VOTING OUT KATOO IS DANGEROUS

By Sankale Kennedy

I humbly want to take this opportunity to bring some light to the residents of Kajiado South on why it is important to vote in Honorable Katoo Metito. For a necked fact, everyone will agree with me that reelecting him is the best option that we currently have.

I have gone through a lot of opinions from individuals in Kajiado South, where some of them think that taking a change is suitable to the community, and to them, they want to reconsider a new individual in for Kajiado South Member of Parliament.

First of all, analyzing their opinions; I want to say that voting is merely a collective decision, it is a democratic right for every Kenyan to cast their vote to candidates of their choice. Having this in mind, I want to put it clearly that voting out Katoo is one very poor decision that we have to work away with. Everyone needs to take a quick look at the status of Kajiado south issues and interest of the community, why we need to reinstate Ole Metito and why we have to support his bid even in the future.
To start with, the most obvious argument that all Kajiado south residents need to look at is: The relationship between the incumbent and the governments and other institutions. We have to first of all have in mind that, bringing in a new face for this seat may take the longest time to establish a link with governmental institutions and other areas that touches the interest of the community. Katoo Ole Metito is a one man that for the last couple of years, has been able to build a good relationship locally and nationally with such entities. Voting in a new face, to me, will take many more years to establish a good link with institutions. But why do we need this link to be continued? Of course we know that the Katoo factor has contributed to a good number of known individuals from south securing top slots both in County and National Government. This can only be done under an MP who knows very well how to approach the mentioned institutions, how to maintain a long term relationship with the entities and who to welcome as a friend to empower members in the community. I want to be very clear here, take a scenario where a person like Lalaito may take the day to be the next MP: what will PNU give back to the people of Kajiado south? This is exactly what we have to look at before the general elections. Where will we put our hope? Who should lobby out the resources from the party to the community?

Secondly, I want to bring this to your attention; Mheshimiwa Katoo has managed to relate very well with all groups and individuals in Kajiado south. I have, truly speaking, never had a single complain from the the community under grounds of discrimination due to tribalism, age sets and age groups and clan reasons. Issues of resource sharing, have been in equal distributions under the leadership of Katoo. Although minor complains are always leading the line in results of good leadership, I have witnessed such being handled with very special attention. This is widely enjoyed due to the very special relation that comes in between Metito and the public. I think there is no better alternative to make this better other than reelecting Honorable Katoo.

Thirdly, I want to mention about the issue of Maasai Kingpin declaration; It is indeed very important to noticed that every region from Narok to Kajiado, except few cases like Kajiado South and East, are sticking with an mp who can dare strange decisions for the betterment of the community's future. If every region is then proud of their prominent representative, why can't we, at least for now, show that Metito is our prominent representative, who can be the next big brain in this community? If, for instance, we go for Lalaito or someone else other than Katoo, how long will it take to battle the ground for the benefit of the community? Ten years, twenty years or three decades? You can read my mind and see what I stand for. He is not entirely the MAA kingpin, but for now he's the pride of Kajiado South residents.

Lastly, there is a very good record of developments and job creations in Kajiado South due to the Katoo factor. We have seen issues like problem of water and access to social services being dealt with in the right manner as a result of Katoo's reign. Needles to say, education has been improved in the last few years. Distribution of CDF bursaries to fund residents' fee requirements is absolutely on a very fair share. Availing the same for construction of educational facilities and renovation of the existing ones is one development idea that everyone can appreciate. Infrastructure development is indeed the best part of this development that will never go unnoticed. Before the implementation of devolved system of governance and devolution of services, Ole Metito was doing every area of infrastructure to ensure that there is equally economic development around the region. We cannot do better to appreciate this other than reelecting Honorable Metito for Kajiado South Member of Parliament.

With this said, I hereby want to state that, there is no any single harm in taking the bravest opinion to reelect Katoo. Arguments ranging from good relationship with the governmental organizations, parastatals and relationship with the community are the guiding opinions as to why we should go for Mheshimiwa Katoo.

The future of an Elephant in Kenya

The game of poaching in most parts of Africa is exposing the elephants to a risk of extinction in the near future. According to National Geographic Ivory-seeking poachers have killed 100,000 African Elephants in just three years.

