This has been the worst summer ever. I usually do not let my children to loiter around going to sleep overs anyhow but even with all that the worst have happenned. She is pregnant. She  has been going to our church for youth services. I was so proud of her that she is church going and did not mind that twice a week they meet for youth activities. One of our family friends boys, 16 year old is responsible, both very distraught. I regret letting her go but the damage is done. The boy is in tears too he cannot leave his room and my daughter do not know what to do. She missed her period 3 weeks ago she did not tell me, she tested positive. I heard her crying in her room and she told me. I went crazy cos to me she was my little girl. 

I want to advice her to have an abortion, she has been admitted to college of her dreams with As and Bs but now she might have to drop out. I have not even told my husband as he will chuck us all out calling us prostitutes. What do i do? My daughter want me to help, how? 

I am really mad. I am a Kenyan, just because I am Asian, I have been forgotten completely. I have been educated in Kenya and even my mum and dad are Kenyan born, so it's not like j know any other home. I tried to get into politics to be nominated in Nairobi as an mp! They laughed, Huyu mhindi atachaguliwa na nani? And the story goes for even my Kenyan whites? Will we ever be given a chance? This tribalism and racism in Kenya is too ugly.

Saima khan

I am married to a kikuyu lady with 4 children. The tribal tension has caused so much commotion in our marriage i am feeling like i need to divorce her in order to keep the peace with my family. Prior to the elections they adored her and now its different. I still love her very much but i do not know what to do. We  are so stressed.

I am vexed beyond belief. I have introduced my university friend to my famiy but of late i have seen a close attarction between my best friend and my Dad. Over Christmas, i invited her to stay with us as her family had travelled to AFRICA but she could not go due to uni work. We had a great time with my bro and her but i started seeing her and my Dad having private conversations. I though Dad was just being friendly but then i saw the happy moments they shared end when i joined them,i knew something was not right.

I did nothing then. Now we are back to uni, my Dad has visited me twice, something he has never done for the last year in uni.Every time he come, my friend goes misssing for sometime. Now i have seen a text on her phone from my Dad saying that he is missing her! i will confront her now but i do not want to believe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I loved him! Gave him everything! I have two kids with this man but I was shocked. Valentine day had bought me a card and chocolate box! Then today when I went to his office, one of the new staff told me how lucky I am to have a man who buys me 500 worth of jewellery and wondered how our night was at top London hotel! Jeez, I did not sleep my child had flu while my hubby impressed a bimbo with our hard earned cash! What do I do with this son of a bitch! Seriously hating, divorce? Who is she? It's killing me, today!!!!!

I have been so unlucky in Love. I am not a beautiful woman to be honest and i have had only tow relationship in my life. I am now 41 years old. I met this guy at a church service which i hardly go to that church but just by the grace i went and we saw each other with this man i have now been dating for two years. We were going to get married in August this year but over christmas, we went to a new year dinner at a friends house. One of my friends went out to her car and then my man went missing too. I just wondered where he had gone for about 30 minutes especially when everyone was now shouting happy new year but when i went to the car, oooh my God, they were there kissing and they both were shocked. They told me its the first time and i should forgive because they were just celebrating new year. He still want to marry me but how can i? If i dont who will ever marry me? i want a kid, even one, i am so depressed, betrayed and i am really hating the fact that i cannot even keep a man. Please its only 2nd of January but

I am writing this anonymously because my story is a difficult one and am a well known Kenyan in UK. I brought my girlfriend to be with me from Kenya. I had left her there for two years. She had came to join me and i struggled to educate her in Universit and we kept supporting her "sisters child" back in Kenya. She got pregnant while in 3rd year uni so i had to work night and baby sit during the day for her to go uni. Anyway after graduating and getting a job, she confessed that she had a child in Kenya and that even the one i have been bringing up is not mine. She simply saw the opportunity of a good life and she took it. She did not love me and she had to put with all my love which was suffocating her. I was destroyed phyisically, mentally financially, name it. i had become a loser, a laughing stock.  How will i ever get over this mess? Why do women do this things...

The age factor

By Sheecole. J.

Today am not hanging out alone at my favourite pub like I usually do. Some think am a loner who likes to sit here and watch without ever saying much. But I like to kick back and watch the world around me and of course enjoy my cold Tusker.

Today am here to join in the graduation ceremony of a 52yrs old dude called Kagusu. He has completed a master’s degree in international development from a top university in London. If I dissect Kagusu’s character a little bit, may be you will get a rough idea why I personally find him intriguing and his story more poignant.

