People and events 2008

Jeff Koinange

“All Kenyan…(count 1-10) All the time” has become a catch phrase thanks to the K24 television hunk and presenter of ‘Capital Talk’.

Jeff Koinange may not have a bench big enough for two but the former CNN West Africa correspondent still manages to squeeze an extra person and with that, he continues to rake in ratings because of the nature of people he interviews on the bench everyday.

Controversy about the real reason that got him off CNN may still be rife but he seems to have put all that behind him and has managed to get back on the media in less than a year.

Word has it is he is headed to one of the major local stations.

Dunford Brothers

Good things come in twos as the Dunford brothers Jason and David have shown.

David Dunford was a Commonwealth Games finalist and the second Kenyan swimmer in history to qualify for the Olympics Games, the first being his older brother Jason.

Jason, predominantly an impressive butterfly and freestyle sprinter, is an African swimming champion. He brought home gold in the All-Africa Games and became a World Championships finalist, as well as an Olympics finalist.

He also broke the 50 meters butterfly Olympic record for seven seconds before the Serbian Milorad Cavic broke it.

Age is on the brothers’ side, meaning they will still be around and even stronger come the next Olympics. Watch out Michael Phelps.

Chris Kirubi

Few at his age and his money share his social visibility. So when he and 13 others appeared in court accused of conspiracy to defraud Uchumi Supermarkets it was understandable that a television cameraman focused on his gold Omega watch.

The matter is still in court and it seems the press will not tire on concentrating Nairobi’s socialite extraordinaire.

Big Kev

He has grown from humble beginnings to the pinnacle of local entertainment forcing him to slowly retreat to the background to manage his company, Tru Blaq Entertainment. But that hasn’t kept the media away from his life.

He recently reunited with his wife, Tracey two years after a separation that followed their glamorous wedding. No reasons were given for the split but Kev says he is happy now that they are back together.

The couple has been seen together in public.

Churchill

He is undoubtedly the king of local comedy although non believers in the existence of gravity and the earth being round have been known to dispute this fact.

This year, only one man has kept us laughing on radio, television and at social events. That would be Churchill (Daniel Ndambuki)
His television show Churchill Live is a must watch on NTV every Thursday.

He is humble and observant and thanks to his creativity and the avoidance of artistic cliches, he has become a darling the old and young.

A fortnight ago, he was voted as the most influential local entertainer. He is also helping groom the next big things in comedy in Larry Asego and Eric Omondi.

Wyre, Abbass, Prezzo, Nasty Thomas

They all walked down the aisle. Wyre was the last of the lot to say “I do” when he wed his long time girlfriend Hannifa two weeks ago.

Prezzo had his in early December and Nasty Thomas of the Deux Vultures wed early in the year.

But it was Abass who surprised many not just by getting married but for doing it twice!! The second one was for his fans who never attended the first, invite only ceremony.

STRIP CLUBS

They are back in a big way. We are talking Chillers; Applebees, Lidos some of which advertise liberally. Not even the regular crackdowns by the police, which are broadcast mostly on Saturday’s one o’clock news, are a deterrent.

HARAMBEE STARS

Who says Kenyans aren’t proud of their local football? The National soccer team, Harambee Stars, though heavily dependent on striker Denis Oliech, has been a roll and the fans are solidly behind them as soccer patriotism makes a resurgence in spite of KFF’s shenanigans.

The boys (now in Jinja for the Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup) have played Namibia, Zimbabwe and Guinea where we only lost one game, to Namibia and drew with Zimbabwe but still managed to make it to the next phase which starts in March.

This year will be a busy one for the lads. We play Nigeria, Tunisia and Mozambique and if we make it, next year, we will be at the World Cup in South Africa.

Kenyan Olympic wonder

The national team to the 2008 Beijing Olympics was the most successful in the history of the country. With a total of 14 medals, Kenya emerged the top African nation and the 15th overall in the world.

That was a better performance than some bigger economies like Canada (19th) and Brazil (23rd).

Pamela Jelimo was Kenya’s queen easily winning 800m gold medal ahead of Janeth Jepkosgey who brought home silver in one of Kenya’s best performances in the mid-distance race previously dominated by Mozambique’s Maria Mutola. Jelimo bagged the Golden League series jackpot with a paycheck of $1 million.

