L-R: Kisii Governor James Ongwae, Vihiga governor Wilber Ottichilo, Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya, Bungoma Governor Wycliffe Wangamati and Luanda MP Chris Omulele during Azimio la Umoja rally in Kidundu stadium in Majengo, Vihiga County.[Mumo Munuve, Standard]
Western leaders allied to Azimio la Umoja Movement have disputed claims of disunity within the group.
On February 10, Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho led leaders allied to Azimio in campaigning for Raila Odinga's presidential bid in Vihiga and Busia counties.
Conspicuously missing was Vihiga Governor Wilber Ottichilo and his Kakamega counterpart Wycliffe Oparanya.
This elicited talk of sibling rivalry in Azimio. But on Monday during a delegates convention at Kidundu stadium in Vihiga Count, the leaders said they are united.
The meeting dubbed Vihiga One was organised to dispel the rumours and this was evident in the speeches by the leaders.
Ottichilo and Oparanya who were in attendance reiterated their commitment to the ODM party and Azimio la Umoja Movement.
Leaders present were Governors Wycliffe Wangamati (Bungoma), Stanley Ongwae (Kisii), MPs Chris Omulele (Luanda), Caleb Amisi (Saboti), Justus Kizito (Shinyalu), Ayub Savula (Lugari) Godfrey Osotsi (Nominated), Kakamega Woman Representative Elsie Muhanda, Democratic Action Party of Kenya leader Wafula Wamunyinyi.
Ottichilo said he was firmly in ODM and was committed to ensuring Raila wins the presidency in the August 9 General Election.
"We are here to make one resolution as a county and that is supporting Raila and their will be no turning back," he said.
The governor declared that the ODM leader was best suited to revive the economy and protect devolution.
Mr Oparanya said Raila was fit to rule the nation and the Luhya community will rally behind him.
The leaders will hold similar meetings in all five Western counties.
"The group will have the same meeting today in other counties as we popularise Raila as our candidate for the presidency," said Oparanya.
Leaders who addressed the gathering criticised ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi and his Ford Kenya counterpart Moses Wetang’ula decision to work with Deputy President William Ruto in Kenya Kwanza Alliance.
Governor Wangamati claimed that the alliance between Mudavadi and Ruto would not benefit Kenyans.
He said the odds were in favour of a Raila presidency.
Mr Wangamati claimed that Mudavadi won't be given the running mate position in the Kenya Kwanza coalition.
"Mudavadi don't be given deputy seat and thus makes him a non-factor in Kenya Kwanza," he said.
The leaders said the Luhya community should be in the next government regardless.
"We have seen our brothers go to Sugoi and we accept that that is their democratic right, but they should be honest with us as Luhya people," said Mr Osotsi.
The leaders urged Mudavadi and Wetang'ula to join Azimio la Umoja.
"Come back my brother Mudavadi and Wetang'ula the Azimio la Umoja house has enough room for all of us," said Mr Omulele.
MP Kizito said the ANC and Ford Kenya leaders could come back to support Raila but they should first be taught a lesson by the electorate.
MP Amisi said Raila had the charisma to steer the nation to prosperity socially and economically.
"Raila will not struggle to be the president of this nation he has already struggled beyond limit and Kenyans will only bestow to him the presidency on August 9," he said.
Wamunyinyi said the Western region communities will rally behind Raila.
"All the parties in the Azimio la Umoja coalition are united to one mission, to make Raila the president in few months," he said. By Brian Kisanji, The Standard
Rwanda President Paul Kagame is mourning the death of Professor Paul Farmer. Paul Farmer was Kolokotrones University Professor and chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
images courtesy
Additionally, he was chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and co-founder and chief strategist of Partners In Health.
image courtesy
Kagame took to his twitter:
“It is hard to find the words to express the sad news of the passing of Paul Farmer – the person, the Doctor, the philanthropist. He combined many things hard to find in one person.”
Paul further added that the weight of his death is in many ways personal, to the country of Rwanda. Farmer have fvd contributed a lot in Rwanda and the people of Rwanda will forever celebrate him.