It is evident that there is a big decrease in elephants population in the country which is not only triggered by poachers, but also as a result of killings due to human wildlife conflict. In April 2016, the largest ever pile of ivory was set alight, which according to sources, was seven times bigger than any other ivory fire in the history of Kenya. A good question that anyone would be interested in, is what is the source of such products? Maybe it will take years to give an appropriate answer to this.

As long as we are interested in curbing poaching and ending ivory trade networks, it is indeed very important to evaluate the role played by pastoralist communities in addressing the problems faced in wildlife conservation. One thing that we have to understand, is that pastoralist communities can be a gateway to provide one of the strategies towards protecting the wildlife. We have had cases where such communities are very close to wild animals and it is not a surprise that even wild animals, and especially elephants, are aware of them. Incorporating support from pastoralists is important to acquire basic information on what they know about poaching as most of them graze near wildlife conservation areas. It doesn't have to mean that they will be charged with the responsibility of arresting poachers, but bringing them closer to the rangers and organizations responsible for wildlife conservation will be a one step forward in mitigating the poaching menace. The ivory trade, which promotes poaching in Kenya is a problem that if the community living with the wildlife is involved, may help kick out the problem by providing significant information.

Poaching is not the only factor that ends up decreasing elephants' population, human wildlife conflict, although not a major factor also contributes killing the wild animals and more so, the elephants. Human wildlife conflict in some areas, comes in as a result of limiting the free movement of the animals. The conflict is propelled by a number of factors, the major one being cultivation of regions purposely isolated for wildlife movement, sometimes referred to as corridors. Usually, cultivation comes with temporary and permanent residential structures where farmers stay while undertaking daily duties. A good example is the case of kimana area where Amboseli National Park is located. In this scenario, land has been subdivided and every member got a piece, thus they can always do  what they feel it is of benefit to them. As the elephants move from the park to alternative conservation areas, it is evident that the cultivated areas are in problem. Although elephants killing as a result of human conflict has greatly reduced, it is important that alternative actions are taken to prevent destruction of crops by elephants in areas near the parks and other wildlife conservation regions.

I am of the opinion that there should be thorough training and advocacy, aiming to inform the communities the role played by the wildlife. It should be noted that as long as plans are underway to protect crops and human lives against elephants, land use and management must be clearly planned to make decisions on how to run both wildlife conservation and crop cultivation.

Wildlife conservation needs a collective responsibility which should start with the community, stretches to the government through mandated organizations to the international stakeholders.

The 21st Century Irony on Kenyan School Libraries

Today I must appreciate the fact that Kenya has been on the right move in embracing the current technology.

A lot has been done in almost all sectors, especially the education sector where access to information is advanced.

Although we appreciate all that has been implemented especially access to information, I must say that there is a big concern when it comes to school libraries. I actually managed to be in many primary and secondary schools, and I must say that in most of school libraries the situation is sorry.

I can't imagine that in this century, we still have libraries that store their publications in wooden shelves and they still hire cooks and watchmen to head the library.

This is one situation that if we critically look at, it may be the reason as to why reading culture is not embraced in school libraries. This being the case, we can't blame the poor results we have been  recording in some institutions and we can as well not blame the situation of exams cheating which has seen many candidates' results cancelled.

My opinion to this; as long as there are several solutions to both poor results and exams cheating, reading culture should also be part of the solutions. But the big question is who is in charge of this?

The only way to do this is by first of all institutionalizing school libraries and then employing qualified information professionals who will basically introduce information literacy programs and find a way of improving the access to the collection. This one will require several departments to work together and ensure that the information needs of the teachers and students are properly addressed.

If this will be considered then there will be a sense of job creation and also upgrade of school libraries.

THE INTERNET CAN'T REPLACE LIBRARIES

Libraries are more accurate sources of information for scholars and researchers than the Internet as they provide quality, organized, timely and rich information in this current century where information is quite important for development.

