THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST OF THE 19TH SGC

They may pride themselves on their popularity and immense following from the student’s community, but the students governing council (SGC) has a negative side-and it showed during the interviews for the Editor-in-Chief.

It was their first big stage to test their mettle and integrity; choosing a competent and proven individual to be in-charge of dissemination of information to the Chepkoilel University College fraternity. And while the opening act may have been dreary, the finale was sublime. Amid the drama, Mary* stole the show with a ‘thrilling encore’ and was rewarded for her majestic presentation. But there was plenty of theatre too from the interviewers.

As the curtain drew back for the third installment of this epic-three part series, the cast lined up-9 against 11: the applicants vs. the SGC. There was tragedy and comedy; there were heroes and villains; there was drama and even horror. But above all there was plenty of acting.

The chairman was the hero, rescuing a poor script with a stunning late cameo which included subjecting applicants to voting by the SGC-which would have made a fitting finale to any blockbuster. After tying the two final contestants were subjected to biased secret ballot voting, why call a mockery interview exercise when you can sit among yourselves and do a secret ballot to choose the Editor-in-Chief. The credits followed, all for the Chairman, a box office hit.

But earlier, there had been villains too, those were the applicants. Dressed in crisp suits, clutching certificates folder, their piercing glares and evil stares among each other looked the part. They were the perfect baddies. Or were they? Opinions may differ as to whether the applicants were qualified or not, but either way meritocracy was thrown to the dungeons .The gallery (read students community) had been fooled. The supporting cast made up of the chairman, and the SGC theatrically disagreed on the best candidate and each showed signs of discontent with each other, but were in character 2minutes later after the voting. Chatting and congratulating each other for the ‘professionalism and sobriety’ practiced during the interview.

Only in movies can such miraculous reconciliations be witnessed-or on stage. In earlier scenes, the secretary general had led the entire team in asking the applicants ‘questions’ (read non-related to editorial exposure nor work).this was interview-acting of the highest order, but of the lowest level; amateur dramatics. Thespians perhaps; artistry, this was not.

Cheating in theatrical terms is the practice of turning one’s body towards the audience, even while keeping the head facing one’s scene partner. This may be their favorite or most well known part, and they may not be the best exponents of the genre, but the SGC has played this role before.

The SGCs act is hypocritical too. They preach transparency and accountability; they claim to pontificate over the student community and to provide equal opportunities to all their members irrespective of gender, skin color, racial background or wealth status. But only is parental guidance needed, often the action is x-rated material. And while their performances may be easy on the eye and worthy of praise, they can also leave a sour aftertaste.

STAYING ON PURPOSE; NOT ON OUTCOME

Born to a single mother,brought up in a children’s home till when she was 18 years, then taken back to her relatives, is just a tip of the iceberg on the treacherous path that Angeline Nyaunyo has travelled but strongly she has defied all these odds.

Angie has Purposely taken curiosity turned into creativity then to cash;problems turned into profits. Unlike a lot of teenagers, Angie does not waste a lot of time and dollars shopping at the mall,she prefers to find creative, artful solutions that are delightful and engaging. 

Angie started making mosaic handicraft when she was in class one; despite the fact that she had everything she ever needed at the children’s home.she had the passion and approach this above all with love; love of nature, a mid-life love story, the love of making beautiful things and the age-old love for collecting.Her prime motivator to change her situation was pleasure,not fear.

she gave the first handicraft she made, a vase worth 12₤ but gave it for free as a Christmas present to her mentor, godmother and role model prof .Magraet Ogola, wife author of ‘the river and the source’. She would make the handicrafts and hide them because she feared she’d have her heart and ego crushed. during the time at the children’s home she learned taking responsibility for her actions and that of the younger ones since she was the eldest and in charge and at times it would be so hard being accused of something you did not do, this really lowered her self-esteem, but she is giving it a try to achieve it back. Her dream was to become a doctor, just like her godmother but later she changed that to law all under the aegis of humanity advancement.

When she turned 18 she was taken back to her relatives. With no one to pay her school fees and no income to further her education,she enrolled into CPA classes on the advice of a friend with the hope of seeing light at the end of the tunnel but this was never to happen as she dropped out in section 2 due to lack of interest and passion.When all hope of ever getting a modest education seemed over,out of the blues she got a chance to join MoiUniversity to pursue a bachelors degree course in Business and Tourism Management

Her handicraft is modeled on the theme of environmental conservation and wildlife.She recycles waste materials to be a fine piece of art that is breathtaking.Angie does not have a pre-conceived idea for what she’s going to craft, she confides, “Something just catches my eye – light, a shadow, a line, a curve, a color, an incongruity – something – and my heart beats faster. I don’t consciously choose a subject. The few times I have tried to search out and craft something in particular, I have failed. I craft what speaks to me and what touches my soul in some way. Every craft is personal and a motivation from the surrounding. Every craft has meaning. Every craft is more than just the subject. At least to me.”

She has always had the passion and potential but never considered selling her handicrafts but when her classmates and other people reacted unequivocal-ly positive to her handicrafts which was and continues to be an incredibly satisfying and profound experience for her. From that experience forward, she has devoted her energy to creating and sharing and hopefully selling her handicrafts.She dreams of showcasing her handicrafts at capital centre art and galleria exhibition and eventuallyowning an art gallery.

