Kenyan Twitterati

Today (June 30, 2011) is World Social Media Day and there is no better way to celebrate it than to be in the social media! One of the social media that we all like hands down is Twitter and the Foreign Policy magazine recently run the The FP Twitterati 100. However, I was surprised no one featured in the list from our part of the world apart from president Paul Kagame @PaulKagame and a few others from African continent. That is NOT to say that Twitter is not King in Africa. In Kenya we do have Twitterati. So here is my #FF. This are tweeps you need to follow!

Twitter sign in page

Geo-Politics

Aly Satchu Khan (@alykhansatchu) – He has been described as the king of twitter in Kenya. Expect to get tweets on Geo-Politics, live feed of NSE etc. A cool guy he is.

Tom Mboya (@tommboya) – A governance specialist & also Deputy CEO, Inuka Kenya Trust

CEO’s

Bob Collymore (@bobcollymore ) – Safaricom’s CEO.  He may be credited getting CEO’s on twitter in Kenya.

Chris Kirubi (@CKirubi ) – Kenyan business man connected at the right places.

Mugo Kabati (@mugokibati) – CEO of Kenya Vision 2030 (Kenya’s blue print to achieve middle income status). Learning the ropes of using twitter.

Diplomats

Amb. Scott Gration (@USembassyKenya)– Kenya’s new ambassador to Kenya. Preceded by (@Amb4reform-Michael Ranneberger)

Rob Macaire(@UKinKenya)– Tweets from the British High Commission in Kenya. Also, blogs.

Aeneas C. Chuma (@AeneasChumaUN)– Head of UN in Kenya

Jacques Pitteloud (@JHPitteloud) – Swiss Ambassador to Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Somalia and The Seychelles. (Former Spy!)

Politicians

Martha Karua (@Martha_W_Karua) – MP for Gichugu Constituency. Presidential Candidate for Kenya 2012.

Uhuru Kenyatta (@UKenyatta) – Kenya’s Finance Minister and deputy Prime Minister. From the sources I have he is the one behind the twitter handle.

Prof. Anyang Nyong’o (@AnyangNyongo) – Min. for Medical Services and ODM Sec. General. Recently joined twitter thanks to his youthful daughters @Zawadin and . Yet to develop the tweeting culture

Peter Kenneth (@Peter_Kenneth) –MP Gatanga constituency, Assistant Ministry of State of Planning, National Development and Vision 2030.

Presidents

Yoweri K Museveni (@KagutaMuseveni) – President of Uganda

Jacob G. Zuma (@SAPresident) – Twitter handle for the president of South Africa

Judges

Dr. Willy Mutunga (@Wmutunga) – Kenyan Chief Justice (recently joined twitter)

Techies

Erik Hersman (@whiteafrican) –Co-founder of Ushahidi, iHub Nairobi and AfriGadget

Akira Chicks (@akirachixs) –A ladies tech group with innovations such as (@mfarm_ke)

Ory Okolloh (@kenyanpundit)–Google Policy Manager Africa, co-founder Ushahidi.com & Mzalendo.com, Afropolitan

Juliana Rotich (@afromusing) –Co-Founder of Ushahidi

Kaburo (@kaburo) –Tweets from head of Tandaa (ICT Board Kenya) 

Paul Kukubo (@pkukubo)– CEO, Kenya Information and Communication Technology Board

Mark Kaigwa (@mkaigwa) – Strategist, who works with brands, agencies & nonprofits to communicate to a new generation of Africans online

Nairobi Lab (@thenailab)– Incubation Laboratory focused on I.T. Based or I.T. Heavy SMEs.

Bloggers

Bankele (@bankelele)

Kenyan Poet (@Kenyanpoet) – Performance Poet, Published Writer,Arts blogger & tech enthusiast

Cold Tusker (@coldtusker)

News Personalities

Jeff Koinange (@koinangejeff  – Host of the Capital Talk on K24

Oliver Mathenge (@OliverMathenge) – Daily Nation reporter

Dennis Itumbi (@OleItumbi) – Kenyan

David McKenzie (@McKenzieCNN) – CNN correspondent in Africa

Charles Onyango-Obbo (@Cobbo3)–Executive Editor for Africa & Digital Media Division, Nation Media Group

