Marriage is tough,
deal with yourself.
There’s none that is perfect.
But some appear so.
Disrespect
Not in tandem, breaks it all.
Who said that you have to stick around?
Make it easy for the kids, if they exist
22nd November 2018
The United Nations has asked Kenya to regulate cryptocurrencies.
In its proposals, the UN also wants GoK to tax gains made from cryptocurrency trading, and it is not hiding it, ‘to make the sector less attractive’.
What the UN is missing is that the move towards regulation and taxation of crypto requires recognition first.
Kenya has been adamant to do this, knowing the risks cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, presents to the global central-bank printed currency.
Kenya is cash-strapped and is looking at ways to shore up its financial baskets.
This is seen in the manner in which the country lives from hand to mouth as the collected revenues are depleted by the huge wage bill, recurrent expenditures and loan repayments.
GoK might be desperate for cash. But a proposal to tax crypto will worsen the situation.
Some entities already know the situation is dire by looking at reports, the manner in which the Kenya Revenue Authority (AKRA) acts with businesses that have defaulted on their tax payments and the introduction of new laws to net tax cheats.
Currently, KRA has given businesses up to the end of July 2022, to install electronic tax registers that give real-time data on sales and tax collection to Times Towers.
The above is contained in the Value Added Tax (Electronic Tax Invoice) Regulations, 2020 – KRA.
The manner in which KRA has acted to increase the tax net has pushed some entities out of business.
Recently, KRA collected the most revenue in its history.
The authority collected Ksh2.031 trillion for the 2021/2022 Financial Year compared to Ksh 1.669 trillion collected last year.
What about crypto?
In Crytpo, there’s a funny saying; ‘when the government comes knocking, I’ll say I lost my crypto in a boating accident’, meaning ‘I don’t have any’.
Of course, the UN, govt, Safaricom and banks have done the research and know too well how much the Peer to Peer (P2P) sales of crypto is worth.
But as the above saying goes, crypto traders will be more cautious to use other ways to transact other than banks or/ and Safaricom’s MPESA.
Many will use some other payment apps to do transactions.
But the govt is big and knows how to be incessant in its quest for revenue, they might force the cryptocurrency exchanges operating in Kenya to share all the data of Kenya or close shop.
This is where cold storage comes in.
In the crypto world, the term cold storage means, transferring or saving your crypto assets in an offline wallet, usually in a flash disk or such, which are specially made for that purpose.
In the beginning, when Bitcoin was the only crypto, it was not easy to transact for most people. It was a geek paradise, where those who knew how to mine, store and transfer were few.
We had a marketplace that was formed in those early days known as Silk Road. On Silk Road, users could post items for sale, from drugs, guns, utensils etc. It was kinda dark webbish, but thrived and pushed the use of Bitcoin.
There was no central exchange, Bitcoin exchange was purely P2P.
Enter the age of centralized exchanges, many things have been simplified and it is easier to transact. Mining is now done only by huge companies who use millions per month in electricity bills to mine and keep the network safe.
However, while centralized exchanges like Binance, Gate, Cryptocom made it easier to trade Bitcoin, the coins are held in trust by the users.
This is risky because it employs the same mechanism commercial banks do with fiat (Central Bank printed) money.
When banks go under, people lose their money.
In Centralized Crypto exchanges, when the exchange goes under, people lose their crypto assets. This happened in the early days when Mount Gox Exchange was hacked and over 700,000 Bitcoin were stolen. That much remains under the control of the hackers. (As soon as they move it, it is locked by a centralized exchange since the data is publicly available on the Block Explorer).
This was not the vision of Satoshi Nakamoto, the founder of Bitcoin. He built a system that would be fire-proof to manipulation that was witnessed with central bank printed money in 2008 when the global economy collapsed.
Cold storage and pure P2P exchanges that are decentralized are better at this.
With the introduction of regulations and taxes in Kenya, we might witness a new rise of ‘silk road’.
The activity of converting Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies to fiat for personal use will become minimal, even disappear altogether.
KRA will have an egg on their faces.
there’s no perfect world
the murders and wonders
rapes and plunder
disagreements and musings.
the silent killers, roam this world with impunity
having authority letter from lucifer stamped.
but we all dream of beauty
shadows from the past
haunt the living to infinity.
soon they’ll join in the frenzy
a world despicable and caged,
forced upon the living.
demons and angles work in tandem
to be bribed or seduced.
The Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP) has launched the Kenya’s Political Education Source Book.
The event is currently taking place at Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi.
The ORPP has the duty and responsibility of strengthening political parties as institutions of democratic governance in line with the provisions and directive principles stipulated in articles 4, 10,27,38,90,91,92 and 103 of the constitution of Kenya, 2010.
The Source book broadly covers the following areas: Mandate, Vision, Core values of ORPP; Legal framework governing political and electoral processes; Registration of Political Parties; Membership of Political Parties and Information management; Political Party Organization and Management; Political Parties Fund administration and accountability; Political Party’s coalition and mergers; Inclusivity and participation of Special Interest Groups; Leadership and Eligibility criteria for Aspirants; Political party primaries and nominations; Campaign planning strategy and management; Strategic communication public speaking and media relations; Management of political conflicts; Managing political and election outcomes and Emerging issues within the political spaces.
