Promoting critical thinking and awareness about government policies and actions in Kenya.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
ALLEGATIONS OF DISLOYALTY FOR A RADICAL ISLAMIST
Friday, June 24, 2011
Culture acculturation vs demystified tradition
Saturday, January 29, 2011
EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY
Abstract
A study was conducted in Kenya being a developing country to evaluate the use of information and technology in high schools and teacher colleges. As the part of that study we established how ICT has improved educational services. This article explores a number of ways in which information and communications technologies (ICT) have been incorporated and integrated in a teacher education program in order to extend opportunities for students to interact with ICT as part of their preparation for becoming early childhood professionals. It describes three examples where ICT have been utilized in different contexts to promote understanding of the implications of technologies in educational settings, to engage students with powerful conceptual ideas and as a means of communication between students on campus and those in remote areas. The examples reveal that both undergraduate and graduate students indicated that they were at a novice stage of use and understanding before embarking on the courses. In addition, the examples show that participation in the courses helped students to come to terms with computer technology as a device that could help them both to acquire new forms of knowledge as well as extend the possibilities for interactions with other early childhood professionals who were located in remote areas. The examples also highlighted the need for teacher educators to become aware of the variety of ways in which ICT can complement and extend teaching and learning contexts in new and dynamic ways rather than be used to perpetuate existing pedagogical strategies that need to be reconceptualized in the information age.
- Increased use of ICT technology and knowledge to improve quality of education services and effectiveness of ICT in learning
- Improved ICT infrastructure and technology applications to increase access to ICT resources and services
- Well-defined policies, regulations, and standards and disseminating best practices in ICT resources, services, data usage and their successful use in education
- Repository of resources, best practices and case studies
- Web publishing for ICTs in education and virtual exhibition of world-renowned ICT products and services in education
- Community clusters among organizations and individuals on development of resources to promote ICTs in education and on R&D for advanced forms of education and learning processes.
- Global community of practice enabling communication and sharing of educational resources
- Teachers can create their contents and sell for distribution to others schools or to be downloaded by other teachers in various parts of the country
- Motivate the students and makes education enjoyable and also allow the teacher to teach difficult concepts to the students by use of videos ,animations, pictures, text ,URL etc
- Can be offered offline or online
Too often televisions and radio have been used by teachers to occupy the students while they do something else. Videos are commonly given to substitute teachers by teachers when they are absent so that the substitute does not have to try to teach material that they are not familiar with teaching. When used appropriately, television, radios and videos can be very effective teaching tools. The video can be stopped in the middle of viewing or their content can be copied in their computers as they watch to allow students to discuss what they have seen so that they do not have to be asked to remember everything they saw at the end of the class period. The content copied on their computers can also be played again and again by individual student on their computer so that they understand the whole idea. Like any other technology incorporated into schools, the technology must be relevant to what is being taught in the classroom and not just used for the sake of using technology.
The ability of the student to manipulate programs is still limited due to how software is sold, but there are products that give students the opportunity to manipulate data in more efficient ways. Because of these programs, students are able to focus more time on the interpretation of data, which leads to more time students are involved in higher learning processes. Students get to see the big picture and they have the opportunity to learn more in-depth about different subjects.
The Internet have opened up many different opportunities for computer use in schools. Not only could schools use the technology within the school, they could now network with other schools. The “classroom” as we know it today goes beyond the walls of the classroom to include all that is available on the Internet. Students today are able to access sources outside of their school library on different topics. The ability to network with other classes and students around the world also provides many exciting opportunities for students.One example in Kenya,the Kenya institute of education have digitized the whole curriculum of secondary schools,teachers are able to log in to KIE servers from remote ares and download learning contents and different exercises
However With the creation of wireless connections, schools are able to access the Internet easier than before. With wired connections, computers could only reach out as far as the cable could reach, and the classroom setup is influenced by where the computers could go in the room. With wireless technology, computers can better adapt to the classroom setup with the use of wireless laptops. With the portability of these laptops, schools are starting to move towards issuing laptops that have electronic textbooks on them for the students, eliminating the need for textbooks. Network thus is a very important aspect in E-learning,because information and educational content runs on it.It acts as the backbone of the whole process. Fiber optic cables being laid in different parts of the country will harness transmission and transportation of educational content through internet to many places of the country.
