force. The junior officers have now written to the Independent Polic-ing Oversight Authority and other

Muslim for Human Rights officer Francis Ouma (left) shows wounds driver Hemed Abdallah suffered after being attacked by suspected Mombasa Repub-lican Council goons while ferrying IEBC elections material on March 4 in Kilifi County. Abdallah wants IEBC to compensate him. [PHOTO: KEVIN ODIT/STANDARD]

By CYRUS OMBATI

Allowances for police officers who worked during the March 4 election will be paid end of the month.

Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo said the money will be paid through the payroll, as opposed to past practices where officers received it in cash.

“Arrangements to have the money paid to officers have been finalised and will be paid through their March/April payroll,” he said.

Kimaiyo was reacting to com-plaints from a section of police offi-cers, who said they had not been paid their allowances even after Indepen-dent Electoral and Boundaries Com-mission (IEBC), through Treasury re-leased the funds.

The more than 99,000 officers who participated in the exercise were en-titled to be paid allowances, which vary depending on one’s rank.

Kimaiyo said all monies are nowa-days paid through respective payrolls and bank accounts and urged for pa-tience from affected officers.

Some 23,681 special police officers were gazetted and deployed to serve during the General Election.

They formed part of the 99,000 of-ficers who manned the exercise coun-trywide. They are also entitled to al-lowances.

Police to get poll pay end month,

says Kimaiyo

Government agencies seeking their intervention on what they term as violations of their rights and free-doms. Some officers who have re-cently been transferred have moved to court terming the moves illegal.

Kimaiyo gave an order last Thurs-day telling police officers to keep off

social media and added their com-plaints would only be received through conventional ways.

People believed to be police offi-cers on social media have been com-plaining over unpaid dues for ser-vices provided before and after General Election.

OFFER!

By KENNETH KWAMA

Recruiting staff is a costly

exercise but an essential part of any business and it pays to do it properly.

Though this principle is seen as more application in the private sector, the slow race to recruit the country’s next top technocrats is turn-ing out to be taking the same lines.

Going by activities at the Public Service Commission (PSC), the recruiting agency, seem to be well aware that poor choices at the recruit-ment stage can prove very ex-pensive.

The race to recruit the countries next top techno-crats to be named by Kenya’s fourth President is taking shape and going by activities at the Public Service Commis-sion (PSC), which is the re-cruiting agency, it is a hot race that might yield only 22 indi-viduals.

The professionals are ex-pected to take over the cur-rent roles of Permanent Sec-retaries and will be referred to

as Principal Secretaries. Applications for the jobs

should have closed by March 1, but was extended following concerns that the country’s next President, who is the ap-pointing authority would want to have more say in the final choice of individuals.

But there are concerns that the requirements for the job might lock out hundreds of top talented individuals.

Some headhunters have pointed out the provision that requires applicants to get clearance from the Kenya Rev-enue Authority, Higher Edu-cation Loans Board, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Com-mission and Criminal Investi-gation Department as big stumbling blocks.

“It is a fact that many peo-ple have submitted their ap-plications without some re-quirements like certificate of good conduct or clearance from the Higher Education Loans Board not because they don’t have these certificates, but because of the bureaucra-cy involved in getting these documents,” says Wandigo Clement, a director with Quin-ton Recruiters Ltd.

Wandigo says the country should have made effort to ensure that bodies that issue these important certificates are reformed to make the is-suance faster and more cred-ible before potential job seek-ers are told to seek their clearance to make the process

Tough new rules for principal

secretary jobsApplicants are required to get clearance from Helb, KRA, CID and anti-graft body

Page 12 / NATIONAL NEWS Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

By JAMEs ANyANzWA

The wave of new finan-cial services regulations is causing deep changes in the asset management in-dustry, heralding a period of transformation and re-fining business models.

Seeking to sharpen their competitive edge, many as-set management compa-nies are refining their busi-ness models, placing

greater emphasis on inves-tor-facing functions.

Asset managers will also need to analyse how the changing regulatory envi-ronment would affect their businesses and profitability while developing products for new investor needs.

With asset management market getting bigger, more dynamic and more compet-itive than ever, asset man-

agement companies are try-ing to achieve superior fund performance, control oper-ating costs, and manage the risks of new product, ser-vices and markets.

Locally, the situation is not different and commer-cial banks have started building foundation as the asset management industry prepares for testing compli-ance regimes.

The Cooperative Bank group is one such institu-tion, looking to strengthen its fund management divi-sion to sharpen its compet-itive edge in the asset man-agement business.

The institution is seek-ing to fill the position of an investment manager in-charge of alternative assets.Reporting to the Head, the Manager will be responsi-

ble for identifying, analyz-ing and if suitable recom-mending investment opportunities in the alter-native assets space to cli-ents.

The duties and responsi-bilities will be to undertake an in-depth fundamental research on alternative as-sets— Private Equity, Un-quoted stocks, properties and REITS.

He/she would prepare regular reports on alterna-tive assets for presentation at investment committee meetings. The manager will also be required to develop and update models used in valuing unquoted invest-ments, property invest-ments and REITS and main-tain corporate action diary of unquoted companies and REITS.

The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits has edged higher, but a trend reading dropped to its lowest in five years and point-ed to ongoing healing in the labor market.

Initial claims for state un-employment benefits rose 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 336,000, the Labour Depart-ment said on Thursday.

Economists polled by Reu-ters had expected 342,000 first-time applications mid this month. The four-week moving average for new claims, a measure of labour market trends, fell 7,500 to 339,750, the lowest level since February 2008.

That could bode well for job growth in March.

Mid month claims data covered the survey period for the government’s monthly tal-ly of nonfarm jobs. The four-week average of new claims fell 6 percent relative to the survey week in February, when nonfarm payrolls in-creased by 236,000.

Still, while layoffs have ebbed over recent months, companies have been cau-tious about ramping up hiring and the Federal Reserve has appeared worried that belt tightening by the government could dampen progress made in the labour market.

The Fed is pressing for-ward with its aggressive policy stimulus, pointing to still-high unemployment, fiscal headwinds out of Washington and risks from abroad. The Fed action comes despite a rash of recent data showing the economy gathering strength. Retail sales have been stronger than expected.

—Reuters

Jobless claims point to

improving labour market

Openings galore as banks seek to increase investment revenue

more transparent.Principal Secretaries will

serve on contract for a period of five years and salaries and benefits attached to the posi-tions will be determined by the Salaries and Remunera-tion Commission.

Vision 2030To be considered for the

position, applicants must be Kenyans who possess a Bach-elors degree from universities recognised in the country.

Other requirements for the position include a Masters de-gree or higher academic qual-ifications from a university recognised in Kenya, at least 15 years relevant professional experience, five years of which should have been in a leader-ship position or at a top man-

agement level in the Public Service or Private Sector.

Applicants are also re-quired to possess knowledge of the organisation and func-tions of Government, have thorough knowledge of the structural, legislative and reg-ulatory framework of the Pub-lic Service and demonstrate thorough understanding of national goals, policies and developmental objectives in-cluding Vision 2030.

The new Constitution mandates the PSC to recom-mend persons for nomination and appointment as Principal Secretaries by the President.

This is what drove the commission to invite applica-tions from suitably qualified persons to be considered for the positions.

If you are creating a significant number of new jobs, or stuck in finding the right skill set, can’t fill a job, or have a great, new way for Kenyans to find work or employment, please email to address at the top of the page.TEll us

It is a fact that many people have submitted their applications without some requirements like certificate of good conduct or clearance from the Helb

NuMBEr of MINIsTrIEs

22

jobcentre@standardmedia.co.ke

President Kibaki is shown around Kenya Institute of Administration by PSC chair Dr Margaret Kobia (left), accompanied by Public Service minister Dalmas Otieno recently. [PHOTO: TABITHA OTWORI/STANDARD]

Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard Page 13

Page 14 / EDITORIAL Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

There is a very real danger that the outcry against social media outlets, Facebook and Twitter, by senior

State operatives and even journalists might have gone overboard.

Regardless of which side of the political di-vide one is, many Kenyans are rightfully shocked and appalled by some of the com-ments on Facebook and Twitter on the out-come of the General Election.

prove your caseWhat the National Cohesion and Integra-

tion Commission should do is build its cases against alleged hatemongers and charge them in court rather than engage in fear mongering regarding Facebook and Twitter postings. The Bill of Rights in the Constitution extends the same rights of freedom of expression, access to public information and freedom of assem-

bly and association to the Internet, and these must be protected. Because of the ethnic mo-bilization by the two leading political alliances to secure enough votes, the outcome of the election has divided opinion down the middle. Closet tribalists and ethnic bigots have thus spotted an opportunity to spew their venom on social media, poisoning what should be an open debate about the conduct of the Inde-pendent Electoral and Boundaries Commis-sion and its handling of the poll.

Even the media as a collective has not been spared. Many feel that in its effort to avoid its mistakes in 2007, the media became too meek and abdicated its watchdog role during the election and afterwards. It will be interesting to see what independent post-election audits and a final review by the Media Council of Ke-nya will say about these claims, and we should wait for them, But to blame negative ethnicity

purely on social media while leaving out the key perpetrators, namely the politicians, is wrong and likely to open the door for greater intrusion by the Government on freedom of expression.

tool for goodSocial media is only a tool that facilitates

easier communication. Like any other tool, it can be used for malicious purposes. Neverthe-less, the benefits of social media far outweigh the negatives. Facebook and Twitter have democratised media by giving everyone a voice, regardless of their gender or social sta-tus. The current reaction against the two is akin to what happened in Britain in 2011 fol-lowing the London riots.

Twitter and Facebook were accused of fuel-ling the mayhem through the hashtag #lon-donriots and the Facebook page “Let’s Get The

Riots To Liverpool”. However, investigations later revealed that most of the incendiary mes-sages rallying rioters to fresh locations were sent using bulk messaging via Blackberry de-vices. Facebook and Twitter did more to warn people on where to avoid and call for peace than fuel the violence.

Encouraging the Government to go beyond surveillance of social media to issue blanket threats to users not only inhibits free speech, but could lead to outright threats and harass-ment of genuine human rights defenders and increase the insecurity of information stored in digital form.

The expression of an opinion not laced with tribal hatred or other forms of prejudice, or that does not target a community, group of people or individuals is not hate speech. The vast majority of users of Facebook and Twitter abide by the law.

The Standard is printed and published by the proprietors,

The sTandard groupNewsdesk: 3222111 | Fax: 2213108

Email: editorial@standardmedia.co.keGroup Chief Editor: John Bundotich

Managing Editor, Daily Editions: Kipkoech TanuiManaging Editor (P&Q): okech Kendo

Registered at the the GPO as a newspaper.

Blaming Facebook, Twitter for ethnic bigotry not right

WHAT OTHER MEDIA SAY...

For Hillary Clinton, the time may finally be right: No matter what Barack Obama does, he cannot escape the shadow of his former political opponent.

The Big Question: Will Hillary run?Sent away by this president upon his

unlikely victory in 2008 against the Clinton machine and the inevitable first woman president, Hillary is back. Few people, and far fewer women, have attracted so much attention as Hillary Clinton.

She carries the unique burden of being something to everyone: Loved, despised, admired, feared, a role model, a terrifying omen, politician, mother, wife, nemesis, scold, muse. She is a conundrum of one. And she is running for president. Isn’t she?

Israel: Bits, Bytes and Bombs: In reading the news from the wider Middle East and then watching President Obama visiting Israel, the president looked as if he were visiting an atoll in the Pacific, or maybe New Zealand surrounded by roiling seas.

Israel’s ability to live as if it were disconnected from the rest of the region is impressive and necessary. It’s also illusory and dangerous. Israel is the only country in the world that has nonstate actors, armed with missiles, nested among civilians on four out of five of its borders. Yet Israel has managed to jneutralize its enemies and nourish its economy. But there is a fine line between keeping danger out and locking fantasy in, between keeping your people alive and keeping crazy dreams alive. Israel is close to crossing that line.

When pictures of Harambee Stars training in very poor conditions in Nigeria were splashed all over the social media on Thursday there

were faint hopes that Stars wouldn’teven score against the Super Eagles on Saturday.

However, the national team put up a brave fight and on-ly conceded a last minute equaliser as the 2014 World Cup qualifier ended 1-1 in Calabar, Nigeria.

The show by Harambee Stars was, however, not the only bright spot for Kenyan spot at the weekend. While we were wondering how Nigeria could be such poor hosts before a World Cup qualifier the national sevens team were doing what they know best, winning in the Hong Kong leg of the IRB series. Mike Friday’s charges put behind them the saga of mercurial winner Collins Injera who was dropped ahead of the Hong Kong leg. A fourth place finish for the sevens boys after being beaten by tournament favourites New Zea-land in the play-off was not bad result as it puts them in good shape ahead of the next leg in Tokyo.

We hope that as the team heads to Tokyo they will have rectified the small mistakes that saw them lose to Wales in the main cup semi-finals. And while we were still celebrat-ing the 15 IRB points gained by the Kenya sevens team to move to fifth in the IRB rankings, our cross-country team crowned a good sporting weekend for Kenya.The show by Faith Chepngetich in the 6km junior women followed by a stunning fightback by Emily Chebet to outsprint Ethiopia’s Hiwot Ayalew, who had opened a huge gap was heartwarm-ing.

Japheth Korir put the icing on the Kenya’s sports cake by reclaiming the 12km senior men title by beating Ethiopia’s defending champion Imane Merga. We hope this good show by the footballers, rugby players and our athletes, who ran in freezing conditions in Poland, will be a stepping stone for good things to come in future.

We want to bask in their glory and urge them to even do well in the other competitions ahead of them including the World Athletics Championships in Moscow in August.

The French are ‘taught to be gloomy’: France, once famous for its joie de vivre, is suffering from existential gloom according to research by Claudia Senik, a professor at the Paris School of Economics, to be delivered to the Royal Economic Society. The country’s citizens are “taught” to be miserable.

Senick says her country’s education system and its cultural “mentality” make the French far less happy than their wealth and lifestyle suggest they should be. The French are gloomy and the World Health Organisation notes that the suicide rate in France is much higher than in any of the “old European countries”, with the exception of Finland. Suicide is the second biggest cause of mortality among 15-to-44-year-olds after road accidents, and the primary cause among 30-to-39-year-olds.

Athletes cap great sporting weekend

OPINION / Page 15

On Wednesday last week, the United Kingdom House of Commons had a substantive

discussion about the current state of af-fairs in Kenya for over one and-a-half hours.

The discussion, chaired by Peter Bone, a Conservative Party politician and Mem-ber of Parliament for Wellingborough, was not just an ordinary discussion but a critical one as it will largely sharp how the British government will interact with President elect Uhuru if the Supreme Court upholds his win.

The discussion comes amid an intense public debate before the general elections that British government would slap sanc-tions against Kenya if Kenyans would vote in Uhuru as their president and accusa-tions that the British government was co-vertly supporting the cord coalition.

In fact, as noted by Eric Joyce, MP for Falkirk and mover of the motion on Ke-nya, it is these feelings of foreign forces interfering with the Kenyans choice of who to vote for that made some Kenyans solidly back Uhuru’s presidency.

According to him, the election results, if confirmed by the Supreme Court, are a form of strong statement by Kenyans that if they were required to choose between sovereign self-determination and the pa-tronage of foreign powers, they would choose the former.

Kenya and Britain have shared strong relations economically, politically and culturally and unlike before where Kenya appeared just like a dependant of Britain,

dominic ODIPO} U H U R U & R U TO PalaverThis is a beautiful week see-

ing as we have started prayer-fully waving palm fronds. And Pope Francis continues to dominate the headlines with yet another first. Now the fellow who has been living fru-gally and using the train is having the same trouble as President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President-elect William Ruto whose security and means of transport have had a major makeover. The pontiff took the papal car (popemobile) then the helicopter to Castel Gandolfo, where his predeces-sor pope emeritus Benedict XVI lives for a quick lunch. News is, this is the first time in 600 years that a serving pope and a former pope have faced each other. Wow!

And Palaver’s tweet of the week is the one that went to @SomeoneTellNigeria that Kenyans are miles apart from Nigeria with a former President in Mr Daniel Moi, quietly enjoying his retirement, a soon-to-be-retired President Mwai Kibaki who does not like people rega-rega-ring (malingering), a President-elect in Uhuru Kenyatta and even a ce-leb President in CMB Prezzo who almost considered taking some Mogotio goats as dowry to Nige-ria for the hand of his former Big Brother Africa housemate Goldie Harvey a.k.a Susan Oluwabimpe. We demand respect for potential in-laws. Psst!! We also have oil now, Heh! Heh! Heh!

Our friend Mutula Kilonzo could suddenly find himself on the international lecture circuit on the small matter of hemlines. It’s not just Rwathia Girls High School-who had to go on strike to demand that their school allow them to wear miniskirts or the female lawyers whose hemlines just grew longer, courtesy of a hawk-eyed Law Society of Kenya. In fact, Mutula might be needed to save the girls of South Korea from donning long skirts like the “nun habit” that so amused Mutula. This comes after President Park Geun-hye’s first Cabinet meeting decreed that beginning March 22, 2013, any ‘overexposed’ person will pay a fine of $45 (Sh4,000). Could South Korean cops soon be brandishing a a shoulder holster, truncheon and measuring tape?

And finally…We loved this tweet from Kim

Garst, and hope it opens up your eyes too: “There is no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs.”

editorial@standardmedia.co.ke

dann mwangI} Here’s why the British Government needs Kenya

mean? Could each side in this Jubi-lee Alliance be interpreting them differently? Could Ruto be reading and seeing in them confirmation that he is beyond a mere deputy president?

Could he be seeing them as con-firmation that he is effectively Uhu-ru’s co-president, especially as it has already been agreed that he will per-sonally appoint at least half of the 22 new Cabinet Secretaries?

ONE LONG TRIPFinally, there are two very omi-

nous dates looming for the Jubilee Alliance. The first of these dates is May 28, 2013, which will be a Tues-day. If the International Criminal Court (ICC) does not change its goal posts again, then Ruto’s case at The Hague will start on that Tuesday in May, only about two months away.

If the Supreme Court will by then have confirmed Uhuru as President and Ruto as Deputy Pres-ident, will Uhuru allow or encour-age Ruto to travel to The Hague knowing very well that he might not be allowed to return to Kenya for a very long time?

The second ominous date for Ju-bilee will be July 9, 2013, another Tuesday, when Uhuru himself will be required at the Hague. Exciting times, these, wouldn’t you say?

The writer is a lecturer and consultant in Nairobi.

dominicodipo@yahoo.co.uk

When American Presi-dent Barack Obama appears in the same

picture with his Vice President, Joe Biden, there is usually no doubt in the mind of the informed observer about the matter of who is the boss and who is the assistant.

The body language of the two men speaks volumes. Students of group dynamics easily notice that there are certain distance codes which are not broken. They notice that the eyes of the deputy ordinar-ily lock onto the leader, especially if the leader happens to be speaking.

They notice that the deputy takes greater care of the movement of his limbs than his leader.

For example, whereas the leader can generally do whatever he likes with his legs, including swinging one onto the other, the deputy or as-sistant is much more restrained in this regard.

Some of us have been watching Mr Uhuru Kenyatta and Mr William Ruto very closely whenever they have appeared together on televi-sion or in the print media.

Looking at these pictures through the eye of a group dynam-ics student, there are one or two things that we have noticed which could later explode into national significance with the concomitant national political repercussions.

But, as one could easily say in mitigation, it is early days yet.

There are certain messages

which one’s body language passes that are very difficult to mistake. If I am sitting in a room with a person whom I consider to be my equal, my body language will say so, no mat-ter what I actually say or do.

If I am sitting (or standing) in the same room with a person whom I consider to be my superior, again, my body language will tell the whole story. The point is that body lan-guage when taken in whole, rarely passes conflicting messages.

If you have not been watching Uhuru and Ruto together as critical-ly and closely as some of us have been doing, try doing so henceforth and you will probably begin to see where all this is going.

fIRE THE dEPUTyWhat, anyway, is the main differ-

ence between a vice president and a deputy president? What will a dep-uty president of Kenya be able to do that a vice president under the old Constitution could not have been able to do?

We all know that, under the new Constitution, the President will not be able to fire his deputy merely for not standing up when he (the Pres-ident) walks into a room.

That, however, is not the whole story. Consider the question more proactively. If the deputy president disagrees very fundamentally with his boss, just how far off to the pe-riphery of the governance and po-litical process will the President be

able to push him? Where, in effect, will the elastic limit of their political relationship lie?

Which then brings us to the oth-er, rather closely related concept of a Kenyan co-presidency.

Could it be possible that, even though the Constitution very clear-ly defines the offices of president and deputy president, what our po-litical system might be producing is actually a co-presidency in which none of the two principals is actu-ally superior to the other?

Consider just some of the perti-nent political and electoral facts that now underlie and inform the Jubilee Alliance.

The total number of parliamen-tary seats that the TNA or Uhuru’s side of the Alliance won nationally was 71, against the URP or Ruto’s share of 63. In other words, Uhuru won only eight more parliamentary seats than Ruto across the whole country.

If you take the governors’ tally, the balance swings totally in favour of Ruto whose URP won a total of 10 gubernatorial seats against only eight for Uhuru’s TNA.

In the Senate sweepstakes, TNA won 11 seats, only two more than Ruto’s URP which won nine seats. And in terms of the actual national vote, both Uhuru and Ruto brought a modal average of more than 90 per cent of their traditional voters to Ju-bilee’s national basket.

What, then do these figures

“Is it pos-sible that,

even though the Consti-

tution clear-ly defines the offices

of president and depu-

ty, what our political sys-tem might be produc-ing is actu-ally a co-

presidency in which

none of the two princi-

pals is actu-ally superior to the oth-

er?”

Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

the ground has tilted as elaborated by the discussants in this parliamentary session.

The relation between Kenya and Britain is now symbiotic not parasitic. The strategic position and signifi-cance of Kenya towards the British government and people’s interests cannot be wished away. As noted by Eric Joyce, “‘British government needs to recognize that Kenya is far too im-portant to be treated as if it were a mi-nor and strategically unimportant state”.

mILITaRy OPERaTIONsThe strategic interests that Kenya

has towards Britain are many and in-dispensable as discussed.

The Kenya Defence Forces defeat of the Al Shabaab and securing Mog-adishu is credited for helping to re-store sanity in Somalia.

With a Somalia country that is on a road to recovery, we now have Brit-ish private equity investors who are interested in investing in Mogadishu. In fact, this interest by the British to invest in Mogadishu is more that of Kenyans who have largely stabilised Somalia.

Moreover, the Kenyan govern-ment support in fighting internation-al terrorism in the sea lines did not go unnoticed in this debate.

Further, over 10,000 British sol-diers also access unrivalled training facilities in Laikipia Kenya, and this

has helped them while launching their military operations in nations like Afghanistan.

The support of Kenya with these facilities is credited for British army ability to mount operation while de-fending Falkland Islands 30 years ago.

In addition, as discussed by Alistair Burt, the parliamentary under-secre-tary of state for foreign and common-wealth affairs, the United Kingdom is the largest commercial investor in Ke-nya and home to half of the top 10 tax-paying companies in Kenya.

Obviously, when British compa-nies make profits in Kenya, it’s a win for both Kenya and Britain.

Kenya wins because these compa-nies pay taxes and create jobs and for Britain, the remitted profits are used to build their country.

Unlike what the local and interna-tional doomsayers have been ped-dling, the House of Commons do not see any need to sanction Kenya or even isolate Mr Uhuru Kenyatta if he is confirmed the President by the Su-preme Court.

They actually want British govern-ment to co-operate with Kenyatta even more despite him facing charges at the International Criminal Court.

They see great economic opportu-nities in Kenya, as stated by Jim Shan-non and are afraid that British gov-ernment and people will lose out these opportunities to the Chinese.

In fact, Jim Shannon is concerned that despite British people having construction skills, it’s the Chinese who are doing massive road con-struction in Kenya. He actually states, “We should be doing that sort of con-struction work in Kenya. No disre-spect to the Chinese, but why are we not there?”

PREsIdENT-ELEcTDespite doing business in Kenya,

they also do not want to lose influ-ence in any part of Africa and partic-ularly in Kenya towards the Chinese.

In a nutshell, the House of Com-mons would want their government to work closely with Mr Kenyatta and their share the same view with, New York Times, the most influential news-paper in the United States which stat-ed earlier that the US and Europe should “work with” a government in Kenya headed by President-elect Uh-uru Kenyatta.

Nevertheless, Alistair Burt was cat-egorical that the United Kingdom will not reduce its co-operation with Ke-nya even if Mr Kenyatta is confirmed the President and strongly rebutted claims that the UK has threatened sanctions against Kenya before.

Actually, Burt agrees with Eric Joyce that a more secure Kenya means a more secured United Kingdom.

The writer is a Lawyer and Regional Di-rector, CPS International.

Who holds the yam, and who holds the knife?

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Betty Kyalo’s story: I have always known you to be a strong lady, and now I know better where that strength comes from. God bless you girl and may you live to see all your dreams come true. Edwin

Treasury swayed by Uhuru’s ambitious economic goodies: Let us not fail to be realistic because of cake promises. How many Kenyans can afford to eat a cake? Let us face the reality by differentiating a political manifesto and a realistic manifesto. Bernard

More on Betty Kyalo: Betty you are a living testimony. May Our Lord give you enormous favour girl. You are great. Anne

Harambee Stars hold Nigeria: @SomeoneTellNigeria....Now you know where Kenya is on the map....Way to go coach you started your reign with baptism of fi re and you overcame it. Good things are yet to come. Kijanacrnk

Post-poll deal with Uhuru splits Musalia, Eugene: Well, it is very clear from the story that after Eugene realised that Mudavadi lost with a bigger margin, he has decided every man for himself and is standing to gain by joining the ranks of Jubilee Alliance. Akama

Criminal kills two CID offi cers: The public have an obligation to inform the relevant authorities about the whereabouts of a wanted criminal. It is a criminal offence to withhold information that might help the police in apprehending such persons. Michael

Kenya achieves higher diplomatic status: One of Kenyatta’s greatest achievements was to bring Unep to Kenya. One of Kibaki’s greatest achievements is to have Unep elevated to UNEA. Well done Kenya and Kibaki! The only Third World country to home UN Agency is Kenya! KP

Chinua Achebe is dead: Prof Achebe was a man of the people. His literary works were conspicuous in literary circles like the anthills of savannah. Those who read them would liken them to arrow of God because of the indelible impact they had on their study of literature. Now that he is dead, his readers are no longer at ease. The centre of his creative works cannot hold. Surely, things have fallen apart. Vinkham

Hats off, Harambee Stars, for most superb performance

We salute our national football team, Harambee Stars, for the bril-liant and fantastic performance in their match against Nigeria, the current African champions, in the 2014 World Cup qualifying rounds. By drawing 1-1 against Nigeria, one of Africa’s soccer giants, our glam-our boys have made us absolutely proud and proved wrong all pessi-mists who had prophesied that Stars would be massacred in Nige-ria.

It’s painful to note that Stars were just seconds away from secur-ing a landmark and historic victory on Nigerian soil, which could have been the biggest upset for the Afri-can champions.

This could have been a sweet victory that could have silenced, once and for all, the proud Nigeri-ans who had belittled our players and more annoying, mistreated them by denying them training fa-cilities.

As we celebrate the Stars’ mag-nifi cent performance, we should not forget the cruel and inhumane manner our heroes were treated in Lagos. This is an urgent matter that

should not be swept under the car-pet by the Government and our soccer authorities.

Nigeria must consider them-selves lucky to force a draw in a match that they did not deserve any point at all.

We should teach the Nigerians a bitter soccer lesson, during the re-turn match here in Nairobi, that would bring them down to earth and remind them that they are not the only men who know how to play football in the African conti-nent.

Once again, we say a big thank you to our heroes for bringing im-mense joy to the country. Such magnifi cent performances, tempo-rarily make us forget our crises and even political differences.

{Enock Onsando, Mombasa}

Efforts by Football Kenya Feder-ation (FKF) to improve football are slowly beginning to yield fruit.

Our National team, Harambee Stars, is back after many years of registering poor results. Kenya drew 1-1 with continental champions

and giants the Super Eagles of Ni-geria in a 2014 World Cup qualifi ca-tion match, beat Libya 3-0 in an In-ternational friendly away in Tunisia, and reached the fi nals of the Con-federation of East and Central Afri-ca Cup in Uganda late last year.

The Stars have started winning games away from home, which is encouraging. Local league sides that are participating in continen-tal championships this year have also shown a marked improvement in their performances by winning their preliminary stage matches comfortably.

The Kenya Premier league is currently considered as one of the most lucrative leagues in East and Central Africa region and this has contributed to the improved stan-dards of football in the country. Fans have started streaming back to stadiums to watch local matches while local clubs are getting shirt sponsorships from corporates.

All indication are that the stan-dards of soccer will improve further and Harambee Stars will become a force to reckon with.

{James Okong’o, Nairobi}

Page 16 / READERS’ DIALOGUE Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

Resettle Mau Forest evictees nowThe outgoing Government un-

der President Mwai Kibaki has done a great job resettling internal-ly displaced people and other Ke-nyans who were evicted from Mau Forest some time back.

However, the return of a group of about 200 settlers evicted from Maasai Mau Forest last year shows that there still much to be done. The group returned to the water tower citing delayed resettlement by goverment. These people have a right to live a decent life just like the rest of Kenyans.

In the same vein, there is need

to preserve our water towers. What should be done? The Gov-

erment must move with speed and look for any idle land and resettle these needy Kenyans.

But even as the Government does so, Kenyans should stop the disgusting habit of resisting reset-tlement of the landless in their ar-eas, fuelled by fears that such a move would affect “normal voting direction”.

It is high time we come to our senses and realise these are fellow Kenyans — our brothers and sis-ters.

It is shameful and unacceptable to see Kenyans who toil day and night to make our economy pros-per living as squatters in their motherland.

The incoming Goverment should continue from where the outgoing goverment left and en-sure that by the end of its fi ve-year term, landlessness would be no more in Kenya. Besides demarcat-ing idle land and giving it to the needy, the Government should al-so build houses which Kenyans can rent at low cost.

{Nehemia N Ng’ang’a, Maseno}

How to write us: Letters should be addressed to: The Editor, Letters, P O Box 30080, Nairobi, Kenya or e-mail letters@standardmedia.co.ke The views expressed on this page are not those of The Standard. The Editor reserves the right to edit the letters. Correspondents should give their names and

address as a sign of good faith, though not necessarily for publication.www.standardmedia.co.ke

YOUR SAY

FeedbackAchebe death big blow to literary world

Literature giant Chinua Achebe will remain in the hearts and minds of literature lovers not only in Africa, but across the world.

His death as many would say, was untimely. Despite his old age, many would have wished that he stays around to

act as a source of inspiration. He was a very intelligent

person in the world of literature. His work which comprise novels, short stories and poems will forever rank among the best.

He had an active mind that always produced something that captured the minds of read-ers, captivating them with the variety of styles he used.

He will be remembered as an author who wrote during colo-nialism and after colonialism. His books not only covered his

homeland Nigeria, but also the world at large.

He also participated in liber-ation of Nigerians from the jaws of colonialism through his time-less novel, Things Fall Apart.

Achebe, just like Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’o has gone through hell but has emerged successful. He under-went colonial mistreatment and threats. This never weakened his aspiration to produce more work. No wonder, Achebe’s death is a big blow to the fi eld of

{David Mwaura, Maseno university}

Lesuuda good choice for Senate

Stars deserved better reception

On Wednesday, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commis-sion published, in the Kenya gazette, the names of political parties’ nomi-nees to the National Assembly and the Senate.

Members of the media fraternity and the Samburu community were overjoyed after learning that Naisula Lesuuda was one of the nominees to the Senate. She was the fi rst person in the TNA list of nominees.

Lesuuda being a journalist and having been brought up in a com-munity considered as a minority is best placed to address the plight of the suffering.

Being a journalist, I know she is in a good position to address the needs of those she has interacted with in the course of duty. She has had en-counters with the sexually abused, those suffering from hunger and even those who have suffered from retrogressive cultural practices like female genital mutilation.

Lesuuda is also well placed to ad-dress the needs of the minority com-munities.

{David Njihia, Kisii University}

Kenya is known for its hospitality when it comes to accommodating in-ternational teams. Sadly, this is not the case for Nigeria. It was very un-fortunate that our team could not get a good training ground in Nigeria.

Ajai Primary School in Oshodi wasn’t good enough. Does it mean that there are no stadiums in Nigeria or was it a case of intimidation? In ad-dition, the Stars was accommodated in a two-star hotel, against CAF/Fifa regulations. This was unfair and I hope it’ll never happen in future.

{Meshack Kitema, Maseno}

Immortal lessons from great writers

Lovers of literature received the news of the death of one of Africa’s greatest literary icons, Chinua Achebe with great sorrow.

Matters were made worse by the fact that recently, we lost another lit-erary great, Prof Francis Imbuga.

The two are well known in Kenya where their books have been peren-nial set-books in secondary schools. And although they have physically departed, their legacy will live for ev-er. Interestingly, even politicians whom the duo criticised heavily, were full of praise for them, meaning that their lessons have been learnt by all. Our hope is that their writings will not only inspire new writers but that their teachings will be immorta-lised in our hearts

{Job momanyi, Nairobi}

ENTERTAINMENT: GOSSIP/ Page 17Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

Shaffie: Susan not my lover

Celebrity radio presenter Shaff-ie Weru has refuted rumours that he could be dating one-night-fame Susan, her of much-hyped and watched Tujuane Show. The two at-tended a night event together last weekend sparking speculation they could be an item.

Talking to toMondayBlues yesterday, Shaffie said he and Susan are old friends and their pairing to-gether during the Nairobi hosted gig had nothing to do with love.

The two arrived at the Ngong Race Course-hosted event together and were under heavy security all night with bodyguards keeping vig-il over them as journalists were kept at bay. “I knew Susan long before she was featured in the Tujuane Show. She has been my friend for years and our friendship has noth-ing to do with her current fame. We are not dating. We are just friends and people should put those spec-ulations to a stop,” Shaffie told Mon-dayBlues.

