The cutting edge

By THE WATCHMAN Posted Friday, January 14 2011 at 20:17

Grabbers back. Nairobi West residents have never forgotten that their MP, Raila Odinga, in the mid-1990s led them in chasing away developers who had grabbed their children’s playground. There was a fierce fight with the armed goons, recalls MG, adding that many were injured and some arrested, and the land grabbers beat a retreat. “Now, they’re back, with a stone wall and metal gate having been erected. Will Prime Minister Odinga intervene again to ensure that his good work does not go down the drain?”

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Spelling. Leadership is not the monopoly of people with the letter “k” in their names, as insinuated by Hezron Nambiro, remarks Frederick Ngutu. Just the same way Nambiro reeled off the names of Congo’s Joseph Kabila, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and Uganda’s Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, Frederick has his own list, which includes South Africa’s Jacob Zuma, Libya’s Muammar Gaddaffi, Ghana’s John Atta Mills and former President Jerry Rawlings. “His remark as to where this leaves Raila Odinga is nonsensical.”

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Dead line. Telkom Kenya sincerely apologises to Mohamed Yunis Sroya for the breakdown of service on Tel No. 3746250. Angela Ng’ang’a-Mumo, the head of Corporate Communications, says the exchange serving his area is prone to vandalism. “Despite our technicians’ efforts, we experience a cut in the area every week. However, we now route landline traffic to our wireless platform to ensure that despite such incidents, our customers remain connected. He should contact our customer care to activate the service on his line. But his line has now been reinstated.

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Pesky gnats. Responding to the cry of one R. Gitobu that mosquitoes in Nairobi have become resistant to all the insecticide brands in the city, Paul Hillary, a process engineer, says it’s possible that Gitobu does not strictly follow the instructions on the can while spraying his bedroom to get rid of the pesky little insects, which end up biting him even harder at night. Gitobu, he advises, should also try burning the coil at night “or better still sleep under a treated mosquito net, which is cheaper in the long run”.

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Air rage. Ex-airline pilot Tony Kennaway says he’s appalled at the recent mid-air drama and shabby treatment by cabin crew of a passenger from the Comoros on a Kenya Airways flight after he was stricken by a running stomach. Says he: “The man was merely trying to obey an urgent call of nature and couldn’t have endangered the lives of the crew and other passengers. He should sue the airline for causing such a stink. This certainly didn’t warrant the fine of Sh200,000 or 10 months in jail. I’m sure the KQ CEO will agree with me.” His contact is kennaways@gmail.com.

Have a sympathetic day, won’t you!