Technology roadblocks in education
The reasons that technology does not always work in education have not changed much since electronic technology began to enter classrooms. Since teachers are likely to teach the way they have been taught, they are less likely to try something new that they are not familiar with. Common reasons for not using electronic technology in classrooms include the following:
• The technology is not accessible when needed
• The technology does not work well with the existing curriculum
• The technology is difficult to use
• The technology does not meet an educational need
Teachers are also reluctant to hand over the control of learning to the student. In today’s society, where learning accountability falls on the teacher, teachers need to know that what goes on in their classroom is getting students to learn what they need for the standardized tests. If they are not sure about whether a new technology program will work, they are more likely to stick with what they know is working for the majority of the students in order to ensure that they get the required results, even if that means not allowing students to learn material in more depth.
Much of the technology created for the schools has also been developed by those who are not working in the schools. These technology professionals do not know the way that schools work, so they are not able to create technology that works with what is being done in classrooms. For technology to be truly effective in the classroom there needs to be teacher input in the creation process. Teachers also need training on how to use technology and they need to be able to give input on how they are able to successfully or unsuccessfully use technology. The society has long expected education to fix the problems of society, so educators need to be involved in the creation of policies that directly affect them.
HOW TECHNOLOGY CAN CHANGE THE FORMAT OF EDUCATION
With the availability of different technology programs, students will be able to learn in ways they could not learn before. These programs will allow students to become more efficient at learning by doing some of the work for them; this will allow the students to be able to have more time to look at the big picture. Students will have more opportunity to engage in higher thinking skills; depth over breadth. The standards that are required of teachers to cover in class could have a better chance of being covered, and those standards are likely to be reviewed regularly to adapt to the needs of the society.
Online college courses allow working professionals to work on higher degrees while working. Online high schools will allow students to participate in the extracurricular activities of their choice while working on their high school diploma. Students who once could not finish their high school classes due to chronic illness are able to finish their classes now. Students will also be able to enter the workforce sooner and start college sooner.
Education as we know it is reversing itself in that the student will be able to complete their education at their own pace, similar to the education of students in the one room schoolhouses. Students will no longer be grouped based on age. With computers being able to do some of the work of the teachers, education will become more individualized.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
SELF MADE KING WHO HAS LEAD HIS MONARCH TO ANARCHY AND PARIAH
Monday, January 10, 2011
THE GREEN CONVECTION STATUS OF MIND
For those of us who have seen it coming right from the quest for multi party democracy in early 90's to this date,we need not to be reminded where we've come from.
It was journey that some of us got lost behind, and when the battle got sour and dread a lot of us wept and moaned, we was like the lost children of Israel searching to be flee in this East Africa world region. As a teenage i saw grown men cry, battled and bruised but they couldn't kill their spirit. We’ve all been fighting for a noble cause; let no man enthuse in our kindness. The proponents of the draft constitution should concede a defeat, how dare are they to reduce the quest for draft to witch hunting .Timeless in case we never been acquainted, mindless violence, we are still letting them paint it in our society.
The NO proponents dwell on the chauvinism of making extraterrestrial life in our own image. If they want us to belief what they are telling us is true, they ought to have advocated for that when the draft was still in formative stages. None rose to the floor of the house and indeed question the contentious clauses. They are indeed portraying our country as a bellicose nation. Their attitude towards opposing the draft reflects their character in mind. Indeed they are prejudiced people who are intolerant of any opinion differing from their own.
In my opinion, it obvious that these guys are campaigning against the draft to salvage their ill-gotten wealth, to test their popularity in preparedness to 2012 general elections thus raises their political profile. We cannot overlook the former president factor in the no campaign; it’s possible these bigots are paid thugs meant to demonize the draft.
