Kijabe Mission Town - Notepad

Following the debate that has been here for the last few days about Teenage Sex, I dug in my archives and found an article that I’d posted earlier in the year. Maybe we can borrow some ideas from Kijabe to help keep our youngsters in check. Here it is:


The story of Kijabe Mission Station as reported in the Standard this week reads like a Utopian dream. The town has very high moral standards dating back to colonial times when severe punishments were meted on anyone indulging in vices. There's no loud music either from shops or matatus like is common in most other towns. Commotion and disorder are unheard of.

Shops in this place are not allowed to stock cigarettes and alcohol and any new investor has to sign a code of conduct prohibiting him from selling the same and any other immoral products. Any shop keeper found breaching these rules could earn himself an expulsion from the town but if he's remorseful and apologizes, then he may be allowed to continue operating. This was easier to implement in the past than it is now because most shops were owned by church leaders anyway. The church now employs guards who go round and conduct inspections in shops in an attempt to uphold this rule. But generally these standards are getting more and more difficult to maintain especially with modern life, and employment of professionals from other areas.

Cohabiting, unwanted pregnancies and children born out of wed-lock are unacceptable. Of course they're unacceptable everywhere but in Kijabe Mission Station it actually works. Men are not expected to laze around with young women – in fact unmarried women are not allowed to be in the company of men after 7.00 pm.

Life in Kijabe Mission Station is not easy for the youth although it works out well for them in the long run. Many are known to take a sabbatical from their constraining hometown to go to other areas and indulge. Others go to colleges in other urban areas and have their big break but when they go back home they have to follow the rules again. Others sneak into the forest to indulge in a puff here and there. Or maybe some other sins.

Now if only all urban centers could be like this place.

Kijabe Mission Town - Test Post

Following the debate that has been here for the last few days about Teenage Sex, I dug in my archives and found an article that I’d posted earlier in the year. Maybe we can borrow some ideas from Kijabe to help keep our youngsters in check. Here it is:

The story of Kijabe Mission Station as reported in the Standard this week reads like a Utopian dream. The town has very high moral standards dating back to colonial times when severe punishments were meted on anyone indulging in vices. There's no loud music either from shops or matatus like is common in most other towns. Commotion and disorder are unheard of.

Shops in this place are not allowed to stock cigarettes and alcohol and any new investor has to sign a code of conduct prohibiting him from selling the same and any other immoral products. Any shop keeper found breaching these rules could earn himself an expulsion from the town but if he's remorseful and apologizes, then he may be allowed to continue operating. This was easier to implement in the past than it is now because most shops were owned by church leaders anyway. The church now employs guards who go round and conduct inspections in shops in an attempt to uphold this rule. But generally these standards are getting more and more difficult to maintain especially with modern life, and employment of professionals from other areas.

Cohabiting, unwanted pregnancies and children born out of wed-lock are unacceptable. Of course they're unacceptable everywhere but in Kijabe Mission Station it actually works. Men are not expected to laze around with young women – in fact unmarried women are not allowed to be in the company of men after 7.00 pm.

Life in Kijabe Mission Station is not easy for the youth although it works out well for them in the long run. Many are known to take a sabbatical from their constraining hometown to go to other areas and indulge. Others go to colleges in other urban areas and have their big break but when they go back home they have to follow the rules again. Others sneak into the forest to indulge in a puff here and there. Or maybe some other sins.

Now if only all urban centers could be like this place.

Leave Cancellation Note Pad

Recently a friend of mine was castigated by her employer for not being available on mobile phone when she was on leave. The employer was seeking to cancel her leave because the colleague who was sitting in for her fell suddenly ill. But she had switched off her phone and gone upcountry and the company could not reach her. The company did not collapse either. In fact nothing stopped. It turned out that there were other ways available to ensure that work continued even in the absence of her and her sick colleague.

But when she reported back to work there was a case awaiting her. The employer quoted a part of her employment letter that read thus: The normal working hours of the company are from 8.00 am to 1.00 pm and 2.00 pm to 5.00 pm from Monday to Friday, but as a senior member of staff it may be necessary from time to time for you to extend these hours or even work over the weekends. That is the bit the company used against her. But nowhere in the letter is being on mobile alert or cancellation of leave mentioned. Apparently that fell under extend these hours. But she does not consider herself senior anyway.

The question is, how much does your employer have to do with your private mobile phone? Should an employer call you any time they feel like it? According to about.com, your boss should only be calling you during normal operating hours and not after hours. If your boss or other co-workers are calling you after hours or on weekends, you must bring this up to a higher supervisor. In order to maintain smooth relationships with co-workers you should work within the "normal" operating hours of the office.

