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While Britain ruminates over their hung parliament predicament - Things in Kenya have not been dull. Somebody I know said, 'I can't believe England is going to end up the same as Kenya, with a Coalition Government too! Isn't it funny how things turn out!' 'Er, not quite the same', we said.
1. Louis Moreno Ocampo is here in Kenya! He finally launches investigations into those most responsible for masterminding/funding/organising post election violence in early 2008. Listening to him on the radio is quite amusing - his Argentine accent is v. strong.
'Hccch I am, Hccch-arresting zooze reccchhsponsible!'
He is now travelling around the country for 5 days interviewing victims and witnesses. I bet there are various spies who are v. interested in who he is talking to. The slightly bad news is that from an original Waki Commission list of 20 names, LMO is now saying he will only be arresting 'two or three' key personalities. I could have sworn that last month it was six. The numbers of those who may or may not be carted off to the Hague are decreasing, but he's certainly got people spooked. He said that warrants for arrests could be out in November.
2. Loads of people have gone out and registered themselves (once again!) using both old and new identity cards, so that they are eligible to vote in the August referendum on the draft constitution. The deadline for registering was extended by three days due to long queues - (evidently, most people had left it to the last minute). Plus, Kibaki and Raila Odinga are miraculously, showing a united front on this one. They've had some resistance from church leaders and Will-i-am Ruto, who always loves a bit of publicity and is labouring under the illusion that he will one day be King.... I mean President.
3. It rains, it rains, it rains. Water is now dripping through our guest room roof too. Lucky we don't have guests at the moment, we are running short of buckets. Roads are becoming brown rivers after long nights of rain. Potholes are now appearing in the very newest bits of tarmac. The older, already potholed ones are becoming almost impassable. And, the power keeps going off, or on low voltage for days at a time. The poor KPLC guys are up poles fixing problems everywhere you look.
4. The property boom here continues - new shopping centres are still being built, new housing complexes still popping up everywhere. There is a theory that Kenya has its own micro-economy. What I do know is that the crazy debt crisis that Europe and the States is struggling with is not nearly such a problem here because historically, so few people have been able to get their hands on loans - a good thing. If I had been living in England for the past 10 years, I imagine I would have been in deep debt trouble. I love the buzz that shopping gives you but nowadays am more or less restricted to one annual binge. Right now I am going through a seriously un-inspired phase. My husband says, 'your cupboard is full of clothes!' I pull out items, 'this is circa 1999, this, 2003, this 2004, .....' Then I feel guilty because the gardener needs new overalls and I keep forgetting to get around to it.
5. Our fridge packed up again, this time finally. In the absence of a spare, we've got the tiny car fridge buzzing away in the kitchen. It holds about one pint of milk. Meanwhile I've spent the whole day chasing around trying to choose a new one from various shop floors filled with overpriced LG models. Didn't acheive much, couldn't decide. White or chrome, LG or Bosch, how much to pay? I quite like the ones with fridge on top & freezer below. These seem to make more sense as there advantages to not having to bend your knees and shuffle around in back breaking search of jars hiding at the back. The mini car fridge will have to do for now.