Not dwelling so much on what the draft entails, let’s disregard those who are against the draft and vote YES on the upcoming referendum. Strong rule the weak, but the wise rule the strong
It's more to a war than just getting it on, Conceal your form, cover your footstep’s
Stay prepared I don't care if no one's spared
Am tipping the scale and am double sure that the wind shall prevail and the boat shall forever sail, its in our hands.Like MATIBA said “LETS THE PEOPLE DECIDE”
We are true patriot of this land; we need to exercise militant devotion to and glorification of our own country. The proposed constitution will be a milestone as far as the struggle for second liberation is concerned.
muthogajohn@gmail.com
RATIONAL PESSIMIST
The former president discordant and bigoted attitude towards the proposed constitution leave us with cheer utter and disbelief .The senior citizen however is blindly and obstinately attached to some creed or opinion intolerant towards others. The retired president is traversing the nation campaigning against the draft constitution and we all know the ostensible truth behind his invigorated efforts. It’s therefore apparent that the former KANU’Slinchpin is trying to protect his vested interest on issues that he feels might be subdued to public scrutiny if the draft constitution passes. He is thus trying to pursue his personal interest at the expense of the nation.
The former oriental despot has seemingly voluptuous appetite and zeal towards scheming and orchestrating propaganda.
Our civilization is shifting from science and technology to rhetoric and litigation. His recent thin sliced rhetorical attack towards the sitting president shows how he is determined to deny the country the new rule. It also reflects how desperate he is to block the draft from the shelves of jury. I am also tempted to reason if this man had anything to do with the controversial ruling onKADHI’S court or the altering of the draft.
The current president is determined to bring reforms in the country; we have all seen what have happened to our fellow countrymen in previous years during the struggle for second liberation. This is the second time that the sitting president is trying to have a new constitution enacted in Kenya. The thought of blaming him for failing to adopt the new rule within the first 100 days in office is not only obnoxious but also ambiguous bearing in mind his health status when he took the office.
A blatant attempt by MOIto urge Kenyans to vote against the draft is completely lacking subtle beyond no reasonable doubt. As Kenyans we ought to know to follow the proposed course of action as purported by MOI and his entourage is to invite retributive justice in its execution or outcome. We need a new constitutional dispensation in this country
muthogajohn@gmail.com
Kenya: the barbaric consequences of capitalism
Lenin once said that capitalism is horror without end. Kenya is the most ghastly proof of that assertion. This is a nation of approximately 36 million inhabitants, situated on the equator on the East of African coast, with Sudan and Ethiopia to the north, Uganda to the west, Tanzania to the south and the Indian Ocean to the east. To the northeast lies Somalia. The capital, Nairobi, is one of the largest cities in Africa with a population of three million. The average age of the population is only 18. Kenya is blessed with a benign climate and fertile agricultural land, although 70% of the country is arid and semi-arid. The combination of scenic beauty and abundant wildlife made Kenya one of Africa's leading tourist destinations. Kenya has very vibrant culture, which is due in no small measure to its ethnic diversity.
The basis of its economy is agriculture and tourism. The main crops grown are tea, coffee, cashew, maize, sugar and pyrethrum. It therefore has all the elements to become a prosperous and successful nation. But almost half a century after independence from British rule, it remains poor. The per capita income of the country is approximately 300 dollars. Until recently Kenya was held up as a glowing example of the success of the free market economy. Here was a country that carried out to the letter the policies dictated by the World Bank and the IMF. It was supposed to be a shining example of democracy, a beacon of hope for what Europeans used to call "the dark continent."
Now all these dreams lay in ashes. In recent weeks Kenya has been torn asunder by a wave of ethnic and tribal violence that has claimed nearly a thousand lives. The immediate cause of the violence was the rigged election of December 27th, when the sitting president Mwai Kibaki robbed the opposition of victory by blatant electoral fraud. Immediately after the disputed election, supporters of Raila Odinga, a member of the Luo tribe, who leads the opposition Orange Democratic Movement, took to the streets to protest. Since Kabaki is a Kikuyu, as are most of his supporters, the struggle assumed the character of a bloody ethnic conflict.
