Nairobi News

Locking the stable

Why does County Hall, like Nairobi City Council before it lock the stable after the horse has bolted? asks Nelly Kimoja.

Many residents of the city’s outskirts testify to the fact that the county officers never catch those starting to put up buildings without their approval, Ms Kimoja adds, but they only rush to those who have finished building homes at the time they are doing the perimeter or just some final touches.

Of course they do not go there to stop the builder, though they pretend to do that, but to collect the bribes, which they are sure to get because the owner has already done too much to let his efforts go down the drain.

She says she even wonders why someone who has already put up his home or whatever building should be forced to get approval later.

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Brutal enemy

I could be wrong, but the man recently released by the al-Shabaab appears genuinely indoctrinated into Islam and that is why he is cagey and not ready to let out much information, says Muthee Mwagiru. His lack of eye contact, he adds is also telling.

Al-Shabaab released him voluntarily without a fight. “The police should remember that the terror group is at war with us and they are not known to be as philanthropic as to free their captives for free, when they could use them as a bargaining chip. Security agents should keep an eye on this man, whose story was on the Daily Nation,” says Mr Mwagiru.

“I know this would come across as cold, but we should use our heads, not our hearts. We are at war with shadowy and brutal enemy,” he says.

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Guiding narrative

Daniel Macharia says the National Steering Committee monitoring the media for hate speech in the ongoing terror crackdown is a toothless bulldog.

Instead of guiding the narrative of the security operation, he says the committee opted to sit in its ivory tower and played the spectator role as Kenyans tore into each other along religious and tribal lines.

“I haven’t seen even one message educating Kenyans that our Somalia brothers have suffered more under al-Shabaab. Have they told Kenyans that Somalis are not al-Shabaab and al-Shabaab are not Somalis?” he asks.

He wonders why the team continues to draw  salaries if they could not competently do their jobs. The narrative should be that of a fight against international criminals, he says.

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Celebrating downfall

There could be no greater insult to hundreds of families who lost their loved ones during the September 21, 2013 Westgate Mall shooting than the news that a foreign journalist was awarded the Pulitzer prize for best pictures, says Ken Kimathi.

The recognition, he points out, amounts to celebrating the downfall of Kenya.  “While some families are still mourning their departed ones, others are being celebrated for taking ‘beautiful pictures’ shot in that massacre.

This world amazes me,” Mr Kimathi says.

He adds that when the New York World Trade Twin Towers came down after the September 11, 2001 attack that killed over 1,000 people, the Pulitzer organisation didn’t issue such a prize glorifying the horrific attack. “Why do it in Kenya,” he asks.