THE AFRICAN SAGE

Human beings are funny creatures, funny in the sense that they are or they have made themselves the centre of the universe. We live in an anthropomorphic Universe; in this Universe, human beings think they are supreme over all other things and the universe does not exist for any other reason but to sustain human beings. So among creatures, human beings place themselves on the pedestal. At a personal level, every petty human being thinks he or she is better than others; self aggrandizement. Among the human beings, there are those that believe in God (Theists) and those that do not believe in such (Atheists). Those who believe in God think they right and atheists are lost ignorant souls. On the other hand, atheists ask for proof that there is a God or evidence of revelation. Truth is, Theists cannot provide tangible proof that there is God. The truth is that no one has ever seen, touched or interacted with God in a manner as to demonstrate how God looks like. The only true posit...

It has become a common phenomenon, pollsters coming up with percentages and creating stories that have profound effects on the psyche of the nation. Social science research often involves collecting data in order to capture the views of individuals. However, social sciences distinguish themselves from common sense and pure rumor mongering because of adhering to scientific principles. Science as a way of knowing is unique because of effort exerted to ensure replicability of findings, objectivity, logical reasoning, purposefulness, empirical evidence, clearly defined methodology, systematic study process and ethical consideration throughout the inquiry process. For any research to be worthy of the scientific label, it has to be thoroughly and systematically thought through in such a manner that others doing a similar study can get similar results subject to a given margin of error. Pollsters in Kenya continue to baffle me; they failed in getting presidential polls right but that...

The Kenya Poverty alleviation strategy paper 2011 identifies three pillars for poverty eradication in Kenya. These pillars are economic growth rate, political stability and social cohesion. Considering the three pillars and the specifics under each pillar, it seems poverty reduction in Kenya is tied to economic growth rate. It does appear that making poverty reduction effective has to start with how poverty has been conceptualized and theoretical frameworks underpinning the conceptualization. It is difficult to come up with a poverty reduction strategy because of the difficulty in defining poverty. The poverty reduction strategy by government seems to be neo-liberal leaning whereby aggregate economic growth is assumed to provide all required for poverty alleviation. For theorists and development practitioners, Kenya faces structural challenges as well as cultural challenges in the fight against poverty; therefore, there is need for a structural as well as cultural pronged stra...

Two years down the line, I am persuaded that the letter of devolution has been implemented but the spirit of devolution sacrificed at the altar of patronage, clientilistic grassroots politics and pure idiocy. Consequently, the priorities of county governments remain lopsided driven by expediency, quick popularity gains and tokeninism. Let us unpack some of this accusations using Bungoma County as a case. The spirit of devolution is power to the people. This means that people get to own their development destiny through their participation in decision-making and implementation of decisions. The people (previously, the ruled) are supposed to be at the center of decision making, have the power to veto decisions by agencies and supervise implementation of development projects in the county. In Kenya, the letter of devolution has been followed and mini governments created. Just like the constitution demands, the county governments have been allocated resources, county assemblies ...