Since them at least 1,000 have died and 200,000 been driven from their homes in widespread violence. Every day the western media are filled with stories of new horrors, as ordinary poor Africans slaughter each other with machetes, clubs and knives. Houses are looted and torched and thousands of people forced to flee to other areas. Tens of thousands of families have been forced from their homes. People have been hacked or burned to death. Women have been raped. The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs in Geneva said today there had been 167 rapes reported to the Nairobi women's hospital in the past month, with the youngest victim one year old.
The shooting dead, in separate incidents, of two Orange MPs, set off a further orgy of killing in the capital's slums and elsewhere. One was Mugabe Were, a Luhya who was popular in Nairobi; the other was David Kimutai Too, a Kalenjin. In the Luos' provincial capital, Kisumu, more Kikuyus were butchered, some of them "necklaced" with burning tyres by Luo youths. In Eldoret, where Too was gunned down by a police officer, hundreds of young men blocked roads with burning tires and rocks, chanting "Kibaki must go". Smoke columns rose from smouldering ashes in what remains of the city's poor Nwagocho and Baraka housing estates. There police shot and killed four people and injured five on Thursday evening and Friday morning. They were accused of participating in looting properties and torching residential houses and business buildings.
In revenge attacks in the western village of Ainamoi a police officer was lynched by a 3,000-strong mob armed with bows and arrows, spears, clubs and machetes. They accused him of wounding a civilian when police opened fire on protests that broke out when news of Too's death spread. "The police officer injured three attackers before he was overpowered and lynched on the spot," said police commander Peter Aliwa. Regional officials said eight people were killed in the village of Ikonge, 240 miles west of the capital, Nairobi, in a revenge attack linked to Too's killing. Around 100 men hacked six of the victims to death. The other two were killed with poisoned arrows, the officials said. A further four people were killed by police. The list of horrors seems endless.
Hypocrisy of the "international community"
The weak Kenyan national bourgeoisie is alarmed at these developments. The country's largest newspaper, the Daily Nation, which had tended to support Kibaki during the election campaign, has lost patience with him. An editorial declared that the government's "inertia and ineptitude" were "exposing base instincts and driving the country back to pre-colonial times". The bourgeois are wringing their hands, but what is the solution? To this question Daily Nation has no answer.
Clashes in Nairobi |
What of the "international community"? Surely nice democratic countries like Britain and America will help? In the face of this appalling slaughter, the response of governments has been muted. Where are the shrill calls for regime change in Nairobi? Where are the resolutions in the Security Council? Where are the plans for humanitarian intervention? There are none. Why? Maybe it is because Kenya has no oil, or maybe because the West has been backing Kenyan president, Mwai Kibaki and his regime and see no urgency to change their mind. For whatever reason, the nice, civilized, Christian leaders of the western world are in no hurry to help prevent a catastrophe on the lines of Rwanda.
As always, the attitude of the imperialists stinks of hypocrisy Britain and America have given considerable military support to Kenya and they are still giving it. Mr Kibaki has been warmly embraced in the past as an ally in the global "war on terror". It is said that the European Union may seek "targeted" sanctions on Kenya, which would punish Kibaki and some of his ministers and backers, while allegedly sparing poorer Kenyans from the effects of general trade and aid sanctions. This would mean travel bans on specified individuals and their families and similar measures. But this kind of thing has already been tried in the case of Zimbabwe, without producing any significant result. It will be a bit inconvenient for Mrs. Kibaki not to be able to come to London to do her shopping at Harrods, but that barely amounts to a slap on the wrist.
They have dispatched former UN secretary general, Kofi Annan to act as mediator between Kibaki and the opposition leader, Raila Odinga. Kofi Annan says the political opponents had agreed a four-point plan for talks that could end the violence "within seven to 15 days". "The first [point] is to take immediate action to stop the violence," he told Reuters. But these are just words, and there is no sign whatsoever of the violence decreasing. Quite the contrary.
Diplomats, businessmen and church leaders are fervently hoping that Annan's negotiations will succeed. They know Kibaki is to blame for rigging the presidential vote, they have agreed not to press for immediate sanctions so as to give Annan more time. But time is not on his side. Kibaki is dragging out the talks in the hope of bolstering his position without making any concession on the election or on anything else. And the opposition supporters are being urged to suppress their anger and lower their demands. That is all that Kofi Annan and the "United Nations" has to offer: keep calm! Avoid violence! But violence is increasing all the time and threatens to overwhelm society.