“It is such a big joke for anyone to say we are dating. That vibe is not flowing,” Shaffie added.

GOSSIP OF THE WEEK

Kenzo: I no longer hit the bottle

Celebrated Ogopa Deejays singer Kenzo has quit drinking, an indulgence he says was affecting his music career.

“I know that most of my fans did not know that I tried to hit the bottle for some while but I am now off alcohol. Drinking was affecting my career,” Kenzo told MondayBlues on Friday.

“My voice was getting hoarse and my concentration was going down,” he added.

Nonini in studio launch

Genge godfather Nonini was among celebrities who attended the launch of the new Hornets Studio, a new Mombasa stable belonging to a foreign investor and singer commonly known as Mama Sizo. The studio was launched during a ceremony in Mtwapa, Kilifi, on Saturday night also attended by local politi-cians.

“This is a good move and a step in enhancing local music talent in the Coast. Mombasa artistes should now take advantage of the facility and produce quality music that can compete well in the market,” Nonini said.

The singer produced the first track in the studio during the launch attended by among others Ally B, DJ Delph, Hassan Faisal, Kidis and producer Toti.

Zuku Hype is back

The regional reality TV show Zuku Hype is back. The showbiz event that showcases the best clubs in the region with top deejays battling on the decks will host the first event of Season Two on Sunday in Mombasa. Besides Nijjo who has been the face of the show since its inception mid last year, the organisers have recruited a new member in the hype team, who will be unveiled on Sunday.

STEVENS MUENDO} M O N DAY B LU E SThe official showbiz and gossip column • Get It here hot and first.All correspondence may be sent to mblues@standardmedia.co.ke

Kenyan international soccer ace MacDolnald Mariga is said to have parted ways with his fiancée. According to sources, the couple, whose relationship has been in the public eye since Mariga’s family vis-ited the girl’s Rwanda home for marriage negotia-tions sometime back, parted ways two months ago. The girl, a former Daystar University student has since returned to her homeland.

An informer told MondayBlues she had differenc-es with Mariga’s family, a thing that could have stirred the separation. Our sources have it that the woman was thrown out of Mariga’s uptown house by people who are believed to be the footballer’s rela-tives. She gathered her belongings and left the coun-try after the drama witnessed by neighbours.

The two have been an item for over three years and many people expected the couple to tie the knot this year. Unconfirmed news have it that Mariga could be warming up to another lover.

Mariga fiancée drama

The Dunda na Uhuru peace ral-lies that attracted top celebrities across the country during the just ended political campaigns will go on, Machel Waikenda, a former en-tertainer now working for the Jubi-lee coalition told MondayBlues on Saturday.

“Beyond politics, ours was a call to unite the youth across the coun-try in preaching peace. Campaigns could be over but we all still need to preach peaceful coexistence regard-less our political affiliations,” Waik-enda said, adding that Dunda, argu-ably the most successful peace campaign that directly involved ce-lebrities and the youth at large

should be a lifestyle.“The celebrities who were par-

ticipating in the rallies were doing so on volunteer bases and they are willing to keep preaching peace across the country even after the politicking season comes to an end. Peace talk is a process we must con-tinue propagating until all Kenyans learn to coexist together regardless their ethnic, political and religious differences,” said the former Kenya Airways pilot.

Among the celebrities who took a key role in the Dunda na Uhuru campaigns was Big Ted, Jaguar, Ringtone, DNG, Ally B, Nyota Ndo-go, Abass, Bamboo and Chiwawa

among others.Meanwhile, Ringtone, who was

on the frontline of the Jubilee cam-paign celebrity team has hinted that he could be nominated in one of the youth-related posts during the aligning of the next government.

“I am so available for nomina-tion, would the Jubilee party leaders find me relevant to hold any of the posts in youth related sectors. As a singer, I have been a role model to many and I am ready to take over a leadership as I have youth issues at heart,” Ringtone intimated toMon-dayBlues in an exclusive interview.

Machel: We will go on with peace ralliesMachel: We

will go on with peace rallies

Minister in court battle with airhostess

A politician who confessed to MondayBlues having fathered a child with a former beauty queen, now working with a leading airline is back in court after the two failed to agree over child cus-tody.

The air hostess went back to court last week, almost a year after the politician, a minister got off the hook after the two agreed to settle the child custody issue out of court following a case filled by the hostess.

The woman claims the politician, a married man, has ne-glected responsibilities of taking care of the child who is now nine years old.

Since the case went to court, the politician has tried to keep the matter off the media for fear of being exposed.

Keep it here as the drama unfolds.

Page 18 / NATIONAL NEWS

500 marks at Mapunga Primary. The 15-year-old Said was the only

candidate from the region selected to join Alliance High School, but were it not for the school principal David Kariuki’s intervention, his chance was going to a boy from a well up family.

When The Standard met the boy last week, he had just been admitted to the school. He was the last boy to report. He said his father could not raise the fees.

Sources familiar with his story in-dicated ‘someone’ tried to take up the boy’s place at Alliance, but Mr Kariuki declined.

‘Overwhelmed’ parent“I insisted that I want my boy and

I contacted the DEO and we managed to have him,” said Kariuki.

The school provided Said with school uniform and writing material but one thing was missing — fees.

“We are still looking for a sponsor, but in the meantime, we shall keep him in school because he deserves to be here,” said Kariuki.

In a close interaction, the boy re-vealed how he had dreamt to study at Alliance since Class Five. “I feel I am where I belong,” he said, with a slight grin.

However, Onesmus’ story, who was to join Nairobi School, is more telling. He, who hopes to be a doctor, said he had resigned to settle for less after his father, Mwova Mutunga, was ‘overwhelmed’.

Mutunga says he couldn’t raise the fees for a national school because he has another child at Multimedia Uni-versity, another just scored an A- (mi-nus) in last year’s KCSE and is set to join the university and another will be sitting KCPE this year.

However, he describes it as big relief when Kenya National Associa-tion of Parents boss Musau Ndunda asked the primary school head teach-er to request parents who had na-

Principals turn away ‘illegal candidates’ presented to replace others from poor family backgrounds

‘Dirty game’ that almost locked

‘poor boys’ out of national schools

Onesmus Makau (left) at Nairobi School and Salim Bajila Said after admission at Alliance High School. BELOW: Nairobi School deputy principal Andrew Obanga displays the forged admission letter that would have denied Onesmus oppor-tunity at the institution. [PHOTOS: BEVERLYNE MUSILI/STANDARD]

Education minister Mutula Kilonzo says all children are entitled to their right to education, which the Form One selection criterion granted. [PHOTO: FILE]

By aUGUStIne OdUOr

Slightly more than 16,000 candi-dates who sat last year’s KCPE were expected to join national schools this year. There are 78 national schools.

While of the 811,930 candidates who sat the exams last year, 628,051 were selected to join various public secondary schools in an exercise that saw close to 200,000 others miss places. This translated to a transition rate of about 76.7 per cent.

And for national schools, top four candidates in every district, two boys and two girls, were selected for ad-mission bringing the total number

to this category to 1,148 candidates. Selection of the remaining 15,017 candidates to complete the available capacity in national schools was based on equity and district quota.

Education PS George Godia said with the revised formula of Form One admission, national schools will no longer be a preserve of the top national performers only.

SchOOlS Of chOIceHe said all the national school

must reflect the face of Kenya and noted that all candidates must re-port to their schools of choice.

Candidates were expected to re-port between February 18 and 25.

About 600 candidates were se-lected to join the 20 national special schools. Another 36,115 were se-lected to join extra-county schools and 126,167 enrolled to county schools.

The biggest number of candi-dates, 389,300 candidates represent-ing 61.2 per cent of the total candi-dature, was however selected for admission to district schools.

Education minister Mutula Kilo-nzo termed the process a ‘fair criteria’ that will ensure all candidates irre-spective of whether they sat the ex-ams from public or private schools.

He said this year’s selection and admission of Form One students was

Minister Mutula describes admission

By aUGUStIne OdUOr

The humility in them appeals to your emotions. From their look, they are innocent, respectful and hard-working young boys whose hopes for a brighter future is unmistakable.

One is from semi-arid Kitui Coun-ty and the other from the conflict-ridden Tana Delta and by all means deserve a reward for their hard work in primary education level.

Yet some people are believed to have colluded to deny the two their only prize for defying all odds to post good results in last year’s KCPE — ad-mission to national schools of their choice.

However, their story is a glimpse of how hundreds of bright candidates may have been ‘forced’ to surrender their places in national schools, through what many call fraud.

Onesmus Frank Makau, who sat his KCPE at Kakuuni Primary in Kitui County, scored 370 out of 500 marks to emerge tops in his school. He was selected to join Nairobi School. And Salim Bajila Said also worked hard amid the heightened tensions in his Tana River County to score 369 out of

I insisted that I want my boy and I contacted the DEO and we managed to have him

tional school calling letters to surren-der them in return for “sponsorship”.

“I gave the head teacher the Nai-robi School calling letter and I was given a cheque of Sh8,000 paid to Kisasi Secondary School,” he said.

The Standard is in possession of the cheque (No. 000661) drawn by KNAP (account No. 2060209900) with a local bank.

Nairobi School deputy principal Andrew Obanga said last week, he turned away another candidate who presented the original calling letter of Onesmus. He said the letter had been doctored and details re-printed.

“The boy’s name had been crossed and another written on it. It looked suspicious because whoever can-celled the name did not sign against it,” he said.

help ‘cUt cOStS’Obanga said also raising eyebrows

was the fact that the boy to be swapped with was from Hospital Hill High School and not Kisasi Secondary where Onesmus had already been admitted.

The letter was accompanied by another from the Ministry of Educa-tion indicating Ndunda and the par-ent were in agreement to swap places to ‘cut down on transport and other costs’.

Obanga said he declined to admit the boy and instead contacted the DEO and the quality assurance office who traced down Onesmus, who was admitted to Nairobi School on Mon-day, last week.

Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

But Ndunda was not done yet. He threatened to sue Nairobi School principal for declining to admit the other boy.

Through his lawyer Wanjohi Gachie and Co Advocates based at Nacico Plaza next to his office, Nd-unda said the principal was violating Chapter Four 53(1) of the Constitu-tion and Section 34 (1) of the Basic Education Act.

mUtUla ShOcked!“Failure for which (admission of

the other boy) we shall move to court for necessary orders at your own cost and other incidents there in,” read the demand letter.

This is now subject to investiga-tion by the ministry, but questions are now being asked whether Ndunda was right to take the boy’s calling let-ter on ground he could not afford the fees.

Education minister Mutula Kilon-zo has already distanced himself from the act and expressed shock at the turn of events. “It is wrong to deny a child a chance in national school just because they cannot afford the fees.”

Education PS George Godia said no school principal is allowed to send away a child because of school fees. He also said all school principals are under instructions to admit all chil-dren.

NATIONAL NEWS / Page 19Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

Stakeholders want ministry to audit

Form One selectionOfficials of teachers’ unions want ‘rot’ uncovered and culprits forced to take responsibility

By AUGUSTINE ODUOR

Pressure is mounting on the Government to audit Form One admission exercise to es-tablish if all the candidates got places in schools they were selected to join.

This is after revelations some bright candidates from poor families may have sur-rendered prime positions in national schools to unscrupu-lous middlemen out to rake in cash from the children’s vul-nerability.

It also comes after two na-tional schools — Alliance and Nairobi — intervened and turned away candidates ad-mitted to their schools illegally to take up slots for students from poor backgrounds (see story page 18).

Kenya Secondary School Heads Association, the two teachers’ unions and the Elimu Yetu Coalition have asked Edu-cation minister Mutula Kilonzo and his PS George Godia to institute thorough investiga-tions claiming massive fraud in the entire admission exercise.

ENTITlEmENTIn a letter to Godia, EYC

says the right to education as guaranteed by the Constitu-tion must be upheld.

“And violation of it as per-petuated by certain individuals who had access to the admis-sion process thus denying the less fortunate to enjoy their entitlements to learn in certain

cise. “If the allegations some parents are colluding to deny other children chances are true then it would be a criminal of-fence,” said Knut Nairobi branch executive secretary, Hesbon Otieno.

He said parents should be responsible enough to care about the plight of children and warned against any at-tempt to swap places with a view of minting cash.

mINISTRy’S AcT Kuppet national chairman

Omboko Milemba put the ministry on the spot for abet-ting the fraud. “It is wrong for anybody to use his or her posi-tion to frustrate efforts in edu-cation sector.”

Prof Godia told The Stan-dard all national school princi-pals have been instructed to submit their returns indicating who reported and who did not.

“We shall be making the report public soon,” he said.

public institutions is improp-er,” reads the letter.

The EYC national coordina-tor Janet Ouko asked the PS to “audit with an aim to trace those who did not report to the schools they were merited”.

WRONG hElp “Any perpetrator of the

malpractice must be brought to book,” she said.

Kessha outgoing national chairman Cleopas Tirop said hundreds of students may have lost their places to ‘illegal deals’ under the pretext of cost and distance.

He said the association has received reports of imperson-ation, bribery and collusion and asked the ministry to move with speed to arrest the trend.

“It is bad to deny a child his dream just because you are in a position to influence his or her destiny the wrong way,” he said.

Knut has also asked the ministry to re-look the exer-

Education PS Prof George Godia says national school principals are under instruction to file returns on who reported and who didn’t after Form One selection. [PHOTO: FILE]

‘unique’ as it is done under a new legal regime and asked schools not to hike fees.

He warned parents to be wary of fraudsters out to mint money by promising to cause admission for their children to public schools.

“The selection process is transparent based on merit, school preference and equity and, therefore, be wary of fraudsters out to rake in mil-lions from the placement ex-ercise,” he said.

Godia asked principals to ensure all candidates were admitted as he released ad-

mission timelines under which the entire process should be completed.

Selection to extra-county schools and county schools was to be conducted between February 7 and 8. District schools were to conduct their selection on February 11.

DEmAND fOR AcTIONParents were asked to keep

off Jogoo House, as no replace-ment was to take place there other than for national schools.

Godia said parents wish-ing to change schools to talk

directly to school principals and not through proxies or agents or even middlemen.

“Principals have guide-lines on that and parents are advised to talk directly to the schools,” he said.

Replacement for national schools took place at Jogoo House in March 7 while re-placement for extra-county, county and district schools was done in March 11 and 13, respectively.

Principals of national schools were expected to make returns after the admis-sion process by March 18.

to secondary schools as fairer

Monday, March 25, 2013 / The StandardPage 20 / NATIONAL NEWS

By Edwin ChEsErEk

Women continued to be sidelined in politics as their male counterparts swept most of the County Assembly Speakers’ seats.

Few women managed to secure posts in the County Assembly Speaker polls that were conducted last Friday across the country.

“This is purely cultural. It has nothing to do with integrity and the intellectual capacity of women,” of-fers Rehema Korir, United Republican Party secretary general.

Ms Korir pointed out that women did not secure substantial seats be-cause of the mindset of the electorate. Concerns are now being raised whether the society is ready for wom-en leadership in the near future.

In the March 4 elections, women were the biggest losers after they failed to secure some of the key po-litical posts despite mounting spirited campaigns.

They were relegated to county women representatives and few MP slots, as the more appealing governor and senate positions remained a pre-

Women play second fiddle to menFew manage to secure posts in the County Assembly Speaker polls despite gains in new Constitution

The Nyeri County Assembly during the swearing in ceremony on Friday. [PHO-TO: JOHN GATHUA/STANDARD]

serve of their male counterparts.One of the ongoing debates in

Kenya today is centred on the realisa-tion of the “not more than 2/3rd gen-der rule” set out in the Constitution.

The rule requires that not more than two-thirds of elective seats be held by leaders of the same gender.

However, women continued to lose as voter dynamics in all the elec-tive positions tilted towards the men despite gender empowerment gains enshrined in the Constitution.

Equal opportunityOnly about 15 stand elected as

MPs in the current dispensation with no single representation in the senate and gubernatorial positions.

This means that only 14 women currently stand elected as MPs out of the 384 elective positions that were available for grabs to either gender.

The population of men to women was 19,192,458 to19,417,639, accord-ing to the 2009 population census presenting a ratio of nearly 1:1. This means women have equal opportu-nity to ascend to elective positions and the capacity to elect their own.

“But they simply lack interest in their own and matters concerning them and would vote for male aspi-rants instead,” said political analyst and Moi University don, Masibo Lu-mala.

Their numbers present a drop by eight from 22 that served in the 10th Parliament despite the significant increase of the number of elective seats by 160 from 224 to 384 slots.

By BoniFaCE Gikandi

Campaigns for various executive seats have kicked off in earnest in Murang’a County.

Ambitious professionals have de-clared interest in the seats and are lobbying County Assembly Represen-tatives, who will be crucial in deciding who will be engaged.

The seat of the county finance and planning officer, which is considered highly competitive due to the nature of the responsibilities attached to it, has attracted a professional accoun-tant, Humphrey Maina.

Mr Maina, who hails from Ma-thioya, holds an accountant and man-agement position in public office and is the frontrunner after being backed by majority of the County Assembly members.

At the same time, the County As-sembly Speaker Leonard Nduati Kari-uki has assured the electorate in Murang’a to expect better services, saying elected officials were equal to the task.

Addressing the 35 County Assem-bly members, Mr Nduati said he was committed towards addressing issues pertaining to health, agriculture, edu-cation and environment, which have been identified as issues affecting the residents.

Professionals lobby for

various seats

By Edwin ChEsErEk

County governments have an opportunity to put their counties on the right footing of devel-opment by giving priority to the agriculture sec-tor.

Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) Managing Director Lucas Meso expressed the need to prioritise agriculture to set the pace for economic take off of the devolved govern-ments.

He said the sector, which employs a majority of households in rural areas, has a multiplier effect on all other sectors.

With declining agricultural productivity be-ing linked to poor farm husbandry practices, Mr Meso said farmers should be urgently facilitated to address these challenges through adequate financing.

He said his corporation has set in motion programmes to empower farmers in each of the 47 counties to end food insecurity, generate wealth, reduce poverty and create jobs for the youth.

“Our presence at the county level is impor-tant in making sure that farmers can easily ac-cess affordable loans to undertake their agricul-tural activities. We, therefore, look forward to working closely with the county governments in attending to the needs of farmers,” he said.

Meso was speaking at the weekend during this year’s farmers’ forum held in Iten Town and graced by the Governor-elect, Eng Alex Tolgos.

valuE ChainMeso said the State agency will focus on the

entire agricultural value chain to ensure farmers earn maximum returns from their farming en-terprises.

“The focus for each county is to be self-suf-ficient as possible. This is only possible if cottage industries are established to process and add

value to the agricultural produce in each area,” he said.

Noting that the county is an established pro-ducer of cereals, dairy, beef and horticultural crops, he said there exists potential to further increase productivity and add value.

look to proCEssinG“It is indeed expensive for farmers to trans-

port their produce to Nairobi, milled and brought back to Iten shops. It has to be done locally for it to benefit locals,” he explained.

Meso advised farmers to look beyond pri-mary production to processing if they are to realise full benefits of farming in the near fu-ture.

He said AFC has enough money to lend to farmers who have embraced the idea of farming as a business so long they fulfill their loan repay-ment agreement.

He said the corporation lends upwards of Sh1 billion to farmers in the North Rift.

AFC advises county governments to prioritise agriculture for development

Importance of sector• AFC boss says sector, which employs a majority of households in rural areas, has a multiplier effect on all other sec-tors• He advised farmers to look beyond primary production to processing if they are to realise full benefits of farm-ing• With declining agricultural productiv-ity being linked to poor farm husbandy practices, Meso said farmers should be urgently facilitated to address these challenges through adequate financing

dEvolution

BOMB BLAST NATIONAL NEWS /Page 21

By SAMMY JAKAAand ERIC LUNGAI

As County Ward Representatives took oath of office on Friday, majority of them still do not have an idea of their roles in the new dispensation.

Unlike former councillors whose duties were to oversee operations of their local authorities, county assem-bly roles under the current Constitu-tion are to make laws for the county.

According to County Representa-tives in Busia County, most of them were not aware of what is expected of them in the County Assembly. They said it would be a big challenge for most of the county assembly mem-bers to fully understand their duties and operations of the assembly.

Moses Ote, a county representa-tive of Ang’urai South Ward, said a serious induction on how the assem-bly works and its standing orders was needed to make them fully aware of what was expected of them.

He added that short courses for the members of county assembly would enhance understanding, add-ing that information that is already

County Reps ‘don’t know roles’Most members have no idea how the devolved governments will operate and now call for induction

available was limited.“There is need for serious induc-

tion for members to understand how the county assembly works. It is clear that most members have no idea of how the county assembly will operate because the information that is cur-rently available is very limited,” said Mr Ote.

Observers argue that since most members of the county assembly in Busia County were former councillors used to chaotic council meetings, it would be a challenge for them to ad-just.

Maurice Chetambe of Ang’urai North Ward said the roles of the county commissioners also needed to be stipulated to avoid rifts between them and the governor.

BIG CoNfUSIoNAccording to him, the governor is

supposed to be their boss and they do not understand where the county commissioner falls in the county hi-erarchy, a situation that he says causes confusion.

“We asked a lot of questions dur-ing the rehearsals of our swearing in, which still remain unanswered. There is currently big confusion regarding the roles of county commissioners as they are not entrenched in the Consti-tution,” said Chetambe.

See what others are saying, join us Online: www.standardmedia.co.ke

Boniface Kitavi David being sworn in as Ward Representative for Laini Saba (in Kibra Constituency) of Nairobi County at Charter Hall, Nairobi. [PHOTO: MBUGUA KIBERA/STANDARD]

BY PETER ATSIAYA

Vihiga Governor-elect Moses Akaranga wants the Transition Au-thority to release Sh2 million for completion of his offices ahead of the swearing in ceremony.

Mr Akaranga said construction of his offices at Vihiga District headquar-ters had stalled because the Govern-ment had delayed to release the money allocated for the exercise.

“My new offices should have been ready by now for occupation by County government staff, but delay in releasing the money has stalled the completion of the building,” said Akaranga.

He said much work had been done on the new offices and if the money was available remaining work would end on time and have him and his team occupy the premises before tak-ing oath on Wednesday.

Akaranga was addressing the Press after inspecting the construction of the offices yesterday. His deputy Ca-leb Amaswache, Vihiga County Com-missioner Joseph Kanyiri and Transi-tion Authority Legal Officer Jackline Omugeni and local OCPD Lawrence Garama accompanied him.

The Governor later held a meeting with MPs-elect and county represen-tatives from the county at the County Assembly premises.

Akaranga tells TA to release

cash for office

Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

Telephone (+254-20) 249178/247344/2226884Website: www.knec.ac.keFax: (+254-20) 2226032

Council Secretary/Chief ExecutiveNational Housing Corporation Building, Aga Khan Walk, P O Box 73598 – 00200 City Square, NAIROBI, KENYA

DEVoLUTIoN

Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

Freedom of assemby

By ALLY JAMAH

Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo has come under fire from civil society groups for banning public rallies and demonstration saying it amounts to declaring a state of emer-gency.

Speaking yesterday in Nairobi, the groups insisted that they will not let their hard-won freedoms and rights to be abrogated by an person or allow what they described as a ‘return to the old days of police state.’

“This action is akin to killing a mosquito with a hammer. This is high-handedness of the highest order. The Supreme Court has already made a ruling on this matter and the parties in the case have agreed to abide by that decision. There is absolutely no need for high-handedness,” said Mor-ris Odhiambo, president of the Na-tional Civil society Congress.

Mr Odhiambo added: “The IGP cannot arbitrarily issue a blanket ban. In order for police to limit freedom of assembly, they must convince a court of law that any proposed assembly is against public safety or security. Po-lice cannot stop any gathering with-out a court order.’

NCSC’s Florence Kanywa said the ban on rallies was unconstitutional since the country was not facing war, invasion, general insurrection, disor-der or natural disaster.

She also criticised Kimaiyo for

Groups fault ban on gatheringsThey say police can only limit freedom of assembly if it is against public safety or security and only after authorisation by court

By DANIEL PSIRMOIand FRANCIS ONTOMWA

There is concern as HIV testing kits ran out of stock in Bungoma County.

For the last two months HIV test-ing kits have not been available, a situation that is worrying stakehold-ers in the health sector.

A spotcheck at hospitals in the area including Bungoma and Kimilili district hospitals revealed an acute shortage of the gadgets.

Secretary of Mkenda Kola, a com-munity based organisation involved in the fight against HIV in Kimilili expressed said the crisis is likely to roll back efforts to fight the disease.

“We carry out sensitisation programmes and trainings; there are a lot of people who want to know their status but they are turned away be-cause of the shortage of kits,” he said.

Kenneth Kamlamba, the chair-man of Manaco CBO in Kamukuywa expressed similar sentiments.

TuRNED AWAY“Our group does HIV and Aids

awareness and door to door counsel-ling. Those we have referred to health facilities in the last two months have been unable to know their status. We call upon the Government to supply the kits,” said Kamlamba.

Various District Aids Sexually Transmitted Infection Control Pro-gramme (DASCOP) coordinators’ in the county, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the Government had failed to supply the kits after their depletion.

“The Government should urgently ensure that they are availed as soon as possible. ” said one DASCOP co-ordi-nator in Bungoma County.

Concern over HIV test kit shortage

Members of the Jukwaa La Katiba led by National Civil Society Congress President Morris Odhiambo at the 680 Hotel yesterday where they criticised Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo for banning public gatherings and demon-strations. [PHOTO: JONAH ONYANGO/STANDARD]

banning the public from the precincts of the Supreme Court saying that is not his job, saying he should leave the matter to the Judiciary, which has made its own arrangements to facili-tate public access to the proceedings of the presidential election petition through giant TV screens outside the court.

“The Constitution is very clear in Article 58 about the circumstances under which a declaration of a state of emergency can be made. The IGP has not demonstrated that such situ-ation obtains in Kenya,” she said.

Page 22 / NATIONAL NEWS

Teenager goes berserk, kills 50-year-old father

By ANTONY GITONGA

A 13-year-old boy went ber-serk in a Naivasha village kill-ing his 50-year-old father as the mother watched.

The Class Six pupil was later arrested as he fled from Huruma area in Ndabibi and is being held at Kongoni Police Station.

Soon after the killing, area residents held a demonstration calling for the arrest of the mother whom they accused of having a role in the murder.

According to a neighbour James King’ori, trouble started after the man, who is a flower farm worker, told his son, who was playing loud music in his room, to turn down the radio.

“He ordered turn off the radio but he declined and the man smashed it into pieces and a fight ensued,” he said.

It was during the fight that the teenager overpowered his father and hit him on the chest with a rock, killing him on the spot.

Spirited efforts by police and the public saw the suspect arrested as he tried to flee. Naivasha Deputy OCPD Paul Korir confirmed the murder, but said investigations were still going on.

“Initial investigations indi-cated that the young man committed the assault and he shall be arraigned in court to-morrow,” he said.

Meanwhile, a motorcycle operator was crushed to death by a speeding bus along the Nairobi-Nakuru highway.

TRAFFIC SNARL-uPThe accident near Karai

trading center adversely af-fected the flow of traffic before police cleared the road.

The operator was crossing the road when the bus that was heading to Nairobi from Naku-ru hit him killing him on the spot.

The body was taken to the Naivasha district hospital mor-tuary and the bus towed to Naivasha police station.

Sheikh Ahmed Ramadhan of the Nubian Rights Forum said they will petition the Commission for the Im-plementation of the Constitution and Independent Policing Oversight Au-thority to provide direction on the matter.

DAYS OF REPRESSION “We remain determined that our

hard won freedoms and rights shall not be abrogated by any person or institution. We cannot go back to the old days of repression. Institutions must uphold the freedoms and rights

of all Kenyans,. Kenya must not be allowed to become a police state yet again,” he said.

Meanwhile, Executive Director of the International Center for Policy and Conflict Ndung’u Wainaina has criticised the decision by Head of Civil Service and Security Advisory Committee to outlaw political rallies terming it a “ a repressive regime in the making.” In a statement, Wainaina said Kenyans had expressed their determination to pursue electoral justice and rule of law through demo-cratic and peaceful means.

Counties FROM THE

Monday, March 25, 2013

QuickReadMACHAKOS: Matatu owners decry return of touts

Matatu operators in Kangundo and Matungulu Districts of Machakos County have raised the red flag over the re-emergence of touts in Kangundo and Tala bus parks. Speaking during an Annual General Meeting at a Tala hotel, members of the giant Kangundo-Matungulu said the return of the touts posed a threat to the industry. Newly elected chairman of the Sacco Langi Muthiani said the organisation has been losing thousands of shillings daily to illegal gangs masquerading as stage clerks at the bus parks.

KAPSABET: Shock as man commits suicide

Shock gripped residents of East View estate in Kapsabet on Saturday when the body of a middle-aged man was found hanging on a rope in his house.Kapsabet OCPD Nelson Okioga said the deceased, who had gone missing for three days, is suspected to have committed suicide due to domestic problems.Cases of suicide in Nandi County has been on the rise and Kenya Red Cross Society in the region had promised that it would work with other institutions to curb them.

MOMBASA: MP-elect roots for cultural tourism

An MP-elect in Mombasa County is rooting for cultural tourism to uplift the living standards of his constituents. Jomvu constituency MP-elect Badi Twalib said would liaise with tourism stakeholders to popularise visits to pottery making sites in the area. He said the area has some of the finest pottery makers in the country. “I will hold consultations with, among others, the Kenya Tourism Board to come up with village visits where visitors can get firsthand information on how to make pots,’’ he said.

MAKUENI: Four poll losers challenge election of rivals

Four parliamentary poll losers in Makueni and Machakos counties have so far challenged election of their competitors. Machakos High Court Deputy Registrar Rose Makungu confirmed the four had filed their petitions with the court. They include former Kibwezi MP Kalembe Ndile, who is challenging the election of Patrick Musimba as the Kibwezi West MP. Others are Thomas Musau, Stephen Muli and John Makenzi, jointly challenging the election of Stephen Mule as the MP for Matungulu in Machakos County.

Farmers to benefit from fish processing plant

Expensive facility in western almost ready for use to have holding area, coldroom, an ice room and a store

By BRYAN TUMWA

Kakamega County

Farmers in Western are set to benefit from a fish processing and storage facility aimed at boosting their incomes.

The Ministry of Fisheries Devel-opment announced that the mini processing plant, to be located in Kakamega County, would be ready for use next month.

Fisheries Secretary Charles Ngu-gi, who was on a monitoring and evaluation tour of economic stimu-lus projects in the region, said the plant was among only four in the country that were expected to add value to the fishing industry.

“What this project aims to do is to improve on the quality of fish that farmers deliver to the markets. As they wait to access markets, farmers from all the four counties in Western region can bring their produce here for processing and preservation,” said Ngugi.

SURPlUS PROdUCEHe said maintaining the quality

of fish after harvesting would allow farmers to transport their surplus produce to areas like Nairobi, Mom-basa and Kisumu where bigger mar-kets exist.

He blamed the delay in complet-ing the project on the weather and funding.

“Initially, the Government had budgeted for Sh60 million to com-plete the project but more funds had to be sourced. The facility was also supposed to have a capacity to hold 6 tones of fish but this was increased to cater for 50 tonnes,” said Ngugi.

The multi-million shilling facility will have a holding area, a cold room, an ice room and a storage area. Farmers would collect ice from the facility and use it at their farms dur-

ing fish harvesting and also when transporting their produce.

Fish farmers in the region have welcomed the project, saying it would promote the venture in the area.

“This is idea could not have come at a better time. I have two fish ponds in my farm and I believe that the best way forward will be to invest in more fish ponds because I am confident of getting good returns,”

said Veronica Wanyonyi, a fish farmer in Kakamega County.

Kakamega County was chosen for the location of the plant because of its centrality in the region. The ministry said it was encouraging more farmers to set up fishponds since it was a lucrative economic activity. The project is also aims to promote pond-based fish rearing as one way of reducing pressure on fishing in Lake Victoria.

By RENSON MNYAMWEZI

Taita-Taveta County

Six suspected poachers, including Tanzanians, were yesterday arrested along the Kenya-Tanzania border in connection with poaching activities in Taita-Taveta County.

Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) per-sonnel recovered two elephant tusks and 80 kilogrammes of giraffe meat from the suspects, as the war against poaching intensified.

The foreigners were arrested yes-

terday at Kuranze area at the porous Kenya-Tanzania border while selling un-inspected meat believed to be from killed game animals.

KWS officials said the suspects have been sneaking into the country to kill the wildlife and sell the meat to Kenyans and Tanzanians living along the border.

“We arrested the suspects with giraffe meat at Kuranze area near the Kenya-Tanzania border. They have been killing wildlife for subsistence and commercial purposes,” Tsavo Conservation Area Senior Assistant

KWS officers arrest six suspected poachers

Blogs, archives, reader forums and more: www.standardmedia.co.ke/news

Page 23

Counting the losses

Parents and leaders examine damage caused by fire that burnt down a dormitory in Naivasha High School. Over 80 students were affected by the midday incident with initial investigations indicating the fire may have been caused by an electrical fault. [PHOTO: ANTONY GITONGA/STANDARD]

Director Julius Kimani said.According to KWS, two other sus-

pects were also arrested yesterday at Rukanga trading centre in Voi District by KWS personnel as they tried to dispose of two elephant tusks weigh-ing about 67 kilogrammes.

IvORY BUYERS“KWS intelligence personnel posed

as ivory buyers and pretended to ne-gotiate the price of the trophies before they arrested the suspects,” said Ki-mani.

He said the suspects would be

taken to court once investigations are complete. The wildlife conservation body has in the recent past been grap-pling with increased cases of subsis-tence and commercial poaching in the Tsavo ecosystem, regarded as the largest in the country.

The arrest brings to seven the number of poachers nabbed in the past one week.

Last week, a senior prisons officer attached to Voi Remand Prisons was also arrested and four elephant tusks recovered at Ndii area.

Page 24 / COUNTY NEWS

Muthaura plays down calls to be reinstated as Head of Public Service

Muthaura also took the opportu-nity to announce he had forgiven those who had implicated him in the case.

