What the hell is that. I can’t take them seriously with those accents. Why are most of these online “political analysts” not even in based in Kenya but some Western country?
‘The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves.’ – Vladimir Lenin
They are local. Swiss MC University. Online Distance Learning.
Mutahi Kunyi and his band of airheads…SMH. Who takes this guys seriously?
More or less yeah…shuku huleta shuauku…divide and conquer…
[ATTACH=full]164876[/ATTACH]
1million+ do
They are not the only ones with such an opinion. The one below dissected it more thoroughly in the Kenyan political context.
Raila's Supporters after Handshake and Miguna fiasco - News & Politics - Kenya Talk
There might be some truth in what Mutahi Ngunyi is saying.
We all want to go to canaan. Baba alishafika, Miguna ana jaribu pia.
Let me help to demystify this one. I don’t know what the specifics are for the young Kenyan commentators who appear to be full of life and vibrance. If it is the case they are studying or living abroad part of the inversion in accent is a necessity, and though this case appears British like normal Kenyan’s talking style, but toned down by local dialects.
I’ve first stepped in Kenya at 3 years of age, and overall have spent roughly 45% of my life within Kenya and 55% without; the 55% leg being almost exclusively with Americans, but in different countries thanks to my time on active duty military duty in the past and various Defense contractors here and there thereafter. I learnt Yoruba before I learnt Swahili. After my Dad served as one of the first 3 teachers to teach in Lenana School, and did so in Physics and Mathematics, the erstwhile Duke Of York School for the Colonial Settlers’ children, who enjoyed opulence on the back of Africans before and after independence before the tide started changing towards the ends of the 60s. The family then spent about a decade in US as my Dad completed his PhD., during the course of which he was an Assistant Physics, Maths, and to a slightly lesser extent an Assistant Chemistry Professor, but racially denied full Professorship upon PhD completion, and since he could no longer be an Assistant Professor ; he thus was literally pushed out!
My parents had taken in a cousin with the Nigerian fiance as they went through the rough and merciless adjustment to American life, encumbered full circle by the deleterious effects of the 73 Embargo by OPEC, and the attendant stagflation that wreaked havoc on the masses, and especially after their son arrived, a nephew 4 months younger than I, and who was half my size at 12 months age and myself at 16 months age and an avid glutton then, wakajaribu kunipa skim milk nakunywa 2 times to compensate and they were sure I would die na ilibidi wanibebe in shifts kama hakuna Pram (hiyo kitu huitwa nini?), and though I clock in at well over 100Kg, his physique you would be very hard pressed to see in Kenya of 140Kg plus of pure brutal African strength, fusing the best of East and West African strength, a Football Star in the past, coupled with being a national shot put competitor in US; Ugali ililemewa na MacDonalds na Popeyes! Mnakumbuka akina Stone Cold Steve Austin?
Anyway, after that we left for Nigeria upon the in law connections, and thence Kenya. I first stepped in Kenya understanding Yoruba, and English, and zero Kiswahili, and my cousin said that I used to get very angry, and kept asking people and gesticulating my little fingers all over the place, asking what they were saying when they spoke Kiswahili; a trait that is PRECISELY a hallmark of my very nature today-aggressive, headstrong, and ABSOLUTELY independent in thought! You will never see me wasting time trying to adopt a stance because watu walisema hivi na hivyo; that is nonsense! Utangoja uchoke.
So in US EVERY day, someone would ask you; “I notice you have an accent to your voice, where is it from?” I usually feel like rendering the retort “accentlessness” is the hallmark of a dumb person(incapable of speech). I may state perfunctory answer of say, “I grew up in Kenya” yadi yada", until you get tired of the question, you answer it like a robot without thinking or bothering to elaborate unless prodded to.
Concomitantly, there is the perennial, “huh”, you mean “rought”(as pronounced in drought), whenever you inflect “root” (exactly how a Kenyan would inflect route). Now extrapolate to pin point all the words that are pronounced differently in US vs Kenyan/British Influenced pronunciation, to the extent communication becomes a barrier with constant “huuuuh”; “you mean blah blah”; “I am sorry, I have some trouble understanding you”; “I am sorry, I was just having a difficult time understanding you” etc. Depending on your personality, or interaction levels, try and draw a mental picture of the amount of time in the course of a day you will waste trying to clarify stuff, and its effect on the perception of you as a communicator. The funny thing is that from the past, the most common affiliation ascribed a Kenyan speaking over the phone is “Indian”! I’ve head it on speaker phone many times the person thought I couldn’t hear what they were saying in the background. A natural by-product is the fact people avoid interacting with you if they have to constantly struggle to decode your speech. It can prove costly to your career, especially if you have a managerial job, where your subordinates can’t properly communicate with you, and they will never rate you how they would if all communication were perfect!
