POLITICS : Civil Strife;Ethnic Clashes, Teachers / Doctors Strikes

Hi everybody out there, Kenya is on the path to hell slowly but sure though the stake-holders are making efforts to bring back peace, love and harmony......Well, to begin with the Tana Delta in the Coast has experienced bloodshed due to two warring communities, namely the Pokomos and The Ormas unleashing terror on each other even in the presence of beefed-up security. This follows in the wake of the gunning down of a fiery Muslim cleric in the island where the prevailing chaos saw cops and civilians injured and killed. Now the heat turned-up in Tana Delta and 9 cops so far have been killed including other like 95 civilians. Over 5000 people have been internally displaced as well running for their dear lives in safer districts. The militia men from the two tribes are said to be armed with guns more powerful than the policemen s and in other cases they just hack them to death using machetes, they have the options of using spears, bows and arrows as well.One would be mistaken to think all this is happening in a "no man's land" The president issued a dawn to dusk curfew but the killings went on so the government is deliberating on unleashing the military on them. The cops say their arms are kinda tied so they can't use force lest they be subjected to court proceeding like in the case of their immediate predecessor boss who was sent to The ICC for crimes emanating from the 2007 post-election violence.The cops also claim they've got no enough food supplies nor bullets to speak of, and they've got only a pair of uniforms each to go!They are outnumbered as well for the raiders attack in groups of between 200 and 300.Houses have been torched and razed to the ground!Even cows were burnt to death! Mind you elections are barely 6 months in the waiting. Teachers strike has entered day 12 as per now and it's interesting to note that their genuine grievances can be originally traced back to 1997 during the former president Moi's regime. In 1997 it appears they arm twisted the government into signing a legal notice agreement cause come the new government in 2002, the legal notice was am mended without the teachers participation or consent to include only two categories of allowances namely teachers serving in special schools { 4 the handicapped } and those in hardship areas. They are demanding a 300% pay rise to harmonize their salaries with the rest of the civil servants who get between 12,000/- and 25,000/- for the same job grade/level.It's now 2012 and Kibaki, the incumbent never implemented their demands ever since He took the reigns of government in 2002, i.e. 10 years down the line.The teachers may have genuine grievances but always staging strikes just before general elections and when the national examinations for primary and high school students are about to occur is like blackmailing the government and using innocent school kids as human shields in their pursuit for decent wages and working conditions, as much as their grievances may be genuine. The doctors also begun their strike yesterday and all public hospitals have been left only with consultants to cater for emergency cases: no specialized surgeries or clinics just the bare basics.The Malindi district hospital admitting in the Tana Delta casualties is in a pathetic situation commensurate with the other public hospitals country-wide. The Doctors receive special kudos despite their strike for they have masked it with a human face and their compatriots at this particular Malindi district hospital have been exempted by their colleagues to participate in the strike. The only exception involves logistics whereby the hospital lacks basic such as gloves, painkillers, sutures, chest blood draining test tubes for bullet wounds and they've relied on private hospitals for these necessary medical supplies. The government as usual is always caught unawares and they begin undertaking to save the situation long after individual patriots have shown the philanthropic path.. The data given by medics in Kenya is that there's only 16 doctors to every 100,000 Kenyans whilst the W.H.O. requirement's 100 for every 100,000 people. Funny isn't it? Later virtuals logistics.

State Terror : X-Files

Hi global audience, I wonder how the situation in your respective countries compares with mine in regard to victims of subversive/covert state terror. After by-laws were specifically choreographed to stage-manage my systematic discrimination/stigmatization in employment in the teaching and tourism sectors,I swallowed hard, turned a blind eye and decided to continue my endevours to lead a decent life commensurate with the training and experience I'd garnered over the years. I did casual labor and anything that came my way just to survive and see another day. I embarked on a sales and marketing agenda and begun with the Insurance Industry. I learn t during my 3-month short stint tenure as a sales/marketing person for one Pioneer Assurance Ltd that The African populace still lags behind in terms of insurance exposure and information. The lay had rather manage their savings accounts than bank their future security on insurance premiums which is largely news to them. Very few people engage their meager resources on insurance premiums.Then,on the other hand , a majority { 99% } of companies requiring sales and marketing services provide a retainer for their sales agents. You work-out the equations your way and only get paid on commission based on sales. The ODM secretariat tracked me and made sure I wasn't gonna make any sales whatsoever, only marketing; this I realized for for the 3 and a half months I worked there visiting all the prescribed companies that qualified for a contract with us, I made no sales although new recruit agents who came way behind me managed to freely make sales "here and there." Thus, was I forced to quit. I then enthusiastically joined another micro-finance company called Blue Ltd providing long and short term loans to prescribed companies both in the public and private sectors. I was thrilled cause we were engaging loans of up to KShs 500,000 within 4 8-hour working days which translated to accessing half-a-million within 1 and a half days. The interest rates left something to desire compared with the established banks but that was comprehensible since Blue Ltd asked for no collateral s all they needed was one's pay slip. Nonetheless, this en devour also became a tall order since teachers who were our main target had their hands tied by the government which had introduced something called "the a-third rule factor" which meant for them to qualify for our loans they could only borrow so much as to leave a third of their salaries untouched once they begun remitting their interests from their attached salaries. This disqualified most of them for lots were still servicing loans they had taken earlier-on. Either way, still late agent-recruits could ironically manage to to fish 1 or 2 loaners while my poor-tracked me was left doing the marketing without any hopes at sales. I decided to quit all together after it dawned upon my old good self that I was being taken for a ride. Trying to get employment with those sales/marketing companies providing retainers was a pipe dream though I tried. Later, logistics.

