At a time when the International Media is painting Africans as the sole villains in the gorilla killings, Dipesh Pabari looks at the way Africans are using blogging to aid their conservation efforts in the D R Congo

29TH OCTOBER 2007 - 1200HRS: “A Ranger was killed and another was wounded in an attack yesterday near Kabaraza carried out by the Mai Mai rebels. I learned this late yesterday. The Rangers were on patrol and were ambushed by the Mai Mai rebels, who are fairly dominant in this area just north of Rutshuru. During these tense times anything can happen. And this just goes to show it.”
(Posted by Samantha Newport on wildlifedirect.org)

Innocent is one amongst several Congolese rangers who have dedicated their lives to the protection of DR Congo’s Mountain Gorillas. Their relationship to these peaceful creatures is no different from any mother to her children: unquestionable dedication. Until the recent resurgence of fighting in Eastern Congo, Innocent and his colleagues would venture out everyday to track the gorillas and mark their observations.

When renegade Laurent Nkunda refused to disarm his soldiers, violence broke throughout the region forcing the rangers out of the forests and preventing any monitoring of the Gorilla Sector. As Innocent states, “Because we have no control over our Gorilla Sector, we do not know how the gorillas are faring, or if their numbers have changed. There can be births or deaths, that we just don’t know about. With only 700 of this critically endangered species remaining in the world we need to know what is happening.” Since this time, the Rangers do not know the fate of the gorillas as the sector has witnessed intense fighting between army and rebels. The only exception to this was during a 2-week period from 14 September when rebels allowed a handful of rangers to track certain families.

More than 370,000 people have been displaced by the fighting in eastern DR Congo since the start of the year, and this month thousands more were on the move, trying to escape fresh outbreaks of violence. Innocent has been protecting gorillas for over 10 years and has witnessed 100 fellow rangers brutally murdered my militant factions emerging from a 10-year civil war.

9TH OCTOBER 2008-0800HRS: “It is 8am DR Congo time. Gunfire and shelling was heard yesterday in the Gorilla Sector until 20h00. The army, who had managed to regain Bukima, lost this position again. The rebels control the whole Gorilla Sector again. Fighting is expected to continue today. I can hear all of this from Rumangabo.”
(Posted by Innocent on wildlifedirect.org)

It is very likely that the gorillas, like the people are innocent victims of crossfire. Some of the fighters involved in the conflict are not from eastern DR Congo. “They don’t necessarily know what gorillas are and can get scared and just shoot because they don’t know what else to do. The Mapuwa family suffered from this about 5 years ago. The army mistook the family for the enemy and shot and killed two gorillas,” reports Innocent.

In a world where roads, running water and electricity are unknown, WildlifeDirect is bridging a vital communications gap that is fundamental to the sustainability of gorilla protection. The organisation was co-founded by Richard Leakey who was recently nominated by Times as one of top thinkers of the 20th Century. WildlifeDirect was established to provide support to conservationists via the use of blogs – this enables anybody, anywhere to play a direct and interactive role in the survival of some of the world’s most precious species. And does it work? “This year alone, approximately half a million dollars has been raised through the Gorilla Protection blog. People all over the world can connect directly with the conservationists on the ground and literally talk to them in person and know what happens on a day to day basis,” says Dr. Emmanuel de Merode, CEO of WildlifeDirect.

What makes the organisation even more unique is that the money goes directly to the recipients. WildlifeDirect takes no administration fee for the funds that are transferred through us so that the financial support can go to where it was intended in its entirety. Our core costs are provided for separately through grants, primarily from the European Union. This does not change the tragic fact that a survival of a species depends entirely on the goodwill of a people and the ability to communicate that.
The situation for gorillas is ever more complex for the fact that with so many people being killed and displaced in the area, their survival is not seen as a priority. Whenever people think of war, they usually reflect on the tragic loss of human life, they rarely consider the loss and damage done to nature.

