A FILM MADE IN KENYA AND ANGERED SUDAN

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An IDP with a child strapped on her back against the backdrop of Kikopey camp for the internally displaced. Photo/FILE

An IDP with a child strapped on her back against the backdrop of Kikopey camp for the internally displaced. Photo/FILE
By EDDY NGETAPosted Friday, January 22 2010 at 18:48

Even as dark rain clouds pepper the skies over the barren hills overlooking Kikopey in Kenya’s Rift Valley province, inhabitants of these vast plains are unaware of an even larger shadow looming over their heads, occasioned by a possible international standoff over their participation in a controversial film.

The government of Sudan has petitioned its Kenyan counterpart to intervene and stop Danish film makers from releasing a movie. The movie blames Kenya’s northern neighbour for widespread genocide in the Darfur region. The film, Havnen (Danish for revenge), is centred around the war in Darfur and the vicissitudes of life for a group of refugees living in a town on the banks of river Funen in Denmark, and is scheduled to be released in August, this year.

According to media reports, the director of Sudan’s Department of Conflict Resolution and Management, Omer Dahab, has allegedly submitted complaints to the Kenyan embassy in Khartoum, saying that the film has racist contents. He contends that it will negatively affect ethnic harmony in Darfur.

The same reports quote S. Somaya, the Sudanese government spokesperson at its embassy in Nairobi, as saying that it is misleading for the film producers to shoot the movie in Kenya using 2007 post-election violence victims, and then claiming that the location in question is Darfur.

Ms Somaya claims also that the IDPs were lured with low pay, and taken advantage of because they could hardly afford to reject the offer. But IDPs who participated in the film beg to differ. Take 15-year-old Esther Nyambura who has called the IDP camp in Kikopey home for nearly two years now.

She and her parents were displaced from their Narok home at the height of the 2008 post-election violence and fled to the Naivasha showground, from where they were moved to the Ebenezer camp in Kikopey.

Absentee parents

Her mother Ann Waithera, and father David Maina are virtually absentee parents. They have been gone for weeks now, and she doesn’t know where they are. They occasionally drop by to give her money for food and then disappear again for days on end without telling her where they are.

The diminutive but energetic teenager, who at her tender age acts as both father and mother to her five siblings — feeding, clothing and taking care of their every need almost single-handedly — bubbles with enthusiasm and absolute joie de vivre, or the joy of living. True, life has been hard for the Standard Seven pupil at Mukinduri school, but when the film crew dropped by in October, bringing with them an unprecedented financial windfall, Esther was right in the thick of things.

For her trouble, she got five full days of sumptuous dishes and more money than she had ever had in a single day — enough to buy herself a new pair of shoes, a school bag and a new pen, besides presents for her brothers and sisters. It all started in early October when a bus-load of strangers drove up to the camp, clutching an introductory letter from the Naivasha district commissioner’s office and asked to see the IDPs.

The film crew first arrived at the camp on October 1 after scouting the country for an ideal location for their movie. After explaining their mission, they drew up and signed a written agreement with the IDPs, saying that the IDPs understood the purpose of the film shoot and that they had agreed to take part in it for a daily wage.

The crew then pitched camp on the hillside, peppering its slope with a sea of dark green tents. They stayed there for almost a month building the movie set, only leaving on Sunday November 1 after the shooting. For power, the residents say they used a heavy-duty generator which lit up the whole camp.

They brought with them also hundreds of tall, dark strangers whom the IDPs claim were of Nubian origin. “They spoke fluent Kiswahili and Sheng, so I think they are Kenyans,” says Lucy Wambui, a 30-year-old mother of three who was also chosen for a role as supporting cast.

“They told us that they had been picked from Kibera (slums) in Nairobi,” she adds. “I think they picked our camp because it looks like a desert. It is dry and windy, and has a lot of dust,” says John Mwangi, the Ebenezer IDP camp committee, who acts as their spokesman. The film was shot between October 20 and 24.

Internal refugees

MONEY MISTAKES

Time is what we want most and waste the worst,” observed writer William Penn. Our spending habits are another classic paradox of something we so passionately pursue and then so inappropriately dispense.

And this despite the availability of financial facts, trends and reality that would propel one towards achieving goals and ultimately financial security and freedom.

Many are still making bad or self-depreciating decisions that are regressive rather than progressive in the long run.

*Sue has been working in a bank for almost two years now after getting her first degree. She considers herself quite financially savvy and has her plans well laid out.

She intends to take out a loan for a new car and move out to a better location where her car will be safe, and perhaps take a home loan after that.

*Patrick, a first-time father, says his priorities have to change to give his son the best chance at life. So he has opened a junior savings account in which he intends to deposit money often.

And he certainly agrees with spending more time at home now but doesn’t agree with his wife about cutting down on going out on weekends or evenings with his colleagues and friends.

