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ONGOING PROJECTS
  • Contributor, V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) – Democracy, Elections and Political Parties in Zanzibar(2000-2020).
  • Researcher, Providing for Peacekeeping Project – International Peace Institute (IPI) (2015-Ongoing).
  • Research in Popular Music and Culture (2019-Ongoing).
  • Research in Politics and Elections in Tanzania (Ongoing).
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Students’ Analyses

The Pulpit President: Religion and Ruto

By Iddah Apondi   The great Marxist thinker Karl Marx once opined that “religion is the opium of the people.” These words hold great resonance in the African continent. In examining Kenya and its dance with religion like other African countries, one can see that there exists a mixture of religion and the daily lives of people. The 2020 report on International Religious freedom: Kenya estimated that as of 2019 approximately 85.5% of the total population of Kenyans are Christians, 11% Muslim and less than 2% fall in to the religious groups...

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Lessons Lessons!

By Umu Jalo These past few years have come with heavy lessons that life prior had not prepared us all for. Nobody alive now was there during the last global pandemic of the Spanish flu to prepare us now for the skill set that we required for buoyancy and resilience of having our lives turned upside down. The thing is, this has been a real test of survival, reinvention, risk taking, at least for me, in navigating this new world the best I know how, and here are the lessons I...

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Trust the process; let go of fear

By Umu Jalo   You probably have had this phrase a gazillion times in your journey through your current life so far. It’s become a catchphrase with modern gurus and their endless motivational rants. Have you ever stopped and dissected this phrase though? Tried looking at it from all angles at first, then depending on which lens that resonates with your life journey, applied it and sat back to see it work it’s magic?   Well, the two phrases, trust the process and let go of fear are powerful enough on their own, leave...

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Wake Up!

By Umu Jalo  Hey you! Pause for a moment. Hold whatever it is that you are doing for at least three minutes before you resume your routine on the hamster wheel that you have found yourself in.  Do you think that this is it? Being born, going to school by the time you get to four years’ old, being churned through the worlds educational systems, coming out at whatever level, high school, graduate, or even a professor? Do you think that all you were meant to be was a cog in...

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Inside the mind of a college lady weed addict

By Anonymous The human mind is truly the scariest thing of all. It can hold you captive or even liberate you. The Bible in 2 Timothy 1:7 says “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” It is however impossible to be brave and understand this wander of addiction in my mind. The drugs have taken power from my mind. It is even more difficult to describe this compulsive need of smoking marijuana popularly known weed, shash, mbichwa,...

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Living with Voice Hoarseness

By Leah Muringo “Excuse me…. I don’t know how to say this but this position requires a person who will be audible enough over the phone and during presentations. Good luck in your future applications.” This is often the case for a person living with voice hoarseness but once in a while, you could get one or two people who think your voice is quite romantic. However, I mostly get the latter. This is often times followed by, “do you normally speak like that?”   Well, this began with constant fevers when I...

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Growing up as a Pastor’s Kid

By Shaddih Mururi Nyaga   My name is Shaddih Mururi Nyaga. I am a pastor’s kid. I have always been referred as the ‘pastor’s kid’ but today I introduce myself with this title. I know that the ‘pastor’s kid moniker is not really important but for now it is. So I have been a pastors’ kid all my life. I was born into a Christian family. I am the third born in a family of four children. I got to learn a lot of Bible verses. On Sunday’s I used to wake...

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Achieving My Diplomatic Vision through My Passion in Culinary Arts

[vc_row row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" text_align="left" box_shadow_on_row="no"][vc_column][vc_column_text]By Teresa Muthoki “I never start any task on a trial and error basis because I like to see my projects to a successful end.” These are words of Simon Gicharu, an entrepreneur and educationist from the book ‘Life Journeys Nuggets’ compiled by Susan Wakhungu Githuku.   When I chose to pursue a Bachelors of Arts Degree in International Relations and Diplomacy, I was never sure of what I wanted in life but I was certain that humanities and social sciences was my calling. At first I wanted...

Covid-19 Vaccination: Experiences from Israel

By Dickens Ngunya The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2), commonly known as the Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) is claimed to have originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has spread to all corners of the globe. This virus has claimed the lives of over three million people worldwide and has changed the optics through which we look at public health both locally and internationally. The novel coronavirus disease has demonstrated that individual states have the onus to mitigate, manage, plan, and implement strategies tailored for their specific situations in future...