STORIES FROM MY HEART

Lately, I have become obsessed with the oncoming elections, which could happen between August and December next year.(2012) It could be because during the last elections we were stuck at my mothers house in Kitale as i had traveled with one of my closest friends called Wairimu, and there was no way we could go towards Eldoret as her Kikuyu community was beng targeted. My daughter is also called Wambui. That complicated things, and nearing the next elections takes me back to 2007. I'm I worried? Yes. Because I fear that we may, as a voting population not learned the lesson. We still have displaced people living in camps, and some living across the border in Uganda, in search for the peace that our country failed to provide them. There are those that have nothing to loose, they may have lost it all anyway in 2007. There are those that really do not care, they may fly them and their children to another country for the duration of the elections. Then there are those ordinary ...

This past weekend was a quiet one for me. I had a lot to think about and organise, exams to prepare for, and a book, highly recommended and owned by my friend Kirigo Ng'arua. Bite of the Mango. Bite of the mango is a true story about an 11 year old girl called Mariatu Kamara from Sierra Leone, who grew up in a normal village of about 200 people. Her story is paints a picture of life before the rebels struck and after. From the eyes of a child. Mariatu writes the book in simple child-like English and in her own voice. I sort of felt that she was right there narrating it to me. She grew up with her Aunt and Uncle because of her mother's drunken habits. She lived a happy simple life, typical of most African village life, where all the older people were respected as parents, and all the younger ones lived like siblings. They cooked, ate and slept as if they were one family. The girls got married when they were very young, about 13 years old, and many of them, despite h...

I just read this article from a man a highly respect and who's opinion and take on African matters is thought provoking. Mr. Fengler is the World Bank's Lead Economist for Kenya. His take is that the famine in Kenya is man made, and requires a man made soluiton. His arguments are rich, do drop by his blog

An online discussion with business journalists on twitter this morning regarding the IMF’s role in the Kenyan economy resulted into a heated discourse with the Star’s James Mbugua saying “Why is the IMF more concerned with Inflation than growth? They’ve messed us up”. He went on to say “Everything that Central bank has been doing has IMF written all over it.” For those not in Kenya- the shilling has weakened to a 17 year low against the almighty dollar- due to a combined number of reasons, mostly blamed on erratic international crude prices and a strengthening dollar, and the issue of speculation has not also be ruled out. Now a weak shilling has a ripple effect- there are those that benefit, especially exporters, in our case, horticulture, coffee and the tourism industry, fall under the winners. But the losers are more. Being an oil import dependent economy- the price per liter of fuel has been on the increase in recent months. This has had a domino effect on manufacturers who re...

The first time President mwai Kibaki talked about the free fall of the shilling was at the opening bell of the NSE when Brish American commenced trading on the NSE about two weeks ago. The IPo was undersubscribed, and one reason for that, stock-brokers say is a shilling that won't hold stready as well as Inflation which has robbed Kenyans of disposable income, and the stock exchange is the last of their priorities. The president talked about a dollar demand that was insatiable, and called on the IMF to quicken the process of the Extended credit facility that Kenya had signed up for earlier this year. let me break that down: The Extended Credit Facility (ECF) is an IMF facility which provides financial assistance to low income countries with protraced balance of payments. This means that the import- export balance is off tangent, and it usually results in a weak local currency among other economic challenges. So when Kibaki asked for the a hastening of the ECF, he was basica...

The slow down in the US and Europe may be responsible for a slower economic growth for Sub- saharan Africa. Some African countries are already reeling from the effects of these, that are visible through weaker currencies and reduced investor participation. In 2008, as the economic crisis sunk several economies, Kenya was one of the economies that remained resilient, hinging its survival on thin intergration levels with the developed world. But that was then, the second phase of may not leave Africa unscathed. the IMF has cut down its growth projection of Africa to 5.2% from 5.5% projected in April. so what are the implications of this? With its track record and strong critics about the IMF's role in Africa's development,Some may dismiss this - but unfortunately investors and the world's super powers who dictate the global economy listen to these financial institutions. If the growth rate is cut, investors read this as a signal to reduced returns. It is true, ...

WASHINGTON DC, 20TH SEPTEMBER Unemployment and how to counter a problem that's been described as an economic time bomb is a key area of discussion at the IMF and World Bank Spring meetings in Washinton DC. Let me put this into perspective first. We've seen Obama's recent shaky moments as he battles with empowering Americans after an economic crisis that stripped the worlds number one state to its bare minimum. And now US unemployment figures remains at about 9%. That is a crisis. In Kenya, that figure (unemployment) is at 36%. Inflation is at 16.67%, and today, the shilling is at an 17 year low of 96 shillings to the greenback. That is a proper definition of the word disaster. But we walk and talk as if its business as usual as politics and blinders (in the name of price controls and price caps) balm mass appeal. We need to wake up to the realities of what this means for our economy. Where are all the jobs? what is really happening? Reduced capital flows . T...