7TH OCTOBER 2007 - 1200HRS: “My thoughts today are with the DR Congo where the resurgence of conflict by the renegade Laurent Nkunda has forced the rangers out of the forests preventing any monitoring since the end of August. We do not know how these gorillas are faring, we can hardly express our concern for gorillas when we know that the human population is in dire straits as a result of attacks and unbelievable acts of human atrocities. Hundreds of thousands of people are again on the move, many hundreds have been killed, more still have been injured, children conscripted into the armies and women raped and brutalized. It makes me feel helpless.” Signed by Richard Leakey

Most of the long term damage comes as a result of the very long duration of these wars. The devastation is caused in part by the war its self, in part because the human population is displaced, hungry, afraid and desperate - they cannot care for the land due to the immediacy of their problems.

They estimate that in 23 nations alone, the total cost of Africa’s 20 or more wars in recent decades have robbed the continent of 300 billion dollars a year! But nobody is really measuring the cost to the environment when the human toll is so great.

The war in eastern Congo has virtually prevented any tourism from taking place. These gorillas represent real economic value to the Congo. Tourism could generate 500$ per person per day - these animals could potentially generate 21 million dollars per year for the wildlife Authority from visitation to 15 groups of mountain gorillas alone. Of course the hotels, transport and agricultural sectors would also benefit tremendously as well, not to mention the communities who supply the hotels and trade their crafts along popular routes.

Meanwhile, only a few kilometres across the border, Rwanda is still doing brisk gorilla tourism business. The industry is a fundamental engine for the growth of the national economy and is driven by the mountain gorillas which have been, and remain, the main attraction in Rwanda, brining in over 20,000 visitors to the country each year. So much that in fact gorillas have become a national icon and an annual gorilla naming ceremony called ‘Kwita Izina’ (meaning ‘to give a name’) was established. Its aim is to celebrate and raise awareness of the gorillas.

This year his Excellency President Paul Kagame and First Lady, Janet amongst other high powered dignitaries and celebrities attended the ceremony and for the first time this year non-Rwandans had the opportunity to participate. Among a number of individuals and organisations that took part, were television channel Animal Planet, one of the world’s most accomplished Wild Life Conservationist, Jack Hannah, the family of the late Steve Irwin and gorgeous American actress Natalie Portman. Fareed, on behalf of MNET and Studio 53 got to name one of the newborn baby gorillas.

Few animals have sparked the imagination of man as much as the gorilla, the largest of the living primates. Most gorillas live in inaccessible regions in various dense forests in tropical Africa, and one subspecies, the mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei), was not even known to science until 1902. Mountain gorillas are confined to four national parks, separated into two forest blocks no more than 45 kilometers apart and comprising approximately 590 sq km of afromontane and medium altitude forest. One population of mountain gorillas inhabits the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. A census in 2002 recorded between 310-315 individuals here. The second population of mountain gorillas is found in the habitat shared by Mgahinga Gorilla National Park (Uganda), Volcano National Park (Rwanda) and Virunga National Park -Southern Sector (DRC). The Virunga population numbers at least 358 individuals and has grown by 11% in the past 12 years. However, the current resurgence is a real threat. Just a few months ago, the slaughter of 7 gorillas was a wake up call to the world.

The challenges to conservation in the Virungas is one of the hardest in the world. In addition to armed militias, poachers, charcoal trade, illegal land invasions, the primary threat to mountain gorillas comes from forest clearance and degradation, as the region's growing human population struggles to eke out a living.

Charcoal trade is major trade in Virunga National Park - $30 million a year – and involves many individuals – communities, military, and some rangers also get corrupted. Those earning money from trade did not like this, including those at iccn that were suspected of being involved. Gorillas were killed as act of sabotage to discredit ICCN and conservation in the park.

The blogs have enabled rangers to report the situation far and beyond. “Blogging about protecting mountain gorillas has been critical for the rangers in Virunga. After years of working in isolation, the guardians of this imperilled species finally have a voice. At last they can talk about the challenges they face in their daily lives and communicate with supporters all over the world. This has also led to an increased global awareness of the threats facing one of our closest living animal relatives, and we hope a great surge to protect them.” Samantha Newport, Director of Communications for WildlifeDirect.

