Wednesday, 16 July 2014

TRANSACTION OR RECRUITMENT?


Monday 14th July 2014 was a day that was being waited by many people among them those who have completed secondary school and attained a mean grade of D+ and above. A day that many less advantaged people in the country highly hoped to be raised from nothing to something; the recruitment day for the Kenya Police. During recruitment, the activity that was being psyched for turned out to be a transaction. The truth came out that,the candidates who had turned for recruitment saw mystery as those without relatives or friends in the police service were taken for granted. Corruption became the main activity in the field. Recruits had to present an envelop of up to KES300,000 to be recruited. Although many of them passed the tests,the corps in charge could still give very awkward reasons for the failure.In some parts,people with discolored teeth were turned away but with a brown envelop you would automatically be a close 'friend' of the government. In other parts,only people of a particular tribe were recruited. There has been complains from the public and top leaders in the country that the whole process had lots of irregularities and that the process be repeated but the cry fell on deaf ears. A day after the exercise,the Inspect General of police and the chairman of National Police Service Commission came shamelessly to announce that the exercise was successfully done and no repeat of any kind will be done. Corruption especially in Kenya has taken a strong root despite the existence of the commission that is meant to do away with the evil. Although religious books advocate for equality among all people, the rich continue gain more riches through evil ways and the poor in the society continue to suffer in darkness. Their sons and daughters will never be recruited into forces. They will continue to cry for justice but no one is there to listen to them.

Sunday, 13 July 2014

DIGITAL THIEVES


Just some few years ago,thieves in Nairobi used very odd tactics such as pickpocket, snatching and armed robbery to steal from innocent citizens. Nowadays things have changed and technology has advanced so much,thieves no longer use those techniques anymore to carry out their activities. Some have resorted to being unqualified doctors and started administering  drugs without prescription. Most used drugs in this case are inhalants;they are mostly used in matatus and bus terminals. What happens is that,once the culprit who pretends to be a perfume hawker notices you having a valuable such as phone,tab or laptop ,he comes to you knowing that you wont suspect anything. He then gives you the 'perfume'. Of course Nairobians can't buy anything before testing it. Even if you don't want to buy the item he will insist that you have a test so that next time you can buy it. That moment he will spray a sample on your cloth and automatically you will inhale it. What you don't know is that,what you are inhaling is not real perfume but drugs. Once he has done that he leaves but he has a friend who will accompany you in the bus. He will talk to you nicely,the other  passengers might think you know each other very well. Time will go and the drug will take effect; the victim feels dizzy,loses memory and becomes unconscious. The next thing is you finding yourself in hospital bed without your valuables. I urge all Nairobians to be cautious whenever they buy perfumes from hawkers. Do not be easily carried. Share this message with your loved ones.
                   
                             FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS DOWN!!!

Wednesday, 9 July 2014

TOP 5


As people continue to migrate away from rural areas and into cities, cities that are growing to devour the land around it, the numbers of people living in slums, shanty towns and informal settlements are skyrocketing.
Currently, there are 200,000 of these communities across the world, according to the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, most of them in and around cities, and that number is growing exponentially. Even before the economic crisis of 2008, about one third of all city dwellers live in slums, slums which will grow in size by one billion more people within the next twenty years.
While 90 percent of the world's informal settlements are in developing nations -- such as India and Brazil -- they are a worldwide phenomenon and are in European capital and largest American cities. Here are the five largest slums in the world: 

    1. Neza-Chalco-Itza: One of Mexico City's many barrios, Neza-Chalco-Itza is the largest slum in the world with roughly four million people. Slums in Mexico City began growing in the early 1900s when the railroad brought new industry -- as well as new industrial zones -- to the city.
As with many slums, most people in Neza-Chalco-Itza live illegally on unauthorized land. However, unlike in most areas, some of Mexico City's slum dwellers also live in vecindades, former mansions abandoned by wealthy families that have been converted into low-income rental apartments. About 10 percent of all the residents of the Mexican capital live in these buildings.  

