wow!! Why dont they just hire you at Nation instead of having their Autor’s steal your ideas???

I wonder how long they will take to acknowledge it this time and respond

He tried so had to disguise it….but the thought thief in him could not let him. Pathetic!!

tsk, tsk. for shame, for shame. i thought that it was you but kumbe! these people must reckon that people who read blogs don’t read newspapers or vice versa. i hope that he feels sufficiently embarassed – they have finally run out of ideas these people. maybe a sabattical is needed (not for you M, for those people who cannot come up with articles of their own)

M – U sneaky B******d… working for Nation all this time! Me thinks Nation rejected your other blogs!

U should gang up with michuki & strike at Nation…. All M readers go ahead and blast Nation…. could someone post all known e-mail addresses at Nation so we can show them the “truth”

@VituVingiSana – Saturday – 11/03/06 on the Magazine thingy – the link above has the details.
I am with you though on ‘hiring mercenaries’ – we being the mercenaries that is (pro bono, just for you M :D) – you know ‘foreigners’ who are outsourced to work for a government that already has in its workforce (or is it non-working force?) the work ‘force’ to do the job, and do it well, or even better? :D

@M – the talk on Saturday had that embeded in, but was too lazy to quote. I read it and laughed and thought: Had he spoken to you? Kumbe it is the time-honoured plagiarism at work.
What happened to original ideas? (Dont answer that)

The dude has an email address, I hope ;)

M, claiming plagiarism on this one may be a stretch my friend.

There are some distinct, if not glaring, differences between your piece and Pala’s, enough to make it plausible that he may to have written his piece without sourcing the material from your blog.

First, the idea of Kenyans returning home is an abstract one – it’s out there – it cannot be “owned” by one person just because that person wrote about it first. Folks talk about it all the time so it’s virtually impossible to accuse Pala of stealing the idea (btw I am not saying that you’re accusing him of stealing), and it can be written about from differing points of view which I think Pala adopted.

Second, since Pala did not reproduce your exact words in his piece (save for the Western Union reference – which, again, cannot be claimed original by any one person since it’s common knowledge that most Kenyans who send money from abroad use Western Union), it’s virtually impossible to nail him unless he confesses.

Clay Muganda blatantly plagiarised.
Victor Kimanyo worse-than-blatantly plagiarized.

Pala, … not so sure. It’s a judgement call.
Just my opinion.

But don’t take my word for it, not even with a grain of salt, for am I not the same guy who told you that folks were gonna plagiarize your work over and over again?

sorry M, i have to go with whispering inn on this one.
i read the palo article through another kenyan blogger and though the topic generally reminded me of your post, i didn’t for one second think that he had copied it. i think it is very well possible that pala read your post and had it in mind when writing his article, but i think that’s all.

i also agree with strawberriesare that the pala article isn’t as good as his usually are and surely not as good as yours was.

also, correct me if i’m wrong; your post came more from the “economical angle” of people leaving abroad, while pala’s article is more about the “behaviour” of people leaving in the states (though both of you cover other topics as well)

once again; it’s very well possible pala was “inspired” by your post…

*off to get some mercenaries to protect me from your groupies”

Ala! Now I can’t code anymore? Please fix my link above to the following Nation article:

http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=65&newsid=68961

@adrian and @Whispering Inn:

Maybe I missed the point, maybe you did but here is my take on this. (where is keguro when you need him?)

There are 2 defintions of plagerism:

The first is outright word for word, line for line copying. That is what Clay Muganda and Victor Kimanyo did.

The second definition is involves not acknowledging where you got an idea or work from and presenting it as an original one and not giving credit to the original source where it is due.

to quote:

Plagiarism refers to the use of another’s ideas, information, language, or writing, when done without proper acknowledgment of the original source. Essential to an act of plagiarism is an element of dishonesty in attempting to pass off the plagiarised work as original. Plagiarism is not necessarily the same as copyright infringement, which occurs when one violates copyright law. …

The work in question definitely falls in the 2nd category.

As an aside, keep your eyes peeled.

I am certain that we will be reading about the debate going on here in an article that is sure to have an antagonistic bent in the Nation in the very near future.

From what I read I can’t say that the article was directly plagiarised but I must admit that it was very poor compared to some of the gems he has come up with in the past.I think he must have been working with a hang over!

but having said that, I’ve re-read the two articles and other being a whack piece of journalism, i fail to see any wrong doing on Pala’s part.

Oh,
I AM KENYAN BY BIRTH, just that blogger made me Israeli
and am not in Israel!

My God doesnt the Nation Editor ever ask about the source of the story, this is quite embarassing for the Umpteenth time this has happened.

We need to clamp down on this nasty habit

@Ntwiga – I beg to differ on your classification of Pala’s piece to your second definition. My contention is that the idea itself in this case, vis-a-vis Kenyans returning home, cannot be exclusively claimed as original material by any one person.

There are those ideas or issues that can expressly be attributed to one single source and anyone not citing that origin as the of the material is clearly plagiarising.

