Fursa niliyoikosa

Je, uliposajiliwa kama mwanafunzi katika bewa kuu la chuo kikuu cha Moi, ilikuwa mara yako ya ngapi kukanyaga ardhi ya mahala hapa? Swali hili, katu haliwezi kuzalisha majibu sawa kwa wadau tofauti tofauti katika taasisi hii ya elimu.

 Kunao waliowahi kuzuru mahali hapa hata kabla hawajajua kwamba huenda hatimaye wakajipata papa hapa katika safari yao ya kutafuta shahada.

Aidha kuna wale ambao, mimi nikiwa mmoja wao, waliyaona mandthari ya Moi mara ya mosi katika pilkapilka za kusajiliwa kiuanagenzi.

Kwa wanafunzi wa shule ya upili ua St. Teresa’s Opanga - iliyoko eneo la Kadongo katika mkoa wa Nyanza, hii leo imekuwa siku njema kwa baadhi yao waliopata nafasi ya kuzuru chuo hiki. Kwa hakika hii ni hatua kabambe sana, hasa tukizingatia saikolojia ya mwanadamu – ambaye hupata mvuto wa kukienzi kitu anachokiona kwa macho kuwa kizuri. Natumai kunao wengine ambao tayari wamepata motisha utakaowatia ngoa na kuwapa msukumo wa kufanya vyema katika mtihani wao wa kitaifa wa KCSE, ili mwisho wa siku nao wajivunie kuwa wana-Moi au chuo kikuu chochote chenginecho.

Wanafunzi wa Teresa's - Chuoni Moi

Dhana ya kwamba wanafunzi hao wamependezewa na mahali hapa ungeithibitisha tu, kama ungepita karibu nao na kutazama tabasamu lililokuwa limetanda nyusoni mwa wengi wao – kama si wote. Wengine hawakutaka kuondoka kisha waisahau siku hii maishani mwao, hivyo basi wakaamua kupiga picha katika maeneo fulani fulani yaliyoonekana kuwavutia zaidi. Wanafunzi hao wametembezwa sehemu mbali mbali zikiwemo ukumbi wa wanafunzi, maktaba, kitivo cha rasilimali-watu, afisi za utawala na kadhalika.

Lakini kwa kauli yangu, wanafunzi hao wameikosa fursa ya dhahabu, ambayo ingewapa taswira kamili ya maisha chuoni humu, kwa kutopelekwa sehemu nyeti kama vile hosteli H na J. Huko, wangejionea maajabu ya mwaka na hata pengine kuchanganyikiwa kwa taarifa-kinzani. Huku muelekezi wao akisema, “Hapa ni H, hosteli inayoishi wanafunzi wa kiume tu…” wakati huo huo anatokezea binti mmoja au wawili wakitoka kuoga na wanaingia ‘vyumbani mwao’. Huko J pia, muelekezi angesema, “Humu ni mwa wasichana sasa…” mara ghafla wanakutana na barobaro limeshikilia kifuko cha ngumuu na linafungua mlango wa ‘chumba chake’!

Hata hivyo, waliyoyapata yanatosha, kwani wanafunzi hao wamejifunza mengi kwa kujionea, kujisomea na hata kwa kusikia pia; hayo yote ni katika fursa waliyopewa, fursa ya kutamanika – Fursa niliyoikosa!!!

Public Figures versus Privacy Rights

Media laws and ethics are there to regulate the activities of media practitioners. This is meant to ensure that media people act according to the profession’s acceptable code of conduct. Unfortunately, this issue has always generated a lot of controversial questions and debates, right from the law of defamation, copyright, censorship and privacy – up to the ethical issues such as objectivity, credibility, fairness, truth, and plagiarism – among others. Questions like who should enforce these laws and ethics – the constitution or the media itself – and to what extent have always posed a challenge to those interested in providing answers.

In this article, I want to concentrate much on the law of privacy as a right, especially to public figures.

According to the resultant combination of different scholars’ definitions, a public figure can be figured out as a person who is popular or famous amongst others and whose actions may be of interest to them. They may be government officials/politicians, other leaders and even celebrities – actors and actresses, musicians, footballers, e.t.c.

Generally, public figures are always entitled to minimal privacy rights in the society. Why? I have already said it that their actions may be of interest to the public.