Personalities

John Githongo (@johngithongo) – Former anti-corruption Czar

Eric Wainaina (@EricWainaina) – Musician who deals with societal issues

Al Kags (@alkags) – An orginiser #Feb28

Buddha Blaze (@ItsBuddhaBlaze) – Connector to events

2012 Elections

The Kenyan elections are scheduled for August 2012 and with the incumbent not eligible for re-election. It means that come end of the election Kenya is poised to have a new president. Pundits are of the opinion that the man on the hill next year most probably will be a twitterati. So this has seen lots of politicians join twitter in Kenya in anticipation to woo the Kenyan’s on twitter. However, one at times does not know who is behind the twitter handle. So here are some of those that may be twitter accounts that come with the season

Team Uhuru (@TeamUhuru) – Teams managing Uhuru Kenyatta (Dep. PM) Presidential bid

Raila Odinga (@PMRailaOdinga) – Teams managing Raila Odinga (PM) Presidential bid

MP’s Budget Guide 2011/2012

The Government Financial Year 2010/11 comes to a close today June 30, 2011. Tomorrow, July 1, 2011 marks the beginning of the Financial Year 2011/12 and for those in Kenya know the Finance Minister recently read the budget for this year.

Here is a link to the MP’s Budget Guide 2011/12 prepared by the Institute of Economic affairs. Consider it  a useful resource in the new financial year. 

‘Boston Tea Party’ at the Kenyan Parliament

The Kenyan Parliamentarians are currently embattled in a war of words with the tax man on weather they ought to pay taxes on their allowances. The legislatures have ONLY been paying taxes on their basic salary and NOT paying taxes on their allowances. So as one would have it. Their basic pay or salary is minimal compared to the allowances they have given themselves.

New Beginnings

However, with the enactment of the new constitution Kenya is moving from business as usual to business unusual. The legislatures seem NOT to have read the section of the constitution or mistakenly though the section, that states ‘no one is exempt from paying taxes’ would NOT apply to them.

The legislatures were a taken by surprise when the Commissioner for domestic taxes wrote to Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) asking them to pay the taxes on their allowances backdated from August 27, 2010. Albert the date the new constitution was ratified.

Judiciary and Taxes

To add misery to their woes, the judiciary under the new chief justice Dr. Willy Mutunga has shown willingness to pay their taxes. Judges being constitutional office holders were not subjected to payment of tax in the old constitution.

However, when Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) wrote to the new Chief Justice (CJ) who was yet to finish a week at the helm asking for the judiciary to pay their taxes he obliged to their request. He went further and called the KRA asking the taxman to help the Judiciary carry out their request!

Imposition of Taxes

The MP’s on the other hand were busy showing cause why they ought NOT to pay taxes. Arguing on flimsy grounds such as ‘an employee should not have his salary reviewed downwards while in office’ other were the opinion that this cause was not effective ‘floating clause’ which ought to be effected in the next sitting (after 2012 elections).

When this did not do the job name calling was resulted with some MP’s thinking the commissioner for domestic taxes was ‘cheeky’ because he informed the media on his cause.

Softening?

However, few MP’s have read the mood of the nation and are now coming full circle. Some have already paid their taxes (It has been reported the PM has done his duty in giving what belongs to Caesar unto Caesar and other MP’s are following suit).

It must be said there were a number of legislatures who were paying taxes on their allowances beginning with Johnston Muthama and later followed by the likes of Peter Kenneth. The speaker of the National Assembly had caused uproar to the citizens when he had remarked under the old constitution that the ‘legislatures were free to pay their taxes on their allowances if they felt reasonably philanthropic!’

So this marks another version of ‘Boston Tea Party’ only this time it is in the reverse!

My Bank, My Kiosk, My Social Friend!

A while back, Bankele blogged about the raise in number of Banks to the neighborhoods in ‘Your Bank, Your Neighbour’ where he observed rightly Banks have brought their services closer to the people.

Equity Bank Agents

This closeness to the customer seems to be taken further by Equity Bank. The Bank recently introduced agent banking where you can do some banking services in your local Kiosk under an Equity registered agent. To do this the bank gets commercial outlets to act as its Branches. This is a very innovative aspect the bank has undertaken since it will save the bank huge amounts in terms of establishing branches and this might lead to a slow down on its regional expansion.

Mobile Money

Also, the bank has been catching up on the M-Pesa (Mobile Money Transfer) services by launching on M-Kesho. Kenya has earned a place for itself by being the new Silicon Valley in terms of Mobile innovations. This has seen the setting up of i-Hub (A social gathering place for techies which has links to the big Tech companies such as Google, Microsoft and Nokia).