Furthermore, he does intend to take out an education policy with an insurance company when the boy is a little older.

*Millie, a public secondary school teacher in her early fifties, doesn’t agree with her advisor at the bank where she wants to take a mortgage about where she should buy a home.

She has been shopping for a house for months and has chosen a three-bedroom apartment in a secure, serene court off Mombasa Road.

Her mortgage advisor feels she should consider her remaining working years and go for a home in another location such as Athi River or Kitengela or take a construction loan and put up a house there so that she is not struggling with a loan on retirement.

Millie intends to teach in a private school upon retiring and is, therefore, confident that she can handle the mortgage.

Mr Danson Mutethia, an investment consultant with Fortune Advisors, points out the flaws with all the above plans and other mistakes we need to stop making that create roadblocks.

1.Here is the first commandment in financial management that most of us know but ignore – live on less than you earn.

“Carefully draw the line between things you want and things you need so that you see where you can cut down on expenses, especially in circumstances that include a new addition to the family,” Mr Mutethia emphasises.

POVERTY COULD BE ANOTHER CAUSE OF THE POOR PERFOMANCE

I watched the Kenya certificate of primary education resultsof all the schools in kericho town and i must accept that poverty could be a cause for the big difference between the performance of all the schools in the town.Holy trinity primary school was another school with very good results .I went and watched the school population and i really was surprised at what i discovered .then i went to kericho primary school ,it was worse here .And when i went to the highlands primary school \,Then i discovered something that i wished that every body would listen to me.
I realized that the two schools ,Kericho primary school and Holy trinity primary school had an almost similar environment that was very different from that of the Kericho highlands primary school and that of the Saint Patrick primary school.The first two schools had an environment that displayed the life of a well of pupil and the second group of schools displayed the typical life of a low class kenyan pupil .

Judging from the above observations ,it is obvious that the results of the exams were affected by the quality of the lives of the pupils .Those with high quality lives had the best while the others had the worst .There is no way that we can escape from this situation though .,The only good solution lies with the Kenya national examinations Council.

The Council has to be careful the next time that they will be making the exams so that the poor pupils from the villages or the slams can have a chance .Your questions in general ,must come in favor of both environments so that poverty can not be a reason next time.And may this apply to all levels of education in the country.Be it in the high school or university levels.

We can't keep on blaming poverty like this ,everyone is gonna sit at home in a few years time .There has got to be a solution of this kind.

DEALERS AND CUSTOMER EXCHANGE BITTER WORDS BECAUSE OD A LOG BOOK

	A motorcycle dealer and his customer caused a stir in kericho town early on the morning of January twelfth the year two thousand and ten.Businnesess and offices had just opened when the two went in to a hot and fierce exchange of words when both of them could not get even with each other. The customer had gone to claim for his log book after he had bought a brand new motorcycle at the Kericho chai motorcycles  dealers shop but he had waited for his papers for too long.The customer is a motorcycle taxi dealer and believe it or not ,the gentleman had all this time been riding the motorbike around the town without the papers and even on this morning after the bitter exchange of words ,he hadn't got it . The customer was ready to get  physical ,or anything that would provide a solution to the problem while the dealer who was of Sikh origin was ready to go even to the law,yet the problem was the delivery of the log book to its rightful owner ,the customer . It was very hard to understand the two gentlemen and customer and the  crowds scattered before they reached a solution to their problems.

LET THEM QUIT THE FOREST - TO SAVE THE CLIMATES !!!!!

I have listened to all the debate about what is going on in the Mau forest and i have also been following waht is happening to the environment and  i decided that let whatever  goes on in parliament or in the stadiums or wherever Kenyans might be gathered go on but ,nothing can turn my mind around .I have been seeing it in the news on the television and and i have read about it in the newspapers and so on .That was then and it used to happen to other people out there in other aprts of this world .Little did i know that this thing would come up to my country and ,to my own doorstep.
The news about what is happening on the top of mount Kenya really scares me .I caused an awareness in me that never existed before.It was when i read about it in the papers that i knew that the situation was very serious .It was said that due to the dreaded damaging climatic changes ,all the snow on the top of the mountain had melted .There was no more snow on the mountain and that ,very soon ,the plants and animals around me in my environment will soon be having there own share of the pains that are caused by this climatic changes ,including me of course !!!!!

This is what is going on in this universe and the experts ahve already announced the only choices available to continue holding the universe for a little while longer before it goes of course!!!THey said that the only thing that could save the  climate was for mankind to stop destroying the remaining forests .We are lucky in kenya here to have afew acres of forests and ,what is remaining is to protect them as much as we can ,no matter what the costs will be .

WE will all be behind the president and the prime minister in every step that they will be makin g in the conservation of the remining forests and we are not going to step back an inch.No matter what it will cost ,every one is gonna spare some space for the forests .

