A Nigerian performer impersonates Michael Jackson at a concert in Abuja. Photo courtesy of N.R. on Flickr.

The death of American pop star Michael Jackson has sparked an outpouring of emotion from nearly every corner of the world. Fans are sharing their memories of Jackson on his official site in nearly a dozen languages, and the news made the front page of papers across the globe.

In Africa, bloggers are paying tribute to the King of Pop by posting pictures and music videos. Writing from Nigeria, Oluniyi David Ajao offers a list of his 26 favorite Michael Jackson songs, while Ugandan blogger Serakelz honors Jackson's memory with instructions on how to do the moonwalk, a dance move created by Jackson.

In Ghana, Kent Mensah of Africa News collects reactions to Jackson's passing on Twitter and Facebook:

“Africa loves Michael Jackson… from birth you learn how to survive and that Michael Jackson is music… the most famous musician ever,” Rasco Patterson said on twitter @chickenwang4.

“Make this world a better place for me and you these are the words from a true legend like Michael Jackson. I will always remember you Waco Jaco,” Elton Afari, Accra, Ghana said on Facebook.

Echoing the sentiments of many African fans, Sudanese Thinker remembers the pop star fondly:

In a lot of ways Michael Jackson was my childhood. His music filled it with lots of joy and beautiful memories. It uplifted me when I was down. It made me happy when I was sad.

And as awkward and flawed as he was, I will dearly miss him and his talents.

And Ugandan blogger Dickson Wasake honors Jackson with a poem:

On the death of Michael Jackson;
The tears fill the earth,
Black or white;
The Liberian girl cries,
And so does dirty Diana,
even the stranger in Moscow,
We all scream;
“Oh it’s too bad; oh it’s too sad;
The king is gone too soon,
And I just can’t stop loving him!”

Though many bloggers are grieving over Jackson's death, others are questioning his eccentricities, including his changing skin color. In Ghana, blogger Emmanuel Bensa laments:

….the African culture tells us that we don't speak ill of the dead–and I am not about to do so anytime soon, but what I will do is to categorically state how much of a bad decision it was to become a white man.

Black is beautiful–and it will forever be so. As a Black Man, Michael Jackson had the looks, the voice; the talent. Oh what a shame.

For Ugandan blogger Rosebell, Jackson's death prompted reflections on why the news pays so much more attention to the death of a pop star than to other tragedies:

As I watched the reaction around the world to Jackson’s death I wondered if really all humans can ever be equal. Not that I don’t recognise MJ’s contribution to music and his great talent, I would be naïve to do so, but I wonder why we no longer get the shock when we see death around the world. Everyone seemed to say oh he died young at 50, and then I thought that actually in Uganda life expectancy is at 50. Do you know in many African countries dying of old age is almost history? Do you know that this shock we feel at the loss MJ’s death, many Iraqis face it everyday? The fear for the loss of their own lives and the puzzles of how their children will grow, grips people in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Omar Basawad of Safari Notes dismisses these criticisms, focusing on Jackson's legendary talent:

Whatever might be said about Michael Jackson, whatever one might think of him - one thing is certain: he defined an era.

“RIP MJ,” writes Kenyan blogger WildeYearnings. “You now have the whole sky to moonwalk on…”

For example, a Kenyan blogger Pater Nostra has a friend whose pictures were posted and debated on Wananchi Forums. He exclaims:

I am naturally pissed that the audacity of the member of Wananchiforums.com (to post such threatening and victimizing articles) has been entertained and of the administrators to allow such to be posted. Should anything happen to her, both the member and the administrators of the website have to blame. They have made a person vulnerable to attack, abuse, and assault which is morally wrong and goes against her fundamental rights to protection and security. Her life is in danger.

Keguro, an English professor and a blogger reveals the underlying truth about how homosexuals are named and shamed all over the Internet. “The politics of outing” is the title of his post. While most leaders are squirming on their seats over it, others are trying to smoke them out and stamping on their rights.

He blogs about the traumatic ordeal one has to face while still not comfortable with their sexuality:

Within the context of outing, one’s individual wishes and political stance are subsumed by another narrative. One is positioned as a homosexual, hailed as such, and must respond within the structure so created, a structure in which non-response is not possible. One need not respond to one’s accusers, but one responds to those who know one: family, friends, even to the email that offers information and sympathy.

He quotes a gender and sexuality author, Lauren Berlant:

It is this cluster of desires around one that I term “the political,” borrowing from Lauren Berlant’s notion of cruel optimism. To be outed in a country that provides no official spaces or languages for recognizing outing is to become subject to a host of desires, some friendly, some not, some lustful, some not. One becomes marked. Many years ago, when I first came out, my mother composed a grand narrative of my life that, in retrospect, sounds like something from Austin Powers. I was a mad party animal bottom. Her terms, not mine. When I asked how I found time to study as a mad party animal bottom, she replied, quite rationally, that I was a mad party animal bottom from Friday through Sunday. (In truth, I went out Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and was relatively asexual, which I made up for in that glorious year I turned 24. Ahhh, 24!) (A confession, happy now?)

He concludes:

I have written, previously, about the dangers of homophobic discourse within a space that does not have any homosexual discourse. In such a space, outing becomes impossible as an affirmative gesture. Yet, isn’t it precisely in such impossible spaces that we have become possible?

Samuel Delaney writes that “coming out” used to mean coming out into a homosexual community, not as a performance of truth to gazing heterosexuals. I do not use the word community much, and do not trust it. But it can be a powerful thing to imagine, and wonderful to belong.

Such belonging might be one necessary, useful, and pleasurable afterlife.

