Another report; this time by a UN consultant Philip Alston who has been looking into extrajudicial killings that have been carried out by Kenyan police. Due to his findings, Mr Alston is calling for the sacking of the Attorney General and the Chief of Police. It adds another dimension to the already terrible reputation of Kenya having 'a culture of impunity' where everyone turns a blind eye to corruption. The allegations are that police are carrying out executions at will. When the report was released the Ministry of Defence dismissed it as irrelevant and 'full of lies'. Parliament have been struggling to form a response to the allegations.
The inconvenient truth is that everyone knew that this sort of thing has been happening for a long time. Not least the rulers of the country. For instance people knew that Mungiki sect members were being shot dead without trial in recent waves of police clamp downs. Mungiki members are mainly male youth who run protection rackets among other things, but they were becoming a menace when they started beheading innocent people in blatant acts of intimidation.
The police long ago gave up on the concept of taking criminals into the local judicial system because it is such a mess. For a while things have been getting out of hand. Things got worse during post election violence, the police dealt with the problem in the most effective way they knew how. I'm not defending this. Innocent people have obviously been caught in the cross fire and the police are acting with lawlessness presumably thanks to an OK from above.
Kiss FM are doing a phone in for family and friends of youths who are either missing or shot dead by police. It's not great listening.
It reminded me of a story told to me at a dinner party in Nairobi six years ago. A lady was telling us about her horrific burglary where she was tied up and intimidated by thugs at gun point. I might be a little hazy on the details but the gist went like this:
She was in her house at 7pm in the evening. She was tied up and so was her small child. A friend of hers happened to arrive and he (for some reason) was carrying a gun and he used it instinctively. A shoot out ensued and the burglars were trapped. One was shot dead by the friend (the friend was injured too) another could not escape before security backup and police arrived. The police went into the corridor where the surviving burglar hid and shot him dead in cold blood. They told the victim,
'you will never see justice in the courts for this. It is the only way.'
It is definitely time for change - of course things cannot carry on like this, but to overhaul the entire police and legal system will be a gigantic mountain to climb - and do Kenyan leaders have the will to do it?
The diary of a British expat living in Kenya. News, views, debate and a healthy dose of trivia.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Nothing much...
Nothing much going on this end. It was hot, then it rained at night, now it's sunny and windy. I can't look at the newspapers as they continue to be depressingly full of politicians.
My middle daughter (6) is training for a big football match next week that we will drive over 2 hours to get to reach a hidden away Kenyan 'upcountry' prep school full of boarders that sometimes start as young as 5. It's madness to go all the way there from Nairobi, but there it is. Our headmistress says we have to go for reasons of sporting etiquette - I just think that it might be more a case of 'rent a friend'.
Once my husband got over the fact that our daughter has been put in goal ('I can't believe it! I'm not having boys kicking a ball in her face!'), he has actually got quite keen and been in 'training' with her every evening. This involves locking up our 2 Alsatians and 2 smaller dogs (that we inherited with this house), because they all love running after the ball too and this game inevitably winds up with the dog puncturing a hole in the ball and much shouting. The middle daughter enjoys it but says she's not very keen on 'diving'. She goes off to school with an old long sleeved tracksuit on Wednesdays and Thursdays and swelters in goal in the afternoon sun - so I'm not surprised she doesn't like it.
Our eldest (8) had to learn a very complex French poem which all mothers' thought was a bit much when the children only started the language in September. They have been doing Swahili up until now but have never been asked to learn a poem. We finally cracked it at last but the learning went on a bit like this;
ME (reading out loud)
'Le chat ouvrit les yeux
Le soleil y entre'
Daughter:
'Le ....
ME
'Le chat ouvrit les yeux'
Daughter;
'Le....
etc etc. until we were screaming at each other like banshees (sp?)
Anyway it went very well in the end and she incredibly learned both verses but that and the history test ruined the whole of half term. My friend said her daughter casually announced at 5.30pm last Thursday that she needed to know the poem for the next day and they hadn't even started on memorising it. Apparently stressful hours ensued and the girl in question ended up learning the poem by singing the words. I thought, why didn't I think of that?
Our youngest (3) seems to have adopted picking her nose as a nervous reflex. When anyone says hello to her the hand whizzes up to the nose (which is usually dirty).
Her best friend's mum has gone to England on a wonderful 5 days in London alone without children trip (are you detecting envy?), so we have stepped up neighbourly school runs and play dates for a short time to help out Dad. I offered to do the morning run but our dad friend declined, he told us;
'Apparently her class mate Acacia announced "Natasha doesn't have a Daddy!" to everyone last week, so I had better put in an appearance.'
Our daughters are absolute terrors together. A couple of weeks ago they managed to find some panadol and eat one each. The only reason they told us was because they didn't taste very nice.
My middle daughter (6) is training for a big football match next week that we will drive over 2 hours to get to reach a hidden away Kenyan 'upcountry' prep school full of boarders that sometimes start as young as 5. It's madness to go all the way there from Nairobi, but there it is. Our headmistress says we have to go for reasons of sporting etiquette - I just think that it might be more a case of 'rent a friend'.
