Not yet, Uhuru!

Wednesday, 26 November 2014

Being Obama: Inside the life of this other Obama

Louis Ortiz once dreamed about having plastic surgery. His ears stuck out, and he wanted to get them fixed.

He’s glad he didn’t.

A former Verizon worker from the Bronx, Ortiz has parlayed an eerie likeness to Barack Obama into a lucrative career traveling around the world as a presidential impersonator.

Ortiz, 43, counts his blessings — although even he admits it’s sometimes just a little too strange.

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“I look at myself a lot in the mirror, and I start speaking like Barack,” he says. “It’s like Barack is speaking through me, to me. . . . It’s weird.”

Ortiz, who bills himself as Bronx Obama, works an average of two or three times a week as the President. His bookings, arranged through an agency, include parties and corporate conferences, an occasional television ad overseas — and even appearing as an unannounced guest at weddings.

“Real big Obama fans want me to come and say a surprise speech for the bride and groom,” he explained in an interview with the Daily News, sandwiched between trips to Norway and Poland. “It’s entertainment while everyone’s all liquored up.”

He’s a strange barometer of President Obama’s popularity.

When Obama’s approval numbers are high, Ortiz lands more gigs and when the President's popularity sinks, Ortiz feels the pain.

Put another way, the killing of Osama Bin Laden was good for business. The fight over Obamacare, not so much.

In 2013, Ortiz made about $60,000, he says, which was down from 2012.

Louis Ortiz seen before his "Barack Obama" transformation.

Louis Ortiz poses as Barack Obama after putting on makeup and a suit.

A spike in business may be on the horizon, however.

A documentary on Ortiz, “Bronx Obama,” by filmmaker Ryan Murdock, goes live for sale on iTunes, Vimeo and Amazon on Tuesday, and airs on Showtime at the end of the month.

Born in Manhattan, Ortiz grew up at 172nd St. and Commonwealth Ave. in the Bronx, and has two kids, a daughter, 19, and a son 14.

An Army veteran, Ortiz worked for the phone company for 13 years as a field technician. He was out of work in 2008 when people kept telling him, “You know who you look like?” And so his new life as an Obama Doppelganger was born.

Ortiz relies on more than his standout ears to be an Obama double. Extensive makeup completes the transition.

Ortiz, who’s Puerto Rican by heritage, covers his face with primer, followed by concealer, foundation, powder, a bit of lipstick to darken his mouth, and a spot of eyeliner to re-create Obama’s mole.

He puts on a black suit and a crisp white shirt with American flag cuff links, a dark suit, a preknotted red tie and, yes, a flag lapel pin. He’s able to mimic Obama’s gestures, grin and voice.

But it’s the visual likeness that’s the most stunning, which was made clear when Ortiz — in his Obama suit and makeup — walked with a Daily News reporter and Murdock in lower Manhattan one day last week.

Immediately, a tourist’s eyes strayed from a map and opened wide. Car windows slid down. A young woman reported on her cell phone, “I just saw a pseudo-Barack Obama!”

“It’s amazing. . . . Every gesture — the way he moves, the way his hair’s cut, his ears, the smile,” Herby Aristide, 33, a bus-tour guide from Brooklyn, said as he snapped photos for his Facebook page. “Guy looks like Obama. Wow!”

Outside the Bowling Green subway station, so many people crowded around for pictures, Murdock implored them to form a line — and they did. Visitors from China and Italy rushed over. People brought their children.

He’s a hit. And it’s obvious Ortiz enjoys it, too.

Yes, Ortiz does mess with people on occasion — a favorite trick is to stroll into a restaurant, glance around and walk out, leaving customers boggled. And it does get scary sometimes — he once was accosted by a homeless guy who “recognized” him in Toronto.

That’s why even though Obama can see retirement in 2017, Ortiz thinks he will still be handing out his business cards, which feature him posing as the President on the front and say, “HIRE ME NOW” on the back.

“He’s the first African-American President. He’s going to be around for a long time. He’s history,” Ortiz said confidently. “Hence, I’m going to be around for a long time.

Adopted from NYdailynews.

Tuesday, 25 November 2014

China's shameless Range Rover imitation- PHOTOS

A brace of Land Rover and Jeep inspired off-roaders have been launched by Beijing Auto Works (BAW) at the Beijing motor show.

BAW is an offshoot of BAIC, which was in the running to buy Saab from GM last year. Eventually, it bought for the previous generation Saab 9-5 platform, the pre-2006 Saab 9-3 platform, a third mystery platform, two engines and two transmissions.

Old Saab 9-5 resurfaces in China

The BAW B90 is part Range Rover, part Jeep Grand Cherokee. The BAW B40 is more Jeep Wrangler in styling. In addition, the company is launching the C30 Electric Concept.