Two months ago, Keguro blogged about a woman who had her head smashed with a beer bottle in a club because of her sexual orientation:

[A Kenyan lesbian] was leaving Madd House on the said morning with a friend – (anonymous), when, as they were walking through the exit, a woman shouted out behind them “ma lesbians”…. [The Kenyan lesbian] didn’t recognize the woman and they got into a verbal confrontation during which the woman hit her with her bag and went off to go back upstairs. [The Kenyan lesbian] and (anonymous) followed the woman, later identified to them as Constance Sirikwa Rukia, and saw her being hidden in the changing rooms by the bouncers.

[The Kenyan lesbian] went to ask the bouncers why they were hiding the woman when they should be kicking her out for disturbing them. The bouncers held each of [The Kenyan lesbian’s] hands and attempted to throw her out. Upon seeing that [The Kenyan lesbian] was being held by the bouncers, the woman then hit [The Kenyan lesbian] on the head with a bottle that she’d been holding and she fell down, bleeding heavily.

What most bloggers found surprising was how the security guards were willing to sacrifice core principles of citizen protection, making them less safe. An anonymous reader on Nostra's blog says:

These people are bad. What they have done is wrong and they should not be allowed anymore to do this. Why are they doing this? I cant believe that such hate exist unless they do it for the sake of publicity. They have disseminated the article to many fora and I think that is their intention. They want it to be known. Its wrong. Pouline is strong.

This first video is about Sopiato, a young woman in Kenya who is currently an outcast because she decided to refuse going under the knife for female genital cutting. Correspondent Makena visits her and get the story:

This next video shows Bercam, a 15 year old Kurdish activist in Turkey who stands up for the rights or the Kurdish minority, supporting their freedom, equality, brotherhood and freedom of religion. He explains how Kurdish people in Turkey are rejected for speaking or listening to music in their language.

This video shows Jiang, a Chinese activist who tries to raise awareness regarding pollution and the environment. He tells of how he saw a documentary on a 100 year old turtle who died from eating plastic bags: he sold his restaurant and started on his tour around the country to protest contamination. He goes from town to town telling people to take care of the environment. Some people believe he is crazy for doing this, others believe that it is a worthy cause; in spite of his loneliness, he continues to travel around, putting environmental protection before his own wants and needs.

Watch more of their selected videos for the World Humanism Day on the Metropolis TV site . Their videos are separated by monthly episodes composed of videos from around the world responding to a specific theme.  You can also collaborate with them: They have a way for people to produce videos to appear on their site,  if they are featured or it makes it to the TV programming, you will get paid for your work.

Lion cub poisoned in the Masai Mara

Kenyan conservationists are making gains in their push to have Furadan, a carbofuran-based pesticide that has so far caused the death of 76 lions, banned in the country.

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Naivasha Constituency, Honourable John Mututho, has now joined the call for a total ban on this lethal poison by taking the appeal to parliament. On Tuesday, 2 June 2009, the Baraza blog reports scanned some pieces from the news, and reports that  Hon. Mututho asked the Minister for Forestry and Wildlife for the ban amid overwhelming support from other parliamentarians.

In today’s national newspapers in Kenya, there were two stories about lion poisoning in the Masai Mara. One in The Standard reports the Minister for Forestry and Wildlife Services Dr Noah Wekesa saying that lions were dying in the Masai Mara and Furadan was responsible. He however referred Hon. John Mututho’s call for its ban to the Agriculture Minister and the Pesticide Control Products Board.

In the other news item appearing in the Daily Nation, the Kenya Wildlife Service, which is the custodian of Kenya’s wildlife, has accused farmers of poisoning one lion, some hyenas and 35 vultures in the Mara. The KWS said that there were traces of a pinkish substance on the carcase that was used to bait the these carnivores and scavengers.

The Minister on his part, while acknowledging that Furadan was killing many lions in a country that now has only 2100 lions down from 30,000 a few decades back, however, referred the question of the ban to the Minister for Agriculture and the Pest Control Products Board - the government organization that regulates pesticides in Kenya.

Kenyan conservationists have been fighting for the removal of Furadan from the market since the mid-1990s when massive poisoning of wild ducks was being witnessed in the rice-growing Mwea Irrigation Scheme in the Eastern Province. It was however the recent coverage of lion poisoning problem by American broadcaster CBS that this issue has become of great concern for Kenyan leaders. Hon Mututho however had asked for a ban back in 2008 following the death of lions in Masai Mara.

Although FMC Corporation, the Philadelphia-based manufacturer of Furadan announced an immediate withdrawal of the lethal chemical from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania just hours after the CBS programme on 60 Minutes, lions and other wildlife are still being poisoned with Furadan. Martin Odino, a Kenyan researcher attached to the National Museums of Kenya, has been reporting in his Stop Wildlife Poisoning blog about alarming poisoning of birds which seem to be sold for food.

About a month after FMC's withdrawal of the chemical from the market, Baraza blog reports that an eight-month-old lion cub died after consuming a carcase of a cow that had been laced with a pesticide suspected to be Furadan. Several hyenas and an estimated 40 vultures were also poisoned by the same carcase. With the lion cub was four other lions whose fate has not been established yet.

These poisoning cases have made conservationists relentless in their pursuit for the ban. On 9 June 2009, conservationists met at WildlifeDirect offices in Nairobi and in that meeting, they brought out the dire situation facing birds. It emerged that even as lion poisoning was in the limelight, the poisoning of birds was equally catastrophic. A report by KWS indicated that birds were being poisoned in ‘pick-up truck loads'. WildlifeDirect, which convened this meeting, promptly issued a statement throught the Baraza blog.

The Baraza blog provides a way for readers to make a donation.

In that number of growing blogs, a lot of African artists have also joined in with a huge increase noted in poetry blogs as well as emerging photography and visual arts blogs.

