Saturday 29 August 2009

A Tribute to Late Junitha Makafu

Umetuacha..
It is difficult to believe, but there is no option rather than accepting the reality.
That few days, hours and minutes we were together, working, laughing and doing a lot together, to our suprise you left us, unepected and not thought of it at all.

It is God's plan. But we shall always remember your smile, your charming and joyful mood.
You were unique, you were a sister of a peculiar kind- our beloved Junitha Makafu, the clasmate and a friend indeed.

Buriani dada yetu..umetuachia majonzi. Tutakukumbuka daima.

Wednesday 27 May 2009

Kibera Slums

When we talk of habitat problems facing almost the whole world by now, we can not skip focusing the reality on the same in our East African urban areas where population is fastly growing. Let us have a look on the renown Kibera slums-in Nairobi to see how these habitat problems are evident:

A group of young journalists who decided to visit the slums recently, are in the 'streets and venues' of the place.
"Haaa!Kumbe vyote vipo," seem to be saying journalists fond of Sports; Andrew Mwanguhya-Ugandan (L) and Frank Kimboy-Tanzanian (R); as they pose at the Liverpool vs Arsenal match ad to be 'broadcast' live tonight in one of the slums 'halls'

'Let's have a group photo in memory of this visit', say these journalists.'Mdau' in a dark blue shirt could not miss too!


'Traditional treatment are also found'!-The 'Doctor' is not from Sumbawanga...he comes from Uganda!



'This is only a small part of the whole area...mpaka kuleee, yote hiyo ni Kibera, usipime!", tells Erick Mchome.

Spritual services are also available..the choice is yours..either to be saved or not.


The view continues...'mdau at the centre of this largest slum in Africa..anyone who knows the other one found in South Africa- Soweto, give us details...

Ahaaa!The railway to Uganda-It was recently uprooted by Kibera residents claiming the Migingo island ownership dispute between Kenya and Uganda to be resolved. Infact they were sending a message to Uganda, "Migingo is Kenya's"! Yetu macho!


Few minutes before the walk.."Get ready for a long walk, I know the place, it is so large.." says Gibson a.k.a. G(left), A Lecturer at St. Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT)- currently persuing MA at Daystar University-Nairobi. (R-L)Lugongo, Alex, mdau and Frank.

The walk continues...









Monday 11 May 2009

Conserving Environment

Looking and planning on how the planting of trees had to be accomplished at the place. (L-R) Journalists ; Sharifa Kalokola, Alex Bitekeye and Mdau.
Surveying the planned place where trees would be planted-not leaving behind the media equipments. (L-R); Journalists; Paul Juma, Frank Kimboy and Mdau.

The Kenyan Minister for Forests Noah Wekesa (In a white suit) was there also to participate in the planting.


Mdau (r) plants a tree too.



Over the last weekend, 'mdau' and many other journalists had a chance to participate in a special environment conservation programme through planting trees in Dondora, Nakuru- Kenya.

Bearing in minds that many parts of the world are currently facing various environmental degradation and related problems; the only solution to all these is within our own hands!








Thursday 7 May 2009

Bedroom Boycott

In the mid of last week, a group of Kenyan women leaders from the civil society, G10 urged womenfolk to abstain from sex with their husbands for seven days to force Kenyan leaders act in a sensible manner!
A Kenyan young poet-Larry Liza illustrates to us how the boycott was!

BEDROOM BOYCOTT;
A Larry Liza poem

The women’s banner screamed
‘No Reforms, No Sex’
The men’s banner squealed
‘No Sex, No Reforms’

It was a people besieged,
Bottom rock leadership

The men growled,
Their thunders were wild
Like a stone age train upping the hill

‘We moil and toil,’ they roared
‘Yet you soil our loins’

Some women whimpered not
They were on a high
Like an African king in a desert
Going Brrrr…… with Coke

Is passion fashion, one way?

Some men coiled their tails
Swallowing hard, deprived in thirst
Like ‘ugali’ cornmeal without stew
Eyes begging, telling in silence
Like a child in need at the feet of mama

Lest they were denied connectivity
To the password to passion’s package

Others threatened Coin Angle Street
To slither in the looming darkness
‘Insert coin to continue’

For many households though
It had been business as usual…

©Larry Liza. Petals of Poetry. 2009.
source: facebook, larry liza

Wednesday 6 May 2009

Mengi vs Rostam;who is fooling who?!

Naam hili nalo limetokea,linaendelea kuchukua sura mpya kila uchao, na kila mmoja analitazama kwa mtazamo wake.

Naongelea malumbano yanayoendelea kati ya Mfanyabiashara maarufu Reginald Mengi na mfanyabiashara mwingine aliye pia mwanasiasa-mbunge wa Igunga- Rostam Aziz juu ya kushutumiana kuhusu ufisadi.