Once my husband got over the fact that our daughter has been put in goal ('I can't believe it! I'm not having boys kicking a ball in her face!'), he has actually got quite keen and been in 'training' with her every evening. This involves locking up our 2 Alsatians and 2 smaller dogs (that we inherited with this house), because they all love running after the ball too and this game inevitably winds up with the dog puncturing a hole in the ball and much shouting. The middle daughter enjoys it but says she's not very keen on 'diving'. She goes off to school with an old long sleeved tracksuit on Wednesdays and Thursdays and swelters in goal in the afternoon sun - so I'm not surprised she doesn't like it.
Our eldest (8) had to learn a very complex French poem which all mothers' thought was a bit much when the children only started the language in September. They have been doing Swahili up until now but have never been asked to learn a poem. We finally cracked it at last but the learning went on a bit like this;
ME (reading out loud)
'Le chat ouvrit les yeux
Le soleil y entre'
Daughter:
'Le ....
ME
'Le chat ouvrit les yeux'
Daughter;
'Le....
etc etc. until we were screaming at each other like banshees (sp?)
Anyway it went very well in the end and she incredibly learned both verses but that and the history test ruined the whole of half term. My friend said her daughter casually announced at 5.30pm last Thursday that she needed to know the poem for the next day and they hadn't even started on memorising it. Apparently stressful hours ensued and the girl in question ended up learning the poem by singing the words. I thought, why didn't I think of that?
Our youngest (3) seems to have adopted picking her nose as a nervous reflex. When anyone says hello to her the hand whizzes up to the nose (which is usually dirty).
Her best friend's mum has gone to England on a wonderful 5 days in London alone without children trip (are you detecting envy?), so we have stepped up neighbourly school runs and play dates for a short time to help out Dad. I offered to do the morning run but our dad friend declined, he told us;
'Apparently her class mate Acacia announced "Natasha doesn't have a Daddy!" to everyone last week, so I had better put in an appearance.'
Our daughters are absolute terrors together. A couple of weeks ago they managed to find some panadol and eat one each. The only reason they told us was because they didn't taste very nice.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
My friend's orphanage
I went to see my friend Liz last week in the orphanage that she and her friend Stu have recently up. Their enthusiasm and utter refusal to be told ‘no’ has got them simply miles after less than one year, though they do admit that they have many frustrating days of being unable to achieve a single thing – such is the bureaucracy of Africa.
All this said; they now have a rented house, are a legal/registered charity in Kenya and are looking after two little girls (the same age as ours) with the help of a Kenyan house mother Sally. There is a veggie patch underway and chickens to arrive soon. They hope to have 20 children in the end, all girls from the age of five up.
Theirs is really a ‘grass roots’ charity where everything goes to the children. The house is located on the side of a hill in a suburb outside Ngong town far from expats and wealthy Kenyan politicians. It took ages to weave off the main road along un-surfaced tracks to get to it, but it was a pretty drive with houses, shacks, green fields, cows and goats dotted all the way along.
Liz and Stu are really ‘living it’ with no car and on a budget that must include enough money for the girls to go to a nearby private school. They walk to Ngong Town to organise the making of school uniforms through a local tailor. When they first moved into the house there was no water, to me it looks bare with stone floors and free from clutter but for them it is functional. In fact, everything about my life in comparison to theirs is utterly extravagant.
So many times I felt like (and probably did say); ‘are you really sure you want to do this?’ ‘it will be so hard for you,’ ‘are you going to be able to see it through?’ Liz still only has the backpack of clothes that she arrived with last May when she came over on a sabbatical from her job in New York to do some volunteer teaching. She says; ‘I dream about new pants.’
Such is their desire to offer help only to children who really need it, Liz and Stu (Australian) are doing background checks on each new child before taking them in, which involves travelling for hours if not days in public minibuses to visit villages in the middle of dusty nowhere. If word got out that they were offering a comfortable home, food and school fees paid for, then there would be a queue of struggling Nairobi parents passing their children off as orphans from here to next week.
‘We want to help children who really need it, give them a safe home and then watch them flourish, that’s what we are all about.’
There’s nothing simple or straight forward about it. I am in awe of their efforts. The childrens’ home have received cash donations and continue to do so. They have some books, clothes and toys that have been donated locally but are always looking for more. They need to revise their website since when they set it up they had not even found a place to rent but Liz said that this will be done in the next couple of months so that it will be possible to make donations via direct debits etc.
http://www.acaciahouse.org/
All this said; they now have a rented house, are a legal/registered charity in Kenya and are looking after two little girls (the same age as ours) with the help of a Kenyan house mother Sally. There is a veggie patch underway and chickens to arrive soon. They hope to have 20 children in the end, all girls from the age of five up.
Theirs is really a ‘grass roots’ charity where everything goes to the children. The house is located on the side of a hill in a suburb outside Ngong town far from expats and wealthy Kenyan politicians. It took ages to weave off the main road along un-surfaced tracks to get to it, but it was a pretty drive with houses, shacks, green fields, cows and goats dotted all the way along.
Liz and Stu are really ‘living it’ with no car and on a budget that must include enough money for the girls to go to a nearby private school. They walk to Ngong Town to organise the making of school uniforms through a local tailor. When they first moved into the house there was no water, to me it looks bare with stone floors and free from clutter but for them it is functional. In fact, everything about my life in comparison to theirs is utterly extravagant.
