THE KENYA KENYANS WANT

• Kenyans are tired of politics of self seekers, who are driven by greed, malice and hatred. Just listen to them as they shout and yell their hearts out in the name of "democracy "and "people of kenya". You may be tempted to think they reside on the moon if it wasn't for the fact that they dwell in kenya.
  On the contrary, Kenyan are well educated and very tolerant politically. This may look like a weakness to some but it is a real strength. As we forge ahead with our political dispensation it always wise to beware these self seekers whose goal and objective is nothing else but themselves.
  Here are some of the simple but practical things Kenyans want from their Government.
  1. Better transport network
  2. Electricity in every village
  3. Good schools; primary, secondary, middle colleges and universities.
  4. Clean and safe drinking water in every village
  5. Farmers to get what is their dues when they deliver their produce.
  6. Security for every Kenyan
  7. Decentrallized government so that people can get services without delay.
  8. Freedom to own property anywhere in the country without being harrased.
  9. Corruption free country where honesty and hard work is our clarion.
  10. Leaders who are equal to the 21Century challenges.
  
  
  Hon Koigi Wamwere has a very serious point. Seee below
  
  on the same note see what others say..............
  

"Where is the party of the people?
By Koigi Wamwere
Kenyans are some of the people who fought hardest for multi-party democracy against one-party dictatorship. Unbelievably, they are today saddled with the most rudderless, ethnic and divisive parties that make multiparty democracy more of a liability.
Why do Kenyans suffer the worst economy and politics? Are we cursed or don’t think hard enough about our problems and their solutions? Are we mentally half-baked?
I suggest we suffer as we do because we lack a true party of the people. But what people? They are the poor Kenyans who are the majority in all communities.
The party of the people is the party of all Kenyans that will speak for the poor without embarrassment.
Men and women are not born to suffer. They are born to enjoy life. Our mission in life therefore is to always improve our lives by fighting hunger, disease, homelessness and oppression.
Man is, however, born weak. Alone he cannot solve his problems. To solve problems, he must unite with others in parties that subsequently form governments.
Governments’ core function is therefore to solve people’s problems.
Unfortunately people are not monolithic, they pursue their interests and solve their problems as groups rather than individually. These groups then organise parties and governments to solve their problems.
When the rich form parties and governments, it is to make them richer with all manner of means. If ever the poor form parties and governments, it is to solve their pressing problems. When tribal leaders form parties and governments it is to establish ethnic apartheid with which they exploit and oppress their own people and those of other communities. And of course when Presidents and MPs form parties and governments, even in the name of the people, it is to perpetuate themselves in power and greater wealth.
How do people tell what kind of party and government they have? By looking at the history of its leaders, what they say and don’t say, how they live and what they do and don’t do. All cannot be wrong. For instance, an unrepentant dictator remains so even if he calls himself a democrat. A propagator of ethnic hate is a tribalist even if he proclaims himself a nationalist. Parties and governments of the rich avoid talking for the poor as they do leprosy. Parties and governments of the corrupt may condemn corruption but never ostracise or jail thieves or confiscate their loot.
The poor are the most disorganised group. They have neither vision nor a way of solving their own problems. They don’t even address their own problems. They take those of their ethnic leaders as their own.
Instead of organising themselves, they are content to follow the rich and live on the crumbs that fall from their tables. Others are even happier as foot soldiers and cannon fodder for ethnic wars. We laugh at Somalia but we are no better.
Fortunately for our rich and ethnic warlords, Kenyans don’t like ideal things. They prefer hell to heaven. Or is it that they don’t know how to get out of hell or they don’t know it is at all possible to get out of it?
We should get a party that will comprehensively address the following problems.
The first is tribalism that puts us all at war with one another and may burn our common home in a conflagration that will consume us all.
The second is poverty that is the poor man’s burden. As Europe has learnt from her revolutions, as long as the poor man is hungry, he will always remain angry and explosive. Poverty is not just immoral. It is the millstone that always drowns the economy and the common man.
The third is dictatorship, a hydra whose main head we may have cut but whose smaller heads are itching to take us back to the days of queue voting, politics of the big man and treason and denies registration to perfectly legitimate parties.
The fourth is the religion of corruption that has made money our god whom both the rich and the poor worship.
The fifth is the generational rot that we can only cure with "Ituika," that African traditional democracy that helped us replace old minds that want to die in power with persons who are not just physically strong but also ideologically progressive. Backward, greedy and reactionary youth will take us nowhere anti-change, corrupt and senile octogenarians have not taken us.
What our economy and governance need is not just the raw energy of youth but synergy of knowledge, experience and progressive ideas of both old and young.
Parties that don’t walk the talk have no business calling themselves parties of the people. They cannot form government of, by and for the people.
* Koigi wa Wamwere is the Assistant minister for Information and Communication. "