While Pamela Jelimo’s win was expected, Nancy Jebet Lagat’s in the 1500m was not but she got it anyway. Catherine Ndereba brought home silver in the women’s marathon while Eunice Jepkorir brought home another in the women’s 3000m steeplechase.

The team captain Wilfred Bungei ensured that Kenya completed a men and women double in the 800m winning gold in what was his final race for the national team.

Brimin Kipruto ensured the 3,000m steeplechase medal remained home as his compatriot Richard Meteelong settled for the bronze medal.

Japan-based Samwel Wanjiru Kamau put the icing on the cake when he won Kenya its first Olympic marathon gold medal.

Other medals came from Eliud Kipchoge (silver, 5000m), Asbel Kiprop (silver, 1500m), Edwin Cheruiyot (Bronze, 5000m), Alfred Yego (bronze, 800m) and Micah Kogo (Bronze, 10,000m).

Then of course there was the swimming, where the Dunford brothers did us proud.

Tusker Project Fame 2

TPF II kicked off at a time when the country was still facing post election violence. Out of the 14 contestants, David Ogola and Wendy Kimani were Kenya’s brightest prospects.

Hemedi from Tanzania was however the most talked about contestant thanks to his dalliances in the academy. Esther from Uganda was however crowned the winner walking away with a Sh5 million cash prize and a recording contract with South Africa’s Gallo Records.

MNET IDOLS

Just as TPF was coming to an end, the MNET Idols was getting to the home stretch. The judges, who included radio presenter’s Angela Angwenyi, travelled to seven countries in East and Southern Africa and auditioned over 10,000 hopefuls.

Sixty-four contestants were short-listed for the theatre stage before they were whittled down to 10 finalists who took on each other in a grand-finale screened to the continent.

Cynthia Kuto and Kristine Apondi, the two Kenyan finalists, were eliminated with five others leaving Eric Moyo from Zimbabwe, Nicolette from Uganda and Trinah Chinsanga from Zambia to battle for the top prize.

Voters from across the continent, majority being young women, chose Eric Moyo as the winner. The Zimbabwean flew back to Harare Sh5.2 million richer in addition to a recording contract.

Main sponsors Celtel also assured him of guaranteed record sales of $25,000. Unfortunately, none of the two winners have released an album.

Big Brother Africa III

As the year came to an end, it was time for the annual Big Brother reality TV show. Kenyans were, for the first time, happy with our representative Sheila Kwamboka.

She escaped three eliminations but her affair with TK from Zambia saw her being eliminated midway the show. Ricco, the contestant from Angola, won the show taking home $100,000 cash prize.

It was however the sex escapades of Tawana from Botswana and Munya from Zimbabwe that were the talking pints.

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INTERNATIONAL

Madonna

No year goes by without the Material Girl hitting the headlines. In 2007 it was the controversy around her adoption of the Malawian boy David Banda.

Apparently the Malawian law requires anyone adopting a child to live in the country for a year before adopting. The legal battle ended in May this year with Madonna on the winning side.

In October, Madonna and her filmmaker husband Guy Ritchie had filed divorce papers. The New York Times revealed that Madonna had wanted the divorce due to Ritchie’s “unreasonable behaviour.”

(The marriage was the most stable in the many the pop legend has had.) Madonna has settled the mess by parting with at least 50 million pounds (Sh5.6 billion).

The figure includes the value of the couple’s country home, Ashcombe House in western England, which Ritchie will keep.

The couple was reportedly worth some $525 million (Sh40 billion), the vast majority of which belonged to Madonna. Ritchie had an estimated $35 million (Sh3 billion) fortune.

Their settlement is about twice the size paid out in Britain’s latest high-profile celebrity divorce, that of Paul formerly of the Beatles.

The list of Madonna’s exes includes porn-star Tony Ward, rapper Vanilla Ice and controversial basketballer Dennis Rodman. Others include her trainer Carlos Leon and Andy Bird.

Custody of the couple’s children, Rocco, Lourdes and David is yet to be finalised.

Usain Bolt

The 2008 Olympics in China gave birth to a new star. Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt broke the 100m and 200m world records in devastatingly at the Beijing games.

The 21-year-old tore his competitors apart in a 100m finals record that many thought he would have broken by a bigger margin had he not slowed down at the finish line.

