Monday this week I attended the talk by CK Prahalad on the Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. This talk was quite an eye opener but the government role is key to its success.
Today the government of Kenya went a step ahead and launched the water irrigation project to address food shortage by making Kenyans less dependent on rainfall.
By the way only 30 % of the viewers on Kenya Television Network ( KTN ) had confidence in the government’s intentions. I celebrate a step in the right direction and I want to believe good is possible?
On a sad note Lake Naivasha is drying up, lets pray for rain? Most of our rivers are drying up and this is truly a situation we need to start addressing and fast!
What is your take? What can we do to reverse this trend

I want to apologize to the Grant applicants for July, 2009 for the delay in reverting back to all of you. I shall be contacting you for a get together to make the award via mail to your respective addresses.

For those Kenyans interested in being assisted in their project via a grant please continue to visit Esther Passaris website and complete the application form. There will be a cut off on 31st August, 2009 for the August applications. If you have applied you need not apply again as all applications stay in the pool.

I visited Bangalore, India for a franchise exhibition where my hope was to sign up a few franchises for our youth and also for other hard working Kenyans.

One of the areas that Driving Kenya Foundation will embark on when I come back home is to start the drive for 1 million jobs. This will not come easy, for success we have to work hard to transform our mentality & attitude to help us derive work ethics within us that can drive and see us dedicate & commit ourselves to reach our goals of a perfect Kenya by 2015.

One thing we need to cultivate are debates on issues that will serve the best interests of our people, whether The Hague, Local Tribunal, TJRC, Mau Forest or review of land tenure systems & jurisdictions. The best discussions are those that will help us transform ourselves individually and also collectively.

My trip to my elder sister’s home here in Mysore which is a small town 5 hours drive from Bangalore, India has been an eye opener.

This place is very beautiful but what is amazing are the hospital and affordable medical facilities. I went for dental check ups and the prices quoted are half or less than what we are charged in Kenya. Consultation fees comes to about Kshs 500.00 compared to the Kshs. 2,500.00 we cough back home. The drugs are almost a third of what we pay.

We can now see why Kenya medical care are way above the reach of a mwanainchi. The reason is; we  are being ripped off in Kenya! What we need are some selfless doctors who can give affordable medical services to our people.

I would like to share some unforgettable moments with you as Adopt A Light is recognized as a ” best practice” for innovative cities alongside Kenya’s own Safaricom Mpesa. This is a proud moment to be Kenyan.
Kenya scooped two UN Habitat Business Awards 2009 awards out of five awards while the other three went to Mexico, China and India. Today we should affirm that we are all right in spite of everything that has passed and rather than waste our energy on those things that pull us down, lets celebrate each other and move forward together!

Here at the Awards ceremony in Delhi, India with Mrs Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of UN-HABITAT.

Well it’s simple. I am matured, a bit too late. I have realized that there is so much wrong amid our lives and its time to act. The truth is it’s too darn late. I wish I had the strength and the resources to have addressed poverty sooner! But what keeps me on track is the saying – it’s never too late?

I believe we have serious problems in Kenya and we desperately need to start chatting – honesty being the key word. We need to chat to the point where it (our honesty) comes out. We are a self destructive nation that believes going to church every Sunday or to the mosque or temple makes it all right? And when that is done we are back to being who we are until the next hour with the Almighty which I call living the big lie…amid all the wrongs. We also have convinced ourselves that we are great and everything is great too and all the problems are the colonials, our politicians, the donors, or just someone else’s problem to fix? It’s called passing the buck!

So why this blog? Poverty is our problem to fix! And if we don’t address it with the urgency it deserves then I liken the post election violence to just a tip of the iceberg or rather a trailer to a horror movie that has yet to begin! At this point I want you to take a deep breath and read the words of a great man:

“The mother of revolution and crime is poverty” by Aristotle the Ancient Greek Philosopher.

A point to ponder; look around you…Is poverty on the decrease? Is Vision 2030 working? Are we truly on course with the world leaders pledge under goal No. 1 of the Millennium Development Goals that is – To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by the year 2015?

Maybe these questions can make us examine our individual roles as Kenyans in addressing these issues by brain storming and coming up with solutions. This is at least a start to our proactive stance!