Equity Bank has always been in the look out for new and innovations and ways of doing business and has not been left out of the equation so to speak by foreign technology companies. The Bank partnered with Safaricom (The regional Mobile Telephone big player which has links with Vodafone) to bring into the market mobile Money transfer between the clients of Safaricom and Equity Bank.

It must be noted that Safaricom successfully incorporated M-Pesa (mobile money transfer) under Michael Joseph (first CEO of Safaricom who built the company from inception and left in 2010). It was back then a project which was being tried for viability by Vodafone funded by DFiD.

Social Media

Banks have been known to act conservatively (apart from the hedge fund practices in the western world which caused the global financial crisis). The banks in Africa have remained conservative in their practices. However, this seems to be changing because they are in the front line in defining 21 century banking.

Kenyan Banks (@barclays, @kcbgroup) have joined the social media site twitter mostly as a PR Public Relations exercise or to boost their CSR Corporate Social Responsibility. However, as banks continue to define their role on twitter I hope developers will see this and possibly come up with an application to be used by banks. T-Banking aka tweet banking where one can check their bank deposits would be a welcomed surprise!

Pivot25

During Pivot25 conference Equity Bank CEO intimated that they would be joining the social media. They also intend to start a blog! So come September I expect to be ‘friends with your bank’ and regularly comment on their blog.

Future of Equity Bank

Source: Fireside Chat

Perhaps the bank is following its customers to the social media. Considering the mean age of its customers and going with the release of statistics by Opera which indicated Kenyan’s use of one the social media platform stands at 67%.

So come the next Annual General meeting they will account in their financial statements spending on a new ‘Social Media Account!’

Expelleus Professors at the Ministry of Education

The Ministry of Education seems to resemble the works found in the fantasy novel Harry Potter written by J. K. Rowling in some ways. The Ministry has been faced with revelations that Kshs 4.2 Billion was misallocated (call it fraud). These monies were under the Kenya Education Sector Support Program (KESSP) for construction projects. Monies allocated by donor agencies to support the free primary education that won the then elected NARC government in 2002 world praise for this endeavor.

The then NARC government had assumed power with a promise of free primary education which it honored. However, it had its own challenges in the beginning such as funding of infrastructure in schools and so the donor community stepped in to fill in these gaps.

So there have been acrimonies on who should take blame since from inception 2003-2008 the Minister for Education was Prof. George Saitoti (Currently he is Minister of State & Internal Security and acting Foreign affairs Minister). This post was taken over by Prof. Sam Ongeri to date. Also, the Permanent Secretary (Chief Accounting Officer at any Ministry) from inception 2003-2009 was Prof. Kagega Mutahi (Currently Local Government PS) and his post was taken by Prof. James ole Kiyiapi 

Questions

What raises questions to me is that despite the Ministry being headed by Professors who are expected by society to know it all. They seem not to know some simple facts such as when aspersions are cast against their Ministry the best thing is to ‘step aside’ and allow for investigations. Once the investigations are done then if they are not party to the investigation the allegations raised they will resume their positions. One would expect with the coming in of the new constitutional dispensation which has a chapter that deals with ethics then such things should be of the past

One has to wonder if there is a secret order (say, order of the phoenix) that is based at the Ministry whose work is to siphon monies meant for young children education.

Civil Servant Running for President

The other shocking thing that I have noticed is that a sitting civil servant has began campaigning for the office of the president while still in office. Going by the facebook pages of Prof. James Ole Kiyiapi (they are two. One even gives his big curriculum vitae) one would expect at least one to resign so as to concentrate on the other.

There is nothing wrong running for president but for civil servants to run for the high office goes against the public office ethics act and I have not seen anyone commenting on this! Perhaps there could be a lead with missing funds and the presidency run?

In Love with Africa

Paa ya Paa are organizing an exhibition by the above name currently on going. I had a chance to attend the opening ceremony because of what I assist in co-editing.

Paa ya Paa is an exhibition space which is located on your way to Kiambu (off Kiambu road) on your way to Windsor. What makes this place so iconic is that it is the first exhibition gallery in town first situated in Nairobi town but taken to its current place due to exorbitant rents in the city.

The director is Elimo Njau is an accomplish artist in his own right having sketched the Muranga Anglican Cathedral in 1956 (During the Colonial times!) and having taught at Makerere University immediately after graduating there.

