Moments & Musings

Christmas in Kenya does not arrive quietly. It does not whisper. It does not tiptoe. It does not politely knock like a visitor carrying a small Bible and perfect manners. It comes like traffic. It comes like a crowd. It comes like a choir practice that begins at 6pm and somehow becomes 2am. It comes like your cousin who says “Niko karibu” while he is still in Naivasha. TL;DR: Christmas came to East Africa through missions, schools, and colonial calendars — but Kenyans remade it. In shags and in clubs, in churches and on beaches, in bedsitters and on night shifts, it has become a season of belonging, pressure, joy, and return. Long before the day itself, you begin to sense it in the small betrayals of ordinary life. Workplaces soften, as if even the most serious people are tired of pretending. The city begins to empty — slowly at first, then suddenly, like someone pulled a plug. Markets swell. Matatus develop a different impatience, the kind that makes conductor...

⚠️ Content Warning: This article contains descriptions of violence, child abuse, and alleged cannibalism. Reader discretion is advised. Jean-Bédel Bokassa: From Orphan to Emperor to Monster Names like Stalin, Hitler, and Idi Amin are often the first to come to mind when we think of history's most notorious dictators. But one name is almost forgotten — Jean-Bédel Bokassa. The self-proclaimed Emperor of the Central African Empire, his reign was a twisted blend of unimaginable cruelty, lavish excess, and absurd delusions of grandeur. This biography delves into the rise of a man who started as an orphan in colonial Africa, served as a decorated soldier, and eventually became one of the most brutal and bizarre figures in history. On December 4, 1977, a barefoot nation watched as their president crowned himself emperor in a $20 million ceremony copied from Napoleon Bonaparte. Two years later, he would beat over 100 schoolchildren to death with his own hands because their ...

Jomo Kenyatta’s Legacy: Kenya’s Liberator or Its First Oppressor? A long-form examination of land, power, political violence, the Mau Mau question, and why Kenya’s founding years still shape the present. Reading time: ~12–14 minutes Jomo Kenyatta (1966). Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons (public domain / PD Israel). Source: commons.wikimedia.org Jomo Kenyatta did not walk into history quietly. Released from colonial detention with a fly whisk in hand, he became the embodiment of a people’s longing for dignity, land, and freedom. Independence in 1963 felt like a door flung open. But when Kenyatta died in 1978, Kenya was also a nation learning to fear its own state: unresolved political assassinations, shrinking opposition space, coercive policing, and a land system that promised restoration but often delivered privilege. “This is not a trial of Kenyatta’s soul. It i...

The true story of Jeanne Calment and the bet that outlived the bettor Published: December 2025   |   ⏱️ 7 min read   |   ️ France, History, Human Longevity, Risk, Strange Contracts André-François Raffray died owing money to a woman fifty years older than him. The debt didn't end with his death. His widow kept paying. Every month for two more years, she signed checks to Jeanne Calment, a woman she'd never met, for an apartment she'd never see. By the time Jeanne finally died at 122, the Raffray family had paid double what the place was worth. They never spent a single night there. This is what happens when you bet against time and time decides to humiliate you. * * * In This Story The Deal The Timeline The Fine Print The Lesson * * * The Deal In 1965, Raffray was 47 and thought he'd found the deal of his life. Jeanne Calment was 90 and needed money. Her apartment sat in a bea...