The Source Book is tailor made to equip political leaders, officials of political parties, members of political parties, election aspirants and general population with appropriate information, relevant knowledge, skills and desired attitudes for informed and meaningful participation. Training programs conducted under this source material are envisioned to enable users make informed choices and decisions in the political and electoral processes. This book is targeted to be of value in understanding registration and management of political parties. It is also a useful resource for Researchers, scholars, Trainer of Trainers (TOT), political leaders and the general citizenry.
The event is streaming live on Facebook and the hashtag on Twitter is #ORPPSourceBookLaunch.
This novel captivated me.
It was not easy to put down as the love and success story, the mix of words, the description of emotions, places and things set my mind on fire. At first, this was not how I felt as I am used to non-fiction.
This is a thrilling story of a young girl, seeking success by all means.
It is a story of love, a story of hope, and a story of surmounting the conflicts of life.
I loved that the story is set in Ghana and Rwanda. Personally, I think this makes it more interesting.
If it was in Kenya, I guess, I would have mental pictures of how things and places look and perhaps that’ll have destroyed the ‘tension of knowing what next’
Ami Sako, a young girl from one of Ghana’s Chandarua village, flees from home to escape marriage. She was underage.
She grows up in a children’s home.
“All around, there seemed to be ns single soul – only the sweet melodies of birds could be heard” – Wanjiru M Thuku, Dawn of Fortune
Being a bookworm, she passes her exams, joins University to study medicine and gets work in Rwanda.
But that’s not the story.
There’s that love life that is kindled at the university between Kwame, a Kenyan, and Ami that is so engaging throughout the book.
‘He wanted to linger there and feel the sweetness and the explosion of her flavors’ – Wanjiru M Thuku, Dawn of Fortune
It is a roller-coaster ride of emotions that finally ends in a resolution, albeit in suspense.
You know it is a great author with a great story, when the characters come to life in your mind, and they linger on for longer.
Wanjiru Thuku’s use of descriptive words is catchy and unforgettable.
It is not easy to put this book down once you start.
Recommended for lovers of romantic books.
your happiness depends solely on memories,
time stands still
but you calibrate it by observing the sun
oh wretched human!
the past is what you have
a future is not promised
time stands still
but you calibrate it by observing the sun
oh wretched human!
what is the past if not memories,
you carefully review everything to fit you
time stands still
but you calibrate it by observing the sun
oh wretched human!
your imagination is your asset
carefully selecting what to view and feel
time stands still
but you calibrate it by observing the sun
oh wretched human!
there’s nothing new under the sun
said the preacher
we have to calibrate space by observing sun’s movement
it gives us a feeling of belonging
of being us
time stands still
but we must suffer our illusions
of space
On 14th and 15th July 2022, Kenya’s biggest Telco, by bullying and monopolising services, organised an Engineering Summit for young Kenyans.
It was reported that the Safaricom Engineering Summit intends to support young talented engineers and software developers.
But I doubt it.
What was not being said was that in January 2015, Safaricom launched a similar initiative by the name of ZINDUA CAFE where young Kenyan talented Kenyans sent their inventions.
According to the firm, the portal will serve as a central place to capture innovators ideas and prototypes and as well ensure their Intellectual Property are respected. – A blog reported, but they lied on the Intellectual Property part
Safaricom stole the best inventions.
When complaints were lodged in court, the Telco threatened some with death, others were defeated on a technicality of bribed judges.
Others still weren’t able to raise the money to put up a legal challenge.
Safaricom has stayed long with the increasingly out-of-fashion M-PESA and is looking for a new way to revamp its useless internal creative team.
MShwari, MPESA-1Tap (ruled in favor of Safaricom), Tuwaanike and MPESA Bill Manager for Businesses have their roots in theft.
Click each one of the above to read about that.
If Safaricom paid for the inventions, whose ideas they get from the young Kenyans, things would be great in this country.
However, the crooked managers have made it a habit of stealing, threatening, bribing and getting away with it.
For Safaricom, it doesn’t matter if one signed a Non-Disclosure agreement or their copyright, patent or utility model is registered, they’ll still steal it.
The mainstream media has not covered the issue of Intellectual Property Theft in Kenya because they get adverts from Safaricom.
This has put the youth at a disadvantage since most don’t know what they are dealing with.
Warning to the engineers at the Safaricom Engineering Summit.
Your invention will be stolen, you’ll complain in court and some shadowy people/cars will start following you.
Your friends will desert you
Your lawyer will also take bribes.
You will walk alone.
When that happens, join those who call for respect for intellectual property rights.
Make the mainstream media houses expose these ills.
NOTE:
The advertising for the Safaricom Enginering Summit was poor. I’ve found out that, at any time, less than 1000 people were watching the summit on YouTube.
I have a soft spot for the fractured fairytale or myth.