Meru Governor-elect Peter Munya claimed some Kenyans were being used by foreign powers to undermine their own fellow countrymen.

Njuri Ncheke Council of elders chairman Paul M’Ethikia who pre-

By JOHN MAJAU and MUNENE KAMAU

Meru CountyA common call by Mount Kenya

region leaders and Njuri Ncheke el-ders to have former Head of Public Service Ambassador Francis Muth-aura reinstated to his former position hit a snag when the latter publicly turned down the request.

Muthaura said after working in the public service for the last 40 years, he was not ready to take up any sala-ried public job in the country.

He said he felt he had done his

Former Head of Public Service

Ambassador Francis Muthaura

(wearing hide) attends the

thanksgiving cer-emony at Njuri Ncheke Shrine

grounds at Nchiru in Meru

County. He is joined by Meru

Senator-elect Kiraitu Murungi, Meru Governor-

elect Peter Munya and Njuri

Ncheke elders. [PHOTO: JOHN

MUCHUCHA/STANDARD]

He said after 40 years in public service, he was not ready to take up any salaried public job in the country

By LUCAS NG’ASIKE

Turkana CountyFour people were killed when sus-

pected Pokot cattle rustlers attacked them at Kakong area in Turkana South District at the weekend.

The incident, that also left four others with serious bullet injuries oc-curred about 10 km away along the banditry prone Kakong-Lokori road.

The victims among them one Pokot bandit was shot dead in a fierce gun battle between locals and the raiders.

Turkana South OCPD John Bosco Muutu said an unknown number of heavily armed Pokot bandits waylaid a group of Turkana herders who were searching for water and pasture.

Muutu said a fierce fire exchange ensued between the herdsmen and the raiders for several hours before the raiders overpowered them.

The OCPD added that the raiders shot dead three herders and wounded 4 others while the herders managed to fell one Pokot raider during a heavy fire exchange.

He said two herders were shot dead at close range during the am-bush while another herder died near Lotongot hill as he pursued the at-tackers.

Muutu said the raiders managed to escape with dozens of animals in-cluding camels towards Pokot Central District.

“It is unfortunate that the incident occurred when the herders were mi-grating in search of water and pastures for their animals. It seems the raiders had prior information about their movement when they laid ambush,” the OCPD said.

The OCPD said the injured herders sustained serious bullet wounds and arrangements had been made to move them to Lodwar District Hospi-tal for specialised treatment.

Muutu said they had mobilised security personnel to pursue the raid-ers and recover the stolen animals.

“But our frantic efforts to track down the raiders have been curtailed by poor road network and rough ter-rains in the area. We noted that the raiders drove the animals towards Pokot Central in a hilly area making it difficult for security officers to pursue them,” added the OCPD.

By PHILIP MwAKIO

Kilifi CountyKilifi County Senator-elect Justice

(rtd) Stewart Madzayo plans to tap abundant resources at the Coast for the benefit of the people in the re-gion.

In an interview, Madzayo said that the entire Coastal belt had abundant resources in fisheries, tourism and agriculture which lay untapped.

“We are optimistic that if we pull our efforts together as a region and work together, we shall realise the

much needed zeal to reap maximum benefits that accrue from tourism, fishing and agricultural farming,” he said.

Madzayo said priority would be to ensure coconut, cashewnut and bixa farming are revived and farmers given the necessary support like proper crop husbandry, manage-ment and marketing skills that will enable them grow fast maturing va-riety and harvest more for both local and export market.

Madzayo said that he would seek to compel the Government to radi-cally carry out an audit of private beach villas that have been known to operate tourist hotel services thus denying the nation of the much-needed revenue through taxation.

Four dead, several dozen cattle stolen

By ROBERT KIPLAGAT

Baringo County

An 80-year-old man was shot dead, another injured, and over 500 live-stock stolen by suspected cattle rus-tlers in Arabal location in Marigat District, Baringo County.

According to witnesses, the over 50 armed raiders suspected to be from neighbouring East Pokot District, at-tacked Ngelecha village on the Satur-day night.

The villagers said the man was

sleeping in his house when the raiders fired several shots at his house killing him instantly.

Marigat OCPD Otulia Kaunya said the rustlers surrounded Ramacha police camp and the chief’s home before getting away with 127 heads of cattle and 370 goats towards East Pokot area.

“The incident happened at around 1am in the morning where the bandits locked our officers in their houses, shot in the air before raiding the vil-lage ,”Kaunya told The Standard.

80-year-old man shot dead as 500 others injured in attack

Senator-elect to tap coastal resources

Thanksgiving

sided over the ceremony said the pain the case had caused their son and the entire community was so great to bear.

“We as a Council have also for-given our son’s persecutors and his acquittal should also herald the acquittal of the remaining three Kenyans at the ICC,” he said.

Francis Muthaura and his British Lawyer Mr Karim Khan at the thanksgiving function. [PHOTO: JOHN MUCHUCHA/STANDARD]

Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

Senator-elect Justice (rtd) Stew-art Madzayo. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

part and others should also be given a chance to contribute in nation building.

“Although every one feels that I should get back my job as head of civil service, I feel time has come for me to call it quits and do something else,” he said.

Speaking during a thanksgiving ceremony held at Njuri Ncheke shrines at Nchiru market, Tigania West District of Meru County follow-ing his acquittal by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Mathaura said he is however ready to support the current leadership in any other un salaried position.

PUBLIC SERvICE“I would not want to enter into

salaried public work after 40 years in public service,” said Muthaura.

The leaders had called on the Gov-ernment to reinstate Muthaura, not-ing that he had only stepped aside to allow the case to continue and now that he had been acquitted he should be reinstated.

By PATRICK BEJA

Mombasa CountyParts of Mombasa town are

stinking from uncollected gar-bage after striking Mombasa Municipal Council workers staged a week long strike over pay that paralysed essential services.

The strike ended on Friday after a pay dispute was resolved but its effect on essential ser-vices is still being felt.

Although garbage had been collected in some markets in the town by the close of the weekend, many parts were still choking with mounds of rub-bish as workers who resumed work on Friday were struggling to clear the garbage.

A spot check of the city yes-terday confirmed the Majengo market on Mombasa Island was being weighed down by a huge heap of garbage although the council had cleaned Mack-innon and Mwembe Tayari markets.

A resident of Majengo Mr Ali Bakari said garbage had not

Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard COUNTY NEWS / Page 25

Uncollected rubbish leaves city stinking

Council workers staged a week long strike that paralysed essential services in the city

been collected for days at the market following the council workers’ strike.

“The market is filthy follow-ing the piling up of garbage. It has been a nightmare living here,” he said. The council workers embarked on cleaning the town immediately they were paid but some parts of the city were left begging for the services,” he said.

Interim Mombasa County Assembly clerk Mr Tubman Otieno could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Mombasa and Coast Tour-ist Association executive officer Ms Millicent Odhiambo said uncollected garbage had earned the industry a negative image.

TOURISM“We are asking the county

leadership to assist clear up the negative image by ensuring systems work. If systems fail, the industry will suffer,” Odhiambo said.

On March 14, Kenya Local Government Union Mombasa branch secretary Mr Rashid Muteti asked the 2,650 council workers to on strike to demand payment of the January and February salaries amounting to Sh220 million.

The strike crippled council clinics, garbage collection, revenue collection and fire sta-tion services before it was called off last Friday.

Monday, March 25, 2013 / The StandardPage 26 / COUNTY NEWS

By JOB WERU

Laikipia CountyKenya Wildlife Service (KWS) offi-

cers in Laikipia County have arrested two suspected poachers and recov-ered 25 kilogrammes of elephant tusks.

The suspects were arrested at Chumvi area as they looked for buyers for the ivory. Mountain Conservation Area Head and KWS Assistant Direc-tor Mr Aggrey Maumo said one sus-pect escaped during the Saturday evening operation.

“We suspect they were on the way to sell off the tusks when they were accosted by our personnel,” said Maumo. Four elephant tusks weigh-ing 25 kilogrammes were recovered during the operation.

“We are working in collaboration with the police and Criminal Investi-gation Department with the aim of arresting more suspects. We believe the suspects had left rifles which they use to kill elephants since they were going to source for a market for the tusks,” Maumo said.

He further said the suspects were believed to be behind a spate of ele-phant killings in Sieku area in Lai-kipia North District. The incident comes barely a week after poachers killed an adult black rhino that had just given birth to a calf at Ol’Pejeta Conservancy in the county.

RHINOS KILLEDThe killing brought to three the

number of rhinos killed by poachers in Mountain Conservation Area since January. Maumo said the poachers also shot and badly injured a resident of the area as they escaped from the security detail attached to the conser-vancy.

According to Maumo, the poach-ers raided the ranch and killed the rhino but security officers at the ranch responded and started trailing them. “The gang was under intense pressure escaped towards Matanya area where they came across the victim identified as Washington Wamae, 24,” said Maumo.

Maumo noted the rhino was about seven years old and was a mother to a six-week-old calf. Tropic Air, a Nanyu-ki-based airline operator, helped air-lift the orphan to Lewa Conservancy, where it is being taken care of.

Manhunt

By OSINDE OBARE

Trans Nzoia County

Police have launched a manhunt for a suspect who executed two offi-cers in Trans Nzoia County at the weekend.

Kitale OCPD Kimani Mitugo said security agencies in the county were pursing the suspect responsible for

Man is alleged to have fled to neighbouring Uganda after shooting dead two officers and injuring a third one

HOW EVENTS UNFOLDED The officers on Saturday night allegedly pursued Omondi at his hideout in Tiwan estate, Trans-Nzoia CountyPolice caught up with the suspect at a rental house in the area. They ordered him to surrender but he refused, prompting the officers to lob teargas canisters into the room to force him outA woman and child came out of the room while the man braved the teargas and remained insideAs the officers pondered the next course of action, the criminal emerged from the house and sprayed them with bullets, killing two on the spot and leaving a third one with gunshot woundsSources say the suspect had crossed the border to hide in Uganda through Chepchoina border point Police say Omondi is a notorious criminal behind a spate of robber-ies and terror on residents of Kitale and its environs

the death of the officers.Mitugio said the suspect, identi-

fied as John Owino Omondi, escaped after spraying the officers with bullets killing them instantly and injuring a third one.

The officers were shot dead on Saturday night as they allegedly pur-sued Omondi at his hideout in Tiwan Estate, Trans-Nzoia County.

Mitugo said the officers caught up with the criminal at a rental house in the area. The officers, he said, ordered the suspect to surrender but he re-fused, prompting the officers to lob teargas canisters into the room to force him out.

He said a woman and child came out of the room while the man braved the teargas and remained inside.“The officers were pondering the next ac-tion when he emerged from the house

By KIPCHUMBA KEMEI

Narok County

Acute shortage of wheat seeds and fertilisers has delayed planting in Narok County, two weeks into the season.

Farmers’ desperation has made them fall prey to dishonest traders who package fake seeds and sell a 50-kilogramme bag at Sh3,500 instead of Sh2,900.

“Even if fertilisers which we have always been told will dock in the port of Mombasa arrive, nothing much would change to boost production. The country is starring at a wheat

shortage which will be occasioned by reduced yields,” said John Lolchoki, Large-Scale Wheat Farmers Associa-tion spokesperson.

Lolchoki accused the Government of not availing important farm inputs in time for planting. He expressed fear that small-scale farmers would not plant this year due to increased costs of inputs.

“The absence of subsidised fertil-isers and seeds has conspired to deny farmers who plant between 20 to 100 acres to be in profitable farming ven-ture. The cost of an acre has shot from Sh11,000 in the last two years to more than Sh17,000,” noted the official.

Kenya Farmers Association (KFA)

Narok branch manager Ernest Kibet said there was a severe shortage of seeds and all brands of fertilisers, adding that farmers were apprehen-sive about the delayed arrivals.

REDUCED yIELDS“The shortage of seeds has made

unscrupulous traders to package fake ones to unsuspecting and desperate farmers. If not checked, there will be reduced yields this year,” said Kibet. He added that KFA would stock more seeds that will retail at Sh2,900 per 50-kilogramme bag from this week which he hopes will end farmers’ suf-fering.

He added that KFA had reduced

prices of maize seeds as per the Gov-ernment directive from Sh180 per ki-logram to Sh150 and asked farmers to be patient as the association procures more varieties of subsidised seeds and brands of fertilisers.

A survey by The Standard has indi-cated that stocks of popular varieties of wheat and maize seeds at KFA, Pa-nar Ltd and Kenya Seeds Company Ltd (KSC) depots in most towns in the South Rift region were dwindling while at the National Cereals and Pro-duce Board there were no stocks of seeds and fertilisers.

KSC official Andrew Kipsaigut said there was a huge demand for popular varieties of wheat and maize seeds.

Farmers desperate for fertiliser, wheat seeds

Women decry poor showing in elective county positions

By AWADH BABO

Lamu CountyWomen leaders in Lamu have

cried foul claiming unfair representa-tion in all positions after the March 4 polls.

The leaders also said the election of a male candidate for position of County Assembly Speaker added salt to injury. Sharing their sentiments yesterday, Governor-elect Issa Ti-mamy voiced concern about the near absence of women in public life and Government.

Timamy made the remarks yester-day in Lamu town during his first of-ficial address that brought together all heads of departments from different ministries that would soon be recon-stituted to operate under the county

and national governments.“I am really concerned with the

poor women representation in both the government and the political of-fices which is going to be a challenge that must be addressed soberly as required by the law,” said Timamy.

SEVERE DISPARITyMr Timamy criticised the severe

disparity and gender imbalance among the departmental heads in the county, adding that the same trend was also conspicuous in all the elec-tive positions in the just concluded General Election.

He said he was perturbed by the acute gender imbalance among mem-bers of the public service in the county where women were poorly represented.

Farmers at Kenya Seed shops yester-day after they bought maize seed. [PHOTO: KEVIN TUNOI/STANDARD]

Lamu County Governor-elect Issa Timamy tours the maternity ward of King Fahd Hospital in Lamu Island yesterday. He promised to improve the state of the hospital through the county Fund. [PHOTO: MAARUFU MOHAMED/STANDARD]

KWS rangers seize ivory,

arrest poachers

and sprayed them with bullets, killing two on the spot and leaving a third one with gunshot wounds,” said Mi-tugo.

He said Omondi was a notorious criminal thought to be behind a spate of robberies and terror on residents of Kitale and its environs.

“We have activated all networks and resources to track him. We are not going to relent until we get hold of this criminal to face prosecution for his criminal deeds,” he said.

CROSSED THE BORDERSources said that the suspect had

crossed the border to hide in Uganda through Chepchoina.

“There is a group of criminals, among them Omondi, operating be-tween Kenya and Uganda. He could have crossed to Uganda by now,” a source told The Standard.

At the same time, leaders and hu-man rights activists in the county, led by County Representative Simon Kip-chirchir Toroitich, have urged Inspec-tor General of Police David Kimaiyo to send a special team to fight crime in the region.

“The deteriorating security is wor-rying and there is panic among resi-dents. We appeal to the Inspector General of Police to post a special squad to tackle the menace,” said Toroitich. Kiminini MP-elect Dr Chris Wamalwa and Women Representa-tive-elect Janet Nangabo condemned the crime wave in the area.

They demanded for immediate intervention from the Government. “We are saddened by the killing of the two officers and a local businessman. We call for action from the Govern-ment to tame the menace,” said Nangabo.

Police in search of suspect who

killed two officers

Page 27

BusinessTourism players upbeat

despite lukewarm markets

By Macharia KaMau

The political standoff is hurting the tourism industry as internation-al tourists adopt a ‘wait-and-see’ at-titude.

Mike Macharia, the chief execu-tive of the Kenya Association of Ho-telkeepers and Caterers (KAHC) said the industry would have begun get-ting bookings for the high season that starts July by now, but the mar-kets are still lukewarm, despite the peaceful elections having warmed up tourist source markets.

“The level of bookings is low com-pared to what we usually get... poli-tics has resulted in people apprehen-sive,” he said.

Sam Ikwaye, the executive officer KAHC Coast Region said the indus-try would rely on domestic and re-gional tourists in the coming weeks as they await for the international tourists to start making significant bookings.

“Our projections are that we will see many bookings from domestic and regional tourists in the coming

By John oyuKeKenya Reinsurance Corporation

(Kenya Re) plans to develop a new Sh1.5 billion commercial building in Nairobi.

The ultra modern high-rise green commercial building to be construct-ed on a 1.6 -acre of land in Upper Hill area will target corporate clientele and multi national companies.

The firm’s Chief Executive, Jadiah Mwirania, said the feasibility study for the project is set to commence anytime now, and will be followed by flotation of tenders for the design and construction.

He said the new building would provide enough capacity for people and vehicles, given the fact that the

city centre is no longer an ideal loca-tion for most businesses due to con-gestion.

“We aim to keep in line with our high quality standards and have the best quality facilities,” he added.

Mwirania made in the remarks in a speech read on his behalf by Gen-eral Manager, Property and Procure-ment, Michael Mbeshi during the Corporation’s tenants party held in Nairobi.

Latest deveLopMentsKenya Re held the maiden party

to keep the tenants abreast with the developments at the corporation.

The Corporation currently has four commercial buildings in Rein-

surance Plaza, Kenya Re Towers and Anniversary Towers both in Nairobi, and Reinsurance Plaza in Kisumu.

Mwirania said the new building would increase Kenya Re’s total let-table space to 568,292.08 sq. ft.

The building, which should be completed within the next two years, would be fitted with smart technolo-gies to manage consumption of wa-ter and energy, in addition to har-vesting rainwater. It will also have high-speed broadband connection through a primary and redundancy link for Internet access.

“The internet has become a criti-cal tool for business in this techno-logically advanced environment,” said Mwirania. He observed that the

building will improve the firm’s rent-al income, which was recorded as Sh575 million in the last financial year.

crisis centreIn 2011, the firm’s investment in-

come grew by 40 per cent to Sh979 million on the back of strong earn-ings from its property segment.

Meanwhile, the Corporation has also cast its eyes on the oil and natu-ral gas market, following recent dis-coveries of oil deposits in northern Kenya.

“We are already equipping local underwriters on how to manage risk and claims in this sector,” said Mwirania.

Kenya Re to increase rental space in Upper Hill

Bitter-sweet

Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

QuickStopBogus Kenya power workers invade KisiiKenya Power has issued an alert over people masquerading as its employees but who are out to defraud members of the public seeking services from the electricity supplier. The fraudsters are mostly targeting Kisii, Migori, Nyamira and Homa Bay counties where hundreds of residents have fallen prey to their schemes. Issuing the warning, Kenya Power Kisii Region Manager, Eng Kennedy Nengo asked members of the public to be wary of any suspicious characters presenting themselves as Kenya Power employees and report them to the police for action. “There are reports of impersonators pretending to enter into partnerships with customers for securing our transformers at a fee. Such arrangements don’t exist and the aim of these impersonators is to defraud unsuspecting customers,” Nengo said. He advised the public desist from paying money to individuals through individual M-Pesa accounts, saying Kenya Power only receives payments through its banking halls, partner banks and contracted institutions. —roBert nyasato

cyprus in last ditch effort to save economyCypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, seeking a last-minute reprieve from financial meltdown at talks in Brussels yesterday, has a “very difficult task” ahead of him if he is to save the island’s economy. With Cyprus having a tight deadline set for today to avert a collapse of its banking system and potential exit from the euro, late night talks in Nicosia to seal a bailout from the EU and International Monetary Fund broke up without result. Cyprus’ overgrown banking sector has been crippled by exposure to crisis-hit Greece, and the EU says the east Mediterranean island must raise 5.8 billion euros on its own before it can receive a 10 billion euro bailout. Without a deal by today, the ECB says it will cut off emergency funds to Cypriot banks, spelling certain collapse and pushing the country out of the euro zone. — reuters

and finally...Multichoice Kenya will be sponsoring the Broadcast, Film and Music Africa (BFMA) conference, a popular electronic broadcasting event that promotes knowledge sharing and networking among high-level electronic media professionals.

Blogs, archives, reader forums and more:

www.standardmedia.co.ke

TODAY IN

Sector will rely on local tourists in the coming weeks as they wait forinternational tourists to start making significant bookings.

Election petition has left industry in limbo, but despite this, source markets are warming up

weeks but may not be substantial compared to what we had last year... we do not expect many bookings from international tourists,” he ex-plained.

peacefuL eLectionsBut even with the gloomy envi-

ronment, industry players are opti-mistic about the prospects for the in-dustry this year, following the peaceful elections.

“The politics has put the industry in limbo but the markets are now

warming up. We hope the country will transition without issues. Kenya is getting positive reviews from the source markets.”

In addition to arrivals and earn-ings for this year looking up, the in-dustry also expects to attract new in-vestments.

Major global hotel chains have expressed interest in investing in Ke-nya in the last few years, with a num-ber of them currently in different phases of setting up in the country.

“We have seen that international

hotel chains are willing to invest. A few of them have set up in the recent past and we expect more chains to come. Flights pulled out of Kenya but we are seeing some that are ne-gotiating for a come back... the out-look is very positive for the industry,” Mr Ikwaye said.

Among the major hotels opened in the course of last year include Eka Hotel by Samco Holdings, Boma Ho-tel by the Red Cross and Hotel Villa Rosa that was put up by Simba Colt and is managed by Kempenski.

newest entrantsOthers that are finalising include

Riverside Hotel on Riverside Drive, Park Inn located in Upper Hill, Lei-sure Park Hotel in Arboretum, Radis-son Blu Hotel in Upper Hill and Hemingways Nairobi in Karen.

A peaceful transition process is expected to boost visitor and inves-tor confidence among major hote-liers.

Tourism earned Kenya Sh98 bil-lion in 2011, with arrivals reaching 1.26 million.

While last year’s figures are yet to be released, the rise in insecurity and the just concluded General Elections are expected to have affected both the arrivals and earnings.

Ikwaye noted there are high ex-pectations that this year will be a much better for the industry both in terms of the number of tourists as well as investors that are looking to invest in the country.

INFRASTRUCTUREPower generation

Page 28 / TODAY IN BUSINESS Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

KenGen seeking Sh429 billion to finance energy projects

By Frankline Sunday

Kenya’s quest for affordable elec-tricity gained fresh impetus last week as the Kenya Electricity Gen-erating Company, KenGen, inked a $5 billion (Sh429 billion) deal with a consortium to finance 1600 MW worth of electricity projects.

The deal, which is the largest of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa, will see the electricity generator estab-lish power generating projects in wind, solar, geothermal and hydro-electricity over the next five years. This is expected to raise the coun-try’s installed capacity to a total of 3,000 MW from the current 1400MW that can barely serve the growing demand.

The consortium is led by Bar-clays Group (composed of ABSA Capital, Barclays Bank of Kenya, Barclay Bank PLC), and consultan-cy firms KPMG, Dyer & Blair Invest-

By andrew watila Banks are raking in huge abnor-

mal profits from local operations even as the cost of credit remains high for the country’s citizens.

The unaudited pre-tax profits for local banks show that profitability has increased 20.22 per cent, from Sh89.574 billion in 2011 to Sh107.685 billion for the period ending De-cember 31 last year.

Heading nortHAccording to the Central Bank of

Kenya (CBK) report titled ‘CBK Credit Officer Survey 2013’, the sec-tor’s aggregate balance sheet in-creased 14.72 per cent, from Sh2.052 trillion in January last year to

Sh2.354 trillion in December last year. Gross loans expanded by 12.40 per cent from Sh1.21 trillion in Jan-uary to Sh1.36 trillion in December last year.

Meanwhile, bank deposits grew by 14.29 per cent, from Sh1.54 tril-lion in January to Sh1.76 trillion in December last year, while total shareholders funds increased by 21.16 per cent from Sh299.49 billion to Sh362.87 billion over the same period.

The banks gross non-perform-ing loans also increased by 13.33 per cent from Sh54.33 billion in Jan-uary to Sh61.57 billion in December last year.

The quarterly survey shows that demand for credit from the manu-

facturing sector increased from 29 per cent in the quarter ended Sep-tember last year to 51 per cent in the quarter ended December.

SigniFicant impactThe drop in Central Bank Rate

(CBR) from 18 per cent in June to 9.50 per cent in January this year, and a decrease in the cost of bor-rowing had the most significant im-pact in increasing demand for cred-it.

“As a result, the demand for cred-it generally increased in nine eco-nomic sectors. However, demand for credit from trade and mining and quarrying sectors largely re-mained constant in the year,” states CBK report.

Bank profit up 20 per cent

KenGen wants to increase geothermal power production by 560MW. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

ment Bank, and law firm Hamilton Harrison & Mathews.

Huge undertakingSpeaking at the deal signing at

KenGen’s Stima Plaza, Barclays Bank new Managing Director Jere-my Awori stated that the new deal is a huge undertaking but one that

Money will go towards power infrastructure projects such as geothermal, wind, coal and solar power

Electricity generation is a big pillar of development, especially as we look towards achieving Vision 2030 and the demand that we are going to have for energy will be significant.”

is inevitable given the demand pressures in energy consumption in the country.

“Electricity generation is a big pillar of development, especially as we look towards achieving Vision 2030 and the demand that we are going to have for energy will be sig-nificant,” he said.

His sentiments were echoed by Josphat Mwaura, the CEO and se-nior partner at auditing firm KP-MG, which has been picked as the auditing partner for the project.

“What we have begun here today will go a long way in proving to the rest of the world that Kenya and East Africa has the capacity of run-ning such capital intensive proj-ects,” he said.

not clearIt, however, remains unclear

where the massive capital is going to be raised from and KenGen states that it is open to all avenues to en-sure the project matures.

“We have traditionally relied on

direct foreign funding to raise capi-tal for infrastructure projects, but it is clear that we cannot continue de-pending on DFIs alone,” he said.

all optionS“Moving forward we are going to

be forced to look at all options both local and international vis-à-vis the time that we have to make this proj-ect work.”

The money that will be raised will go towards financing power in-frastructure projects such as geo-thermal (560MW), wind (150MW), coal (300MW) and solar power projects all totalling to 1,600 MW.

Raising the stakes

TECHNOLOGY

Airtel Kenya to invest Sh8.5b in local operations

By KENNETH KWAMA

Airtel Kenya will invest Sh8.5 billion to improve its services and grow its Airtel Money platform as it seeks new frontiers for revenue growth and an even bigger foot-print in the lucrative money trans-fer business in the next two years.

The company has already em-barked on an ambitious plan to in-crease the number of Airtel Money agents from the current 6,000 to 8,000 by the end of the year.

The firm has also eliminated all fees charged on Airtel Money. This means Airtel Money customers can now send money free of charge to any network in Kenya.

The company’s MD Shivan Bhar-gava says the proposition will deep-en the firm’s commitment to drive accessibility and affordability of quality products and services to its customers throughout Kenya.

“The offer will remove the bur-den of traditional charges that cus-tomers on mobile networks incur while sending money to others from their phones. The zero trans-action charge applies to any amount sent to recipients on any network in Kenya,” said Shivan.

Airtel’s new ambition follows a report from the Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) that showed that the total number of subscribers using mobile money services declined to 19.3 million in the third quarter of last year, com-pared to 19.5 million who were us-ing the service in June last year.

DID NOT REFLECTBut the decline in customers did

not reflect in the transactions on mobile money. The amount of money deposited in mobile money accounts grew 6.7 per cent in the quarter to September, growing from Sh192 billion to Sh205 billion

Users of the firm’s mobile money service will be able to send money to any network free of charge

Despite a decline in the number of mobile money users last year, mobile money transactions increased from Sh192 billion to Sh205 billion.

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during the quarter.“This growth indicates that the

mobile money transfer service has become a key payments and trans-action tool, mainly due to its easy use of applications, convenience and low cost value propositions,” said the CCK report.

HUGE BENEFITSAccording to the mobile provid-

er, regular money transfer users send up to Sh10,000 per month. It expects to lure in more customers by drumming on the huge benefits accrued as they will be making sav-ings of up to Sh400 sending fees per month, which translates to four per cent savings on money sent.

The company is also expected to invest heavily on the education of its customers on the benefits of us-ing Airtel Money mobile commerce solutions. It has already announced a linkup with Postal Corporation in a countrywide partnership that will see Airtel Money Customers access services in all 465 Posta outlets countrywide.

“The vast dealer network has now been complimented by corpo-rate agents to enhance availability and reliability of the services coun-trywide,” said Shivan. According to

the CCK report, all mobile opera-tors gained customers with the ex-ception of Telkom Kenya (Orange). Essar Telecom’s yuMobile was the largest gainer, growing 12.9 per cent in the quarter to add 343,651 new subscribers. Safaricom Limit-ed gained 214, 228 while Airtel got 199,936 new customers.

SIMILAR FATEOrange, however, lost 28,472

subscriptions, representing 0.9 per cent decline from the previous quarter. The company’s fixed ser-vice suffered a similar fate of de-cline in number of customers, with the total number of fixed lines fall-ing 5.5 per cent to 248,300 fixed lines from 262,711 lines recorded during the previous quarter.

The offer will remove the burden of traditional charges that customers on mobile networks incur while sending money to others from their phones.”

REUTERSStandard Chartered would con-

sider acquiring a bank in Egypt to ride an expected boom in one of the Middle East’s largest economies, the firm’s regional head said. The bank also plans to expand operations in Iraq this year.

Many European banks are under pressure to cut costs and bolster their capital in the wake of the glob-al financial crisis, but Christos Papa-dopoulos said such pressures would

not deter Standard Chartered from growing in the Middle East.

“The Middle East is not only a re-gional hub for us but a global hub given its position as a trade corridor between Asia and Africa,” Papado-poulos, chief executive for the Mid-dle East, North Africa and Pakistan, said in an interview last week.

He said of Egypt, “The foreign re-serves are at critical levels. Currency is depreciating and I won’t be sur-prised if it depreciates further.”

Standard Chartered eyes Egypt

Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard TODAY IN BUSINESS / Page 29

NSSF reveals plan to double membership

By Standard reporter

The National Social Security Fund (NSSF), has embarked on a promo-tion to raise awareness on its servic-es and mandate as it seeks to double its membership roll. The campaign will educate existing and potential members on the funds products and membership options through the re-cently launched web based online registration platform geared at driv-ing the funds membership to 2.8 mil-lion up from the current 1.4 million level this financial year.

NSSF Managing Trustee Tom Od-ongo said the initiative is part of the ongoing corporate transformation programmes aimed at clearing mis-conceptions on the funds statutory mandate.

He pointed out that the fund had undertaken a series of strategic or-ganisational development pro-grammes to enable it efficiently han-dle a higher membership complement.

automating functionSOdongo also said the firm is in the

process of automating its adminis-trative functions to be in line with global standards, as the firm seeks to transform itself into a customer-fo-cused organisation,

NSSF has already unveiled a web based online member registration portal to provide a self-service re-cruitment option for both the infor-mal and formal sector members. It has also activated an M-Pesa func-tion that allows for convenient ac-count top ups for existing members through their mobile phones.

“As an organisation, NSSF has covered very good ground in our cor-porate efforts to transform this or-ganisation to a customer focused in-stitution, providing value to its members,” Odongo explained.

The corporate awareness cam-paign will also facilitate efforts to convert the current NSSF from a provident fund into a public manda-tory social security scheme. The con-version, Odongo pointed out will be undertaken through the NSSF Bill 2012; set for parliamentary presenta-tion and debate this year.

increaSe coverageIf successfully passed through the

pending parliamentary process, the Bill will facilitate the statutory re-pealing and replacement of the ex-isting National Social Security Fund Act (Cap. 258 of the Laws of Kenya). The proposed NSSF Bill will provide enhanced social security products to existing members while increasing social security coverage through comprehensive benefits to all work-ers in line with the new Constitution and Vision 2030 ideals.

INVESTMENT

Management

Page 30 / TODAY IN BUSINESS Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

>>Other storiesinside

Wanyoike clinches doctors trophy at muthaiga club,

p39

>>Other storiesinside elite runners boycott track meeting in Bondo,

p39

Uchumi in cautious mood ahead of Rights Issue

By James anyanzwa

Directors of the Uchumi chain of super markets are cautiously monitoring events in the local in-vestment landscape as the compa-ny prepares to raise cash from its existing shareholders to fund its lo-cal and regional expansion drive.

The retail chain wants to raise Sh1.5 billion through a Rights Issue by offering 100 million newly cre-ated shares.

“We are still doing the ground work. We haven’t put up anything yet,” Chief Executive Jonathan Cia-no told The Standard last week.

Received appRovalThe issue, which has already re-

ceived approval from the share-

Firm wants to raise Sh1.5 billion through a Rights Issue by offering 100 million new shares

Uchumi Chief Executive Jonathan Ciano. The firm plans to use the funds from the rights issue to increase its outlets to 36.

holders, is expected to be launched in the second half of this year.

In 2005, Uchumi Supermarkets sold 120 million shares in its first ever Rights Issue at Sh10, which managed to attract Sh1.3 billion, an oversubscription of six per cent.

The company is seeking addi-tional capital to finance its cautious regional growth and expansion programme as the retail chain seeks to consolidate its position in a mar-ket that has attracted strong com-petitors such as Tuskys, Nakumatt

ECONOMYWay Forward

and Naivas. Ciano is optimistic that the investors who have been loyal to Uchumi during the dark times would also respond positively to al-low the company pursue its growth agenda.

Uchumi is also looking to in-crease its share capital by Sh1 bil-lion through the creation of 200 million shares.

The funds to be raised through the approved Rights Issue will be used to open new branches as well as refurbish it local branches.

new outletsUchumi has spent an estimated

Sh716 million on new outlets and refurbishment of existing branch-es.

A growing regional appetite has also compelled it to consider break-ing grounds to two new markets in Rwanda and South Sudan.

Uchumi announced ambitious plans to open 12 more branches within the East African region dur-ing the current 2012/2013 financial year as part of efforts to bolster its revenue base and reclaim its posi-

tion in the retail market.Ciano said the retail chain would

be opening three outlets in Ugan-da, one in Tanzania and eight in Ke-nya during the 12-month period (July 2012-June 2013).