Dr Paul Farmer helped more than 12 countries in Africa. He however, formed partners in health that collaborate with government to those in need. Paul died aged 62 from an acute cardiac event while he was sleeping.
image courtesy
Dr Paul Farmer resided in Rwanda. He was profiled in Tracy Kidder’s best-selling book, “Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World.”
Paul was also an author of several books such as In the Company of the Poor: Conversations with Dr. Paul Farmer and Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez, Reimagining Global Health: An Introduction, and To Repair the World.
Rwanda and Africa in general have lost an important person. By Daniel Ndiwa, KDRTV
Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has revealed that he sacked DP William Ruto when he was the Minister for Agriculture for stealing maize.
While speaking in Mombasa on Sunday, February 20, the ODM leader stated that he was the one who employed William Ruto during the grand coalition government and sacked him over graft before Mwai Kibaki moved him into the higher education ministry.
“Huyo Ruto mimi niliajiri yeye, kama Waziri yangu ya Kilimo alipoiba mahindi nikafuta yeye, Kibaki akamuokoa , akampeleka Higher Education,” (I employed Ruto as the Agriculture Minister, but when he stole maize I sacked him, it is President Kibaki who gave him a lifeline by appointing him as a Minister for Higher Education). The former Premier stated.
Photo of ODM leader Raila Odinga while meeting governors in Naivasha. Image courtesy
Raila went on to refute claims that he is a government project stating that President Uhuru was his junior during the grand coalition government.
“I picked Musalia Mudavadi as my deputy, together with Uhuru Kenyatta. How can I be his project?” he posed.
The ODM leader urged coastal residents to continue supporting his candidacy, promising a huge economic revolution aimed at raising the country’s standard of living.
Raila restated his administration’s commitment to establishing a social protection fund for all poor families, with each family receiving a monthly stipend of Ksh 6000. Source:By Ezra Nyakundi, KDRTV
DAR ES SALAAM, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania's Zanzibar authorities said on Monday they have invested over 230 million Tanzanian shillings (around 0.1 million dollars) in the construction of a terrace to obstruct salty seawater from flowing into Mjananza agricultural valley on Pemba Island.
Saada Mkuya Salum, the Minister of State in the First Vice-President's Office, told the House of Representatives that the project will be financed under the National Environment Management Council's (NEMC) Climate Change Fund.
She made the remarks when she responded to a Representative for Pandani constituency, Omar Fakih Hamad, who wanted to know efforts the government was taking to protect farmers against invasive salty seawater from the Indian Ocean along the eastern Pemba coastal belt.
Salum said the project is scheduled to start this month, adding that the successful execution of the project will enable Mjananza farmers to continue with their farming activities smoothly.
Salum said Zanzibar, like many other parts of the world, has been adversely affected by climate change, which led to disasters like tsunami, hurricanes, floods, droughts and excessive rains.
She said the government is taking various measures to mitigate the effects of climate change, citing mangrove planting and construction of terraces along the coast as some of the initiatives. Xinhua
Knowledge is one of the greatest gifts we can pass to our children. Unfortunately, knowledge is often viewed as something that we need to get to be able to get something else. But gaining knowledge can be a reward, one that opens up our minds and our lives before real change can be brought about in reality. Imagine if all students understood the transformative nature of knowledge. They would be banging on the door to be let into lessons.
Truly great creators are also great learners. Take Leonardo Da Vinci. He was an illegitimate child of a wealthy notary (back when being illegitimate was a hurdle). Da Vinci was fascinated with learning and discovering. So much so that it would take science 450 years to catch up with his discoveries in fluid dynamics.
He realised at an early age that much of the knowledge he craved was only available in Latin, and because of his circumstances he was barred from a formal education. His solution? He taught himself Latin (no mean feat) so he could gain the knowledge he craved. Da Vinci is known as a polymath – someone whose knowledge extends across multiple areas. He was a genius – but largely self-taught. Da Vinci knew the transformative nature of knowledge.
Another hero of mine is Marie Curie – the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win the Nobel Prize twice, and the only person to win the Nobel Prize in two scientific fields. Impressive! Her accomplishments are even more astonishing because they were made back when women were wrongly considered to be intellectually inferior to men.
