Category: Columns

Imagine you have a tonne of dangerous chemical waste or radioactive material in your backyard. It certainly poses potential risk and danger to the health, safety and security of your own family and probably neighbours. To stem that, you arrange to have the material dumped in the backyard of a “third-family” and go back to…

I was driving slowly along the road when I spotted a tawny eagle flying low, almost hovering above a carcass. As I drew closer, I saw what had caught its attention – a dead honey badger (Nyegere in Swahili) lying by the roadside, evidently the victim of a speeding vehicle. It was a disheartening sight….

With its new AI-powered search feature,With its new AI-powered search feature, Google just turned Gmail into a psychic assistant Forget endless scrolling; now, your inbox can magically surface that email about Aunt Gertrude’s legendary machalari recipe—assuming AI knows what “machalari” even is. Is Gmail a smarter Inbox or Nosy Neighbor as it now uses AI…

The resumption of direct flights between Somalia and Tanzania, together with the reopening of the Somali embassy in Dar es Salaam, might seem like routine diplomatic matters. In truth, these developments signal something much bigger – a new, more practical way to build East African unity. Somalia is often seen as the Sick Man of…

Some 25 years ago, a group of Committee Members of the Media Council of Tanzania (MCT) – mainly scribes – and I flew to Stockholm, Sweden, at the invitation of our counterparts, the Media Council of Sweden. We were warmly received by our hosts and accommodated at the centrally located Kungs Hotel in Stockholm. We…

Story telling is as old as the mountains and valleys.Our ancestors, of every nation and culture, have always told stories to give a certain message, normally a moral or ethical one. Although telling stories has often been a source of entertainment and laughter, the main aim of these stories has been to give a moral…

I enjoyed Mboneko Munyaga’s recent piece in The Arusha News on the SGR and agreed with his sentiment. I too have travelled on the new train and found it splendid. My main criticism is that it doesn’t travel to Arusha. Arusha to Dar es Salaam is quite an ordeal. Of course flying isn’t too bad…

One of the things I tend to get asked by very intelligent young minds every once-in-a-while is “why school?” I come across questions and sentiments such as: “why should children go to school?”, “schools are setup to create employees, not employers”, “I want to be an entrepreneur and make money so why do I need…

He hasn’t read a book in years,But tweets in all caps, bold and fierce.He quotes philosophers all wrong,Then raps his “facts” in TikTok songs.A scholar born on Facebook feeds.She Googles once, then claims she knows,The secrets deep in UFOs.“Research,” she says, with shaky hands,It’s from a blog in far Sudan.No proof, just posts and comment…