Barack Oduor – Sisi Afrika Magazine

Barack Oduor is an Independent Journalist. He has an in-depth interest in politics and governance. He is also an African music archivist. Oduor holds a Diploma in Education and is currently pursuing Bachelors in Mass Media and Communication. He formerly worked as news Correspondent for Nation Media Group.

African Leaders

Interviews: Lawyer Willis Otieno on Why Kenya Must Not Pay Illegal Debts

Lawyer and politician Willis Otieno, who was Jimmy Wanjingi’s running mate during the last presidential election, is irked about what he considers Kenya’s growing and unsustainable national debt.

African Leaders

Interviews: Willy Mutunga, Retired Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court of Kenya

Retired Chief Justice Willy Mutunga remains active in his agitation for reforms, with constant calls for respect for the rule of law and constitutionalism in the governance processes. He spoke to Journalist Barack Oduor on his tenure and what he thinks the future holds for Kenya.

Book Reviews & Literary Criticism

Book Review: “When the Ancient Tree Falls” by Jared Ojuok

The author adopts and adapts the English Language as a means of access to Luo indigenous culture, aesthetics and cosmology.

Politics & Economy

Robert Gituhu’s Death: How Kenyans Let Down a Man Who Set Himself Ablaze Over High Cost of Living

On that fateful day, Robert Gituhu walked into Mombasa town’s Mwembe Tayari, poured an inflammable liquid on his blood, climbed the statue in the middle of the busy roundabout, and set himself on ablaze... but it failed to elicit a collective national outrage.

Elections Politics & Economy

The Question of Ethics and Integrity of Candidates in Kenyan Elections

In the next three months, Kenyans will be voting in new leadership as their constitution requires. Politicians and individuals facing corruption, murder and other criminal charges have been cleared to run for various elective positions. State institutions and agencies tasked with gate-keeping credibility checks for running candidates have excused themselves thanks to a watered down integrity law that initially stopped such characters from vying. Will Kenyans entrust these people with leadership positions? And what does it mean should this happen?

African Leaders Politics & Economy

It Is Time for Presidential Libraries in Kenya

The history of Kenya’s presidents and intrigues in their regimes is scattered. It’s in museums, newspapers, private homes, books and unknown places. Those who have and are still recording the history are doing it in their own perspectives and blurring what they think should be forgotten. With the death of all three former presidents, it is time to build respectable libraries that carries information of the three presidents and details of their tenure; albeit for the future and prosperity of this country.

Art & Culture Book Reviews & Literary Criticism

Book Review: Father Gabriel Dolan’s “Stories of Freedom in A Shackled Society”

Father Gabriel Dolan, a renowned clergy and human rights activist in Kenya, has a new memoir: Undaunted: Stories of Freedom in A Shackled Society, narrating his coming to Kenya in the heat of the 1982 failed coup against President Daniel Moi, his relentless fights for the rights of the oppressed and voiceless in the Kenya. It is a story full of courage, bravery and lessons to upcoming activists seeking to change the state of affairs in their society.

Art & Culture Music & Film

Unmasking Musa Juma’s Benga Music

Although hailed as an astute Luo rumba artiste by music reviewers in newspapers and magazines, few are aware of the musician’s first compositions that were in pure paced benga and why he chose to do almost all his songs again with tunes of rumba.

African Leaders Politics & Economy

Why an American Chose to Rest Beside Tom Mboya in Death

Tom Mboya died this day, 52 years ago. Today we celebrate his friend, William X Scheinman, an American philanthropist whose grave is decked inside Mboya’s mausoleum.