Came across this...
Do I have something to say regarding what happened at the JKL Show last night? Of course I do.
Miguna Miguna is no Donald Trump. There is only one Donald Trump, and he is neither Kenyan nor lives in Canada. Trumpism, the political philosophy of running your mouth while high on populism, was not started by Donald Trump, and it will not end with him. Miguna Miguna is your average Kenyan politician, there is nothing new he has said, as a Kenyan politician, that we have yet to come across. Moses Kuria incited his Gatundu base to get machetes and look for Raila Odinga. Evans Kidero slapped a woman when cameras were rolling. Uhuru Kenyatta has said numerous unpresidential stuff before. William Ruto's vile tongue is his greatest undoing.
Miguna Miguna might be a whole lot of things but civility is not one of them. During our Primatology classes, at the University of Nairobi, whenever we started arguing over petty stuff as which group gets to discuss which easy topic, the lecturer was always quick to remind us that even the Bonobos would never have behaved like were were doing faced with similar circumstances.
The Bonobos, for those not in the know, are the closest extant species to humans. Of all the ape species known to man, the Bonobo society are the most respectful and most tolerant of their women. Aggressive encounters between male and female Bonobos are rare, and males are tolerant of infants and juveniles. This is because the brain anatomy of Bonobos has more developed and larger regions vital for feeling empathy and sensing distress in others, which makes them less aggressive and more empathetic than any other ape species. They also have a thick connection between the area that can spark aggression, and the ventral anterior cingulate cortex, which helps control impulses. This thicker connection makes them better at regulating their emotional impulses and behavior.
If Miguna Miguna was an ape, he would rank lower than a Bonobo male in the evolution tree, because the average Bonobo male would not have taken Esther Passaris' bait, at the very least, or would have responded to Passaris' takedown in a more reserved manner, at the very worst. If Miguna Miguna went to JKL last night as the only saviour Nairobi needed, then he left it in the same gutter level that Passaris came from. Last night, the JKL show succeeded in lumping Miguna Miguna and Esther Passaris in the same sewer rat category.
I have never met Miguna Miguna, but I have spoken to a number of those who have sat with him in forums where serious stuff is being discussed. They are in common agreement that Miguna Miguna is a master scholar who does his research with the detail of a hawk eye. They are also in unison that Miguna Miguna loathes mediocrity in all it's manifestations. If you are invited into a discussion with Miguna Miguna, you better know your stuff well. Miguna Miguna is always categorical that he only debates with his equals, something he has never shied away from mentioning whenever he feels he is getting a raw deal from discussions he's engaged in.
The problem with Miguna Miguna is his demenour. There are ways to shut down those you feel are intellectually malnourished but digging into their personal stuff is not one of them. I have no problems with people sleeping around with people. During our elementary biology classes, we were told that one of the characteristics of living things is their response to stimuli. I have no problem with people having sex with whomever they choose to have it with. No one should be ashamed of having sex with whomever they choose to have it with, but to use the same against someone on a serious political talkshow is to cheapen the worth of your candidature. No one has the right to bring another person's bedroom affairs to a live television talkshow discussing the future of East Africa's geopolitical hub.
Esther Passaris did not come to JKL last night to articulate her vision for Nairobi, she came purposely to match up to Miguna Miguna's arrogance - and she got served more than she could handle. There is a problem with people who come to discussions with the sole intention of responding to what the others have already articulated. She did not have a Manifesto, she said she did not need one. They were left discussing Miguna's well-articulated blueprint - for the few instances that the talk-show was sober. There is no way you are going to discuss a manifesto that you did not craft. If you don't know where you are going, any road can take you there - and sadly for Passaris the road to hell was littered with Miguna Miguna's vomit.
The problem I have with the JKL Show is the moderator, Jeff Koinange. If rape was the subject of last night's vitriol-laden horrow show, then those who watched it must be reminded that it is Jeff Koinange who started the show by asking Miguna to attack Passaris, which MIguna refused to, but Passaris latched onto the bait and the discussion started going South. If you are marketing your show as the number 1 political talkshow in this country then it should live up to it's hyped billing. I have always said that Jeff Koinange should be sued for false advertising. Last night's JKL Show, like any other gone before, was atrocious because Jeff lacked the skills necessary to keep the quality of the discussion above board.
If I wanted to know how many men Passaris has been sleeping around with, or how many house servants Miguna Miguna has raped, I would not have waited for the JKL Show to get that information. Such gutter-level gossip is found in Kilimani Mums or those ratchet Facebook groups that is free for all.
Jeff Koinange, and that noisy fire extinguisher of his, should be cleared off our television screens and a serious replacement be sort. If there is one person who should apologize to Esther Passaris and Miguna Miguna for the wretchedness of the debate last night, that person is Jeff Koinange. There is no way you are going to cheer on two people attacking each other under the belt because you want your show to trend on social media. There are better ways to trend JKL Show, and it is not by allowing it to degenerate into a brutal shouting match.
Jeff Koinange is going to apologize to the Kenyan public for a second week in a row, after allowing Boniface Mwangi's monologue last week to be gatecrashed by noisy riff-raffs with air between their ears. It is the least he can do to redeem the credibility of that thing now on the brink of oblivion.
If I were to watch JKL Show again, it will be for it's nuisance value alone. Congratulations to all those who keep giving the hollow show a wide berth.
You are my heroes today.
possunt quia posse videntur