The new branches earmarked for Kenya, two would be set up along the coastal region, two in Nairobi and one in Kisii, Eldoret, Kisumu and Maua in Meru.

Uchumi currently has 14 opera-tional branches in Nairobi, six up country branches and three branches in Kampala and one in Gulu Uganda, and another in Tan-zania.

If successful, the cautiously crafted growth and expansion strat-egy would bring Uchumi’s total number of branches to 36.

daRk peRiodUchumi closed 10 of its peren-

nially loss making branches in 2005 and in June 2006 the company was put under receivership following years of mismanagement and loss making. Its shares were also sus-pended from trading at the NSE.

Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard TODAY IN BUSINESS / Page 31

Legal battle

By kenneth kwama

Farmers have expressed fear of losing maize worth millions of shillings and other property.

This follows a protracted legal tussle between the National Cereals and Produce Board

Farmers want State to intervene

in NCBP woesThey say it would be unfair for farmers’ maize stocks, stored under the receipting system, to be auctioned due to the debt

Microsoft details global police data requests

BBC team

More than 75,000 requests were made by police forces around the world for data on Microsoft users in 2012. The figures were revealed in Mi-crosoft’s first transparency report, which detailed how often police forc-es sought data to aid investigations.

US police forces topped the list of agencies keen to know who created specific images or other content.

In most cases, Microsoft only handed over basic information such as login names and IP addresses.

The transparency report from Mi-crosoft follows similar efforts by Google, Twitter and others to let users know who is seeking data about what people do online.

The requests covered more than 137,000 accounts on Microsoft’s many

services including Hotmail, Outlook.com, Xbox Live, Skype and others. It was hard to estimate how many indi-vidual users that involved, said Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, in a blogpost, because many people ran lots of separate accounts.

Content ControlOnly 2.1 per cent of the requests

involved Microsoft handing over the content people created.

This includes documents or imag-es stored on servers or sent via email as well as copies of messages sent through its services.

More than 99 per cent of requests for content data came from US law enforcement agencies. Most of the other requests were for non-content data such as login names, IP address-es or other low-level identifiers.

Page 32 / TODaY IN BUSINeSS Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

ECONOMY

(NCPB) and a supplier.Through their lobby, the Kenya

National Federation of Agricultur-al Producers (Kenfap), farmers claim the Sh522 million awarded to the supplier for breach of contract was a threat to the Cereals body.

In a statement, farmers lobby petitioned the Government to intervene and save them from imminent losses. This is after the supplier, Erad Supplies and General Construction Ltd, moved in to attach NCPB’s property.

Kenfap’s chairman Nduati Kariuki said it would be unfair for

ageNCY’S rOle• The board offers third party services within its network of depots and silos countrywide

• Some of these include weighing, drying, pest control, Clearing and Forwarding, grading, grain cleaning, and aflatoxin testing

The Board holds storage capacities of more than 20 million 90-kilo bags.

Some of the facilities are offices, houses and canteens and undeveloped land

Farmers who have been storing their maize with the NCPB under their receipting system could lose millions of shillings if their stock within NCPB warehouses is auctioned.

farmers’ maize stocks, stored under the receipting system, to be auctioned due to the debt. Mr Kariuki said all debts owed to the farmers for last year’s deliveries should be cleared immediately.

He also asked the Government and the NCPB to move with speed and restock fertilisers, particularly Calcium Nitrate and Diamonium Phosphate fertilisers, mostly used during planting.

Kariuki said over the years, farmers, especially in the Rift Valley, the grain basket of the country, have been storing their maize with the NCPB under their warehousing system.

“We as the farmers’ fraternity seek comprehensive assurance from the NCPB and the State that the ongoing legal tussles will not cause unnecessary pain,” Kariuki said. “Farmers should not be victimised or incur losses in deals they were not party to.”

food seCurityHe said in living up to its

promise of ensuring food security, the Government should move with speed and ensure that seasons of planting are not interfered with due to lack of inputs such as fertilisers. “

“We are all aware of the repercussions that delayed planting or lack of it would have on the economic and social security given that agriculture is the main stay of our economy,’’

said Kariuki. Meanwhile, farmers have welcomed President Kibaki’s order for the immediate release of Sh3 billion to buy fertiliser and seeds. Kariuki said the directive to reduce maize seed costs from Sh4,500 to Sh3,400 per 25kg bag was timely.

THROUGH THE cORpORaTE LENS

BUSINESS PICTORIAL

Pan Africa Insurance Holdings Ltd, Chairman John Simba, Frank Ireri Managing Director Housing Finance listen to Group CEO, Sanlam, Johan Van Zyl during a cocktail meeting with Major Shareholders of Pan Af-rica Insurance Holdings at the Norfolk Hotel Nairobi. (23/04/10) Photo: Jonah Onyango.Mrs Rattan Channa (right) Chair of the United Reli-gious Initiative of Kenya presents the organisation’s

Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

Eveready East Africa Ltd Managing Director Jackson Mutua (left) congratulates the winners in the final draw of the recently concluded “Get Smart with Energizer promotion” that was sponsored by the battery manufacturer. Prizes included flat-screen TVs, home theatres and mobile smartphones.

Kenya Breweries Ltd (KBL) Welfare

Union Secretary General Boniface Kavuvi (left) and

KBL Managing Director Joe

Muganda (right) exchange copies

of the freshly signed Collective

Bargaining Agreement

awarding the unionisable

employees a 11.5 per cent wage

increment at a recent ceremony.

Looking on is East Africa Breweries

Ltd Group Human Resource Director

Paul Kasimu.

Nairobi Safari Club General Manager Frank Neugerbauer (seated left) and Alliance Francaise-Nairobi Kenya Executive Director Herve Braneyre sign an MoU that allows Alliance visitors to be accommodated at the Club while the Centre trains the Club’s staff in French. Looking on are Nairobi Safari Club Director Sales and Marketing Florence Marangu (left) and Alliance Francaise Cultural Affairs Director Harsita Waters.

Leisure Lodge Resort Director,

Business Development

Vijay Kantaria (left) presents

a voucher of full board

accommodation for two nights

at the Lodge to Annette Owidhi

of Uniglobe Northline during

a cocktail held by the hotel in recognition of Travel Agents.

Looking on is Sales Manager

Liz Ayany.

The new Bata Kenya Managing Director Mr Alberto Errico (centre) accompanied by his wife (holding flowers) cuts a tape to officially mark the opening of the new retail store in Kitengela while company staff cheer on. The firm is taking its services closer to customers.

Multimedia University of Kenya newly appointed Chancellor, Catherine Kimura (right) receives the Charter from the Chairman of the Council, Eng Jan Mutahi during the recent Award of Charter ceremony at KICC, Nairobi.

The Management University of Africa Vice-Chancellor, Prof Jude Mathooko (left) presents a certificate to Ms Bibiana Wanja of Mount Kenya University during the closing ceremony of the Executive Certificate Course in the Management of Universities and Tertiary Institutions held recently.

Florence Maina (right) of Miles

and Beyond, receives a

certificate of membership

from Vision 2030 Director-

General, Mr Mugo Kibati,

during the Afrika Business Club event themed

‘Ignite Your Thinking’ at a Nairobi hotel. Looking on is

Helen Kithinji, the Club’s co-founder. The Club enables

leaders access business

opportunities.

TODAY IN BUSINESS / Page 33

Government security forces drive past a demonstration calling for peace in the recent past. Rebels say they have taken over the presidential palace in Bangui, Central African Republic. [PHOTO: AP, File]

Page 34

.RoundUpABIDJAN: Militia leader killed in raid A regional official says a notorious militia leader accused of enlisting child soldiers for cross-border raids from Liberia into western Ivory Coast was killed during fighting Saturday. Claude Koffi Yao Kan, sub-prefect for the western town of Blolequin, said Sunday that Oulaï Tako, known as “Tarzan of the West,” was among three assailants killed by soldiers responding to the attack. Ivory Coast’s United Nations mission says two civilians and a traditional hunter were also killed in the attack on a village 25 kilometres outside Blolequin. A report last year from Human Rights Watch implicated Tako in a series of raids on villages.

RAMALLAH: Calls for construction fr eeze A senior Palestinian official rejected on Sunday the idea of a partial Israeli settlement freeze as a way of restarting peace talks, a sign of tough times ahead for the Obama administration’s new attempt to bring the sides together. US Secretary of State John Kerry met separately late Saturday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to talk about ending a deadlock of more than four years over settlements.Abbas says he won’t return to negotiations without an Israeli construction freeze.

MIRANSHAH: Suicide bombing kills 17 The death toll from a suicide bombing on a military checkpost in Pakistan’s North Waziristan region has reached 17, the military said on Sunday. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on Saturday, which prompted the regional government to impose a curfew in the tribal region near the Afghan border. The military responded with mortar and artillery fire directed at positions held by the Taliban. In a statement, the military said 17 security forces personnel “embraced martyrdom”.

NICOSIA: Last chance to save economy Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, seeking a last-minute reprieve from financial meltdown at talks in Brussels on Sunday, has a “very difficult task” ahead of him if he is to save the island’s economy, a government spokesman said.With Cyprus facing a Monday deadline to avert a collapse of its banking system and potential exit from the euro, late night talks in Nicosia to seal a bailout from the EU and International Monetary Fund had no result. He headed to Brussels to continue with meetings. —Agencies

CAR leader flees country as rebels seize palace

Antagonists say they are planning on moving to national radio where their leader plans to make a speech

BANGUI, Sunday

Rebels in the Central African Re-public say they have seized the presi-dential palace after President Fran-cois Bozize reportedly fled the capital.

The Seleka rebels advanced into Bangui after an overnight lull in fight-ing.

One report said Mr Bozize had fled into neighbouring Democratic Re-public of Congo.

Congo’s government asked the United Nations High Commission for Refugees on Sunday for help trans-porting the family of Bozize, a UN of-ficial said.

“(Government of DRC) has asked UNHCR to transport 25 family mem-bers of Bozize from (Congolese border town) Zongo to Gemena,” the official, who asked not to be named, said via text message.

The rebels, who have been in-volved in an on-off rebellion since De-cember, accuse the president of fail-ing to honour a peace deal.

One of the rebel leaders on the ground, Colonel Djouma Narkoyo, was quoted by AFP as saying: “We have taken the presidential palace. Bozize was not there.”

He said the rebels were planning to move on to the national radio sta-tion in Bangui where rebel leader Mi-chel Djotodia planned to make a

speech. Intense gunfire was reported as rebels advanced through Bangui.

“The rebels control the town,” said a spokesman for the presidency, Gas-ton Mackouzangba. “I hope there will not be any reprisals.”

SeCuRe AIRpORtA Paris-based rebel spokesman

said the rebel leadership was telling its fighters to restrain from “looting or score-settling”.

An unnamed presidential advisor told Reuters news agency that Mr

GAO, Sunday

Islamist rebels have attacked Gao in northern Mali, officials say.

The rebels were repelled after two hours of fierce fighting, a Malian army official said.

He said the insurgents had slipped past army checkpoints to enter the town. Gao residents had raised the alarm, saying rebels had entered their neighbourhood.

Gao was controlled by an Islamist group for several months before it was liberated in a French-led offensive in

January. The MUJWA Islamist group had attempted to impose an extreme form of sharia on the town.

Gao Mayor Sadou Diallo said the Islamist fighters had launched Satur-day’s attack inside the city’s Quatrie-me Quartier, or Fourth District, and retreated when they were engaged by Malian forces.

“There was heavy gunfire. The sit-uation is under control now. The Isla-mists entered via Quatrieme Quartier, and the army went to meet them and was able to push them back,” Mr Di-allo told the Associated Press news

agency. “There is another group that entered via the river, but they too were pushed back. It’s under control.”

No death toll was immediately available after Saturday’s firefight.

CItIeS ReCAptuReDIslamist rebels seized vast swathes

of northern Mali a year ago after a mil-itary coup in the capital Bamako.

France intervened militarily in January amid fears that the militants were preparing to advance on Bama-ko. It currently has about 4,000 troops in Mali.

Mali’s army and troops from sev-eral African countries, including 2,000 from Chad, have also been involved in the fighting.

Since the intervention began, ma-jor cities including Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu have been recaptured but fighting is still continuing in desert mountains.

France plans to withdraw its troops from Mali next month, with West Af-rican countries expected to take over in the run-up to elections due in Ju-ly.

-BBC

Fighting breaks out after insurgents raid Mali town

WorldNEWS OF THE

Monday, March 25, 2013

Blogs, archives, reader forums and more:www.standardmedia.co.ke

Bozize had crossed the Oubangi River into DR Congo on Sunday morning.

Heavy fighting broke out in the town and a Reuters witness said at least six South African soldiers were killed in the clashes with rebels.

“I saw the bodies of six South Afri-can soldiers. They had all been shot. Their vehicles were also destroyed. Other South African soldiers came to recover the bodies,” a Reuters witness said.

Former colonial power France has called for an emergency meeting of

the UN Security Council, and report-edly sent troops to secure the airport. On Saturday, French officials warned their nationals in the country to stay at home.

The rebels joined a power-sharing government in January after talks bro-kered by regional leaders to end a re-bellion they launched last year.

But the deal quickly collapsed, with the rebels saying their demands, including the release of political pris-oners, had not been met.

-BBC and Reuters

NEWS OF THE WORLD / Page 35Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

GANYE, Saturday

At least 25 people died when gun-men attacked a prison, a police sta-tion, a bank and a bar in an eastern Nigerian town, police said.

The simultaneous attacks took place in Ganye, a remote town near Nigeria’s border with Cameroon.

The attacks happened on Friday but the death toll was only reported on Saturday.

No group has said it carried out the attack but police said they suspected Islamist militants Boko Haram.

“We have 25 dead from yesterday’s attacks in Ganye which included a chief prison warder, a policeman and a prominent politician,” Adamawa state police chief Mohammed Ibra-him was quoted by AFP news agency

as saying. The gunmen — armed with bombs, machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades — set free an un-specified number of inmates from the prison, officials said.

Mr Ibrahim said seven people were shot dead in the bar and six near the bank, while others were gunned down either outside their homes or on the streets.

ISlAmIc StAtEIt was not clear how much money

had been looted from the bank.In a separate incident, two sus-

pected suicide bombers died in the northern city of Kano on Saturday when their explosives went off prema-turely, police said.

Three policemen were injured in the blast, Kano state police chief Mu-

sa Daura said. Kano was the scene of a suicide car bomb attack at a bus stop last Tuesday that killed more than 20 people.

Boko Haram says its members are fighting to create an Islamic state.

The group has been blamed for the deaths of some 1,400 people in central and northern Nigeria since 2010.

It is believed to also have a pres-ence in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jona-than had challenged the Islamist mil-itant group Boko Haram to come for-ward and state their demands as a basis for dialogue. His remarks came nearly a week after the group attacked police stations in the northern city of Kano, killing 185 people.

-BBC

25 killed after gang raids institutions in Nigeria as two suicide bombers die

Vantage point

Spanish Catholics at a Palm Sunday procession in Pontevedra, northern Spain yesterday. Hundreds of Easter processions take place around the clock in Spain during the Holy Week, drawing thousands of visitors. [PHOTO: REUTERS]

Africa ties with China in spotlight

as Xi visitsExpert says president’s main aim might be to tone down feeling that his country is just exploiting continent

DAR ES SAlAAm , Sunday

Chinese President Xi Jinping faces growing calls from policymakers and economists in Africa for a more bal-anced trade relationship between the continent and China as he arrives in Tanzania at the beginning of an Afri-can tour on Sunday.

China’s ties with the continent dates back to the 1950s, when Beijing backed African liberation movements fighting to throw off Western colonial rule. It has built roads, railways, stadi-ums and pipelines to win access to Af-rica’s oil and minerals like copper and uranium to feed its booming econo-my.

Many across Africa see China as a valuable counterbalance to the West’s influence. But as the relationship ma-tures there is mounting discomfort in Africa that the continent is exporting raw materials while spending heavily to import finished consumer goods from the Asian economic power-house.

“He will be looking to tone down the feeling that China is just here to exploit resources,” James Shikwati, di-rector of the Nairobi-based Inter Re-gional Economic Network think tank, told Reuters.

China’s new leader is due to land in Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, on Sunday for a state ban-quet before delivering his first policy speech on Africa in a Chinese-funded

conference hall on Monday.Xi will go on from Tanzania to

South Africa where leaders of the world’s major emerging economies, known as the BRICS, will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday and could endorse plans to create a joint foreign exchange reserves pool and an infra-structure bank at a summit.

StRAtEGIc ImpoRtANcEXi’s visit to Africa — which ends in

the Republic of Congo — on his first trip abroad is seen as a demonstration of its strategic importance to China.

Nigeria’s central bank chief, Lami-do Sanusi, said Africans should wake up to the realities of their “romance with China.”

But Zhong Jianhua, China’s special envoy to Africa, told Reuters in an in-terview this month, that China “at least knows that we have to treat peo-ple in Africa as equals”.

-Reuters

different views * China consumes Africa’s oil, raw mineral resources which is bringing discomfort to the West* Africa opening itself up to new imperialism — Nigeria central banker* West says China turns blind eye to human rights * Many across Africa see China as a valuable counterbalance to the West’s influence* Zhong Jianhua, China’s special envoy to Africa said at least they knows that they have to treat people in Africa as equals

moScoW, Sunday

While the investigation into Boris Berezovsky’s’ “unexplained” death continues in Britain, in Russia — for now — the focus is less on the circum-stances surrounding it and more on the significance.

Exiled Russian tycoon Boris Bere-zovsky was found dead at his home outside London.

A police investigation has been launched into the death of the 67-year-old — a wanted man in Russia, and an opponent of President Vladi-mir Putin.

A former Kremlin power-broker whose fortunes declined under Mr Putin, Mr Berezovsky emigrated to the UK in 2000.

On its website, the pro-Kremlin newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda described Mr Berezovsky as having been “clever, cunning, resourceful... a master of chaos”.

It said the fallen oligarch had been a “talented mathematician who be-came the great schemer”.

President Putin has not comment-ed directly on Boris Berezovsky’s death but the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, reacted to the news on Saturday. He said that two months ago the oligarch had written to the presi-dent apologising for his “many mis-takes” and requesting permission to return to Russia.

To many ordinary Russians, oli-garchs’ fortunes are ill-gotten gains. With the help of their political con-nections, the tycoons had struck su-per rich at a time when so many Rus-sians had slid into poverty.

“The fewer the oligarchs, the bet-ter,” factory worker Roman told the BBC. “Berezovsky... he tried to turn ev-erything in Russia upside down.” -BBC

No tears as Russian tycoon

dies at his home

BAGHDAD, Sunday

The US Secretary of State John Ker-ry on an unannounced visit to Bagh-dad urged Iraq’s leaders to halt Iranian overflights of weapons and fighters heading to Syria.

He also asked them to overcome sectarian differences that still threat-en Iraqi stability ten years after the American-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

In meetings with Iraqi Prime Min-ister Nouri al-Maliki and other senior officials Kerry was telling them to stop Iranian aircraft from using Iraqi air-space to fly military personnel and equipment to support the Syrian gov-ernment as it battles rebels.

Iran and Iraq both say the flights are laden with humanitarian supplies, but the US and others believe they are filled with weapons and fighters to help the Assad regime.

In the absence of a complete ban on flights, the US would at least like the planes to land and be inspected in Iraq. -AP

US official asks Iraq to stop weapons transfer to Syria

President Goodluck Jonathan had asked Boko Haram to state their de-mands. [PHOTO: AP]

Monday, March 25, 2013 / The StandardPage 36 / NEWS OF THE WORLD

Now, who gets my vote?

A Macedonian woman prepares to cast her bal-lot papers at a polling sta-tion in Skopje yesterday. Macedonia began voting on Sunday on local elec-tions widely seen as a test of political maturity after past violence raised fears its slow march towards EU membership could be further delayed. [PHOTO: REUTERS]

Former Pakistan president returns home despite Taliban death threats

KARACHI, Sunday

Former President Pervez Mushar-raf returned to Pakistan on Sunday af-ter more than four years in exile, seek-ing a possible political comeback in defiance of judicial probes and death threats from Taliban militants.

The journey from Dubai to the southern port city of Karachi was in-tended as the first step in his goal of rebuilding his image after years on the political margins.

But the former military strongman was met by no more than a couple thousand people at the airport, who threw rose petals and waved flags em-blazoned with his image — a small turnout by the standards of Pakistani politics and a testament to how much

his support in the country has fallen since he was pushed from power in 2008.

Musharraf struck a defiant tone when he spoke to his supporters out-side a terminal at the airport, saying he had proved those people wrong who said he would never return after he failed to follow through on previ-ous promises. He also said he was not cowed by a threat by the Pakistani Tal-iban to kill him.

Syria opposition leader resigns weakening uprising against AssadAMMAN, Sunday

The head of Syria’s main opposi-tion group resigned, in a blow to a di-minishing moderate wing of the two-year uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule.

Moaz Alkhatib, a former imam of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus who had offered Assad a negotiated exit, was picked to head the Western and Gulf-backed National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposi-

tion Forces in November after leaving Syria following persecution and sev-eral stays in jail.

Al-Khatib’s resignation came after the coalition berated him for offering Assad a deal and after the group went ahead, despite his objections, with steps to form a provisional govern-ment that would have further dimin-ished his authority.

“I had promised the great Syrian people and promised God that I would resign if matters reached some red

lines,” Alkhatib said in a statement on his official Facebook page, without ex-plaining exactly what had prompted his resignation.

bIggeR Role“I’m fulfilling announcing my res-

ignation from the National Coalition in order to be able to work with free-dom that cannot be available within the official institutions,” he said.

A spokesman for Alkhatib con-firmed his resignation.

Alkhatib, who had argued insuffi-cient groundwork had been done to start forming a government, was weakened considerably, along with a moderate wing of the revolution as Ji-hadist salafists play a bigger role.

“Basically Qatar and the Brother-hood forced Alkhatib out. In Alkhatib they had a figure who was gaining popularity inside Syria but he acted too independently for their taste,” said Fawaz Tello, an independent op-position campaigner. -Reuters

Musharraf who had been in exile in Dubai is said to be trying to rebuild his image even as his support seems to be falling

tensions with Washington over drone strikes and the May 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Musharraf represents a polarising force that could further complicate Pakistan’s attempt to hold parliamen-tary elections in May and stage its first transition from one civilian govern-ment to another.

deAtH SquAdSHe is viewed as an enemy by many

Islamic militants and others for his decision to side with America in the response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. On Saturday, the Pakistani Taliban vowed to mobilise death squads to send Musharraf “to hell” if he returns.

Musharraf’s supporters, including elements of the military and members of Pakistan’s influential expatriate communities, consider him a strong leader whose voice-even just in par-liament-could help stabilise country.

Musharraf also faces legal charges, including some originating from the probe of the 2007 assassination of for-mer Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who also spent time in self-imposed exile in Dubai before returning.

-AP

former general• He is viewed as an enemy by many Islam-ic militants and others for his decision to side with America in the re-sponse to the Septem-ber terrorist attacks• His supporters con-sider him a strong leader whose voice could help stabilise the country• Musharraf (pictured) faces legal charges, in-cluding some originat-ing from the probe of

an assassination

“I’m not scared. I’m only afraid of God,” Musharraf told his supporters.

Since the former general stepped down in the face of mounting discon-tent, Pakistan’s civilian leadership has struggled with a sinking economy, re-silient Islamic extremist factions and

KAbul, Sunday

Afghan President Hamid Karzai will travel to Qatar within days to dis-cuss peace negotiations with the Tali-ban, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said on Sunday, as efforts intensify to find a negotiated solution to the 12-year-long war.

Karzai’s trip to Qatar would repre-sent the first time the Afghan presi-dent has discussed the Taliban peace process in Qatar, and comes after years of stalled discussions with the US, Pakistan and the Taliban.

The announcement was made on-ly hours after another thorny issue in the US-Afghan relationship-the trans-fer to Afghan control of the last group of prisoners at the Bagram military complex held by US forces-appeared to be resolved. The Pentagon an-nounced on Saturday that a deal had been clinched.

Karzai’s Qatar trip was announced by Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai.

“President Karzai will discuss the peace process and the opening of a (Taliban) office for the purposes of conducting negotiations with Afghan-istan,” he said.

Karzai was expected to travel to Qatar within a week, a senior Afghan official speaking on condition of ano-nymity told Reuters.

The announcement comes several weeks after Karzai delivered a fiery speech during the first visit to Afghan-istan by new US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, in which he accused Washington of holding peace talks with the Taliban in Qatar without him.

Karzai also accused the Taliban of colluding with America to keep for-eign troops in the country, marking a fresh low point in the relationship be-tween the Afghan president and his most powerful backer.

Mosazai confirmed the agreement reached on the transfer of detainees held at the military detention facility at Bagram in Parwan province north of Kabul. -Reuters

Afghan leader to launch peace

talks with Taliban

Morsi warns against inciting

violence in EgyptCAIRo, Sunday

Egypt’s president warns he may be about to take measures he did not specify to “protect this nation.”

Mohammed Morsi’s warning came in a series of tweets posted on Sunday, two days after violent clashes between supporters of his Muslim Brother-hood and opposition protesters in Cairo. At least 200 people have been injured, some seriously, outside the Cairo headquarters of the Brother-hood, Egypt’s most dominant political group.

Morsi also warned that “appropri-ate measures” would be taken against politicians found to be behind Fri-day’s violence, regardless of their se-niority. Anyone found to be using the media to “incite violence” will also be held accountable, he added.

-AP

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FeverPitchMonday, March 25, 2013

7 Pages of sizzling Sports coverage!

STANDARD Blogs, archives, reader

forums and more: www.standardmedia.

co.ke/feverpitch

FeverBriefs

CRICKET: New Zealand implode, lead England New Zealand imploded at the start of their second innings as they set out to build on a daunting 239-run fi rst innings lead on the third day of the fi nal Test against England on Sunday.At stumps at Eden Park in the series-deciding fi nal Test, New Zealand were three for 35, leading by 274 after dismissing England for 204. Opener Peter Fulton, who scored his maiden Test century in the fi rst innings, was unbeaten on 14 which included three boundaries, with Dean Brownlie on 13. In a chaotic fi nal session of play, eight wickets fell for 39 runs as the England tail collapsed and the New Zealand top order followed suit. — AFP

F1: Vettel of Red Bull wins Malaysian GPThree-time defending champion Sebastian Vettel held off Red Bull teammate Mark Webber in a scintillating battle to win the Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday.Vettel, who earlier in the race complained to the team about Webber’s slow pace, battled the Australian for much of the race, with the cars almost touching as the German grabbed the lead on the 46th lap for his 27th victory. The surprising run of Mercedes continued, with 2008 champion Lewis Hamilton coming in third ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso crashed out. — AP

ATHLETICS: Sprint king Bolt beaten over 400m Jamaican sprint star Usain Bolt, testing himself again over 400 meters, clocked 46.44secs on Saturday in a runner-up fi nish to Nicholas Maithland at the University of West Indies Invitational. It was the third 400m of the young season for Bolt, better known as the back-to-back Olympic champion in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m. Bolt, who also raced the 400m at the low-key Camperdown Classic and competed in the 4x400m relay at the Gibson Relays in February started out well on Saturday. He led into the straight, but faded in the closing stages. — AFP

KENYA DOMINATE

Dennis Ombachi sprints to the try line during Kenya’s victory against

France in the pool stages of the Hong Kong Sevens. [PHOTO: MARTIN

SERAS LIMA/IRB]

By BS MULAVI

Kenya National Sevens teams jumped up one place to fi fth in the International Rugby Board (IRB) Sevens circuit after another im-pressive performance at the Hong Kong leg of the competition.

Speculation was rife that the team will dip in form, with the ex-clusion of Kenya’s top try scorer Collins Injera. However, the team overcame all odds to reach the third and fourth play-offs of the Main Cup tournament where they were beaten 36-5 by the circuit leaders New Zealand.

Kenya had earlier qualifi ed for the Main Cup quarterfi nals by beat-ing USA and France in the group stages and they extended their fi ne

luck by beating Portugal 17-15 to qualify for their third semi fi nal in the circuit this season.

Despite what many described to be a lethargic display by the team, Kenya were still able to give Portu-gal a run for their money with Non-dies centre Biko Adema proving the difference in the game with a pen-alty in the dying minutes of the sec-ond half to win the game.

Kenya went on to meet Wales in the semi fi nals where the eventual cup winners proved too hot to han-dle with Kenya struggling to get

hold of the game. The Welsh en-joyed the bulk of the possession and territorial advantage and Ke-nya’s long spells of defence forced them into errors giving the Sevens Rugby World Cup champions a chance to reach their fi rst fi nal in the IRB circuit.

The loss to Wales meant Kenya were to battle New Zealand in the third and fourth play off of the tour-nament. Kenya had already lost 31-7 to the circuit leaders in the group stages and despite a spirited effort they still went on to lose 36-5

to the black shirts.Kenya started off the match with

a new line up consisting of substi-tutes Sidney Ashioya, Billy Odhia-mbo and Eden Agero but even the fresh players could not keep up to the pace set by the circuit leaders and they eventually succumbed to their third defeat of the tourney.

Friday will have to look at the team’ kickoffs as Kenya struggled to retain their own balls in the tourna-ment and for long spells they played in their own half. This gave the op-position an easier time to reach their try line every time they turned over the ball.

The team now heads to Japan next weekend where they will be hoping to take their game a notch up and go for the top prize.

Sevens team weather storm in Hong Kong to fi nish fourth

FEVERPITCH / Page 39Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

Mukhisa Kituyi tees off during the Jacon’s Cup tournament played at Vet Lab Club. [PHOTO: MAARUFU MOHAMED/STANDARD]

FastTrack

SCHOOLS: Maseno will play St Kizito in Kisii Maseno School begins their defence of Lake and Highland region’s boys’ basketball title Wednesday facing St. Kizito Nyansiongo at Cardinal Otunga High School Mosocho in Kisii County. The defending champs have been pooled in group ‘D’ which also has Ambira High School. Kisii County’s defending champions St.John’s Nyamagwa Boy’s will face Homabay Boys and Kisumu Boy’s in pool ‘A’.Pool ‘B’ has Rapogi, Agoro Sare and hosts Cardinal Otunga while Pool C has Rakwaro Seminary, St Mary’s Yala and Nyamira.

— Kenan Miruka

ATHLETICS: Chebet wins 1,500m race in Bondo Former World Junior 800m champion Winnie Chebet won the longer 1,500 metres race during the second Athletics Kenya weekend meeting in Bondo clocking 4:59:10 followed by Quinter Anyango (5:07:90) while Maryanne Awuor clocked 5:47:20 for third place. Abnelio Chesebe won the men category in 3:43:70 followed by Elkana Yego (3:58:10) third was Patrick Chukur (3:59:10). In 3000 metres, Magret Achieng won in 11:31:40 ahead of Mary Daisy Odera (12:19:50) and Mary Mituku (12:58:70). Isaac Kiprono won men race timed at 9:05:71 ahead of Gregory Ngemu 11:13:9.— Philip Orwa

GOLF: Siganga triumphs at UAP Insurance event Handicap 24 Eliud Siganga posted a total of 40 Stableford points during the UAP Corporate Insurance golf day to emerge the winner beating 89 golfers that were drawn from Kisii, Kericho, Nairobi, Mumias and Kakamega clubs. Siganga rolled a bogey after tee off on hole one and followed with double bogeys on holes two to five. On holes six and seven he posted bogeys and followed with a scratch on hole eight before summing up with a par on hole nine for a total of 16 Stableford points in the initial nine. — Phillip Orwa

By Maarufu MohaMed

Mukhisa Kituyi posted an excellent score of 43 stable ford points to lift the 2013 Ja-con’s Cup at the par 71 Vet Lab Club in Nairobi on Sat-urday.

Playing off handicap 18, Kituyi braved a chilly weath-er in the daylong stableford competition at the 6951 yards course, beating a team of 100 golfers to claim the win.

“I have started the season on a high note and hopefully this could be the start of many more victories,” said Kituyi.

He was five points ahead of handicap 4 David Tooke Ongar, who scored 38 points to take up the runners up slot. Handicap 15 Arshee Krishnan, claimed the third place on a count back score of 37 points, the same mar-gin scored by handicap 10 David Kinuthia who settled for the fourth place.

At the par 71 Muthaiga Golf Club, handicap 12 Mo-hamed Wanyoike emerged the overall men’s winner on 40 points (20-20) to lift the Doctors 2013 trophy.

Handicap 17 Abid Gana-tra scored a count back score of 39 points (18-21) to take up the runners up slot, after tying with handicap 6 Kush Nathwani who took third place.

Lady winnerTabitha Muhinga playing

off handicap 28 was the lady winner in a score of 35 points (16-19), beating handicap 13 Nancy Ndungu to the run-ners up slot on 33 points (16-17).

The par 72 Kenya Rail-ways course that hosted its Club Nite tournament on Thursday saw handicap 25 D.Kaburi emerged the over-all winner on 40 points.

Handicap 9 J. Kung’u claim the runners up slot on 38 points, a point ahead of

handicap 9, I. Gichia who took the runners up slot on 37 points, tying with handi-cap 12 P. Majau. The one day stableford event attracted 140 golfers.

At the par 72 Kiambu golf club, handicap 9 J. J. Gath-umbi beat a team of 120 golf-ers by 41 points to claim the 2013 Friends of Captain golf tournament played on Satur-day.

CountBaCk sCoreHe beat handicap 15 Ki-

mani Njuguna to the runners up slot on count back after both tied on the same score while handicap 5 John Ngure was third on 40 points.

The par 71 Limuru Coun-try club that hosted the 2013 CIC Insurance golf tourna-ment last Saturday was won by handicap 20 Esther Mbu-ru McCarthy on 42 points.

McCarthy held on gal-lantly to a two way count back score that saw handi-cap 10 Francis Kimani settle for the runners up slot. Handicap 27 Nancy Mwai Mungai was third after all tied on the same score.

At the nine holes, par 72 Nandi Bears Club, handicap 20 Moses Muge beat a team of 140 golfers to emerge the overall winner of the KCB Golf tournament played on Saturday.

