Why won’t State fund Maendeleo ya Wanaume?

By Njoroge Kinuthia

Maendeleo Ya Wanaume Organisation chair Nderitu Njoka appeared on TV last week talking about the tribulations of being a man in Kenya today. Njoka talked about the rising cases of husband battering and claimed that over one million men are assaulted by their wives every year. But most men being ‘men’ don’t report their tribulations. He also talked about frustrated men who drink themselves to the grave. Njoka also touched on the much talked about subject of boys performing poorly than girls because of the ‘over-emphasis’ on the girl child. Another ‘wanaume’ issue he said was of concern to his organisation was boys being forced to wear ‘colonial shorts’, which he lamented exposed them to stinging cold.

Double standards

What caught PointBlank’s attention though was Njoka’s revelation that the Government had refused to fund his organisation. Maendeleo Ya Wanawake, unlike his outfit, gets Government funding. Why won’t wanaume get State funding Dr Naomi Shaban, Minister for Gender? Isn’t this a case of double standards?

Residents find it hard to stay near pigsties

Small-scale farmers in Kiambu work hard, very hard, notes an area resident. They are also innovative and do change with the times, according to the dictates of the market. That’s why pig rearing is in vogue at the moment. Loud snortings will alert you to the presence of pigs in most homesteads. But, that’s not all, adds the peeved resident, the stench of their dung collected from pigsties and heaped strategically outside the farmers’ compounds to make compost can hit visitors nose from far away.

Sometimes a mean farmer may decide to heap the dung close to a neighbour’s house and make their life an endless nightmare.

"I know to a pig farmer, pig manure smells like money but to disinterested parties, the smell is simply horrible," says the resident, who wants his name to be kept under wraps for fear of antagonising his hard working neighbour farmers.

The resident who claims that pig manure emits more than 200 gases wonders whether the National Environment Management Authority can help end the nightmare for those who percieve pig manure as foul odour and not money.

Theft disrupts ‘walk to work’

Perhaps due to the same reasons that forced Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye to resort to walking to work, Ruth Kalekye has been walking from her Imara Daima estate home to Industrial Area where she works. But not anymore. Since some vandals removed metallic barricades from the bridge near General Motors on Mombasa Road, Ms Kalekye has been forced to abandon her favourite pastime.

Reason? "I have a fear of heights and always imagine falling off the high bridge so I use a matatu," she explains. The vandals, she reports, have also started to remove the railings on the other side of the bridge. "Why can’t police waylay and arrest these thieves?" she wonders and asks whether Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) has plans to replace the stolen barricades soon so that she can enjoy her walks again.

Return at night

Mr Raymond Kirundi, also concerned by high incidence of vandalism of roadside guard rails, believes he knows when the the theft occurs. "The theft occurs during the day. Those fellows who sit on bridges and sleep next to the rails are usually busy cutting them and then return at night to remove them," he reports. Any more excuses for not arresting the vandals now?

Is this the stiffest penalty ever?

Standard Chartered Bank customer Francis Ngige claims to have been getting a "curious Sh950 monthly ‘debit interest’ deduction". When he enquired at his Nyeri branch, they could not explain the deduction and the matter was referred to Nairobi. Soon, the truth came out and he was informed that "after depositing a cheque, Sh2 was missing for clearing it and so a penalty of Sh950 was imposed". "They should have a system where you can deposit a cheque if you don’t have enough money for clearing," he mourns and accuses the bank of treating him with contempt. He can be contacted on 0722899445.

DON’T YOU FORGET

Did TSC trace ‘tormented’ teacher’s missing cheque?

On September 21, a teacher, Mr Sandagi Tom Alukwili, wrote to PointBlank complaining that he had been ‘tormented by a missing cheque’ since February 2010.

Alukwili (TSC No. 299119) revealed that after he submitted his degree certificate to the Teachers Service Commission in 2007, it took two years for him to be upgraded to graduate II status.

"My salary was adjusted accordingly but arrears to the tune of Sh151,000 appeared on the February 2010 payslip as ‘voucher advance’."

He was informed by an agent of TSC in Vihiga that the cheque would be sent to him but this was never done. He pleaded with TSC Secretary Gabriel Lengoiboni to intervene and help end his nightmare. Did Mr Lengoiboni help him, finally?