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chicagotribune.com >> Nation/World
CONFLICT IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Israeli casualties, war doubts on riseSummit ends without deal to stop fightingBy Joel Greenberg, Tribune foreign correspondent. Tribune correspondent Cam Simpson contributed from RomePublished July 27, 2006
JERUSALEM -- On a day of heavy Israeli casualties and failed international talks to end more than two weeks of fighting, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faced growing domestic doubts Wednesday about the army's tactics and the overall wisdom of Israel's offensive in Lebanon.As televised images of wounded soldiers raised haunting memories of Israel's 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon, Olmert told lawmakers of plans for a new 1.2-mile-deep buffer zone there as critics began raising questions about the army's performance and credibility in the face of determined resistance by Hezbollah.
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Putting up a stronger fight than expected, Hezbollah guerrillas inflicted heavy losses on Israeli troops, killing nine soldiers and wounding 25 in the worst single-day toll for the Israelis since the start of the campaign.In Rome, world leaders disbanded a meeting on the crisis without agreeing on how to end the fighting, which has claimed more than 460 lives. While the United Nations, European Union and others wanted an immediate cease-fire, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insisted on the U.S. position that any truce be accompanied by a wider agreement that includes Hezbollah's disarmament.Pleading for "an immediate and comprehensive cease-fire," Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora warned the diplomats that only despair and fanaticism would emerge from Lebanon's rubble, and he accused Israel of war crimes."Is the value of human life less in Lebanon than that of citizens elsewhere? Are we children of a lesser God?" Siniora said, according to a copy of his remarks. "Is an Israeli teardrop worth more than a drop of Lebanese blood?"The world leaders signed a final statement pledging to "work immediately" toward a cease-fire, and Rice said it would be used to help draft a UN Security Council resolution in the coming days on the need for an international force to separate the warring sides. She said a separate meeting would be convened among nations interested in sending troops for such a force.In Washington, White House spokesman Tony Snow said two ranking U.S. diplomats would remain in the region to consult "with partners and allies on how to move forward . . . to make conditions proper for a cease-fire."In addition to the intense ground fighting Wednesday, Hezbollah fired more than 150 rockets into northern Israel despite the army's continuing offensive to stop such launches, the army said. The rockets wounded more than 30 people and damaged property.Bint Jbeil, the hill town where the army suffered its heavy losses, is a key stronghold of Hezbollah about 2 miles from the border with Israel. It has been the focus of an Israeli ground push into Lebanon that the army says is meant to kill the group's fighters and destroy its bunkers and rocket stocks in villages near the frontier.Most of Bint Jbeil's 30,000 residents have fled, but several hundred are believed to remain in the town, along with an unknown number of Hezbollah guerrillas dug in among the homes.Maj. Gen. Udi Adam, chief of the Israeli army's northern command, said several dozen Hezbollah fighters ambushed troops from the crack Golani brigade as they advanced into the town. The guerrillas set off explosives and opened fire at the soldiers, killing eight and wounding 22, an army spokeswoman said.The soldiers killed most of the attackers, and the Israeli casualties were evacuated under fire to helicopters, Adam saidThe military said that an additional soldier was killed and three others were wounded when guerrillas fired an anti-tank rocket at a house occupied by troops in the neighboring village of Maroun al-Ras, which the army said previously that it had taken."I assume there will be more days like this, regretfully, and these days can happen," Adam said.The general said troops would carry out raids in Bint Jbeil and neighboring villages but would not occupy them."The definition of the operation was to seize high ground in the Bint Jbeil area and not capture the entire town; it is too big a town, and we decided that there is no reason right now to occupy it," Adam said. "We are free to act in the whole area, and that is the mode of operation, that is, we go in and out of all kinds of places, not only Bint Jbeil."But the number of casualties in Wednesday's fighting, coming after losses in similar clashes in recent days, led some critics to question army tactics."When [the army] falls into ambushes time after time, and is surprised each time anew, this series of events has to be stopped," Rafi Noy, a retired general and former chief of staff in the army's northern command, told Channel Two television. "It's not good when this happens to an army that is so trained and so professional."The losses in Bint Jbeil also were a blow to the army's credibility after some senior officers announced in media interviews Tuesday that resistance in the town had been broken and that it was under the control of Israeli forces."The war is leading us by the nose to sink deeper in the Lebanese mud. . . . The moment the army will be in Lebanon for an extended period, it will be hell for us in there," said Ran Cohen, a dovish lawmaker and reserve army colonel, The Associated Press reported. "The deeper we get drawn in, the worse it will be."The leader of Hezbollah, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, said in a televised speech early Wednesday that his group would wage a guerrilla war against the Israelis in southern Lebanon. "What's important in the ground battle is the degree to which we inflict casualties on the Israeli enemy," Nasrallah said.Olmert told a parliamentary committee Wednesday that Israel wanted to establish a 1.2-mile-deep buffer zone in southern Lebanon that would be free of Hezbollah guerrillas and deter rocket attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians.However, Olmert indicated that Israel would not go back to an occupation similar to the "security zone" it maintained in southern Lebanon in the '80s and '90s. Defense Minister Amir Peretz spoke Tuesday of controlling the area with firepower to prevent the entry of guerrillas.In the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on Sunday, an Israeli bombing hit an empty building where Hezbollah's commander in the south has offices, wounding 13 people nearby, AP reported.A total of 51 Israelis have been killed since the start of the military campaign, 33 of them soldiers. More than 400 Lebanese, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israeli attacks.----------jogreenberg@tribune.com
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

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THE REALITY OF THE GAME IS HERE. IN OTHERS WORDS

"Somebody once said that politics is like prostitution. The more money one gets, the more powerful they become. So powerful that they are able to get paid for services not rendered. Look at the way MPs have been swarming over Moyale and Marsabit districts, commissioning a borehole here and promising a dispensary there. Nobody knows where the money came from, but just because they are in power we believe in them.

* * *

Every election cycle yields its fair share of winners and losers. The big loser on Monday, undoubtedly, was the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which emerged with nothing after a spirited campaign, prompting a wag on one FM station to brand it the Likely Dying Party. Wow!

* * *

Even after becoming an Assistant minister, Mwangi Kiunjuri still thinks like a tout on Racecourse Road, acts like a tout on Latema Road and talks like a tout on University Way. While Palaver appreciates that Kenya is a land of opportunity and anyone can become anybody, Kiunjuri has failed to decode the difference between manning a bus stop and being in Government. If proximity to the powers that be cannot make him respect public institutions like the ECK, what will?

* * *

Steadman said LDP and Narc were the most popular parties. Yet they lost to Kanu and Narc-Kenya in the just-concluded by-elections in Moyale, Laisamis, North Horr, Saku and Nakuru Town. Unless the Steadman samples are from the moon and the error of margin is absolute, the pollsters have boxed themselves into a circus. Their perception of reality seems to be a mirage to the public. Over to you, George Waititu.

* * *

If Danson Mungatana doesn’t get a ministerial position for making the Narc-Kenya dream a reality, then politcs is truly a dog’s job. Mungatana has been so consistent in his praise for Narck-Kenya that if he paid as much attention to his Garsen constituency, the villagres would be living in nirvana.

* * *

And finally …

If only that busybody William Kabogo would descend from the skies in his cacophonous helicopter, his constituents cry, he would realise there are no roads in Juja".

