Greece has been in the news for the past month or so for the wrong but very interesting reasons. The main reason has been that the country was on the verge of financial collapse. This is the equivalent of a blue chip company being on the verge of declaring bankruptcy.
It’s unimaginable that such a scenario can be befall a country especially one which is a part of the European Economic block. Afterall, the Europeans are constantly reminding us that Africa is a dark continent and most of the African nations are failed economies.
However, the question to ask is what brought about this situation. Different scholars and commentators, apportion different reasons as responsible for this. One of the reasons is that the Greek government had taken numerous debts which it eventually ended up defaulting on. The sad truth is that when it was being admitted into the Euro, nobody scrutinized this record.
But this is not unique to only the Greeks, because even the Spanish and the Portuguese also have a history of default. Suffice to say that borrowing per se is not detrimental, but it was how the Greeks used these borrowings. Apparently, they pay the pensioners receive the highest pension in the Euro zone.
But the saddest contributor to their current situation is that they took loads of loans and consumed it inwardly on her people without producing anything substantial.
Kenyans are greatly guilty of ignorance. We are an ignorant population when it comes to our knowledge of how much debt Kenya owes the international lenders. We must seek to know how the country will pay these debts lest we later discover that we are broke because all we produce goes into clearing our debts.
Can we as a country survive and function without going into debt? Are we producing enough to survive on our own? What is the bear minimum that we can borrow as a country without risking our sovereignty?
Monday, 11 July 2011
Monday, 4 July 2011
COULD THE MWAU DRUG ISSUE BE TRUE?
Kenyans have been treated to a rare scene where a sitting Member of Parliament, John Harun Mwau, is being accused by the US administration of involvement in drug trafficking. This is rare because although Kenyans occasionally get immersed in spreading rumours and gossiping about the involvement of influential people in this vice, no one, not even the government or media have ever come out to publicly associate any of these people with it.
The US government seems to have observed the development with special interest and finally decided to act on the same. However, the Kenyan government still appears to be slow in following up on these accusations. Awhile back, parliament together with the police, attempted to investigate this issue but as Kenyans have come to painfully realize, this was just a public relations exercise meant to hoodwink the public that something was being done.
Irrespective of the veracity of these allegations or not, there are some questions which beg for answers. If it is true that he has been involved in drug trafficking, how could he have done it without the government really being aware? Is it possible for an individual to be engaged in this vice without anybody in the government being privy to such information? Has he been acting alone? Why the loud silence by the two principals, the parliament and senior politicians in this country? Why does NACADA also appear to be quiet? What about KACC? Is PLO Lumumba and his staff conducting any investigation?
It is not possible that a Kenyan can be involved in drug trafficking without involving other Kenyans. Somebody somewhere knew about this but still decided to keep quiet and not act on the information they had. A large portion of our youth is being wasted away through drug abuse. Once addicted, they engage in other vices so as to get some money to continue satisfying this addiction.
Drug traffickers usually have contacts either in the police, judiciary, and parliament among many more. These are people who can be traced. It is just not possible that if there were several people involved, and are still involved, that not even one of them can be found. Is it really possible that the National Security Intelligence Services were not aware? This is very hard to imagine and if it’s possible that they had no knowledge of this, then are we really safe?
The US government seems to have observed the development with special interest and finally decided to act on the same. However, the Kenyan government still appears to be slow in following up on these accusations. Awhile back, parliament together with the police, attempted to investigate this issue but as Kenyans have come to painfully realize, this was just a public relations exercise meant to hoodwink the public that something was being done.
Irrespective of the veracity of these allegations or not, there are some questions which beg for answers. If it is true that he has been involved in drug trafficking, how could he have done it without the government really being aware? Is it possible for an individual to be engaged in this vice without anybody in the government being privy to such information? Has he been acting alone? Why the loud silence by the two principals, the parliament and senior politicians in this country? Why does NACADA also appear to be quiet? What about KACC? Is PLO Lumumba and his staff conducting any investigation?
It is not possible that a Kenyan can be involved in drug trafficking without involving other Kenyans. Somebody somewhere knew about this but still decided to keep quiet and not act on the information they had. A large portion of our youth is being wasted away through drug abuse. Once addicted, they engage in other vices so as to get some money to continue satisfying this addiction.
Drug traffickers usually have contacts either in the police, judiciary, and parliament among many more. These are people who can be traced. It is just not possible that if there were several people involved, and are still involved, that not even one of them can be found. Is it really possible that the National Security Intelligence Services were not aware? This is very hard to imagine and if it’s possible that they had no knowledge of this, then are we really safe?
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