Maillu for President? You must be joking!

The name David Maillu always makes other heads turn.If you ask me, the man is a little weird. But not outright crazy.

He fits among Kenya’s leading writers and literary icons rather insecurely. But his standing in the political landscape is even more unclear.But Maillu thinks otherwise.  

So when I saw his picture in Crazy Monday (The Standard, 16^th April) I was not very surprised. The dare-devil Maillu has, for the fourth time, declared his candidacy for the presidency.He is the father of an obscure political party called Communal Democracy of Kenya (CDK). He is also the founder of an even lesser known political philosophy called The Maillu Revolution. Besides these, however, he has no close affiliation to any major political party or any prominent politician. And yet he has been eyeing the presidency since 1997.

Maillu is a bundle of contradictions. The controversial writer is the proud holder of a doctoral degree in literature, but he has no more than a high school education. Though he has never stepped inside a university lecture hall to learn or teach, he is often invited to give lectures on writing in various colleges abroad. He has over 60 books in print, ranging in theme from polygamy to religion and from children’s stories to sheer pornography and his books are studied in many universities across the world.

The doctorate degree bestowed upon him in 1998 by South Australia’s St Clement’s University was perhaps the highest honour in the last ten years. It was in recognition of his contribution to African literature – especially for his major work, Broken Drum, published in 1995. In 2002, he was invited to the launch of a new book of criticism on the works of Daisaku Ikeda, a Japanese scholar and honorary member of the Writers’ Association of Kenya. Wak included a toast in his honour of Maillu in the event. Maillu is best known as a prolific writer of humorous, sexually explicit pocket-size books like No, Unfit for Human Consumption, My Dear Bottle and After 4.30.

Several critical texts pour endless praise on his many works of fiction, religion and philosophy, including The Broken Drum, Our Kind of Polygamy and African Indigenous Political Ideology. He has also been published in fields as diverse as poetry, drama, children’s fiction, philosophy and religion.

He also won the coveted Jomo Kenyatta Prize for literature in 1992 jointly with Wahome Mutahi, the late popular humour columnist.

But the most confounding side of Maillu, a father of two, is his political dreams. In 1997, he was waxing enthusiastic about becoming a parliamentary representative for the newly-created Kaiti constituency, promising to charm voters with his guitar. After launching his book, African Indigenous Political Ideology at the University of Nairobi in 2002, he called a press conference to announce that he was running for the presidency on a Kanu ticket, against the then formidable incumbent Daniel arap Moi. It sounded like a modern day David and Goliath piece, which virtually all editors dismissed. Politically, nothing much has been heard about Maillu since then.But he is not giving up yet.

“As a writer, I am also politician,” he says, tightening his hold on his giant white flywhisk. “I have a big constituency and more important, an ideology, which these people don’t have. In fact, I have a revolution. This is the antidote to foreign political models.” He says as fondles a copy of his new book, The Maillu Revolution.

His fate against Kenya’s political heavy weights like Mwai Kibaki, Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka or Uhuru Kenyatta  or Ruto is obviously sealed. But Maillu intends to turn his home in Kola into a museum and community library and mobilised his constituents to construct a bridge and a dam through the Kilonde Self-Help Water Project, which he founded.

On his many journeys, he collects stones, plants, and pieces of art, with which he has built and decorated a unique home that stands out for its greenery and architecture in the dry plains of Ukambani. The walls of his
Nairobi house are decorated with his original paintings, as are the pages of his books.

The author is working on a thesis on East African popular literature.

On Bill Gates, King Kong and other ‘Unsung’ Inventors

World Intellectual Property Day is due next week. 

Otieno Amisi asks if  inventors are getting sharper or just more selfish. 

When I recently met popular Kenyan musician Mighty King Kong at a Nairobi hotel, he was visibly fuming with rage. Paul Otieno Imbaya – for that is his real name - told me he was planning to mobilize over 1,500 ‘artistes’ to go on a “massive hunger strike” that would “wake up the government of Kenya to do something real, once and for all.”

The former street boy, who rose to fame for his mix of African and Reggae beats, says Kenya’s creative people, and  musicians, especially, are being unfairly deprived of their right to a decent life, even after producing popular songs, plays or other inventions. Pirates and broadcasters often ignore copyright law, and some of them have become stinking rich. “It is our songs that keep listeners and viewers glued to the channels. We are the ones who pull in and keep the advertisers knocking their doors with more and more money.