His work at the cathedral has been resembled to that in Sistine chapel in Rome which then equates him to Michelangelo

That said he is a very humble and down to earth man and the exhibition space has NOT been so lucky. It was reduced a time back by Fire which let the walls of the exhibition space so dynamic such that the phrase below was used; 

“If you want to create exhibition spaces as dynamic and exciting as the new galleries at Paa ya Paa, it could be a painful process.

For first you have to burn your house down”. - Frank Whalley (Columnist with Eastandard)

That said the exhibition at hand ‘In love with Africa’ had been influenced by young personalities Nuru Bahati and Boyd Oyier who organize events for the gallery and was staged to honour the 4^th commandment. 

The exhibiting artist is a young Ugandan Artist Kayiira Mamartyn (Owentebbe) who has done some sketches most notable of founding Presidents Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya) and Julius Nyerere (Tanzania). Also on the gallery is a portrait of Yoweri Museveni (in his typical cow boy hat). In fact the Ugandan ambassador to Kenya was the special guest who opened the exhibition.

Exhibition Poster

About the exhibition space (Paa ya Paa), it is currently being innovated thanks to friends of paa ya paa. Some of this hail as far as South America, Coastal Rica and America (USA). Not to be let behind we have Kenyans, a Kikuyu businessman has sponsored the replacement of the current roof. 

20th European Film Festival in Kenya

I always look forward to the month of May for two things. One it happens to be the month I was born (I am a Taurus!) and two because of the European Film Festivals. The film screened by the organisers tend to show the historical past of Europe in this case WW II and how that has transformed the society there for the better or films that show what is currently plaguing the societies there i.e. immigration, racial integration, minorities etc

Festival Poster

This year did not disappoint. I had a chance of attending films from Finland (Mother of mine), Turkey (Summer Book), Germany (The International), France (The Round Up), Czech Republic (Grapes), Serbia (Motel Nana), Sweden (Balls) and  Poland (Love in the Year of the Tiger).

All this films had contexts which each of the countries participating in the festival (members of EU) wanted to show to the Nairobi (Kenyan) viewers about their home countries. It offered a chance for nationals of each of this E.U. countries living in Nairobi to interact between themselves and Kenyans.

As is expected the EU goes out to invites other non-EU member countries to participate in this festival i.e. Turkey which has been lobbying to join the community. Also, Russia has been participating in the form of a ‘crown of Russian ballet’ which marked its 5^th year in this year.

However, a pleasant surprise package to this year’s film festival was an entry from Israel. The Israeli’s have been making incursions into Nairobi beginning with the first Israeli Film festival in 2010 which had some pretty good flicks.

Israeli nights in Nairobi

The Israeli invited a multi talented musician to woo the Nairobi base and sure he did because I have never seen/experienced a show like that which was done by Tal Kravitz.

This Israeli musician managed to tantalize us with his prowess to play instruments from all over the world and to boot he spoke in fluent Swahili! Where can you find this kind of concerts for free? Lucky we were to experience this though as you would expect I managed to pick a subtle political connotations.

Some of the instruments Kal played are Santour from Iran (yes Iran and he know their language!), Bag Pipes from Scotland (mind you he dressed to the occasion-The Scottish skirts!), Musical Saw from Russia (Yes a saw!) among a collection of other instruments which let us dumb folded in amazement.

The European Film Festival Programme

Budget 2011/12

The Kenyan budget for the financial year 2011/12 was read on June 8, 2011 and despite the controversies that preceded it. It was read as a budget statement as opposed to budget speech. This is after the minister ignored to present estimates of his budget 2 months before the budget as clearly spelt out in the new leviathan. The civil society went to court to block the budget on this but they were not successful. However, Members of Parliament asked for an interpretation from the chair (speaker) who ruled that the budget should be presented to the house as a budget statement.

Despite all this it is worthwhile noting that it is a first in many ways;

• It is the first time that our budget has hit the trillion mark (1.155 trillion)
• It is the first budget read after enactment of a new constitution
• The budget was being read by an ICC suspect
• This is the budget prior to a general election

The Budgets theme was ‘Building Resilience, dealing with emerging challenges-Additions to spending plans’.

