Palaver

So now civic leaders and the civil society in North Rift Valley are threatening to hold demos if TJRC chairman Bethuel Kiplagat was not reinstated like yesterday? What is it about our ethnic thumbprint we are beholden to our mother communities? Kamba MPs amply demonstrated this when fighting for Kioko Mang’eli at Kebs and Mumo Matemu on a KRA matter, Luo MPs lock hands when some or other Raila issue pops up, Muslims came out in support of an acting hospital administrator in Eldoret, Luhya Council of Elders and MPs are pitching for Nancy Baraza, Central MPs closed ranks behind Amos Kimunya a while back, and coastals rallied behind a KPA appointee ages ago. And those are just a drop in the bucket! Yet many of these appointees work so hard to distance themselves from the tribal tag during interviews for the job! Think again Kenyans. Think. You are either a professional or a mere "My people".

Cotu Secretary General Francis Atwoli never disappoints. Even at a recent funeral where he urged ODM supremo and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to stitch the tattered political shirt they once shared with Eldoret North MP William Ruto to boost his hopes of capturing the top seat, he still had a parting shot: "Cotu is against the general election being conducted next year. We will mobilise our workers against such a move," he said and demanded that President Kibaki and Raila set the election date for this year. This Worker No.1 is a Palaver hero, no less.

There is a ray of hope at the bottom of that glass of Chang’aa after all now that someone at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), Western Kenya chapter has seen the light, so to speak. The CCI has started to train Chang’aa brewers on the need for hygiene if they hope to emulate Uganda’s Waragi and Tanzania’s Konyagi. The CCI, together with Nacada, ministries and industrialists seek to have machines to pack Chang’aa cheaply and hygienically. Way to go. But be on the lookout that a certain chap from around Naivasha area does not read today’s Palaver.

And finally...

Where are the Asian and Caucasian communities in this year’s elections line-up? Not even campaign goons, secretariat staff, own party? Come on folks.