“There are many radio stations that, for lack of imagination, simply play music all day and all night without battling an eyelid. Many of them bother to even call us for their end of year party. Not that I would go, anyway.” Among many listeners, he says, music programmes are by far the most popular.

“Radio and television stations use the work of our genius to keep advertisers and their millions rolling in and millions of fans glued, while we die of hunger.”Together, King Kong says, local musicians are demanding royalties amounting to Kenya shillings 5 billion from radio and television stations, who fail to pay them even the peanuts they occasionally promised when pressurized. King Kong, also known as Felix Imbaya, says established rights groups like the Music copyright Association and the Music composers association of Kenya have failed artists. They have all been compromised. Bought off, infiltrated by greed or selfishness, cowed into silence.

Then there is the matter of pirates and traders who make a daily fortune out of artists.

As I promised him my support, I recalled those four years ago, when I happened to walk into meeting room 8 at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre to watch a poetry recital at the annual schools and colleges Music festival.I was mad when I saw several groups of students compete for trophies and awards for a poem I had written some years ago. No one, not even my teacher friends at the  Festival Committee  had bothered to invite me for the event,  or informed me of the honour that my poem had been chosen for the competition. These incidents got me thinking about our artists and inventors whose intellectual and creative works are every day subjected to piracy, reproduction, mutilation, theft, sale and resale.

Forget the world of school music and drama, where chunks of poetry, tunes and dance patterns are reproduced with boring regularity and numbing impunity. That is child’s play. In the real world out there, the fire is building. More and more people are clamoring for the registration of copyrights, trademarks and industrial designs by their governments. Intellectual and creative rights have been formally patented for over two in countries like Canada, where almost 40 000 patent applications are now being filed annually.

This year’s World Intellectual Property Day will be marked next Thursday (April 26.) The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) is celebrating the link between intellectual property and creativity under the theme: Encouraging Creativity. The day is set aside to focus on how creative people can channel their energy and protect their creativity legally.

For Kenya, it comes at a time when our Kikoi is going down the path of the kiondo.So what is all this fuss about a mere idea, string (of thought) or line of song? When a song is sung, and we like it, who cares about its origin? Why would anyone want to make money from us each time we sing or replay the song? In a modern economy, why can’t we just make our Ciondo or Kikoy, let the Japanese make theirs, and we all spread it in the free market and ‘let the people decide,’ as Kenyan politician Kenneth Matiba would say? 

What, really, is this intellectual property thing? According to Wikipedia, intellectual property (IP) is “an umbrella term for various legal entitlements which attach to certain names, written and recorded media, and inventions. The holders of these legal entitlements are generally entitled to exercise various exclusive rights in relation to the subject matter of the IP. Wikipedia continues, “The term intellectual property reflects the idea that this subject matter is the product of the mind or the intellect.

Legal enforcement and protection of intellectual property varies from country to country.  In the last century, there have been inter-governmental efforts to harmonise them through international treaties.The 1994 World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), is one of these. But the enforcement of copyright, as well as disagreements over medical and software patents, have prevented the emergence of a cohesive international system, as evidenced by the row over anti Aids medicines, but that is a story for another day.In Kenya, probably the last time we heard the whimper of Intellectual Property Rights was back in 2004. In that year, Kenya held a Microsoft–sponsored workshop for copyright and counterfeit prevention officers. At the time, there was even a rumour that Bill Gates and his agents were going to confiscate all computers running unauthorized software. Well, when the claimant is as mighty as Bill Gates, we pay some attention. Or perhaps there is some resentment. But when it is some poor Daudi Kabaka or the unmighty King Kong, well…As a country, are we doing enough to protect inventors? To ensure they get at least a decent life from the product of their imagination.

Inventions – or intellectual property – like the telephone, insulin, the light bulb or birth control pills, are just some of the few inventions that have revolutionized the way we live, work and play. Those inventions, like songs, plays, novels, films, designs and slogans, have one very simple, yet complex thing in common — they all started with an idea. The challenge is for you inventors to prove an idea is yours and turn it into a money-maker by taking the right steps to take to protect your idea without denying the people the right to enjoy your gift.

A good book, who can find?