We review some of them.

Poéfrika is a weblog of creative, Africa-inspired writing. The blog features poetry by various African poets, interviews with poets, writers as well news and information on world renowned poets and writers alike.

The blog also has a lot of resource material for would be poet as it lists links to various poetry publishing magazines, writers who have been featured in the blog and other links of interest to writers including their potrait photos.

Poéfrika is run by Rethabile Masilo a Lesotho citizen but currently based in France. He also runs Canopic Jar and Basotho which also feature written and visual art.

Fikira Zangu (Swahili for My Thoughts) is a Kenyan blog ran by Bonyo Buogha Anthony who is based in Nairobi, Kenya. The slogan for his blog is

“Intense thoughts like active beings, come and go Haunt us then flee, leaving ajar the door.”

This is what he says about himself

….I my words forgot, and thoughts my wrote; I'm weeping laughter, Humming thoughts and writing beats, Walking thoughts and thinking walks….

I would say that is a poetic piece right there.

Hi poetry is short and precise with most not exceeding 10 lines. The themes range from love to politics to his challenges as a poet.
An excerpt from his poem – Will you still be mine

Will you still be mine in the morning
After the evening passion fades
After all the pleasures of last night
have all been swept away

Will you still be mine
After the bitter arguments and fighting
After harsh words have been exchanged
will you open your arms and let me back in

Marten’s Blog is a purely photography blog run by Marten Schoonman who is based in Nairobi Kenya but one who travels a lot through the East African region and beyond.
The blog is an online diary captured in image form featuring a lot of breathtaking sceneries and immaculately taken photos of different people and items.
He also features some photos and photo sites that have fascinated him.

Africa Rock - Photo courtesy of Marten Schoonman

Merlin is a Campus student born in 87. He describes himself on his blog, iceboxmerlin.

got a swag to walk the talk, talk the walk sometimes, but always a down to earth and sensational individual to be around!’

You can tell from the image header that he is a great fan of animations. He labels his blog, ‘The Phanton Thought……..'
His disclaimer,

“Here are my thoughts on the world, life and the unraveling of the universe. The symptom of an involved mind with the features of life, is the intelligence and later a harnessed genius. It is the achieved Phantom thought of thick air!

His blog features a lot of poetry and prose in which he explores different issues and themes.

An excerpt of his poem, ‘The air is thick!…

Where the air is thick!
I have gone to a place,
like what a journey would be…
and had sweet thick mango juice,
A Kayamba playing in the back ground,
like that group of men call themselves Kayamba Africa
there was a man though,
a Rasta Man chewing at Muguka
green gobbler and something he's mumbling
between stuffing his mouth.
and puffing a cigarette,
the air here is unmistakably thick
so he says with a thick baritone voice,
“young man!”,
“write us some of that scribble you call poetry…”
“am in a mood for anything”
and a thick air came about me,
to put some sense into him!

Boyd Oyier is a 4th year student at a university in Kenya. He is also a self taught artist who loves to experiment and is currently working with charcoal and pastels.

A potrait of Malcom X as drawn by Boyd Oyier

His depictions of influential world faces on are superbly done with emotions that one can almost touch.

His blog is not more than a month old, something he started after attending a workshop on blogging and social networks in Nairobi.

He is currently putting together his first ever official collection that is titled “Politics in Black and White”

This is what he states as the purpose of art:

“The main function of art should be to connect to people. Each of us appreciates art in one form or another, but we are turned off by the ‘elite' who decided to complicate art by using labels such as 'surreal', ‘new age' and ‘contemporary'. The best art is the art that you love!”

We look forward to seeing the collection online.

Tafsiri Hii is a Kenyan poet blogger who runs afropoem, a blog about a Black Woman’s Poem.

This is how she describes herself:

”Black; from the curl of my hair to the toe on my foot…. African; it's in the blood flowing in my veins, the music in my voice, the dance in my walk…. Lover of words; written, drawn, sketched, scratched… Appreciative of the power of said words; be they written, spoken, hidden or displayed”.

Her blog which is barely one year old confronts issues of trafficking of African Women for prostitution, love, culture and celebration of African Men among other themes,

These blogs are proof that there is more to Africa than politics as has been depicted by many African bloggers. We can be sure of seeing more such blogs.

Nigeria introduced a bill in 2007 banning same sex marriage. According to Rod 2.0 the bill is the most comprehensive homophobic legislation ever proposed in the world. Early this year homosexuals in Nigeria stormed the National Assembly seeking for legislation that will guarantee the protection.

Lifestyle, culture and religion have become the invisible fence to many homosexuals in Africa barring them from their freedom of sexual expression. A Kenyan blogger, Wilde Yearnings, was quite optimistic after US President Barack Obama officially declared June being a gay pride month and decriminalizing of homosexuality all over the world earlier this month. He posted Obama's speech on his blog:

My Administration has partnered with the LGBT community to advance a wide range of initiatives. At the international level, I have joined efforts at the United Nations to decriminalize homosexuality around the world…NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists.

Naughy Feeling commented on the post:

It is great our comrades in America are getting recognition. In our dear country we can't stick our necks in the sand and tell ourselves all will be well. The gigantous task ahead demands of us that we kid not ourselves of the responsibility ahead of us. It may require sacrifices but all for the greater good. May God bless LGBT kenya n give us strength for what is ahead. But hey, look on the bright side, we can still have fun at it.

But will culture, religion and lifestyle factors derail the decriminalisation of homosexuality in most African countries or will it be as Wilde Yearnings described “meanwhile in Kenya… The struggle continues…”?

It has been said that homosexuality is a lifestyle adapted by Africans from the West, SebaSpace a Ugandan blogger tries to points out that his “sexuality” and “him ” are one, that homosexuality cannot be a lifestyle because for him to be involved with someone it has to be sexually, emotionally and spiritually bringing the fact that homosexuality is a physiological function too.

