Uganda memoir: A tour at New Vision news room

The Bukedde section of New Vision news room

New Vision news room and Saturday Vision section

Kirinyaga woman openly lauds her rapists By Wilson Murimi

BY MWANGI WILSON MURIMI

A lady made a hilarious exhibition when she overtly acclaimed her rapists, terming them as the most proficient men she had ever witnessed since her husband’s death.

The widow, who sells vegetables on the Muthece market of Kirinyaga County and who is known to operate her business only in the evening, made the shocking revelation, terming the perceivably fateful day as a godsend which she had awaited for ages.

She even went on to say that she envied her colleagues who devoured honey on a daily basis, while she had to contend with her interminable crave since the death of her husband.

Her recount particularly evoked thunderous laughter when she certified her rapists’ skill as the only true match of her late husband’s stamina.

Waylaid in coffee bush

The rapists, whom she alleged had waylaid her in a coffee bush on her way home, reportedly accosted her and dragged her into the bush and carried out the contemptible act, but which she says she will live to recount.

“Ngumwira ndirathiururukagio uu nou, nii ndire ndaigua wega uguo kuma muthuri wakwa akua (I was turned over and over. I have never felt that good since my husband died),” said the woman sensationalizing her description with facetious dramatization.

The shocking account riveted many listeners most of who were her regular evening customers. The attentive audience occasionally told her to repeat some of the scenes, which she instantly did with great enthusiasm.

Lady running the show

While none of her engrossed audience made any attempt to stop her from divulging  her great exhilaration, her business rivals, most of who were angered by the inexplicably large number of customers she had attracted, openly decried her ‘open lack of manners’.

“Icio ni ndetu iriku urahiana na kwina ciana? (what sorts of stories are you narrating even among children?)” decried one rival. The outspoken lady, however, booed her detractors with an open rhetoric that the account may have been no news to the present teenagers.

Asked to disclose who her rapists were, she simply said she never marked any of their faces since she was so elated by the action to care about to discern them during the action.

While some blushed off the story as facetious, a rumour later circulated that an alcoholic duo had conducted the ordeal and had been avoiding her for fear that she would shame them. She had however openly pledged a reward to her anonymous supermen, whom she had nicknamed ‘Machineries’.

Synopsis: Miguna Miguna to release book on Raila on mid next month

Miguna Miguna the former adviser on coalition government to Kenyan PM Raila Odinga is set to release his book Peeling Back the Mask in the next 40 days. The 584 pages book to be published on 15/07/2012 by Gilgamesh Publishing on hardcover is set to retail locally in Kenya for about Sh3,400.

Here is the synopsis:

On August 4th 2011 the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kenya, Raila Odinga, announced, through the local Kenyan media, that he had suspended Miguna Miguna indefinitely without pay as his senior adviser.

In his explosive new memoirs, Peeling Back the Mask, Miguna Miguna explains why he rejected the Prime Minister's subsequent offer of reinstatement and exposes Mr Odinga's lack-lustre leadership questioning his progressive credentials and claim that he is an agent of change.

Peeling Back the Mask presents a true insider's account of the intrigues, discussions and power plays that have occurred in Kenya's corridors of power in recent years. This is a must read for everyone interested in social justice and good governance in Africa.

Peeling Back the Mask also delves back to tell the remarkable tale of Miguna's early life, from humble origins, through privations and hardship, his university days and his years as a practicing lawyer overseas. A heartwarmingly personal African story.

Prof Fredrick Onyango, former Maseno University VC laid to rest

Finally the former Prof Fredrick Ngawo Onyango , Maseno University VC has been laid to rest at Uriri District, Migori County.

Onyango who raised the profile of Maseno University during his decade long reign as VC which ended on 2011 was eulogised as an academic giant and a maverick administrator by mourners.

“Prof Onyango was a consummate person and a honest administrator who has a firm believe in the role of technology in life which saw him add Information Technology as a compulsory unit in Maseno” Prof Dominic Makawiti, the current university VC said.

 “He steered the university from its humble beginning to touch lives of thousands of alumni students. He served the nation well which made him win the Silver Star of Kenya ward by the head of state in 1993” Makawiti who took the baton from the late don as he served as his assistant during his reign said.

The late don died on 11^th last month aged 72 years after a brave fight with cancer. He collapsed in a Kisumu hotel and was later pronounced dead when he was taken to Aga Khan Hospital.

Apart from being the VC at Maseno, Onyango held several positions and lectured from 1969 in Universities of Dar es Salaam, Nairobi and Kenyatta. 

