Author: Dredan Njau
Farming for the West
In recent weeks, tensions have been rising in the Rift Valley regions against mechanisation of tea picking and the job losses encountered. At least 60,000 workers have been laid off due to the newly introduced equipment and cost cutting measures taken by the firms. These measures have left the workers enraged and they have been holding demonstrations in the different counties. Some of these protests have been violent ones and they have incurred damages for the multinationals. What is in dispute, however, is the diminishing returns of colonial-era tea business against rising value of real estate on which Kenya’s most productive lands lie. A riotus…
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The shock of one million youth in severe drug addiction
At least one million youths aged between 25 and 35 years in Kenya are struggling with a severe form of addiction to either alcohol, tobacco, khat, or cannabis. A survey by NACADA shows the highest severe substance use disorder was registered on alcohol where one in every 14 or 596,336 youths aged between 25 and 35 are under the vice-like grip of alcohol addiction. A further 247,137 youths or one in every 33 young people in the age bracket under focus struggling with a severe addiction to tobacco. The survey shows Khat—that plant (miraa or muguka) containing the alkaloid cathinone, a stimulant, which is said…
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StanChart quadruples returns from deposits with local banks
Standard Chartered Group saw a four fold increase in interest earning deposit accounts with local lenders, powering the bank’s 43 percent jump in net profit to Kes5.63 billion in the three months to March from Kes3.92 billion in the same period last year. Income from deposits with other banks grew to Kes1.12 billion from Kes296 million reported in March 2022. StanChart reported increase in the deposits and balances due from local institutions which stood at Kes1.76 billion in March 2023 compared to Kes9.6 million during the first quarter 2022. In Kenya, banks are having a challenge getting cash from other lenders due to a dysfunctional…
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The debt of Kenyan students
If I had known the message behind the ding! As my phone buzzed, I would have responded to it faster. But I figured it was just another notification of the thousands of social media updates, WhatsApp group texts that constantly flowed into my phone. What’s more my attention had been by seized Mombasa’s amazing delicacies, the “mshikakis” accompanied by spicy “viazi karai” which I was savoring to the last bite. Having gnawed through the skewers, with grease spread on my mouth and my hands, I washed up and quickly dried my hands and was on my phone the first chance I got. To my pleasant…
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Hacked! The dark side of the internet
I hear there are days when a phone ringtone was literally answered by person by whiping out a classic rep flip phone to answer the call. Back then, the ‘flip’ or the ‘slide’ was the privilege among the creme de la creme. We are told the children of today will never get the joy of playing the game “Snake Xenzia” or bounce with the famous cell phones like Nokia 3310 or as we call them today “katululu”. It almost seems hieroglyphics to imagine writing makeshift emojis using semi colons, hyphen and parenthesis, or the weird “xaxa” texts and sending a disclaimer saying “usinitext nimerudisha simu”….
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