Tuesday, 18 November 2014

Here is what ails the Kenya Police

The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) released its report on a recent police operation concentrated mainly in Eastleigh area of Nairobi. Dubbed "Usalama Watch," its objection was inter alia; to flush out Al–Shabaab operatives and adherents besides searching for various kinds of weapons including improvsed electronic devices (IEDs).
In sum, it was to disrupt, detect and probably forestall terrorist attacks. Noble as those intentions may be, the operation was marred by numerous claims of irregularity and even outright criminality.

IPOA is a creation of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority Act no 35 of 2011. Primarily, the authority is to make the National Police Service accountable to the public in the performance of their duties.

Such bodies and many others brought forth by the new order springing from the letter and spirit of Constitution of Kenya (2010). At the core of our constitution is the Bill of Rights. In this case, Chapter 4 is the essence of our constitution.
The other chapters provide the infrastructure via which the Bill of Rights is to be actualised. Unknown to some public servants, the ground shifted from exercise of power to the service of the citizen. IPOA is concerned that the police officer is someone to be feared and avoided as opposed to being expected and welcome.

During Usalama Watch, people of Somali ethnic group saw police as people to run away from. Lack of a clear command structure also meant that multiple home and property searches would be done by various arms of the police service.

Each arm; General Service Unit (GSU), Administration Police (AP), Regular Police would operate as separate entities hence piling to the agony of their "victims."

The report tasks the Inspector General to come up with clear structures of command and operation so as make for efficient execution of duties. Unless the police are properly educated on the theoretical foundation and philosophical rational of their mandate, little much is expected from them.

Considering that the body politic remains more or less stuck in the neo-colonial rut, the only salvation is constant vigilance and strict application of the law. Kenya teems with well meaning people who not only yearn for a new order but are also willing to pay the price for that said new order.
This group of people continue to work hard not because of but in spite of a retrogressive socio-political environment. Bodies like IPOA,
Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), Commission for Revenue Allocation (CRA) and many more and our gallant sons and daughters who sit in them need our encouragement, nurture and support.
In spite of funding and facilitation, mechanisms to reform the police like the Internal Affairs Unit, reform remains largely cosmetic due to lack of goodwill and the failure and inability of police to "police" themselves.
There is nothing, so far, to indicate that the impunity-riddled police force operates knowing that big brother is watching.
The IPOA Act makes it an offence to disregard its recommendations. You defy IPOA on the pain of Sh500,000 fine or a 3-year period doing time at some Kamiti or Naivasha facility. Few policemen would court such an eventually. The ball is then with IPOA to bite the bullet and call the bluff of our rigid police force.

How else do you explain a situation where police vehicles, some emblazoned with the OCPD acronym go around collecting bribes in greater Eastlands day and night in the full know of the NIS, CID and of course the police themselves. These things have been aired on national television, but no action has been taken.

The constitution set out to "nurture and protect the well-being of the individual, family, communities and the nation," in that order.
You cannot purport to subvert the rights of an individual, let alone whole neighbourhoods and communities, in the name of safeguarding the nation.

Lest we throw the baby with the bathwater, it is not as if policemen were responsible for the tiny cells at the detention centres. They are not even to blame for the rise of Al-Shabaab. They only failed at an operational, not socio – policy level.

The IPOA report is long on recommendations. It is not a malicious report by a body out to score cheap political points. We all need functional security.
True, the media survives on crisis, blood, and boiling politics. But there are enough hotspots around the world to cater for that. A people centered police force has worked in other societies. It best serves to spur police – community cooperation, the ultimate weapon in curbing crime.

By George Marenya

Wednesday, 1 October 2014

Lets spare a thought for beautiful Arunga

LET US SPARE A THOUGHT FOR ESTHER ARUNGA

By George Marenya

As a man you must have bumped on a lady, your heart skipped two stairs down, and you blamed yourself for not having tried to even say hi.

Funny thing, sometimes it is a question of meeting a woman in the lift. But something still tells you, “George, what man are you? You couldn’t even take her number?”

So it was that sometime in early 2008, in the company of my frenemie Wilberforce Akidiva, I met Esther Arunga at The Stanley.

Arunga on screen and in person is as comely as they come. Soft spoken, crisp, sweet. For our part, we wanted to meet her for the sake of it.

Don’t call that perversion.Just understand us.

That was then. After which all hell broke loose. There was marriage, a fringe church, a husband, political ambitions, press conferences, psychiatric care, law suits or threats thereof; the works.

As Maurice Mashiwa insists, it all boils down to choice. Choice to chart our destiny, choice to live as we please, choice to be free from family and societal ambitions. Yes, the ability to be a freeborn and live as such.

Upon achieving majority age, the liberal juggernaut is supposed to reign supreme. At the heart of civil liberties lies the sacrosance of the individual.

But does it work? Is man happiest when they listen to their own melody?

