The blog remains a work in progress, thankfully, that's no longer true of the exams.
NIMEMALIZA!!! The shadow has passed, sanity is restored, the sun is shining, enormous quantities of Kenya's finest will be consumed in very short order, AND I'm going home, so joy, joy joy all round.

The blog is almost done, the template is still slightly dodgy and there are lots more links still to go up, but patience, all will be revealed in good if, slightly belated, time. There's just a little irony in the fact that the blog consists mostly of commentary on the making of the blog, but i'll pretend not to notice that if you will too. It's been quite fun going through all the links I've accumulated and trying to pick out the best 20 or so for each section, similar to the feeling you get when you're clearing your room, find something interesting, and stop to read it.

So, anyway, President Kibaki has

appointed

lots of new High Court judges and unless I'm mistaken, filled the Appeal bench. All to the good, and the new lot are all reformers of one kind or the other. GBM Kariuki, veteran detainee, is now actually on the bench! The appointments are also nicely gender-balanced which is either a very good sign or proof that we'll do anything to get our hands on G8 money. The appointment of Justice Njagi is quite intriguing actually, seeing as he's been the Principal of the Kenya School of Law all these years and so will be able to pull rank. Perhaps the admin. needs an enforcer inside the Judiciary?
Yes, yes this is turning into a NARC love letter, but how can you not like an administration that appoints people like these to positions where they can have an impact ? NARC will break my heart in the end, but it will have been worth every second...

If you haven't already been to big brother africa go over, sign up and vote Alex, OK, please vote Alex. It's time a Kenyan won something that actually mattered. So go on, you know you want to, you know you do.

If Soccernet is to be believed, Ronaldinho is as good as ours, which is, well...good. Apparently the Wizard has signed Tim Howard sight unseen (though apparently he was exhaustively scouted). The story is somewhere in the deeps of the Guardian sports pages and I can't be arsed to dig it out. So just take it on trust. Remember Massimo Taibi by the way ?

I was shown this earlier today, it's great stuff, I'm allowing it to soak through slowly and I might even have something intelligent to say about it soon.

Finally and most annoyingly, Blair refuses to have an independent inquiry into the collection and use of the intelligence about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction. The Guardian tries very hard to be angry about it but their leader-writer eventually dissolves into an acceptance of the fobbing-off by way of paranoiac self-pity and a repetition of the charges every now and then, as if to remind himself what he's supposed to get angry about. The Telegraph just keeps shouting "we won!, what's the problem?" over and over again, while the Times, with a reckless disregard for stereotype, positions itself carefully on the fence and sits down hard.
Quite depressing, and serves me right for letting go of my cynicism about politics earlier on.

This is utterly beyond parody.

I'm listening obsessively to Strangers When We Meet and can't get this bit :
My poor soul
All bruised passivity

out of my head.

Ok, i'm almost done here. The links and the final template modification thing(ie)s will be up by the end of next week.

On my way over here, I saw

this

out of the corner of my eye and proceeded to read it. I'm tired just thinking of the obtuseness of sociologists now...

I've recently discovered that Whispers is very ill. For those unfamiliar with his writing, Wahome Mutahi aka Whispers is Kenya's leading satirist of politics and society. He has written a weekend column for the Sunday Nation for more than ten years and his books and plays are widely read and performed.
He was detained by the Moi (mal)administration and showed his strength of character by coming through that unharmed. That courage is likely to see him through this difficult time too.

Here's

a link to the Sunday Nation report of the story.


The Beckham saga sparked into life (again)over the weekend. There have been reports in most of the broadsheets and almost all the tabloids that Peter Kenyon has been/ is in talks with Barcelona officials about a possible transfer. The figure being quoted is £30 million which is, admittedly, very good money.
I have to say that I hope he doesn't go to Barcelona; apart from anything else, they aren't going to be in the Champion's League next year and that can't be good for his game or his endorsements, and they are in transition (and how), the upshot is that he probably wouldn't win anything with them.

As the Times report said then, AC Milan or Real are a more realistic choice.
Whatever, it doesn't seem to make any sense to sell him now, when the market for footballers is as depressed as it's been in a long while. He's a big girl's blouse but he's OUR big girl's blouse, I genuinely hope he can be persuaded not to leave, but if they're going to get rid of him, they'd better make as much off the sale as they possibly can and spend it on decent replacements.
Just a thought, with Ronaldinho likely to sign for us and Seamen confirming that he's off to Citeh

today

on a one year deal, at least two games are certain to entertain next season...