*Dipesh Pabari is a Kenyan writer and freelance education and communications consultant. He sits on the Editorial Board for Awaaz Magazine (a journal for South Asians in diaspora) and contributes a regular cartoon column. In addition to publishing poetry, short stories and articles, he recently edited a published short story book for children entitled, The Unlikely Burden and other stories. This article was originally published in TN Magazine, January 2008)

**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

DIPESH PABARI: What is your general assessment on the situation?

SALIM AMIN: Well, at the moment it is pretty much what is being shown on television; it is just pockets of protests around Nairobi. We have not been out to Eldoret or Kisumu but in Nairobi it is just pockets of demonstrations around Kibera, Kawangware and Ngong Road, Argwings Kodhek Road and places like that where it is a few hundred people marching and demonstrating and the police pretty quickly crush that. Yesterday, there was more looting and damaging of property which I don’t think is ODM’s idea of protest. These are just a bunch of unemployed people who are just taking advantage of opportunity presented to them.

We have never seen the likes of the police presence in this town. I have covered this city for about 15 years and never seen this sort size of police presence so obviously there are fears that it could get out of hand and police and GSU have been called out in large numbers. There are pictures that I have seen on TV of various insights of people being machete to death and churches being burnt personally I haven’t seen that but it is obviously happening. It is happening in some of the areas where perhaps foreign journalist can’t go to perhaps more local journalist can access to.

DIPESH PABARI: We are receiving conflicting messages – both sides are accusing each other of genocide and at the same time we are hearing that there is rampant destruction all over the country yet the government is saying it is just a few isolated incidences here and there. What should we believe?

SALIM AMIN: I think upcountry there is a much bigger problem than here. Places like Mount Elgon and Eldoret have always been the scene of a lot of ethnic tension between the different tribes stemming from the ethnic cleansing the happened in 1992. That has not been forgotten. For me that is the fear of what will happen in this country. If this is not stopped quickly then the grassroots hatred is going to get worse and worse amongst the different tribes and then it will not matter what Kibaki or Odinga or any of these guys say. That seed has already been sown and it is going to be very difficult to retract from that. It will get to the stage where people will say you burnt my house down now I am going to do the same to yours and once that starts as we saw in Rwanda in 1994, it is very difficult to pull back from that. That is my greatest fear. I think places like Nairobi will slowly get back to normal but areas where there is not much media coverage, where it is hard to get pictures out of, it is going to get worse and worse.

DIPESH PABARI: From that perspective, places like Mount Elgon which have been consistently on the edge, has the media done enough to highlight issues like this that have essentially led to where we are right now.

SALIM AMIN: I think the local media has not done enough. The international media has never done enough to cover Kenya in its entirety. The local media has been suspect in ignoring this problem as well. The government – I think it is in their interest – there are obviously huge political implications in what is going on. It would not surprise me if people within government or outside are a part of what is happening out there. It really would not surprise me at all. I think there is a lot of political background that needs to be investigated and examined. Unfortunately, as we know, no government is very good at internal examination of anything. You know I heard stories about possible genocide in Mount Elgon area over the last couple of days where people have set up road blocks and they are pulling people out of cars from different tribes and slaughtering them. And that is just like it was in Rwanda in 1994. That is very scary. I also heard yesterday that Nakumatt stopped selling machetes – they restricted it to one per person because people were coming in and buying 200 pieces at a go. I am very concerned that a lot of this may have been preplanned which does then give it the element of genocide. It is a very dangerous word to use but if it has been preplanned and organized then the elections were just an excuse to get it started. I just found out about this on the internet yesterday. The planning side of this is very scary. If it was something that just randomly happened because of the election than it can almost be understood because people are upset about the results and the way it panned out. But if this is something that people have been thinking about for 2, 3 or 4 months than this is a really scary scenario

DIPESH PABARI: Have you heard of any other similar cases that could imply planning for this?

SALIM AMIN: No, that was the only incident that I have heard about. And that I only found out about yesterday.

DIPESH PABARI: What we are witnessing for the first time is the explosion of information and reporting through mainstream media and new media such as blogging on the internet. There is so much information flowing and there may not be as much credibility to these sources. Do you think this information explosion is a positive or negative thing?