Handicap 23 Real Kurgan was the runners up on a score of 43 points, while handicap 17 David Sambai took the third slot on 39 points, ahead of handicap 12 Chris Birgen who was fourth placed on 40.

Sigona Golf Club on Sat-urday hosted the Galana Oil 2013 golf tournament that was won by handicap 27 Atish Malde on 47 points.

Handicap 17 Mishaal Nagda was the runners on 43 points and Michael Kibi playing off handicap 26 was third on 42 points in the day long event that attracted 100 golfers.

Wanyoike clinches Doctors trophy at Muthaiga club

KITUYI SeIzeS vIcTorY

elite runners boycott track meeting in Bondo By PhiLLiP orwa

Elite athletes from Iten, Nandi and Mt. Elgon de-clined to take part in the sec-ond leg of the Athletics Ke-nya track and field weekend meeting at the Jaramogi Og-inga Odinga University in Bondo because there was no prize money from sponsors National Bank.

In 100 meters women Grace Kidaki of Posta clocked 12:20 to emerge the overall winner followed by Diana Aoko from Nyamarimba in 12:70 while Maureen Nalian-

ya from Western clocked 12:90.

Boniface Ombare from Siaya clocked 11:70 to win the 100 meter men category followed by Daniel Oduor al-so from Siaya in 12:00 while Benson Ochieng from Nyago came third after clocking 12:30 seconds.

In the 100 meters hurdles, Lucy Langat from Western clocked 17:20 followed by Mercy Atieno from Lwak (21:80) and third placed Grace Mornica (22:10).

Grace Kidaki again won the 200 meter race in 25:90

ahead of Nalianya Maureen who clocked 26:80 while third position went to Diana Aoko in 27:20.

The 200 meter men race was won by Kenya Police’s Newton Rotich in 22:10 edg-ing out Elijah Manangoi from Rongai (22:40) and Daniel Oduor of Siaya (23:50).

Over to the 400 meter women race Kidaki tri-umphed again in 57:68 fol-lowed in the second position by Ebby Melly from Police (62:06) while third was taken by Jane Nandi from western in 68:10.

Newton Rotich won the one lap racetimed 48:20 fol-lowed by Elijah Mwangoi in 49:50 while in the third posi-tion was Stephen Onyango from Thurdibuoro in 50:90.

The 800 meter women race was won by Winnie Che-bet in 2:12:10 followed by Eb-bi Meli in 2:24:20 while third was Miriam Tanui from Siaya in 2:37:50.

The 800m men race went to Timothy Kipkemboi of Po-lice in 1:51:60 followed in the second position by Elijah Wanangoi (1:52:90) with Dennis Cheruiyot third in

Thomas Kipkemboi wins the 800m race at Kasarani.

Page 40 / FEVERPITCH Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

FastTrack

BERLIN: Jansen and Herrmann called up Midfielders Patrick Herrmann and Marcell Jansen have received late Germany call-ups for their World Cup qualifier against Kazakhstan tomorrow to compensate for injuries and suspensions, a team statement said. Germany, who beat Kazakhstan will be without suspended Bastian Schweinsteiger and injured Julian Draxler when the two sides meet again in Nuremberg. Coach Joachim Loew had already seen several other players miss out through injury including Toni Kroos and Miroslav Klose.

FEAR: Gerrard expects intimidating match After what amounted to a gentle warm-up in San Marino, England move into the far more hostile territory of Montenegro for a vital World Cup qualifier tomorrow with captain Steven Gerrard warning of intimidation from the Group H leaders. The first time England played in Podgorica’s City Stadium in 2011, Wayne Rooney was sent off in a 2-2 draw, a red card that meant he missed the start of the Euro 2012 finals. While that result meant England qualified for last year’s championship, their place at the Brazil World Cup is still far from assured as they trail Montenegro by two points. — Reports by Reuters

HOPE: Balotelli blast renews Italy confidence Italy head into tomorrow’s World Cup qualifier in Malta buoyed by a stirring comeback in a 2-2 draw with Brazil and the growing belief that Mario Balotelli is finally maturing into a world class international striker. The 22-year-old, who has courted controversy on and off the field, netted a majestic strike in Thursday’s friendly in Geneva when his all-round play helped Italy battle back from 2-0 down. “He has the potential to be among the best five (players) in the world but to do that he needs a lot of continuity, as he is having at the moment,” Prandelli told reporters. Whoever plays, Prandelli is being ultra-cautious.

Paris

France will not change their approach to to-morrow’s clash against Spain even if a draw at home could eventually send the world and Euro-pean champions into a tricky playoff tie for World Cup qualification.

The teams currently in first place were not ex-pected to be, with France two points clear of Spain and England lagging behind Montenegro by the same margin.

“It will be a difficult match but we shouldn’t have any apprehension,” France coach Didier De-schamps said. “We will take the battle to them.”

After Tuesday’s critical games, both England and Spain could be five points adrift and facing the prospect of a playoff to reach next year’s World Cup.

Elsewhere, teams like the Netherlands, Russia and Germany can already hear the Samba beats of Brazil as they hold comfortable leads in their qualifying groups.

Most teams preparing to face Spain struggle to come up with a successful game plan, but this time it’s the Spanish who are uneasy after slipping to 1-1 home draw with Finland on Friday and los-ing the Group I lead to France, which beat Geor-gia 3-1.

“The squad is angry and we accept the criti-cism,” Spain defender Gerard Pique said. “But we still have margin to make it right.”

After recording 24 straight wins in qualifiers

dating back to 2007, Spain has been held to con-secutive 1-1 home draws and heads to Stade de France with a point to prove.

“The result is a disaster. Now we face France with everything on the line,” Spain’s all-time lead-ing scorer David Villa said. “We have to go to France looking to win.”

Coach Vicente del Bosque hopes to have play-maker Xavi Hernandez back from a nagging mus-cle problem, and Xabi Alonso returns in midfield. But he will be without attacking midfielder David Silva through suspension and left back Jordi Alba who has a thigh injury.

France drew 1-1 away to Spain last October thanks to Olivier Giroud’s last-gasp headed equal-izer and dominated the second half — a rare feat against the Spanish.

“Tuesday will be a completely different game,” France midfielder Blaise Matuidi said. “They will be even more motivated after their result against Finland.”

England warmed up for Montenegro with an 8-0 destruction of San Marino that felt like a train-ing match as the players shared the goals. Mon-tenegro had to fight much harder, needing a late winner from Juventus forward Mirko Vucinic to scrape a 1-0 win at Moldova.

“It would be a great lift to win on Tuesday, but if we don’t get it I won’t be getting the spade out to dig a grave for the team,” England coach Roy Hodgson said. “There are 15 points to play for and the team is capable of getting a large number of

those points to see us through.”Hodgson welcomes back midfielder Steven

Gerrard and left back Ashley Cole, who were rest-ed against San Marino, but will be without Gary Cahill and Theo Walcott due to injury. Jermain Defoe staked his claim for a starting place after scoring twice on Friday.

Ukraine and Poland are both six points behind England in Group H, with Montenegro leading the way with 13 points. Ukraine faces Moldova and Borussia Dortmund striker Robert Lewan-dowski will be looking forward to target practice as Poland faces San Marino.

Group A is much tighter, with Belgium and Croatia level on 13 points.

Croatia has the tougher game away to Wales — which will be relying on Gareth Bale to con-tinue his scoring spree — while Belgium hosts struggling Macedonia. Serbia faces last-place Scotland in the other game.

Elsewhere, the Dutch and the Germans are five points clear of Hungary and Sweden, respective-ly, in their groups while Russia has won every match so far and are four ahead of Israel and Por-tugal despite playing a game less.

Germany, which has played one game more than Sweden in Group C, hosts Kazakhstan hav-ing just beaten the Kazakhs 3-0 away from home.

“I believe our task is to improve our game fur-ther and mould ourselves more as a team,” said Germany midfielder Sami Khedira. – Agencies

...for France as they tackle Spain tomorrow in World Cup qualifier NO APPROACH CHANGE

FROM LEFT: French team goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, Christophe Jallet, Olivier Giroud, Mamadou Sakho and Mathieu Valbuena run during a training session near Paris on Friday after their victory against Georgia. [PHOTO: FRANCK FIFE/ AFP]

Japan eye Brazil berth, Cahill calls for high tempoTOKYO

Asian champions Japan can become the first side to qualify for the 2014 World Cup with victory in Jordan tomorrow, while South Ko-rea, Australia and Uzbeki-stan are odds on to score home wins and clarify the crowded pool picture.

The Blue Samurai thrashed Jordan 6-0 at home in June, a result that has helped them establish an eight point lead over Austra-lia, Iraq and Oman in their

Group B.But Tuesday’s clash in

Amman will be a tougher prospect without the key duo of playmaker Keisuke Honda and attack-minded fullback Yuto Nagatomo at a venue where Jordan were able to humble Australia in September.

A 2-1 friendly win over Canada in Qatar on Friday involved some sloppy errors by Asia’s best side and the players know improvements are required to see off Jor-dan, who have bounced

back well from their Saitama rout.

“If we play like we did in the first half against Canada then things could become very difficult for us,” play-maker Shinji Kagawa said after the win over the North Americans.

Shinji Okazaki should start after scoring the open-er against Canada with the VfB Stuttgart forward de-manding big improvements ahead of the decisive quali-fier.

“It is good that we have

got this game out of the way because we can’t play like we did (against Canada). We allowed our opponents to create a good shape and we have to take a good look at ourselves about that,” he said.

The Socceroos remain fa-vourites, though, to grab the runners-up spot and the other Brazil berth from the pool as they have a game in hand on their rivals and host three of their remaining four matches.

— ReutersJapan goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima. [PHOTO: AFP]

March, March 25, 2013 / The Standard FEVERPITCH/ Page 41

‘‘FastTrackCLINIC: KHF to conduct referee grading courseThe Kenya Handball federation (KHF) will hold the annual Handball referee grading course April 2-5 at the Nyayo National Stadium. Current national referees and provincial referees will be subjected to four days rigorous training, physical test, theory and practical offi ciating tests. Upon successful completion of the training, the provincial referees shall be upgraded to national level and national referees hall be up graded to the next level. – Rebecca Gichana

WIN: SA beat CAR to move to the top A goal each by man-of-the-match Thabo Matlaba and striker Bernard Parker on either side of the half saw South Africa go top of Group A after a thrilling World Cup Qualifi er played at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday. It was a vintage Bafana show and with a bit of clinical fi nishing, the scoreline could have easily doubled as the Central African Republic (CAR) were put to the sword by coach Gordon Igesund’s marauding charges.With Botswana and Ethiopia playing on Sunday (24 March) in Addis Ababa in the other Group A encounter, South Africa temporarily assumed top spot with 5 points, one ahead of Ethiopia. – SuperSport

Ethiopia win keep World Cup candle burningADDIS ABABA

Ethiopia snatched a dra-matic 1-0 home victory over Botswana on Sunday to keep alive hopes of a fi rst appear-ance at the World Cup in Brazil next year.

Substitute Getaneh Ke-bede, who replaced fellow-striker Adane Girma for the second half in Addis Ababa, snatched the lone goal two minutes from time in the high-altitude east African city.

Ethiopia returned to the top of Group A with seven points, two more than over-night leaders South Africa, who overcame Central Afri-can Republic 2-0 in Cape Town on Saturday thanks to goals from Thabo Matlaba

and Bernard Parker.Tanzania scored three

second-half goals to thrash four-time World Cup quali-fi ers Morocco 3-1 in Dar es Salaam and climb to within a point of Group C paceset-ters Ivory Coast.

Thomas Ulimwengu broke the deadlock a minute after halftime and there was a brace for Mbwana Samata before Youssef El Arabi re-duced arrears four minutes into stoppage time.

This humiliating loss, coupled with draws against Gambia and Ivory Coast, means Morocco are all but out of the running for Brazil, and the future of recently appointed coach Rachid Taoussi must be in doubt.

Litsebe Marabe levelled a

minute from time to give minnows Lesotho a 1-1 draw with 2012 African champi-ons Zambia in Maseru after Collins Mbesuma opened the scoring entering the closing stages.

The failure to collect maximum points was a bit-ter blow for Zambia, who stay top of Group D with sev-en points, but Ghana can close the gap to just one point if they defeat Sudan in Kumasi later Sunday.

Mozambique and Guinea drew 0-0 in a dour Group G clash in Maputo, leaving leaders Egypt with the pos-sibility of opening a fi ve-point gap should they beat generally poor travellers Zimbabwe in Alexandria on Tuesday.

Elsewhere, Super Eagles new boy, John Ogu says he is ready to do battle against Kenya in what will hopefully be his debut game for Nige-ria.

The towering midfi elder exclusively told supersport.com that he is ready and rar-ing to go and hoping to be handed his maiden appear-ance.

“This is my fi rst time in the national team set-up. I haven’t played for Nigeria at any level, to be here is a blessing.”

“It’s a honour for me to be here, I was welcomed by my teammates and I felt like I have been here for ages, the team spirit is quite good I must admit,” Ogu said.

“The training regiment is

a little bit different from what I’m used to, but I en-joyed it quite well.”

The Academica de Coim-bra star, who played in the group phase of the Europa League this season, wants to use the opportunity to stake a claim for a shirt in the team.

“Kenya are a formidable foe, people talk about Victor Wanyama, but I believe there are many others who can cause us problems. We need to keep our shape and focus and I believe we can do the job on Saturday,” remarked the midfi elder.

The former Uniao Lleria player also pleaded with fans to come out and cheer the team to victory.

– SuperSport

CUP HOPES ALIVETunisia, Ivory Coast and Tunisia win their matches to remain on course

Ivory Coast’s Arthur Boka (left) outsmarts Gambia’s Sanna Nyassi during their

2014 World Cup qualifying soccer match at Houphou-

et-Boigny stadium in Abidjan on Saturday.

[PHOTO: LUC GNAGO/ REUTERS]

VARSITY: USIU winning streak continues United States International University (USIU) continued with their impressive run in the university league on Saturday by winning all their matches. They thrashed Kenyatta University (KU) 3-1 in their opening match and went ahead beat Ruiru Campus 2-0. In other results, Strathmore won 2-1 over KCA, JKUAT settled for a barren draw against Ruiru Campus, Multimedia University forced a goalless draw against KU. Mount Kenya University forced a barren draw against Multi Media University, Kenya Polytechnic University won 1-0 against Africa Nazarene while KCA thrashed Daystar 2-0. Matches were played at Africa Nazarene University grounds. – Rebecca Gichana

CAPETOWN

African kings Nigeria were rescued by a last-gasp equaliser on Saturday while other heavy-weight contenders Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Tunisia won their games to remain on course for World Cup qualifi cation.

Samuel Eto’o scored twice to lead Cameroon to a 2-1 victory in Yaounde against Togo who were without Tottenham Hotspur striker Emmanuel Ad-ebayor.

Captain Adebayor, involved in an on-off spat with coach Di-dier Six, did not play after failing to show up at Togo’s training camp during the week.

Substitute Nnamdi Odua-madi scored three minutes into stoppage time as Nigeria scraped a 1-1 home draw with bottom team Kenya.

The African Nations Cup champions have fi ve points from three games, level at the top of Group F with Malawi who beat Namibia 1-0 in Windhoek.

A curling free kick by Francis Kahata put Kenya ahead before halftime in Calabar. The equal-iser came from a long throw as a desperate Nigeria threw ev-erything forward.

Cameroon, aiming to qualify for Brazil 2014 after missing out on the last two Nations Cup tournaments, are top of Group I with six points from three games following victory over Togo.

MEDIA SPECULATIONThe role of Eto’o was the sub-

ject of media speculation before the game but his two goals re-stored his status as leader of the team.

Wilfried Bony (penalty), Yaya Toure and Salomon Kalou struck as Ivory Coast defeated Gambia 3-0 without Galatasaray forward Didier Drogba who was left out of the squad for the Group C en-counter in Abidjan.

The Ivorians are top with seven points, four ahead of sec-ond-placed Tanzania who have

a game in hand.Tunisia maintained their 100

percent record in Group B by beating Sierra Leone 2-1.

The Tunisians have nine points from three games, fi ve ahead of second-placed Sierra Leone.

Queens Park Rangers de-fender Christopher Samba, playing his fi rst competitive game for Congo after a lengthy break from international foot-ball, notched the only goal in a 1-0 win over Gabon that put his team in a strong position in Group E.

Congo have nine points after winning all three of their quali-fi ers.

BURKINABE FORMSecond-placed Burkina Faso

continued the form that took them to the Nations Cup fi nal in February by hammering Group E rivals Niger 4-0 in Ouagadou-gou.

It was their fi rst win of the campaign and they have much to do to stand any chance of progressing to the fi nal round playoffs at the end of the year.

South Africa, World Cup hosts in 2010, are fi rst in Group A after overcoming Central Afri-can Republic 2-0 in Cape Town.

Senegal, top of Group J, suf-fered a surprise setback as they were held 1-1 by Angola who are second.

Moussa Sow gave the Sene-galese a fi rst-half lead in neutral Guinea before Amaro equalised with 15 minutes to go for the in-jury-hit Angolans.

The game was played in neu-tral Guinea after Senegal were banned for a year from playing at home following violent scenes in Dakar in October during a Nations Cup qualifi er with Ivory Coast.

African Cup fi nal goalscorer Sunday Mba and strikers Obafe-mi Martins and Victor Moses of Chelsea all played for Nigeria against the Kenyans in Cala-bar. – Reuters

Page 42 / FEVERPITCH Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

Bankers bounce back as Thika United scrape past Muhoroni

FastTrackLEAGUE: Nacet beat Ukunda at South Coast Ukunda’s Nacet used their vast experience to defeat Milele Sports Club 2-0 in a South Coast provincial zone A match at Baptist ground. Nacet scored through Bakari Sono and Milele conceded an own goal five minutes after the half hour mark. Nacet’s Rashid Hamisi and Nicholas Ngugi of Milele were given marching orders by the referee for unsporting behaviour. In another zone B match at Kwa Shee ground Espirito earned a hard fought 1-0 victory over Frere Town. — Ernest Ndunda

COAST: Mombasa teams make positive startTeams from Mombasa made a positive start in the FKF Division One league, which kicked off on Saturday. Modern Coast Rangers opened their Zone A campaign on a sound note after seeing off Tala United 2-0 in a Pool B match at Blue Trianlge Athi River ground. In another Pool A match, visiting Coast United were held to a 1-1 draw by Murang’a United at Ihora stadium. Coast United played under protest after their opponents played without producing players cards. Brighter Stars from Lamu were massacred 8-0 by Bidco at Del Monte ground. – Ernest Ndunda

AIM: Oserian Ladies plot wins in Women’s LeagueWomen Premier League Side new entrants Oserian Ladies promise to maintain a good run this year. According to club head coach, Johnson Mukwana, the team is set after acquiring the services of seven new players. The club took part in the division league last year and finished in the sixth position to get a slot in the this season’s league. “We are set since we have the management’s support and the girls are fit to go. Being our first in the top league, we just want to maintain so that we can see the way forward next season,” said Mukwana. Oserian will be the only club that will represent Rift Valley this season.

– Rebecca Gichana

MOUNTAIN TO CLIMB Stars remain last as Malawi upset Namibia to top group

By GILBERT WANDERA and PHILIP ORWA

Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) barrelled back to the top of the league standings cour-tesy of a 1-0 win over Karuturi Sports at City Stadium yesterday.

The league’s top scor-er so far Clifford Alwan-ga netted the only goal after 36 minutes after completing Brian Os-umba’s effort.

Osumba was a con-stant threat to the bank-ers side with his danger-ous crosses that went begging most of the time.

The win pushes KCB

back to the top of the standings on 11 points. Yesterday they were in third place after Chemelil Sugar won 2-1 against Nairobi City Stars.

It was also the first time that there was a change in the standings since the season kicked off.

The win is the third by the bankers who opened the season with a 4-0 win over City Stars and then followed it up with a 6-0 thumping of Muhoroni Youth.

The bankers were then held to a barren draw by league champi-ons Tusker before set-

tling for a 1-1 tie with Sony last weekend.

For Karuturi, this is their second straight loss. Last weekend, they went down 2-1 to City Stars in Naivasha and will have to rediscover their winning ways be-fore it is too late.

In Muhoroni, visiting Thika United disciplined Muhoroni Youth FC 2-0.

The two goals were scored in the first half of the encounter with Mi-heso Clifford giving the Thika United the first goal just 20 minutes into the game.

The John Kamau’s charges showed intent to score from the onset

with the Brookside sponsored team Sammy Meja brought in a throw-in that was nearly scored by Dannis Omino who was captaining the Thi-ka based side.

Ezekiel Odera’s goal in the 26th minute was all the Thika-based team needed to see off the Sugar belt side off as they utilised experience to maul the latter at home.

Jackson Maina of Muhoroni Youth was the only player to be booked in the entire 90 minutes for hard tackle by centre referee Stephen Muko in the 50th minute of the encounter.

Nigeria’s John Mikel Obi (left) reacts as Kenya midfielder Mulinge Ndeto kicks the ball during their FIFA 2014 World Cup qualifying match in Calabar on Saturday. RIGHT: Nigeria striker Obafemi Martins deflated as Stars goalkeeper Arnold Otieno beats him to the ball. [PHOTO: AFP]

By GILBERT WANDERA

Saturday’s 1-0 win by Malawi against Namibia has just complicat-ed matters for Harambee Stars in group ‘F’ of the World Cup qualifier.

Malawi upset Namibia courtesy of a 69th minute goal scored by Frank Mhango after the first half ended in a barren draw.

The win pushes Malawi to the top of the group with five points same as Nigeria while Namibia follow on three points. Stars are last with two points.

But the situation would have been different had Stars stopped Nigeria as they would be at least enjoying second place and with three matches

remaining, their chances of making it to Brazil next year would have been enhanced.

Kenya next play Nigeria in June in Nairobi and victory at home may just raise their hopes. After clashing with the Super Eagles at home, Stars will then travel to Lilongwe to take on Malawi and then complete their World Cup fixtures against Namibia in Nairobi.

One thing however, that the Stars will be proud of is ending their losing streak to Nigeria. Future matches be-tween the two teams will never be the same again and can be expected to go either way.

Elsewhere, Football Kenya Feder-ation (FKF) chairman Sam Nyam-

weya insists Harambee Stars can still make it to the World Cup despite conceding a late against Nigeria on Saturday.

The Stars lead for most of the match after Francis Kahata had scored from the free kick in the 36th minute but a late goal by Oduamadi Nnamdi’s late strike ensured Nigeria got at least a point from the match.

Nyamweya complained about poor officiating in Saturday’s fixture and took issue with the added time.

“There was nothing to warrant additional five minutes in the game. We were clearly robbed of victory,” he said.

Nyamweya pleaded with local fans not to give up after the result in-

sisting there is still a chance for the team to do better in future matches.

He asked for support from all stakeholders to encourage the team and the players to do better in their up-coming matches.

“This team does not belong to FKF alone. It is a team for all Kenyans and we must rally behind our boys to ensure we pick positive results in up-coming fixtures,” he added.

Nyamweya said this even as vari-ous politicians including President elect Uhuru Kenyatta and Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko pledged cash awards to the team.

Kenyatta and Sonko each pledged Sh1million to the team. Stars are ex-pected in Nairobi this evening.

KCB celebrate after sinking Karuturi Sports. [PHOTO: STAFFORD ONDEGO /STANDARD]

Continued From P44

FEVERPITCH / Page 43Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

Japhet Kipyegon Korir crosses the finish line of the senior race of World Cross Country Champion-ships in Bydgoszcz, Poland. [PHOTO: AFP]

By JONATHAN KOMEN and IAAF

Kenya reclaimed the elu-sive 12km race at the IAAF World Cross-Country Cham-pionships in Bydgoszcz, Po-land.

Japhet Korir, who com-pleted Form Four at Kiptere Secondary School in Ker-icho in 2009, showed little respect for Ethiopia’s de-fending champion Imane Merga, who settled for sil-ver. Korir won bronze at the 2010 world cross-country at the polish city.

Emily Chebet, the 2010 IAAF World Cross Country champion, equally enjoyed an impressive return to the top of the medals podium in winning her second global title. Other five Kenyan run-ners failed to impress, which saw Kenya settle outside the top two team positions for the first time since 1984.

Merga claimed silver to lead Ethiopia to the top of the team standings, with the United States taking second place. Teklemariam Medhin of Eritrea took the race bronze.

Chebet however, had a point to prove as she had failed to qualify for her na-tional squad for the 2011 Championships and fin-ished only fourth in the Ke-nyan trial for this event.

Indeed, she surprised many by reeling in the tiring Ayalew in the final 100m to sprint to an unexpected vic-tory here once again.

RETuRN TO FORMA bronze medallist at the

2012 African Cross Country Championships, she showed glimmers of a return to form back in September, record-ing a 10km road personal best of 30:58 in Tilburg but her current cross country shape was uncertain.

The 23-year-old Ayalew additionally experienced a big improvement, progress-ing from 11th in the 2011

event in Punta Umbria to take the silver medal.

The USA’s Neely Spence finished 13th (25:08) to place as top non-African, just ahead of Britton, the Euro-pean indoor 3,000m bronze medallist in 14th (25:08).

In the team standings, Chebet led the Kenyan outfit to emphatic gold medal-winning display, with 19 points to Ethiopia’s 48.

DOMINANT sHOwIt represented their

fourth consecutive title in the event and again proved their dominance with all six runners inside the top 11.

Ethiopia meanwhile, col-lected the silver courtesy of the medal-winning perfor-mances from Ayalew and Oljira in addition to 2011 ju-nior runner-up Genet Yalew placing 15th and having two others inside the top 30. Four-time bronze medallist Meselech Melkamu failed to finish.

In bronze, Bahrain took their first ever medal in this team event with 73 points off the back of Eshete’s fourth place finish and with Tejitu Daba in 8th.

Ethiopia’s Hagos Gebrhi-wet confirmed his status as the favourite to take the ju-nior men’s title with a won-derfully assured and mature run, hitting the front with 500m to go before winning his first major international championship medal yester-day.

Chepng’etich, the 19-year-old girl from Ndabibit village in Kuresoi, became just the third woman to re-tain her title in the history of the event. The pace was made so quick by the hard work of Gebrhiwet’s Kenyan opponents, notable the even-tual silver medallist Leonard Barsoton. From the gun, the Kenyans tried to control the race and after just 500m there was a quartet of red shirts at the head of the race.

Senior men’s 12km race believed to be hardest

Korir jewel in crown

Kenyans rule the roost at world Cross Country

By JONATHAN KOMEN and IAAF

Kenya reclaimed the wom-en’s 6km title they lost to Ethiopia at the 2011 World Cross-Country Champion-ships in Punta Umbria, Spain, in 2011.

But they lost the 8km men’s title to perennial rivals Ethiopia as Leonard Barso-ton, the silver medal winner, emerged a lone ranger in the leading pack.

Faith Chepng’etich Kipye-gon, who competed in Byd-goszcz in 2010 barefoot, suc-cessfully defended her junior women’s crown.

Ethiopia’s Hagos Gebrhi-wet confirmed his status as the favourite to take the ju-nior men’s title at the 2013 IAAF World Cross Country Championships with a won-derfully assured and mature run, hitting the front with 500m to go before winning his first major international championship medal yester-day.

Chepng’etich, the Form Two Student at Winners Girls’ High School, became just the third woman to retain her ti-tle in the history of the event. She replicated Viola Kibi-wott’s feat in 2001 and 2002 — who was then a pupil at Matungen Primary School in Keiyo South — and Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba in 2008 and 2009.

Contesting three laps over a frozen and snow-covered 6km course, Kipyegon initial-ly held back after the gun, sit-ting in fifth place with her teammate Agnes Tirop, 17, and Ethiopia’s Ruti Aga, the World junior 5000m silver medallist at the front.

In the men’s contest, it was the first gold medal for Gebrhiwet of what could be, and should be, a star-studded career. Still just 18, Gebrhi-wet clocked a World junior indoor 3000m record of 7:32.87 in Boston at the start of last month. He also ran a World junior 5000m record of 12:47.53 at the Diamond League meeting in Paris.

course three years ago.The 27-year-old Chebet

recreated her golden memo-ries of the Myslecinek Park course in storming to victo-ry ahead of Ethiopia’s Hiwot Ayalew and Belaynesh Olji-ra.

A record 97 athletes from 29 countries contested the 8km course as Chebet chased down Olympic 3,000m steeplechase Ayalew in the closing 200m in an ex-hilarating finish to capture the gold in 24:24 ahead of

Ayalew’s 24:27. With the Kenyans pack-

ing well with five runners in the top seven at the midway point, Chebet was joined by Kenyan trials winner Marga-ret Muriuki as she began to push on with Ayalew, who was seeking to clinch her nation’s first victory since 2008.

Korir, 19, struck early on the last lap to leave Ethio-pia’s defending champion Imane Merga in his wake. Korir, who was only sixth in the Kenyan trials, finished the gruelling, undulating

12km course around the snowy Myslecinek Park in 32 minutes 45 seconds.

He is among the few ath-letes to have Africa Cross-Country and World Cross-Country titles.

Mercy Cherono, who was dropped from the national squad to Poland, has also achieved it. Korir joins the elite club of five 12km Ke-nyan winners at the World Cross — John Ngugi, Paul Tergat and Joseph Ebuya. Ebuya won at the same course three years ago.

But Korir’s five team-

mates’ results could not im-press and the Kenyan team dropped out of the top two in team standings for the first time since 1984. Merga claimed silver to lead Ethio-pia to the top of the team standings, with the United States taking second place.

Teklemariam Medhin of Eritrea took the race bronze.

Reigning champion Faith Chepng’etich Kipyegon suc-cessfully defended her ju-nior women’s crown. Ethio-pia’s Hagos Gebrhiwet took the junior men’s title.

Emily Chebet wins at World Cross Country Championships.

Faith Chepng’etich the World Junior cross country champ.

Chepng’etich leads Kenya to recapture junior title

FEVERPITCHMonday, March 25, 2013

STANDARDTHE

www.standardmedia.co.ke

Kenya face uphill task in World Cup qualifi ers as Malawi upset Namibia, P.42Kenya face uphill task in World Cup qualifi ers as Malawi upset Namibia, Kenya face uphill task in World Cup qualifi ers as Malawi upset Namibia, Kenya face uphill task in World Cup qualifi ers as Malawi upset Namibia, Kenya face uphill task in World Cup qualifi ers as Malawi upset Namibia, P.42P.42Sevens team fi nish fourth in Hong Kong IRB circuit, P.38

7 Pages of Sizzling Sport coverage!

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By JONATHAN KOMEN and IAAF

Emily Chebet, yesterday returned to Bydgoszcz, Poland to reaf-fi rm her prowess as the best cross country runner when she clinched the senior women’s title, her second global title in three years.

Japhet Korir, the junior bronze medalist at the 2010 champion-ship, beat the odds to wear the men’s 12km signature race crown at the Myslecinek Park and pocket Sh3.5 million ($30,000) prize money. He becomes the fourth Kenyan after John Ngugi, Paul Ter-gat and Joseph Ebuya to clinch the title. Ebuya won at the same

Chepng’etich, Chebet and Korir clinch gold at World Cross

CONTINUED ON PAGE 43

Eritrea’s Teklemariam Medhin, Kenya’s Japhet

Kipyegon Korir, Ethiopia’s Imane Merga and Uganda’s

Moses Kipsiro during the senior race at World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland. [PHOTO:

AFP]

FeverBriefsELDORET: Kenyans toast to World Cross victory Kenya’s performance in yesterday’s World cross-country championships was received with wild cheers in Eldoret town. Fans who had gathered in various social joints gave standing ovation to Faith Chepng’etich, Emily Chebet, Japhet Korir who won individual title in Bydgoszcz during the 40th International Association of Athletics Federation World championships. “It was a splendid show by Chebet, who had to narrow the wide gap by the Ethiopian potential winner. She gave her all. She deserve congratulations,” said 2005 World champ Benjamin Limo.

ELDORET: Power tilts to South Rift region The battle for supremacy in long distance has shifted to South Rift if results at the World Cross Country is anything to go by. Though there was celebrations in Eldoret (North Rift) where majority of senior athletes live, the three individual title winners come from South Rift region. Faith Chepng’etich (junior women) and Emily Chebet (senior women) and Japhet Korir (senior men) set history by wining their respective titles on return to Bydgoszcz after 2010 show..

— Joseph Ngure

KENYA TOP THE WORLD

MondayKick Off Your Week

The Perfect Way To

Pullout Section B Monday, March 25, 2013

MondaySTANDARD

WITH THE

Oyunga Pala: Married but still playing the game,P4

Lack of decorum ends marriage talks,P16

Leafy suburbs not as cosy as we think, P8Leafy suburbs not as cosy as we think, P8

DYING TO BE DYING TO BE DYING TO BE DYING TO BE DYING TO BE DYING TO BE

Page 2 / CRAZY MONDAY Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

LIFE IS A CIRCUSFarewell to the chiefTed Malanda wonders why President Kibaki should be looking for an offi ce in-stead of exploring avenues for kuregarega. Page 5

POLITICALLY INCORRECTDon’t you dare sell our presidential jetPeter Wanyonyi makes it clear that Kenya’s presi-dential jet, Harambee One, must remain lest our pres-ident starts begging for lifts like Zambia’s boss.

Page 7

CHAUVINISTMen aren’t movie starsNikko Tanui dismisses Ke-nyan women who expect

their men to behave like the actors in movies and soap operas. Page 10

UGANDAN AFFAIRSMarriage has become a playthingGrace Nakato looks at marriage in Uganda where ‘come-we-stay’ for eco-nomic reasons has become the order of the day. Page 14

BROKEN MIRRORMan fails to win back estranged wifeA man on a fi nal mission to win back his estranged wife bangles it up when he arrives at her place blind drunk.