Something about spinning an old yarn into a new tapestry strikes me as wonderfully creative.
Nowadays, I rarely seek this genre — until I heard about Love in Color.
In Love in Color, Bolu Babalola presents “mythical tales from around the world, retold.”
Each chapter transports the reader to a different mythos, from Yoruba religion to Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Most readers subjected to a Greco-Roman literary upbringing will recognize a few of Babalola’s sources. But, unlike the noted mythologists of my childhood, Babalola invokes traditions oft-sidelined or even maligned in westernized literary spaces. Her collection embraces love as a global phenomenon.
Babalola further inducts readers into a more democratic vision of romance. She takes historical folktales from around the world and deconstructs their patriarchal elements while highlighting their feminist ones. Her hypnotic retellings of these familiar stories create delectable meet-cutes to pluck your heartstrings.
Of all these wondrous love stories, my personal favourites are the Scheherazade, Nefertiti, Naleli, and Thisbe chapters.
Scheherazade’s brazenness emanates from the page. Nefertiti’s chapter offers striking commentary on police brutality and vigilante justice. Naleli’s chapter, too, touches on social issues with its powerful celebration of body positivity. And Babalola’s refashioning of Thisbe and Pyramus’ romance strikes me as an updated School Daze.
Babalola shifts through her varying modes of storytelling with ease and maintains narrative momentum from one story to the next. Even her “New Tales,” several stories without mythic roots, uphold the same whimsy and depth as her adaptations.
“Time was constructed with love in mind.”
I adore Love in Color for what it is, a *colourized* documentation of romance.
You can find a copy of the book at NuriaStore Kenya.
I’ve always liked reading about Pakistan.
Malala’s book not only tells a lot about the presence of the Taliban but also shows the consequences of this presence on local people in Pakistan.
The book also gives a large amount of information concerning the country; including its languages, cultures, ethnic groups and the beautiful Swat Valley.
Malala’s narrative starts in 2012 when she was shot by the Taliban in the head while riding on a school bus.
She was a teenage girl, who wanted to go to school and continue with her education despite the Taliban’s interruption in her region.
She later became quite popular in Pakistan, because she is not only a successful student but also an activist for female education and human rights.
This is why the Taliban, sensing her as a threat to their system, set up, and targeted her on a school bus and tried to kill her.
Malala survived and was brought to England for treatment.
In her autobiography, the story goes back to the past and gives detailed information concerning Malala’s parents and their lives before their marriage. It carries the reader to the day Malala was born, her early childhood and school years.
Readers dive also deep into the history of Pakistan with its ethnic communities, presidents, governments and relationships with other countries in her narrative.
One of the first things you will notice when you are reading this book will be this young lady’s strong bond with books and the world of literature.
She adores her school bag and every single book she carries in it.
She quotes from some important works of literature which she obviously devoured as soon as she got access to them.
Her books serve as a shelter, a tunnel to a world of peace for her whenever she feels herself caged. Her books and her trust in education give her the power to fight injustice.
I adored her determination.
Malala’s story is definitely worth reading it.
Featured mage courtesy of thecheckup.in
This book is about a black woman celebrating the joys of love, relationships and sex in a poetic way.
In Black Coffee & Steamy Nights, Ms Kamonjo celebrates the single woman, the lonely woman, and the hyper and free woman.
She captures her confidence, her hesitations and sometimes her confusion in relationships.
It is a sexually explicit poetry collection.
In How Do I Want it? the poet lays bare the confusing signals that a woman often brings out; wanting to be led and also lead.
I found the girl-on-girl sex scenes more expressive.
I also deduced that the girl on boy relationships as cumbersome and hurtful.
There’s only one mention of girl-on-girl sex being ‘forbidden’
There’s hope, there’s hurt, there’s the pain of being cheated on, there’s picking up from bad experience but above all, there’s an exaltation of hedonism and sexual freedom.
She captures all these in different poems in the book.
Nairobi! Madem, mnakulananga vidole kwa mathree?
That poem about sex in a matatu got me.
Being a sex guide and journalist, her words are relatable.
Illustrations
No, it is not a porn book.
However, the illustrations accompanying the poems are spot on. They create powerful imagery transporting the reader into her fancy and carefree world of sex and relationship.
Within these pages, I found some poems quite telling.
I asked myself, is this her life?
She teaches that there’s no shame in love and in sex.
“No nights are dark enough to hide or stop us,
We are unforgettable and know this, we do!
– The nakedness of tales, Eudiah Kamonjo
Some poems create sexual tension in the reader.
The poem Diani transported me to that world, wholly.
There are also other favourites such as Forbidden Sweetness, In the Night of Your Rain, Stagy Drama, My world (a two-stanza poem that explains much about relationships, phew! She’s a master), Strumming myself and Rasta Dance.
We see you, sisters, celebrates the beauty and prime role women play in society
A good accompaniment for any poetry lover.
However, as with all poetry books, there are some great poems and there are the not so great poems.
I don’t know about the hurt or pain in her life but she sure celebrates sex life.