Month: April 2014

Yesterday, I sough to find out whether or not Kenyans are in agreement with full freedom of choice on the controversail issue of skin bleaching. Granted, skin bleaching can have disastrous effects on a person’s health but I contend that true freedom includes freeing a person to make the decision to bleach.

I took a close look at the case study of Vera Sidika who confessed to bleaching and sadly or joyfully depending on which part of the divide you fall on, Kenyans overwhelmingly spoke out against skin bleaching. Check out the results below:

Is Bleaching Wrong Or Is It Okey For A Girl To Bleach Her Skin? (PHOTOS)

Total votes: 136

Yesterday, the internets went wild with everyone and their mother wanting to weigh in on what Uncle Chim Tuna honestly considers a none issue. Kalonzo Musyoka declined to answer a question fielded by a QTV reporter, one Kennedy Muriithi by insinuating that his name betrayed his tribe ergo explained the type of questions he was asking. Why is this even an issue? We all know that Kenyans are ethnically motivated in matters political aye?

But the hypocrisy boiled over with everyone tripping over themselves to weigh in on the issue -such useless gits in my not so humble opinion because this is a clear case of hypocrisy. What happened yesterday while unfortunate and has caused a P.R storm, is nothing worth talking about because even the members of team Ghafla voted along tribal lines.

But more of my opinion on that later. For now, watch the video of Kalonzo Musyoka refuse to answer the question below:

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After taking time away from social media ,Huddah Monroe Is back and by the look of things she has had time to think  things over and change how she presents herself to the public.

The reformed bad girl posted this:

Trying to Create a life that feels good on the inside, not one that just looks good on the outside. Don’t live to impress people 🙂

— HUDDAHMONROE (@HUDDAHMONROE) April 24, 2014

Trying to Create a life that feels good on the inside, not one that just looks good on the outside. Don’t live to impress people 🙂

Then dropped some sad news for those who enjoyed watching her gyrate seductively and twerk on social media.
 

New IG due to demand .

Late last year, a lass by the name Charlotte came out of the woodwork accusing top billed comedian Obinna of impregnating her while she was still in high school and taking off. A story to which Obinna reacted with scorn and after I spoke to people around him, I understood why. From his peers and friends, Obinna is reportedly a caring father who dotes on his scions.

And he recently took to social media to celebrate his children and I cannot say I read malice in him. The lad actually does cut the image of a loving and caring father and I am happy for him. Check out his children below:

Cute children if ever I saw any! Wishing him and his family nothing but love.

By the look of things every politician will be taking selfies till the selfie- apocalypse .

This is after Dr. Alfred Mutua made it cool, Uhuru-Ruto posed for one with Jacque Maribe and Mr. Raila took it a notch higher with an ‘Oscar Inspired’ Selfie.

NTV Presenter Larry Madowo  also got the Chief Justice himself to huddle in fo r a selfie with him and Juliani at Juliani’s  Listening party recently

When Konshens came to Kenya recently, he got a chance to pop in Citizen TV’s studio for an interview with none other than Citizen’s finest Lillian Muli. This interview unfortunately bought forth a lot of vile reactions from the fans and Kenyans on Twitter.

The crowd felt that Lillian had behaved unprofessionally and was way to start struck for an A-List celebrity such as her .I watched the interview and I have to admit that the interview was a disappointment especially due to the fact that I know that Lillian can do better than act all googly-eyed. She was named one of Citizen’s best for a reason which I assume is because she is one of the best.

After scouring the internet hoping  that I would find an interview by a Kenyan presenter that did not totally suck I came across an interview by Larry Madowo. Hate Him or love him, Larry is pretty good at his job and his interview with Konshens was not only informative but entertaining and Larry actually looked like he had prepared for the interview. I think Lillian and other interviewers can learn something from Larry Madowo .

Here is the interview:

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You all know his name; know his face; know his voice and know what he does best. For as long as you can remember he’s been keeping you informed with the latest information on Citizen TV.

And now after close to 8 years with Citizen TV, admired and notable anchor, Johnson Mwakazi, is leaving the leading TV station. According to a very reliable source, Mwakazi has already handed in his resignation and is currently serving his one-month notice at Citizen TV.

The source adds that Mwakazi is expected to leave Royal Media Services at the end of April for a fairly new media house, Fountain Media.

Mwakazi started his journey in media as a voiceover artiste before joining RMS in 2006 as a new anchor on Hot 96 before Citizen TV came calling. After an impressive screen-test, Mwakazi joined Citizen TV as the host for the newly created breakfast show, Power Breakfast.

It’s not clear what position “The Royal Voice” will take up at Fountain Media but our source confirms that he’s indeed leaving.

We could, however, not reach him for a comment as his phone went unanswered.

Ghafla! wishes him Godspeed.

When Lupita Nyong’o talks about the women who have inspired her she refers to the women in The Color Purple and Super Model Alek Wek. She says that Alek was a lot like her, dark-skinned with short hair, finally a public figure that she could relate to.

Seeing Alek gave her “a spring in her step because she felt more seen, more appreciated by the far away gatekeepers of beauty.”

Alek Wek

Of course such words couldn’t go unnoticed by super model Alek who thanked Lupita for the pleasing words about her adding that “Lupita made it not because of her skin color, but because of her wonderful words of saying you should never let anyone stop you,” utteredAlek. “No one can define you better than yourself. We all fall, but it’s how you pick yourself up and dust yourself off.”