What ever property was built in the forest lands ,in including the Kiptagich Tea factory and the mansions or what soever was built on that land without the help of a surveyor,may they be relocated to other parts of the country and may they be compensated well to avoid the wrangles and to save the time .Every body must quit the forests!!!

THE WATER SUPPLY OF KERICHO TOWN IN KENYA IS A SHAME.

When the elders at the kericho municipal councils offices decided to expand the water suplly some twenty years ago ,The thought the had solved the poeple's water problems in the town.To them ,they thought taht they had built a very big project that would provide a lifetime solution to the areas water supply problems .Little did nthey know nthat what they thought was a magnificent job done would last only twenty years and then every one in the town will be seen again wandering aroud the place in search of good water.

It has been only twnety years since the water project was officially opened but it looks as if There is no water project in the town .The situation is no better than waht it was before .Today ,the residents of the town get clean water in their taps only twice a week and the rest of the times ,they are dry.You have to worry about your work ,then go worrying again about water in the estates.The situation is really bad .

The thing is that the next time that the will try to build or expand the water supply of this place ,let them draw a very good plan so that whatever they will build will solve the peoples forever . A country as smart as Kenya with such water shortages ,is a shame .We are too good for such minor problems.

It has been whispered that the elders at the town hall are again thinking on how to expand the current facilities of the water project and that work on it can start any moment from now .May they do a sensible thing and not bring shame in the name of a water supply  again.

SHENG IS AN OFFICIAL LANGUAGE AT THE KERICHO YOUTH CENTER ,KERICHO,KENYA

 


 

Posted by John Ambuli on Monday, November 24, 2008

http://johnambuli.synthasite.comSHENG IS AN OFFICIAL LANGUAGE AT KERICHO YOUTH CENETER

For many years since our child hood ,the language sheng has been existing and widely used by Kenyans .No one used to take it seriously as a language though and mostly it was taken to be a language for the street people or borntowns .It was linked to the evil ways that were caused by the modern ways of life .Everyone who was heard speaking the language was taken to be either  a coneman or a gangster or any other of ther evil behaviours in our towns and cities that we know.Therefore the language and it’s use have been feared by many because of the above reasons.

The Origin of the language can not be easily traced unless we consult the experts of linguistics ,otherwise most of us found the language being used aand only those who came before us can know it’s origins or if any experts might have taken his or her time to research and find out about this.For those of us who grew up in upcountry urban places ,we can klnow alittle about it’s origin because we have used it and we can tell what is going on from our experiences.The uneducated people from up country used to have difficulty filling up the languges ,both English and Kiswahili  and therefore they used to mixed them whichever way they could find it possible to use them and be understood .That is all that we know about the origin of the language .

The language ,however,has not received any formal attention from the experts of linguistics in this country ,though the language has been growing rapidly and it’s use almost matching or out doing  that of the two official languages i.e Kiswahili and English.It was only mentioned in the press sometime ago that one linguist was working on producing a dictionary for the language users but it has been a long time since then and the gentlemanm has never been heard of ever since that time .Despite all that goes on about linguistics in this country ,but the language still commands a lot of following .Those who used to speak it in the past forty five years since independence are the current viollager elders and they are still using it ,meaning that the language is gonna become a third official language oin this country .There is nothing that we can do about it ,we can not sotop trhe public from using it ,it is not possible .so whast is remaininbg is to make it an official language punctually and let the experts of linguistics work on it and mould it into a form that can be fit to be used nationally.

For the first time in history , there is a social center in kericho town where the language is accept officially to be used by the peiopel .At the Kericho youth centere ,the language is among the three officiall accept languages to be used by all those  who visit the place .The languages are ,ofcourse ,English and Kiswahili.

This is a big step in the growth of the languge and soon we could be using it in public places as a language .Say ,during public celebrations or the other nationally functions .The language has started attracting attention ,especially in up country urban places and it is time that the experts of linguistics ,that in the Kiswahili and English languages ,ought to do something about it.

No one sees the language as a sign of arrogance anymore in this country especially in the up country urban places and evry body feels proud to use tit .It has become a sign of  civilization and sophistication and not whgat it was in the past .Ones any body pronounces a thing in the language ,he or she is understood straioght away that he or she is a civilized person and he or she is awarded the respects of a gentleman straight away .

LET those who deal in linguistics in our universities or the other places of that like research and see if we can introduce it in the schools or not .The thing is that sheng is already a language and there is nowhere we can go or any thinmg we can do to stop it from spreading,let us just embrace it and purify it and have as one of our national languages .

Even the Kiswahili language came about the way .IT happened when the Arabs met the firs Bantu people .This one ,happened when our fore fathers met civilization for the first time .The languages mixed up to form what we now call she.ng .There fore it is  a language already        andit is already in use  in some places in the country officially

http://johnambuli.yolasite.com/ambuli-blog/sheng-is-an-official-language-at-the-kericho-youth-center-kericho-kenya