GENERAL NKUNGI IN AMERICA

The African students intership at the United Methodist Publishing House in Nashville Tenneesee

Publishing House intern program nurtures African students


A UMNS photo by Kathy L. Gilbert


African seminary students surround the Rev. Fred Allen (third from right) in front of the United Methodist Publishing House.
African seminary students, Emmanuel Naweji (from left), Nsenga Gad Mpoyo, Newlove Annan, Okitakoyi Lundula, Wilson Marimi and Dominic Dadzie surround the Rev. Fred Allen (third from right), executive director of African American Initiatives/International Outreach at the United Methodist Publishing House in Nashville, Tenn. They are the first in a new African Internship Program created to nurture seminary students interested in a career in Christian publishing. With Allen as their mentor, the students spent June 12-30 learning about the industry from Publishing House staff. A UMNS photo by Kathy L. Gilbert. Photo #06758. Accompanies UMNS story #413. 7/11/06
July 11, 2006

A UMNS Feature
By Milse Furtado*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Six seminary students from three African countries got more than they bargained for after a summer internship at the United Methodist Publishing House.

And so did staff at the Nashville United Methodist agency.

At an emotional chapel service to say goodbye June 29, it was evident students and staff had made lifelong friendships.

The six students were the first in a new, three-week African Internship Program created by the Publishing House to find ways to nurture seminary students interested in pursuing a professional career in Christian publishing, marketing, merchandizing and distribution.

"This is really one of our most exciting programs," said the Rev. Fred Allen, executive director of African American Initiatives/International Outreach at the Publishing House. Allen also served as mentor for the young students.


Emmanuel Naweji
Emmanuel Naweji
"Almost throughout their lives in Africa, the interns had to live on the edge of social and political unrest, thus having to overcome some overwhelming odds that would have broken lesser persons," he said.

"As they shared their powerful testimonies of faith with the United Methodist Publishing House family, we were profoundly inspired by their deep commitment to God through Christ and their love of the United Methodist Church."

Life-changing experience

"My experience at the Publishing House was more than a learning experience, and it was also a turning point of my life," said Emmanuel Naweji, a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo and a student at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Ill.

"My dreams have been redirected. I actually dream of pursuing a doctorate program so that I will be able to combine church and development of African communities through writing, teaching and preaching."

"Being here for these past three weeks was a life-changing experience in many ways," said Nsenga Mpoyo, also from the Democratic Republic of Congo and a student at Candler School of Theology, Atlanta.


Nsenga Mpoyo
Nsenga Mpoyo
"I came to have a deep sense of what it takes to get from an idea to a finished product ready to be published," he said.

"At the United Methodist Publishing House we learned the art of hospitality, love, unity, hard work, commitment and quality," said Wilson Marimi of Kenya, a student at Gammon Theological Seminary, Atlanta. He said the students witnessed the staff's "love of God individually and collectively."

"We were blessed more than mere words can be able to describe," he said.

Allen said these first six students were chosen based upon recommendations from the deans of the schools of theology.

Struggles on the journey

The students had stories of struggle and triumph that they shared during their June 12-30 stay in Nashville.

"I always pray to God not to remove any mountain in front of me, but I rather ask him to strengthen me to climb whatever mountain that is in front of me," said Newlove Annan of Ghana, a student at Gammon.


Okitakoyi Lundula
Okitakoyi Lundula
The other students participating in the program were Dominic Dadzie, Ghana, attending Candler; Nsenga Mpoyo, Democratic Republic of Congo, attending Candler; and Okitakoyi Lundula, Democratic Republic of Congo, attending Garrett-Evangelical.

Mpoyo, who was born and raised in a Christian environment, joined the church at age 15.

He decided to stop medical school after three years because he knew it was not what he was called to do. "This was the hardest decision I ever made in my life," he said. He moved to Zimbabwe and got his bachelor's degree in divinity from United Methodist-related Africa University in Mutare.

Naweji said he always knew he was called for ministry. His mother used to have evangelists come over for prayer meetings, and they would tell her "this boy is called for ministry."

However, two months before his dream of studying abroad became reality, his father died of poisoning. After an uncle introduced him to Africa University, he graduated with a degree in agriculture and business. Then he enrolled in seminary in the United States.

"I want to be a teacher someday and be able to write books so that we can also express our African beliefs. and Christian culture to the rest of the world," said Naweji.

God calling


Wilson Marimi
Wilson Marimi
Born to a farmer family, Marimi was named "Mugambi" by his grandfather, which means "spokesman and judge in a council of elders."

While studying at Moi Teachers College in Kenya, Marimi heard God calling him one night.

"I went to sleep at around 1 a.m., but two hours later, I heard a voice calling, 'Mugambi! Mugambi! What are you doing?' I woke up thinking it was my roommate who was calling me, but I realized he was dead asleep. I went to sleep again, but after 30 minutes, the same voice called me again. I woke up, but there was nobody I could see. I went back to sleep, and the same voice called again. 'Mugambi! Mugambi! What are you doing?' I realized it was God who was calling me. I just said, 'God, if you are the one calling me, use me where others have been defeated.'"

The son of a district lay person in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Okitakoyi Lundula has always pursued a ministry of music. Singing in the church and in the family choir made him a better Christian, he said. "That's how I started knowing God - not in the Bible but through songs."

Known among peers as "reverend, pastor, and bishop," Lundula is pursuing a master's degree in divinity.

Dominic Dadzie
Dominic Dadzie
Dominic Dadzie was raised in the Catholic Church. His parents fished for a living.



While he was student leader of a military task force, soldiers attempted a coup of the government. Dadzie was not involved in those operations, but some members of the armed forces picked students at random for questioning, he said. In an effort to avoid conflict, he sought refuge in Nigeria. Already aware of a call to ministry nudging, the call became clearer when he decided to enter full-time ministry, returned to Ghana and was ordained in 1991.



"One church tried to get me into the ministry in Nigeria, but I said, 'No, I want to go back to Ghana.' They asked me if I had no fear and I said 'No God will take care of me.'"



He is pursuing a master's degree in theological studies.



True measure of success

Annan grew up in a Christian environment. "I have been in ministry, not ordained, but in ministry ever since I was born, and I was called to the ordained ministry to be a candidate in the year of 2000," he said.


Newlove Annan

Newlove Annan
He received his call through dreams while he was in Ghana pursuing his undergraduate degree in religion and music. "God was telling me to go and do his will and to rely on him totally."

Annan also wants to further his education. "I actually want to go to (the) institute of sacred music at Yale to get a doctor's degree in church music. Right now, I am concentrating on graduating with a dual degree in divinity and sacred music from ITC." Gammon is one of the seminaries that constitute the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta.