The Internet consists of a small percentage of what’s published. Search engines such as Google, AltaVista, and Yahoo access are limited. ALA reports that only 8% of all journals and even fewer books are on the Internet.  The most reliable scholarly information is available in books and journals.  Preliminary steps to find the appropriate search terms should start with print indexes and subject headings volumes and in addition to this there is no system that catalogs and organizes all resources on the Internet.   A search on the Internet is similar to searching an unclassified catalog.  When you use any of the search engines, you’re searching only part of the Internet.  Searches are not always relevant to your topic and can cause a lot of wasted time, frustration and confusion.

A major concern is that Quality control isn’t easy to achieve on the Internet.  Open Source information on the Internet is quite common and easy to get misinformed information.  Anyone with access to the Internet can publish a Website and may miss some factual considerations.
Although internet serves a wide number of users around the world, Information on the WWW is hard to tell who’s telling you what and where the location of the information is. When you use information in your paper from the Internet, it’s important to print it out and cite your sources.   Information taken from the Web can change overnight.  Information taken from the library or databases in the library gives the exact location.  One must give full documentation when using information from a site and having this in mind, this argument can easily lead to increase in cases of plagiarism and copyright issues.

Users who rely on the internet to carry out a research must have in mind that to Cite the Internet the following bibliographic elements are quite important which the internet at times may fail to provide:

• Author’s name (if known)
• Full title of document in quotation marks
• Title of complete work if applicable (in italics)
• Date of publication of last revision (if available).
• Full URL address (http) enclosed within angle brackets
• Date of visit in parenthesis

Lack of satisfactory bibliographic elements can always be address by the inclusion or use of Libraries Online databases that can be accessed 24 hours a day 7 days a week from the library’s webpage that have been automated. These databases are in the library’s collection and can be accessed on campus and remotely with your University ID via the Internet. This is not to be confused with searching the Internet. Users can also address the discrepancies in citation by employing a manner of subscribing to online certified resources such as emerald journals, from http://emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/journals/index.htm and many more electronic publications. E-books are full-text and searchable. Text can be searched automatically, and cross-referenced using hyperlinks.  Dictionaries, reference works, and some textbooks, benefit from search and cross-reference capabilities.  Content is available 24/7. 

It is also very important for students to note that library resources are paid for with their tuition and fees, so students should take advantage of it.  Libraries provide free access to scholarly books, journals, newspapers, encyclopedias, and other print reference sources.  A lot of information on the Internet is FREE, except scholarly materials.  A paid subscription is required to access and we also realize that knowledgeable and friendly librarians are always available to assist with locating information in person, chat, e-mail or telephone and so researchers and students should request assistance at the beginning of their research and spare valuable time spent on the Internet. 

The library has older materials than the Internet. Digitalization that goes back more than 10-15 years can be difficult to locate on the Internet. The Internet provides more timely information, and is constantly updated.

Gender Equality Leading Strengths

Political participation is said to be the key ingredient of every political system, be it traditional or modern, democratic or totalitarian. It means that in every political system there must be somebody in a position to take political decisions and perform other political actions like appointment and removal of officials from time to time. 

Factors like age, sex(gender), financial status, level of education, political and economic experience, psychology, geo-political zoning, primordial factors (religion, ethnicity), and nature of government, affect political participation.

In terms of women in politics, particularly, there are few occasions you would witness women participating in any political activity, especially during elections, few contest for political positions and very few women vote. Some factors that hinder women participation are further discussed below:

Education: Not all women have acquired adequate political education and so they know nothing or less about politics generally. Although the only specification given to those contesting for any political position at times is Secondary Certificate Examination, but not all women have acquired a political degree or political knowledge hence they are not conversant with the political orientation or structure to enable participation.

The Cultural Factor: This is a major factor because it is an ethos issue. In the traditional society, women are made to stay out of politics. With the only politics they can engage in being that of the kitchen. In a traditional society, it is believed to be the duty of the man, since he is the head, participating in politics automatically bequeaths one with power; It is generally accepted that only men be allowed to wield such political power.

The Psychological Factor: This factor hinders women participation in politics by implanting various reasons or motives in the mind on why women cannot participate fully in politics. For instance, a married woman with kids would be insulted even by her fellow women, if she attends political party meetings frequently and she is hardly at home to take care of her kids, especially if the meetings are held at night, a typical husband or man, would suspect her of having extra marital affairs since his wife would be coming back very late. This psychologically discourages women from participating in politics.