SebaSpace has been on a constant war with an anti-gay blogger also from Uganda and the war is always revolving around religion, culture and lifestyle. This created a stir in the LGBT blogosphere and another gay Kenyan blogger wrotes a post to answer the three questions The Red Pepper had asked. The questions were:

1. If you try to drink water through the ear, you naturally spoil it because it was created by God to do the hearing function. That's physical harm.

2. when they discovered you were gay. You know very well how we love having grandchildren in Africa. Imagine what goes on in your parents' minds to know that you will never give them grandchildren (I am assuming that you a die-hard gay man but if you are bi, please forgive me). So that is emotional harm.

3. Spiritual harm. You tamper with God's plan of procreation. Understand that the main reason of creating the sexual organs was procreation purposes. For you in an attempt to be very creative, you put your organs at the disposal of pleasure only (I hope it is fun).If you have radical parents, they can start questioning God as to why he gave them such a child. I know parents of a gay boy who visited scores of witchdoctors thinking that their child had been bewitched. I can give you as many reasons as possible. I hope you are an objective gentleman who looks at things objectively.
With so much hate from all sides, will the African Leaders put their priorities in order from all the pressure by the UN, IMF and World Bank and speak out for the sexual minorities or will still hold them in this invisible cage?

His answers:

The Ugandan rag called Red Pepper has been engaging Afro gay, a fellow Gay blogger from Uganda in arguments regarding the situation on Homosexuality in Uganda. Follow this link to see the full post. Recently, the editor of red pepper wrote to Afro arguing that he (Afro) was causing Physical, emotional and Spiritual harm to his family by being gay.

I promised Afro that I will write my responses to the Editor on my blog and link back with him. I have taken their questions, edited without altering the message and I have responded to each question.

I tend to disagree with you when you say that homos have never done anybody physical, emotional or spiritual harm.

Without any prejudice I want to tell you that they are guilty of all the three accounts.

Count 1. If you try to drink water through the ear, you naturally spoil it because it was created by God to do the hearing function. That's physical harm.

Red pepper has made three elementary mistakes (assumptions) 1) The common one that homosexuality is equal to sodomy (their shallow analogy of the ear above) 2) Following number 1 above that sodomy is practiced only by homosexuals and 3) That all homosexuals engage in anal sex.

I will deal with the last one first. Is the paper saying they are ok with someone with homosexual orientation as long as they don’t engage in sex? Have they ever heard of celibate gay people and gay people who don’t engage in anal sex? Well, I have and know both types.

It's worth noting, that from the very beginning sodomy and homosexuality were two categorically separate things. The correct definition of sodomy–then and now–is simply non-procreative sex, whether practiced by heterosexuals or homosexuals. It includes oral sex, masturbation, mutual masturbation, contraceptive sex, coitus interruptus, and anal sex–any sex in which semen does not find its way into a uterus.

The anal sex thing is one elephant in the room, but it's not an inherent part of being gay, it isn't an activity engaged in exclusively by gay people.

SebaSpace refused to answer the questions from Red Pepper. He gives reasons for his refusal:

If you look at the e-mail below, the editor of the Red Pepper has valid questions he is asking and, ordinarily, I would answer them – indeed I have answered these questions over the years more times than I have had hot dinners.

The problem for me now is I don’t believe the people asking the questions are sincere. Rightly or wrongly, I think all they are looking for is material to feed their tabloid frenzy and so I have refused to provide the answers. That said, I think it would be okay for other bloggers to attempt to answer them on their blogs or wherever as they are legitimate.

Here is the e-mail I got from the Red Pepper and the questions they posed [heavily emended for clarity]

Thanks for the reply.

Well, you have not answered Phiona's question and I am sure she will maintain her opinion. I also have a feeling that you don't have an answer for it. The times I have interacted with you I have discovered that you are a clever man who cannot answer a question unless you are sure the answer is convincing.Again I tend to disagree with you when you say that homos have never done anybody physical, emotional or spiritual harm.
Without any prejudice I want to tell you that they are guilty of all the three accounts.

While gay and lesbian bloggers in Africa use blogs to express themselves freely, there are also anti gay bloggers targeting them. One of them, Blake, had a blog called Kenyans Against Gays before it was suspended for violating Blogger's Terms of Service. Kenyan Gay wrote about the suspension:

A couple of years ago, a dude called Blake started this blog and I think the first thing he did was to announce its launch on my blog. Over time, that blog grew with articles explaining why he felt he should take a position against us etc.

However, from propagating his position against homosexuality in recent times he moved to actually calling for gay people in Kenya to be killed. I have been alerted by a reader that the blog has been suspended whilst being investigated for possible blogger rules violation. I suspect it is because of his latest position that was quite militant.

I am a believer in freedom of expression and actually think that blog helped expose that there are some willing to propagate hate to get their point across. But I draw the line when someone advocates for homosexuals to be killed.

I think his blog served us more than it aimed to destroy us. This is because we have many Kenyan gay blogs and Blake used to visit all of them and in the comments section try to drive traffic to his site. If you followed links, you would find that very many of the comments were from people who attempted to engage him intellectually on gay issues. Unfortunately, there were those usual vile comments from both sides with most insults coming from him. He was a troll on my blog until I decided to ignore him.

When you visit Kenyans Against Gays blog you get the following message:

This blog is in violation of Blogger's Terms of Service and is open to authors only

However, Blake went on to start another blog using Wordpress.

