KBW Member No More! part 1

Latest reports are that as of October 5th Acolyte was no longer a member of the Kenyaunlimited Web Ring.
CNN decided to sent their top ranking reporter on African issues, Jeff Koinange to interview Acolyte and find out what led to this state of affairs.
PS: The interview may be fake but the sentiments, comments and information in it are very very real!

Jeff Koinange: Good evening Acolyte, welcome to the show!
Acolyte: A good evening to you to and thank you.

Jeff Koinange: I can see that after more than one year of membership in the KenyaunlimitedWebring, your membership has been revoked.
Acolyte: Yes it's now official, I am no longer part of Kenyan Bloggers' Webring ( KBW ). It was decided that I was causing too much conflict and disharmony with my posts.

Jeff Koinange: Is that the only reason?
Acolyte: There is also the fact that (turns on mac powerbook and reads), in an earlier correspondence the Administration, or in my opinion one major figure of the Administration who sent me an e-mail, where he used the various words;
"As you seem to have a problem with us as a team and with our vision for KBW as signified in your constant attacks, we ask you to clarify your position as a KBW member."

Jeff Koinange: Are those accusations true?
Acolyte: Of course not! I have no problem with the vision of KBW and other than 2 individual in the KBW administration team who seem to have a had a problem with me, I have a cordial relationship with the rest of them.

Jeff Koinange: So how many times did you attack the Administration since your attacks were characterised as constant?
Acolyte: First of all the attacks were not only reffered to as constant, they were also characterised as "unwarranted, unprovoked, destructive " and directed at the vision of KBW. All I did was voice my misgivings as regards certain matters some members of the Administration team were involved in. I have no problems whatsoever with KBW as an organisation.

Jeff Koinange: The KBW homepage says their vision is,
In response to the continued growth of the Kenyan Blog Webring (KBW) KenyaUnlimited set out to create an online meeting place for the diverse Kenyan visions, minds and voices that inhabit cyberspace. Although we exist primarily online at this stage we intend for this site to act as a launching pad for projects in the real world.
So how were you a threat to that vision?

Acolyte: That is one thing I am wondering about myself, because at no one stage did I
1. Inhibit any KBW members from meeting
2. Interfere with any KBW project from launching.
Also I don't know why the author of that e-mail gets off calling my attacks constant.
According to the dictionary the word constant means, "continually recurring or continuing without interruption"
In fact this was part of the text of the e-mail;
We write this email in regard to various comments you have made regarding the administration team of the Kenyan Blogs Webring. The latest examples being the post on your blog at this link: http://mywordsonly.blogspot .com/2006/06/answers-part-i .html and another example being the comments you have made on nmjoe.blogspot.com.
If that was the case why did the author of the e-mail give only this post and allude to comments made at the blog http://nmjoe.blogspot.com. I have over 500 posts on my blog. If that is the only example the author of this email could come up with, it is clear someone had other motives they were setting in action. Furthermore in the average day I make an average of 30 - 50 comments per week, that gives you over 2500 comments per year to choose from and this was the best they could do?!
Jeff, it is obvious that someone here was clutching at straws.

Jeff Koinange: So what was the straw that broke the camel's back?
Acolyte: It was a strongly worded post I wrote about the Tanzanian President committing a diplomatic gaffe by discussing Kenya's political situation with President Bush.

Jeff Koinange: So what was wrong with that because I am sure you are not the only one who wrote about the issue.
Acolyte: I think it must have been the fact that I referred to President Kiwete as a "dumb bitch", added the fact that he should have been more concerned with Tanzania's problems and reffered to the negative reception and xenophobia many Kenyans experience from Tanzanians culminating with me mentioning the deportation of nationmedia staff.

Jeff Koinange: Did you get any negative responses due to that post?
Acolyte: Initially no? Most of my readers know that my posts are mostly tongue in cheek and satirical, plus most Kenyans could relate with my sentiments and shared their relatives and friends experiences with Tanzanians.Other than that only one anonymous commentor went out of their way to debate me on the issue.

Jeff Koinange: So what went wrong?
Acolyte: A Tanzanian member of KBW who also does bilingual online projects and enjoys a close relationship with the one of the KBW admin members blogged about it and that's when the shit hit the fan.

Jeff Koinange: So exactly what happened.
Acolyte: Well he wrote a long convoluted post about it and singled me out for criticism and complaint and said that he would continue to blog about the issue.

Jeff Koinange: What did you do in return?
Acolyte: I wrote a post where I reffered to the issue and admitted that my use of such strong language to refer to a leader was in bad taste but that I stood by sentiments but not the words and by now I had taken down the post.I also said that if anyone had a problem with the post they should have emailed me, we would have discussed the issue amicably.