Politics: Counter Terrorism, Civil Strife and Street Running Battles

If you happen to be the target of some political dinosaur, democratic infant of the dark Jurassic-mammoth ice ages, then be assured you will never be liable to transact any kind of financial contract/agreement for years on end unless some miraculous intervention happens from liberal, progressive,civilized, informed and exposed forces.I can attest to that for my life besides having been hijacked has been wholly financially incapacitated to the extent of being rendered an unwilling dependent. I got a god-sent opportunity to teach at a primary school in Mombasa for like 1 month temporarily substituting a lady teacher who had slipped in her bathroom and broke her lower jaw rendering her incapable of giving lessons/classes. The earning rates were KShs200 per day and I collected the total at the end of that month.Thus the administration was kinda bewildered by my performance and asked me to apply for a permanent post which was going to fall vacant in the foreseeable future which I did as a matter of urgency only to be told on the eve of the interview that the ministry of education had resuscitated/enforced some by-laws which had been in existence but hadn't been implemented and as such the administration asked me to check for further clarification regarding that matter with the ministry of education secretariat at the civil service headquarters. The secretariat duly informed me that the government had put in place regulations demanding that from then henceforth both public and private schools were under obligation to strictly employ only Bachelor of Education graduates who had registered with the Teachers Service Commission and as such held a valid TSC number. Secondly,unrestrained graduate teachers were also no longer eligible for contractual employment. That these by-laws exempted those untrained graduate teachers who happened to have been contracted before the coming into force of those by-laws. Thus my chance to join the job markets fixed-income fray hit a snug once more. I realized a month or so later that this hullabaloo was all stage-managed just to take care of my endevours to emancipate myself and gain financial independence. Everybody else was still being recruited in the same old ways and I was the exception.Hmm m.. When I went sometimes later to seek a free lance tour guiding license, the rules were again twisted with impunity and I was told the new regulations demanded one to have a certificate in tour guiding notwithstanding the tour/safari guiding experience one carried with them from the companies they had previously been working for. Such guides were considered before the new regulations! Sometimes last week a fiery Muslim cleric was shot dead as he drove home with his family and this drove the Muslim community crazy to the streets burning down innocent churches and killing and maiming other civilians as well as dozens of policemen. Mombasa hasn't cooled yet to its former state before the Muslim cleric was gunned down.It has affected the tourism industry just like way back in 1997 when the indigenous coastal s caused terror mayhem claiming secession like they are now only they are much more organized under the caucus of Mombasa Republican Council. In 1997, I was then a tour guide and happened to have been caught in the mayhem ,though fortunately after completing our tour at the South Coast and were now on the process of transferring the tourists back to their hotels. Apparently, just to mention,one amongst those tourists was this beautiful Belgium girl/student travel ling with her family with whom we maintained correspondence even after I'd joined the university in Nairobi.She's the one who'd sent me the La Rousse de Poche I'd mentioned earlier and her other souvenirs which I held dear was a gigantic/calumnious La Rousse de Poche French/English dictionary and a Michael Jackson the late 2-in-1 album which I used to listen to a lot after my days hustings in the streets of Nairobi. When we were transferring the tourists then we were obliged to book them in any available hotel as a case of emergency and you can imagine there weren't many to go given the rush and the suddenness.When I had to run as a fugitive to save the life I lived in Nairobi, and had to take the La Rousse text, I couldn't help remembering the events of 1997. Hell, the doctors are also on the verge of a nation wide strike; the teachers have already launched theirs and a section of civil servants are threatening to follow suit in due time. The ODM secretariat have hijacked my life leaving one without access, choice or purchasing power so to speak of. I can't even pay my higher education loan I borrowed from the government which is still accruing interest to date. Later virtuals, logistics.