The Nature of Politics is said to be very violent and for those with the hearts and minds of stone, can withstand such violence. We have witnessed and heard about the violence that transpires every election season, a woman, naturally would not want to get involved in such as she has a lot to lose, health wise and beauty wise. If most women continue to think this way, there is no way any woman would want to participate in politics, or allow any family member of hers to participate.

Poverty and Dis-empowerment: In African Countries, we can conclude that the gender who is empowered is the man, some women are also empowered but cannot exceed the number of empowered men, and being empowered attracts authority, dominance, wealth, etc. With all these factors that the male specie possesses, there is a tendency of intimidation springing up, thereby leading to the laying back in political participation by the women.

FACTORS LARGELY CONTRIBUTING TO UNEMPLOYMENT IN KENYA

Majority of the unemployed in Kenya are the youth. There account for the biggest percentage of the job seekers in Kenya. This is a major drawback to the economy because the youth are the most productive members of the society. All this labor left out means less production and even more liabilities to the economy. Youth unemployment statistics in Kenya show that 60% of the Kenyan population is under the age of 30.  The Kenyan unemployment rate is approximately 40% as of December 2011 and that an estimated 64% of unemployed Kenyans are youth (Biko, 2012).

Unemployment in Kenya is a growing problem especially among the youth and has been the election agenda for almost every politician in the last few elections and still continues to be. It might not be possible to look at the solution available to the issue of unemployment without looking at the causes of the unemployment as this will give us a peek into what we are dealing with.

The following therefore are the most critical factors resulting to high unemployment rate in Kenya:

High Population Growth

Kenya’s population is growing at a very fast rate compared to the economy. There are more people than the current economy can sustain therefore the large number of unemployed persons in Kenya. Such a high population growth rate is incompatible with the available arable land in the rural areas. Hence people tend to migrate in the urban areas in search of jobs. This aggravates unemployment in the urban areas. This increased population coupled with unemployment really lowers the per capita income of the Kenyan economy.

Global Economic Recession
Recent global economic recessions have reduced the capacity of most economies to reduce unemployment. Kenya is not an exception to this. This increased recession has led to many companies lying off most of their employees to cut down on operational costs. The problem can be solved through greater international co-operation. Kenyan workers face massive lay-offs, no salary increments and a freeze on new jobs as companies struggle to survive in a bad economy. Many companies will pay out smaller dividends to shareholders and are rescheduling their debts to stay afloat. High cost of fuel and transport and poor road network are considered as the major factors responsible for the economic slow down.

Inappropriate Education System
The Kenyan education system has been very good in imparting knowledge to students for a long time. But the problem has come up whereby it has been seen to teach students how to pass exams and not how to become productive later on in their lives. This has had damaging effects on the students after completion of school. These students have few skills that they can apply in the job market and if they have, they are not appropriate for the kind of jobs they are looking for. The education system in Kenya was preparing people for jobs that were not there. The 8-4-4 systemof education is designed to try to overcome this problem. It is intended to make people self reliant. But it has a long way to go before it can really have an impact on the kind of labor it provides to the Kenyan market which of late has been an economy of job seekers.

Seasonal Jobs 

In Kenya, most of the jobs available are usually seasonal, there are there for a specific period of time. Demand for labor in rural areas is mostly seasonal. This is made worse by the general ignorance of the existence of jobs elsewhere as well as by occupational immobility. This creates problems of underemployment and disguised unemployment. Also some of the contractual jobs that come up especially for the manual laborers getting a job after that can take a while due to lack of any professional skills to back them up.

Capacity Under-utilization
Most firms tend to produce below their capacity, thereby not employing as many people as their capable of. This arises due to lack of sufficient demand of their products. It can also be as a result of monopoly practices that limit output. These companies don’t lack the ability to hire manpower but continue under utilization to save on the cost of production therefore increasing the level of unemployment in Kenya.

Imperfections in the Labors Market
There are imperfections in the labor market caused by government and trade union interventions. This has tended to distort the labor market by maintaining minimum wages above the market equilibrium. As such, the wage structure in Kenya has failed to coordinate demand and supply.