Jeff Koinange: Was this explanation accepted?
Acolyte: No it was not, instead the comments section of the blog turned into a seething pool of insults directed at me and Kenyans in general.One Tanzanian even likened Kenyans to dogs.

Jeff Koinange: Did you at this time think that your membership in KBW would be in jeopardy?
Acolyte: Well when I read a comment by a KBW administrator about my blog, I knew that things were not peachy because I had a run in with that individual sometime back; one she has never forgotten nor forgiven that.
What was shocking is that this person tells the blog author not to bother communicating with me about the issue when the KBW homepage says;
If the content or material found on a member site concerns you, please contact the operator/owner of the website in question directly.

Jeff Koinange: So what happened from there?
Acolyte: Well the author of this blog went on to write 3 more posts about the issue singling me out and despite my protestations that I was not the only one who blogged about the issue ( I gave one example about one blog that had a post that was similar and even reffered to the state of the Tanzanian economy) but to no avail.
I commented on their second post and made a request to start on a new slate and it seemed like my offer had been accepted following their comment on my blog.At that point I thought that we had reached some sort of consensus.
But I was wrong because a 4 whole posts have been written about the issue with my name and post being one the focal points of the issue at hand. I have received an e-mail making movements towards peace, so I am waiting to see how long this holds.

Jeff Koinange: Have you commented on all the posts?
Acolyte: No I have only commented on two of them and in both tried to make moves towards peace. After all however sharp I think I am, I can't stand up against the wrath of a whole nation!

Jeff Koinange: Do you have anything against Tanzanians?
Acolyte: No not at all!In fact I have been there twice, but I don't think I'll risk a third time at this rate! They may seem to be a bit laid back than Kenyans but I do admire their unity and dedication to their national language, Swahili; I think Kenyans could learn a thing or two from them in that regard. But I do think we have different perceptions on certain issues that could use some ironing out.

Jeff Koinange: Even after being expelled from KBW you have tried to make peace with the Tanzanian blogger?
Acolyte: Yes, my attempts at peace have nothing to do with my membership status but are just an attempt to make peace. Contrary to what they would have you believe, I am not an e-war monger!As of the e-mail I received there seems to be a lull in the storm.

Jeff Koinange: But didn't the adminstration say you were out to sow seeds of discord.
Acolyte: Well the exact words were;
While we accept that you can write what you want on your blog, we do not have to accept insults, destructiveness and negativity on KenyaUnlimited and thus have it reflected on to KBW.
and,
As you appear to be keen to encourage discord with your posts contrary to the aims of KBW, we are removing your blog from the KBW aggregator forthwith.
I guess my posts just didn't encourage the spirit of peace, love and unity.

Jeff Koinange: I know you had pointed out the fact that other than one earlier post and this post there are no other posts that can be seen as written with the main aim of causing in discord. Do you think the methodology of KBW of dealing with the issue is clear and transparent?
Acolyte: Of course not! It is obvious that a post is only termed as insulting and destructive only if it reaches the right ears.
It is a well known fact that many KBW fashion their blogs as defacto watchdogs and members of the fifth estate. This is all well and good but other then balanced sites ie mzalendo, many other these blogs make statements about the "kleptocratic" and "corrupt" nature of the ruling government that would amount to libel as they have very little evidence behind them even if they are an open accepted opinion. Some bloggers have even used their blogs as political platforms to promote certain factions above others, while the President has at times been referred to as a senile geriatric.

Jeff Koinange: Has anything ever been done about those posts?
Acolyte: Well since no complaints have been raised about them nothing has been done. It seems that you can write anything but as long as it goes with the collective view of those in power, you are in the clear.
I recall during the raid of the East African Standard by the Kenyan Police, the collective reaction was outrage. But one blogger went out of his way to go comment on blogs saying that even though the action was extreme the government were well in their means to act the way that they did.
Needless to say he was insulted on blogs all over and I am not sure if he is still a KBW member.
Ironic that you can insult your own government and there isn't much of a reaction but insult another country's leader and you're in hot water. That's freedom of expression for you!(winks!)

Jeff Koinange: So what you are saying is that it is't content that is the issue but the reaction to what you write by certain people?
Acolyte: Oh yes! There are other blogs where people have posted matters of an explicitly sexual nature that would make a prostitute blush but since people seemed to enjoy reading about these trysts nothing was done. As long as no one complains, you can post whatever you want!It is obvious this is a classic case of shifting goal posts!

Next: How things became the way they were!