Peculiarly Kenyan:

This blog will be a testimony to the curiously Kenyan habits, smells, tastes and flavours that make this country of ours hilarious at best and annoying at worst.
To begin with, let's look at entering a lift in any building. You stand on the ground floor, waiting for the lift doors to open. Civilization prevails as those around you blankly stare up at the numbers depicting the painstakingly slow descent of the lift. 5, 4, 3….3…..3….3-who the hell is keeping the lift on the 3rd floor for so bloody long??-2, 1…1….1…..arghhhhhh why couldn't that lazy oaf take the stairs one floor down? ahhh finally, ground floor. Lift doors open, all sense of civility vaporizes as the crowd around you pushes and shoves itself into the lift, without waiting for the occupants to empty out. And since you were in the middle of the crowd, you find yourself physically lifted up and into the vestibule, dodging the filthly looks of the visibly irritated occupants trying to extricate themselves out. Oh goodness, somebody left something in the lift, it's a strong distinctly palpable body odour that is almost a living being, an invisible stalker in the corner of the lift that very nearly engulfs you and assaults your nasal passages!

Do you know of a road in Nairobi that miraculously transform itself from a two lane highway into an 8 lane highway in the same speed it takes a Porsche to attain maximum speed 0-100mph in 4 seconds?:

it's official, Thika Road has now been designated Thicker Road. And only because it's the only road in Nairobi that can miraculously transform itself from a two lane highway into an 8 lane highway in the same speed it takes a porsche to attain maximum speed 0-100mph in 4 seconds…or something along those lines. I was driving upcountry to Nanyuki to spend a lovely madaraka day weekend. In extremely typical fashion, a guy in a peugot 504 (which have become extremely rare contraptions in this Toyota country) has car problems on the right lane and makes the utterly wise decision to deal with said problems on the spot. To his right, is the road shoulder, not even 3 feet away where he and the other male occupant of the car could have pushed the problematic car. To his left is a long snake of at least 3 semi-trailers heavily laden with goods en route to the North Eastern frontier that have reduced traffic to a snail pace.

In the time it takes to say, what the bloody hell, sixty four matatus have taken the very space that 504 man should have parked his vehicle to form another 4 lanes of traffic to maintain the Soul II Soul mantra of “keep on moving”. Needless to say, we came to a complete standstill at the bewitching hour of 1 p.m.

What about meeting a client “holding a scrunched up handkerchief, wet with nasal productivity but still full of utility judging by the way he kept wiping his nose as he strode masterfully into the room”?:

Went to see a new client today. He walks into the room holding a scrunched up handkerchief, wet with nasal productivity but still full of utility judging by the way he kept wiping his nose as he strode masterfully into the room. I silently cringed, praying feverishly that he would not proffer his hand for the ubiquitous handshake that is so part of civility in this Nairobi. Frankly speaking, if we had to do without this unhygienic social norm I don't think any one of us would be the worse for social wear. Needless to say, my prayer hit the highway to heaven and was answered in remarkable time (memo to self, send thank you note to God) and he bustled into his seat and started off the meeting with nary a physical acknowledgement.

Do you drive 40 kms per hour on the right lane of a two lane highway in Nairobi? Then, you must be driving a Toyota Vitz and you need to put Peculiarly Kenyan blog on your blacklist:

if you drive a Toyota Vitz, stop reading this right now and put this blog on your blacklist. I hate Vitz drivers. why? every first time driver who's got a pay rise and can therefore afford to take a car loan from a bank defaults to buying a Vitz. so what happens, the person driving at 40 kms per hour on the bloody RIGHT lane of a two lane highway such as Thika Road or Jogoo Road or Mbagathi way is always A VITZ driver…..arghhhh! the person making a U Turn, yes U turn on bloody Ngong road at 5:45 p.m peak driving time is always a VITZ driver, the person who decides to overtake the slow moving lorry and then forgets mid-overtaking that the rest of the cars behind him are also trying to overtake is always a VITZ driver…..

From time to time we will be highlighting blogs from the Sub-Saharan Africa that are focused on investigative reports. We are starting with Kumekucha, which is arguably one of the most controversial blogs in East Africa. It is known for publishing controversial investigative reports and biting political commentary on Kenya.

Kumekucha is a very popular blog judging by the number of comments left on its posts . It is difficult to verify the truth of information published on the blog. Recently, another Kenyan blog, KenMedia Watch, pointed out that the minister named by Kumekucha as the one who receveid a visa ban from the United States was not correct. Kumekucha reported that it was the Agriculture Minister, William Ruto. The US ambassador to Kenya revealed that it was Joshua Kulei (ex-Moi aide).

This is what Kumekucha revealed before the identity of visa ban minister was made public:

Kumekucha can confirm today that the cabinet minister who received a visa ban from the Americans earlier this week is agriculture minister, William Ruto.

For Kenyans still thinking in terms of ODM and PNU, this clearly underlines the fact that corruption has no party or tribal boundaries, the cancer eats into our society right across the board.

My information tells me that the minister is “very upset” over the news more so because there are indications that his family members and business associates will also be affected.

After the US ambassador to Kenya revealed that it was Joshua Kulei, KenMedia Watch had this to say:

Now that US Ambassador Michael Ranneberger—in an anti-climactic moment, and violating the usual protocol—has revealed the identity of the man the US recently banned from entering its shores (ex-Moi aide Joshua Kulei), should we now expect a series of apologies from those rumourmongers who maliciously fingered Ruto as the banned official? That would be naive. I’m no fan of Ruto, but wouldn't you

Kumekucha explains the error in their reporting:

It’s Ruto… No It’s Kulei. Oops Or Is It Ruto?

It has never happened before and I was totally shocked. Usually this informant gives me A1 information in terms of reliability. In fact the problem with most of the info they give me is that it is too hot to use (sometimes even in my raw notes). But this time round they came back a few days after telling me Ruto was the Visa ban minister to tell me that it was NOT Ruto after all. The name they gave me confused me.