Her crafts are predominantly of things that are around her. To her the environment and wildlife are such a powerful and beneficent presence on this planet – so often misunderstood, so often taken for granted, so often misused. For her, they have been and are her daily salvation and connection to life. Most of the messages that adorn her handicrafts are in Italian. One of them reads, ’L’Amoretuttosopporta’ (love in total support).she supports local curio artists by buying African jewelleries. Most of the proceeds she has gotten from her handicrafts have gone towards paying her school fees and supporting charities such as neema children’s home and Emmanuel children’s home.

One of the major setbacks she has encountered include, lack of adequate capital ;most people also don’t know the value of art and government failure to market local handicraft artists.

Unknown to many people, Angie speaks a total of five languages,English,Swahili,Spanish(a little),Italian(a Little) and her mother tongue Buganda( which she is being taught by friends and relatives) She could not be able to speak it because she was brought up in a childrens home.she would swap her artistic work with a career in the airlines industry despite the fact that she has a fear for heights. Her favourite food is matoke and exercises by playing badminton. Her favorite tourist destinations are Malaysia and Geneva,Switzerland.She is single and has a phobia for relationships considering what happened to her mum.

If you need a gift for a special person, or just need some time to unwind, make a creative handicraft. Crafting is therapeutic when you are feeling stressed, and it also can yield a useful or decorative item. Everyone has some measure of creativity, and with modern kits and patterns, a creative handicraft does not have to end in frustration. , you can learn to make a creative handicraft that will be a useful and welcome gift.

Her handicrafts are breathtaking that sometimes it’s not enough for touch to be with the eyes alone one is tempted to touch in some way. If not licking, kissing, troding, poking, shoving, then, at least a finger must dart out to make the ground of connection.

THE DIVORCE BETWEEN THE TWO GREAT TRIBES IN KENYA

I’ll be shocked if there’s another book this year as important as Mark Forbes’s “Coming Apart.” I’ll be shocked if there’s another book that so compellingly describes the most important trends in Kenyan society.
Forbes’s basic argument is not new, that Kenya is dividing into a two-caste society. What’s impressive is the incredible data he produces to illustrate that trend and deepen our understanding of it.
His story starts in 1963. There was a gap between rich and poor then, but it wasn’t that big. A house in an upper-crust suburb cost only twice as much as the average new Kenyan home. The tippy-top luxury car, the Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz, cost about $47,000 in 2010 dollars. That’s pricey, but nowhere near the price of the top luxury cars today.
More important, the income gaps did not lead to big behavior gaps. Roughly 98 percent of men between the ages of 30 and 49 were in the labor force, upper class and lower class alike. Only about 3 percent of white kids were born outside of marriage. The rates were similar, upper class and lower class.
Since then, Kenya has polarized. The word “class” doesn’t even capture the divide Forbes describes. You might say the country has bifurcated into different social tribes, with a tenuous common culture linking them.
The upper tribe is now segregated from the lower tribe. In 1963, rich people who lived on the Upper Western Side of Nairobi lived close to members of the middle class. Most adult Nairobian’s who lived south of Muthaiga back then hadn’t even completed high school. Today, almost all of Muthaiga is an upper-tribe enclave.
Today, Forbes demonstrates, there is an archipelago of affluent enclaves clustered around the coastal cities, Mombasa, Malindi,Lamu and so on. If you’re born into one of them, you will probably go to college with people from one of the enclaves; you’ll marry someone from one of the enclaves; you’ll go off and live in one of the enclaves.
Worse, there are vast behavioral gaps between the educated upper tribe (20 percent of the country) and the lower tribe (30 percent of the country). This is where Forbes is at his best, and he’s mostly using data on all tribes in Kenya, so the effects of ethnicity and other complicating factors don’t come into play.
Roughly 7 percent of the  kids in the upper tribe are born out of wedlock, compared with roughly 45 percent of the kids in the lower tribe. In the upper tribe, nearly every man aged 30 to 49 is in the labor force. In the lower tribe, men in their prime working ages have been steadily dropping out of the labor force, in good times and bad.
People in the lower tribe are much less likely to get married, less likely to go to church, less likely to be active in their communities, more likely to watch TV excessively, more likely to be obese.
Forbes story contradicts the ideologies of the two main parties in Kenya, PNU and ODM. PNU claim that Kenya is threatened by decadent cultural elite that corrupts regular Kenyans, who love God, country and traditional values. That story is false. The cultural elites live more conservative, traditionalist lives than the cultural masses.
ODM claim Kenya is threatened by the financial elite, who hog society’s resources. But that’s a distraction. The real social gap is between the top 20 percent and the lower 30 percent. The liberal members of the upper tribe latch onto this top 1 percent narrative because it excuses them from the central role they themselves are playing in driving inequality and unfairness.
It’s wrong to describe a Kenya in which the salt of the earth common people are preyed upon by this or that nefarious elite. It’s wrong to tell the familiar underdog morality tale in which the problems of the masses are caused by the elites.
The truth is, members of the upper tribe have made themselves phenomenally productive. They may mimic bohemian manners, but they have returned to 1950s traditionalist values and practices. They have low divorce rates, arduous work ethics and strict codes to regulate their kids.
Members of the lower tribe work hard and dream big, but are more removed from traditional bourgeois norms. They live in disorganized, postmodern neighborhoods in which it is much harder to be self-disciplined and productive.
I doubt Forbes would agree, but we need a National Service Program. We need a program that would force members of the upper tribe and the lower tribe to live together, if only for a few years. We need a program in which people from both tribes work together to spread out the values, practices and institutions that lead to achievement.
If we could jam the tribes together, we’d have a better elite and a better mass.