So many times I felt like (and probably did say); ‘are you really sure you want to do this?’ ‘it will be so hard for you,’ ‘are you going to be able to see it through?’ Liz still only has the backpack of clothes that she arrived with last May when she came over on a sabbatical from her job in New York to do some volunteer teaching. She says; ‘I dream about new pants.’
Such is their desire to offer help only to children who really need it, Liz and Stu (Australian) are doing background checks on each new child before taking them in, which involves travelling for hours if not days in public minibuses to visit villages in the middle of dusty nowhere. If word got out that they were offering a comfortable home, food and school fees paid for, then there would be a queue of struggling Nairobi parents passing their children off as orphans from here to next week.
‘We want to help children who really need it, give them a safe home and then watch them flourish, that’s what we are all about.’
There’s nothing simple or straight forward about it. I am in awe of their efforts. The childrens’ home have received cash donations and continue to do so. They have some books, clothes and toys that have been donated locally but are always looking for more. They need to revise their website since when they set it up they had not even found a place to rent but Liz said that this will be done in the next couple of months so that it will be possible to make donations via direct debits etc.
http://www.acaciahouse.org/
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
It's called 'eating' - the Times today
Here is a link to a good, but depressing article today in The Times regarding corruption in Kenya today - Entitled 'It's called 'eating'. But bribery is devouring the heart of Kenya' by Michela Wrong:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article5754802.ece
(thanks mum in law for the tip off!)
Lets hope she is being overly pessimistic in order to sell books and that her prophecies of doom for Kenya do not come to fruition. Sigh.
Her book 'It's our turn to eat. The story of a Kenyan Whistleblower' is being published through extracts in Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper.
Today Agriculture Minister William Ruto publically wriggled out of having any involvement in or responsibility for the maize scandal. The 'motion to censure' him was only supported by 22 mps, so has not been passed. I find this depressing. In addition, Parliament has been given two more months (til May) to work on the possibility of holding a local tribunal, or find a third option other than The Hague, to try those named in the Waki Report as guilty of inciting post election violence.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article5754802.ece
(thanks mum in law for the tip off!)
Lets hope she is being overly pessimistic in order to sell books and that her prophecies of doom for Kenya do not come to fruition. Sigh.
Her book 'It's our turn to eat. The story of a Kenyan Whistleblower' is being published through extracts in Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper.
Today Agriculture Minister William Ruto publically wriggled out of having any involvement in or responsibility for the maize scandal. The 'motion to censure' him was only supported by 22 mps, so has not been passed. I find this depressing. In addition, Parliament has been given two more months (til May) to work on the possibility of holding a local tribunal, or find a third option other than The Hague, to try those named in the Waki Report as guilty of inciting post election violence.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Dust and politics
When you drive out of Nairobi it's just dust in every direction. This is typical of the dry season in Kenya and fortunately weather experts are speculating that rain will come next month - a little earlier than usual.
We went to Naivasha at the weekend (school half term) and had to take on the dreaded/infamous North Lake road. The red dust is so fine that it's like flour. It gets everywhere. Dropping down into the Rift Valley you could only see beige dust clouds engulfing the landscape because of strong winds. It can look pretty bleak. Between the odd green irrigated field here and there next to the lake, dust devils are rising and everything and everyone is coated in a find layer of powdery talc.
A friend was camping in Nakuru a little further on the same weekend and she said that her daughter could not sleep because of the dust - she's allergic to it.
Meanwhile, in slightly greener Nairobi, MPs have finally put paid to the suggestion of holding a local tribunal to try those powerful people named in the Waki Report for initiating post election violence. The house was split for and against but those for could not get a majority. Kibaki and Raila did as much as they could to push the thing threw, cajoling their colleagues but they were met with resistance.
Those against the local tribunal felt strongly that some politicians were already trying to 'water it down' as they attempted to remove clauses such as the one that said 'politicians under suspicion must step down'. Some MPs wanted to change that to say 'politicians may stay in office until they are proved guilty', plus they wanted something in it to exonerate those who were acting under orders of their superiors.
To me it all seems like a triumph, but no one seems 100% sure of what will happen next. The Hague may be the only option, though it could be many years until the perpetrators are tried there and this may mean that the situation may still be the same when the 2012 Kenya election takes place - which would mess things up and muddy the waters a bit. Yesterday newspapers speculated that an outside UN team could come in and manage the trial here as a third option. We will have to wait and see.
It seems there are many who would like to restore the reputation of the coalition government and finally take a stand against those involved in corruption scandals. Many (ie Martha Karua et al) have directly attacked William Ruto for his involvement in the maize scandal - we will see this week if he survives or is out.
I think I have become addicted to Kenyan politics. I had withdrawal symptoms this weekend when I couldn't find a newspaper to buy. I often chat about politics with Florence who works in our house - she seems to have the inside track on everything and is always several steps ahead of me. When I thought about why politics might be such a popular subject with Kenyans I came to the conclusion that it might be because the big C of 'celebrity' is utterly missing here. No one is really interested in Big Brother and there is only a handful of local pop stars. There is tv but not tv obsession. The politicians are the celebrities here with their huge motorcades and the soap opera is played out by the way they behave.
We went to Naivasha at the weekend (school half term) and had to take on the dreaded/infamous North Lake road. The red dust is so fine that it's like flour. It gets everywhere. Dropping down into the Rift Valley you could only see beige dust clouds engulfing the landscape because of strong winds. It can look pretty bleak. Between the odd green irrigated field here and there next to the lake, dust devils are rising and everything and everyone is coated in a find layer of powdery talc.