The US envoy had said that the banned person was a senior member of government. The last time I checked Joshua Kulei was NOT a member of the Kibaki administration. My source however assured me that Ruto was next on the dreaded list and as a matter of fact it is highly unlikely that he could ever be granted a visa incase he wants to travel to the United States.

So I made a decision to keep quiet until something happens. Well it happened last night when the Americans told us that the banned person they were referring to was in fact Kulei. Now this is really fascinating stuff because Mr Kulei is a very major investor in the American economy. In fact his entire family is currently based in the United States and his main business operations are in New York ( a place where many wealthy Americans cannot afford to operate from).

Kumekucha has a newsletter, which carries stories that are too sensitive to publish on the blog and also has a twitter account:

Now You can Monitor Kumekucha's Every Move: You can now follow Chris Kumekucha as he receives highly sensitive info throughout the day and even get to know posts he is working on well in advance. You can even have a private chat with him. Follow him at Twitter. Find him in Twitter @KumekuchaChris. You will even get to see a photo of him (never before published on the web but will now be visible ONLY to his followers on Twitter). Remember that a lot of the stuff you will read on Twitter will NEVER be published because, as has been said here before, most of the information Kumekucha receives is too hot to publish or takes too long to verify (or is impossible to verify) and can therefore NOT be published. But you will be able to read it all on Twitter. Get to Twitter pronto, get there now and find Kenya's most popular and influential political blogger @KumekuchaChris

Let's look at some investigative reports that have appeared on the blog:

Moi family problems in securing wealth:

The family lawyer advised the Moi's to keep as much of their wealth and assets as they possibly could overseas. The lawyer pointed out that legally no court order or ruling had been issued declaring the Moi wealth as having been acquired through corrupt or illegal means, which would be required by the government to freeze those assets and bank accounts abroad. They were also advised to use trusts that were experienced in hiding controversial assets on behalf of high profile clients.

However the meeting did not end well. It emerged that Joshua Kulei's own estimates of the amount he held in trust for the Moi family and which he was now required to surrender and estimates of the same by Moi's sons did not tally. The tension got so high that death threats are believed to have been issued against Kulei.

Matters got worse at a meeting later held at Philip's house to try and resolve the misunderstanding over the issue and Kulei made the unfortunate decision to go outside the Moi family to seek for help. It is highly likely that this is the move that caused details of the meeting to leak to those who were not involved. Kulei consulted Mr Tum of the Kenya Seed Company to talk to the former president on his behalf. He told Tum that the crux of the problem was that the president's sons had failed to make any distinction between his (Kulei's) private wealth and that held by the president in trust.

A significant chunk of the Moi assets and fortune in general is now in Namibia where it is under the protection of the former president's good friend and president of that country Sam Nujoma. It is believed that Gideon Moi may transfer (if he has not dome so already) a lot of the family wealth from South Africa to Namibia where the family feel more comfortable and secure to keep their treasure chest.

Gideons trip with his father to banks [Gideons is the son of Kenya's former President, Daniel Arap Moi]:

A fight that took place at a popular entertainment spot in Nairobi between Gideon Moi and the family lawyer Dr Kiplagat, emphasizes this. Evidence seems to suggest that the fight was instigated by the sale of US$ 650,000 property in South Africa which Dr Kiplagat facilitated in behalf of the younger Moi. After the sale was complete the lawyer did not hand over the proceeds from the sale but instead prepared an invoice for $US 1.5 million for various legal services rendered to Gideon over a lengthy period of time that was still outstanding. He then issued a credit note for US$650,000 and demanded that the balance owed to him be paid. Gideon was furious.

Interestingly this appears to be a contradiction of his own well-voiced principals. The same Kroll report talks about a frequent boast Gideon makes to the effect that any deals worth less than US$ 1 million is not worth his while.

Since December 2003, Gideon has been trying to get the money from the sale of the South African property from Kiplagat, but with no success. On several occasions he sent Chepkonga to demand the cash on his behalf from the lawyer. So when Chepkonga saw the lawyers car parked outside Fairview Hotel, he immeditaley called Gideon who quickly arrived and headed straight to the table where Dr Kiplagat was seated. A fierce argument ensued with Gideon making his usual threats.

Eyewitnesses said that what triggered the fight was the point where Kiplagat told Gideon; “…your father is no longer the president of this country and the days you used to order people around are long gone.” To add insult to injury he then ordered Gideon to move to another table. That is when fists and kicks started flying as baffled onlookers watched and other hurried to separate the two men.

Assassinations seasons now here with us:

For months now controversial Kumekucha blogger Phil has been warning of coming assassinations in Kenya’s political landscape. I too have warned in several posts that we are entering an extremely dangerous phase of our politics where we should expect politically motivated assassinations on an unprecedented scale. I called them some of the painful birth pangs for the new Kenya that is coming. The kind of Kenya we all dream of.

I have some information that is so sensitive that it cannot be shared here which makes it clear that there is nothing but plenty of trouble ahead. I really wish there was a way to stop these crazy guys.

But let me back up a little here and discuss the special circumstances in our politics that has brought us to where we are now.

How Kibaki and Michuki plotted the raid at the Standard Group:

The motive behind the March 2, 2006, police raid at the Standard Group offices has remained top secret to date.

However Kumekucha today unveils the secrets behind the raid based on interviews from two of President Kibaki’s aides privy to the “Government operation.”

In February 2006, President Kibaki chaired a meeting at State House, Nairobi, which was attended by the then Minister for Internal Security, Mr John Michuki, Mr Stanley Murage, Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura, NSIS Director General Michael Gichangi, the then CID Director Joseph Kamau, among other State House operatives.