Wengi wetu tumekuwa watazamaji katika hili. Hatahivyo katika utazamaji huu, kila mmoja aliyeweza kuongea la kwake amefanya hivyo. Hii ni kwasababu yale wanayoyaongea wawili hawa yanaigusa kwa namna moja au nyingine jamii ya Kitanzania.

Wengi wetu-kama si wote hatujui nani hasa ni mkweli kati ya hawa wote. Hatahivyo kuna maswali kadhaa ya kujiuliza katika hili:

1. Hawa wote wawili walikuwa wapi kushutumiana siku nyingi kabla ya sasa?nini kimepelekea kuinuka hivi sasa na kunyosheana vidole?

2. Je,vyombo husika vya dola vimechukua hatua gani mpaka sasa kushughulikia shutuma hizo kutoka kila upande?kama havijafanya hivyo,ni kwanini?

3. Je,vyombo vya habari- iwe vinavyomilikiwa na wanaoshutumiana ama la-vimewajibika kwa uadilifu katika kuifahamisha jamii kuhusu malumbano haya?

4. Je, taifa kwa ujumla linafaidika au linaathirika vipi hasa katika malumbano haya?

Kwa maswali haya machache na mengine mengi yaliyomo vichwani mwa watu-hatua hitajika zinapaswa kuchukuliwa dhidi ya malumbano haya.

Tutafakari- wanaohusika wachukue hatua.
Wadau mnasemaje?

Tuesday 5 May 2009

Albino Killings- What a Shame!

Albino Killings in Tanzania: Is It a Secret behind the Curtain?

By Paul Dotto

It started with a tale of the killing of old women who were believed to be witch for being red-eyed, then swell the ‘prosperous’ business of killing and skinning human beings and sell their skins; and now it is the spread killing of albinos whose body organs are believed to have cause of prosperity.

The ongoing mysterious albino killings in Tanzania for more than a year now have caused apprehension among the albino community as they now feel very insecure under the circumstances. But the more the tragic is fought, the more the killing is.

In many regions, especially the ones which have highly been reported on the murders, albinos are even afraid of staying, walking or travelling alone to avoid potential risks.

The killings, according to various Tanzania media reports, were mostly reported in Lake Victoria zone regions especially Mwanza, Shinyanga, Tabora and Mara since March 2007, up to the moment, the killings have been accelerating rather than decreasing.

Besides the albino killings, the four regions are also notorious for killing people believed to be witches or wizards. A mere rumour that one is a witch is often enough justification for an angry mob to kill a suspect of witchcraft.

With the spread rumor behind the murders that, albino organs, particularly genitals, limbs, breasts, fingers and the tongue posses mystical powers that can make a person fabulously rich within a short time, are reportedly in high demand by people involved in mining and fishing activities in the zone.

Albinism, which is a congenital lack of melanin pigment which protects the skin, eyes and hair from the sun’s ultraviolet rays; to Witch Doctors and some people, body parts of an albino are believed that have magic powers to bring fortune.

My adventure to the two regions of Mwanza and Shinyanga during the last short vacation of Christmas and New Year made me witness something on and behind these mysterious murder activities.

As what cracks one’s head is why, despite all efforts by the government and other social groups to stop the inhuman killing, it is more accelerating, causing even a stiff disbelief to how the government tackles the matter. Maduhu Mfumuntale (not his real name), one of the elders at Utemini village, nearby Mwadui Diamond Mining in Shinyanga region reveals;

“It is not only the laymen looking for richness are the ones involved in these (Albino) killings, Witch Doctors’ customers here include very respectable politicians, business people and many others,” He says, asking for anonymity.

He further reveals the ineffectiveness of what is believed to be ‘medicine towards prosperity’; instead, he condemns people driven with ignorance, idle mind and lazy path of getting wealth.

“What do you do as a Witch Doctor, if someone comes with lots sum of money, specifying to you that make me the Albino medicine so that I become rich?” asks the 77 years old man in a pure version of his native Sukuma language.

“What witch Doctors do, is to instruct the ones on bringing some crucial Albino organs so that a particular medicine needed, after mixing with some of wild roots, is found and given to the one,” reveals Mfumuntale.

On the other hand the Vice Rector of Nyegezi Catholic Seminary in Mwanza, Fr. Stephen Kadillo says, in his views, each day new ways of easily getting albinos and killing them are discovered and employed by the people who do not have good will with these innocents.

“Currently, other people pretend to be good-hearted to Albinos and take them to live with for ensuring them security, but it all ends with secretly killing them and fulfill their ill-intentions,” explains the priest in sorrow.

