The Marvels of Japanese Technology: Sondu-Miriu HEP

A visit to Sondu Miriu HEP plant was worth every shilling. From Kisumu town it looked like an all weather road on a hill, but the marvel that awaited me was just breath taking. Here's a bit of its background. Water was diverted from the Sondu river at the Intake through a 6.2 km long tunnel. A surface mounted penstock then takes the water down the Nyakach escarpment to the Power Station below. In the Powerhouse, harnessing the water and the head, the turbines are turned to generate the electricity. The water is then returned to the Sondu river approximately 13km downstream of the intake via a 4.7km long Outlet Channel.

ONCE IN A LIFE TIME! THE SOLAR ECLIPSE.

Once in a life time moment. This morning of January 15th, 2010 I set upon to shoot the solar eclipse. Here's a write up from wikipedia on the issue "... the solar eclipse of January 15, 2010 is an annular eclipse of the Sun with a magnitude of 0.9190. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partially obscuring Earth's view of the Sun. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun, causing the sun to look like an annulus (ring), blocking most of the Sun's light. An annular eclipse will appear as partial eclipse over a region thousands of miles wide... the eclipse starts at the Central African Republic, traverses Cameroon, Congo and Uganda, passes through Nairobi, Kenya, and enters the Indian Ocean and reaches greatest eclipse."

Now you understand my excitement? Here below are my shots... ENJOY!

There something about waterfalls...

On saturday snobbed the hype that was Harambee Stars Vs Super Eagles match for the pineapple express. Thika, the Burmingham of Kenya has always been receptive on weekends. Lunch at Blue Post Hotel turned out to be a motivator interms of water falls. The Chania falls on one side and Thika falls on the other. The beauty of the water falls was so breath taking we had to drive to the fourteen falls. An old school picnic joint during my campus days had turned into a serious venture by the County Council. It has become a source of revenue though I couldnt see any re-investment back to the site. The falls are still as beautiful as I had left them seven years back though i depends much on the amount of water on river Athi. With the current rainny season, the falls were a deadly site. talk of a deadly site, another deadly sight was the divers. They made jumping from cliffs into the falls look so easy forgetting the dangers involved.

The Yu advert where the father and son jump must have been inspired by these 14 falls jumpers.

Magical Kenya!

I've always thought tourism was ment for tourists till I decided to change my lifestyle; from pubs & kenyan love for liquor to domestic tourism. And damn, don't we have a beautiful country! Having been born & raised in the mtaa of Nairobi city, I've never appreciated nature or the outdoors. 2008-09 has been my turning point, nature, scenery, people from different walks of life have become my new hobby. From conquering Mt.Longonot to hot springs of Baringo & L.Magadi, from shores of L.Victoria to L.Naivasha, from the savanna of Mara to plantations in Kericho. From a Sony digital camera to a more professional Canon, I hope my new passion of photography will change the world. How I wish...

Barack Obama's Speech on Education

What a speech! These are some of the quotes I'll forever cherish from the above speech.
"Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new."

"But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed."

"So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?"

Don't we Kenyans wish our own president was half as inspiring as Obama?

You know you're Kenyan when...

I got this from some guys am following on tweeter and damn were they funny! Some hard truths that I think, uniquely defines being a typical Kenyan. This are my top five:
1. You know you're Kenyan when you used to eat the wrapper of a queen cake as a delicacy.
2. You know you're Kenyan when theres slight cloudy so you dress your child in so many jumpers it can't move its arms & a knitted balaclava. Hope my wife is reading this.
3. You know you're Kenyan when you're stuffed but that soda has to go down! You paid a fortune for the combo.
4. You know you're Kenyan when you ride on a bus called "MASH" and use mortuary services at "UMASH". Are these guys doing business for each other?
This one is my favorite one, things we do naturally;
5. You know you're Kenyan when you chain your dogs up all day to make them even more dangerous. Turning that mtaa coyote into a doberman. Mbwa kali!

Kenya’s high speed trains!

“The prospect of this dream becoming a reality in Kenya grew on Monday when Kenya Railways Corporation advertised a tender for a standard gauge line to run from Mombasa to Malaba. Such a line would shorten the train journey from Nairobi to Mombasa from 10 to only three hours.”

Call me a cynic, but don’t these high speed trains run on electricity? We don't have enough power to light our homes leave alone trains. Speeding through Kibera laini saba slum where an accident with result in rowdy youths uprooting the railway line! Whenever I see those old depilated RVR trains with myriad of technical problems, I can’t imagine the technology that comes with the high speed ones. Some one joked that engineering in our universities still based on 1985 syllabus, so there goes out technical support. Am I a case of a pessimists, who prevent the country from developing and then blame the government for lack of foresight? Or a case of a realistic Kenyan, ranting on an impossible dream. What happened to mass rapid transport light rail to for the city? Oh, it was an old forgotten dream. Can’t wait for another one of those dreams, this time the technocrats should try an airport in Thika. That I can dream.