"As a result of the African Seminary Interns," Allen said, "(we) have underscored the belief that a true measure of success is not merely a return on the dollars expended on product development and publication of resources, but also a measure of the impact we have on the lives touched by our products and programs, especially in regards to our interns."

*Furtado, an intern at United Methodist Communications, is a senior communications major at United Methodist-related Rust College, Holly Springs, Miss.

News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

THE UNITED PUBLISHING HOUSE INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE

The new African Students internship program at the United Methodist Publishing House (UMPH), was concluded on June 30, 2006, with an oxmoronical ending. It was a bitter sweet ending, in the fact that the interns and the UMPH staff, had bonded in a way that all felt a moment of great fellowship, which was derived from the symbiotic relationship which had been built in that three weeks duration through the wonderful hospitality,love, sense of purpose and kinship in Christ Jesus, and the way the African students interns had adjusted into the new settings within a very short notice followed with the quick departure when the rhythm and beats were on a quick formation.
On one hand, the interns had not expected to be lavished and pomped with a kind of hospitality and love they received from the entire staff led by the most gifted, smart and intelligent president, Mr Neil M.Alexander whose humility was depicted by the way he mingles with his and what the interns were exposed to during their short internship program.
On the other hand, the UMPH staff was not expecting a bunch of African students who were full of energy and a strong sense of purpose, accompanied with a strong testimony and commitment in their call to serve God and their fellow human beings. It was a moment of great learning from both sides as the aspiring publishers cum sales representatives were taken through a marathon of introduction into a world they had never imagined of venturing earlier on.
It was inspiring and a big blessing to be guided and taken through a process through which resources are developed right from when an idea is born to the end of a finished product. The most able Miss LeeDell Stickler, senior development Editor and one of the most talented teacher I have come across made our stay and training more than interesting. Every intern was always looking for to be with her in her department board room. Her whole team was full of energy and charisma as they guided us through and along this new terrain. Mr Andrew J. schleicher, the editor of Newscope and Faithlink demonstrated his grasp of the ideas in the whole aspect of creation right from our ecosystem to the unfair trade policies being subjected to the developing countries to the pollution and destruction of our environmentt due to poor perception towards the environment as a result of the poor interpretation of the Genesis episode of creation where man is told by God to "rule" or have "dominion" over the entire creation. Miss Cathy Robinson set the tempo by taking us through an elaborate process of the MBUs and SBUs all aspects of the operations within UMPH. She crowned it all by taking us to the picnic over the weekend where we had a very pleasant moment with her Church congregation plus her daughter, Mary. Mr John F. Kutsko, the Director of academic and Professional Resources, proved in a remarkable way the genius in him by the he handled and directed various sessions charged with the duty of coming up with the guidelines in the process of coming up with news resources and all that is involved in coming up with such things like titles, books and the expenses involved in the process of developing those resources. The United Methodist News service under the guidance of Miss Cathy L. Gilbert kept the interns on the spot as her camera were clicking without a stop in order for her to capture the unfolding panorama. The director of sales made the whole occasion even more colorful through his creative ways of handling the sale department staffed with one of the most talented staff as it pertain the skills of communication plus marketing strategies. Wait until you encounter Miss Marilyn E. Thornton, the lead Editor African/American Resources and you are made to sit by the African fire and hear beautiful Biblical stories and interactions of children of God as they try to relive the African arena of story telling and bringing the Bible to the people in more cultural way.A bishop is on the way in the near future. When the occasion for his appointment comes, Miss Faye R.Lyons will be the most happy lady in the whole world. She presented one of the interns with a precious gift geared towards that occasion. This soft spoken lady is someone people need to meet and see why wisdom and temperance are among the four cardinals of virtue.
The whole of the historic experience was made possible by a man who is so gifted and blessed with a talent very few people posses. This is no other but Dr Rev. Fred Allen. Right from the moment we met him waiting for us at the Nashville airport to chauffeuring us everywhere in Nashville and welcoming us to his beautiful home, where prepared the sweetest and delicious hot dogs and hamburgers to the swimming moment, where some of the interns had the first lessons of swimming, the morning briefings where the previous day activities were thoroughly dissected through our critique, the whole episode would have lost the real meaning and aimed. Through his brotherly guidance we bonded in such way that it was as if the interns had known each other for many years.
At the farewell fellowship, there was clear evidence that God had accomplish his intended mission and he was at the center of the whole encounter and that seeds of love and friendship had been sowed. For more information log at www.umc.org/site/c.gjJJTbMUIuE/b.1844133/k.D473/Publishing_House_Intern_Program_nurtures_African_Students.htm

PRINCIPLES OF GOOD LEADERSHIP

GOOD LEADERSHIP by Susan Mugambi Arimi

In trying to define leadership, we learned that leadership is a continuous journey and not a one day thing. It contains everything a person learns on a day to day basis. So, it would be appropriate to say, leadership is developed, not discovered. On the other hand, leadership has to do with casting vision and motivating people. Therefore, the realm of leadership, whether in the business world or in the church continues to overwhelm with a sense of mystery by onlookers, who in most cases are followers. Leadership is the skill of influencing people to work enthusiastically toward goals identified as being for the common good. However, the true leader understands that leadership is not just a title, or charisma. It is not even the perks that come with some leadership positions. If one desires to be a true leader, he or she must be involved in a lifetime of lessons. True leadership is about serving other people. Of course, the method through which a leader develops in serving his followers often takes years to be molded and crafted into perfection.
True leadership has to do with a lot of sacrifice on the part of the leader. It demands a lot of energy, time, money, and resources, which the leader could have otherwise channeled into his personal fulfillment. By the way, this in not to say that all leaders attain this kind of sacrifice. Consequently, there are some leaders who intentionally use their followers to fulfill their own ends. Therefore, there is a very precise distinction between good leadership and bad leadership.
As it was mentioned earlier, servant leadership is developed through a process. Certain behavioral traits and disciplines have to be acquired or learned in order to effectively execute good leadership. In the book developing a leader within you, we learned or studied ten principles of leadership. To be precise I will contain myself and examine three of these principles, which by and large are the most essential qualities of any good leadership.