A friend was camping in Nakuru a little further on the same weekend and she said that her daughter could not sleep because of the dust - she's allergic to it.
****
Meanwhile, in slightly greener Nairobi, MPs have finally put paid to the suggestion of holding a local tribunal to try those powerful people named in the Waki Report for initiating post election violence. The house was split for and against but those for could not get a majority. Kibaki and Raila did as much as they could to push the thing threw, cajoling their colleagues but they were met with resistance.
Those against the local tribunal felt strongly that some politicians were already trying to 'water it down' as they attempted to remove clauses such as the one that said 'politicians under suspicion must step down'. Some MPs wanted to change that to say 'politicians may stay in office until they are proved guilty', plus they wanted something in it to exonerate those who were acting under orders of their superiors.
To me it all seems like a triumph, but no one seems 100% sure of what will happen next. The Hague may be the only option, though it could be many years until the perpetrators are tried there and this may mean that the situation may still be the same when the 2012 Kenya election takes place - which would mess things up and muddy the waters a bit. Yesterday newspapers speculated that an outside UN team could come in and manage the trial here as a third option. We will have to wait and see.
It seems there are many who would like to restore the reputation of the coalition government and finally take a stand against those involved in corruption scandals. Many (ie Martha Karua et al) have directly attacked William Ruto for his involvement in the maize scandal - we will see this week if he survives or is out.
I think I have become addicted to Kenyan politics. I had withdrawal symptoms this weekend when I couldn't find a newspaper to buy. I often chat about politics with Florence who works in our house - she seems to have the inside track on everything and is always several steps ahead of me. When I thought about why politics might be such a popular subject with Kenyans I came to the conclusion that it might be because the big C of 'celebrity' is utterly missing here. No one is really interested in Big Brother and there is only a handful of local pop stars. There is tv but not tv obsession. The politicians are the celebrities here with their huge motorcades and the soap opera is played out by the way they behave.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Ice skating in Nairobi
Just went ice skating with my eight year old today! I promised that I would take her on an 'a deux' trip there years ago and finally got around to it at long last. It feels odd ice skating in Africa. My daughter just couldn't get used to feeling cold, especially when she fell and put her hands on the ice.
The traffic on Mombasa/airport road was horrendous due to the road works that trickle on for years and bring the city to a grinding halt during rush hour(s). It always looks like the yellow JCBs are just maddeningly parked up on the verge doing nothing too. I had thought that 2.30pm would be an OK time to go but it wasn't.
Anyway - amazingly enough we had the skating rink absolutely to ourselves. When we arrived I panicked as I thought I must have got the times wrong as there wasn't a soul around, but when they had put the lights and music on it was fantastic fun and my daughter put so much determination into mastering the art of skating that I nearly slipped over in amazement. There was a nice man swishing around on the ice whose job it was to coach anybody who wanted help, but most of the time he was just showing off.
I did think to myself, 'odd to be skating in Africa but at that price (800 shillings), only in Africa would you have the rink to yourselves'. In Southampton it would probably be far more expensive and so crowded that you would be petrified of someone skating over your fingers and slicing them off when you fell over. We progressed quite well from grasping onto the side walls for dear life to swooshing around the middle over our allocated hour. I did take a moment to worry a little that the solar rink is on the second floor of a high rise building, vaguely wondering exactly how much all that ice weighed and whether the floor could stand it.
We loved skating so much that we are thinking of going back tomorrow - but that's only traffic permitting - you never know, it could be another 2 years.
The traffic on Mombasa/airport road was horrendous due to the road works that trickle on for years and bring the city to a grinding halt during rush hour(s). It always looks like the yellow JCBs are just maddeningly parked up on the verge doing nothing too. I had thought that 2.30pm would be an OK time to go but it wasn't.
Anyway - amazingly enough we had the skating rink absolutely to ourselves. When we arrived I panicked as I thought I must have got the times wrong as there wasn't a soul around, but when they had put the lights and music on it was fantastic fun and my daughter put so much determination into mastering the art of skating that I nearly slipped over in amazement. There was a nice man swishing around on the ice whose job it was to coach anybody who wanted help, but most of the time he was just showing off.
I did think to myself, 'odd to be skating in Africa but at that price (800 shillings), only in Africa would you have the rink to yourselves'. In Southampton it would probably be far more expensive and so crowded that you would be petrified of someone skating over your fingers and slicing them off when you fell over. We progressed quite well from grasping onto the side walls for dear life to swooshing around the middle over our allocated hour. I did take a moment to worry a little that the solar rink is on the second floor of a high rise building, vaguely wondering exactly how much all that ice weighed and whether the floor could stand it.
We loved skating so much that we are thinking of going back tomorrow - but that's only traffic permitting - you never know, it could be another 2 years.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Tales from fellow expat wives required..
I have been contacted by a UK television researcher via this blog, who is keen to gather interesting tales from ex-pat wives. If you have a good yarn, do go ahead and contact her on:
naomiharvey82@yahoo.co.uk
naomiharvey82@yahoo.co.uk
Monday, February 09, 2009
Naivasha sailing
We've had a couple of very nice sailing days for the kids at Naivasha Yacht Club. They are allowed to come along as part of a 'cadets' training day with children from other schools, but it is in fact fun for all the family. Picnics and getting out onto the water. We even camped once - made all the more do-able because of flushing loos and hot showers 'on tap' as it were.
