Palaver
Why is "overtaxed" Bishop Margaret Wanjiru opposing PM Raila Odinga on slum evictions? Is it because the PM gave John Michuki full backing to demolish houses along rivers in her Starehe constituency (Mathare) and Embakasi (Ngong) but was oddly silent about his Langata base, where the Motoine-Ngong runs through parts of Kibera and into the Nairobi Dam? Will she feel differently about "oppressing the poor" if Michuki starts upstream in the Kibera section called Raila?
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While still on Kenya’s man of action: It seems Raila’s efforts to give himself a higher international profile as a pan-Africanist is working a little too well. Sky News international correspondent Ian Woods this weekend appeared in a piece on the Zimbabwe crisis in which he repeatedly referred to Tinga as Kenya’s President. We’re surprised he didn’t add a BBC-sourced "and Obama’s cousin by a maternal uncle."
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With most people agreed we must send the Electoral Commission bunglers home (and debate limited to whether to pay them or not) guess who says they should keep their jobs? None other than Mtumishi Njeru Kathangu, the genius who sought to resolve debate on multi-partyism back in the day by suggesting we turn Kenya into a monarchy with President Moi as the king!
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Forget live TV coverage: Australians have discovered the secret to ensuring responsible debate in their Parliament — breath-testing for alcohol before voting on laws! It occurs to Palaver subjecting MPs to Alcoblow before debates might have changed the language of, say, the Amos Kimunya censure motion or curtailed the bizarre debate on whether Alvaro is alcoholic!
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And finally...
Churchman David Githii has good company in Tehran’s ‘fashion police’: Officers in Iran have arrested 49 "rascals and thugs" this week during a crackdown on "satanic" clothes. The measures are the latest in a country-wide campaign against Western cultural influence in the Islamic Republic, where strict dress codes are enforced.
palaver@eastandard.net