INTEGRITY
The most important ingredient of leadership is integrity. Therefore, integrity can be defined as the state of being whole, complete, and unified. Then, it will be true to say that people of integrity are whole people they do not pretend, nor act with divided loyalties. Integrity is not what we do as much as what we are. When I have integrity, my words and my actions match up. “A person of integrity is one who has established a system of values against which all life is judged”, says V. Gilbert Beers.
Integrity builds trust. People follow because they have confidence in their leader. The highest quality of a leader is integrity, and without it no real success can be achieved. Secondly integrity has high influence value. Emerson said, “Every great institution is the lengthened shadow of single man. His character determines the organization”. Will Rogers said, “People’s minds are changed through observation and not argument”. “Never has there been a time in the history of mankind when the issue of integrity has become so crucial. In the same way a good house has to stand on a firm foundation, good and effective leadership has to be under guarded by integrity”.
Followers look at the leader as an exemplary of character and everything he claims the organization stands for. The leader has to cultivate trust in the hearts of his followers by going through first to pave the way, then usher his followers through the way. The followers need to have confidence to walk into the field when the leader says there is pasture ahead, or refrain from doing so when the leader warns then about wolves lurking in their way. People do what people see. Integrity facilitates high standards. Leaders ought to live by higher standards than their followers. As it is illustrated in the book, responsibilities increase as one climbs the ladder in any organization, whereas personal rights decreases. In any given situation people are limited by lack of character. “A successful integrity check results in a stronger leader able to serve God in a wider sphere of influence. An integrity check tests inner character for consistency” says J. Robert Clinton.
This is no way advocating for absolute perfection as far as good leadership is concerned. However, a leader who lacks integrity will ultimately loose that which he or she struggles to preserve by deception. Personally, I will strive to attain a wholeness life by matching my actions and words in leadership.

INFLUENCE
What is influence? Everyone talks about it; few understand it. Most people want it; few achieve it. This is my conclusion: “Leadership is influence. That’s it, Northing more; nothing less. My favorite leadership proverb is: He who thinketh he leadeth and hath no one following him is only taking a walk”. There are two types of leaders. The one who influences others to follow only is a leader with certain limitations. The one who influences others to lead others is a leader without limitations. As it was mentioned earlier, the true measure of leadership is influence – Nothing more, nothing less. If you don’t have influence, you will never be able to lead others. Again influence is a skill that can be developed. No matter where we are everyone influences someone. “Sociologists tell us that even the most introverted individual will influence ten thousand other people during his or her lifetime. We can increase our influence and leadership potential, John Maxwell says.” The high the persons level of true ability and the resulting influence, the more secure and confident he or she becomes. People have many misconceptions about leadership. Some think if someone has an impressive title or an assigned leadership position, they assume that he or she is a leader. Some times it’s true, although titles don’t have much value when it comes to leadership. “True leadership cannot be awarded, appointed, or assigned. It comes only from influence, and that can’t be mandated”. It must be earned. The only thing a title can buy is a little time – either to increase your level of influence with others or to erase it”.
A leader with influence is enthusiastic, strategic, courageous, and gains momentum in every step he or she takes in leading others to achieve the goal because he knows his dream and understands his vision. According to the pioneer myth of leadership, “To be a leader, a person has to not only be out front, but also have people intentionally coming behind him, following his lead and acting on his vision. It’s not the position that makes the leader; it’s the leader that makes the position”. As it was mentioned earlier, leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less. It would be appropriate to say the very essence of all power to influence lies in getting the other person to participate. As we have learned the person with most influence is the leader. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. In other words people will follow you when they know you care and are committed to them. “The true foundation of leadership is not power, but authority which is built upon relationships, love, service, and sacrifice”. Last but not least, a true leader must cultivate around the following principles in order to acquire great influence on others:
Integrity
Nurturing
Faith
Listen
Understand
Enlarge
Navigate
Connect
Empower
The length and breadth of our influence upon others depends on the depth of our concern for others. Building relationships on trust is important, because truth is a lifestyle that over the long haul reveals the true value of uncompromised character.

PEOPLE
Developing people is your most appreciable asset. The person who influences others to follow only is a leader with certain limitations. The one who influences others to lead others is a leader without limitations. Guy Ferguson says, “A true leader knows how to do the job, he or she is available to tell others, and will inspire others to do better work. The more people you develop, the greater the extent of your dreams”.
The success in developing others will depend on how well we value people around us. This is an issue of attitude. How much we are committed to people, this matter deals with time. Having integrity with people, this is an issue of character. A standard for people – this is an issue of the vision you have. Influence over people – this is a leadership issue. I totally agree with John Maxwell when says, successful people developers:
Make the right assumptions about people:
Ask the right questions about people:
Give the right assistance to people:
It’s true that the assumptions we have towards people makes us react either positive or negative, and this determines how we’re going to treat them. On the other hand I have noticed that we make wrong assumptions about people depending on what we see rather than what we know about them. I also read in another book that developing others is one of the keys to hitting high team performance levels. When building a high performance team, you’ll want to seek input from team members; encourage participation, share information, ideas, and suggestions. Another effective way to develop others is by coaching, whereby you offer support and resources. A good coach also encourages and uplifts, motivates, instills confidence, and leads people to their highest performance levels. It is crucial when developing others to show trust and confidence in them, and allow them to make decisions.
Everyone in the world wants to feel worthwhile and important. There is hardly a higher compliment you can pay an individual than to help that person be useful and find satisfaction and significance. Unless there is an organization that specifically nurtures and directs the talents within a group to achieve a desired goal, the group in essentially worthless. It is one thing for a leader to have the ability to dress and cast his dream before his followers. It is totally different thing to discover, nurture, and effectively employ the talents that are available to him within his followers in order to achieve a specific goal. Success is really the result of planning. It happens where preparation and opportunity meet. I support the truth that once people realize that you, as a leader can help them become successful, you have won them they’re your! As we mentioned in other areas of leadership, developing people takes time. Be a model that others can follow and not a “motto to say”. The greatest potential for growth of any organization is growth of its people.

THE WISDOM OF CHANUA ACHEBE

By Nicholas Asego

In 1983, Nobel Laureate Chinua Achebe published a book outlining what he believed was the trouble with Nigeria.

