News, Reviews and Opinions

A wedding ring is a sign of commitment The legal union between a man and a woman is intended to last a lifetime as a holy matrimony that is sanctioned by god. But this is increasing not the case. In parts of the world today, marriages seem to be like a dating session that has been extended for several years. It is claimed that up to 50% of all marriages in the United States end in divorce. In Kenya, the percentage is lower but increasing at an alarming rate. I suppose marriages in India perform better by comparison due to strong family ties. However, Globalization will soon take its toll on the strongest of family traditions so it will help if one can notice signs of poor commitment early enough to save the marriage. After pondering on this issue for many years, I have come up with tel-tale signs that I believe are a pointer to poor commitment. Before we look at the points detail, I wish to point out a fact - marriage will do well if the couple are ‘in love...

Guardian Angels by Issa Noor So, you’ve got a published book—or two, or ten. But when the royalty statement comes, you’d think you’d written a pamphlet for ghosts. Many publishers do minimal marketing. They sit at their desks waiting for bulk orders while authors like you agonize over tiny royalty payouts—maybe 10% if you’re lucky. Some won’t pay you a cent for two years. Others wait for you to walk in with a “starving artist” story before they release crumbs. Yet all the while, they’re earning from every copy sold. If you want some coins in your pocket while pushing sales, you’ll need to play smart. Here's a strategy I used when I was a broke, hustling writer—and it still works today with a few modern tweaks. Step 1: Get Your Hands on Your Own Book Visit your publisher and request at least 20 copies of each title. Don’t pay upfront. As the author, you’re entitled to copies on credit—after all, you wrote the thing. Let them deduct from your future royalties. If your publisher...

Euphobia candelabrum called Bondo in the Luo language Global Warming is a Reality The world needs a 10% forest cover to mitigate land degradation and dwindling natural resources,. This is the barest minimum which translates to each country in the world maintaining a forest that is at least 10 % of its land mass. Some countries are arid anyway, so maintaining a forest has not a matter of choice. Arid lands occupy at least 40 percent of the global land mass. In East Africa alone, Kenya is 70 % arid; Ethiopia is 50%; Tanzania 50%; Uganda 30% while Rwanda is 20% arid. Some countries which boast of some forest cover have less than one percent of forest and even this little forest cover is disappearing through illegal logging. How many trees will you plant this year? Jomo Kenyatta Grounds, Kisumu. You can form a group to add more trees to public parks with authority from the City Council Overgrazing Leads to Serious Problems Nearly 400 million A...

A Gold fish: The most elegant fish for beginnersSource Are you an aquarium enthusiast? Are you an aquarium enthusiast? Do you know how to take care of the fish in an aquarium? Have you kept fish for at least one year? If your answer is yes to all the questions, then you can make some money from your hobby. If you have not started this fascinating hobby yet, read my hub on how to make your own glass tank and get started. Here are some tips on how you can turn your skills into a cash cow. Note that Enthusiasm comes before the money. There are basically two main kinds of aquaria – fresh water and marine. You will have to choose one of these aquatic habitats and get started on your hobby. I found Marine tanks too involving technically and preferred to specialize in fresh water fish so I will tell you what I know. An aquarium has four major components: 1. The glass tank 2. The light unit 3. The air pump 4. The water filter You can b...

Power outages: A common feature in Kenya Each day of a very heavy downpour is usually followed by power failure in most areas covered by the rain. Sometimes the outages can last for more than five hours and in severe cases - three continuous days! In at least one very serious power failure, the whole country had no electricity for a period of six hours. One government hospital in the Coast Province lost a patient in the High Dependency Unit because the hospital’s emergency power generators were either non-existent or non functional. Besides the many hours of production lost in industries, homes with refrigerators not only loose tons of food running into millions of Shillings but also have electronic gadgets damaged. But the Power and Lighting Company is unapologetic. It blames vandals of its transformers, transformer oil and cables on the frequent power failures. While the KP & LC is the only agency that can prove that that is indeed true, the consumers of electri...

Kisumu city is third largest in Kenya Kisumu is Kenya's third largest city after Nairobi and the port City of Mombasa. It is the second largest in the Lake Victoria basin, after Kampala in Uganda. Kisumu’s origins as a town can be traced to the arrival of the Uganda Railway in 1901 from the port of Mombasa. The train went into service in 1903. The terminus was first called Port Florence, though the locals called it Kisuma. This was later changed to Kisumu. It is likely that the locals met at Kisuma for barter trade long before the arrival of the railway. Ancient pictures show a thriving market in Kisumu. The gulf on which Kisumu (1,131 m, 3,711 ft above sea level) is situated is called Winam gulf, and is part of the larger Kavirondo Gulf on Lake Victoria. Lake Victoria is the second largest Fresh water lake in the world and together with the Blue Nile in Ethiopia it is a source of the River Nile. The City is the headquarters of Kisumu County whose Governor is Profess...

Nairobi, Capital City and 47th County Nairobi gets its name from two Masai words that mean Land of cool waters - enkare Nairobi. The area covered by the city was marshland before the Mombasa Uganda railway was built. The City owes its existence to the railway line whose engineers decided that it was a good place for a railway station to serve the surrounding settler farms during that colonial period. At it time it was not even considered for a capital. The coastal town of Mombasa had played the role of capital before construction of the railway, but when the British established centres inland, the preferred capital was Machakos town, the capital of Machakos County Today. Nairobi is the only capital City in Africa with National park that is less than ten Kilometers from the Central Business District. From the humble beginning of a marshland, Nairobi has grown to a metropolis with over three million inhabitants. It is also the only City in Kenya to be accorded C...