Applied history: as an engaged public intellectual, I am committed to the scholar-activism model of knowledge production. This kind of public scholarship that encompasses individual agency through activism, must, of necessity, involve not only academic research, but also advocacy for policy change, raising awareness and public education.
I am dedicated to making attempts at social commentaries on various issues through blogs and opinion pieces published on this website and elsewhere on the World Wide Web to these noble and worthy ends.
May be Yuval Noah Harari, in his masterful and thoroughly enjoyable book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2015) is right to say that “there is no justice in history.” Nonetheless, history bears eloquent incontestable testimony of numerous instances of all manner of callous injustice meted out on entire races of people at the hands of European white masters so-called “explorers,” immigrant-settlers.
And that’s why the rise of intolerant, xenophobic ... Read more...
What the hell are we doing in Somalia?
It has been proven yet again. Kenya’s Operation Linda Nchi (Operation Protect the Nation) is untenable. A resoundingly humiliating fool’s errand if ever there was one. The time to withdraw the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) from Somalia is long overdue. While President Uhuru Kenyatta inherited this military bumble of an operation in neighboring Somalia, under his leadership, the Kenya ... Read more...
I read Dr. David Ndii’s article on Saturday March 26th with great horror and disappointment. It was provocative in the extreme. You see, I have always respected him as a dependable, conscientious and expert bipartisan analyst with an experienced, thoroughly informed and conciliatory thumb over the pulse of Kenya’s political economy. Although he might not know me personally, Ndii is a respectable public intellectual that I have admired since his Kenya Leadership Institute (KLI) days at Hughes ... Read more...
Is President Barack Obama’s planned visit to Kenya too much too little? Yes.
Consider this. In the last five years, during his watch, there have been two interesting developments.
China has pulled ahead of the United States to become Africa’s largest trading partner.
Standing at a “record high” of $166 bn in 2011 and $170 bn in 2013, China’s share in the volume of trade with Africa has been growing from strength to strength. In addition, ... Read more...
President Barack Obama’s visit to Kenya is not too much, too little, too late. Granted, it does seem so. However, as Vanessa Williams sung, it’s not what Kenyans hoped: early in his presidency, or how they planned (for very obvious reasons to do with the ICC cases). But, somehow, it’s enough that, just when they thought the chance had passed, Obama has gone on and, quite literally, saved the best for last.
Furthermore, the visit is not a dumb idea as suggested ... Read more...
Once upon a time, there was a strong institution known as a political party founded on principles as opposed to belonging to an ethnic group or an alliance thereby. Kenya’s first political parties on the eve of independence were such institutions. They were parties of principles albeit tinged with some ethnic element. Unfortunately, this ethnic tinge inadvertently, or otherwise, quickly and easily became the fulcrum on which our national politics revolved.
It ... Read more...