Low or non existent winds at the moment make it a fairly gentle introduction to sailing, though Naivasha is known for its flukey weather. My eldest daughter loves to recline in a borrowed 'Opi' or Optimist and allow a more intrepid member of her pier group do all the steering. I would be cross about this if it wasn't for the fact that I am exactly like her and only recently was 'in the same boat' while doing a laser sailing course down in Dar es Salaam. My friend who was also the instructor would say 'why don't you take over?' and offer me the tiller. I would reply,
'It's OK really, I am absolutely fine'
then would sit on the prow and dangle my feet in the Indian Ocean - in heaven.
However, there is one proverbial 'cloud on the horizon' at Naivasha that makes us expat parents slightly uncomfortable and that is the presence of hippos.
'They don't normally come right up to the slipway do they?' one mum asks
'Well, actually they do sometimes' replies an old hand.
The conversation goes on as we watch our young precious offspring splashing about up to their waists at the edge of the water. It seems so mean to tell them not to go in - and it's hot.
'and what about Bilharzia? There isn't any in this lake is there, only in Victoria isn't it?'
'Well, it hasn't been proved to be a problem here, but there are rumours that you can get 'the Old Bill' in Naivasha when the water levels are low.
'Oh'
We mums look out over the water, then over the dry yellow grass and fall into silence. We know that there is a drought on.
We consoled ourselves that the hippo would be frightened off by our noisy children, that is, until the children return from their afternoon session.
'Well, we all jumped off the boats for a swim because we were so hot, but while we were swimming we saw a hippo. It went under the water for a while, but when it came up again it was CLOSER!'
It's always the same old problem with living in Africa - it's wonderful.... but risky and invariably stretches your comfort zone.
Friday, February 06, 2009
24 hours to fight hunger in Kenya
Kiss FM have today concentrated the efforts of Kenyans to donate food to the starving around the country. Red Cross drop boxes were placed at all major supermarkets from Nairobi, to Mombasa, to Kisumu.
Their goal today was to collect100 tons of food and they were cajoling listeners to go and donate all day. I succumbed at around 10.30am. It was a really good idea to get people moving. I had dropped a big bag of rice in last week, but making it 'One day' 'One People' 'Lets save 2 million lives' was enough to drive people back to donate more and focus their minds on the problem.
All sorts of businesses were phoning in to say they had donated canters/lorry loads of food. One man was buying 100,000 shillings worth of rice and was speaking to the radio presenter from the till as he handed over his cash. School children went to donate. I don't know if they will make their target but by 4.30pm they had passed 50 tons and hopefully more would donate after knocking off work.
While MPs in Parliament debate on who was incriminated in the maize scandal where a million sacks of maize 'went missing' (MP William Ruto's position was looking extremely dicey after two days of lambasting - he must be sweating) - the rest of the country were physically doing something about the problem and that is all thanks to the local media. Nation media sent a team up Mount Kenya to raise money for the hungry a week or two ago, the Standard and Nation newspapers brought the country's attention to the plight of the starving by running large/shocking photo stories and the radio stations have launched charity appeals.
It's been a bit of a charity month with our ex nightwatchman and his wife needing costly tests for HIV and another member of staff taking a big loan to go and build his brother some kind of house. A lady, Stella, came to our gate today looking for work with a typed reference in hand. She said,
'my children have been locked out of our house as I cannot pay the rent'
I gave her a bit of money, took a phone number (apparently she does have a husband as she gave me his tel no as she didn't have one) and I told her to come back next week and I would see what I could do. Not sure how easy it will be to work miracles for a total stranger. There are so many in her position looking for work, I am already keeping my ears open for two more, Lucy and Patricia.
It's a horrible feeling to be living in a country where people are left to starve and sadly this is not the first time. It seems to be an almost annual problem.
p.s. Still a chance that those guilty of inciting election violence might have to go to the Hague. Parliament cannot agree on establishing a local tribunal and twice members have walked out or been absent thus thwarting the process.
Update: - they managed to collect 170 tons of food in 24 hours - a massive achievement!
Their goal today was to collect100 tons of food and they were cajoling listeners to go and donate all day. I succumbed at around 10.30am. It was a really good idea to get people moving. I had dropped a big bag of rice in last week, but making it 'One day' 'One People' 'Lets save 2 million lives' was enough to drive people back to donate more and focus their minds on the problem.
All sorts of businesses were phoning in to say they had donated canters/lorry loads of food. One man was buying 100,000 shillings worth of rice and was speaking to the radio presenter from the till as he handed over his cash. School children went to donate. I don't know if they will make their target but by 4.30pm they had passed 50 tons and hopefully more would donate after knocking off work.
While MPs in Parliament debate on who was incriminated in the maize scandal where a million sacks of maize 'went missing' (MP William Ruto's position was looking extremely dicey after two days of lambasting - he must be sweating) - the rest of the country were physically doing something about the problem and that is all thanks to the local media. Nation media sent a team up Mount Kenya to raise money for the hungry a week or two ago, the Standard and Nation newspapers brought the country's attention to the plight of the starving by running large/shocking photo stories and the radio stations have launched charity appeals.