This correlates with the report by the media at the end of last year that, a certain man in Kahama district in Shinyanga, made all appropriate procedures of a marriage with an albino girl, a marriage which soon ended by killing the newly wife and disappearing with the deceased body parts!

The government of the United Republic of Tanzania and international community has repeatedly intervened and called for immediate crackdown on people behind the superstitious albino killings going on in the country.

President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete who attended a protest march against the killings organized by the Tanzania Albino Society (TAS) in October 2008 in Dar es Salaam said the government would hunt down the perpetrators to end the mess.

Dismissing as ‘utterly stupid’ the belief that albino parts can bring success to business people, he said efforts to deal with the network that was involved in the killings were going on and urged people to shun secrecy and help the police.

“Riches are not acquired through the killing of albinos but by working hard,” said President Kikwete, who early last year nominated a Member of Parliament, Ms Al-shaimaa Kway-gir, the only albino in the National Assembly.

While the President’s orders followed a countrywide outcry over the killings amid reports that more than 50 albinos were murdered since March 2007, the government has been accused of not working on the matter with serious and appropriate measures.

Last year for instance, the Albino society condemned and called upon to step down the Minister for Home Affairs, Lawrence Masha for what they called ‘his unsatisfactory concern’ on the matter for he was once quoted by media saying ‘Albino killings were not at that high extent but were merely much exaggerated by the media’.

Although, according to media reports and TAS, a total of 172 suspects had by April 2008 arrested in connection with the killing of albinos in the country, while the recent reports show an addition of 58 people were arrested by October, there are no reports on punishment or convictions to the suspects on basis of lack of evidences.

Meanwhile, in the end of November last year, This Day newspaper, a daily publication reported of the four police officers who were arrested in Shinyanga for their alleged conspiracy in the ongoing albino killings in the region.

According to World Health Organization (WHO) sources, albino hardly exceed 170,000 people in the country nearly to TAS report that there are over 150,000, but only 8,000 are registered with the association and noted that many are killed at birth.

On the National Albino day May 4th last year, the Kenyan albinos sympathized with their Tanzania counterpart and, when talking to Tanzania journalists in Dar es Salaam, they expressed their great concern about the killings and wished them to stop and not spread to Kenya.

“We are very concerned about the killings that could easily spread to our country, something we would not like to happen,” said the Albino Association of Kenya chairman, Alex Munyere.

It is an open secret that the situation is still worse for the killing has been increasing each day. It is a high challenge to appropriate authorities to deal with the network involving in the killing as what President Kikwete called upon.

It is a shame to the country given pride of maintaining peace and tranquility entertain the insecurity and uncomfortable condition to these disabled people, who are equal to other human beings.

HATUTANYAMAZA, Tuwatetee viumbe hawa!

Karibuni!

Dear all,
I humbly welcome you all to this blog. It is a free and meditative platform for social, economic and political issues.

You are all invited to share comments, information and any queries.
Karibuni Sana!

Youth: What a Plight

By Paul Dotto

Has its ending length, many think not,
Has its good and bad surrounds, no one accepts of the latter,
Sweet, but bitter in facing realities;
Youth!

Moulds its parameters and colourful decisions,
Full and always covered with laments, to others,
Cracks, passes, everywhere capable of endearing, challenges-
No defeat;
Youth!

‘Enjoy life’- it tells to itself,
Then when faces a valley, utters- ‘let it pass, there is near relief’,
It forgets, it also disappears too, as a tree leaf,
Dismisses that it has to work, for a loaf;
Youth!

Effective utilization of prospect, and time, it delays,
A thought of cutback, for future, it lays to future itself,
‘Let the dead bury their fellow dead’, says!
It likes, for anon- regrets;
Youth!

Anxious to catch-everything comes the path,
Wealth, pride, education, love, leadership: for free, for oath,
All, via bad or worse way- ‘take a benefit, ignore their wrath’
It tells-confidently as used to be;
Youth!

Rarely, accepts its setback, Achilles' heel;
Its fellow grievances’, consoles-‘we shall overcome- their ill-treatment’,
To it, always grant a positive image. Only way for encouragement: Praise
Overlooks that: rectification heals!
Youth!

Goodness! It possesses energy, fast brain, power- to employ,
In fulfillment of self and communal needs, if well to deploy;
With great, untold benefit to all,
Youth, considered a crucial part of life; an all life determinant,
Youth!

When do We Reach there?

It is high time we Meditate:
For how long our African countries will be suffering from these diseases: corruption, environmental pollution, poverty,ignorance, wars and many others?

Our problems are so many; but we have a number of elites who would have taken appropriate steps to deal with all these; why are they not acting as expected?

Let's meditate- shold we say a unique call for a state of emergency is needed to encounter these?
Let's do something......