Page 16

In 1 Minute...myturn

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Creative Direction : Peter Gichui Manager Print Creative : Dan Weloba Creative Designer: Susan Mwai

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quick read

Ted Malanda

P 10

Waste of fi repower — Turn to page 6

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QuotesThey say ignorance is bliss.... they‘re wrong. Franz Kafka

The desire for success lubricates secret prostitution in the soul.Norman Mailer

The man dies in all those that keep silent. Wole Soyinka

Plato was a bore. Friedrich Nietzsche

Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing. Lao Tzu

WHAT WOMEN WANT FROM MEN

TEACH OFFICERS HOW TO SWIMNews that a Kenyan soldier and a police offi cer drowned while swimming in a dam was depressing. This loss is needless and inexcusable. Soldiers and policeman should die in war, not when cooling off for a swim in dam. Which is why we must ask ourselves why police and army recruits — indeed all disciplined forces — are not taught to swimming, a key survival skill.

WATERLOO OF LOVE

Last week, a newspaper reported that a prison offi cer had committed suicide because his fi ancée had taken off, if I recall correctly, with a former civic leader.

Such stories shock me. I have been dumped so many times I have long lost count. I have been retrenched twice — the fi rst

time when I was only six months into this posh job. I even got my prized fi rst TV set, which I bought on hire purchase terms, pinched.

But it never occurred to me to blow my brains out because I believe fi rmly that a proper man needs to kick the bucket peacefully in his sleep, with his fat cows mooing respectfully in the cowshed. Chocking and retching from rat poison doesn’t exactly qualify.

Maybe as I age some more and become wiser, I might discover a reason to kill myself. But I can confi rm without fear of contradiction that it will not be because of a woman, unless, of course, her dandruff is made of gold fl akes.

Fortunately, no female billionaire would be caught dead hanging around me. Our worlds are so far apart that the only place we could bump into each other is a public toilet. And billionaires, male or female, don’t hang around public toilets.

I think love is worse than gunpowder. Who would have imagined that Napoleon Bonaparte, the legendary French fi ghting general who almost conquered the world (although Shaka Zulu would have felled him in a wrestling match) would waste time penning childish love letters?

Sample this: “I am going to bed with my heart full of your adorable image… I cannot wait to give you proofs of my ardent love… To live within Josephine is to live in the Elysian Fields. Kisses on your mouth, your eyes, your breast, everywhere, everywhere…”

Good grief, General Bonaparte! You cannot win ze war when you are daydreaming about kissing ze eyes and ze breast of ze Josephine!

It appears this Josephine was some chick that he met, tuned, hitched up and then left behind to go to war. However, like all those showered with too much affection, she became indifferent to her husband’s demonstrations of love, rarely replied to his correspondence and began an affair with a young offi cer. Even though his new bride’s infi delities fi lled him with rage, what did Napoleon do? He wrote her impassioned letters. The sorry, little fool!

“I don’t love you anymore; on the contrary, I detest you. You are a vile, mean, beastly slut… Soon, I hope, I will be holding you in my arms; then I will cover you with a million hot kisses, burning like the equator….” sobbed the legendary General.

Looking for Waterloo? Fall stupidly in love. And don’t fail to read Oyunga Pala’s musings on this and other issues. He is on fi re!

Your sayYou can’t blame the young man in last week’s Marriage called off after man pees in in-law’s house story. That was a bad family to marry from in the fi rst place. They set him up. Beer is not water, yet his prospective brother-in-law kept him pumping it in. What did they expect? He should look for a woman from a distant ridge!Meshack Maarufu

This story is just for laughs. I doubt it’s true.John

Shame on him! He didn’t have money to go to a hotel? How dare he spend the night at his in-laws? Warning to every man: Your in-laws are your enemy number one. Stay away from them and only deal with them when necessary. Avoid them.Shikz

CRAZY MONDAY / Page 3Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

odds&endsodds&ends

“These vistors have eaten all our food”

Children washing dirty family

linen in public

Lost and found donkey gets bursar in trouble

“The shouts attracted the school watchman and Form Four students”

By CHARLES NGENO

A donkey became the source of a vicious tiff between a bursar and a police officer when a school confiscated the

stray animal and turned it into a beast of burden.

The two are said to have en-gaged in a scuffle after the po-lice officer accused the school accounting officer of ‘unlawfully arresting’ his donkey and using it without his consent. And on his part, the bursar accused the po-liceman for negligence.

A source who witnessed the quarrel in Narok South District

intimated to Crazy Monday that the donkey had strayed into the school compound and since the owner could not be immediately established, the school manage-ment decided to retain it.

idLEThe school head announced

to students during the morning assembly that they should report to him should they hear of any one looking for a lost donkey.

Meanwhile, the school’s grounds man got bothered by the fact that the beast of burden would remain idle yet there was so much work that required either human or animal force. He decid-

ed to keep it busy by engaging it in more useful activities like fer-rying water from the river and unga from the posho mill.

That went on till one after-noon when, as he ascended the hill from the river, he met the of-ficer’s mother who immediately identified her son’s donkey.

The incident enraged her and

she went ballistic, accusing the grounds man for stealing his son’s donkey.

CONSEquENCESShe accompanied him to

school where she is said to have warned the school head of dire consequences from her no non-sense son.

To threaten the hell out of the bursar, she made a phone call to and began complaining to her son about how his donkey had been confiscated and overworked.

A couple of days passed by and immediately the officer arrived home on a Saturday, he went straight top the school looking for

the principal. Unfortunately he missed him

and met the bursar whom he began shouting at. The bursar’s attempted to reason with him proved futile.

The Kiganjo graduate was too worked up to listen.

Their shouts attracted the school watchmen and a few Form Four students who were studying in a nearby classroom. The stu-dents wanted to attack him but the officer whipped out his pis-tol forcing them to scamper for safety.

The matter was later reported to the authorities who solved it.

By TONY MALESi

You think children are all sweet and innocent? Ha! Behind those angelic faces and toothy smiles lie battle scarred spies who know every dirty little

family secret and who choose the most inopportune time to spill the beans.

Imagine this. You have been in-vited to your neighbour’s for a birth-day bash for one of the children. The atmosphere is electric, lots of hype with the neigbourhood children set-ting the mood right. They engage in all sorts of fun activities, including singing along to music and dancing themselves lame.

GifTSA couple of other adults, too, who

have attended are themselves busy reacquainting with one another in a spirited show of camaraderie. But little ones keep the party moving as they shower the birthday boy with gifts and presents.

All seems to go well up until when, after merry making and it is dusk — time for curtains to fall — that the man of the house insists on the birthday boy to lead in a thanksgiving prayer for the day has been a huge success.

The young boy initially protests shyly and appeals to his dad to let his mummy pray.

“Daddy, mimi sijui kuombea watu wengi. Tena mimi naogopa watu (Dad, I don’t know how to pray for many people. I am shy)!”

But his father cajoles and soft-ly forces him to rise to the occa-sion.

“Come on, my boy. Just pray by saying anything and thank-ing God. Anything, just anything, son!” his father pleads.

That’s when the birthday boy begins praying, but quite fearfully and shyly. He begins, in a very soft voice, by thanking God for the many visitors who have shown up and brought presents, before whining about how they had con-sumed a lot of drinks and food.

BOMBSHELL“Thank you Lord for blessing

us with visitors who have eaten a lot of our food, I pray that they may never be invited again,” he begins.

His parents look down with embarrassment and a few muf-fled laughs are heard here and there.

But the bombshell is yet to come: “Forgive my friend Ma-thenge who likes undressing my sister Stacy before wrestling with

her to the ground whenever we play in the long grass behind our house.

BiG BEdThis coming Eater, please gift

us with clothes, so that all those naked girls in daddy’s iPad who like visiting whenever mum is away have something to wear. And bless our house help with a bed big enough so that she does not sleep in mum’s bed when mum is not around, Amen!”

Can you hear the loud si-lence, adults looking at the man of the house disappointedly as

he scratches his head, lost for words? Others pretending to be busy thumping text messages on their phones as they disperse?

The boy’s mother sighs heav-ily and sinks back in her chair, before going into ‘silent mode’, her face as cold as ice.

The party comes to a sudden end, with guests leaving uncer-emoniously pretending to have heard nothing. And guess what? The birthday boy skips away, un-aware that he has unleashed a scandal much bigger than Anglo-leasing!

Page 4 / CRAZY MONDAY Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

thesecrazykenyans/OYUNGA PALA fiNds the hUmAN iN the keNYAN

A crush course in love

I was called upon to arbitrate a case that involved a nephew who was accused of pinching his mother’s gas cylinder.

I knew the youngster as fairly level headed and wondered why he had made such a desper-ate move. Turns out, it was all in the name of love.

heavy priceTwo weeks ago, his luck turned

with a crush who was so pretty, he still had not gotten over the fact that she had agreed to go out with him.

So to secure his fortune, he stole from his mother, to impress

the hottest girl in his school. Two days after I had a word

with him, his mother called me to ask what I told her 12-year-old son that made him so remorseful.

All I did was plant the fear of death. We took a walk around the neighbourhood and stood under a streetlight. Then I asked him to count the number of sizzled moths lying motionless at its base.

After which, I explained, a crush is like a light bulb to a moth. It can be so appealing that we lose sight of all sense, and like a moth landing on a 100 watt bulb, the light comes at a heavy price.

Presently, we are a nation of dysfunctional families. The family values that we extol are definitely of a past era.

Your typical Kenyan fam-ily today is much like the fading fam-ily portrait on the wall. It is a curious collection of fixed smiles and blank looks, carefully rehearsed to portray the correct image.

It is not about what you have, but what you seem to have. I guess then, the stability of the family will be al-ways cosmetic. But why can’t we be like the happy family in cooking fat ads on television?

Well, because dysfunctional par-ents breed dysfunctional homes. We have too many inept adults giving parenthood a shot just because it has become some social and career re-quirement and making a murky mess of the institution.

Our kids loiter in confusion be-cause confused parents are not done growing up. Parenthood, as the aver-age impoverished villager has proven, is all about a commitment to give another being a better life. But the

passing times have a way of obscuring values, and modernity has inevitably distorted patent truths.

ego tripToday, it appears to be nothing

more than an ego trip, one big act that cannot hold its own weight off the set. Behind the draped windows and the golden curtains, children scream, blows continue to fly, as glasses shat-ter against walls and the divorce law-yers thrive.

Too many people are waking up every morning to discover that they are stuck in relationships, they can’t stand, and with people they don’t want. Children pick up on this, take sides, and eventually grow up believ-ing they can protect one parent from the other.

Then they leave the nest and marry someone they think they love but end up in divorce counselling one year lat-er, believing that this is what normal couples go through.

“Why does sex seem to happen everywhere but the matrimonial bed?”

A major public debate erupted over the “Weka condom mpan-goni” advert, a safe sex cam-paign that was deemed to en-dorse infidelity.

I am actually surprised that an ad-vert that pretty much stated that it was okay to sleep around as long as one used a condom, lasted this long.

From my own analysis, the ad had run for a good month before the moral police could say, “What the hell?”

costsIn fact, this advert was a sequel of

the original ‘Wacha mpango wa kando’ series that featured a patronising Jimmy Gathu admonishing unfaithful married persons whilst tabulating the hidden costs of infidelity. The ad was criticised for being unrealistic and got parodied quite a bit.

Promoting safe sex in Kenya is al-ways going to be a challenge because in all matters to do with sex, denial is the society’s default position.

The “Weka condom mpangoni” message highlights the vulnerability of married couples to HIV and Aids. Un-like single persons who are more ac-customed to condom usage, frustrated married partners are most likely to skip the inconvenience of sourcing rubbers out of habit and fear of social scorn.

The advert is progressive in many

ways because it targets married wom-en. The previous limitation of the safe sex campaigns was the assumption that women are always in a position to negotiate condom use.

Unfortunately, prevailing stereo-types do not make it that easy for a married woman to stash condoms because, oddly, many women still be-lieve availing condoms is the man’s job.

high-riskTherefore, presenting a scenario

where average market women discuss condom use says loudly that it is okay to place your sexual health before your social reputation.

Condoms are now part and parcel of a healthy sex life, a fact that mar-ried couples engaging in high-risk sexual behaviour and in serious need of prophylactic cover remain in denial about.

Since abstinence and fidelity are a

universal challenge, we might as well address the big fat elephant in the room: Why does sex seem to be hap-pening everywhere but in the matri-monial bed?

People cheat because the grass always looks greener across the fence and it becomes more apparent after marriage. In the same way, one no-tices sleeker cars on the road as soon as they acquire a new model. That shouldn’t be an issue.

heartacheAttraction to other people is nor-

mal even in a happy marriage. Sexual frustrations in long-term relation-ships are the norm rather than the exception. What this society needs is to get over the notion that one single person will fulfill all our sexual and emotional needs. It will save us so

much heartache. The human instincts and the ex-

pectations of modern living are not compatible.

Typically sexual desires will always be at conflict with what’s considered acceptable behaviour.

But if this lambasted ad tells us one thing, it is that more and more women are out there playing the field with no apologies to make — and men are game.

Therefore, the onus is on the at-tached husband to start to place some initiative in his sexual performance if he truly wishes to maintain peace on the home front.

Female sexual repression is no longer a virtue in these liberal times and what women want these days, women get.

Married but starved

Dysfunctional families are the new norm

CRAZY MONDAY / Page 5Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

Ted Malanda draws on the wisdom of his royal Wanga ancestors to try and understand a world gone mad

life’sacircus

Word on the street has it that State op-eratives are trying to find office space for President Kibaki,

who is set to retire soon. It’s the most ridiculous thing

I have heard this year. Office? Why would the retired President need an office? Let me put it dif-ferently. An office is a place you go to work. Why in the name of Francis Atwoli would Mr Kibaki want to work after slogging away for more than 50 years?

According to some online dictionary, ‘retired’ means “With-drawn from one‘s occupation, business, or office; having fin-ished one‘s active working life”.

miserableThe operative word here is

finished one’s active working life. Finito. Mr Kibaki should, there-fore, be exploring avenues for kuregarega. He has no business looking for an office.

Working sucks, Mr President, and you should know this better than anyone else. You wake up in the morning, down a mug of sturungi and two slices of bread then hop, skip and jump down the muddy track to the bus stop.

You get squashed into a matatu that spends forever in a traffic jam. No one opens the windows. No one talks to the

Kenya’s secret weapon in London

Farewell to the

old Chief

“This is the time to discover new hobbies, like playing darts and collecting stamps”

other. Going to work is that mis-erable. That’s why even spouses who drive in the same car to work stare moodily out of the window without exchanging a glance, like they fought the whole night. They are that sick of work — in advance.

When they arrive at their re-spective places of work, they keep wondering when Friday will come. They daydream about leave and in fact, most wish they had the money to retire early and go into private business.

silver platterAnd you know why Mr Presi-

dent? Private business means you are your own boss. You come to work when you want to and leave when you feel like. On the days when you are too lazy to wake up, you text one of your workers and say you are sick. Wata do?

Now we are giving you all these on a silver platter and instead of thanking the heavens, you are looking for an office. Are you out of your mind, Sir?

listen to me, boss. This is the time to discover new hobbies — things like draughts, darts, watch-ing soccer and stamp collecting.

like a lizardIn fact, ideally, you should

snore till 10am, swallow a mug of tea and have the grandchildren drag a nice easy chair onto the lawn. Then relax and sun up la-zily like a lizard.

At one o’clock, demolish a plate of ugali then take a nice, el-derly nap till 3pm.

When you wake up, grab your walking stick and stroll to the lo-cal. Kula pombe (ignore the doc-

The younger generation may not be aware that Uhuru Kenyatta has a big bro who lives in London.

At 70 years of age, Pe-ter Magana Kenyatta, born of Jo-mo’s English wife Edna, is now an elder. In fact when election cam-paigns began, I half expected him to arrive in style — flywhisk and all — to thunder a few harambees at his kid brother’s political rallies and spit on him.

It appears he didn’t because in all likelihood, Peter’s Egrich, to borrow from a nutty radio ad-vert, ‘is very happy’ meaning only

a handful would understand his British accent.

Then again, knowing Kenyans, Peter’s presence could have been used to attack his younger brother — gosh, you never know whether to call him Deputy Prime Minister, President-elect or Mr Kenyatta — as a stooge of our co-lonial masters.

Still, I must register my dis-appointment with Peter. After working for the BBC for years, he retired just like that. How?

One would have expected him to run for office, you know. He could have started small by agi-

tating against something, never mind what, so long as it was an-ti-government. Voters generally take a shine to those who insult the government.

mayorAfter getting himself tear-

gased and arrested several times, and with his links in the media, he could have become sufficient-ly known in his hood to run for councilor and win. He would im-mediately announce his bid for mayor.

On the eve of the elections, he could have flown all the council-

tors, they are just alarmists) till the sun begins to set.

When you are feeling proper, negotiate your way home along the ridges and pathways of Otha-ya.

Remember to loudly extol the virtues of your clan in war so that when you are still a kilometre away, Mama Lucy can tell beyond reason doubt that the njamba (cockerel) is coming home.

That, Mr President, is what a man does in retirement. And don’t allow the new President to drag you into petty clan conflicts in neighbouring countries. Let them sort themselves out.

ors to Nairobi and locked them up in a pub in Gatundu to pre-vent them from being bought by his enemies. We are harambee people and getting something small to bribe the British coun-cillors with wouldn’t have been a problem. In no time, he would be voted His Worship, the stone throwing Mayor of London.

Five years later, after having made a name in vicious brawls during council meetings, and with his thundering Jomo voice, he could have run for MP and won.

I mean, who says Brits are

averse to receiving Sh50 notes near the poll station?

Before you know it, he could have run for President and won, bagging all the votes in the Diaspora (Kenya), including in places his kid brother wouldn’t get a single vote.

So now we would be sitting pretty and beating our chests with one of our boys calling the shots in Washington and another lording it over the Brits at Num-ber 10 Downing Street.

It’s, however, not too late, Magana. Life begins at 70. Do something, son of Burning Spear!

Page 6 / CRAZY MONDAY Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

politicallyincorrect / A skewed look at the political scene

Ceasefi re, fans

By PETER WANYONYI

With the election done, one would have hoped that our politicians in general and the two leading protago-nists — President-elect

Uhuru Kenyatta and Prime Minister Raila Odinga — would call on their ac-olytes and fans to calm down, get back to business and let normalcy resume.

IRRESPONSIBLEThis was clearly hoping for too

much. In a country where the political rally has ceased to be a policy rostrum and morphed instead into a pulpit from which to fulminate with ethnic and other jingoistic rumble, our poli-ticians are busy fl ying from one press conference to the other, raising parti-san temperatures and then promptly fl ying back to their Nairobi mansions to swig expensive drinks and then sink into executive slumber as ethnic ten-

sions slowly simmer.This is irresponsible. If the Nation-

al Cohesion and Integration Commis-sion (NCIC) — a mouthful of a name for a body that was meant to promote ethnic cohesion and chase after tribal baiters — wasn’t so woefully hopeless, they would be fi rmly warning politi-cians to tone down the barely-dis-guised tribal posturing and calm their animated and hysterical followers.

POLITICAL RALLIES Mr Kenyatta and Mr Odinga par-

ticularly need to use their political ral-lies and social media to smack reason into their supporters. It doesn’t help that the Kenya Police seem eager to take the country back to the draconian days of Kanu, with arbitrary bans on the right to assembly, which from ex-perience always heightens tension.

These two leaders need to order a ceasefi re and they need to do it now.

Maybe we need to start asking ourselves why we relegate highly skilled men of war into drivers and handymen for big men and women. [PHOTOS: ALI ALALE/STANDARD]

Waste of fi repower

CRAZY MONDAY / Page 7Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

politicallyincorrectp

un

chli

ne Botswana unsheathes

diplomatic floss for Kenya

Botswana seems to be on a mission to piss everyone off these days, and Malawi’s President Banda is merely the latest victim of this southern

African country’s lack of manners. Barely a week before that, Phandu

Skelemani, Botswana’s Foreign Affairs minister, sparked a cyber-war between Kenyans and Batswana. He stated that, should Kenya’s president-elect Uhuru Kenyatta, stop cooperating with the International Criminal Court, then he would be arrested if he ever set foot in Gaborone.

This was an unusual stance for an African leader to take, but certainly not unusual for Botswana. A large but fairly

empty country, Botswana’s population of just over two million people would all fit quite comfortably into Nairobi’s Eastlands.

Botswana is a rarity on the continent; a country that is actually fairly well run, where elections are not stolen — at least not openly — and where citizens get good services from the state.

Electricity and water are regular and reliable, and there is excellent healthcare as well. And they need it. Twenty five per cent of the adult population of Botswana has HIV and Aids, which is astonishing for a population that size.

The equivalent in Kenya would have to be illustrated by tribe. After all, we are a tribal people. Imagine if all Luhyias

and half of all Luos, combined had HIV and Aids. It’s that bad.

And so one would imagine that Botswana — despite its relative wealth — would have more important things to do that to run around making neighbours angry.

But no one seems to have told that to President Khama and his Foreign Affairs minister. A day after the story regarding Mr Kenyatta broke, some Kenyans created a fake story claiming Mr Skelemani had apologised.

The Foreign Affairs minister was unimpressed, and he swiftly called a press conference to deny the retraction. Botswana, clearly, needs to show us some respect!

By PETER WANYONYI

When our new president finally gets into State House — whoever he will be — he will need to, very quickly, rush to wherever

it is that we park our presidential jet, Harambee One, and ensure that it is intact.

These are dangerous times for an African president without his or her own plane, as Malawi’s President Joyce Banda is rapidly discovering.

RuThlEssWhen she took over power af-

ter the death of President Bingu wa Mutharika, Mrs Banda set about making Western donors happy. Wielding a ruthless axe, she savage-ly slashed her own pay by an almost criminal 30 per cent, taking it down to a mere Sh300,000 a month — be-fore taxes.

What sort of African president gets to take home a monthly pay package less than what newly elect-ed Governors intend to steal in a week?

But Mrs Banda wasn’t done yet. To make the Westerners even hap-pier, she announced that she would arrest Sudan’s President Omar El Bashir, who is dodging an indict-ment from the International Crimi-nal Court, should he ever set foot on Malawian soil. El Bashir has wisely stayed away from Lilongwe.

But surely, even in the den of thieves that supplies Africa with presidents, there is such a thing as honour among themselves.

Now, though, Mrs Banda is turn-

“Mrs Banda loves engagements where presidents get to give long boring speeches”

ing absurdity into farce. When she took office, she pledged to cut gov-ernment spending and balance Ma-lawi’s books. One of the more showy measures she undertook was to sell the presidential jet that President wa Mutharika had bought.

Tired of hiking lifts from other presidents, wa Mutharika bought the jet to preserve as much of Ma-lawi’s national dignity as was left, which wasn’t much, considering the country is basically broke and de-pends on Western donors for virtu-ally its entire budget.

BEGGINGAs fate would have it, though,

just after Mrs Banda put the presi-dential jet on sale, Barack, our man in the White House, invited her to some African presidents’ shindig. Mrs Banda loves these sorts of en-gagements, where presidents get to give long, boring speeches and quaff exotic foreign drinks.

She is lionised for her savage spending cuts, and she wouldn’t miss Kogelo’s invitation for the world.

There was a small problem though. She couldn’t fly over be-

Don’t you dare sell our

presidential jet

cause she had no plane! Over the last few months, Mrs

Banda has taken to begging for rides from other African presidents. When she recently travelled to Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea, she begged the presidents of those countries to give her a ride, and the two gentlemen agreed.

BAChElORAnd so this time around, she

expected a little indulgence as well and turned to Botswana’s President Ian Khama, a no-nonsense bach-

elor who has no time for drama. He would have none of it, gruffly turn-ing down her request for a presiden-tial ride and telling her he was not in a position to offer free rides.

One prays that Kenya’s new presi-dent has more sense than Mrs Ban-da and doesn’t embarrass us by run-ning around begging for rides from foreign presidents.

Keep that thing oiled and ready on the tarmac, sir, and order our army boys to stick an anti-pirate gun on it, somewhere.

It used to be that African countries stuck together, at least in public. It was bad manners to be seen to be disparaging other African presidents. In fact, this decorum was only broken when the president in question was either South Africa’s Pieter Botha — that nasty apartheid enforcer or his blood brother, Ian Smith, whom the Voice of Kenya used to call “that criminal”.

But things are changing and young presidents are coming to power with iPads in their hands and insults in their heads. One prays that they take time to learn a little statecraft before burning all bridges!

Page 8 / CRAZY MONDAY Monday, March 25, 2013 / The StandardPage 8 / CRAZY MONDAY

thisstrangeworld

“It is not unusual to fi nd lonely women picking up men for the night as ‘temporary painkillers’”

If you drive or walk through Nairobi’s leafy suburbs, you’ll notice how meticulous everything looks. The have excellent access roads, well-maintained apartments

and homes, the landscaping is breathtaking, the fl owers in bloom and children neat and well groomed.

Security is guaranteed. There’s a uniformed security guard at the gate, as well as a perimeter wall with electric fencing and armed emergency rescue on a 24-hour basis. The driveway is paved to the double garage, with designated areas for guest parking — very organised.

UNHAPPY

But behind some of these walled electric fences reside a bunch of unhappy people.

“Life here begins and ends with how weighty one’s bank statements is, and women and men alike only associate with those whose pockets are equally deep. Here ‘pedigree’ counts,” says Lucy, who stays in a bed sitter in Kilimani.

The men want to date accomplished women, same to women. However, along the way, the relationships quickly turn into a competition: Who earns more money than the other, creating vicious dominance wars between the sexes.

“You’ll fi nd the ‘accomplished’ women would never let men pick them up for a date, or drop them home after, preferring to drive themselves, in their top of the range vehicles. Life is about making a statement,” adds Lucy.

Of course, setting value on one’s riches never quenches the thirst for companionship, and most residents, like you, end up in broken relationships, usually trying to fi ll the void by getting one-night-stands. Haven’t you wondered the red light district keeps morphing into ‘massage parlous’ in leafy suburbs?

“The nightlife is full of well-educated, high earning individuals, both male and female, looking for temporary ‘pain killers’ for the night. It’s not unusual to fi nd lonely women

picking up men of the night. We see a lot,” reveals Makokha, a watchman in Hurlingham.

If the relationship does graduate into marriage, it’s always on the edge. The women, who most often are high up in their careers, do not carry out matrimonial duties, as is traditionally expected

It’s not unusual for a man to come home and fi nd his wife on her laptop pecking away, only to point a manicured fi nger at the microwave, food picked from a fast food restaurant on her way home or prepared by the house help.

NOT A MAID

“Sometimes, the woman would eat at a restaurant on her way home, and tell her husband to cook for himself, saying she’s not a maid and she’s not hungry anyway,” reveals another watchman who says fi ghts and quarrels in one house on a block he guards are the order of the day.

The women sleep late, in the name of ‘fi nishing the report’ and wake up early in the morning, citing ‘I’m the one with the offi ce key’ leaving their husbands in a limbo, literally — if you know what I mean.

Not that it matters. The men, like all men, have multiple girlfriends, but at least they can afford it. These

girlfriends are rotated, with a girl for each day of the week. And even when they discover that their rich boyfriend is cheating on them with another woman other than his wife, its okay. He’s catering for their material needs anyway.

In the event that the marriage still holds and there are children, it is the house help who ultimately takes care of the tots.

House helps literally run the household. She/he is the one who decides what will be eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner, prepares the children for school and even does the household shopping.

The homeowners just avail the money to facilitate all this, and pay the domestic servants well to carry out all these activities.

The children are closer to the house helps than their own parents, and this emotional void is compensated for by buying them expensive gadgets, keeping them busy through extra lessons, piano classes, ballet or paying for camping during school holidays.

It’s no secret that women love money, and men from these suburbs are a natural target. Some of these women, once married, become housewives, totally dependent on the men for their upkeep. The men, of course, do their best to ‘maintain’

When a top-of-the-range car whooshes past, those on foot or in lesser automobiles stare with envy, praying they too will one day make it. But LYDIA LIMBE warns that often, life on the fast lane isn’t what the needy think

When a top-of-the-range car whooshes

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CRAZY MONDAY / Page 9Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard CRAZY MONDAY / Page 9

thisstrangeworld

“Deep inside, they are insecure and emotionally immature”

psychology’ to whatever is thought of as ‘cool’. If you ‘ain’t ‘cool’ you are automatically excommunicated from their social circle,” says Cate Mukei, an entertainment writer with The Standard.

Even their eating habits are bent on ‘classy’ foods like pizza, burgers and salads. Local, highly nutritious foods like githeri or uji rarely feature on the menu and it is no surprise to see obese children or young adults dying of lifestyle diseases.

In these suburbs, it’s no longer strange for people living in the same house to communicate to each other via Internet.

“Children are holed up in their bedrooms, pecking away on social media, while parents are in the sitting room, watching TV or also on the Internet. There’s minimal face-to-face bonding, resulting in parents being shocked by the realisation that their children are either sexually active at a very early age, or are into drugs and alcohol,” says Tulesi.

ALCOHOL

Even when you see them (children) on the school bus on their way to and from school, you’ll notice they don’t seem social with their peers. Many of them have earphones plugged into their ears, lost in their own world.

Despite having access to the best schools that Nairobi and money has to offer, some of these children have scary drinking and drug habits, bingeing on the most expensive and cheapest liquor alike, in search of validation, which an alcohol high can only give temporarily.

No wonder when those on the leafy side of town want to have a real good time, where strangers bond and have a laugh in seedy pubs despite the challenges in their lives, they go to Eastlands!

But only the watchmen — only they know what a pain it can be to live on the ‘right’ side of town.

Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

house, but to a superbly beautiful woman who spends an inordinate time worrying about her fi gure,” says a house help in Karen who did not wish to be named.

WELL GROOMED

One thing that also stands out with these folks

is that they are well groomed, well

mannered. They take a lot of time, effort and money to look good

and are well trained on proper etiquette.

“They know when to say thank you, please, give way, pull a chair — name it. But deep inside, they are insecure about themselves, and are usually emotionally immature.

“Maybe the one explanation for this is that they have built their lives based on the material things that money can buy. They base their existence on it, so much so that in the event one loses his/her job, or their source of comfort, this automatically drives them to depression. Superfi cial friends don’t hang around when your world goes bust,” explains Basil Tulesi, a counselling

psychologist and tutor based in Mombasa.

Bent on being ‘cool’ they pride in having a lifestyle akin

to the celebrities, the likes of the Kardashians.

“They dress in the latest fashion even if they have to break the bank to look the part, and move in ‘group

women, because it is a refl ection of how ‘manly’ they are.

Aside from being given a luxurious roof over their heads, the rich housewives from these suburbs do nothing other than look good within the house.

“They do not cook or clean. Even a basic chore like spreading the bed is a problem. If they haven’t hired a house help, the men come home to an untidy

Page 10 / CRAZY MONDAY Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

Men aren’t movie stars

According to most men, women talk a lot and are emotional creatures who always wear emotions on their sleeves.

You would think these very qualities would make a woman easy to fi gure out, but shockingly, most men will swear they cannot understand women.

Books have been written, hit songs sang, movies made and research carried out about what women want. But strangely, men often seem clueless on he sub-ject. Come on, we are not that hard to fi gure out!

A RICH MANWomen want a lot of things;

pink sleepers, a Cinderella wed-ding, good gossip, perfect skin, cutex that does not chip, world peace, fries that cause weight loss… and the list goes on. But a number of key foundational needs makes the cornerstone of what every woman wants.

The fi rst thing on every wom-an’s list is a rich man. Yes, I did not make that up. No woman dreams of settling down with a broke man and any woman who

Cupid’s arrow

Women are more interested in a man who listens enthusiasti-cally or at least pretends to, and most importantly, does not give advice unless specifi cally asked.

LISTENJust like men, women too

need a cheerleader who will not only cheer her on and take her side, but one who can sit down and listen.

A little romance also goes a long way. A man, who buys fl ow-ers, not just on Valentine’s Day, on her birthday or an anniver-sary, is a keeper.

However, romance is not just about buying gifts or fl owers. Other departments have to be well taken care of too, particu-larly the bedroom. It would not

It’s amazing how some women always want to keep up with the Joneses, forgetting that different men express their love differently. Besides, how

they do it depends upon circum-stances.

Such women don’t just get it. For instance, when a Kenyan woman sees the leading actor ro-mancing a date, they expect the same treatment at home, forget-ting that even reality TV is about acting.

“Why can’t you treat me like those men on telly, don’t you love me enough?” she will nag again and again.

You see, most women don’t understand the fi ne art of clev-erly seducing a man into being romantic.

“If Brad Pitt is the man you want, go get him!” a buddy of mine yelled at his girlfriend after she nagged him to treat her like the famous American movie star.

KISSING OPENLYWomen need to stop attempt-

ing to change their men into something they saw on TV.

In another incident, another pal also whined about how he re-grets ever taking his girl on holi-day to Mombasa.

He claims that as soon as they hit the ground and she saw other couples holding hands and kiss-ing openly, she wanted the same.

“I couldn’t understand it be-cause ever since we met, she knows I am not the type to en-gage in public display of affec-

tion,” he lamented. Men are dif-ferent. They accept and cherish the basic ways women express love to them, which is, of course, good cooking and cleaning.

So girls, if your man doesn’t buy you fl owers but expresses his love through other means like being responsible, for instance, paying bills, rent and fees in time and, at least, takes you out once a year (on Valentine’s Day), thank God for him because many wom-en hardly get such.

Shower him with kisses. He is perfect.

But the fl owery man in the movies, the one you want your husband to be, isn’t perfect be-cause he doesn’t exist.

tells you different is either your mother, sister, or a liar.

Every woman dreams of nail-ing that rich man who will not only give her security, but pro-vide well for any children born from the union. We may not all land on the moon, but there is nothing wrong with trying.

And it is not all about a man having money but about his abil-ity to generously spend it on his woman. A stingy man is a big turn off.

A man who is sensitive also comes highly recommended. This is basically a man who is comfortable showing affection and attention to his woman. This, by the way, has nothing to do with crying men.

It began with most of our mothers yearning for the elu-sive sensitive man. After miss-ing out, their only hope is that their daughters get one. Unfortu-nately, something seems to have gone terribly wrong because fast-forward to today and most men imagine sensitivity is about crying shamelessly about every-thing and anything!

Being a good listener is a plus.

hurt for men to learn a thing or two about kissing. Oh yes, I said kissing, not pecking or mouth mauling!