Use of inappropriate technology
For developing countries such as Kenya, this is the situation whereby industries continue using relatively capital intensive methods of production instead of labor intensive ones. This is caused by relative factor prices of capital and labor, foreign ownership of firms, etc. This problem can be solved by the creation of incentives to encourage the of labor intensive techniques.

Lack of Co-operand Factors
This is especially so in the case of capital and skilled labor, which are scarce in most developing countries. Such a problem can be solved through increased capital formation and expanded education and training.

Regional disparities in development
The disparities in rural and urban development have tended to encourage migration of labor to towns through what is refereed to as rural-urban migration and thereby a large number of the migrating communities may fall short of jobs as the industries in major towns may not be in a position to accommodate all the population and as a matter of facts, there are minimum opportunities than the rate at which rural-urban migration is rapidly emerging.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF UNEMPLOYMENT; CASE OF KENYA

Unemployment is universally recognized as a bad thing. While economists and academics make convincing arguments that there is a certain natural level of unemployment that cannot be erased, elevated unemployment imposes significant costs on the individual, the society and the country. Worse yet, most of the costs are of the dead loss variety where there are no offsetting gains to the costs that everyone must bear. (Depending on how it's measured, the unemployment rate is open to interpretation. 

The cost of unemployment can be seen in three levels

1. The Costs to the Individual
2. Costs to Society
3. Costs to the Country

The Costs to the Individual

The costs of unemployment to the individual are not hard to imagine. When a person loses his or her job, there is often an immediate impact to that person's standard of living. Prior to the Great Recession, the average savings rate in Kenya  had been drifting down towards zero (and sometimes below), and there are anecdotal reports that the average person is only a few weeks away from serious financial trouble without a paying job.

Even for those eligible for unemployment benefits and other forms of government assistance (like food assistance); it is often the case that these benefits replace 50% or less of their regular income. That means these people are consuming far less than usual. The economic consequences can go beyond just less consumption, though. Many people will turn to retirement savings in a pinch and draining these savings has long-term ramifications.
Prolonged unemployment can lead to an erosion of skills, basically robbing the economy of otherwise useful talents. At the same time, the experience of unemployment (either direct or indirect) can alter how workers plan for their futures - prolonged unemployment can lead to greater skepticism and pessimism about the value of education and training and lead to workers being less willing to invest in the long years of training some jobs require. On a similar note, the absence of income created by unemployment can force families to deny educational opportunities to their children and deprive the economy of those future skills.
Lastly, there are other costs to the individual. Studies have shown that prolonged unemployment harms the mental health of workers, and can actually worsen physical health and shorten life spans.

Costs to Society

The social costs of unemployment are difficult to calculate, but no less real. When unemployment becomes a pervasive problem, there are often increased calls for protectionism and severe restrictions on immigration. Protectionism can not only lead to destructive tit-for-tat retaliation among regions/countries, but reductions in trade harm the economic well-being of all trading partners.

Other social costs include how people interact with each other. Studies have shown that times of elevated unemployment often correlate both with less volunteerism and higher crime. Elevated crime makes sense because absent a wage-paying job people may turn to crime to meet their economic needs or simply to alleviate boredom. The volunteerism decline does not have an obvious explanation, but could perhaps be tied to the negative psychological impacts of being jobless or perhaps even resentment at those who do not have a job.

Costs to the Country

The economic costs of unemployment are probably more obvious when viewed through the lens of the national checkbook. Unemployment leads to higher payments from state and federal governments for unemployment benefits, food assistance, and Medicaid. At the same time, those governments are no longer collecting the same levels of income tax as before - forcing the government to borrow money (which defers the costs and impacts of unemployment into the future) or cut back on other spending (perhaps exacerbating the bad economic situation).

Unemployment is also a dangerous state for the Kenyan economy. A large number of economies produce goes to personal consumption and unemployed workers. Even those getting government supports cannot spend at prior levels. The production of those workers leaves the economy which reduces the GDP and moves the country away from the efficient allocation of its resources. It is also worth noting that companies pay a price for high unemployment as well. Unemployment benefits are financed largely by taxes assessed on businesses. When unemployment is high, states will often look to replenish their coffers by increasing their taxation on businesses - counter-intuitively discouraging companies from hiring more workers. Not only do companies face less demand for their products, it is also more expensive for them to retain or hire workers.