Despite the gravity of the matter under discussion, the Commissioner of police, Maj Gen Mohamed Ali, was not invited. This was purely a Nyumba ya Mumbi affair. The House of Mumbi had been rattled.

There was tension and anger in the room. The NSIS chief tabled two pieces of paper which he told the meeting had two explosive stories the Standard Group was planning to publish. This blogger has seen and read the two “articles” the Standard was alleged to be planning to publish.

The first “article” was about how Kibaki, when he was the DP chairman and was vying for presidency in 1997, allegedly travelled to Southern Sudan to meet with Al Qaeda founder and world’s Number One terrorist Osama bin Laden to solicit funds for his presidential campaign.

In the second “article”, the author was discussing Kibaki’s failing health in January and February 2003, shortly after he was sworn in as president. The “article” even quoted Raila Odinga saying there was going to be a snap election within the year (implying Kibaki was dying/would be dead to warrant a snap election).

Inside story behind strange killing at Sarit Centre:

A couple of weeks ago a man walked up to an ATM machine at Sarit Centre did his business and emerged. Seconds later another man stepped forward and shot him at point blank range. It was clear from the way he was shot that the idea was to make sure he died.

What followed was puzzling. A section of the media reported the incident and even added the critical bit of information that the man had some information on police extra-judicial killings.

Then suddenly the story vanished and nobody seemed to follow up what would appear to be a very big story.

Today I reveal the inside details behind the killing and exactly what happened.

The name of the deceased was Constable Kirinya and he was a driver at the Eagle Squad - a sister squad of Kwekwe which it has been whispered have been given express orders “from above” to execute anyone they IMAGINE is linked or sympathetic to Mungiki.

Constable Kirinya and his team arrested a notorious drug baron from Mombasa, who had Sh4m in cash and drugs of an unknown value. It happened that the drug baron was known to some senior cops - two of them being Nairobi Provincial Police Officer, Njue Njagi, and his deputy, Julius Ndegwa. Insiders say Njue and Ndegwa called for the suspect and shared the loot. Eagle Squad officers who had arrested the drug baron were given Sh200,000 each.

The cops who were tracking him down got wind he was in Nairobi and they trailed him to Sarit Centre where they shot him dead and made the scene of crime to look like he was killed by thugs.

The house in Nairobi that would make the Nyayo House torture chamber look like a kindergarten:

Recently a company by the name of Kingsway Tyres has burst into the limelight. This firm has been mentioned adversely in the ongoing Charterhouse Bank controversy.

Actually the company is situated in a building that occupies a large chunk of both University Way and Muindi Mbingu street in Nairobi, with one side of the building facing the University of Nairobi.

If buildings could speak, then this particular building would have plenty to say from its' rather notorious history. Especially the side that houses offices which are accessed through a small door that is easy to miss along Muindi Mbingu street.

This building once housed the notorious dreaded Special Branch and what has happened here in the past would make the Nyayo House torture chamber look like a kindergarten. It is said that this is the building where the late JM Kariuki was tortured and interrogated, even shot, before being killed and dumped at Ngong Forest. That was sometime in early March 1975.

It is also believed to be the building where the assassination plot that took the life of one of Kenya's most illustrious politicians, Tom Mboya was planned. A prominent reader of this blog recently passed on this information to this blogger and brief initial inquires and research seem to support this amazing allegation. In later years this building came to house Kenya Times, the Kanu daily paper and I personally visited this building many times over the years.

Samples of political analyses that have appeared on Kumekucha:

Smiling Wako (Amos Wako is Kenya's Attorney General):

He is the wearer of that poisonous smile. Wait a minute, his must be a case of mistaking short lips and long teeth for a permanent grin. Amos Wako is one lawyer who epitomizes everything rotten about Kenya.

Wako is the singular face that captures everything wrong with Kenya. He waxes lyrical and legalistic all loaded with no sensitivity nor relevance to the Kenyan people. And the gatekeepers know him better in partnering with him to defraud us more drawing from his vast expertise in LEGAL FLEECING.

On Obama:

Then there is Obama. The man is not coming to Kenya. I've heard many people castigate Kibaki and Odinga, folks saying that our nation is in turmoil so Obama couldn't visit. Crap. Here is what I say…if he is the kind of a guy who would only visit us because everything was okay, let him stay the hell away. Like his nation that is grappling with racism, classism and periodically the madness of the Bush type, our nation will have issues it grapples with from time to time. Does it mean when we face those issues we should be shunned?

I feel that Barack Obama, by shunning Kenya, has missed a golden opportunity to stand in the middle of Nairobi and proclaim his wishes for Kenya right in the face of Kibaki and Odinga. It would have been a powerful symbol that this son of Kogelo would come here and make it known that he is solidly for reforms. To send some dude called Johnny Carson…and an ambassador who is partly responsoble for the mess we are in makes me sick to my stomach. And may Obama be told that we will have no use for him should he come here after his presidency is over.

*Global Voices Online has not verified the information on Kumekucha blog.

Dr. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem passed away on the eve of Africa Day. He died in a car accident in Nairobi on his way to launch a maternal health campaign in Kigali, Rwanda.

Tajudeen was the Director of Justice Africa, General Secretary of the Pan-African Movement, Chairperson for the Pan African Development Education and Advocacy Programme (PADEAP), Chair of the International Governing Council of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) and Outreach Coordinator on the Millennium Development Goals in Africa. He also wrote weekly columns in The African (Tanzania), the Monitor (uganda), the Weekly Herald (Zimbabwe), Weekly Trust (Nigeria), Nairobi Star (Kenya) and Pambazuka News (Online).