SALIM AMIN: I think it is a great thing. The more people talk about their incidences, the better – for any society. The problem is whether those reporting are accurate or not and that is what is very difficult to verify. You can’t control what people blog or put on the internet. You don’t know whether it is inciting people or it is actual fact. The government blackout on live coverage – while we initially came out and condemned it – after thinking about it a little more I can see their dilemma as a government because no TV or radio station in this country has what they call a delay switch where they can pause for 30 or 60 seconds so the editor can listen to what the person is saying. And this especially applies to radio stations and call in shows and there were incidences of people calling in and saying let the people of X tribe come out and avenge this – there was no way of stopping it until it had already gone out and the damage had been done. I think that is what led to the government taking action against live broadcasts. And with the different radio stations, the vernacular radio stations in particular, a lot of that could have been used to incite people which is exactly what happened in Rwanda in 1994 where a particular radio station was instrumental in fueling the genocide. So I think that was probably a smart move in hindsight. But they will have to restore it and put some form of control in by asking them to put this delay factor in so that the editors have a chance to actually vet what is happening on live shows.

DIPESH PABARI: During the build-up to the elections, we had a tremendous amount of media campaigning initiatives towards free and fair elections. The whole country was plastered with billboards; the radio waves were filled with information, etc. Do you think it has had much impact?

SALIM AMIN: I think that is what we are seeing is that people feel that they have been robbed at the ballot boxes. They went out in massive number, they voted for whoever they wanted to be president or MP and they feel like they have been robbed and that is why this resentment and this huge outcry for people that was never expected. Now both sides are claiming rigging so nobody really knows who did what and in which areas. There is obviously irregularities there is obviously rigging that happened. I suspect that a lot happened at the last minute and that is why it was so blatant and so obvious because I don’t think anybody felt the mood of the country correctly. I don’t think the Government thought that they would lose 20 of their ministers in a poll and I think that led to a panic at the last minute and that led childish changes to ballot paper and to forms. There was also in the opposition some hanky panky on their side and in their areas. For me the only solution to this problem would be to have a reelection, may be just a presidential election but with an independent electoral commission set up that has nothing to do with the Government that has people from outside with more observers coming in but that would take time to put together and to redo and in that time this country could disintegrate into a crisis that would be very difficult to come out of and even the new ballots would not fix.

DIPESH PABARI: Do you think we are getting there?

SALIM AMIN: I sadly think that if this situation is not sorted out within the next few days, it is not a matter of weeks or months; we are coming down a slope that we will not be able to climb back up.

DIPESH PABARI: Has there been any evidence or any public outcry from the media that has caused this violence? Where did it come from? You said earlier that people were disappointed but were there any leader that would have would have been responsible towards this?

SALIM AMIN: I think more than them doing anything or saying anything to make it happen, the fact that they did not do anything to stop it is more telling in my opinion. I think the fact that there are things that all leaders in this country could have done to avoid this earlier they did not do. I don’t know anybody who deliberately came out and said ‘go and start demonstrating’, I don’t think anyone has said that and but the fact that they did more to stop it is a mark on their record as political leaders.

DIPESH PABARI: 24 hours later after it all broke out we did hear cries of peace coming from both sides especially from ODM but it seems that their people are not listening.

SALIM AMIN: That is a worry for me as well I mean just seeing today’s proposed rally as an example when Ruto addressed the crowd when they were stopped in Hurlingham and said that is fine we’ll step down today and come back on Tuesday. Majority of the crowd did not listen and just wanted to keep going and that worries me that, at some point that it is going to get so personal amongst the people because of what they have suffered in their various shanties or slums, that they are not going to listen to their politicians anymore that they don’t care what the leaders are saying, they just want some revenge of some sort and find any kind of method to do it. That is my fear that the longer this goes on, the less power the politicians are going to have to actually enforce their will on their own supporters.

