A letter From the Future

Source: myheartisinafrica
http://myheartisinafrica.tumblr.com/post/4174089903/hi-new-followers-d

Dear Kenyans of 2016,

Greetings from the year 2032. I hope you are keeping well. I am fine here but a little overburdened with sorting out the mess we inherited from you and your leaders. I don't mean to be rude but it is all a result of your inaction and silence in the face of glaring corruption, ethnicity and your leaders’ ineptitude that caused all these problems we are busy sorting now. Not to worry though, at least the leaders we elected in 2027 knew what they had to do. These extra-ordinary Kenyan women and men put country before self and tribe. They are continuously showing us that leaders don’t have to be corrupt. That thieves regardless of how high up they are in society, belong in jail.

Will Africa walk better after amputation?

Written By: Duncan Okowa

Kenya closes 2015 on a high note by hosting the 10th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It has been an eventful year for Kenya after all having played host to top world leaders including US President Barack Obama and leader of the Roman Catholic Church Pope Francis. But holding the WTO event in Kenya, a developing country in Sub-Saharan Africa is particularly significant for two reasons. First,

Land Reforms in Kenya: Achievements and the Missing Link

Written By: Duncan Okowa 28 February 2015

This past week, one of the local dailies ran a story narrating how many county and national government institutions are squatters on what used to be public property, and even face eviction by new owners. It described how in Meru for instance, land meant for the most critical public institutions — police stations, hospitals, government offices, roads, even sensitive installations like the County Commissioner’s residence — has been allocated to individuals. Land grabbing and irregular land allocation is commonplace in Kenya. Just last month, Kenyans were treated to disturbing scenes of injured pupils of a primary school in Lang’ata after police threw tear gas canisters at them as they protested the grabbing of their school’s playground.

On this longest day of the year, make a commitment to Put Solar on It

Written By: Duncan Okowa, 21st June 2014



Solar panels at the Vatican roof

Today, June 21^st is the 2014 summer solstice, the longest day in the year in the Northern Hemisphere (the half of the earth that lies north of the equator). The solstice heralds the beginning of summer. For the science enthusiasts, as Earth orbits the sun, it tilts 23.5 degrees on its axis. The summer solstice occurs when Earth's Northern Hemisphere faces towards the sun most directly. The sun’s rays thus strike the earth at a more direct angle, causing the efficient warming called summer. The summer solstice is the day with the most hours of sunlight during the whole year. Exactly why I chose to write this blog post today, a day when...

Wading through life under piling layers of blanket: My Climate Story

Written by: Duncan Okowa, 16th May 2014

I have been posting and sharing a lot on social media and other platforms about Climate Change lately. I salute my social media friends and contacts for not 'unfriending' me for gabbing about this issue which admittedly may be so boring. I love you so much. And I know we all love Mother Nature so much. Yet Climate Change has...

Good laws, good information flow and good planning key to turning Kenya's oil and mineral wealth into well-being

 

Written by: Duncan Okowa
            

Kiraitu Murungi, then Energy Minister displaying a sample

of crude oil after announcement of oil  discovery in Turkana

In March 2012 President Mwai Kibaki announced that Kenya had finally struck oil after decades of exploration. Since then, Tullow Oil, an Anglo-Irish firm has continued the exploration campaign, striking commercially viable quantities of oil
in onshore Nothern Kenya. The latest discoveries...

Appointment of Land Registrars a good move that was long overdue

Written by: Duncan Okowa. February 13^th, 2014

There has been a dangerous trend of illegal land allocations and transactions by the national and county governments. The trend is attributable in part to apparent lack of implementation of existing laws; and to a slow pace in enacting or reviewing the sector laws as envisaged in the Constitution. Between 2011 and 2012, Parliament enacted several land laws including...