Some people are under the mistaken impression that because you work at home, you are available whenever they feel that it is convenient. To avoid problems from the beginning of a telecommuting arrangement, have it specified in your Agreement exactly when you can be called.

Freelancers should also set limits on when they can be reached and what the methods of contact are.

My friend’s case ended with just a verbal reminder that she can be required to avail herself at work on short notice but this just shows the complications that come about with the whole mobile phone thing.

Leave Cancellation.doc

Recently a friend of mine was castigated by her employer for not being available on mobile phone when she was on leave. The employer was seeking to cancel her leave because the colleague who was sitting in for her fell suddenly ill. But she had switched off her phone and gone upcountry and the company could not reach her. The company did not collapse either. In fact nothing stopped. It turned out that there were other ways available to ensure that work continued even in the absence of her and her sick colleague.

But when she reported back to work there was a case awaiting her. The employer quoted a part of her employment letter that read thus: The normal working hours of the company are from 8.00 am to 1.00 pm and 2.00 pm to 5.00 pm from Monday to Friday, but as a senior member of staff it may be necessary from time to time for you to extend these hours or even work over the weekends. That is the bit the company used against her. But nowhere in the letter is being on mobile alert or cancellation of leave mentioned. Apparently that fell under extend these hours. But she does not consider herself senior anyway.

The question is, how much does your employer have to do with your private mobile phone? Should an employer call you any time they feel like it? According to about.com, your boss should only be calling you during normal operating hours and not after hours. If your boss or other co-workers are calling you after hours or on weekends, you must bring this up to a higher supervisor. In order to maintain smooth relationships with co-workers you should work within the "normal" operating hours of the office.

Some people are under the mistaken impression that because you work at home, you are available whenever they feel that it is convenient. To avoid problems from the beginning of a telecommuting arrangement, have it specified in your Agreement exactly when you can be called.

Freelancers should also set limits on when they can be reached and what the methods of contact are.

My friend’s case ended with just a verbal reminder that she can be required to avail herself at work on short notice but this just shows the complications that come about with the whole mobile phone thing.

Muasya Notepad

One Nairobi lawyer John Chigiti has a unique case in his hands. His client Richard Mwanzia Muasya is a confirmed hermaphrodite. He is also a convicted criminal incarcerated at Kamiti Maximum Prison for robbery with violence. Muasya, through his lawyer is asking to be set free because the law is discriminatory against him. According to him, being locked up in an exclusively male prison whereas biologically he’s not totally a man amounts to human and constitutional rights abuse. He’s suffering degrading exposure to male convicts and prison warders. On November 6 last year Justice Roselyn Wendo ordered that he be accorded separate accommodation in Kamiti Prison but that has not been done so far. He is asking to be set free unconditionally.

But isolating an intersexual in our correctional facilities or anywhere else for that matter is just the beginning. In prisons there is the issue of other shared amenities like washrooms, dining area, recreational facilities and indeed the whole compound as a whole. If isolation will work in Muasya’s case at all, it would mean making physical changes to the buildings or putting up a separate prison all together. Quite a long shot considering that hermaphrodites are few and how many of them end up in prisons?

Cases like Muasya’s are rare but not entirely unheard of. In 2004 for example, intersexual Jonothon Featherstone managed to avoid a prison sentence in Jamaica because the Jamaican penal code had no provisions for those bearing both male and female genitalia. That was even after he admitted trying to smuggle drugs out of Jamaica.

One cannot ignore the tribulations Muasya has probably been through. For one the whole intersexual thing must be heavy on his psyche. I imagine he grew up grappling with excruciating social stigma and psychological effects of his mixed gender – all in an unforgiving culture. Secondly sexual abuse in our penal institutions is no secret. If he has not already been put through some of that, it’s just a question of when and not if and he must be spending all his waking hours fretting about it.

Surprisingly, hermaphrodites are not as rare as one may think. There are quite a number around the world and in some countries there are support groups just for them. In other countries, some incidences are surgically corrected when the child is still young. But this medical intervention on hermaphrodite infants is meeting with more and more resistance as people with the condition come forth with claims that these surgeries immerse subjects into worse psychological, medical, and sexual damage. They’re encouraging parents to let their children develop into themselves and enjoy the gift of being unique.

So should Muasya be set free?
Should he be jailed in isolation?