Further, a man who is respect-ful, funny (not crude), confi dent, faithful, has a hobby besides bar hopping, can keep his pants zipped up and does not have ba-bies all over town, makes for an almost perfect male specimen.

Finally, women want a man who has a plan and knows where he is going. After all, no woman wants a man who is going no-where, or worse, who does not have a plan.

Page 10 / CRAZY MONDAY

chauvinist/WITH NIKKO TANUI

feminist/WITH SHIRLEY GENGA

What women want

from men

Lovestruck@standardmedia.co.ke

SHARE YOUR LOVE LIFE AND SECRETS

Did you know that ....

•There are fi ve million hair follicles on an average adult.

•The ancient Egyptians slept on pillows made of stone.

•The starfi sh is only animal, which can turn its stomach inside-out.

•A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue.

•The world‘s termites outweigh the world‘s humans ten to one.

•The average computer worker types 90,000 keystrokes in an eight-hour work shift.

•Nerve impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 273.5km per hour.

•There are no clocks in Las Vegas casinos.

My landlord wants a relationship

I have just fi nished college and got a job just the other day. My mother’s friend offered me her servant’s quarters where I live. I have a girlfriend and we are in love. But the problem is that my landlord has been pestering me to sleep with her, yet she is married and my mother’s age mate. All her children are independent and her husband is never home. She is even promising to buy me a car if I start a relationship with her.

What should I do?

Kip, Nairobi

Dr Cupid It depends on how badly you want a

car or your feelings for her. If you are not interested, then you need to let her know, and even threaten to expose her if she gets too aggressive. But if you want to avoid the drama, moving out may not be such a bad idea.

He loves his children more than me

My boyfriend is 40 and I’m 21. He has been married before and has two children with his ex wife. He claims to love me, but he always puts his children and his ex before me when it comes to his time or money. I love this man but I want to be the most important person in his life. What should I do?

Naomi, Kisumu

Dr CupidAren’t you too young for this kind of

drama? Get a man your age for Christ’s sake.

Uneducated boyfriendI have Masters degree and a good

job but unfortunately, my boyfriend has no training — not even a college diploma. After high school, he started a business and has done well for himself. But my friends say it is not wise to date someone who has not gone to university, especially because I have a Masters. Please advice?

Mercy, Eldoret

Dr CupidIf he treats you well and you can both

understand each other, forget the haters and cherish your lollipop.

Is it okay to date my father’s ex?

My mother and father separated four years ago. My dad left my mother for a woman who is my age mate. While going through campus, I stayed with my father as my mother moved to Mombasa to live with her sister after the separation. As a result, I got to know his girlfriend quite well, especially because we are age-mates. In January, she left my father but we continued to communicate. Recently, she told me she loves me and wants us to date. I like her too. Now that I have a job and live alone, is it okay for me to date her?

Martin, Nairobi

Dr CupidAre you for real?

CRAZY MONDAY / Page 11Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

wackyleaks/WITH mark muTaHI

bulletin/WITH FerdInand mWongela

Local star skips match to watch English soccer

A Kenya Premier League (KPL) player is in trouble for failing to honour a club game because it coincided with a game involving his

favourite English Premier League (EPL) club.

The player, who also doubles as the team captain, claimed he had earlier written to the KPL match organisers asking them to postpone the match, but his request fell on dear ears.

clash

“When they said ‘no’, I had no choice but to get my priorities right. In all fairness, the football body should schedule KPL games in such a way that they do not clash with the EPL games so that I don’t miss to watch my team play,” he defended himself.

But a senior football official who spoke to journalists had no kind words for the player.

“The full force of the club laws should be meted on him. This is worse than scoring an own goal. Clearly, his heart is not where his boots are. This idol worship of all things foreign should be condemned in the strongest terms possible,” the football official said.

There was, however, an awkward moment when he momentarily stopped the press conference to

whip out his smart phone and log on to the EPL website for the latest results.

Kenyans of all walks of life heaped stinging criticism on the soccer captain, terming it ‘an act of betrayal’ in pubs and barbershops.

incoherence

“What was he thinking? He ought to be fired immediately for not being patriotic,” raged a middle class city resident who was waving a Chelsea FC scarf before engaging in a shouting match with a patron in rival team colours.

When contacted for comment, the ‘traitor’s’ teammates could not understand what the hullaballoo was all about.

“What’s the big deal? In fact, even our goalkeeper’s wife is threatening to move out of their bedroom because he has Man U posters all over their bedroom,” revealed the team’s vice-captain before being pulled aside by the team’s central defender who dismissed the confession saying it was drunken incoherence.

It is not clear what disciplinary action will be taken against the player but the coach was clearly at a loss for words.

The coach, who swears that he has no foreign influence and in fact boasted that he is perhaps the only

Kenyan who remains undiluted by EPL promised stern action.

Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger would not tolerate such behaviour!” he vowed.

selfish

As expected, patriotic Kenyans on Twitter reacted angrily, saying it was a highly unpatriotic and selfish act, while urging people, from the comfort of their offices, homes and coffee houses, to stream to local stadia in large numbers to support

local football. “It’s ironic how easy it is easy

to fill bars and pubs when there are live EPL matches streaming, yet we can’t fill the stadiums when our own are playing!” the bloggers lamented.

The heated tweeting over the player and local football for hours before social media returned to normalcy, meaning ethnic bashing and bigotry.

Mau Mau hiding in Twitter caves

Last week, the Kenyan na-tional team, arrived in Nigeria, Lagos I believe, and the NFF — the Ni-gerian Football Federa-

tion— gave them a reception that would make a village elder seethe with fury at such belittle-ment.

Pictures of the Harambee Stars — the only word in that name my friends seem to agree is correct is harambee — train-ing in a sandy primary school playing ground did the rounds.

ganging up

Rumour is the poor chaps were booked into a hotel no self respecting company would book its junior staff. All the while, the Nigerian national team was practicing at the match venue in Calabar. That name reminds me of a classic Nigerian movie titled Mama G

that my lecturer once made me watch in the guise of learning something or other about film.

That I am busy writing this means film studies must have gone up in smoke, or they are the source of my wild imagina-tion every now and then. Naija films do that to you.

Anyway, like any other Ke-nyan, I almost called for a harambee for Wanyama and company or start a TT (trending topic for the analogue genera-tion) on Twitter about Shamba la Wanyama, with a bunch of unsavoury hash tags to spice the 140 characters. Someone prob-ably did.

See, harambee today has nothing to do with funds nowa-days for the Twitter generation. It is about ganging up and run-ning roughshod over some poor chap who happens to mention Kenya in the same sentence

with some unsavoury deeds we became famous for in 2007.

lynch mob

At times, however, it is much more humorous, but the bot-tom line is a generation whose engagement with the physi-cal life beyond cheap android phone touchscreens leaves a lot to be desired. I am one of them, thank you.

A joke about our beloved country could get you on the receiving end of the lynch mob

dubbed #KOT (Kenyans on Twitter), ask around.

Heck, even lynching has gone digital, the days of ukiona wao, weka tyre, are fast disap-pearing. Petrol stations and tyre dealers must be having a bad run. Damn Twitter.

Meanwhile, I hear there is a pre-trial status conference or something along those lines about that famous petition to-day.

I can already hear Ekaterina Trendafilova’s voice quietly ad-monishing the then sextet from ‘Kiinya’. Or maybe the poorly coordinated choir from the Tenth Parliament standing out-side in the cold at The Hague will arise. Oops. I hear most of them are out in the cold, this time round for real.

But really guys, we need a hash tag for the NFF. Any sug-gestions?

Page 12 / CRAZY MONDAY Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

fortheloveofthegame/WITH anIl bakarI

sportingsnapshots

ball firmly on the tee, Kibaki went for the first stroke as a crowd of excited golfers waited to applaud him. He missed it!

Silence followed. The second whack was as miserable as the first one. His third try, at least, yielded something but the ball did not go far.

You may call it the curse of being president, but Mr Moi and President Kibaki, much as they hit nothing, showed us that they appreciated sports and were keen to uplift the sector.

The former even started a football tournament in his honour to keep football glory aflame. Unfortunately, there is little to recall about their vice-presidents on sports matters.

Now we are on the verge of getting a new leadership. And it may be the dot.com generation of President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, Wil-liam Ruto (if the Supreme Court con-firms their victory).

So far, we have not seen them asso-ciate with any sport in their public life both as MPs and Cabinet ministers. As president and vice-president, it would, however, be proper that they lead by example in sports.

My bet is Mr Uhuru may go the Obama way — basketball. He has the agility, the swag and the height to play this ‘elite’ sport. To cup it all, he is left-handed, which I hear is an added ad-

The pictures of Mzee Moi and President Kibaki missing to hit the ball during their attempts at cricket and golf respec-tively have refused to escape

my mind for years ever since a friend showed them to me.

Whenever an opportunity arises, as it does right now, I always share the contents of the photos taken about two decade ago to anyone who cares.

In the first case, the game was cricket and the cast involved retired President Moi, a handful of top offi-cials in Government and some cricket players. The former president, as we recall, was a hands on man who led by example. He thus wanted to teach the nation that playing cricket was no rocket science.

bowl

With a bat tightly clenched in his hands, the president waited patiently for one of the cricket players to bowl so that he could hit the ball. It happened, but he missed the target.

The second throw was no different, but in the third, he hit the ball but it did not go two metres away. Okay, for-get the sideshows, the intended mes-sage was made.

A similar thing happened to outgo-ing President Kibaki, whose dalliance with golf is an open secret. With the

There is a storm in the local cricket circles, which started as a ‘small beef’ but has degenerated into a mon-ster that is threatening to cripple the game.

The game’s umpires have been on strike for the past month over a pay dispute with Nairobi Provincial Crick-et Association (NPCA). The umpires claim they have not been paid for ser-vices rendered.

NPCA officials were mum on the issue, but what was worrying is that despite the strike, a crucial tourna-ment meant to help develop the game was going on, with the teams employ-ing their own umpires after agreeing on how to share the costs in the over 50 matches.

This is what makes Kenya unique in many aspects. A regional associa-tion organises a crucial tournament, teams pay some money for registra-tion, yet they end up hiring their own umpires to oversee matches.

Where else can such happen? It is unfathomable that organisers of Af-rican Cup of Nations abdicating their responsibilities and letting teams hire coaches to officiate their matches.

You and I know that’s the easiest way to kick corruption into the pitch. Again, who owns the final results of the tournament? NPCA should be re-minded that umpires also have stom-achs and they must eat well, too.

Cricket umpires don’t run on airIt’s time to play

games for fun Mr President

vantage in the game. I am not sure about Mr Ruto, but

he could take to polo or even mara-thon running. Come on, he is a young man and has the energy to compete in a 42km race. Besides, he campaigned for two months for the Jubilee alliance without resting.

The bottom-line is we expect the new chief to spend some time on the lawns of State House promoting sports.

PUT oN FACES: Good things come in pairs. boyS’ world: Muscle in, muscle out. GoATISH: You have heard, men are animals.

Gor Mahia FC and Tusker FC are technically out of the CAF Confederations Cup champi-onships, dashing hopes for Kenya to stamp authority in

regional football. Gor needs to win at least four-nil

against Egypt’s ENNPI to qualify for the second round of the games after they were whitewashed three-nil in Cairo.

On the other hand, Tusker needs to beat Al Ahly by at least three-one to remain in the tournament after they

Uphill task for Gor and Tusker FCwere whipped two-one at Nyayo Sta-dium.

drEAm

Now, the task that is facing the two prolific Kenyan clubs is magnani-mous. But, the good thing is that win-ning against Al Ahly and ENNPI is an achievable dream.

It is obvious that Tusker and Gor Mahia coaches are hopeful that they can pull a surprise and pita kati kati yao. Well, we will cross our fingers.

But the big question is, why don’t

Kenyan teams measure up to their peers on the continental stage? Is it that our football levels are so low that the skills we take to regional tourna-ments are equivalent to what village football teams in Egypt play?

Kenyans teams have never sparkled in regional games. The performance of Gor and Tusker proves that we are de-cades away from reaching Al Ahly and ENNPI standards.

Perhaps clubs should take break from CAF tournament and concen-trate on building skills instead.

CRAZY MONDAY / Page 13Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard CRAZY MONDAY / Page 13–

Irresponsible men

To hell with handshakes

Some men ought to be a shamed of them. Why would a man spend a lot of money entertaining a prostitute in exchange of a romp, while he absconds his responsibilities like providing basic necessities at homes?

Such men leave families at the mercies of neigbours and strangely, when cornered by their wives and children, they foam at the mouth and become very rude.

They hardly spend time with their families to know what-ever problems they face. It is high time such men became re-sponsible for the good of society.

Felix Muriithi

No greeting, so it seems, is considered complete without a handshake. A handshake, apart from being a sign of warm regards and a show of friendliness, proves the goodwill that exists between involved parties.

The ugly bit about handshakes is that some of those hands are always from doing some strange things. For in-stance, when they are not from blowing noses, they are from scratching some not so public body parts. And to make matters worse, they are at times, very moist with sweat.

In this era of communicable diseases, people ought to keep their hands to themselves. If there must be some physical contact, for health reasons, let it be a clenched fist bump (gota).

Paul Kariuki

As the adage goes, two is company, three is a crowd. That’s why it’s irritating when some lovebirds feel they fancy each other to the extent of violating others’ rights.

It’s disturbing when you bump into un-bothered lovers holding hands, hugging or kissing along busy city streets, forcing pedestrians to go around them like they were a tree-stump.

One wonders why they can’t spare the public such display of affection for the bedroom.

James Mwangi

Public display of affection

petpeevesjokes

There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed his desire to become a great writer. When asked to define ‘great’ he said, “I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make them scream, cry, howl in pain and anger!” He now writes error messages for Microsoft Corporation.

***Everyone was seated around the table as the food was being served. When little Johnny received his plate, he started eating straight away. “Johnny, wait until we‘ve said our prayer,” his mother reminded him. “I don‘t have to,” the little boy replied.”Of course you do,“ his mother insisted. “We say a prayer before eating at our house.“ “That‘s at our house,” Johnny explained, “but this is grandma‘s house and she knows how to cook.”

***I recently asked a friend, “Has your son decided what he wants to be when he grows up?” “Yes, he wants to be a garbage collector,” my friend replied. I had to think about that one for a moment. “That‘s a rather strange ambition to have for a career,” I finally managed to reply. “Well,” said the boy‘s father, “he thinks that garbage collectors only work on Tuesdays.

*** A blind man walks into a bar, taps the man next him, and says, “Hey, you want to hear a blond joke?” The man says back to the blind man, “Look my friend, I‘m blond. The man behind me is a 400-pound professional wrestler and he is blond. The bouncer is blond. The man sitting over to your left is also blond. You still want to tell that blond joke?” The blind man goes silent for a moment and then says, “Nope, I wouldn‘t want to explain it five times.”

***Doctor: I have some bad news and some very bad news. Patient: Well, might as well give me the bad news first. Doctor: The lab called with your test results. They said you have 24 hours to live. Patient: 24 HOURS! That‘s terrible! WHAT could be WORSE? What‘s the very bad news? Doctor: I‘ve been trying to reach you since yesterday.

***It is advised that you go to work dressed according to your salary. If you are seen wearing Prada shoes and carrying a Gucci bag, they assume you are doing well financially and, therefore, do not need a raise. If you dress poorly, you need to learn to manage your money better, so that you buy nicer clothes and, therefore, do not need a raise. If you dress just right, you are right where you need to be and do not, therefore, need a raise.

Page 14 / CRAZY MONDAY Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

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Page 14 / CRAZY MONDAY

GRACE NAKATO / ugandanaffairs

Marriage turns into a plaything

President Yoweri Museveni sounded the death knell on the Gay Bill during a meeting with United

States human rights activists. M7 pledged to investigate

claims of violence against homo-sexuals.

“You have a lot of room in your house, why don’t you go there? Sex is a bilateral issue, not a mul-tilateral one,” said the president.

This left the Marriage and Divorce Bill, lately dubbed the “Detoothing Bill”, to take centre stage. To “detooth” in Uglish is to get maximum economic benefits from someone, without fulfilling your end of the bargain. More often, it refers to women reap-ing maximum economic benefits from men and then vanishing into thin air.

We have a very laissez faire ap-proach to marriage, with most be-ing ‘come we stay’ arrangements

for the economic convenience of both parties.

Divorce has always been a ca-sual affair where you simply walk out of home, never to return.

Take the recent case of Annet, whose first marriage to Living-stone in 1999 was a ‘come-we-stay’ that bore two children. She was an unemployed party girl who would be out visiting friends past midnight, and quarrels in the home were the norm.

In 2010, she packed every-thing, including the children, and disappeared. Neigbours had to inform a dumbfounded Living-stone that she had said he would join them at the new house later. Livingstone’s consultations with the in-laws only salvaged custody of his children.

In the interim, Fred had been dating Annet and they soon mar-ried just before he went abroad to seek financial gains. Annet

kept in touch with Livingstone and would take the children on outings and even spend nights at his place. Fred sent money for his wife’s upkeep and kept in touch via email and phone calls. Kampala being the gossip capital of the world that it is, Fred soon heard about his wife’s infidelity and partying.

Fred came back earlier this month, only to vanish after walk-ing out for a smoke four days later.

The in-laws hauled Annet to the police station the next morn-ing to explain his whereabouts and also “divorced” her, as she

had not borne them children. She languished in the coolers for some days.

hiding

The twist in the tale was that Fred got nabbed by plain-clothes police who were gather-ing clues in their neighborhood. He explained that he had come to change clothes having gone into hiding to investigate rumours of his wife’s infidelity.

Fred remained in police cus-tody while Annet was released, only to find his in-laws had put a ‘To Let’ sign at her home.

CRAZY MONDAY / Page 15Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard CRAZY MONDAY / Page 15

Stories on this page are compiled from Internet sources thismadworld

The council in England has been accused of ‘murder-ing’ punctuation marks after they had abolished apostrophes from street

names.When council officers in a ru-

ral English district took the curi-ous decision to do away with the apostrophe, because it caused ‘confusion’, they may have be-lieved that the humble punctua-tion mark was too small and in-significant for anyone to care.

But they counted without the punctilious devotees of tradi-tional grammar who came to its aid and accused them of nothing short of ‘murder’.

pointlessThe move was branded “ap-

palling, disgusting and point-less” by John Richards, founder and chairman of the Apostrophe Protection Society. One other critic was heard saying that the absence of the marks made her “shudder”.

The council was further ac-cused of being contemptuous of the English language.

“The whole point is absurd and I don’t know why they would do that. Apostrophes are just so easy to learn and are an essen-tial part of the English language,” said a critic.

Some even suggested that it

could represent a creeping threat that might even result in the en-dangerment of those grammati-cal stalwarts, the comma and the capital letter.

Officials at Mid Devon coun-cil, ever alert to the perils of ev-eryday life and eager to introduce new regulations, have proposed abolishing apostrophes from street names to “avoid potential confusion”.

A ‘risk assessment’ had con-cluded that a policy on street names ought to be adopted, which formalised a long-stand-ing practice in the district that they did not have apostrophes.

emergency“If we didn’t have a clear street

name and number policy in place, it could lead to inappropri-ate and confusing street names which could also have adverse consequences in times of emer-gency,” a spokesman explained.

But Steve Jenner, spokesman for the Plain English Campaign, said that the council seems to insinuate that it simply doesn’t fancy apostrophes anymore.

“What if they don’t like com-mas or full stops or capital let-ters? There is no need to murder the apostrophe, it is very much needed in the English language,” he said.

The council pointed out that

A tree brought by President Obama as a gift to Israeli President Shimon Peres was planted at Peres’ residence Wednesday but

was ordered uprooted soon after by the Israeli Agricultural ministry because it had not passed proper testing. Israeli website Ynet re-ported.

Obama took the sapling mag-nolia tree from the United States to Israeli aboard Air Force One.

“It is an incredible honour to offer this tree to this beauti-ful garden, and to someone who is champion of the Israeli people and a champion of peace,” Obama told Peres, after the planting.

pests

But Ynet reported that the tree was soon ordered uprooted to un-dergo testing for pests.

“As president of the United States, Barack Obama has brought the plant with him and because agricultural products are not al-lowed into Israel from abroad without passing inspection, for

fear of diseases or pests that can be found on the plant itself, it will be uprooted for testing,” the Min-istry of Agriculture explained, ac-cording to a rough translation in the Ynet report.

However, the Israeli govern-ment has come out refuting claims that they intend to uproot the magnolia tree.

“The Office of the President and the Ministry of Agriculture would like to clarify that, contrary to recent reports, the magnolia

only three streets in the district, which has a population of 78,000, currently have them.

Beck’s Square and Blundell’s Avenue, both in Tiverton, and St George’s Well, in Cullompton, are not at risk of losing their apostro-phes, which were bestowed on them many years ago, and any new signs will maintain the punc-tuation, the council said.

Councilors will vote on the proposal on March 28.

Mary de Vere Taylor, a proof reader from Ashburton, pointed to the examples of St Andrews Close in the town, and Bakers View in Newton Abbot, already bereft of apostrophes.

“It is as if something intrinsic

to English education for a long time is now being wiped out be-cause it’s not needed or recogn-ised or people assume they don’t need it.

“It does grate very deeply and saddens me that there is probably a generation or two, or maybe three, that is just unaware of the apostrophe or the correct placing of it. To me there’s something ter-ribly British and terribly reassur-ing about well-written and well-punctuated writing,” said Taylor.

The policy may be greeted with alarm by residents of neigh-bouring Devon district but Tor-ridge council said it had no plans to abolish the exclamation mark from the village of Westward Ho!

tree, given as a gift to President Peres by US President Barack Obama, and planted in the gar-den of the resident (sic), will not be removed from its place,” reads a statement issued by the Israeli government.

The authorities further noted that all the tests will be carried out at the garden without neces-sarily uprooting the tree. „

“All the necessary tests will be conducted without uprooting the tree,” read the statement read.

Ukranian parliamentarians fight over speech language

The Ukrainian parliament was briefly suspended on Tuesday after lawmakers from the nationalist Svoboda party brawled with opposition politicians over the language used in a speech.

The leader of the ruling Party of Regions faction, Oleksandr Yefremov, delivered a speech in Russian, which angered members of the nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party, who chanted “Ukrainian!” as he spoke.

Afterwards, lawmakers from the Svoboda party approached opposition members and a brawl erupted.

The chairman of the Ukrainian parliament, Volodymyr Rybak, could be heard appealing for calm.

Lawmakers have frequently scuffled in the Ukrainian parliament.

mother regrets why judge didn’t jail her daughter

A middle class mother whose daughter looted their family home has condemned a judge for letting her go free.

Ruth Lynch, 45, has called for her 19-year-old daughter, Jennice, to be locked up after her family was left devastated when she burgled the luxury property three times in a month.

Jennice invaded her parents’ rural home in Whitworth, Lancashire when they were out, in one raid stealing a gold and diamond bracelet and a treasured gold Jaguar watch.

Mrs Lynch had been deliberately targeted by her own daughter even though she had tried to help her financially, bought her a flat and looked after her two young children.

Mrs Lynch, who has four other daughters including an accountant, a company manager and a university student, later told police she was disgusted with her daughter‘s behaviour and wanted her jailed. She said she had never had any problems with any of her other children.

sea lion crosses

busy road in BrazilThe half-tonne creature crawled out of the water in the beach resort of Balneario Camboriu in the southern state of Santa Catarina, then found its way onto the town‘s main boulevard.

Traffic ground to a halt for 20 minutes as the three-metre long sea lion slid across the busy road. It may have been the animal‘s first foray onto a main road, but it did obey the law by using a zebra crossing to make its way across the street.

Police and firefighters threw water over the sea lion to keep it wet. Compiled Tony Malesi

Apostrophist corrects punctuation on street signs

Obama’s tree in Israeli president garden to be uprooted

crazymix

COFFEE BREAK: MORE PUZZLES, BRAIN TEASERS AND GAMES INSIDE

XTRAMonday, March 25, 2013

Smart blood-testing device

Tributes to Chinua Achebe PAGE 12

Mind-controlled computing for the disabled

PAGE 7

PAGE 6

PAGE 7

Kibera has world worst case of ‘slum’ disease

CLEAN WATER

STILL A MIRAGE

FOR ALL

New programme

seeks to reduce deaths from waterborne

diseases by half PAGES 2-4

COVERSTORY

diseases through the use of treated water has had a signifi-cant impact in Nyanza and western Kenya.

The project, run by Innova-tion for Poverty Action (IPA), an NGO that initiates programmes to alleviate pover-ty in developing countries, has reduced the level of afflictions in areas most prone to water-related diseases.

Kenya is classified by the United Nations as a chronically water-scarce country, and currently ranks 21 for the worst levels of access to portable water in the world.

Water-related challenges in Kenya are not limited to water supply and sanitation services. The country is plagued with chronic cycles of flooding and drought that are increasing in frequency and severity, in part exacerbated by climate change, coupled with population growth, significant upland watershed destruction, and non-equitable distribution of water resources.

In 2008, only 59 per cent of Kenyans had access to safe water.

However, more Kenyans could soon have clean water on their door step if programmes to sanitise drinking water are well cascaded. The IPA estimates that in five years when a chlorine dispensers programme will be fully imple-mented nationally, it will scale down waterborne diseases by almost half to nearly three million.

It says five million people are exposed to the programme and this has reduced to 2.3 million cases of diarrhoea. The deaths of children under the age of five years has also declined significantly to 2,230.

Cholera claims around 1,000 lives annually in Kenya and last year, more than 5,000 children under the age of five died from diarrhoea.

These numbers are likely to rise if the programme is not rolled out nationally, according

By PETER ORENGO

Even as the number of Kenyans dying from disease continues to decline, waterborne

afflictions have maintained a death grip on the country’s workforce with malaria killing 34,000 in 2012 even as cholera claimed 1,000 lives.

Millions more patients spend countless hours in hospitals seeking treatment for diarrhoea, cholera, typhoid, guinea worm, bilhar-zia, malaria, yellow fever, river blindness and sleeping sickness — diseases that can in most cases be prevented.

A programme to reduce afflictions by waterborne

2 THE STANDARD EXTRA

The Standard / Monday, March 25, 2013

Pilot campaign to clean up

fact file

34,000 The number of Kenyans who died from malaria in 2012

59 per cent In 2008, only 59 per cent of Kenyans had access to clean drinking water

SH 88,000The amount of money spent to prevent 494 people from getting diarrhoea

1,0oo DeAtHS Cholera casualtiesAlthough cholera only killed 1,000 people in 2012, this disease and other waterborne afflictions could soon become the number one killer in the country. Diarrhoea remains a leading killer of children—Kenya Health Demographic Survey 2011

to research conducted jointly by Kenya Medical Research Institute and the US Centres for Disease Control, which predicts diarrhoea, typhoid and cholera, will overtake malaria as the country’s largest health threat by 2020.

“Treating water with chlorine has been shown to reduce diarrhoea in children by an average 41 per cent.

Randomised controlled trials in Kenya over three years and four rounds of surveys have indicated that adoption consist-ently remained at 50 to 61 per cent, the IPA research found.

Waterborne diseases account for approximately 70 per cent to 80 per cent of health issues.

Most recently, an outbreak of cholera affected 32 districts nationwide with a total of 4,185 cases and a case fatality rate of 2.2 per cent since 2009, accord-ing data from the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).

Common water illnesses in Kenya include cholera, typhoid, guinea worm and bilharzia, while water-related diseases are malaria, yellow fever, river blindness and sleeping sickness.

Diarrhoea remains a leading killer of children, according to Kenya Health Demographic Survey 2011.

Improving access to clean water and sanitation would dramatically reduce illness and death in poor countries — a clean water supply reduces diarrhoea-related death by up to 25 per cent, while improved sanitation reduces it by 32 per cent.

An IPA research in Kenya notes: “Dispensing chlorine for free at community water sourc-es is an easy way to promote the practice of chlorinating water, and no major behaviour-al change is required because chlorination is integrated with the act of gathering water.

Source dispensers, in combi-nation with paid community promoters, increased chlorine

usage by 57 per cent in commu-nities in Kenya, and prevented an estimated 494 diarrheal incidents per $1,000 (Sh88,000) spent.

The actual cost of this inter-vention is likely to be even lower if the programme is scaled up, as the cost of producing dispensers will fall when mass produced and increased dispenser density will reduce chlorine distribu-tion costs

The goal of water treatment is either to physically remove or to inactivate waterborne pathogens. This is done prima-rily through filtration and disinfection through boiling, chlorination and ozonation.

Ozonation refers to the process that introduces ozone into water, either by injecting the gas or by creating it via exposure to ultra violated radiation.

One one of the areas where

Medical cases of bilharzia, river blindness and guinea worms could be cut by half if programme to santise water is rolled out across the country, survey demonstrates

the chlorination programme has been successful in western Kenya is Busia.

Busia and neighbouring districts have been prone to flooding mostly because the porous cotton soil and flat terrain compromise drainage.

Busia district public sanita-tion officer, Ambrose Fwamba says 61 per cent of households now chlorinate their water, up from only two per cent when the campaign began.

“People used to respond to safety whenever there was an outbreak of diseases.

Once the disease was contained, they went back to their old habits—but not anymore.”

Last year, Nambale District won the World Toilet Day award for being the only district in tropical world with 100 per cent toilet cover — the rest of the districts in western Kenya are yet to catch up.

Villagers access treated water at a water point.

COVERSTORY

We have been using chlorine tablets and other means such as boiling water in the campaign for clean water — Ambrose Fwamba, Busia District public sanitation o� cer

3THE STANDARD EXTRA

Friday, Monday, March 25, 2013/ The Standard

By JUMA KWAYERA

For three years now Mama Elizabeth Amogong has not visited a hospital to

seek treatment for cholera or typhoid. Neither has she taken any of her three young children to Busia District Hospital or Alupe Hospital in Teso district for severe diarrhoea—a common occurrence in the past.

“My children now attend school regularly. My husband has time to look for kibarua (menial jobs) to provide for the family. On my part, I have more time to tend to our small farm that is our main of livelihood,” Amogong, in her late 30s, says.

The source of joy in Mogola village where Amogong lives is a new water treatment concept that has for the past three years registered success in the fi ght against water contamination that accounted for nearly half the diseases treated at all health centres in western Kenya.

Public sanitation o� cials in the area say improved sanita-tion is an outcome of a water treatment campaign that has seen the number of people with access to clean drinking water

Development: Families in western Kenya tap into the benefi ts of using treated water

dramatically shoot up. The Dispensers for Safe

Water (DSW) is the latest in a series of attempts to reduce water contamination in western Kenya, which accord-ing to research fi ndings by US-based Buckley and Stanford universities, accounts for approximately 41 per cent of diseases treated in local hospitals and dispensaries.

Alarmed by high incidence of diarrhoea, researchers from the two institutions carried out tests in various households and discovered that nearly 85 per cent of water in the area was contaminated with faecal matter.

Busia District public sanita-tion o� cer Ambrose Fwamba and his Nambale counterpart Ojwang Simiyu share the opinion that open defecation by humans, domestic animals and wildlife are major sources of contamination.

Therefore, as the safe water campaign water picks up, the

Contaminated untreated water is responsible for most of the diseases in Western Province.

Pilot campaign to clean up

o� cers have initiated a comple-mentary anti-open defecation e� ort to mop up pathogens that circulate through underground water and surface run-o� .

“We have been using chlorine tablets and other means such as boiling water in the campaign for clean water. However, it did not have a signifi cant impact on diarrhoea incidence as only four per cent of the population adopted it,” says Fwamba. Nevertheless the Dispensers for Safe Water campaign has had a signifi cant impact on the fi ght against water contamination.

The campaign involves installing chlorine dispensers at points of water collection. Each dispenser, a fi ve-litre ‘tank’, is fi lled with chlorine, which is dispensed in quanti-ties of three millilitres for a 20-litre container. The dispens-er is calibrated to issue three millilitres when its knob is turned full circle.

The dispensers are installed in schools, hospitals, shopping

water reduces cholera

CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

Pain: Coping with rampant diseases

By JUMA KWAYERA

Water problems in much of western Kenya are a classical

case of scarcity amidst plenty. Years of trying to persuade local residents to treat water before drinking have until recent years not had an impact because the initiatives were deemed either too expensive or the water too smelly because of the chlorine used.

The results of the reluctance to treat were sometimes fatal with water-borne disease-relat-ed deaths. Often, parents were forced to abandon their daily chores to attend to ailing children bedridden for consuming contaminated water. At Nasira Primary School in Nambale District, two

boreholes and two springs, each with installed chlorine dispensers, serve a population of 860 pupils and 400 house-holds around the institution.

When we visited the school, the deputy head teacher, Wilfred Okoth, narrated the extent to which dirty water was a serious distraction to learn-ing. Those who live in the area are exposed to pathogens that result in cholera, dysentery, typhoid and diarrhoea—all water-related. Okoth says prior to the installation of the dispensers, absenteeism was rampant.

“There were many incidenc-es of diarrhoea. In extreme cases when there was an outbreak of cholera, the school would be forced to close to stop

COVERSTORY

Pain: Coping with the stigma of diseases

FACTFILEThe e country is plagued with chronic cycles of flooding and drought that are increasing in frequency and severity, in part exacerbated by climate change, coupled with population growth, significant upland watershed destruction, and non-equitable distribution of water resources.

It’s all smiles for

villagers at this water

point.

Tapping into the benefits of treated water

4 THE STANDARD EXTRA

The Standard / Monday, March 25, 2013

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

centres and village water points from where water is fetched for domestic use. So far 405 dispensers have been installed at community water points, out of which 33 are in primary schools and 15 near hospitals, which are considered critical catchment areas for awareness creation.

This model of water treat-ment is distributed to a population of 600,000 people, with plans underway to spread to the rest of the country, particularly where water sanitation is a serious health challenge.

Innovation for Poverty Action (IPA), a non-govern-mental organisation, is behind the drive for clean water. It has carried out an impact assess-ment and notes that the dispensers to have widely been accepted in rural areas.