Equally he was a member of other bodies like Kenya Academy of Science (FKNAS), Solar Energy Society of Africa (SESA) and the first African professor to elected in Associate of the International Center of Theoretical Physcis (ICTP) based in Trieste, Italy.

Onyango started his schooling at Pe-hill in Awendo district before proceeding to University off Nairobi where he majored in Mathematics and Physics. He got his masters from University of Uppsala in Sweden, doctorate and Phd in Solid State physics from University of London, UK.

Prof Onyango had three wives, Valeria, Jasmine and Halima, and left behind nine children.

“He was a great person who spoke his mind even though it offended people in a quest to be on top off what he did in his profession. We will miss him as a father of the family” Valeria told mourners.

His children eulogised him as a hardworking, responsible and caring father who enjoyed playing golf and soccer and had time for his family.

©Manuel Odeny, 2012

Mixed benefit as water hyacinth invades Lake Victoria by Philip Alambo

Ugandan fishermen pushing their boat stuck in water hyacinth at Lake Victoria SOURCE: INTERNET

The infestation of Lake Victoria with water hyacinth dates back to 1984, when it was first spotted in River Kagera, which empties its water into the Lake.

Since then, water hyacinth has been synonymous with the lake. Like the Kagera River, the lake is today chocked with Hyacinth, which poses risk to local inhabitants by harboring  crocodiles along its shores.

Scientifically referred to as Eichoirnia Crassippes, water hyacinth multiplies to cover more than 50 hectares of a water body within two weeks. This rapid growth is enhanced by massive disposal of industrial and sewages waste in the lake.

 “Nutrients from industrial wastes, both treated and untreated, dumped into Lake Victoria is conducive for the growth of water Hyacinth.” Peter Kamau, an environmentalist from COSMER-LAV which monitors the groeth from Kisumu said.

He says discharging of effluent into the fresh water body is to be faulted for the uncontrolled growth of the exotic weed that has now invaded the lake.

The negative impact of the weed started to be felt in the early 90s by fishermen who largely dependent on the lake for their livelihood. They say their standard of living with others around the lake basin have been drastically affected which can be attributed to high number of school dropouts increased owing to difficulties in raising funds necessary for early childhood education.

“Water Hyacinth hindered the free movements of boats. As a result, our daily catch gradually declined”, recalls Joakim Otieno, a fisherman living at Dunga Beach in Kisumu.

“The weeds caused disruption to boat riding business. What awaited the investors was the inevitable expectation of financial instability on their part” he adds

No one talks about water hyacinth without making mention of its infamies. However, recent studies indicate that the floating vegetation has come to the rescue of the endangered native fish species. To this end, the indigenous hide beneath Water Hyacinth to escape the snares of Nile Perch which feed on them.

“Since Water Hyacinth heavily consumes oxygen in the lake, Nile Perch cannot survive underneath it, to the safety of the smaller fish, which can withstand a less oxygenated environment. Water Hyacinth thus harbors the smaller fish from their predators”, remarks Peter Kamau.
“In early 60s,” he adds, “Lake Victoria was inhabited by over 560 species of indigenous fish. Forty years on, only 162 have been left.”

For Kamau and other observers, the introduction of Nile Perch and overfishing are to blame for the extinction of these fish species. Water Hyacinth is thus instrumental in saving the remaining endangered fish population.

A number of organizations, notably OSIENALA (Friends of Lake Victoria) and National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) have come to the fore in attempting to regulate the growth of water hyacinth so that it does not pose an obstruction to the main economic activity of residents of the lake region.

OSIENALA strongly recommends the reduction in disposal of industrial effluent into the fresh water body, given that nutrients sustain the growth and multiplication of the weeds. Reading from the same script, Mr. Omollo, an environmental science lecturer, Maseno University, suggests that a buffer be created along the shores of the lake where industrial wastes are discharged into the water body.

“On the buffers”, he adds,” hippo grass should be grown to utilize the nutrients supportive of the growth of water hyacinth. That way, the speedy growth of the unwanted plantation will have been regulated.”

The World Bank, in collaboration with Europe in 1988 set up a $9.3 million project, geared towards mopping up the dreaded Water Hyacinth. In the program, local stakeholders such as Lake Victoria Environmental Management Authority (LVEMP) were furnished with funds necessary for eradication of the plants.

Beetles were introduced into the lake, feeding over 12,000 hectares of water covered with the floating weeds.

Nevertheless, the beetles were unable to phase out the weeds. These fruitless attempts have thus been met with sharp criticisms emanating from scientists and politicians, terming them as an exercise in futility. Scholars and researchers therefore have a task of finding ways of redressing this phenomenom