Related Article: Oregon Man Gives Birth To Baby Girl

Muasya Notepad

One Nairobi lawyer John Chigiti and indeed the Kenyan judiciary as a whole has a unique case in their hands. Richard Mwanzia Muasya is a confirmed hermaphrodite. He is also a convicted criminal incarcerated at Kamiti Maximum Prison for robbery with violence. Muasya, through his lawyer, says that the law is discriminatory against him

he’s undergoing human and constitutional rights violations at the Prison and would like the law changed to accommodate the likes of him who do not fall under either the male of female category. He is also asking to be set free because there are no provisions of his kind in our Kenyan constitution and penal institutions.

One cannot ignore the tribulations Muasya has probably been through. For one the whole intersexual thing must be heavy on his psyche. I imagine he grew up grappling with the psychological effects of his mixed gender – all in an unforgiving culture. Secondly sexual abuse in our penal institutions is no secret. If he has not already been put through some of that, it’s just a question of when and not if and he must be spending all his waking hours fretting about it. But then again if he did not commit the robbery, nobody would have put him in Kamiti in the first place. If it’s a question of human rights, the person he robbed has his own right to his property.

Cases like Muasya’s are rare but not entirely unheard of. In 2004 for example, intersexual Jonothon Featherstone managed to escape a prison sentence in Jamaica because the Jamaican penal code had no provisions for those bearing both male and female genitalia. That was even after he admitted trying to smuggle drugs out of Jamaica. That is what Muasya is hoping to do.

For one, just having medical examinations to determine his must have been humiliating enough. Having been thrown into Kamiti, he says he’s suffering inhuman and degrading exposure to the male convicts, prison warders and the general public.

It’s a rare condition and in developed countries, some incidences are surgically corrected when the child is still young. But this medical intervention on hermaphrodite infants is meeting with resistance as more and more people more and more people with the condition are coming forward with claims that immerses subjects into worse psychological, medical, and sexual damage. They’re encouraging parents to let their children develop into themselves and enjoy the gift of being unique.

Muasya Notepad

One Nairobi lawyer John Chigiti and indeed the Kenyan judiciary as a whole has a unique case in their hands. Richard Mwanzia Muasya is a confirmed hermaphrodite. He is also a convicted criminal incarcerated at Kamiti Maximum Prison for robbery with violence. Muasya, through his lawyer, says that the law is discriminatory against him

he’s undergoing human and constitutional rights violations at the Prison and would like the law changed to accommodate the likes of him who do not fall under either the male of female category. He is also asking to be set free because there are no provisions of his kind in our Kenyan constitution and penal institutions.

One cannot ignore the tribulations Muasya has probably been through. For one the whole intersexual thing must be heavy on his psyche. I imagine he grew up grappling with the psychological effects of his mixed gender – all in an unforgiving culture. Secondly sexual abuse in our penal institutions is no secret. If he has not already been put through some of that, it’s just a question of when and not if and he must be spending all his waking hours fretting about it. But then again if he did not commit the robbery, nobody would have put him in Kamiti in the first place. If it’s a question of human rights, the person he robbed has his own right to his property.

Cases like Muasya’s are rare but not entirely unheard of. In 2004 for example, intersexual Jonothon Featherstone managed to escape a prison sentence in Jamaica because the Jamaican penal code had no provisions for those bearing both male and female genitalia. That was even after he admitted trying to smuggle drugs out of Jamaica. That is what Muasya is hoping to do.

For one, just having medical examinations to determine his must have been humiliating enough. Having been thrown into Kamiti, he says he’s suffering inhuman and degrading exposure to the male convicts, prison warders and the general public.

It’s a rare condition and in developed countries, some incidences are surgically corrected when the child is still young. But this medical intervention on hermaphrodite infants is meeting with resistance as more and more people more and more people with the condition are coming forward with claims that immerses subjects into worse psychological, medical, and sexual damage. They’re encouraging parents to let their children develop into themselves and enjoy the gift of being unique.

Justified

One Nairobi lawyer John Chigiti and indeed the Kenyan judiciary as a whole has a unique case in their hands. Richard Mwanzia Muasya is a confirmed hermaphrodite. He is also a convicted criminal incarcerated at Kamiti Maximum Prison for robbery with violence. Muasya, through his lawyer, says that the law is discriminatory against him

he’s undergoing human and constitutional rights violations at the Prison and would like the law changed to accommodate the likes of him who do not fall under either the male of female category. He is also asking to be set free because there are no provisions of his kind in our Kenyan constitution and penal institutions.

One cannot ignore the tribulations Muasya has probably been through. For one the whole intersexual thing must be heavy on his psyche. I imagine he grew up grappling with the psychological effects of his mixed gender – all in an unforgiving culture. Secondly sexual abuse in our penal institutions is no secret. If he has not already been put through some of that, it’s just a question of when and not if and he must be spending all his waking hours fretting about it. But then again if he did not commit the robbery, nobody would have put him in Kamiti in the first place. If it’s a question of human rights, the person he robbed has his own right to his property.