He set records of 9.69 seconds and 19.30 seconds in the 100m and 200m races respectively. With his team mates, Bolt also set the 4x100m relay setting a time of 37.10 seconds.

Usain was understandably the most tested athlete in Beijing often in the wee hours of the morning. Because of his triumph, transnational corporations have been seeking the Jamaican as a face of their products.

He is currently contracted by Puma and BMW but Ferrari are hot on his heels. Nike is also reportedly chasing after his signature for a multi-million sponsorship deal.

Michael Jackson

Jackson released a double-disc album Thriller 25 to mark the album’s 25th anniversary. It contained remixes of the songs but only two singles enjoyed moderate success.

Though The Girl Is Mine 2008 and Wanna Be Starting Something, hit the charts the album sold 688,000 copies making it the best selling catalogue album 2008.

In November, Jackson transferred the title of his Neverland Ranch to Sycamore Valley Ranch Company LLC. It is unclear if Jackson still owns any stake in the property but the loan Jackson owed was cleared, and he received $35 million (Sh3 billion) in the venture.

With Neverland and the threats of auctioneers out of the way, one would have thought that MJ would enjoy the rest of the year but NO!

Last month, MJ was sued by the son of the Bahrain’s king. Sheik Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, who owns 2 Seas Records, filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Jackson to the tune of about 8.6 million Canadian dollars.

Khalifa argued that the promised album was never delivered. However, the matter was settled out of court.

Lewis Hamilton

Formula One driver, Lewis Hamilton should have won the F1 title last year in his first season but a mysterious loss of power to his Maclaren Mercedes in Brazil saw him lose to Ferraris’ Kimi Raikkonen by one point.

his year Hamilton captured the title in the final race beating home favourite Filipe Massa in the last seconds of the duel.

Hamilton’s win was also very well received amongst fans in Africa who consider him a black. His mother, Carmen Larbalestier (now Carmen Lockhart) is a white British while his paternal grandparents emigrated from the Caribbean.

Hamilton’s parents separated when he was two and he lived with his mother and half-sisters Nicola and Samantha. At twelve, he started living with his father, stepmother Linda and half-brother Nicholas who has cerebral palsy.

On February 4, 2008, Lewis Hamilton was subjected to racial slurs during a pre-season testing at the Circuit de Catalonia in Spain. ( They were sporting black face paint, wigs and shirts bearing the words “Hamilton’s Family”.

Hamilton became unpopular in Spain because of his rivalry with Spanish former team-mate Fernando Alonso. Alonso was once Hamilton’s team mate but left Maclaren after he protested that the team favoured Hamilton.

Racing for Renault, he raised eyebrows this season when he promised to do everything to ensure that Massa (Hamilton’s rival for the title) wins this year.

Paris Hilton

The heiress to the Hilton Hotels empire is no stranger to controversy. In August, the outspoken socialite found herself at the centre of US politics.

In a campaign advert titled Celeb, US Republican presidential candidate John McCain briefly compared his rival Barack Obama’s popularity to that of celebrities such as Hilton and Britney Spears.

Hilton issued a quick response in a 1 minute 50 second long video. Hilton appeared in the video wearing a leopard print swimsuit.

She starts out by suggesting that her personal mention by McCain means that she must now be a candidate in the presidential race. The video received 7 million views in just two days.

Britney Spears

She became a pop culture icon immediately after launching her recording career. Rolling Stone magazine wrote: “One of the most controversial and successful female vocalists of the 21st century.”

Controversy has always dogged her somewhat successful career. Remember her 55-hour-long marriage to childhood sweetheart Jason Allen in 2004?

She married choreographer Kevin Ferdeline in September same year but divorced him two years and two children later. In January this year, she was in the news for refusing to release the children to Ferdeline.

She was in and out of drug rehabs, had unending battle with paparazzi and frequent encounters with the police for driving offences.

In July, Spears and Federline reached a custody settlement in which Federline retains sole custody of the children while Spears keeps her visitation rights.

Towards the end of the year, she regained some composure, got back to the studio and released an album titled ‘Blackout’.

Its tracks ‘Womaniser’ and ‘Circus’ shot straight to the top of US charts and won three awards at the MTV Video Music Awards.