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LONG READ: The YALI Experience in 3,200 Words

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There are lessons you are inadvertently taught when you are a 35-year-old being forced to sit in the same class with an 18-year-old. Imagine someone who is half your age, with less of life experiences sitting by your side, being taught the things you should have learned eighteen years ago. You feel a little jealous that you were not told these things early enough; that some people are just lucky. But you also feel hopeful that a young generation is being made to learn about better ideals of leadership, and what a good society should look like. It is also somewhat shameful that you haven’t really done a lot to ‘change lives’, and in a country with a life expectancy of 61 years such as Kenya, you take a silent vow – the things you tell your heart and your mind and your conscience— to use the remaining part of your life to change the world. Your world. But when you sit in that class with an open mind, to learn not just from the lecturers but also from your colleagues, both the ones on the…
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PART TWO: KBC English Service...these were the days!

This is the second feed from the one I narrated yesterday. I was just about to tell you a little of how I spent my days --radio-wise--- as I waited to join University. For two years. Two whole years. So, Station ilikuwa KBC English Service, ndio nionekane msee nimeishia chuo.Hizo days, ma-fm stations, kina Kiss, Classic, Umoja na Metro hazikuwa zinashika huko ocha. Wazae na wasee wa kawa walikuwa juu ya KBC ‘idhaa ya Taifa’, ile ya Kiswahili, kusikia kina Leonard Mambo, Anunda Sakwa, Gladys Herude na Elizabeth Obege.Mimi msee nilikuwa nadai vile ati nimefika chuo kubwa; man uliza msee yoyote Kakamega High School, ama Kach High, na utaambiwa sio chuo ya ma-softie. Kila mtu ni hardcore. So redio ni English service, ndio nisikie John Karani na Charity Karimi wakihost Beat-Time Show, saa zingine Jeff Mwangemi , lakini sanasana Jeff alikuwa msee wa ku-bring ile show ya Reggae noma sana kila Thursday eight asubuhi hadi nine, na repeat kila Monday afte, saa nane.Hapo katikati, kulikuwa na s…
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Music Review: Hayawani by Nyashinski

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You want to dance ‘helicopter’. It just fits. You want to shake your shoulders, just a bit (not the way they do in ‘kutalang’i). A little shoulder-shaking-arms-apart kind of dance, with your legs doing whatever they want to do. The head can nod, mbele-nyuma, or left- right, like you just took a sniff (Haa!) Yes, it is Nyanshinski’s song.
The solo guitar that introduces the song and stays with you – disappearing to let Nyashinski relay his message and resuming as a signal that he’s done with his verse— is unforgettable. It reminded me of that guitar in ‘Kasuku’ by Maroon Commandos or the one in Sukuma bin Ongaro’s ‘Jirani Kuno’. And the way the bass guitar checks in at 00.09, eish, that combined sound of “vroom and uuhhmm” boooosss! Where’s Clint the Drunk? The bass man doesn’t have to play anything! I’d heard something like the rhythm guitar earlier on, not intrusive, but it is there, pacing the song, (it’s perhaps somebody getting creative on the keyboard and it works.) And the drums a…
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