It's been a bit of a charity month with our ex nightwatchman and his wife needing costly tests for HIV and another member of staff taking a big loan to go and build his brother some kind of house. A lady, Stella, came to our gate today looking for work with a typed reference in hand. She said,
'my children have been locked out of our house as I cannot pay the rent'
I gave her a bit of money, took a phone number (apparently she does have a husband as she gave me his tel no as she didn't have one) and I told her to come back next week and I would see what I could do. Not sure how easy it will be to work miracles for a total stranger. There are so many in her position looking for work, I am already keeping my ears open for two more, Lucy and Patricia.
It's a horrible feeling to be living in a country where people are left to starve and sadly this is not the first time. It seems to be an almost annual problem.
p.s. Still a chance that those guilty of inciting election violence might have to go to the Hague. Parliament cannot agree on establishing a local tribunal and twice members have walked out or been absent thus thwarting the process.
Update: - they managed to collect 170 tons of food in 24 hours - a massive achievement!
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Work permits for the trailing spouse
Have bloodied fingers, but sent off daughter in tudor dress yesterday am. She wasn't sure about the headdress/hairband that went with it but hey ho.
I met a friend yesterday who was filling her supermarket trolley doing a weekly shop. She does this because she was being super efficient as she works, i.e. she has a job and doesn't wander around the aisled aimlessly like yours truly. I had popped in for two bottles of furniture oil, (don’t ask!) it was my second shopping trip of the morning. Last week I was showering and changing after a 9am aerobics class in the club and another expat housewife (who also has three small children) loud hailed to anyone willing to hear,
‘Must go – got to get to work – ha ha!’
‘Bully for you’ I thought a bit green faced. Nice to have a flexible job that fits around mid morning exercises. I wonder how she managed that?
I must say. When I meet a working woman (and they do pop up occasionally in our expat housewives bubble), I do feel pangs of envy. It’s their sense of purpose, usefulness, credibility, status amongst non working housewives and of course it is the all important monthly wage that I wouldn’t mind a slice of, especially now that the children are at school almost full time and therefore there's more time on my hands. In addition, though the children are in 'mixed' schools with Kenyan and expat kids, the fees are and always have been eye watering (think, UK private schools) and the traditional expat package will no longer foot the bill (unless you are extremely lucky). We could send our children to cheaper, local schools but it might involve them bringing a bucket of water with them each day and being hundreds to a class.
‘Get off your butt and get a job!’ I hear you shriek in disbelief.
‘Yes...but...’ I respond, ‘Truth is, it’s a bit more complicated than you think’.
I’ve had a few enquiries/comment from spouses who want to work while accompanying their other half to Kenya, so I will do my best to explain what is required before you can get hold of that all important work permit.
In Kenya, even to do voluntary work legally as a non Kenyan, you will need to have a work permit. There are work permits (from A to L) specifically tailored for farming, mining, manufacturing, missionary work you name it. To undertake work without one risks the status of yourself and your spouse in the country – ie. If found working without a permit then you will be deported – do not stop – do not pass go. The truth is that many people do work without a permit and the chances of them getting ‘dobbed in’ is fairly slim, but the risk is still there – particularly if you put a foot wrong or come across somebody with an axe to grind.
Quote from the Ministry of State for Immigration and Registration of Persons:
‘All non-Kenyans wishing to work, engage in business or reside in Kenya must obtain the appropriate entry permits’
My husband has an A Class work permit – he is the only expat in a business that employs 70 plus people, and my children and I have a dependants pass based on his work permit which means that we can be resident in this country. Our passes along with the work permit gets renewed by the Ministry for Immigration every two years. The renewal is not just automatic, the application is reappraised and there is always the possibility of being turned down.
To work part time, which is what housewives ideally like to do as we still want to be able to do school runs etc, is tricky. For instance, for an H class permit (self employed) you have to pay 200,000 Kenya shillings for a two year work permit (just under £2,000), then show that there is at least 100,000 US dollars in your Kenyan bank account ready to be invested locally, before a permit is granted.
One professionally qualified friend admits that her part time work will never compensate her for the work permit that she had to pay for in the first place. Another friend was offered a part time teaching job that she would dearly love to do, but it’s simply not worth her while as the onus would be on her to arrange and pay for the permit. Many are caught in this catch 22 situation.
By my reckoning you need to either be a trustafarian housewife with tons of cash or a qualified professional working almost full time to get a work permit. There is also an onus on all foreigners who have been awarded a work permit, to employ and train up others, ultimately to do your job.
You could get a job at your own embassy, but a word of warning would be that local hire jobs are not very well renumerated and should strictly speaking be given to citizens not expat spouses - I know as I tried it.
For instance, for a type A work permit can only be awarded to:
‘A person who is offered specific employment by a specific employer who is QUALIFIED to undertake that employment, and whose engagement in that employment will be of benefit to Kenya.'
In fact, starting from type A to all the way to L, each type of work permit is only granted to those:
‘..whose presence in Kenya will be of benefit to Kenya.’ And this has to be proved in a concrete way in order to get the permit.