DIPESH PABARI: We see the media more or less taking a side, the call for peace. It is the first time it has happened across all the newspapers sharing the same headlines. To what extent is it the responsibility of the media to act upon certain rumors that clearly might have terrible implications if they were true? For example, there was a rumor flying around that Ruto had organized truckloads of armed youth into Rift Valley. Where do you base your judgment on things like this as the media and is it your responsibility to report this as a warning?

SALIM AMIN: No, I don’t think it is the media’s responsibility at all to report that at all. They have to double check and triple check their facts especially at this very crucial time in our country’s history. They have got to make sure what is reported anywhere is 100% accurate and there is no room for rumor or speculation or assumptions being made in the media. Up to this point I have been very impressed with the media as they have got together and are saying we have got to save our country. We have got to do whatever we can to say peace has been restored. I have been very impressed with that but they have to be even more vigilante with that to make sure that it is absolutely correct and if they can’t verify information, don’t put it out there because that just leads to more and more confusion and uncertainty amongst people and fear.

The fact that lives media has been blocked means that there is much more hearsay going on around the country, especially with things likes mobile phones. I think the media has the responsibility to play down all that stuff until they have checked and rechecked all the facts. And if they find anything that is huge, then yes, they should report it, and shame the people who are responsible for it.

DIPESH PABARI: Are the media houses working together and cohesively on this?

SALIM AMIN: I think they are but I have not been privy to those conversations because we are outside the local media setup here but for example, we produced a short call for peace – a 3 minute TV package and we are hopefully going to do more of those. When I called all the media houses to see if we can have the airtime to do it – every single one of them was supportive and said keep sending us more stuff.

DIPESH PABARI: Last question; are we all responsible as Kenyans for getting to this state?

SALIM AMIN: I think we are all responsible. I think it would be wrong for us to sit back and say that one group or another group is responsible for this. I think we have been very blasé about our politics and about how we might get involved. I think this is a lesson to all of us. We have all got to be responsible in the way our country is moving whatever part of society you are from. Whatever it is you do in life, you have got to take responsibility for what you do. I think if we can all go out and convince one person to stop fighting, to stop killing, to actually listen and talk, then we would actually have done something good

* Salim Amin is the son of the late Mohammed Amin, one of Africa's top photo journalist. Salim is now running Camerapix and is the founder of A24 which will be the first pan-African news channel.

* Dipesh Pabari is a freelance writer. He sits on the editorial board of Awaaz magazine and writes for various magazines and journals. Dipesh also works for WildlifeDirect.org as the Communications Manager.

* Please send comments to or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

When Bob Dylan was singing about the times changing, I doubt he had in mind a Maasai Moran or a Turkana pastoralist in full traditional regalia negotiating the price of cattle on the international market with a mobile phone in some distant arid landscape.

While mobile phones are undoubtedly the greatest technological revolution in Africa, the next wave of communication technology is grounding itself well beyond urban centers. Like mobile phones which have empowered marginalized communities across Africa, the internet is quickly beginning to bridge that huge gap between those that have access to information and those that don’t. Ironically, the further we get away from traditional social necessities, the more we strive to recreate them in a virtual world. Simple human needs like shopping, dating, chatting and now “blogging”. . Blogs, or interactive online diaries, may certainly be new but the practice is as old as keeping a journal. They are actually one and the same thing – the only difference is that it’s public!

Today, there are over 72 million blog sites, making the practice of sharing your daily life and thoughts with the rest of the world one of the fasted growing areas on the internet. Interestingly, the impact of blogs on our world stretches beyond our immediate needs to be heard and is being used more and more to effect change. For example, the first blog-driven political controversy led to the eventual downfall of a U.S. Senate Leader exposed for his white supremacist sympathies.

And it’s not just humans that stand to benefit from access to virtual communication. Dr. Richard Leakey, a household name to anyone with an interest in conservation, has focused his efforts on the power of the medium to address one of the biggest problems in wildlife conservation: “After spending many years struggling to improve wildlife conservation in Kenya, I decided to start WildlifeDirect to solve a very real problem in Africa, the lack of adequate funds to protect our wildlife heritage. Persuading individual donors to give support was not easy because most people are unaware of what is going on in conservation until there is a crisis. I needed to find another way to raise awareness and funds on a continuous basis.” Hence, WildlifeDirect was born. The first of its kind, the organization was conceived as a way of facilitating exchanges between the front lines of conservation and the rest of the world. It brought two worlds together: a global community of sympathisers with good African conservationists.