They say that your vocal inflection overall is set sometime between 6 and 13 or so, and indeed for those who change domicile after that period will always have a residual “accent” consistent with the one at that age range. Bottomline; you are forced to pronounce the words like a “Roman”, to the extent you can while in “Rome”, or else the mandatory, “Huuh Huhhhing”, all your life ad infinitum and nauseam for that matter!!" Make your pick.
Mistake me not, Kenyans especially can really be full of shyt, as was the case one day when I was at Dubai Airport en route to Nairobi from Japan when I was in the US Air Force for a christmas holiday to Kenya in about 2005, that time after almost an approximate 5 year absence, and right there in the crowd that patiently awaited the flight to Nairobi, there is this Meru chick, still na ile accent ya “kuimba halleluyah wakiongea” ya akina Kiraitu Murungi, and their sharp and emotionally labile personalities in cohort not unlike the Kisii, and come to think of it, it might be just me who is puzzled by the apparent similarity in Kisii and Meru accents when they speak swahili, we are all familiar with, and yet claiming that in 15 months absence from Kenya for the first time, she had forgotten Kimeru and Kiswahili!! I started laughing peke yangu mtu angedhania nimechizi. Of course that was patent nonsense! If you wondered why people’s accents getting skewed upon prolonged interactions with societies that speak differently, most of the change is subconscious as a necessary communication facilitator. Of course in Nairobi or outlying counties, for example, because some kid grew up in Runda or other exclusive reserves for the richest, not rarely indistinguishable from the kleptomaniacs responsible for milking the country dry, who in turn are only too frequently synonymous with the political elite, or those with close affiliation to the same, you might detect some BS pretension of ascendancy to accents far taken out of their natural Kenyan ones to portray figurative “opulence”, an oft touted symbolic prerequisite of which a “tweng” is virtually mandatory; the ilk Westerners might be heard corresponding in when you watch Hollywood Movies and Hip Hop videos alike, and categorical nonsense for that matter!!!
Do you know the most poignant indicator of a “Binet IDIOT”? Kenyan idiots use it without fail. Angalia vile huyu msee ni mjinga ni danda. Kama ni mjinga na unajua ni mjinga Unafanya nini kwa wall ya wajinga kama wewe siyo mjinga? Suruali ya ndani Nugu wewe rudi kwa Mlolono inayoitwa your wall ama utombe mamako kama ni nyege!
Unajua kitu moja mimi huona in that political ecosystem, like is the case in a lot of the world today, is personal politics, or ile show down ya person to person, with little to zero focus on the matters that are useful. Granted though, for about 52 months after an election cycle, Kenyans are brothers and sisters, good neighbors and correspondents. goods bosses and coworkers alike; mysteriously after month 53, devolution “Waiguru Style” straight back to ile ujinga tunajaribu kuhepa. Demographics!
I get the sense Baba knows level well he was beaten and likely has been bemoaning the “WRONG” basis of his loss, and now especially, as the clock ticks and he is not getting younger, he is realizing his dreams never might be, every Baba drama, is a way to to come back with dignity, and he will push things very far, that when he finally comes around, people forget the parts that “embarrassed him”, such as losing elections! And its nothing against baba per se, take any other similarly placed stage and the story will be similar, only the case he happens to be in the limelight. Personally I could give a rats arse who won this or that is things as I see them, which at least spares me from having to waste too much time on dogmatism.
Kenyans are easily mesmerized and have short memories so we repeat our mistakes in every 5 year cycle, which is why politicians front load on corruption and other gimmicks knowing that by the time its time for elections, we will have forgotten and be too divided to focus on issue based politics.
While the Miguna saga had everyone distracted, Kenyans were being set up. Politicians know these weaknesses about the Kenyan psyche and exploit such to no end. Miguna sought to arouse the Kenyan conscience but he is the wrong person for the job.
[MEDIA=twitter]978884386090254336[/MEDIA]
You got insight so spot on that I have very great time finding. I have echoed what you said using different ones, but unfortunately people brush the same aside, and instead continue the “Hero Complex” charades!
On the “myopia”; I invoked that exact sentiment of how scarcely following his demise, Msando had been forgotten by 8 Aug elections; the first round that is! People mistake intellectual curiosity with obsession.
Kenya’s populas, on the overall have began discussing more and more of the real teething issues to resolve the country’s perennial gridlock fueled by “HE_MAN-ism”! The genius of the politicians is flipping by 360 degrees all the enlightenment accrued in the preceding for years, and sprinting towards demographic and “clique” style resorts, where after bliss abounds galore!
Bullz eye!! Msando assassination as a perfect example of myopic dementia. I find it very difficult to come across thinkers who, like yourself, pierce through superficiality to pin point the ultimate noumena, even as the masses fastidiously tear to shreds each other in desperate bids to squash rival, if antagonal phenomena adherents at phenomenal level!