The first sentence of the novel, The Trouble With Nigeria, states: "The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership." Achebe then comments: "The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership."

In his later publication Anthills of the Savannah (1987) Achebe sets out to solve the leadership problems afflicting Nigeria. In fact, the novel came to be regarded as Achebe’s leadership thesis.

This concern that troubled Achebe many years ago is being re-enacted right before our very eyes here in Kenya. Our political leaders have reduced us to the wretched of the earth, those who have been dispossessed, borrowing from Fanon’s timeless text.

Their recent decision to unilaterally increase their travel allowance is wrong and to backdate the same to July last year is completely immoral. That they will pocket some Sh800,000 in arrears and nobody can remember the last time they passed a Bill is heartbreaking.

As if this is not enough, they decided to treble the constituency kitty of which they are managers along with those whom they have selected. With the 2007 General Election around the corner, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see the driving force behind their actions.

Almost always when they increase their pay, they vote unanimously, bridging glaring political differences.

Our parliamentarians have failed to establish vital links with the poor, the dispossessed. In a struggling economy like ours, with the greater percentage of the population living on less than a dollar a day, one is amazed at their insensitivity.

While we struggle to get by each day, they cruise past in their fuel guzzlers leaving us chocking in the dust. Like Achebe’s Nigeria, we need nay pray nay crave not for a style of leadership that projects and celebrates the power and greed that has dominated Kenya but for sobriety and peace.

While we crave for a solution to the ever-widening gap between the "tiny class" of the elite and ordinary Kenyans, they are busy telling lewd jokes about important issues like the Sexual Offences Bill.

We ordinary Kenyans, the wretched of the earth are the real victims of our callous system. We are silent and invincible and hardly make it to the front pages. We drink bad water or lack it all together and suffer from preventable diseases as all the while our leaders feign ignorance. We constantly raid one another for water and pasture.

We have to walk to and from our casual jobs because we can’t afford the increased fare. At the end of the day, we must purchase maize flour, milk and bread at the same price with our dear leaders; there is no respite for poor Kenyans.

Like Achebe warned Nigeria, we must take a hard and unsentimental look at the crucial question of leadership and political power. Like the political leadership in Anthills of the Savannah, our leaders have "openly looted our treasury" and "soiled our national soul". We shall never experience real progress without proper leadership. Our undoing is that so far, our politicians have only manifested vicious, incompetent and corrupt leadership.

May be Achebe has a point when he says that "the people get the leadership they deserve up to a point". As they transverse the country declaring their candidature and smiling at the results of Steadman polls, all the while giving us hand-outs, few among us realise that in fact, what they are "giving" belongs to us.

Like the Excellency in Anthills of the Savannah who coerces his commissioners, our Parliamentarians have mastered the art of coercion. They have arm-twisted the Government to agree to their heinous demands for more money, but this will not last.

They need to realise that power can lead to both progressive objectives and destructive aims. This "burden" of leadership can either elicit patriotic or parasitic tendencies in the utilisation and exercise of power. Like the Excellency, people’s ignorance can only lead to politicians becoming parasites of power and this in turn leads to shameless excesses.

Call me what you like but so far, our parliamentarians have shown extraordinary parasitic tendencies.

TIME HAS COME TO DEMAND FOR CLEAN AND SAFE DRINKING WATER

It is no longer secret that water is life. However, this essential resource can be at the same time the main source of death if it is not treated with care where it is prone to pollution and misuse. In kenya today we are faced by a gigantic problem, which is steming from a variety of indirect impact on our water bodies and catchment areas.
Due to urbaniztion, intensive agricultural activities, high population growth rate, deforestation and destruction of ground cover, much of the water in Kenya today is very un safe for drinking. This problem has been ignored for a long time by those charged with the responsibility and duty of water management, to an extent that wherever you go one is afraid to drink water because of the danger inherent. This problem is not only a Central Imenti where we boast of being blessed with a stream every 4 miles to almost every corner of our beautiful country. This problem is not un solvable but the problem is poor leadership coupled without incompetency and lack of patriotism. Time has come for the people of Central Imenti and Kenya at larger to think forward by resolving to demand clean and safe drinking water among other things.

FOR ANY DEVELOPMENT TO BE REALIZED IN KENYA RURAL ELECTRIFICATION IS A MUST

It goes without saying that in this 21 century era, for any targeable development to be realized, people must be empowered. This can only happen if the source of power is brought near the human resources. In kenya, it has been a well known phenomenon that for anything to be done by the government, one must sign and dance with that government. This political malpractice has costed us very dearly and the outcome will be felt many more years to come. The current sitting government has relatively tried as per the recent economic growth rate numbers of almost 6%. However, more time should never be wasted with partisan politics.

HARD WORKING PEOPLE OF CENTRAL IMENTI

AGRICULTURAL POTENTIAL

BANANAS
Oh yes! These are very sweet bananas but the irony here is that farmers have been always getting a raw deal. Until when will this dehumanizing and exploitive system will be allowed to continue. What farmers are demanding is their taxes to be put into areas which will be helping them to progress. This is the only way people will cherish their freedom, and liberty and truely enjoy real peace.

BANANA SAGA by Peter G. Micheni

I read the pathetic farming conditions that exist in Central Imenti Constituency in Kenya that sits astride the Equator! What a picturesque countryside I saw complete with snow-capped Mount Kenya, undulating hills, plains and all sorts of scenery! But what struck me most was the diversity of agricultural activities that go on in the area, from Dairy farming to tea and coffee farming, and a whole lot of food crops such as bananas, maize, beans, French beans, green peas, potatoes and a whole lot of other subsistence as well as cash crops! God must have blessed this part of the country!

But Alas! Why are farmers still poor despite all these God-given resources? Are the farmers a lazy lot? What about the traders? Why are people still so poor yet they wake up very early and toil till late? I will try to look at some of the crops independently. Let us start with bananas. This delicacy is popular all over the world. It is not only man who loves bananas alone – those farmers who live near Mt. Kenya forest can attest how elephants, monkeys, birds and a whole lot other creatures cherish bananas. Looking at the photographs of the produce, your bananas are some of the best I have seen anywhere. Big question is: “Why do banana farmers earn peanuts for their produce?”