IPA calls for point-of-use chlorination—where house-holds add disinfectant after water has been collected from the source so that germs are killed and re-contamination

during transport and storage is avoided.

Research findings link health problems in this densely populated region to contami-nated water and the high cost of cleaning in it.

“Piped water that delivers uncontaminated, chlorinated water to households can reduce diarrhoea by up to 95 per cent, but is prohibitively expensive for most of the devel-oping world, at an estimated cost of Sh1,800 per month for a household. It’s been suggested that policymakers should consider more cost-effective options,” IPA observes.

However, even after house-holds were supplied with chlorine for water treatment, the uptake has remained dangerously low, Eric Kouska-lis, the director of programmes, Dispensers for Safe Water campaign, says. His organisa-tion has championed a water safety drive in Kisumu, Busia, Siaya, Kakamega and Bungo-ma districts and works with the ministries of Health, Education and Local Govern-

ment. The Dispensers for Safe Water campaign kicked off as a pilot project in 2009 to fight extreme poverty in Busia and has since been adopted to cover the rest of the country and eastern Uganda, often a casualty of frequent outbreaks of cholera, typhoid and diarrheal diseases.

Last August the technology was used to roll back the disease in less than two weeks when Uganda faced a national outbreak of cholera.

The health campaign has been internationally recog-nised as one that offers the best hope in the fight against perennial water-related diseases.

In Kenya, the campaign is expected to be rolled out to

cover more than 12 million people in the western Kenya, Eastern and Coast provinces.

While the chlorine provision initiative is proving to be a major success in rural areas, the uptake in urban and semi-urban settlements has been slow. Now health workers in Western and Nyanza provinces are calling on the government to take a much active part in the campaign.

While nearly three quarters of the country is in need of water, the irony is that villagers fear to drink water in rain-en-dowed parts of Nyanza and Western provinces

This is the region where 41 per cent of diseases that afflict children under the age of ten are water related.

rapid spread of the disease. This affected school attendance and because the syllabus was not fully covered, candidates from the area were ill prepared for national examinations.

“At home, parents would be forced to take their sick children to hospital, which ate into their time as family bread-winners,” says the deputy head teacher.

Absenteeism has been controlled and basic hygienic is emphasised, Okoth says. The school has become a water collection centre for the community that lives around the school. Availability of treat-ed water at a low cost comes with added incentives — that of

washing hands with disinfect-ants. Nambale public health and sanitation officer James Ojwang Simiyu says “oral contamination” is a major health issue. In schools and hospitals, health-workers have taken the hand-washing campaign seriously — it is a major component of disease prevention.

The World Health Organisa-tion (WHO) estimates that health budgets would be reduced by half if washing with disinfectants became more prevalent.

Against this backdrop, says Simiyu, “water treatment and hand-washing are an effective medium of controlling oral infection or contamination. It

is an open secret that water treatment and hand-washing are behavioural issues and we have initiated a campaign in schools and health centres — as catchment areas for diarrhoea — to ensure that provision of chlorine dispens-ers is addressed hand in hand with increased awareness of the risks of open defecation,” Simiyu says.

Dispensers for safe water have been provided in areas where underground water is contaminated. “Most villagers use shallow wells. Such wells are susceptible to underground contamination.”

With the inherent dangers posed by infected water, residents are increasingly

avoiding to drink raw water.Gabriel Emongais, the

headsman of the Mogola village in Teso District, says they often had to spend between Sh200 and Sh1,000 to treat diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid and this forced most villagers to avoid drinking water. He says spending money on diseases impover-ishes local people as it deprives them of their basic needs.

But now they have chlorine to treat water. “We are no longer troubled by stomach problems or diarrhoea. We now spend more time on economic activities and not looking for treatment or nursing the sick,” Emongais says.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

PICTURETHIS

PHOTOS: BONIFACE OKENDO/STANDARD

MR SPEAKER, PLEASE NOTE . .. .... that a picture is worth a thousand words

Monday, March 25, 2013/ The Standard

THE STANDARD EXTRA 5

Former House Speaker Francis ole Kaparo lets

his camera do the talking . . . for a change Hillarious

ShockingDramatic Hillarious

ShockingHillarious Dramatic

ShockingShocking

ShockingShocking Dramatic

ShockingDramaticDramatic

Every Mondayat 7:30pm

Every Mondayat 7:30pm

THE STANDARD EXTRA6

FIRST PERSON

HEALTH

World’s worst case s of ‘slum’ disease in Kenya

The most di� cult part of having diabetes for me is not the disease condition itself, but all the precautionary measures I have to

take. I watch what I eat and monitor my blood glucose levels to ensure they are at a balance with insulin to enable my body work at its peak. There are guidelines I follow but they are many. For those, like me, who have to monitor their sugar o� en, let me break down the guidelines to make it easier to effect them. Before you start testing, wash your hands with warm soapy water and avoid using the same site.

When to test Before each meal One or two hours a� er a meal Before bedtime In the middle of the night Before exercise During and a� er a physical activity During times of increased stress Before and during pregnancy Before and a� er drinking alcohol More attention should be paid when: On a trip,

during sick days or starting a new treatment plan.

Ask your doctor to interpret results and the lifestyle adjustments to make based on the results.

Do not forget to keep records a� er every test to assist in management.

Improvement of self test Get the blood fl ow to your fi ngertips by massaging

the fi nger gently or letting your arm hang by your side for a while a� er washing. Keep your fi ngertips so� by using a hand lotion regularly. Try not to lance too deeply.—Compiled by Diana Wangari

Self-monitoring blood glucose

Unlike in other areas where diarrheal disease are linked to rain patterns, in Kibera it is an all seasons disease because of lack of adequate sanitary facilities and raw sewage fl owing all year round in open drainage channels. In fact, human and animal wastes drain into open sewage runo� here and in other slums.

“Drinking water is often obtained from unregulated vendors using illegal connec-tions to a municipal piped

The researchers covered areas resided by about 30,000 people in the Gatwikera and west Soweto parts of Kibera collecting stool samples and sending them to Kisumu for analysis. The two institutions have a specialised microbiol-ogy laboratory in Kisumu.

Women aged between 35-49 were found to have a higher incidence of the disease compared to men of the same age.

“It is not clear why women are at an increased risk of being infected with shigella; however, it is conceivable that they had a greater risk of being infected by young children,” says the study.

Generally, infants and people over 50 years had the lowest levels of the bacteria.

The low incidence of the bacteria in infants, the study suggests, may be partially explained by induced immunity conferred by breastfeeding.

“Our fi ndings of low incidence of shigellosis in people over 50 years may be because of acquired protective immunity or, perhaps, to safer hygiene or food preparation practices.”

Many of the isolated strains, the researchers say, were resistant to commonly availa-ble and a� ordable antibiotics and the researchers call for careful use of these medicines among patients at all levels.

By GATONYE GATHURA

O ne in every 200 people living in Kibera and other Kenyan slums

su� ers from a bloody diarrheal disease called shigellosis, which is also becoming di� culty to treat with common and cheaper medicines.

The Kenya Medical Research Institute and the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention say the levels of this diarrheal disease in the country is among the highest in the world even surpassing the slums of Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan.

Published early this month in the journal Plos One, the researchers warn that the problem of shigellosis could be much bigger even in rural areas and may become a major health burden.

Shigellosis is an infectious disease caused by a group of bacteria called shigella. Most people who are infected with shigella develop diarrheal, fever, and stomach cramps starting a day or two after they are exposed to the bacte-ria. The diarrhoea is often bloody.

A severe infection with high fever may be associated with seizures in children less than two years old. Some persons who are infected may have no symptoms at all, but may still pass on the shigella bacteria.

Health.info

House warming good for healthA United Kingdom study has found that enhancing temperatures in the house to thermal comfort is good for both physical and mental wellbeing. “The main message is that housing improvement can improve health, especially if its warmth and energy improvement target people with respiratory illnesses,” Hilary Thomson, the study’s lead author from the Medical Research Council in the UK, told Reuters.

Numbers in the study

Population in Kibira slums the researchers covered.

30,000

35-49Age of women found to be more vulnerable to the disease than men.

People aged 50 years and above were found to have lowest levels of infection.

50 The institutions involved in the research.2

1-2

One in every 200 people in Kenya’s slums suffers from the disease.

200The symptoms of the disease develop a day or two a� er infection.

water system, a situation that facilitates contamination of water supplies.”

Food is traded at unregu-lated outdoor markets that often lack basic hygiene standards. The team recom-mends that slums are supplied with adequate and clean water and decent sanitary facilities.

And that residents must practice good hygiene such as hand washing to prevent such communicable diseases.

Waxing bikini lines causes infections Shaving or waxing pubic hair may increase the risk of Molluscum contagium, a contagious viral skin infection, French researchers have warned in a paper published in the British Medical Journal. The researchers found that‘micro trauma, which is caused by either waxing or shaving, might aid the spread of the infection which primarily infects through skin-to-skin contact, touching contaminated objects and sex, to other body parts.

RESEARCH

Stress at work can cause dementia Constantly being stressed at work increases the risk of developing dementia, researchers have warned. A study has found that stress hormones — which are elevated in the brain when a person is harassed — inhibit the activities of the brain. The study further indicates that when the hormone levels are chronically elevated the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease increase.

—Compiled by Gardy Chacha

The Standard / Monday, March 25, 2013

One in 200 people residing in slums such as Kibira suffer from the infec-tious shigellosis disease. TOP INSET: The bacteria.

HEALTH

BEAUTY

THE STANDARD EXTRA

Monday, March 25, 2013/ The Standard

7

Smartphone breathalyser tells you if you are safe to driveA Sh1,720 smartphone breathalyser dubbed Breathometer might be the new tool to end drunk driving. The Breathometer connects to a phone’s headphone jack as an attachment.

It has an accompanying mobile app that reads the users blood alcohol content (BAC) when they breathe onto. Also, it gives warning if the driver’s alcohol levels are high, and then encourages them to use alternative transportation by connecting them to cabs and public buses. It stows in your pocket or on a keyring, and may be more stylish than carrying a hefty BAC measuring device into a bar or club.

BlackBerry 10 comes with health care apps The BlackBerry Z10 promises to have several health care applications for users to choose from. Its BlackBerry World app store offers health care apps for doctors to make medical decisions and fitness enthusiasts to track their progress. The phone has fitness tools, resources on medications and medical terms, and viewers for radiology images according to Derek Peper, vice president for

enterprise partnerships at BlackBerry.

BlackBerry Vice President for Global Sales Paul Lucier said, “Healthcare was an area we want to focus, whether it’s with tablet, smartphone, and also our software.” Healthcare will be a strong focus for the company as it seeks to make its comeback even though it has not announced a new tablet when it launched two smartphones last month.

Walgreens building a ‘Net-Zero energy’ drug store Walgreens, an American online pharmacy recently announced its plan to erect a ‘net-zero’ energy store to replace an older one. The new store has been designed to use wind, solar, and geothermal power to produce as much energy than it needs to run.

The ‘green’ store uses LED lighting and daylight harvesting, along with ultra high-efficiency refrigeration using carbon dioxide refrigerant. It hopes to reduce energy use by 40 per cent and will generate its own energy using two wind turbines, 800+ solar panels on the roof, and a geothermal system 550 feet into the ground. The company estimates that the new location will use as much as 200,000 kilowatt hours per year of electricity, while it generates 256,000 kilowatt hours per year.

256,000The amount of electricity the store will generate annuallyThe drug store will use as much as 200,000 kilowatt hours per year of electricity

Mind-controlled computing for the disabledA new Israeli-developed tool enables the disabled to send emails by thought alone, and could revolutionise the world of mind-controlled computing. Developed by three software engineering students from Ben-Gurion University, Negev in Israel, the headset, called MinDesktop uses brainwaves or facial movements to control a computer, with capability to click or type without a mouse and keyboard.

The headset images the user’s brainwaves from 14 separate points and is designed to give more dignity and communications possibilities to the disabled. MinDesktop’s prototype application could revolutionise mind-controlled computing the same way Windows changed the accessibility of personal computing.

ReWalk technology to help the lame walkPeople with lower limb disabilities such as paraplegia will now be able to walk, thanks to The ReWalk exoskeleton suit, developed by students from Technion University in Israel. The suit uses motorised legs that ‘walk’ on behalf of the user. The limbs are battery-powered and replace crutches. They sense changes in centre of gravity, mimic natural gait and give functional walking speed. Additionally, the limbs generate steps from a motor controlled circuit also allowing users to sit, stand, turn or use stairs normally.

Compiled by Sam Wakoba www.techmoran.com

TECHTECH world

Device wirelessly tests blood and sends results to doctor’s phone or computerA team of Swiss scientists from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne have

come up with a blood-reading device that sits beneath the skin. The implant can send results of up to five separate tests instantly to a patient or doctor’s cell phone.

The device is inserted between body cells or tissue where it can stay for months without harming or causing pain to a patient. It can be used in the management of diabetes, high cholesterol, cancer monitoring and could even be used as an early-warning system for heart attacks. The device, which has been tested on animals and in the lab so far, is inserted via a needle to the interstitial tissue of the body, where it can sit for months. It may be available

for common use within four years.

New App converts photos into videos A new app has been developed to turn digital photos into a video. Dubbed Takes, the app uses motion-sensing technology built into smartphones to make a seamless movement of photos into video by filling the gaps in between them. During the launch of the app last week in Texas at the SXSW, Takes CEO Amit Man said the app’s aims to make creation of videos easy as the app automatically turns photos into video at the press of a button.

8 THE STANDARD EXTRA

The Standard / Monday, March 25, 2013

9THE STANDARD EXTRA

The Standard / Monday, March 25,2013

5:00 Password Repeat6:00 NTV This Morning8:30 Backstage9:00 Supreme Court Petition1:00 NTV at 13:00 Password4:00 NTV at 44:15 Password Reloaded5:00 The Beat6:00 Don’t Mess with an Angel7:00 NTV Jioni7:30 Maid In Manhattan 8:30 Comedy Club9:00 NTV Tonight10:00 Movie: Aliens11:00 NTV Late Night11:15 Focus On Africa11:45 Movie: Aliens12:45 CNN

4:30 BBC4:55 Morning Prayer5:00 Aerobics5:30 Damka 8:00 Good Morning Kenya9:00 Parliament Live11:00 Daytime Movie11:00 KBC Lunch Time News1:30 Moving the Masses1:30 Grapevine2:30 Parliarment Live4:30 Spider Riders5:00 Club 16:00 Spiders7:00 Darubini Live7:30 Road to success8:05 The Platform Live9:00 Channnel 1 News9:45 National Cohesion Live10:30 Bold & Beautiful 11:30 You are the one12:00 Club 1

12:45 BBC

07.00 700 Club08.00 Kerry Shook08.30 Benny Hinn09.00 Against all Odds09.30 Cross Talk10.00 Praise the lord12.00 John Hagee12.30 Dr Phill1.30 Revival Time02.00 Primary Focus02.30 Lyle & Debora Dukes03.00 Bible Prophecy03.30 360 Degree Life04.00 Evidence4.30 Bible Heroes06.00 David Jeremiah06.30 Hillsong tv07.00 E. D. Young07.30 Kuwa Tofauti08.00 Dr Phil09.00 Pastor Prince09.30 Joy of Music10.00 Cross Talk 10.30 Joyce Meyer 11.00 700 club

KTN

6:00 Sunrise Live9:00 Mid Morning Show 10:30 El Clon RPT11.20 Untamed Beauties RPT12:00 Living With Fran12:30 How I Met Your Mother1:00 News Desk2:00 Big Cat Diaries2:30 Nollywood4.00 Mbiu ya KTN

4.10 Iz Vipi Mashariki6:00 Untamed Beauties7:00 KTN LEO7:40 Ajabu8.00 Mariana and Scarlett9.00 KTN PRIME9.35 Newsline10.30 Straight-Up 12.00 CNN

ESPN07:00 ESPNFC Press Pass07:30 Outside The Lines08:00 SportsCenter09:00 ESPNFC Press Pass10:00 SportsNation10:30 NBA Tonight11:00 USBC Masters01:00 Super Tuesday03:00 ESPNFC Press Pass03:30 Planet Speed04:00 WPBA US Open River Spirit05:00 A Day On The Lake05:30 American Huntress06:00 Trout Unlimited06:30 Big Game Fishing07:00 ESPNFC Press Pass07:30 World’s Strongest Man Competition08:30 World Series Of Poker

PICK OF THE DAY

4:00AM: Kumekucha

6:00 AM: Maisha Asubuhi

10:00 AM: Staarabika 1:00PM: Upeo wa Radio Maisha 1:30PM: Iz Vipi

4:00PM: Mishe Mishe

7:00PM: Upeo wa Radio Maisha 8:00PM: Skika Sasa

9:00PM: Maji Makuu

12:00AM: Hakuna Kulala

Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner), a new hero, experiences life-or-death stakes that have been triggered by previ-ous events..................................................................................................SATURDAY’S TRIVIA:Hope Springs

TV GUIDEToday’s Schedule

NU MEDIA –WESTGATESCREEN I “JACK THE GIANT KILLER 3D” (PG) At 11.50am, 2.10pm, 4.30pm, 6.50pm, 9.10pm.SCREEN II “SNITCH‚” (16) At 10.30am, 12.40pm, 2.50pm, 5.00pm, 7.10pm, 9.15pmSCREEN III “JOLLY LLB” (GE) At 12.30pm, 3.20pm, 6.00pm, 8.40pm. SCREEN IV “CROODS 3D” (GE) At 11.00 am, 1.00pm, 3.00pm, 5.00pm, 9.00p,.SCREEN V “DIE HARD 5” (16) At 12.20pm, 2.30pm, 6.50pm.“I ME AUR HUM” (PG) At 4.30pm, 8.50pm.SCREENVI “LIFEOFPI”(PG)At10.30am,1.00pm,6.10pm, “LINCOLN” (16) 12.30pm.“HIMMATWALLA” (TBA) At 2.30pm, 5.30pm, 8.30pm.

FOXCINEPLEX SARITCENTRE, WESTLANDSSCREEN I THE CROODS IN 3D (G/E) At 11.30am, 2.00pm, 4.00pm, A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD (U/16) At 6.00pm, RANGREZZ (TBA) At 8.30pmSCREEN II JACK THE GIANT SLAYER IN 3D (PG) At 6.45pm, 9.00pm. A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD (U/16) At 4.20pm

STARFLIX –VILLAGESCREENI“HANSEL&GRETEL” At 12.00pm,2.30pm,4.30pm, 6.30pm, 8.30pm.SCREENII “RISEOFTHEGURDIANS”At11.45am,1.45pm“JACK REACHER” At 3.45pm, 6.30pm, 9.15pm.SCREENIII “6BULLETS”At11.45am, 2.00pm,4.15pm,6.30pm. “HOBBIT” At 8.45pm.SCREENIV“THEHOBBIT”At 12.00pm,2.40pm.“MAXIMUM CONVICTION” At 6.00pm, 8.15pm

STARFLIX –PRESTIGESCREENI “6BULLETS”At 2.00pm,2.00pm,6.30pm.“ “MAXIMUM CONVICTION” At

DStv Highlights

Cinema Guide4.15pm, 8.45pm.SCREENII “HOTELTRANSLYVANIA”At12.00pm,“HANSEL & GRETEL” At 2.30pm, 6.30pm, 8.30pm,

NYALI CINEMAX – MOMBASASCREEN I JACK THE GIANT SLAYER-2D, CROODS-3D At 6.45pm, SNITCH At 9.00 pm, RANGREZZ At 9.15pm.

TV Quiz

10:30 World’s Strongest Man Competition11:00 Legends Of Cricket

00:00 SportsCenter

Nairobi 102.7 • Nyeri 105.7 • Meru 105.1 • Nakuru 104.5

• Kisumu 105.3 • Mombasa 105.1

MARIANA AND SCARLETT8.00PM

THE STANDARD EXTRA10Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

Using all the letters of the alphabet, fi ll in the grid. To help you, there are three cryptic cross-word-style clues:

Top line: Because I’m green, as I leave I feel giddy. (7)Middle line: Get zany from swimming in river. (7)Bottom line: Head-hunted? As a trophy only! (7)

To start you off, here is one of the letters.

By Rosy Russell

All rows, columns and 3 by 3 grids (defi ned by bold lines ) have the numbers 1 to 9 ap-

pearing only once.

Some of the numbers have been entered. Complete the whole table by inserting the

correct numbers.

Libra(Sept 24 - Oct 23) You are ready to begin your day, full speed ahead. In fact, there are new opportunities to accomplish tasks that you may never have thought you would attempt. You may feel that you need to throw yourself into a situation where your talents are tested.

Virgo(Aug 23 - Sept 23) You are excited about some scientifi c or humanitar-ian discovery and enjoy comparing notes with col-leges, teammates or co-workers. Your mind could be quite clear and natural just now.

Aries(March 21 - April 20)Today you may feel that you are stuck in a rut and everyone is conspiring to keep you there. Look! It just could be that your self-discipline has become a little lax.

Sagittarius (Nov 23 - Dec 21)This will be a great day at the workplace! Your vi-tality and enthusiasm combine to get a lot accom-plished, whether alone or as the leader of a group. You could be given an important new responsibility.

Scorpio (Oct 24 - Nov 22)This is a great year for your professional advance-ment--a blowout time for an amazing career success--possibly overwhelming you a little. Career goodies are just waiting for the asking.

Gemini(May 21 - June 21)Good communication in business is the key to suc-cess — think before you speak. While you are not comfortable discussing subjects like debts and col-lections, it’s probably unavoidable now.

Taurus (April 21 - May 20)This may be a day that would be best to just goof off--or maybe not. Rather than succumb to gloom, why not display all your best qualities? If you are feeling disgruntled, be obliging.

Capricorn(Dec 22 - Jan 20)Taking care of business is a major theme where your emotional orientation is concerned. Everything points to your taking the fi rst step toward gathering some of your inventive friends to a rap session.

Leo(July 23 - Aug 22)A group meeting this morning in the workplace may require everyone’s opinion or input. An active ex-change of ideas will result in the most positive out-come. Don’t be dismayed if there is no recognition immediately; it takes time to weed through the sug-gestions. Honor the concept of the group spirit.

Cancer(June 22 - July 22)A merger could be ahead that includes the company for which you work. Take time out and plan your next steps carefully. Be sure to have your facts in order, even to the point of double-checking. Financial gains might be part of the picture.

(Jan 21 - Feb 19)Today is a great time to be with others and to work together. This is a time when you can expect a little boost, some sort of extra support or recognition from those around you.

(Feb 20 - Mar 20)Caution should be exercised in the too good to be true moneymaking plans today. This may come from a working partner, co-worker or even a su-pervisor. Let it rest a bit.

Pisce

s

PUZZLING

Horoscopes

Codeword Puzzle

Sudokuyesterday’s solution

Aquarius

Courtesy: dailyhoroscopes.com

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

OM C H I V E L Y R Q

T D S G P K B W

G

SATURDAY’S SOLUTIONS

FU

A

J

N

Z X

DIFFICULTThe letters have a distinct value between 0 to 9. The to-tals vertically and horizontally have been given. Solve all the values.

© NO 4842

NO 4841

B E G J 19

F C J D 21

H D F B 19

22 15 16 24

A G C E 18

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS A B C D E F G H J

5 1 2 9 4 6 7 8 3

THE STANDARD EXTRA 11 Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard Monday, March 25, 2013 / The Standard

ACROSS3 Abusive to a hothead, madly

rash (5)8 On paper, perhaps, it’s abra-

sive (5)10 A complaint at the apiary? (5)11 She has the master key (3)12 Bad character or chicken-

hearted flier (5)13 Michael took a girl round the

Academy (7)15 Holidays spent touring re-

sorts? (5)18 Take the plunge with a girl on

the quiet (3)19 Broken romance (6)21 Be thought tipsy (7)22 There’s grain in this country

area (4)23 Many ships (five in any case?)

(4)24 Though light, means a great

effort for the woman concerned (7)

26 Poem Tennyson had no heart to compose? (6)

29 Highball! (3)31 Quietly take the available seat

on the left (5)32 Drive off (7)34 Instinctive feelings, albeit

brief (5)35 Came down and got the fire

going (3)36 Abroad, you’ll find me in the

money (5)37 Cutthroat, maybe (5)38 Port can make you lithe! (5)DOWN1 Home of Jordanian capitalists

ACROSS: 1, Fa-us-t 6, Spice (Girls) 9, Martial 10, Train 11, Tarry 12, Decay 13, Rap-hael 15, Lew 17, On-ly 18, Figure 19, Mimi-c 20, Gratis 22, Fi-LL 24, Had 25, Strides 26, Perth 27,

Major 28, L-earn 29, Slipper 30, B-E-TT-y 31, AsideDOWN: 2, Air-Ma-n 3, Smithy 4, Tan 5, Steel 6, Satanic 7, P-lay 8, Career 12, Denis 13,

Rough 14, P-lead 15, Luc-IÕd 16, We-LL-s 18, Fifth 19, Miserly 21, Ravage 22, Fi-VE-rs 23, Lee-red 25, Stops 26, Po-S-t 28, Lea

SATURdAy’S CRyPTIC SolUTIonS

Across3 Appeal humbly (5)8 Disparage (5)10 Snake poison (5)11 Cabin (3)12 Punctuation mark (5)13 French bean (7)15 Alcoholic drink (5)18 Star (3)19 Zodiac sign (6)21 Short axe (7)22 Naming word (4)23 Flank (4)24 Welsh rabbit (7)26 Utter tearfully (6)29 Raised edge (3)31 Animal skins (5)

32 Natural surroundings (7)

34 Competitor (5)35 Illuminated (3)36 Board game (5)37 Trite (5)38 Distinctive character

(5)

Down1 Rehabilitation, in short

(5)2 Craftsman (7)4 Plunder (4)5 Shore bird (6)6 Jeans fabric (5)7 Twelve (5)9 Vicious dog (3)

12 Hide (7)14 Incision (3)16 Finger or toe (5)17 Jockey (5)19 Common (7)20 Grind teeth together

(5)21 Hot and sticky (5)23 Like, resembling (7)24 Withstand (6)25 Fish type (3)27 Dark period (5)28 Poetry (5)30 Death-dealing (5)32 Ring of light (4)33 Metallic element (3)

ACROSS: 1, Whist 6, Glory 9, Pasture 10, Alien 11, Angle 12, Slant 13, Correct 15, Gel 17, Ewes 18, Cerise 19, Beard 20, Accrue 22, Onus 24, Rat 25, Spittle 26, Slate 27, Belie 28, Caber 29, Fretsaw 30, Gnats 31, DaisyDOWN: 2, Hollow 3, Spears 4, Tan 5, Stilt 6, Granted 7, Lent 8, Relies 12, Scree 13, Cedar 14, React 15, Giant 16, Lease 18, Crepe 19, Butlers 21, Cavern 22, Ottawa 23, Ulcers 25, State 26, Sift 28, Cad

(5)2 Of such fish, for instance, you

may read in bed (7)4 Being so nonchalant sounds a

bit scary (4)5 Given strong support when

stranded? (6)6 A needlessly pedestrian per-

son (5)7 When struck, she’s apt to flare

up (5)9 Listener twice in terrible ar-

rears (3)12 Juliet’s dad put Alec straight

(7)14 Barely discernible Roman nu-

merals (3)16 It’s played with effortless art-

istry (5)17 Impresses enormously with

music centre songs (5)19 Comes down and pays up (7)20 Repetitively points out one

for a foreigner (5)21 Carried a letter or two (5)23 In astronomy, unable to

change a foregone conclusion (7)

24 Possibly feeling no end catty (6)

25 To jump is hot work (3)27 Beastly bit of polyglot termi-

nology (5)28 The kind of orange Adam nev-

er had? (5)30 Villa site in Glastonbury (5)32 One’s holiday in the balance?

(4)33 Little lady from Belize (3)

puzzling

Easy Puzzle

Cryptic Puzzle

ThoughtTodayA goal is a dream with a deadline.

-Napoleon Hill

SATURdAy’S EASy SolUTIonS

12 THE STANDARD EXTRA

Monday, March 25, 2013/ The Standard

SIMPLE ARITHMETIC: If maths was this simple, the world could

be full of mathematicians. But most of the people who shared this photo

online are not good at the subject.

TOPPICTURE

Twitter tweef with Nigeria

was for nought

As last week came to a close, Kenyans were in the middle of a Twitter war with

Nigeria fuelled by reports that national team Harambee Stars was mistreated in Nigeria.

The tweef sparked o� a twitter trend that grabbed the attention of media outlets — both local and international. And what started as an online protest against ill-treatment of the Kenyan national team spiralled into a diss-competi-tion between the two countries.

While I commend #KOT for their willingness to stand up for our team, I believe we missed the mark.

Where did the real problem lie; with the Nigerian popula-tion or with the tournament organisers? Besides gaining media coverage, entertaining ourselves and rousing the anger of Nigerians on Twitter, what did we achieve?

Perhaps in addition to the #Someonetellnigeria tweets, we could have started an online petition to campaign for better training conditions for the Stars?

Clearly, we are a force to reckon with on Twitter, but misdirected energies yield little fruit..

— Joy Chelagat{Sub-editor, social media}

@Questionnier

@Robertalai

@Masaku_

@Standardkenya

Inspirational Tweet: @Mryoungscholar 28m: You only live once, so think twice.

— S o u r c e t r e n d m a p s , b i t l y

Top of the tweets

Tributes pour for Africa’s fi nest

writer, Chinua Achebe, after his

death was confi rmed on Friday.

@Sandramwakio: He was a great writer and best story teller in

the world of orators. May God rest his soul in peace.

@Lillian_muli: Chinua Achebe a prolifi c author, I loved

literature classes with his setbooks. I write relatively well

today because of his great work. RIP

@Samshollei: Africa has lost one of her greatest sons. Let’s all

take some time to remember him and pray for his family.

@Robertalai: Nigera is what it is because its leaders are not

what they should be — Chinua Achebe.

@Swalehmdoe: RIP Chinua Achebe, Nigerian novelist (1930-

2013). The arrow of God has struck A man of The People and

now he is No longer At Ease in heaven.

GironiEvans:@Citizentvkenya: Prof Achebe has been a great

achiever....it’s a big loss to Africa. RIP.

@Kerrywashington: “Until the lions have their own historians,

the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” —

Chinua Achebe

@Reuters: Chinua Achebe, grandfather of African literature,

dies at 82.

@Sokoanalyst: High school literature classes would have been

‘Things Fall Asleep’ if it weren’t for Things Fall Apart.

@Cobbo3: Chinua Achebe dead —what a man; what a story;

what a life.

@Salon: Chinua Achebe:The man who rediscovered Africa

http://slnm.us/afwcooF #RIP

@Huffi ngtonpost: “If you don’t like someone’s story, you write

your own.” RIP Chinua Achebe

@Acumenfund: We’re saddened to hear that Chinua Achebe,

the father of African literature, has passed away

As the week begins, most of us are

thinking about politics. But let us

take some time to remember the

importance of family.

@Jacobperry_5: Life is unexpected, cherish the ones you love

and value your family. You never know what might happen if

you don’t.

@Edwinrivera_ 4h: Yes, make your goals and dreams your

priority; but don’t forget to make your family and circle

priority too.

@Kingsleyyy: What is life without family and friends? Just you

and a bunch of strangers. Value your relationships, no matter

how hard they get.

@Thedcbaby: Humble yourself, be grateful, cherish family and

friends, Be honest with yourself and others, live simple, love

and laugh often.

@Rachelxorae 5h: In this life, family is the most precious gift

we are given, the most sacred. Turn your back on them and

that is when you truly have nothing.

@Youngieasy: Smile adds value to the face; love adds value to

the heart; respect adds value to behaviour while friends and

family add value to life.

Top of the tWEETERS

Kenya’s space: getting home news

The world is increasingly becoming a

global village and Kenyans are strewn

across the globe. Despite the distance,

many of them are still eager to interact

with fellow Kenyans while keeping

themselves updated on the happen-

ings back at home. Such populations

have brought the rise of platforms like

www.mwakilishi.com.

Mwakilishi.com mainly features news

from Kenyan sites, and the bulk of

their stories are political. Another use-

ful feature on the site is the event list-

ings section which updates Kenyans

in the Diaspora on events where they

could connect. You can fi nd announce-

ments of burials, weddings, fund

raisers and conferences on the site.

These Kenyans living abroad can share

their views on issues affecting them by

submitting articles for publica-

tion. In addition, they also have

the opportunity to interact with

each other on the Facebook and

Twitter pages run by the Mwak-

ilishi team.

The site also gives Kenyans

abroad a chance to watch their

favourite stations in Kenya live.

Diaspora-specifi c videos are also avail-

able on the site, most of them sourced

from Diaspora Voice and 10min Flix

teams.

Lack of original content is the major

vice of this platform as most of their

content is directly li� ed from Kenyan

news sites. Also, the site has a clumsy

feel due to its poor design concept.

@Mwakilishi: Kenyans, Nigerians wage tweet war ahead of fi xture..

@Mwakilishi: Convicted Kenyan drug dealer in the UK jailed for dangerous driving.

RoseMary Matenda Mulonda: That is what he says

happened. Who knows? He could be looking for 15

minutes of fame. Ati some dude buy another man

beer and he doesn’t see it as an issue until they make

advances?

Terry Monie Murungi: What shocked him? It’s no longer

news because the world we are in is the new Sodom and

Gomorrah.

Reené Omollo: Homosexuality is a huge issue; if we don’t

address it now we are only postponing the inevitable.

Francis Namwendwa: What had the dudes eaten? They

have no eyes to see beautiful ladies around?

Blessed Esir Marley: Your dress code (complete with a

stud) sent wrong signals to the dudes.

Jaymes Thairu Wambui: Ni hujuma! Ni hujuma!

Wanahujumu wanamuziki wa Kenya.

Hussein Badmash: That is what made Sodom and

Gomorrah sink. Don’t entertain it.

Moses Kimng’etich: Shame on them.

Ogopa deejays singer Colonel Moustapha shocked Pulse

readers when he said a group of men made sexual advances

at him.

TRENDING

— Joy Chelagat

www.mwakilishi.com