If reporters cling so much on the law of privacy, there may be almost no news to report about.

Many men have divorced their wives, taken to court and ordered to pay huge amounts of money to the divorced, but which example of these cases do most people know if not that of Philip Moi? Reason? The retired president’s blood flows in his veins!

Wambua (right) surprised by his majesty

What has actually triggered the birth of this article is the latest ‘public’ action by the class representative of the 2015 media class in Moi University – Main campus. Of course he is a public figure especially in the context of the media class. Almost everybody does it but once it is done by a talented leader like him, it quickly translates into being newsworthy.

I am not ready to narrate the whole story as it happened but the picture aside serves as a perfect illustration of it, and can speak a thousand words about the same. Besides, I want to preserve at least a small fraction of his privacy that he is also entitled to enjoy as a fellow normal human being, regardless of his ranking position in authority.

Critics may obviously follow after the publication of this article, especially from the characters of the scene – if I may be allowed to call them so; but if at all they wanted to consider this as part of their privacy, then what was the rationale behind doing it in the eyes of the public?

Kwani hawajui kwamba faragha ya nyani huishia kokoni? Ama lazima niwakumbushe ile methali inayosema,“funika kombe mwana haramu apite”? Basi siku hizi si mwana haramu, nawaambia;

“Funika kombe mwana wa Kombe apite!!!”

Samahani kama nimekukoseeni…

Fastest Newman Finally Overwhelmed

Newman was at first not well known to be a fast writer, especially in the presence of some dominant names that always reigned in lecture classes. The people who would complete sentences ahead of lecturers – the likes of Juma .W. Chrispinus of Western Kenya. His speed even alarmed the attention of Mr. Kurgat, who was once heard commenting during his usual marathon dictations, “You are journalists… you need to be fast… like my friend Juma…”

However, a dramatic change took place right from the time the class sit-in-CATs commenced. The silent Newman overtook the prestige and came out as the hero in terms of completing CATs in half-times. One of his shocked classmates was heard one day saying,  

“Siku hizi Newman ako juu! Ikiwa mimi bado naandika cover page, mtu amemaliza!” 

 His speed even attracted some of our celebrities – Irene, who tried to experiment one day during the INS 214 CAT on Friday, 22^nd June. She decided to sit with the hero; hopefully got some guidance and pieces of advice and indeed, it worked! She finished second, a few seconds after him!

Kashara - standing &Newman - below him

Today, the 26^th of June, 2012 will be remembered for what has happened. Eric Kashara, the politician, finally succeeded in succeeding Newman! A few minutes after half time – the CAT was scheduled to last for one hour – I heard some footsteps and what came into my mind was, “Mtu tayari amemaliza!” But I was too busy to see who had done it this time. After all, little did I know that it would be someone else. Just to confirm, I raised up my head and lol! A short black man was signing the attendance list for having submitted his answer sheet! I nearly said nothing before being certain that Newman would still feature as at least the second. Much of my surprise grew when Kashara was seconded by the great Jalang’o, who was then followed by his close associate – Gilbert!

Seeing that this was too much for him and would in fact ruin his career, Newman decided – No, let me go, and featured position four before honourable Agak closed the list of top five.

I am yet to find out which position Irene occupied but at least I know that I quitted the exam room much earlier than her! – What happened?

The lecturer, Ms. Simam was almost bored thereafter when our dear class representative refused to complete after an hour. You could tell this by the way she was staring at him after almost everybody had already left. He seemed to be the busiest man, just continued writing – Kwani ile hand-out aliyopewa akaficha haikumsaidia? Sam Soi had sacrificed to give Brian company in the room but seeing that he was taking abnormal time, Soi decided to quit too, and Brian finished five minutes afterwards - as the last man.

Too Close to Call

Ladies and gentlemen,

As you all know about the hierarchy of creation, man was created after everything else.

But before man, there were animals and there were animals of every kind.

Like human beings of today, these animals had traditions and cultures, events and anniversaries.

But one thing of interest in their calendar of events was that after every five years, they organized beauty contests.

Yes, after every five years, they had to see who was the fairest of all. Of course animals are not the most beautiful creation of God.

