Author: jamaapoa
•Monday, April 21, 2008
Last year, Kenya parliament passed five critical labour laws which were assented into law by President Kibaki a few weeks before the 2007 elections. The laws came into effect March 1st 2008. These were: Labour Institutions Act, Labour Relations Act, Occupational Health Act, Work Injury Benefits Act and the Employment Act.

The Employment Act entitles Kenya women workers three months paid maternity leave in addition to the 21 annual leave. Employers will not make their employees forfeit the annual leave after taking a maternity leave. That gives the Kenya mother four months in a year.

The interesting bit is that the Act also gives the Kenya father a 10-day paternity leave to look after the recovering mother and the new birth. This is interesting because, first, jamaapoa is no longer a bachelor. It is in his aspirations and ambitions to perpetuate the human race in years to come. Jean said two descendants are more than enough while i felt four is a good contingency and represented a good genetic pool to survive vision 2030. Well, that is still a dream but I can see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Secondly, Iam not sure that the 10-Day is a celebration for the Kenyan man. Several Kenyan men prefer to be out of the house around that time. As if the delivery room demands are not enough, Francis Atwoli, the COTU boss wants the Kenya man to go through the motions of a yoyoing neck, throbbing head and kneecap-less feet of his offspring. However, it is a good opportunity for the Kenyan father to get an early bond with his children, be there for his love during those trying times and appreciate the challenge of motherhood. I hope it will not be another moment with the boys.



Author: jamaapoa
•Wednesday, April 16, 2008
This is my 100th post almost 2 years since I launched the blog. A milestone, I guess. As I flashback I can see I did not live up to be an avid poster and my blogosphere network is negligible if not inexistent. It could be by design, not accidental. After all, isn't everything predestined.

Unfortunately things are not right in Kenya right now.

My worst nightmare, the Mungiki, has come home to roost. They are more sophisticated and are getting more ruthless by the day. The government machinery looks overwhelmed, leaving ordinary citizens, especially in Nairobi and surrounding areas, wondering where to run for help. It looks like of late whenever a section of the society is disgruntled by the ruling class, they result to destructive mass action that grinds the country to a halt so that the government can give them audience.

I have always wondered how the Mungiki can be dealt with and eliminated from the society and I have always hit a dead end. I had a discussion with a friend on what can be done to Mungiki the other day. As I was exploring the various 'finality' ways of dealing with such vermin, he commented, "be careful, they are our brothers and sisters!". Yes, our brothers and sisters who do not regard with dignity our life and property, their brothers and sisters.

We have a bloated cabinet that disillusions and adds to the hopelessness of Kenyans. The cabinet will no doubt multiply our poverty and divide our meager earnings. They will extrapolate our ethnic divisions and punch out our eardrums with their never-ending bickering. They will reduce the life expectancy of an average Kenyan who can do nothing about it. My greatest beef is the recycling of aged politicians who can't even read an email on a computer screen leave alone reply to it. The youth again have been sidelined to be future leaders, the leaders of tomorrow.

With poverty levels rising, looming food crisis, an inflation that is rising by double digits, high prices of basic commodities, fuel getting to the hundreds, increasing unemployment, soaring insecurity, poor infrastructure, a neglected AIDS crisis, thousands of Kenyans in IDP camps with no immediate hope of resettlement and a disgruntled youth population that is the Kenya's next time bomb, there is no reason why one cannot conclude that Kenya is getting so messed up.


Author: jamaapoa
•Monday, April 07, 2008
Right now I am in a rage. A rage that is mixed with despair. What to do; that is the question. Someone, somewhere, right now is causing pain and anguish to a people I hold so dear. A people I hold so close to my heart. I know this someone, and have reasons to believe they are the cause of this misery. Nevertheless, I do not have credible evidence against them. Yes, it is a serious matter. A police case, they say. Previous attempts to resolve this matter legally have not borne fruit. It is all about evidence that can stand a court process.

I have engaged the gears of my spiritual mind. They say that I should pray until something happens. Yet, with each passing hour, I am shifting to a lower gear. Engaging the turbo and the 4WD, in the recesses of a crafty mind. Eerie stuff of how I can end all this are hazily indicating a left turn to the direction of my imagination. I am plotting and I am not liking it.