Cases like Muasya’s are rare but not entirely unheard of. In 2004 for example, intersexual Jonothon Featherstone managed to escape a prison sentence in Jamaica because the Jamaican penal code had no provisions for those bearing both male and female genitalia. That was even after he admitted trying to smuggle drugs out of Jamaica. That is what Muasya is hoping to do.

For one, just having medical examinations to determine his must have been humiliating enough. Having been thrown into Kamiti, he says he’s suffering inhuman and degrading exposure to the male convicts, prison warders and the general public.

It’s a rare condition and in developed countries, some incidences are surgically corrected when the child is still young. But this medical intervention on hermaphrodite infants is meeting with resistance as more and more people more and more people with the condition are coming forward with claims that immerses subjects into worse psychological, medical, and sexual damage. They’re encouraging parents to let their children develop into themselves and enjoy the gift of being unique.

Tuk Tuk Invasion - Notepad

There’s a lot of good that can be said about the Tuk Tuk, the little three wheeled car that has been threatening the livelihoods of taxi drivers. In most areas the concept of Tuk Tuks has been embraced wholeheartedly. In Mombasa for example where the punishing heat and high humidity can make it quite a task to walk a few blocks, the tuk tuk is quite welcome for short rides. Their advantages cannot be underestimated. They have created thousands of jobs and enabled people to go to hard to reach places with their door to door services. With some models covering upto 35 Kilometers for just a liter of petrol, they can afford to charge very low fares.

But like every good thing, Tuk Tuks have their downside. The hitherto quiet and serene atmosphere of most streets and other parts of town has been shattered by the characteristic and oh so relentless tok tok tok tok of tuk tuks as they make their rounds. Hardly a minute passes by without one of these noisily zooming past and for those in ground floor offices right along the road, concentrating has become almost impossible.

That is just a problem people may have to evolve around because it seems the little motorbike/taxi hybrids are here to stay. What can and needs to be addressed ASAP is their road etiquette. Some drivers just hit the road with no inkling whatsoever about traffic rules, weaving and meandering through traffic with complete disregard of lane change rules. As long as one can ride a motorbike, he learns the rest on the job and sometimes it’s obvious the errant drivers are just not aware when they’re on the wrong. They’re nowhere near as mad or rude as matatu drivers, in fact majority of them are usually very apologetic when they mess on the road. But obstruction is obstruction. Dangerous lane change is dangerous lane change regardless of what size of vehicle is doing it.

The police don’t seem to pay as much attention to them as they do to Matatus but maybe it’s time they did.

From The Past: Of Holy Noise and Kenyan Churches.
From The Web: Photos of Spain Tomatina Festival.

Tuk Tuk Invasion - Notepad

There’s a lot of good that can be said about the Tuk Tuk, the little three wheeled car that has been threatening the livelihoods of taxi drivers. In most areas the concept of Tuk Tuks has been embraced wholeheartedly. In Mombasa for example where the punishing heat and high humidity can make it quite a task to walk a few blocks, the tuk tuk is quite welcome for short rides. Their advantages cannot be underestimated. They have created thousands of jobs and enabled people to go to hard to reach places with their door to door services. With some models covering upto 35 Kilometers for just a liter of petrol, they can afford to charge very low fares.

But like every good thing, Tuk Tuks have their downside. The hitherto quiet and serene atmosphere of most streets and other parts of town has been shattered by the characteristic and oh so relentless tok tok tok tok of tuk tuks as they make their rounds. Hardly a minute passes by without one of these noisily zooming past and for those in ground floor offices right along the road, concentrating has become almost impossible.

That is just a problem people may have to evolve around because it seems the little motorbike/taxi hybrids are here to stay. What can and needs to be addressed ASAP is their road etiquette. Some drivers just hit the road with no inkling whatsoever about traffic rules, weaving and meandering through traffic with complete disregard of lane change rules. As long as one can ride a motorbike, he learns the rest on the job and sometimes it’s obvious the errant drivers are just not aware when they’re on the wrong. They’re nowhere near as mad or rude as matatu drivers, in fact majority of them are usually very apologetic when they mess on the road. But obstruction is obstruction. Dangerous lane change is dangerous lane change regardless of what size of vehicle is doing it.

The police don’t seem to pay as much attention to them as they do to Matatus but maybe it’s time they did.

From The Past: Of Holy Noise and Kenyan Churches.
From The Web: Photos of Spain Tomatina Festival.