Anyway, the pageant was marked without fail, five years in, five years out like a ritual – until one time.

Yes, one time during a similar occasion, things went haywire.

This day, the finalist had been drawn from all parts of the animal kingdom.

From the east, came the gazelle, beautiful but shy.

From the west, close to the lake, came the dog, black and graceful. Minus its six front teeth, it was the best the west could offer.

 There was the jackal from the central part of the animal kingdom. The jackal was the reigning miss world and was just there to defend its title. With bangles on all its front limbs, it looked set for the occasion.

From the north, came the warthog and the south the kangaroo.

Several other contestants came in from nowhere but from within the animal kingdom, making a total of nine contestants that year.

On the contesting day, everything was planned as thought would be best. Huge amounts of resources were spent for the occasion, resources that mainly came from the individual animal contribution for the welfare of the jungle. But it was still fine for the animals since what they wanted was to get the best for the next five years.

First to take on the catwalk was the kangaroo.

Yes, the catwalk. So called because cats had reigned for four consecutive terms, and had been granted “the honours”.

So there was the kangaroo doing its thing; Pa! Pa! Pa! to match acclamation.

Then came the warthog; Pa! Pa! Pa!

The dog and the jackal closed the scene after five other contestants and then it was time for the table of adjudicators to announce the winner.

Every animal waited in deep breathe for this announcement and when the chief adjudicator stood, a deafening silence fell over the venue.

So he cleared his throat to announce, “E-e-e-eeeh… ladies and gentlemen, the winner is…the jackal!

No! No! Nooooooo! No waaaaaay! Doooog… Dooooog… The dog is the winner!!!

“Silence please!” called the chief adjudicator. “Silence so that we can crown the winner!”

But nobody listened.

Dogs fighting jackals, jackals hitting back like never before

In fact no one was going to listen, then suddenly all hell broke loose; dogs fighting jackals and jackals hitting back like never before.

Many times, the dog and the jackal had acted as mediators in jungle wars but now at each other’s neck, the arbitrator had become the perpetrator.

All animals of the jungle watched in disguise, wondering how much blood each would draw from the other before they could sit aside and resolve their differences. According to majority of the animals, the dog and the jackal were fighting on the basis of hunger for power.

Tales of the on-going battle reached far and wide. The most horrendous was told of female squirrels and their young ones who in a bid to escape sought refuge in the sanctity of their barrows. They were set ablaze in their flammable urine and in a haze, were dead!

Agony depression and hatred engulfed the animals of Lukenya as every animal was fighting another in vengeance and revenge. They devoured each other in a war none could tell its origin. It was foolhardy.

The war got even worse when spectators started taking sides.

A warthog from nowhere accidentally stepped on the nose of a nearby hyena. Suddenly, all hyenas that had hitherto been considered cowards turned against any warthog in sight and started tearing them apart.

The tortoise withdrew into its shell; making the side it supported a mystery. It was later rumored that it sympathized with the jackal.

The penguin for once took the character of the ostrich, burying its head in the sand in a show of see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. In their white – vested chests and black overcoats, they were the most pious of all animals. As other animals walked on fours, they had already mastered the art of walking straight on their twos. They had resigned to ignorance regardless of their revelation and knowledge.

As the war raged on, some disadvantaged animals had to flee from their habitats to their neighborhoods and they came to be referred to as the internally displaced animals. They could be heard shouting from safe distances, “We want peace! We want peace!”

But this was just a wishful thinking, for what was to come would shock the entire animal kingdom.

Animals of Wahututsi forest were shocked to see blood flowing in their rivers. They did not like the sight of blood. It reminded them of a time in history that they were struggling to forget. A time when they had turned against each other, culminating into the death of over five hundred thousand animals. So they sent the emissaries upper hill on a fact – finding mission.

In two hours, five hundred animals lay dead with thousands scampering for safety. The situation was getting out of hand. Something had to be done, and done immediately.

The dove was then sent from the distant equatorial forest to broker peace among the warring animals and after forty-eight hours of consultation, a solution was found!

The crown would be split into two; one half would be used to crown the dog and the other half, the jackal since looking at the two, it was too close to call.

All animals were happy with this Solomonic decision, peace was restored and they had every reason to sing and dance!!! It was party time...