In remembering Tajudeen and his work, Making Sense of Darfur blog reprints three columns he wrote on Darfur:

In tribute to the late Dr. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, Pan-Africanist committed to the liberation of Africa from all forms of oppression, we reprint three of his columns on Darfur.

Alex de Waal writes, “In Memoriam: Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem,”

Tajudeen was born in Funtua, Katsina State, Nigeria, in 1961. His commitment to his home town and family remained undimmed throughout his life. He was educated at Government Schools in Funtua from where he went to Bayero University, Kano, where he graduated with a first class honours degree. He was winner of the Nigerian Government’s Merit Award as the best student of Political Science between 1980-82 at Bayero University.

Alex tells an interesting story of his appearance before the selection committe for Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford:

After his National Youth Service, Tajudeen applied for a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford. He challenged the selection committee by dressing in traditional style for his interview and exam and demanding why they should want to associate someone like him with the name of the grand imperialist, Cecil Rhodes. To the credit of the Rhodes Scholarship, they selected him, and Tajudeen spent three years at St. Peter’s College, Oxford, writing his DPhil degree in politics. While there, he invigorated the Africa Society (serving as president) and injected his unique mix of humour, anecdote, sharp political analysis and enthusiastic optimism into the university’s African debates. Tajudeen was engaged in an astonishing range of African and anti-imperial activities including the Pan African Movement, the All African Anti-Imperialist Youth Front, the Movement for Awareness and Advancement, the Anti Apartheid Movement, the Save the Sharpeville Six Campaign and several magazines including the Africa Research and Information Bureau (ARIB).

And another one about his unique style of writing:

Those who knew him cannot forget his rapid one-fingered typing, bold and articulate and immediately dispatched into the public realm without a spellcheck.

Tajudeen was a wonderful person but an editor's nightmare, says Firoze Manji, the editor for Pambazuka News:

“His respect for deadlines didn't exist and he typed as he spoke and thought.
“He simply sent us copy that was unpunctuated, no spell checks - straight off the cuff - a nightmare and yet worthwhile because what he had to say was always pertinent.”
Mr Manji said it was poignant that he died in the early hours of 25 May, designated Africa Day.
“He insisted it be called Africa Liberation Day, not just Africa Day, because that sounds like celebrating something in the past whereas Africa's liberation is a struggle still to be achieved.”

He was known for his lack of good humour:

Tajudeen’s candid lack of guile and good humour enabled him to say things that for many others were unsayable, and to ask the most difficult questions without provoking defensiveness. At the time of the constitutional referendum in Zimbabwe, he demanded of the government, “what happens if you lose?” and of the opposition, “what happens if you win?”, discovering that neither had planned for this. He castigated his pan-Africanist allies in government without hesitation when they fell short. When told that Kofi Annan had won the Nobel Peace Prize he famously retorted, “for what?”

Speaking to a human rights conference in the UN conference centre in Addis Ababa in 1996 on the then-unfolding war in Zaire, the electricity suddenly went off and he declaimed, “even speaking of Mobutu makes the lights go out!” In the same hall a few years later he challenged Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, noting that European and American delegates to the conference could get an Ethiopian visa at the airport—but not Africans. “How can this happen in the capital of Africa?” he demanded. Prime Minister Meles said that no answer could match the passion of Tajudeen’s questioning. A couple of weeks later the Ethiopian government waived visa regulations for African delegates to international conferences.

“African will remain proud of your contribution,” writes Ugandan journalist Rosebell:

It's hard to take in but Dr.Tajudeen is dead. Died in a car accident in Nairobi. Africa will remain proud of you and your contribution to the deelopment of the continent.

Tajudeen was one of the most facinating people that blogger Adewale has ever met:

Relentlessly witty, incredibly eloquent and naturally charming. Always caught between bombast and genius, he could hold court like Oscar Wilde and challenge like Marlon Brando. In fact he reminded me of Marlon Brando in his later life, a man of great awareness and wisdom resting in the presence of unachieved possibilities. Taju was my brother even though he had a suspicion of me as a consultant. He was a true African , a rarity amongst those of us who project that desire but never actualize its actions.

Negrita remembers when she met Tajudeen in Rwanda:

as we celebrate africa day, we also celebrate the life of renown pan African scholar and expert, Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem.
he was a staunch activist, tirelessly promoting and advocating pan-African solutions to African problems. he tended not to dwell on what had gone wrong, but rather sought to find solutions from within.

he was, in the words of Firoze Manji we have indeed lost ‘a giant' in the struggle.

i met him once, ten years ago, when i was doing an internship at Rwanda's then-brand-new first English newspaper. he walked into the office, and–although i knew who he was on paper–i did not recognize him in person. he began asking me questions about what i studied, what articles i was editing, etc. we eventually got onto the topic of a pan African solution to the instability in the Great Lakes Region and i wound up quoting him to himself, from an article i had read of his in a Ugandan newspaper the day before. it was not until i met him again a day later, at my parents' home that he laughingly told me who he was.

Adieu Tajudeen:

From Facebook, the news began trickling in. Tajudeen , that behomoth of Pan Africanism and African thought was no more. Tragic road accident in Nairobi,Kenya is all the news we could get.
I knew about Tajudeen in 1994 as a secondary school student. He was the Secretary General of the Global Pan African Movement secretariat, then with offices in Muyenga,Kampala suburb.

The world, especially Africa, is a poorer place because of his passing. We have lost a powerful voice that feared not to say and see it the African way with inspiring optimism of the promise that is Africa despite the tragedy that falsely seems insurmountable. Adieu Tajudeen. You live on in your works and in the movement you have spawned.

May his soul rest in eternal peace:

Inna lillahi wa inna ilahi raji’un. “Verily we belong to Allah, and to Allah we return.”