Somewhere in Northern Uganda the Nile narrows down from its stately average width of 2.8 kilometers to a mere 7 meters. Amidst rocks as ancient as the Earth, the great River plunges to a depth of 43 meters in a frothing roaring extravaganza, throwing a dazzling rainbow.
From early 15th century or there about, pre coin monetary systems, in the form of cowry shells, precious metals and others, began circulating in the coastal areas of East Africa. These steadily spread inland to reach places as far removed from the coast as present day Uganda and much of eastern Congo. They slowly but not completely replaced the age old system of trade by barter.
Two hours to the end of his eight year pontificate, Pope Benedict the16thbade farewell and uttered his last blessings to the world as Pontiff from the balcony at Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican. Then to a friendly and cheering crowd of the faithful and the curious that came to see him in their multitudes the Pontiff turned his back. But Benedict seemed at that moment even more popular, probably because he had shown the way.
The conventional wisdom in the Kenyan media is that the 2013 election has been an ethnic census, not issue-based. This half-truth fails to recognize the issues that drive the ethnicisation of politics.. It is true that the easiest way to predict how an individual voted would be to know his or her ethnicity. What is not so obvious is to perceive how ethnic blocs have voted and for whom. To graph this we actually need to look at the issues
At high school we watched the screening of Steven Spielberg’s Poltergeist. In the Movie a family lives in a house erected on a graveyard without knowing it. This did not go down well with the spirits of the dead, who made their displeasure known by slowly torturing the family to madness.
The previous Kenyan election had been marred by ugly scenes of wide spread post electoral violence. This time around as Kenyans again went into election gear, the whole world held its breath. By the end of the day when without a sign of violence it was all over, you could almost hear the collective global sigh of relief. To that extent the 2013 election was a success.
At the first war crimes tribunal at Nuremberg at the end of World War II a total of 23 accused stood at the dock. The trial lasted 13 months. By comparison there only 5 accused stood at the dock at the Pennon Pen trial. Yet the proceedings have now lasted 7 years and still running.
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