For a start, most farmers grow them so that the local market is depressed because everybody has them. But then what about other areas where they are not grown or do not thrive well? There you touch a raw nerve! The road system, especially feeder roads into the villages are in a pathetic condition. Even if a farmer had a market for his produce across the ridge, the roads are simply impassable especially during the rains. But why haven’t the past leaders and politicians helped to have them repaired? True, Kenya is a developing Country with few resources, but certainly even unpaved roads can be graded to make them passable. In fact with so many unemployed youth, they could be employed to help maintain the road and earn a little money, other than being left to idle. This too would reduce crime because the idlers have something to do! This two-pronged approach has succeeded elsewhere, only that the past leaders lacked foresight!

A scene to behold: When a public service bus stops on the main highway to drop off or pick passengers, it is mobbed by hundreds of women all of them competing to sell bananas to weary, hungry passengers. And because the product is abundant, passengers pay peanuts for a bunch of bananas. For example bananas worth 1 dollar (Kenya Shillings 75) can feed the whole bus of 60 passengers! In USA stores, a banana bunch of that size would not cost less that 10 dollars (SH. 750)!
Why Bananas, Bananas everywhere and no money in the pocket for the farmers? Shame, what a shame?.

The saga would not be complete without introducing “alien” buyers who travel from afar with big trucks and buy the bananas – often at throwaway prices, then transport them to Nairobi or other big towns and make hefty profits! Sensible and honest leaders would have helped farmers form a co-operative Society that would help the farmers sell their produce in an organized way without being exploited. They would have helped find a way of getting the produce from the interior to where there are better prospects of earning a better price.

Finally we must remember bananas, just like other fruits are perishable. All the more, why women mob buses, or other “alien buyers” is to sell at whatever price before they begin rotting. It is 40 whole years since we became Independent and the plight of these farmers must be addressed by sober-minded leaders and Politicians!
Peter G. Micheni wildeekenya@yahoo.com

ROADS

Impassible roads are the main impedment to development and progress in Kenya today. No country in the whole world has ever realized any seeable development without good transport and communication networks.However, although we are blessed with the best minds in the world, it is apparent that our policy makers and implementers the policies which are there are in a deep slumber. The state of our road network you can see from the picture above is pathetic for a country of the stature of Kenya. The only thing our pseudopoliticians or quasi-politicians have perfected is the politics of ethnicity, greed, exploitation and hyena mentality. It is the prerogative of the government to ensure that roads are there and working.It is imperative for our so called leaders to serve their electorates without any reservation because that is the primary reason why they are in parliament.

Coffee

Coffee has been the main source of income for majority of people in Central Imenti. However, farmers have been cheated again and again by corrupt co-operatives officials,Kenya planters coffee Union(KPCU), Coffee Board of Kenya,and many others who colluded with multinationals and coffee marchants to drain and suck very poor Farmers, whose poverty has been inflicted on them directly or indirectly. Time has come for coffee farmers to be told the true value of their produce. Thieves may run but they will have no where to hide!

MAIZE

Maize/ Corn is the main stable food for most of the people in Kenya. Central Imenti produces her share towards the national granary but the story is the same as in coffe farming. Maize farmers too, have been subjected into very hard times due to poor price and lack market although there is enough market in arid and semi arid parts of the country but are totally inaccessible due to poor transport netwok. How long will tis goes on?

Look at these banana plants.This is the best indication and evidence that people in Central Imenti are hard working, but the only thing they are missing is good representation in areas where decisions which affect the labor and produce are made.
This can be changed if the electorate know how much power they have in their vote.

HI THERE I HAVE A BRAIN TOO!

This little boy is so happy to participate in his father's graduation ceremony.Like this boy, children in Imenti central are longing for education which is the only way to success. Who will make their dreams come true? People have been waiting for over 40 years and what they have received is poverty and despair. For how long will this be allowed to continue while a few elites are wallowing in ill acquired wealth at the expence of the populace?

WHY ARE THESE HARD WORKING FARMERS ALLOWED TO SUFFER WHEN THEY HAVE DONE THEIR PART HONESTLY

Every Farmer should be given his/her due right by being exposed to the best and right markets. The is not the case in Kenya today.

Mr John M'Arimi and his son Stanenly Kiambi are coffee peasants in Imenti Central. Since 1958 Mr M'Arimi has worked in his coffee farms whereby he was being assisted by his wife Esther and their nine children. As a participant in this coffee growing enterprise, I am a witness of what these poor souls have gone through while a big fish somewhere else is milking their sweat. This kind of injustice is not evil but ungodliness of the highest order. So long as innocent people like these farmers continue being subjected into unfair and overexploitive systems, there will never be peace in the world and more especially at this time of information and technology explotion in the world.





Are these farmers told the true value of their coffee produce? The answer is NO?
The rolling hills are all cover with coffee farms. After it is planted, by law it can not be uprooted. When the available land is under coffee nothing else can grow in a healthy way unless the coffee bushes are cut down. The coffee farmers and their families have gone through hell while trying to obey these obsolete and deraconian laws. Overexploitation and underpayment has been the modus oparandi all through. Not that these economic problems can not be solved but the powers that be would want to maintain the status quo. How long will this last with the informed world, only God knows but the truth is these lies and evils shall never be sustained.











