The Bahatian

In 2022 General Election, Nakuru county made a first in politics when it voted an all female ensemble of a trio compromising the governor, senator and woman representative. Some constituencies had female legislators and members of county assemblies. This led to coinage of the moniker Nakuru Girls to describe the rise of females in politics.   Interesting, despite the all female brigade in high echelon of the county's politics, many felt it wasn't enough to meet the two thirds gender rule prescribed in the constitution as the bicameral parliament had a high male representation, same with counties, where in the 47 counties in the geographical Kenya, there are majority male county bosses than there are females.   Of interest, since the coming of devolution, Nakuru county had produced one term governors. All have been elected on the political wave of the day. The current governor, Susan Kihika, is gearing to break the jink of the one term governor as she eyes her secon...

As Kenya's 2027 politics take shape, the race for Bahati constituency member of parliament seat in Nakuru county is attracting several candidates. Among the notable ones is Mary Justus Mannabay, who's seen as a great threat to the incumbent MP, Irene Njoki Mrembo. This writer sat down for an interview with her recently. She expressed that Bahati constituency had what it takes to be at par with Kiharu constituency but poor leadership is to blame. Here's part of the interview in question and answer format. Q : Going by the Bahati electorate sentiments that the quartet of the so called Nakuru Girls, that's the governor, senator, women representative, and the MP, should go home and male leadership return with exception of women representative position, what's your take? A : I believe not everyone subscribes to such archaic reasoning that a woman in leadership is a failure or cannot deliver. Leadership is not defined by gender. We have politicians and leaders. When peopl...

Mr Njaga has announced his intention to be a champion of the masses. By this, he intends to be elected a mheshimiwa in a top echelon position in Nakuru County. He's hardly a name that registers beyond his village and the dynamics of national politics are sheer fatigue to him. For those not averse who the man is, here's his brief. Mr Njaga was once a lowly paid primary school teacher. Those with long memory recalls the lean days he peddled his black mamba bicycle to a rundown government school ten kilometres away from his home. He was dreaded for his temper and famous for whipping ihii into 'civilized gentlemen' long before they faced the knife. Story had it the man disappeared from school for two years only to reemerge later with a headmaster's title. It was to emerge he had gone back to college to further the little training he had. From there, his fortunes changed for good. He started living large than the teacher's payslip could accord. He constructed a magni...

There was drama in a Nakuru County village last evening when an incident defying logic forced police officers on patrol to speed off in panic only to end up in a ditch before abandoning their Toyota Land Cruiser and taking off into a maize plantation.  It all began when a drunkard was staggering home way past 12a.m when the urge for a long call saw him walking to the local public cemetery to relieve self. Unbeknown to him, a couple was having a steamy coital session in the overgrown graveyard and the drunkard was startled to soberity by the pleasurable noises he mistook as from nocturnal ghosts in love making. To confirm his suspicions, his hazy eyes saw two human looking forms atop a grave in a gland-to-gland combat as a sliver of a moon peeked over the eastern horizon providing weak light. The drunkard, seeing surreal silhouettes of ghosts, sprinted off like a cheetah after a prey and it happened two police officers on patrol saw a form either from ethereal or corporeal world floatin...

There are those people with that "I know better than follow your stup!d instructions" mentality, but regrets almost immediately when the instruction or advice given, no matter how innocuous or unwise it may look at face value, tends to have great repercussions. Take the instance of the author of this book (pictured), a strong headed former military intelligence officer, thought he knew better than his superiors. The first instance was during the six month training in Baringo county shortly after enlisting with the military. Baringo is snake infested, and one of instructions in the training camp was to hang bags on walls or trees as snakes would crawl into them when kept at ground level looking for a warm place to curl in. The ever rebellious man who had been expelled from two schools for leading strikes, went against the instructions one night and used his bag as a pillow, such that a huge snake steals into the tent, goes over his body and into the bag. The scream he gave out...

  During interviews, there's usually that landmine question the interviewing panel may try to trap the prospective new hire with like disclosing what the latter was earning in the previous place of employ. Given that similar organizations may not have same salary scales for employees in same job description, this can put the prospective hire in an awkward position.   Career experts advices against disclosing to your prospective employer what your previous one was paying for the same job description. This is to ensure youre not taken advantage of and end up underselling your worth.   The common strategy employed is a starting pay package proposal which may not be attractive and way below what the previous job was paying. If the likely hire feels the pay is not that motivating, the panel will keep on pressing the interviewee to disclose what the former employer was paying.   To put the interviewing panel off, the interviewee should play hard ball, and if the proposed starting salary ...

There are situations that brings out the true character of people towards you. Take the example where you're bone dry broke or have that sudden life transformation. Let's look at both situations.   Got fired or lost that job? Got into that financial crisis or found yourself in that sad situation like an emergency and everything to your last coin was spent and you're what financially many will term you as "hana mbele wala nyuma" (hopeless)? Maybe you're several months without pay as attested by county workers or employees in other industries?  Have you tried reaching out to those in your social circle like close friends or family members and what were the reactions after you explained your situation? There are those who'll be empathetic and sympathetic with you and lend a hand. Others will milk capital of your situation and posit a not good image of you to all and sundry.   It's when you've hit rock bottom that you see the attitude of people towards...