Apologies to regular readers of this blog for the gap in posts. Also a reminder to people commenting that you need to keep remarks to under 800 words, otherwise the system automatically rejects them: I know a couple of people have had contributions rejected for that reason.
Here are three things that have been on my mind:
The debate, which has become complicated and I suspect leaves a lot of people confused, about how to handle the post-election violence. Read what the EU Heads of Mission in Kenya had to say about it last week. I just hope that MPs and Ministers, and opinion formers in the press and elsewhere, can inform a public debate that allows the country to agree a way to hold people accountable for the violence. It's just common sense that if there is no consequence for inciting or facilitating mob violence, people will do it again. But I've said enough about this in the past.
Second, the fact that despite all the political controversies in Kenya, what most people are worried about is food shortages. This is a huge challenge for the government, together with international aid agencies, but I agree with those commentators who have said let's get the longer term issues sorted out, so that droughts don't cause this sort of crisis in the future.
And third, celebrating the positive. I was at the recent festival organised by StoryMoja and the Hay Festival from the UK, where there was an enormous amount of debate and engagement by a wide range of Kenyans of all ages and backgrounds. I came away energised by the positives in the country, not least the dynamism of young people and their determination to make the country better. And just yesterday I was at the launch of a new service to help small businesses succeed in Kenya - run by a 29 year old Kenyan who studied and set up her company in the UK, and assisted by the UK Trade and Investment team in the High Commission. AFRI Business Development is a great example of how Kenyans from the diaspora can come back into the country with ideas and enthusiasm that can really help the economy.
Posted at 15:23 13 August 2009 by Rob Macaire | Comments[2]
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