Debate Guru

Irene Kisakye crosses the street in a hurry to beat a deadline. She nods in unison to the blasting tunes on her ear-set .At one point she seems so engrossed that nothing else seems to exist outside her music.  Today, it is not strange to see a person walking along the streets or in a matatu (taxi) with earphones plugged in.Usually, these earphone users shut out the world and enjoy whatever it is they are listening to. In fact, the latest trend is to adorning ear/headsets that come with electronic gadgets like phones, MP3s, ipods etc and somebody will gracefully knock you along the streets without even saying a word of "pole" (Swahili for sorry) simply because they are in the listening world. Courtesy of Google Images But how safe are your ears with this trend? Loss of hearing People who use earphones usually fail to regulate their volumes and many end up emitting sound that even the people around the user can comfortably hear whatever is coming through. ...

Kenya has temporarily lost its battle to corruption. I say temporarily with a guarded tongue because I still a hopeful Kenyan for an administration that will tackle the vice head-on. As been the case, the forces of impunity seems to have developed a knack for having their way. Back in 2002 when NARC came to power, there was a clarion call for Zero Tolerance on corruption. I took this to the heart and finally hope was abound that corruption will be a gone case. I was to find sooner this was not the case when one fine day, I was riding my bicycle from Orongo-Ondiek Estate- Kisumu. At Nyamasaria road block, I noticed two policemen taking bribes from an overloaded Matatu. In my new found spirit I accosted them with confidence “why are you taking bribes from that conductor”. The result was a wave of slaps, blows and kicks. I ran away, abandoned my bicycle, my shoes with the cop threatening to shoot me. Before my activation of flight mode, he confidently told me that “Kijana don’t y...