Take the case of Atama-to Madrandele, a park warden who, in 2005, started working at the Ishango, sub-station of Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He carried out his work in almost complete physical and financial isolation. In February 2007, Atamato began to blog on WildlifeDirect about his work. Through this blog he was able to raise some funds to help pay for patrol rations and equipment, as well as salary supplements for his five underpaid rangers (the official pay for a Congolese ranger is about three US dollars per month). From August this year, Ishango has become a fully functional park station, thanks to the donations received through his blog. His men are now fed and have enough fuel to be able to carry out regular patrols.

The previous issue of Swara featured the gorilla crisis in Congo. This was one of several stories written about this critically endangered species in the international television, print and radio media. The daily blogging on WildlifeDirect from rangers working on the ground stimulated a global drive to cover the story. Global awareness about the gorillas in the Virungas has never been so strong. The blog also provided an immediate avenue for desperately needed funding for the rangers who have virtually no support from the national authorities. After the slaughter of the Rugendo gorilla family, the donations reached reached $66,000/ in in the month of August -. The gorilla blog currently earns $18,000/- monthly in direct donations. WildlifeDirect has also managed to bridge the pitfalls of bureaucracy and crippling bank procedures to allow people to donate no matter how small the sum is and to allow the recipient to receive almost instantly. Moreover, for those who work in conservation and development, we all know how hard it is to raise funds for day to day items, salaries and other overheads. The bottom line is people need to eat and we tend to forget this. WildlifeDirect provides a platform for conservationists to raise funds for whatever they need, be it a pair of boots or medical supplies for rangers.

The early success of whose operations began in the fall last year, has led to a 10 fold increase in blogs over the last few months with over 40 conservationists from all over Africa and beyond using the blogs to communicate their work and needs. Everyone around the world can play an interactive role in conserving the planet’s endangered wildlife. As Dr. Leakey states, “Not only have we enabled a number of interesting and courageous conservationists to write blogs from the frontline, but I am encouraged that the world is reading, listening, and taking action.”

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/323/43668-GALCK.jpgA few months ago the leading dailies reported an event about unknowingly gate crashing a conference on various health issues surrounding the gay population in Mombasa. Apparently, a reporter took a fancy to one of the participants until he realised that ‘she’ was indeed a ‘he’. The media where around to cover some other talk shop in the same hotel and ‘coincidentally’ bumped into this closed door session. Of course this gave rise to much more interesting reportage and the next day an article appeared with the journalists stating their homophobia and reinforcing the Muslim Council’s views that Mombasa should be purged of these mutant humans.

It is no secret that our coast is not only well known for its white sand and plethora of sexy commercial working girls but also for its time immemorial reputation of being a hub of male sex workers (I have been informed that the term, ‘prostitute’ is no longer politically correct as it is too loaded with negative connotations – I wonder when and what they are going to replace ‘CEO’ with). It is also no secret that homosexuality has always been present in all societies for as long back as we have historical documentation but until very recent, eyes, ears and mouths have been shut in Kenya with an attitude that we know exists (big surprise?!) but it’s illegal (bigger surprise?!!) so we’ll just pretend that it’s not there.

Then came HIV and AIDS. People starting dropping dead; mortality rates shot up; orphans increased by the dozen and the President finally declared it a national disaster. The donor dough started to pour in and 4wd sales rocketed.

CODE ECHO: We now have yet another donor epidemic on our hands and many stand to die while others stand to thrive. Proposals are being churned out at unprecedented rates as the body count ticks away. Time is of essence…

While in the northern hemisphere the virus entrenched itself predominantly in minority populations, particularly intravenous drug users and the homosexual population, the virus in our part of the world hit hard and straight at the majority – the heterosexuals. Nobody was immune.