During World War I she developed mobile radiography units to provide X-ray services to field hospitals. Recognising an urgent need for field radiological centres near the front lines, she set about accumulating knowledge on radiology, anatomy, and automotive mechanics, and after buying X-ray equipment, vehicles, and auxiliary generators, she developed mobile radiography units. Known as ‘Little Curies’, her invention is thought to have treated over a million wounded soldiers. All from a thirst for knowledge.
Both demonstrate the last part of the word knowledge: edge. They were on the edges of society, all rejected or diminished in some way: Da Vinci for being illegitimate; Curie for being a woman in a misogynous era. But they ignored that edge and went to the edge of their capabilities, using knowledge and learning as fuel to their ambitions. And both changed the world as a result. So how do we encourage children in the classroom and at home to go to the edge in the search for knowledge? Here are three suggestions:
Be the change
We've all heard the saying, "Be the change you wish to see in the world" attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, although what he actually said was, "We but mirror the world.” The sentiment is the same and simply made clearer in the well-known version. In short, who we are is what we see in the world. Who we are is mirrored back to us by our experiences. If we are always angry or sad, we tend to meet other people who are always angry or sad and find reasons to be angry or sad.
It therefore follows that if we could accumulate knowledge and change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. We would therefore ‘be’ the change we wished to see. I love that our younger generations are actively speaking out and protesting to make their world better. From Greta Thunberg to Emma González, from Amika George to Xiuhtezcatl Roske-Martinez there are many who want to bring about change.
We can’t expect positive change unless we are actively involved in that positive change. So, cycle back to the free knowledge. And experiment wildly. Learn new things. Have new experiences.
Take a moment to encourage children to be the person they want to be. They are in control of far more than they imagine. Ask them to notice how their mood impacts their results. Help them to see the connection between who they are and what they experience in the world.
Get into the good stuff that’s FREE!
In Da Vinci’s time, he needed to teach himself a language and beg and borrow to get access to the smartest minds of the time through books. Today we have 24/7 access to the world’s smartest minds via the internet. We also have equal access to idiots and cats playing the piano, but never has the accumulation of knowledge been easier or cheaper.
There are amazing free resources online from short courses offered by prestigious universities to sites like Wikipedia. It is possible to learn everything from Python coding to how to make the perfect cheese scone online either via YouTube demonstrations, or more structured training programs. Many are free or virtually free.
What we learn doesn’t need to be limited to the classroom. There is so much knowledge out there. We should all be encouraging children to explore that knowledge and to experiment wildly. If it’s free, the only cost is a little attention. How can we ever know what we’re good at or enjoy or find fascinating if we don’t experiment wildly?
Take a moment to explore stuff online with your kids, at home or in the classroom. What obscure thing could someone learn? Have a look at what’s out there? Challenge the class to come up with one free course that looks interesting. Encourage them to sign up and do it. Look on Udemy, FutureLearn or others.
Wherever, Whoever or Whatever you are, you are the journey
Louise Hay was at the forefront of the modern self-help movement. One of her mantras was, “I am in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing.” The idea that we should be someone else, doing something else, with other people in another place is incredibly toxic for our lives. We are in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing. Even if those things don’t appear right, they are for the learning journey we are all on individually.
If you don’t agree, then where should you be? And how are you going to get to where you want to be? And what knowledge and insight are you going to need to attain to get you there? We all suffer from self-doubt at times, but the key question is what are we going to do about it?
I met someone in a prison a few years ago and he had spent over twenty years of his forty-year life behind bars. I asked him what advice he would pass on to others. This is his quote: “The choices are always there. It’s the decisions you take that really matter.” We often bemoan that life is unfair and that things don’t go our way. But why? All the choices in life are on offer, we just need to make good choices and course correct if we don’t. If you don’t like where you are, change it. Because with knowledge, you can.
Take a minute to encourage youngsters to look objectively at where they are, where they want to be and how they can bridge that gap via knowledge.
Sid Madge is a transformation and change specialist and founder of Meee. Meee draws on the best creativity and thinking from the worlds of branding, psychology, neuroscience, education and sociology, to help people embrace change and achieve extraordinary lives. Sid Madge is also author of the ‘Meee in Minute’ series of books which each offer 60 ways to change your life, work-, or family-life in 60 seconds.
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