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    Beyond the Hashtag
    Beyond the Hashtag
    Beyond the Hashtag
    Ebook98 pages1 hour

    Beyond the Hashtag

    By TiTa Bugo

    ()

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    About this ebook

    My ebook/mobi-tale, 86 pages, is an art-fiction as opposed to science-fiction.

    it navigates the thin line between fiction and reality, providing both entertainment and realtime information.

    On the 24th of July 2015,Barack H. Obama arrived in Kenya, not as the young man looking to find his roots, not as a Harvard graduate intending to introduce his fiancé to his paternal side of the family nor as a first term junior Senator from Illinois but, as President of the United States.
    A lot emerged from that trip including #kiderograss, #someonetellCNN and all this amid the ever present threat of the Al-shabaab.
    Beyond the hashtag borrows that background to bring you in the authors own art-fiction style, all that happened and more that we hoped would never happen during Obama's trip to the land of his father.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTiTa
    Release dateFeb 22, 2017
    ISBN9789966097507
    Beyond the Hashtag
    Author

    TiTa Bugo

    He lives and works in Nairobi, Kenya. Came up with word art-fiction to describe his style of writing.and mobi-tale to show his works can be accessed anywhere via mobile gadgets and be read on the go....

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      Book preview

      Beyond the Hashtag - TiTa Bugo

      PREFACE

      A narrative of how a proud people fought back to reclaim their dignity armed with a Twitter Hashtag ... the drama behind the scenes before, during and after the first Kenya-American president of the United States visit to Kenya, the land of his father.

      In a fast-paced tempo, the plot-line is intertwined with more facts than fiction aimed at not only leaving you entertained but, also well informed on how Nairobi earned its front row seat in the global war against terror,

      why it is referred to as the Silicon Savannah and how it is in tune with the world’s nerve center...

      CREDITS

      Benefits from Online research: AfricLandPost, African-defense.com, allafrica.com, jamiiforums.com, potentash.com, enca.com.

      NMG Media group,

      My wife, always by my side.

      My family...they always have my back.

      DEDICATION

      To Kenya’s online community; at times you portray what patriotism should really be all about, you are the real Morans...

      PROLOGUE

      ‘...May it remind me and every little child that no matter where you are from, your dreams are valid.’

      -Lupita Nyong’o

      27th July, 2004.

      Boipei Lerengesu, a second year engineering student at the University of Nairobi was flipping through the channels of her television. It was a rather chilly Tuesday night and with her room at the Stella Awinja hall of residence lacking heating, she kept herself warm in thick fluffy blankets. Originally named Mary's hall, it was built to resemble an English countryside hotel and was meant for hosting single white women only. When the University bought it, the hostel was renamed Stella Muka Awinja, after a brilliant third year engineering student who died in a freak accident when a rock fell on her while walking beside the then under construction Lilian Towers.

      Boipei stumbled across the DNC broadcast from the Fleet Center and hesitated. She stared at the handsome young man introducing himself to the crowd. He told the American people, members of the Democratic Party gathered in Boston, Massachusetts that his mother was from Kansas and Dad from a village in Kenya. This caught her interest and she watched the lively speech to its rapturous conclusion.

      30th August 2008.

      Gadisse Eba was about to return to school for her final term at the Garbatula Girls High when she heard that her elder brother, Badessa had disappeared. Baddy and Gad happened to be the only children from their mother, a third wife of an elderly polygamous Borana herdsman. The news did not perturb Gadisse much since her brother was a known drifter and, had been disappearing for ages at a time, only to turn up with wild tales of either having joined the company of a group of local herders, to jumping on a lorry for a working trip as a loader to Nairobi.

      21st September,2013

      Akinyi was in high spirits as she made her way to the venue where she was to meet her boyfriend Kenny, who had just returned home from a tour of duty in Somalia as part of the ongoing Operation Linda Nchi. When she realized that she was early, she decided to while away time by wondering around the sprawling Westgate Shopping Mall. She passed by the Nairobi Java House on the second floor and went all the way up to the rooftop car park, at the rear of the Mall. It was a bright Saturday morning and the place was filling up rapidly. There was a children’s cooking competition going on at the rooftop. She lingered around briefly as the DJ from a local radio station sponsoring the event went about her business. Kenny called to inform her of his arrival. He was waiting for her at the Artcaffe next to the main pedestrian entrance. The two had barely sat down in the ground floor restaurant when all hell broke loose!

      ONE

      The Ill-Advised Strategy

      Rumours had been floating around as early as 2007 that the Kenyan government was recruiting and training Somalis in camps within Kenya so as to bolster the Somali Transitional Federal Government’s fight the Al-Shabaab. The terror group which was by then controlling several parts of Somalia including Kismayu, Mogadishu and Baidoa and, implementing their version of sharia law was increasingly being seen as a threat by the Kenya government. Their excursions deep into Kenya and attacks on tourists was becoming a concern and necessitated a need not only to bolster the TFG’s fighting capacity but also creating a buffer-zone between Kenya and Somalia.

      By October 2009, The Human Rights Watch gave out a statement stating that Kenya should stop recruiting Somalis in refugee camps for training, a practice which went against the international conventions. But by then, it was claimed in the media that the drive had not only targeted the Somalis but also Kenyan-Somalis around the Daadab and Garissa regions.

      Despite the government denying any involvement in such a plan, a year later, a parliamentary committee concurred with the rumours and in its report, stated that such an exercise had taken place with almost four thousand youths having been given paramilitary training then deployed into Somalia.

      When a year later, October 2011 the government launched Operation Linda Nchi, it lost interest in these youths. As a result, they were forced to join several armed groups existing in Somalia, including the Al-Shabaab.

      And, just like the CIA trained and funded Al Qaeda predecessor the Mujahedeen as a force against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Muslim brotherhood against Marxist influence in Egypt and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to fight the Assad regime, finally as always is the case with such an ill-advised strategy, the chicken were coming home to roost...

      The Morans.

      Kenya ceased to be a tiny unknown entity in the jungle somewhere in East Africa, a long time ago. Despite several setbacks, Kenya has always been in the cross-hairs of history and even its back of beyond rural villages like K’Ogelo can no longer afford to be ignored by internet search engines such as Google. As someone who has always been fascinated by history and, with a knack to keep abreast with current affairs, as well as easy access to information, sometimes classified, due to my field of operation, I may at times appear to be a know-it-all and opinionated without actually intending to.

      When I was born in the early hours of August first 1982, while my mother was on the throes of labor in Narok, Nairobi was on the throes of an attempted coup. I guess I had my work cut out for me from the onset. I was named Boipei, the only daughter to an old man named Lerengesu and his wife Tande. I have five elder brothers and hence being a tomboy was not an option but the reality and the pet name Boi did not help matters either. I was a chubby little thing from the onset and the earliest piece of jewelry I remember having and which I still keep,

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