Title: Write that Story: A Guide for Writers and Editors

Publisher: being sought

Good books are like good partners. Hard to get and even harder to forget.

Now, good books on writing, like perfect partners, are even harder to find anywhere. Yet the demand for good writing is always overwhelming. Many publishing houses are choking with poorly written and badly edited manuscripts because few authors go to writing school, and even fewer schools provide  high quality writing skills.

Many newspapers, even reputable ones, are full of editorial gafes and glaring mistakes. In much of the third world, those who have a chance to attend journalism or creative writing schools discover that there are no books written locally. They have to make do with foreign books, which are often irrelevant, outdated and lack the needed touch. Everywhere, there are even many celebrated and even well educated people who need help to write better, in both official and personal situstions.

Though this book targets the needs of Kenyan and East African journalists, it also contains practical exercises on writing and editing, as well as thought provoking essays on the media.

Based on the belief that everyone writes, and that anyone can be a good writer, the author envisages that the book will find a hungry market in the mushrooming media schools and colleges. It will also be invaluable for many other people involved in anything related to mass communication.

The author’s personal experience with professional writers, right from rural-based correspondents, communication managers and editors shows that though there are many good writers out there, they can all be made much better. The same applies to many managers whose job involves communicating to target markets through the printed word.
Save for the occasional scholarship winner, very few journalist or writers in the world ever have a chance or the time to sharpen their skills. This is due to initial bad training or, in most cases total lack of it, and poor mastery of the skills of good writing. Besides, many of them are simply too overwhelmed by the rigorous demands of news journalism.
Modern journalistic practice is indeed overwhelming. Today’s journalist is expected to be a master of all disciplines and technological wizardry. From a comprehensive knowledge of computers and photography to a grasp of the environmental effects of a new factory, to the motive behind a recent murder or a stalled corruption case, the average journalist of the 21st century is more than just a correspondent.
The average journalist is typically in charge of a wide area, usually a district or small town. His area of coverage is even wider because he meets, on a daily basis, issues ranging from environment, economics, and sports, to culture, business, education politics, and so on. He is also expected to write the occasional political analysis or travel story, and the feature.
While technology has greatly changed the way writers work all over the world, few writers are privileged enough to be proficient in the enjoyment of these facilities. This is either because of the peculiar circumstances in the areas they live and work in, like lack of electricity or computers.
But it is becoming important that journalists be much more than ‘correspondents’ or telephone booth journalists, as we were known a few years ago. This book challenges you to be a different, better writer and edtor. It wants you to be an activist and a change agent of your community through your writing.
On the other hand, editors have trouble laying their hands on a good style book. Though there is some consensus within each newsroom on what the final product should look like, there is still need for a standardized style book that applies across the board, and which also offers clarification on use of language in everyday journalism for non journalists alike. And this is what this book is about. 

Book Summary

Write that Story: A Guide for Writers and Editors in Kenya  is the product of extensive research and experience in the practice of journalism in Kenya in the last fifteen years. Though it is written for writers and editors who are already established in media houses in East Africa, it will also be helpful for writers and editors of books and students of journalism and writing in general not only in Africa, but also abroad. For the general reader, it gives a peep into the working of the media in a developing country.

The book opens with an adapted from an essay by Renato Kizito, a journalist and priest, which gives a broad overview of the challenges of being a writer.One of the major strength is the insightful examination of emerging trends in journalism like blogging, development journalism and public relations, and how these continue to affect the practice of journalism.

The book continues to outline the principles principles of good journalism and challenges of media practice in the third world today. Contentious issues like law and ethics, are also discussed in detail.

The  book provides tips for writers on appeal, sensitivity and getting evidence, besides
providing editors with practical decision-making skills.In short, the 20 chapter book is about how writers can make their stories clearer, simpler and briefer. Abbreviations, titles, punctuations, figures numbers, tenses and capitalization are examined, as are cartoons, strips, captions and pictures.

About the author
Otieno Amisi is a Kenyan writer, poet, teacher and journalist. He is currently working as a Revise Editor with Oakland Media Services, in Nairobi. He founded New Age, a respected but short lived literary journal after graduating in Education and Literature in English from Kenyatta University. He also holds a post graduate diploma in Mass communication from the University of Nairobi. Amisi’s works of journalism and poetry have appeared in various local and international publications.