Highlights of the Budget

The budget read by the finance Minister enumerated the key macro-economic indicators of the country for 2010. The country GDP growth rate stood at 5.6% in 2010 from 2.6% in 2009 and it is expected that the country will register a 5.3% (revision downwards) GDP growth rate in 2011. The population Growth rate for 2010 was 3.1% and is expected to be around the same figure in 2011. The inflation stood at 4.1% for 2010 however it is expected to rise significantly in 2011 to about 9.3%.

The explanation for a rise in GDP by almost 100% is attributed to strong performance in Agricultural sector which contributes about a quarter of the GDP and a positive showing in the industrial sector. This is in contrast in 2009 when the country was recovering from the Post Election Violence (PEV) and Agriculture registered negative growth.

The high inflation (approaching double digit) expected for 2011 is a result of high food and oil prices. In fact the monthly inflation figures released by KNBS are in the double digit. The Kenya shillings has been on an all time low against the dollar and fuel hikes have become common with prices changing on a weekly basis if NOT monthly. To add to this in the month of May motorist experienced fuel shortages when the government tried to enter into this market (Oil Market) which some say is run by cartels close to the high and mighty. 

As if this is not enough the country has had its fair share of unemployment. The exact figures are not yet made known BUT one thing is that it is a double digit figure. The budget tries to address this challenge and this being an election year the 500,000 jobs per year first sprung up in 2002 NARC manifesto continues to be used. The government is reviving it Kazi Kwa Vijana (KKV) project that will see young persons given paying internships to make them ‘employable’.

Fiscal Policy

The government resources for financial year 2011/12 spelt out show that the government is going to finance its budget from;

Revenue Sources 2011/12

The A-word (austerity) has featured in the government expenditure programme where it is rationalizing to contain expenditure growth. However, analyst are pointing out that 2012 being an election year. Kenya has a record of having expansionary expenditure and that growth has been shown to slow. However, it remains to be seen if the new constitution and on going reforms are going to put a hold on this track record.

The other problems are the high internal borrowing (11%). This might tend to exaggerate the inflation problem. However, I spotted in the dailies the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has been announcing 10 & 20years maturing treasury bonds to wipe of excess liquidity in the market.

The finance minister also pointed out on tax reforms (VAT reforms) this might erode the 65% component of budget based on tax revenue but have a positive impact in the medium and long term. A simplified tax system is in every ones best interest.

Expenditure

Sector Spending 2011/12

One of the key things that really got my eye is the proposed expenditure. As is the case the usual suspects still get their fair share however the government earned my points on allocating 5.6 Billion to the safety net. Under this it has set out Kshs 1 billion for older persons (people currently highly affected by high cost of living), Kshs 300M for Girl child and my favorite Kshs 845 M for Gunny bag grants for urban poor.

The gunny bags are going to be used in sack gardening in urban slums. These funds will scale up the Urban Food Security Program currently funded by European Commission and AFD in Urban areas of Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.

Irrigation

The government has allocated to spend 6% of its spending on the irrigation. This has been warmly welcomed. The Agricultural Secretary Dr. Songa has noted this will go a long way in what the Ministry has been preaching, water harvesting.

Physical Infrastructure

The government is allocating a big chunk 23% same as that of Human Development on Infrastructure. It would be worth while to know who will be up-scaling/building the urban commuter railway.

Challenges Pointed

Absorption

The government has been shown to have a big problem with its absorption capacity. Kwame Owino the CEO of IEA has pointed out that at the end of the financial year ministries tend to return monies to the ex-chequer (Treasury) due to low absorption capacity in line Ministries.

Graft

It is now emerging that 4.2 billion was misused or ended up to its unintended purposes in the Ministry of Education. This had long been flagged by donor agencies who partnered with government to achieve this noble goal of educating the young citizenry through the Free Primary Education (FPE).

 

Trans-Century at Mind Speak

May’s edition of Mind Speak saw Transcentury parade itself in this monthly forum (which I regularly attend) organised by Aly-Khan Satchu a Financial Analyst who runs rich management

This was coming head over heals of April forum that had President of Uganda H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni as the Guest speaker. What is fascinating about this company is that it is a company founded by 29 prominent personalities. These personalities have been accused of either being too close to the center of power or have used their positions to acquire contracts or use privy info BUT they have defended themselves as people who have acquired their wealth genuinely and in a range of counties in the region.

To pitch for this company Transcentury were; Dr. Gachao Kiuna (CEO) and Yida Kemoli (Head of Finance and Corporate Strategy).