And until recently, not many people were liberal minded or brave enough to talk about sex but this time we had to; for the sake of our sons and daughters. The campaign took all sorts of forms with the cool and famous stating they use protection, to the rich and infamous holding hands and stating that we need to fight this together.

And the dollars continued to flow in...Hold on for a second: donors are always looking for new, unique and creative ideas to throw cash at, and what could fit the tick box more than a homosexual population in a politically and social hostile environment. After all (and rightly so), they too needed public health attention, they too are at risk and perhaps even more at risk. Some have even been brave enough to publicly address this issue and projects and programmes were formed to increase sexual awareness issues amongst homosexual populations and investigate what the rate of incidence might be. Some organisations have even gone as far as to open public drop-in centres. Hands down to them!

Let’s go back to the beginning: until recently, the gay population lived in closets and still continue to; but with an additional extension that is a little more exposed – it’s called, “homo health matters too.” Initially, I was elated to know that even in Kenya where certain populations are persona non-gratis, that at least, they can get the occasional human right.

So out our fellow citizens come to talk about their problems and of course the first thing that happens is the equivalent of a fatwa. Regrettably, this sort of thinking is expected - but what I am really concerned about is the thinking behind those that are supposed to be helping with health issues but also feel that this is a golden opportunity to launch a salvation crusade and not only reduce people’s risk of HIV but also help them to become ‘normal’ again. Unfortunately, I have been privy to several statements from all sorts of medical professionals who ‘feel sorry for them’ because ‘they are not normal’ and ‘if we can just help them to become normal again’ then ‘we might sleep better.’ God, I am told never intended for same sex creatures to indulge in lascivious acts (I can’t quite seem to get that into my cat’s head though who hasn’t quite figured out what to mount, let alone which sex). Perhaps, our dear do-gooders might want to start with their own attitude change before they commence dealing with other people’s medical matters.

Two months ago, Mombasa was given a rare treat to Eric Wainana live at the Little Theatre Club in a bid to revive and restore this jaded cultural monument. In addition to Eric’s dynamic performance, the crowd were elated to see and hear the captivating voice of a rather unique talent in Kenya. Barefooted and hair-plaited, the young man walked on stage with his guitar and was welcomed by a frenzied crowd. His ability to reach every musical pitch coupled with the smooth simplicity of his songs had me mesmerised. I claimed ignorance and asked who it was:'“Harry Kimani of course!'

A month later, we were surprised to find out that Harry would be playing at the Bamburi Forest Trails over the Easter weekend. We immediately postponed our travel plans and made our way to the venue. Despite the rather unfortunate turn out, Harry was not dissuaded in the least. Dressed in a full 3-piece tuxedo, he stood firm and gave us a virtually private showing with all his heart and voice. There is something nostalgic about his music that leaves you beckoning to relive a special moment in your life. There is no clatter or distraction which leaves a lot to be admired, for he has to live up to his talent to make it a successful performance. But it is his version of the National Anthem that really triggers my emotions, leaving me with a tearful pride in being a Kenyan.

Weeks later, he reappeared at the Little Theatre Club but this time there was no evidence of a big star playing in our town. Harry Kimani is undoubtedly one of Kenya’s most popular upcoming musicians who in addition to having record sales amongst the top five in the country, has also performed in several countries around the globe. Yet, he retains his modesty everywhere he goes just like the first time I saw him playing barefoot. I asked him what’s keeping him at the Coast: 'I’m trying to teach music and put a CD together with the children from Wema Centre so I will be around for a while and I love this place.' Through his work with Wema, Harry was so inspired that he is now establishing a foundation to teach music to less privileged children. I was sold. Not many Nairobi residents can stand our relaxed sea pace beyond their beach holiday and dedicate their time to something as meaningful as this.

Once again he performed to a much smaller regular crowd giving it all his soul. Under the dim coloured bulbs, we sat on the ageing couches and listened to his magical voice. He has become a regular face at the Theatre Club and is always willing to pick up his guitar and play a song or two. There is unquestionably a lot of talent in this country and plenty from within Mombasa. It is only a question of seeking it out and opening up our minds to what is truly Kenyan.