The Good Book ordains that we respect our parents and that this is the first commandment with a promise.

Indeed we are told to“respect your father and your mother, so that you may live a long time. Exodus 20:12.”

Theologians may argue about the meaning of the word respect in this context when weighed against the edict that “a man shall leave his father and mother and be united with his wife.”Genesis 2:24.

This same notion was repeated by Jesus at Mathew 19:15. But “leaving”, a stepping out, a moving out of the immediate purvey; this cannot confused for a casting away, a disowning a rebellion. No, don’t eat the orange and throw the peel away.

Man is a social animal.He does not do very well in isolation, he does not thrive as a free radical.

The heady feeling that comes with carving our own fiefdom, a nirvana within which nobody should interfere, is fleeting, momentary, transient.

Once the magic has fizzled away, we sober up, take a panoramic view, then feel like John Rubadiri’s drunkard waking up in a prostitutes apartment somewhere near Nakulabye.

The Bill of Rights comes with freedom of association and the right to make unfeterred choices. But choices have consequences. This statement, though popularized in Kenyan parlance as if it was discovered yesterday has always existed since the Garden of Aden.

Arunga was quoted in the local press as saying that she entered marriage with very little idea about the institution. She blamed her mother for not having taught her abit more

I don’t know whether this is the same mother who had been slapped with a suit at the height of the controversy surrounding Arunga.

I don’t know about the details. I even don’t knowEsther Arunga apart from our fleeting encounter in early 2008. Actually the post – election violence was still full throttle. So the conversation was a clipped as could be. But alas!

Yours truly walked away happy that I had met a shaken hands with our “princess Miranda.”

I only use her experience (s) to show how it would be good to have a close knit family. How people should breathe in hard before making the most important decisions in our lives.

How we could do well if we looked at our parents in the eye and told them asante for the years they have put into raising us.I don’t know what lies ahead for Arunga Downunder. Australia, at least part of it has the same clime as Gem Yala.

So that while the terrain may be familiar, their current circumstances are rather unenviable. I look forward to a time they can pick up a phone and have a healthy conversation with their families and friends back home.I hope they will do that soon. Out of Jail of course.

George Marenya is Director of Yala Outcomes.

Wednesday, 18 June 2014

After all the killings, security surely starts with me (Mr. President) then, YOU (Kenyan)-How ironical ?but True

I was appalled by a reckless statement I heard from a friend a week ago. It was as a result of a current media campaign by Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta, where the good old president is quoted as saying, “security starts with me, and you”. Now to the disturbing part. My friend claimed, without batting an eyelid, that Mr. president has finally sold our souls (Kenyans) to the lowest bidder. According to him, matters of security were “hard” issues of “life and death’ that needed to be handled with the seriousness they deserve, and not kid gloves. His ruminations seem to have emanated from the recent show of our might only a fortnight ago.

Beaming on our T.V screens was a bubbly Mr. President, dignified as ever, telling Kenyans that the country was safe. How safe? A story for another day. But the Madaraka day celebrations did not falter in bringing us the entertainment. I remember wondering how many gallons of jet fuel the swift jets gracing the airspace of Nyayo stadium consumed on that single day, or the extent of damage their carbon fumes dealt our environment.

What's more, armored vehicles including a new Land cruiser with high bullet proof clear glass chauffeured our president into the stadium, in style? As per the norm, the disciplined forces showcased their military might by doing the usual "marching around" in the stadium. This time round, they went a step ahead and crowned their moves with a scintillating dance that left many cracking their ribs. On the sidelines, a menacing armored vehicle was literally pulling the crowds. Most people were stunned to see that the President has fortified his security detail, while their own security situation remained uncertain. This very vehicle, with all its amazing extras like “bullet proof, bomb proof,” was what drew vitriol on the part of my friend, who thought that the president was declaring, albeit in an ironical way, that he is cognizant of the security breach in the country and therefore the need to protect himself before protecting his people, who voted him in to exactly do the opposite-PROTECT THEM FIRST.

What with a string of grenade attacks that have claimed the lives of so many Kenyans as the government simply remained inactive? What with the disastrous West Gate attack, the most magnanimous heinous attack on unarmed civilians on Kenyan soil? What about the government’s ineffectiveness and unsatisfactory management of the (aftermath of the) massacre, which happened at the heart of Nairobi, just a stone throw away from the President’s stool of power? What about the blame game that followed the killings? The security lapse was there for all to see. I could not help imagining what would happen if the said Al Shabaab Militiamen, in one of their brazen attacks, besieged a farflung hamlet away from the city. A total disaster-my friend would later blurt out, just about when my meandering stream of thought was about to leave that topic and think of “other” more important matters. But it wouldn’t, my security was everything I wanted.