In view of the manifest impotence of Kofi Annan, the current UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, flew from the African Union summit in Ethiopia to Nairobi to give him some support. The talks resumed, Ban called on both sides to "look beyond the individual interest. Look beyond the party lines ... Now the future is on you." But these are empty words and have had no effect. The gulf that separated the antagonistic parties before the elections has now turned into an unbridgeable abyss. Such a conflict cannot be resolved in purely parliamentary terms. In a speech at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Kibaki welcomed the international mediation efforts but suggested the opposition should take its grievances to the courts. He said: "The judiciary in Kenya has over the years arbitrated electoral disputes, and the current one should not be an exception."
This speech shows the undisguised cynicism of Kibaki. Everybody knows that the courts are stuffed with Kibaki's allies. In any case, proceedings move so slowly it could take months or years to reach a conclusion. This was a transparent attempt at delaying tactics. A recount of the vote would solve nothing because most Kenyans have no confidence in the electoral commission. The Oranges are demanding a new election, which would be the most democratic option. But even if the election was held (and Kabaki has rejected it), who would convene it? It is not likely that Kibaki and his supporters would sit alongside Odinga in an interim government In the meantime the slaughter continues.
Crimes of imperialism
For many people in Europe all this seems inexplicable. Some merely shrug their shoulders and make vague references to tribalism, which is a term they do not understand. Others see it as a confirmation that Africans are "primitive" people with "savage" instincts, as opposed to civilized Europeans. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. There were always different tribes in Kenya, as in every other country in Africa. There have been wars between tribes in the past over cattle rustling or land and natural resources such as lakes and rivers. But these tribal conflicts were child's play compared to the bloody wars we "civilized" Europeans have been waging for centuries, at the cost of millions of dead. And the damage caused by these earlier inter-tribal wars, pales in comparison to the arrival of foreigners, starting in the mid 15th century. The kind of all-out genocidal conflicts we have seen in places like Rwanda were unknown in Africa before the arrival of the white man. They could only be the product of our own enlightened, civilized world.
The colonial subjugation of Kenya was accompanied by the same violence as in other African countries. The colonists deliberately gave certain privileges to some tribes at the expense of others. All over Africa, tribal divisions were encouraged and intensified by the most Christian European rulers. The British were especially skilled at this game. In Kenya they introduced a rigid system for categorising the "natives" according to their real or imagined tribal origins. They even invented non-existent tribes for this purpose, like the Kalenjins, whose existence as a separate tribe seems to date from the 1940s. It was the British therefore, who planted the seeds of inter-tribal strife. They left behind them the same poisonous inheritance that they had earlier implanted in Ireland, Palestine, Cyprus and the Indian Subcontinent.
The Rift Valley, which has become the centre for much of the ethnic violence, in colonial times this area was known as The White Highlands. Masai cattle herders originally inhabited it, but the British, who wanted these lands for themselves, drove them out. The seeds of the independence struggle began from the very instant that communities were forcibly evicted from the productive lands. Organized resistance begun after world war one, and initially centred on issues such as access to education for Africans, land ownership rights and tax rates. The struggle was intensified after the Second World War, when black Africans returned from the front with military skills. They launched a long and bloody guerrilla war for independence.
The Kenyan people suffered many deaths, and many freedom fighters were imprisoned and sent to concentration camps. But in the end they won. Kenya became independent on 12th December 1963. This was a great victory for the people. But the middle class leaders of the independence struggle continued the oppressive and exploitative system as the British. Nominally independent, the national bourgeoisie had a servile attitude to Britain. In reality, over forty years after independence, Kenya today is more dependent on imperialism than ever before.