Background of Transcentury

The CEO Dr. Gachao gave us a brief history of this company. It was started by 29 people (all men) who used to meet informally in what in Kenya we call ‘chama’. They all agreed to each contribute Kshs 1 million. So they expect to have an initial capital of Kshs 29 million however they ended raising Kshs 24 Million.

Their initial investment was in South African Breweries which had entered the Kenyan Market in 1998 only to close in 2002 after four-year beer war with Kenya Breweries and failing to secure a 10% of market share.

These investors managed to recoup their investment from SAB due to the fact that SAB pulled of the market by a negotiated settlement with Kenya Breweries Ltd (now East African Breweries Ltd, EABL).

Having learned from this experience the 29 vowed never to go for anything less than controlling stake in a company (51% of the share capital).

Present Day Transcentury

The 29 investors formed Transcentury which is a Holding company with interests in;

• Power Infrastructure: Manufacture of Electrical Cables, Conductors, Transformers and Switchgear. 
• Transport Infrastructure: Operation of the Kenya-Uganda Railway Concession.
• Specialized Engineering: Distribution of Mission-Critical Industrial Equipment and Construction of Electrical Installations.  

The company has pan-African interest in outlook i.e. it wishes to invest in the whole of Africa and that is why as I came to find out it was at the event because it wants to list on the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE).

The company has 5 divisions i.e. Power Infrastructure, Transport Infrastructure, Specialized Engineering, Consumer and Affiliated Holdings.

Reservations

The company has raised some eye brows with its Transport Infrastructure division with people questioning the way it got into the concession of Rift Valley Railways (RVR) and the two guest speakers had a hard time convincing us. However, they had their side of the story.

The company seems to hedging on the railway considering it is has entered into partnership with a Brazil Railway company America Latina Logistics (ALL).

The other eye brow is that the company can’t seem to send away the ghosts of the 29 investors who as some would put it could raise the issue of ‘conflict of interest’ given that some of them are CEO’s of some of the divisions the company engages. To this the CEO pointed out that some of their major customers are you and me (ordinary folk) and NOT government parastatals.

The other observable omission in the company which was observed by Gina Din was that the company’s 29 investors are all men!

Going Forward

In the infrastructure sector given that most of the infrastructure building is done by Chinese Companies funded by China gov’t which has shown that it is willing to fund states improve their infrastructure. Does Transcentury know anything that we don’t? (A query raised by one of the participants).

Only time will tell however, should you want to know more about this company the CEO Dr. Gachao Kiuna asked the participants to visit any Dyer & Blair.

Presentation at Mindspeak (Pdf)

Photographic Exhibition: The People of Afghanistan

Yesterday evening June 2, 2011 I attended the opening of the above photo exhibition by Arvind Vohora. To say I was blown away by the photos gracing the walls of what used to be RaMoMa would be an understatement.

 What was so exiting for me about this photo exhibition was the subject it’s self- The People of Afghanistan. Afghanistan is a country which is deeply mirrored into the history books and getting a chance to get a glimpse of the people who live in this land is an opportunity I could not simply miss.

This country has been called a ‘grave yard’ for empires because many countries have ventured into it without understanding the geography, the people, their culture, the resilience of this people, their religion and such. So this exhibition in a way put on the table the day to day happenings in this country albeit in 1988 when the Mujahideen were kingpins! This was way before they had metathesized to Taliban and AL-Qaeda was in its infant stages.

Background

These photos were taken by Arvind in 1988 soon after getting married. As the invitation fly points out.

‘Wanting some excitements in his life after working for fifteen years as a commercial photographer, he got married and they left soon to spend a year living amongst Afghan refugees in Peshawar, Pakistan and traveling into Afghanistan with the Mujahideen.’

What a honeymoon it must have been!

Curator

The exhibition is curated by Sylvia N. Gichia of Kuona Trust who together with her team did a fantastic work of displaying the photos in terms of themes. This are; men and their trade, portraits of men, photos of women with children, men with their guns, cattle and my favorite men doing leisure playing polo albeit with a calf instead of a ball!

Excellent buys 

This photos can make an excellent buy or gift for Senator John Kerry ‘The Pakistan Whisperer’, the can be also be a good buy for Gen. Stanley McChrystal and Gen. David Paetrus authors of COIN or they would fit perfectly in a white house room that discusses issues of withdraw of US troops in Afghanistan.

Mind you, Charlie Wilson's War movie will provide an excellent context of what was happening in 1980’s in Afghanistan/Pakistan.