After such beautiful words about each other People magazine made sure that the two beauties met:

The East African Beauties ‘working it’

The excited actress said this on meeting Alek

People mag introduced me to the radiant Alek Wek, my beauty icon whose magazine covers helped me feel much better about myself growing up.

In a country where you can get cast out by your family and ostracized by the community because of being a homosexual, it takes a brave soul to come out of the closet.

And last year the valiant man was Binyavanga Wainaina. A milestone in his life that earned him a slot in Time’s Magazine’s Most Influential People alongside Scandal’s Kerry Washington Archbishop Dieudonné Nzapalainga,Imam Omar Kobine Layama and Rev. Nicolas Guérékoyame-Gbangou of Central African Republic.

Chimamanda and Binyavanga (Photo: yourstruly-uche.blogspot.com)

According  to Time Magazine  Binyavanga made it to the list because “By publicly and courageously declaring that he is a gay African, Binyavanga has demystified and humanized homosexuality and begun a necessary conversation that can no longer be about the “faceless other.”

Source: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie /Time Magazine

Former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka has apologised over an ostensibly ethnic statement he made during a press briefing yesterday.

In a statement, Kalonzo said “I in no way intended to neither demean the young man, nor do I or would I harbor any animosity toward him. To the contrary I have tirelessly worked for cohesion in this country and in my lifetime supported many leaders from various communities to include the Kalenjin, Luo, Kikuyu, Coast and this is common knowledge.”

Here’s his statement;

As everyone refuses to let go of the Lupita’s Oscar euphoria, here is a silent genius who’s worked with the biggest blockbuster movies and was actually the FIRST Kenyan to win the highly coveted Oscar award.

39 year old Yvonne Muinde currently living in the New Zealand is a fine Arts specialist, Painter, photographer and currently a supervisor at Weta Digital, was a leading member of the team that won record breaking Avatar it’s Best Visual Effects award at the 2010 Academy Awards together with British Academy film Award, Best Special Visual Effects 2010, Broadcast Film Critics and the same category, Phoenix Film Critics Society,  and Saturn Awards too in 2009. Yvonne was the lead matte painter for the award winning movie Avatar.

If you thought that was all, then you’re wrong, Yvonne has worked with box office hits like;

 2013 Iron Man 3 (digital effects crew: Weta Digital)
 2012 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (head of matte painting: WETA Digital)
 2011 Rise of the Planet of the Apes (matte painting hod: Weta Digital)
 2010 Knight and Day (visual effects: Weta Digital)
 2009 Avatar (department lead matte painter: Weta Digital)
 2009 The Lovely Bones (lead matte painter: Weta Digital)
 2008 Jumper (visual effects artist: matte painting and concept art, Weta Digital – as Yvonne Muinde)
 2007 The Water Horse (matte painter: Weta Digital)
 2007 30 Days of Night (matte painter: Weta Digital)
 2007 Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (matte painting and concept art team: Weta Digital)
 2006 Eragon (visual effects: Weta Digital)
 2006 Happy Feet (digital artist)
 2005 xXx: State of the Union (digital matte artist: ILM)

Well if you didn’t know now you know! You can check out Yvonne’s site and get to know more about Her HERE

Socialites love them or hate them we have quite a lot to learn from them. How we treat them reflects who we are as people and I have come to realize that Kenyans in this respect are ruthless for lack of a better word. This is especially true for the women (as well as a few weak men).

As I went through the comments on social media on one Corazon Kwamboka I realized that the most negative comments came from her fellow women, they were really baying for her blood. Then I switched it up to Prezzo’s new video where they were insulting the lass, using phrases intended to be hurtful such as ‘hide your cellulite’

And as it turns out its not only the socialites who are receiving all the bile,even established musicians such as Stella Mwangi are getting a lot of hate from her fellow women. I have also been a target for the ‘women against women’ hate where some pseudo-feminists alleged that I ‘did not empower women’. My fellow writers (who are male) have on previous occasions tackled topics such as men getting batteredat home.  I am yet to hear a man go like ‘You do not support men.” Or some such other ridiculous comments. This ‘women against women’ phenomenon is not confined to the entertainment scene.In the political arena, deserving women candidates have been denied life-changing political seats by their fellow women because of women on women hate.

Lately I have been thinking about what is the true cause of this ‘women against women’ phenomenon. I hypothesize that the hatred for other women comes from within. If one hates herself, it’s easy for her to hate another woman. When a woman who hates herself looks at a glamorous female socialite or celebrity what she sees is a woman who seemingly doesn’t hate herself. It is easy for such a woman to feel intimidated and threatened causing her to project the internalized negativity (read: hate andvitriol) onto the female socialite or celebrity. Think about it. This explains the myriad times we hear comments like “Who does she think she is?” “She’s not all that anyway” “Why is she so full of herself?” and  “She is just a glorified whore!”

From my observation I have concluded that there are certain traits that tend to make a woman threatening to women who are low in self-confidence. The traits include beauty, intelligence, hard work ethic, confidence, dressed to impress, affluence and strong personality. Socialites commonly have these traits in varying combinations turning them into magnets for hatred. For the haters out there I wish you would wake up to the reality that the feelings of intimidation always stem from your own insecurity. Threat (along with the insecurity it stems from) brings out the worst in us. We tend to lash out when we let insecurity get the best of us.

So what is the moral of this story, do not hate on your fellow woman simply because she is more popular or has more influence or is successful. Do not hate, celebrate.