What is the problem? The problem is this: that the people of Kenya fought a heroic war of national liberation against British imperialism. The British were forced to leave. But this, in reality, was only half a victory. The lion's share of the spoils went to the new middle class, the blacks who aspired to European living standards and who secretly admired the old colonial masters and wanted to be like them. The founding president was Jomo Kenyatta, the legendary leader of the liberation struggle. He ruled Kenya from independence until his death in 1978. Like Julius Nyerere and other African leaders, he originally talked about socialism and promised to free the country from the curse of disease, ignorance and poverty. In reality, this was the program of the bourgeois-democratic revolution. But under modern conditions, it is impossible for an underdeveloped country like Kenya to solve the problems of the bourgeois-democratic revolution on the basis of capitalism.
Bankruptcy of the national bourgeoisie
The national bourgeoisie is too weak, and too dependent on imperialism, to tackle the most pressing problems of the masses. The new black elite went to smart British public schools where they learned to talk and think like the white B'wanas of colonial days. They became shareholders in British and American companies that installed themselves in Kenya and established a new kind of colonial dependency. For the average Kenyan poor worker and peasant not much changed. They had done all the fighting, but all they succeeded in doing was to change one master for another. The new black bourgeoisie was just as rapacious as the British, but even more corrupt, inefficient and rotten. In effect, they were only the local office boys of the British and America imperialists.
After independence, the different groups of the ruling class were struggling for power and influence. In this power struggle they based themselves on tribal loyalties. They thus preserved intact the old British system of divide and rule. Kenyatta, who was a Kikuyu, was in conflict with Odinga Odinga (the father of the present opposition leader), who based himself on the Luos. In order to bolster his position, Kenyatta distributed large tracts of fertile land in the former White Highlands to his Kikuyu followers. Other tribes like the Luo and Kalenjin were largely left out. Despite this, the different tribes lived side by side in peace and often intermarried. There was a feeling of a Kenyan national identity. But in recent years the feeling has grown that the fruits of Kenya's economic growth were not being evenly shared. This sentiment gradually took the form of resentment against the hold on power exercised by the dominant Kikuyu tribe.
The constant power struggles between the ruling and opposition parties led to a concentration of power within the presidency. Kenya became a de facto one party state (KANU), with a Bonapartist leader (Kenyatta). All power was vested with the presidency. The independence of the judiciary was a farce. Opponents were detained without trial while real threats were "eliminated". Cronyism and corruption flourished. But thanks to the Cold War between Russia and America Kenya was the darling of the West. At a time when the Americans feared that Africa would end up in the Soviet camp, Kenyatta was seen as a bulwark against "Communism". Lavish funds kept pouring in while the "democratic" West turned a blind eye to government excesses, lack of democracy and rampant corruption.
After the death of Kenyatta in 1978, Daniel Arap Moi, his deputy, took over. But the underlying instability was exposed by an unsuccessful coup attempt by the air force in 1982. Moi quickly consolidated power within the presidency, just as Kenyatta had done. And the West again turned a blind eye. Under the Moi regime corruption, which was always present, developed into something like a fine art. Looting the state coffers was the rule, and those that benefited from privatisation were expected to contribute to KANU's party funds. Political opponents were jailed without trial, tortured and otherwise eliminated. And again the West said nothing.
Single party rule effectively silenced all those who disagreed with the government. In one instance the party disciplinary committee reprimanded a cabinet minister because "he did not applaud enthusiastically enough" after a presidential speech at a public rally. But by the end of the 1990s, the demand for free elections with more than one party became irresistible. Such was the discontent that detentions without trial, beatings and torture could not stop the movement for democracy. The regime was forced to accept the first multi-party elections in 1992. However, the opposition was fragmented along tribal lines, and in the elections of 1992 and 1997, KANU was returned to power, to continue looting the public purse.
In 2002 the opposition united behind a single candidate and inflicted a severe defeat on KANU. Under the National Alliance of the Rainbow Coalition, the opposition won a landslide victory in December 2002, This appeared to many to mark the end of almost 40 years of uninterrupted rule by Kanu. The new President Mwai Kibaki declared zero tolerance to corruption and promised to deliver a new constitution in 100 days. He launched a purge on the judiciary and promised to root out corruption. But the ink was scarcely dry on these decrees when details of multi-billion corruption deals became known. As in the past, senior government officials were implicated in massive corruption.