My Views on Nothing|Anything|Everything

We judge the effectiveness or admirability of women in politics by their ability to withstand oppression, suffering and violence meted out by society. We tell women to look up to Wangari Mathai and use her as an example of women who didn’t have power handed to her on a silver platter but instead fought for it. We have glorified struggle as a necessity for change and have used it as a reason to maintain the status quo and normalize the oppression of women as a part of society. We use examples of icons like Wangari Maathai to speak out against affirmative action. She would be ashamed. In the light of increased women in spheres of public influence both in public service and in the corporate world, we are deluded to think that gender equity has been achieved. We are not even close. There several structural and systemic factors that ensure that women are not at the same level as men when competing for the same positions and perhaps if we understood them a bit more the...

The formation of the Independent Police Oversight Authority in 2011 was a great step forward but why they still don't have prosecutorial powers baffles me. IPOA was created to allow for civilian oversight over the National Police Service Commission which had been a law unto itself for ages letting police kill,maim and harass with absolutely no consequences. IPOA has the ability to summon and investigate but it's up to the Office of the Deputy Prosecutor,at its discretion, to prosecute or to do what it normally does to police; nothing. It's not particularly surprising though because of the structural and functional bond that the two share creating a blaring and inexcusable and perpetual conflict of interest. Police work hand in hand with the prosecutors everyday and rely on each other to function so how could they possibly be able to be independent of each other. A massive shift is needed in the way the criminal justice system works in regards to po...

Something changed with men. Sometime before I was born, a massive shift happened. Somewhere along the way the bond between fathers and children was broken and it's having a direct effect on society. Men's relationship with their children has changed greatly over the past few decades ironically in an era where we feel that children and parents are breaking barriers and should be getting closer and understanding each other. If we look at history, a few decades ago, in the Mau Mau era,many of the veterans raised children who were not theirs when they came back home. Some of the women had been raped by the home guards but some of them had gotten into arrangements through their mother in laws to get men to have children with so that the soldiers would come and find a 'home'-meaning complete with children. A lot of the soldiers would come back home,empty the few bullets they had left into their wives and then disappear for another few months or years but ...

Sex with a minor, under 18 has always been a dicey topic but Criminal Appeal 32 of 2015 shows just how far we have to go http://kenyalaw.org/caselaw/cases/view/121219/ "It is true that under the Sexual Offences Act, a child below 18 years old cannot give consent to sexual intercourse. However, where the child behaves like an adult and willingly sneaks into men's houses for purposes of having sex, the court ought to treat such a child as a grown up who knows what she is doing. The appellant was 23 years old when the incident occurred as per the pre bail report. It would be unfair to have the appellant serve 20 years behind bars yet PW1 was after sex from him. The evidence does not show that the appellant knew that PW1was a student or that the appellant took advantage of PW1 being a young girl. It is clear to me that PW1 started engaging in sex way before that date. It is possible that PW3 saw his sister enjoying sex with the appellant at 1.00 am." Thi...

A lot of us don't see our parents as people. People who are scared,who love,who hurt,who make mistakes and who are growing each day. we don't look at our parents in the context of cultural upbringing and constraints and perhaps we never will. By the time you see your parents as human you will probably be really close to getting a little terrorist of your own running round,depleting your resources,time and energy who you also love so much. It isn't easy being a father. A lot of our fathers endured strained or borderline abusive relationships with their fathers(sometimes mothers) or no relationship which they took out on us. There's no relationship that can replace your relationship with your father. I'm saying this with the most kick-ass mother the world has ever known. There's no one like a father. We expect our fathers to show love in the ways that we understand and if not then they should be better fathers. They should be the dads that...