Never mind. This is not a ‘poor little me post’ because, honestly, it is really rather a luxury to be a lady of leisure. The internet means that many housewives can do online correspondence courses - ad infinitum. Hooray for the internet! When I started out in Tanzania ten years ago, we barely had email so things have moved forward over the years. Rather then being defeatist, I think that as an expat spouse you have to resign yourself to the fact that finding ways to make money requires some serious lateral thinking.
I met a friend yesterday who was filling her supermarket trolley doing a weekly shop. She does this because she was being super efficient as she works, i.e. she has a job and doesn't wander around the aisled aimlessly like yours truly. I had popped in for two bottles of furniture oil, (don’t ask!) it was my second shopping trip of the morning. Last week I was showering and changing after a 9am aerobics class in the club and another expat housewife (who also has three small children) loud hailed to anyone willing to hear,
‘Must go – got to get to work – ha ha!’
‘Bully for you’ I thought a bit green faced. Nice to have a flexible job that fits around mid morning exercises. I wonder how she managed that?
I must say. When I meet a working woman (and they do pop up occasionally in our expat housewives bubble), I do feel pangs of envy. It’s their sense of purpose, usefulness, credibility, status amongst non working housewives and of course it is the all important monthly wage that I wouldn’t mind a slice of, especially now that the children are at school almost full time and therefore there's more time on my hands. In addition, though the children are in 'mixed' schools with Kenyan and expat kids, the fees are and always have been eye watering (think, UK private schools) and the traditional expat package will no longer foot the bill (unless you are extremely lucky). We could send our children to cheaper, local schools but it might involve them bringing a bucket of water with them each day and being hundreds to a class.
‘Get off your butt and get a job!’ I hear you shriek in disbelief.
‘Yes...but...’ I respond, ‘Truth is, it’s a bit more complicated than you think’.
I’ve had a few enquiries/comment from spouses who want to work while accompanying their other half to Kenya, so I will do my best to explain what is required before you can get hold of that all important work permit.
In Kenya, even to do voluntary work legally as a non Kenyan, you will need to have a work permit. There are work permits (from A to L) specifically tailored for farming, mining, manufacturing, missionary work you name it. To undertake work without one risks the status of yourself and your spouse in the country – ie. If found working without a permit then you will be deported – do not stop – do not pass go. The truth is that many people do work without a permit and the chances of them getting ‘dobbed in’ is fairly slim, but the risk is still there – particularly if you put a foot wrong or come across somebody with an axe to grind.
Quote from the Ministry of State for Immigration and Registration of Persons:
‘All non-Kenyans wishing to work, engage in business or reside in Kenya must obtain the appropriate entry permits’
My husband has an A Class work permit – he is the only expat in a business that employs 70 plus people, and my children and I have a dependants pass based on his work permit which means that we can be resident in this country. Our passes along with the work permit gets renewed by the Ministry for Immigration every two years. The renewal is not just automatic, the application is reappraised and there is always the possibility of being turned down.
To work part time, which is what housewives ideally like to do as we still want to be able to do school runs etc, is tricky. For instance, for an H class permit (self employed) you have to pay 200,000 Kenya shillings for a two year work permit (just under £2,000), then show that there is at least 100,000 US dollars in your Kenyan bank account ready to be invested locally, before a permit is granted.
One professionally qualified friend admits that her part time work will never compensate her for the work permit that she had to pay for in the first place. Another friend was offered a part time teaching job that she would dearly love to do, but it’s simply not worth her while as the onus would be on her to arrange and pay for the permit. Many are caught in this catch 22 situation.
By my reckoning you need to either be a trustafarian housewife with tons of cash or a qualified professional working almost full time to get a work permit. There is also an onus on all foreigners who have been awarded a work permit, to employ and train up others, ultimately to do your job.
You could get a job at your own embassy, but a word of warning would be that local hire jobs are not very well renumerated and should strictly speaking be given to citizens not expat spouses - I know as I tried it.
For instance, for a type A work permit can only be awarded to:
‘A person who is offered specific employment by a specific employer who is QUALIFIED to undertake that employment, and whose engagement in that employment will be of benefit to Kenya.'
In fact, starting from type A to all the way to L, each type of work permit is only granted to those:
‘..whose presence in Kenya will be of benefit to Kenya.’ And this has to be proved in a concrete way in order to get the permit.
Never mind. This is not a ‘poor little me post’ because, honestly, it is really rather a luxury to be a lady of leisure. The internet means that many housewives can do online correspondence courses - ad infinitum. Hooray for the internet! When I started out in Tanzania ten years ago, we barely had email so things have moved forward over the years. Rather then being defeatist, I think that as an expat spouse you have to resign yourself to the fact that finding ways to make money requires some serious lateral thinking.
Monday, February 02, 2009
Oil tanker explosion and other weekend news
Just as people in Kenya come to terms with one tragedy, another takes place within days. President Mwai Kibaki has announced a week of official mourning.
On saturday night a crashed oil tanker exploded in Molo, 33 kms from Nakuru town - this may not have been a major tragedy in itself if if weren't for the hundreds of Kenyans (including women and children) who flocked to the crash site to siphon off fuel. A desperate situation. It is difficult to picture the scene - hundreds of people with small containers crawling all over a crashed lorry in amongst spilled fuel and fumes. Police were among the 115 people killed as well as two motorists who died in their car having stopped to look at the spectacle. The sunday nation reported:
'the fire was started when one of the victims lit a match'
It beggars belief.