    2. Orangi Town:  Technically only 10 years old, the township in Karachi, Pakistan is home to 1.5 million people and still growing. Orangi, with 22 square miles of space, is significantly less dense than most urban slums and also more structured. There are 13 official neighborhoods, each with its own council, which has allowed the township to build its own sewer system. Additionally, as only of 18 districts of Karachi, Orangi has government representation, albeit in the lowest tier of the government.

    3. Dharavi: After Orangi, the largest slum in Asia is Dharavi in Mumbai. About one million people reside on just one square mile of space that was formerly a mangrove swamp. People became flocking to the area as the tanning and textile industries boomed and Dharavi's population density is now 11 times higher than that of the city that encompasses it.
A neighborhood smack in the heart of Mumbai, it retains the emotional and historical pull of a subcontinental Harlem -- a square-mile center of all things, geographically, psychologically, spiritually, National Geographic said in a recent article. Its location has also made it hot real estate in Mumbai, a city that epitomizes India's hopes of becoming an economic rival to China.
In 2011, other Mumbai slums might have surpassed Dharavi in total population, but the figures can only be speculated at this point. What that does mean, though, is that a number of Asia's largest shanty towns are all in the same city (Notably, Mumbai is the fifth biggest city in the world).
                                                           Dharavi in Mumbai
 
     4. Khayelitsha: Cape Town, South Africa is a huge, sprawling city that has given rise to a number of new neighborhoods and townships over the past decade. Khayelitsha is now the biggest of these and the community had a population explosion after apartheid ended and blacks rushed into Cape Town for jobs.
As of the last census in 2005, there were a recorded 400,000 people in Khayelitsha, but that figure is likely much higher. The township's population is incredibly young, with 40 percent of its residents under 19 years old and only about seven percent over the age of 50.
      5. Kibera:  A neighborhood in Nairobi, Kenya, the Kibera slum is the second largest in Africa, with anywhere from 200,000 to one million residents. Kibera is often used as the model for the environmental impact of informal settlement. Without state sponsored infrastructure like plumbing, residents resort to using flying toilets, which are just plastic bags that can be tossed onto the street. However, Kibera is also one prototype for urban renewal and slum upgrading projects. For about $300,000, U.N. HABITAT is trying to transform all of Kenya's slums, staring with the construction of roads and other services and an actual mapping of the area.
Rounding out a list of the 10 biggest slums would include communities in Bogota, Colombia; Baghdad, Iraq, Venezuela, and Ghana.
The conditions in slums are surely a seriously problem with global implications, but slums themselves do not have to be a problem for anyone. The global population is booming -- the seven billionth citizen of Earth was born only a month ago -- and people need to live somewhere. In the modern, global economy, urbanization is a trend that is impossible to buck and informal settlements are a necessary part of the process.
There are ways to make these communities more hospitable and less hazardous on an environmental level. Some cities in Colombia are extending public transportation lines out to the slums, which as encouraged economic and urban development.
Additionally, others see the population density of slums as a blessing rather than a curse, and perhaps as the future of cities. New, conceptual low-income housing projects are springing up in the United States that could be a model for the developing world. Single-family stacked houses like the ones currently in Brazil and Mexico could be the prototype for the next generation of cities.

Tuesday, 8 July 2014

THE HIDDEN TREASURE

Club 36 which is famously known as 'clabu' by those living around the place, is situated along Dorobo road,50 metres off Mamlaka Road and opposite Nairobi primary school. As the name suggests,the place used to be a club where people used to drink and party in the past. Currently the place serves as a shopping center for people living around-majority being the University of Nairobi students. The market place consists of food kiosks,vegetables stalls, butcheries, tailors and barber shops. The reason why many people visit the place to do their shopping is because the items are sold in affordable prices for the common citizens and students.