Whether he has known you for one day or ten years, he always introduces himself as Shakespeare Kagusu son of Mwanza. He stands about 5, 7 with a prominent beer belly and a balding grey head. He likes to look down people who are not educated.  His work history is a bit matted in the fact that many who knows him from Tanzania insists that they do not remember such a prominent character in his embellished career history.

Kagusu’s dream was always to end up as a head of one government organisations in Tanzania. According to the rumours in circulation, he had sold everything he had accrued over the years to study in the UK. His long-suffering wife and their kids had watched their father overtaken by a fading dream that had seen him transform from a rational being to your typical flawed genius.

As Kagusu is lapping up the applause and in his true style looking down upon everyone else who did not hold a masters degree, I cannot help wondering about dreams and when does it become sensible to forget certain dreams.

This is more so in country like England where most achievements in life are carefully crafted around a certain age and the milestones that deemed as ‘age appropriate.’ This goes hand in hand with a society that is proudly obsessed with status. Look at any story in the papers and you will get the drift. For instance, the story will be about the public view about a certain government policy and the journalist will always feel the need to mention the fact that they interviewed so and so who lives in a £250,000 three-bed roomed semi-detached house. Of all you know, the interview could be an election of a wind turbine in the area. How does the worth of the house have to do with anything?

I guess most foreigners who migrated from African states where everyone in any senior position is usually 50yrs and over, to suddenly find themselves under the management of an iphone-generation 22yr old in a menial job such as cleaning is a long fall from the top.

According to Kagusu, he was going to gain work experience in the UK and them head off to Africa as the new kid in politics. I wonder if he had been following the news about the state of the world economy and the unemployment statistics even amongst the 21yr old graduates. He was sure that he was not cut out for the small time cleaning jobs that most foreigners seem to settle for. If anything, he was destined as the central character of the unusual success story not a footnote to a footnote.

I can’t help admiring this aging bull’s dream and drive least if a little belated. I tried to imagine what he would have made of the situation if the possibility would have been presented 30yrs back. Would he have taken it for granted like most people? Would I also be trying to chase smithereens of broken dreams in a world that would be always respect beauty over knowledge if I don’t capitalise of my unique advantage? I stare at the certificate that is being passed across the table like a master piece. I wondered if its owner would ever justify such a bad investment.

After a few months as I was driving near a self-storage warehouse, I saw Kagusu cleaning the driveway, I heard he had tried to get an office job in so many areas but the competition out there was such that for every job going, there were over 30 00 applicants most of them more than half Kagusu’s age. One of the employees told me that he drove everyone crazy yapping on all day about his Masters and his dreams. Apparently, he carried his certificate everywhere.

I heard the Tanzanian community eventually contributed to buy him a one way ticket to Tanzania after he lost the cleaning job and was evicted from his rented room which he shared with six eastern European men.

Sometimes I do wish that Kagusu would finally achieve his dream if only for a little while.  As I tighten my jazz dance trainers, I keep my eye firmly on the price, least I becoming a starving dancer who never actually graduated from the club platform.

I have always been on benefit since i came to UK. That was the time we worked and had benefit. I had sooo much money and did projects home. I spoiled my family big time and they started relying on me. When I started having children, i stopped working but benefits got more so we could survive as house was paid for.
Now the new goverment has changed everything. I have 4 kids and no qualification whatsoever although they are telling me to look for work. This week they have told me that they cannot afford my 3 bedroom in London and we have to be moved to cornwall. My family are demanding money saying i hate them nowadays. I am at crossroads. How do i leave all my friends in London to go to a new place in cornwall. My 12 year old is hating already. I am totally stressed because i do not know what to do beyond benefits! 

What can I do? Do not ask about children father. He is the biggest drunkie, he does not live with us as he is on his own benefits scheme. 

I went to college and for the first time I was living away from home. It was fun finally to be set free. The university college was away from home so I to reside near college. My friends in uni were so informed bout life and i was so green. I wanted to fit in, so when they said we have a night out i gladly joined in. We had a few drinks before we went out and everyone of us had to put 20 pounds for the partee. Then I remember feeling weak, then the last thing I remembered is sitting down at a corner. I woke up next morning in my room, with pain all over and messed up bed. I could not recall what happenned. My housemates said that i was wild and i brought a guy in, who i cannot recall but they swore that i invited him in and that they thought i Knew him., Basically i cannot tell you who i had sex with, and if its many people or one! that night got me off drinking and off men for ever. Will i ever be normal again? They probably raped me themselves but i have no