178 are in hospital being treated for burns. This morning doctors are urgently appealing for blood donations.
In addition, reports from the supermarket fire persist in saying that fire escapes were locked when the fire broke out to prevent looting, thus trapping shoppers inside. So far 26 bodies have been recovered from the gutted building and 8 identified.#
'10 million Kenyans face starvation'.
It's an uncomfortable truth that springs to mind as one is cruising the supermarket in the suburbs buying chicken legs and mince. Donation boxes are placed outside shops for food and bags of maize. Kiss FM have re launched their 'caravan of hope' appeal for donations, which proved to be a resounding success during the period of post election trouble last year where Kenyans gave generously.
Foreign donors say they will help with the food crisis, but even they are hesitating to give to the Kenyan Government who are still embarrassingly embroiled in the 'maize scandal' that implicated MPs among others for forming a cartel buying up grain supplies then greedily selling back to millers or to Sudan at an inflated price. I guess that giving to those who are known to steal from their countrymen kind of sticks in the throat for some.
Raila Odinga (Kenya's PM) said he met Gordon Brown at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland last week and appealed for help. His appeal has been passed on for consideration but goodness knows that GB has his own problems. Raila also wrote a page long defence of himself and his political actions on page 10 of the Sunday Standard under the heading; 'I have not abandoned my ideals.' I didn't manage to read the whole thing through.
Waki Report
Last week I was ready to celebrate the fact that those named in the Waki Report for instigating post election violence might be shipped off to answer to their crimes at The Hague, as Kofi Annan's deadline for setting up a local tribunal had passed. However, I now learn that the situation is not straight forward and the deadline may be extended. Raila also had a word in Kofi Annan's ear in Switzerland on the old Waki subject, making his trip to the World Economic Forum a pretty tactical one all in all.
The good news is that apparently several Kenyan MPs have taken a stand to oppose setting up a local tribunal, as they believe that trying the high ranking guilty parties in Kenya will probably mean that they will ultimately wriggle out of facing charges and the Kenyan 'culture of impunity' will continue.
Kofi Annan is expected at a conference in Nairobi this week called 'The Kenya we want'. Watch this space. Meanwhile the statement by a Sunday Standard newspaper commentator Ahmednasir Abdualahi spoke volumes;
'Every rich Kenyan's wealth can be traced to a political connection, a looting of a parastatal or a looting of a ministry.'
On saturday night a crashed oil tanker exploded in Molo, 33 kms from Nakuru town - this may not have been a major tragedy in itself if if weren't for the hundreds of Kenyans (including women and children) who flocked to the crash site to siphon off fuel. A desperate situation. It is difficult to picture the scene - hundreds of people with small containers crawling all over a crashed lorry in amongst spilled fuel and fumes. Police were among the 115 people killed as well as two motorists who died in their car having stopped to look at the spectacle. The sunday nation reported:
'the fire was started when one of the victims lit a match'
It beggars belief.
178 are in hospital being treated for burns. This morning doctors are urgently appealing for blood donations.
In addition, reports from the supermarket fire persist in saying that fire escapes were locked when the fire broke out to prevent looting, thus trapping shoppers inside. So far 26 bodies have been recovered from the gutted building and 8 identified.#
'10 million Kenyans face starvation'.
It's an uncomfortable truth that springs to mind as one is cruising the supermarket in the suburbs buying chicken legs and mince. Donation boxes are placed outside shops for food and bags of maize. Kiss FM have re launched their 'caravan of hope' appeal for donations, which proved to be a resounding success during the period of post election trouble last year where Kenyans gave generously.
Foreign donors say they will help with the food crisis, but even they are hesitating to give to the Kenyan Government who are still embarrassingly embroiled in the 'maize scandal' that implicated MPs among others for forming a cartel buying up grain supplies then greedily selling back to millers or to Sudan at an inflated price. I guess that giving to those who are known to steal from their countrymen kind of sticks in the throat for some.
Raila Odinga (Kenya's PM) said he met Gordon Brown at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland last week and appealed for help. His appeal has been passed on for consideration but goodness knows that GB has his own problems. Raila also wrote a page long defence of himself and his political actions on page 10 of the Sunday Standard under the heading; 'I have not abandoned my ideals.' I didn't manage to read the whole thing through.
Waki Report
Last week I was ready to celebrate the fact that those named in the Waki Report for instigating post election violence might be shipped off to answer to their crimes at The Hague, as Kofi Annan's deadline for setting up a local tribunal had passed. However, I now learn that the situation is not straight forward and the deadline may be extended. Raila also had a word in Kofi Annan's ear in Switzerland on the old Waki subject, making his trip to the World Economic Forum a pretty tactical one all in all.
The good news is that apparently several Kenyan MPs have taken a stand to oppose setting up a local tribunal, as they believe that trying the high ranking guilty parties in Kenya will probably mean that they will ultimately wriggle out of facing charges and the Kenyan 'culture of impunity' will continue.
Kofi Annan is expected at a conference in Nairobi this week called 'The Kenya we want'. Watch this space. Meanwhile the statement by a Sunday Standard newspaper commentator Ahmednasir Abdualahi spoke volumes;
'Every rich Kenyan's wealth can be traced to a political connection, a looting of a parastatal or a looting of a ministry.'
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