Why is Fair Trade Coffee Important?
Submitted by Joanne MacNevinGlobal Classroom Teacher TeamMarch 20, 2006.
Recently, while in Kenya, I had the opportunity to visit a coffee growers’ cooperative called the Muhuti Coffee Factory. The factory is a place where farmers bring their coffee ‘cherries’ to be cleaned, hulled and dried before sending them off to auction. As we toured the facility, I was able to talk candidly with the coffee farmers and harvesters about what they do and how they make a living. Though I suppose the phrase ‘make a living’ hardly applies, since most Kenyan coffee farmers are not earning enough to adequately feed, clothe and educate their families. Many Kenyans who currently work in the coffee industry, as either pickers or plant workers, are earning what amounts to one Canadian dollar per day. Farmers can earn a little more, or a little less, depending on the price they get for the coffee at auction. As a result of recent low prices, some are finding now that they are operating their farms at a loss. Others have given up coffee farming in search of a better crop that will make them some money.So why is Fair Trade coffee important? Why are more and more coffee shops choosing to sell Fair Trade coffee, especially when it is often more expensive than regular coffee? The answer is simple: Fair Trade coffee supports the farmer by giving the farmer a fair price for their coffee so that they can pay their workers’ wages and still earn enough to live on.Here is what I was able to gather during my visit to the coffee plantation and factory in Kenya. According to the farmers I spoke with, the average coffee tree can produce between ten and twenty kilograms of beans per year. The farm I was on had approximately 500 trees. Coffee pickers, if they work hard, can earn between seventy to eighty Kenyan shillings per day, which works out to be just slightly more one Canadian dollar per day. The farmer would have to pay the pickers on a daily basis, but the farmer himself wouldn’t get paid until the coffee was sold at auction. The price the farmer would get would depend, then, on how much the coffee is sold for.If the coffee is sold for a really low price, and the farmer doesn’t make enough money to cover bills, that individual farmer will have to sacrifice. Unfortunately, one of the things that gets cut is school fees. Even though primary school is now free in Kenya, there are still quite a few costs, such as books and uniforms, that can add up to quite a bit of money. Secondary school is not free; students who attend secondary are still required to pay fees on top of buying uniforms, books and supplies. I visited Muhuti Secondary School across from the coffee factory. At this school, many of the secondary students would attend school for the first term, when the coffee was being harvested, but would have to drop out by the second or third term because of lack of money from the coffee crop; the coffee farmers often wouldn’t make enough off their coffee to pay school fees for a full year. As a result, the education of their children suffers.In another school we visited, St Thomas secondary school, the administration has decided to allow the students to stay in school, regardless of whether they are able to pay school fees or not. According to the principal there, it is more important to have a literate generation than an illiterate generation, so he chose to keep the students in school, learning. As a result of the students being unable to pay school fees, however, suppliers and teachers have to go without being paid for long periods of time. The teachers at this school showed an amazing dedication to the students, in my opinion, since they continued to show up and teach the students - even going so far as to give extra lessons on Saturday mornings - though many hadn’t been paid in up to three months.It is important to remember that we live in a world in which getting the best price is paramount. It is so important, in today’s society, to save a buck in order to make a thousand, that the individual worker often gets lost in the shuffle of dollars and cents. The coffee beans, which were so painstakingly harvested and dried, are sold at auction for the best (aka lowest) possible price to the bidding corporation. The large company will then process, package and sell the coffee to consumers at much more than the original purchase price.Fair Trade ensures that the farmer will get paid a fair price. I’ve met the coffee farmers, I’ve spoken to them and listened to their stories of hardship. Given that the price of coffee is currently very low, the hard times may be about to get harder. After meeting with the farmers, and getting to see the faces of the individuals who put coffee on our tables, I definitely think that it is time to support the farmer, not the corporation. So spend the extra few cents on a cup of java, and support a farmer through Fair Trade.

Corruption in Kenya stems from western capitals

While not condoning the evils of corruption being witnessed in Africa and Kenya in particular, let me point out that this social, economic and political vice has been sanctioned and covertly supported by the western govenments while pretending to be in the front line against corruption. You can imagine what has been going on in the developing world if people like Duke Cunningham, Jack Abrahamoff, Tom Delay and their likes had connections in African. For instance, Africa is well know to produce all these minerals and oil. Look at those countries where these resources are located. It is abject poverty and despair, while the multinationals are scooping everthing and in the process leaving the people where these resources are located. The multinationals which are again all western owned have no shame to boast of anything. Look at the Democratic Republic of Congo. Her vast mineral resources have been plundered and on the process wars have been launched just to cover up the ills of what is really going on. In fact, the west is loosing Africa's trust and confidence at an alarming rate and no wonder there is all this bitterness and hatred which in the first place was not supposed to be there if there was true care and love of the people where these resources are found. In order to solve this malady, the west and others involved in the plunder of Africa should put their acts together and stop pointing accusing finger while they know the truth. The buck stops at their tables and those of their associates in Africa and elsewhre. They should learn to involve the local communities in decision making and not the elites; who are corrupt deep into their bones.
The current government of Mwai Kibaki in Kenya has tried compared with the last two regimes of Jomo Kenyatta and Arap Moi. For example the government of former president Moi could only collect SH.180 billion from the tax revenues. The current government is collecting over SH.300 billion. What used to happen to the rest SH.120 billion? Somebody somewhere used to pocket it while the IMF and World Bank were watching and doing nothing. The only thing the IMF and World bank knew how to do was to introduce dobious structural adjuctment programs (SAP) which were and are a total failure. "The adjustment is needed more in the World Bank and IMF polies than in those of the the African governments. The bank has been encouraging an expansion of primary commodity exports not only from africa, but also from all over the world. No one can fail to see the aim of these schemes. The aim is cheap raw materials for the industrialized world and less care for the producers in the "third world" as they are called by those who are very good at classifying people. From all the evidence to hand it appears that the foreign experts from the IMF and the World Bank had been persuading African governments to adopt policies that were actually causing overproduction and worsening terms of trade,land degradation and drought,which were destroying what was left of the strength of African societies_skilful small-scale farming, the central role of women in the village economy, mixed cropping, urban crafts, a balance between urban and rural life and fruitful exchange between agriculturalists and pastoralists.
The world Bank's adjustment programmes had been preceded by plans for industrialization and for economic take-off and then for targeting poverty, and the adjustment programmes were followed by crisis management. All these were prescriptions proposed from outside Africa as solutions for the outsiders perceptions of what were Africa's problems. Each new prescription only aggravated the illness that was supposedly being treated. All the proposed cures had two elements in common: first they were thought up outside Africa and applied without consultation with Africans at any level below a narrow elites of ministers and officials, and not always at that level: second they had done nothing to correct the colonial inheritance of a continent divided into fifty-six artificially created states, each supplying just two or three specific commodities to one or other of the industrialized powers or their giant companies" Let us be honest and truthful folks! Let learn there are enough resources for every human being in this world but needs to shared. I believe the creator knew this best when he created the world.
The solution is for the World Bank and IMF to
1. Cancel all debts which were acquired in shady deals.
2. Revome all protective barriers for African commodities.
3. End the concealment of transactions of the true values of the produce from Africa.
If Mr Wolfowitz is really a serious and truthful man as he seems to sound, and he is not there for the multinationals, he should champion for the above three solutions.