It was my peace of mind. I shuddered, the realization that we as Kenyans were among the most unsafe people in the world, perhaps even more insecure that our neighbors Somali, was spine tingling, no, -blood cuddling.

Then it happened. They struck the most unlikely of places-Mpeketoni in Lamu. “Very far, three days away from Nairobi by bus,” my friend would later tell me. They did their heinous and barbaric act, West Gate style. And they had all the time in this world to kill and maim with sheer abandon, at least the government was napping, they knew THAT! and ten slipped back into the thick cover of the nearby Boni forest. Leisurely, they could point their killer automatic riffles to a target, mostly men, and kill everything at their wake. They also destroyed property worth millions, had time to burn houses and shops and banks and hotels, and even kill some more on their way out. Their audacity was unheard of. Fresh fears emerged as residents claimed that they repeated their killing spree Monday night at a place called Poromoko, only that this new attack could not match their earlier attack, in terms of casualties.

The attack only exposes the soft belly of our government, and simply brings the sad point home-Our intelligence, and police force were caught flatfooted, once again. A cool 8 months after the bloody WestGate massacre. This raises more questions than answers.

Now to the hard questions. Why Is the government napping on its job? Who is napping? Why didn’t IG Kimaiyo act immediately after being notified of the attack, just a couple of minutes later? Did some police officers know about the impending attack? What is the government doing to avert future attacks?

What is Ole Lenku still doing in the government? We are tired of his sdick antics especially on matters of life and death? He blubbered after West Gate, we spared him. Now it has happened again! The man is NOT up to the task! Why is the government doing the work of Red Cross? –Collecting dead bodies and promising to foot funeral expenses of the deceased? Till when will we live with this? We are tired of this inefficiency on the part of the government!(or, at least those people I talked to were dead tired of this government’s seemingly inability to contain a rag tag Somali militia-what will all that equipment, guns and tanks that we boast of, when will they be put into some active use? What about the police choppers which could have extinguished the threat from above?

The questions keep ringing in my mind, in our minds…..its time something was done to restore normalcy and peace. A bird whispered to me that Mpeketoni residents have vowed to take up arms and guard themselves. What if everybody else did the same in the next few months? This is not incitement but the truth. Syria was once a peaceful nation, so were Iraq, Ukraine, Tunisia, and Somalia. If we get nothing but sheer talk and no action at all, PUSH will come to shove. Afterwards, our neighbors will not help but point to a bloody battlefield. I bet their words will be,” There once was a country: A story of Kenya.”

Wednesday, 14 May 2014

Finally, Baba Yao makes a stunning come back, but wait…..

2013 was a year of mixed fortunes, and misfortunes for one Cliford Ferdinard waititu, better known as Baba yao.

It was the year that he was defeated in the gubernatorial race, though he could leave elective politics with his head held high. He had given Hon. Evans kidero, and a host of other moneyed giants with their well oiled campaign machinery, a run for their money.

With his humble campaign give a ways, the man had managed to rally the low income earners of the city, the hoi polloi behind him. But a reality check on 5^th of March 2013 dashed his personal, and his supporters’ hopes of bigger things. He had been squarely defeated by his rival, ODM’s Evans kidero.

All seemed like it was not lost. He challenged this outcome in the corridors of justice, where he went ahead to lay a spirited claim that he won the elections.

After months of waiting for justice, a court ruling on that September day sealed his fate. Evans Kidero was duly elected as Nairobi governor, the courts ruled.

Tempers flared outside High Court. His supporters had been denied justice, so they claimed.

Not one to give up easily, old Waititu, flanked by his supporters took to the streets, protesting the court’s move to nullify his petition.

Glimmer of hope. Glimmer of hope. Waititu believed that one day, the courts will give him a chance to explain himself.

That glimmer of hope took time to finally arrive. But when it did, Waititu was at the center of the hullabaloo.

It was yesterday in the afternoon when the Court of appeal nullified kidero’s election.

Waititu and his army of supporters were present at the courts, as expected. And minutes after the shocking ruling, they bolted to City Hall, the official abode of the now ousted (and probably beleaguered) Hon. Kidero.

A cocktail of events took place there. The supporters could be heard causing chaos at the hitherto silent city Hall, where they tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to smoke out the stunned workers.

Kenyans on Twitter woke from their slumber. Another governor has seen dust, Kidero out, they shouted.

And Baba Yao was all smiles as he gave an animated TV interview on how justice is sweet.

But! It’s not over until it’s done. Though he was given a new lease of life to vie again, the same courts had earlier barred him from holding public office. A bird whispered to this writer that that also means he cannot seek political mandate. Or is a governor not a state officer?

“He is not fit to hold state office,” the judgment went.

Perhaps this explains the coy smile on his lips, and the muted celebrations on his part. Maybe he knows something that his supporters do not know. Will he run for political office?

Only time will tell.

Photos: Capitalfm and courtesy