It’s different with the issue of Kenyans returning home. You cannot possibly accuse anyone who writes or mentions about it of plagiarising the idea from M, just as it would be preposterous to require or expect anyone who writes about Kenyans returning home to build their country to cite M as the source of his material or idea unless of course he got the material from M’s blog.

It’s just too abstract and broad an idea or issue.

I do agree with you that Keguro’s input in this matter would be invaluable and certainly more authoritative than my opinion.

Lets frame this debate in a different light.

As a blogger, I am essentially dumping my personal ideas, opinions etc etc on the web for anyone to consume. This is still personal content available to a larger audience though. While are handbooks and manuals out there suggesting what bloggers should / should not do, these are still only guidelines.

As a journalist, Pala (and any other journalist for that matter ) is bound by the Journalist’s Code of Ethics which have established standards on what journalists can and cannot do when writing. This inludes
– never plagarizing
- giving sources credit whenever and as far as possible

You are right in the sense that we are discussing a general idea that cannot be owned. This in turn means that your assertation that the idea is too broad to be owned is correct.

We have to remember all this is happening in a context though. All this debate about KTs going home/staying away has been a bone we have been gnawing away at in the blogosphere for a while now.

If a journalist uses that discussion as seed for published work then professional ethics demand that he give some type of credit. If not, then the defense must rest its case since this would be a case of crying wolf when we are really dealing with a sheep.

In the end, I suspect that we would like many have commented have to defer to whatever Pala tells us.

I somad that on friday and I was thinking, ngoja M sees this. lol. Ati he tried to give it some time b4 he wrote about it. I was even waiting to see something about the 2 gold fish but I guess he’s not as careless as Clay and ‘em.

It’s not outright plagiarism but there’s a hint of it…i mean kamon Pala why couldn’t you have mentioned thinkers room? even at the end in fine print would have been sawa. But hey, to each his own.

M, be proud tho.

I don’t know what to say coz i read Oyunga Pala’s post. I just thought i had seen it somewhere. But all the same the article was boring.

I said one day the guy should just go home. He doesn’t have fresh ideas any more you know

The sincerest form of flattery. I doubt if people will get very far trying to Flatter M though.

I think it is interesting how life sometimes imitates art. Someone once said that Nature is not very original and that is why music like fashions make a re appearance every so often. I have recently had a mini deja vous concerning a story I posted soon after the storming of that Diof party by that Lady. Why, oh why can’t I predict sato’s numbers?

Have a look at this:

A few weeks ago, I was really down on my luck. I had been let down by life big time. I lost my job at (CPU) The city plumbing unit after a rumour made it to my boss’s ears ati i had been seeing his wife. Feeling somewhat depressed I decided to get drunk so I went to use an ATM. My card was swallowed by the wall papo hapo: Insufficient Funds It was 10.30 on a Friday night. If I could have afforded a strong rope, I’d probably have ended it right there and then.

I went into Karumaindo’s in a bad mood and sold my work cell phone for nine reds. The atmosphere there was lousy so I finished my pombe and scattered. When I got home, my key wouldn’t fit in the lock. A neighbour saw me and explained that the landlord had arrived earlier to throw my stuff out and change the locks.

I remembered that I owed him a bit of back rent which I kept promising that I would soon pay once I got some money. The neighbour also pointed out that he had his family from the village staying the weekend so there was no room for me on the ka sofa. It was 12.30 on the same friday night.

Never mind, I thought….I will go and see Charity, she’ll let me stay the night. Charity was a cousin of a friend of a friend and her profession was “private massage” for well heeled clients. Our relationship was purely friends. She lived at one of the S/Q at the Kafirastan High Commissioners palace in Spring Valley.

I had to bribe the security personnel to get through several gates. It turned out to be a lousy investment because she had a client when I got to her door. I could hear the lucky man screaming and groaning like a beast as the delightful Charity gave him a good work out. I was soooo depressed by now.

Can you imagine my shock and dismay when I saw the yellow and black BMW parked near Charity’s back wall. There is only one arrogant man with an ugly car like that in Africa, south of the sahara. It belonged to my former boss, Greg Mutiso…..it all made sense now…..kumbe when I spent some quality time doing the plumbing and showing his wife all my tools the guy was getting busy on the chopping board…with…….my Charity?….how long had this been going on for? I was angry now.

I ran back to the security post at the gate and organised an impromptu cabinet meeting. The cops were touched by my sad story and vowed:” We will teach this goon a lesson.” We established that there were about a dozen APs guarding the Kafirastani Commissioner’s household. Most were asleep and some had gone out for dinner, booze, bhang and special massage but they would be returning before long. We arranged our plan of attack and put on our balaclavas.

An hour later In a silent operation my small commando unit launched “Raid on Charity” We smashed down the door and threw in two stun grenades. The occupants of the small building came out as there were; Mutiso was only wearing a watch and a frightened expression. Charity, bless her, had on her blue silk neglegee.

As acting commander I ordered my senior officer to “book Him” They all went back in the house. At this point The Commissioners household was awake. The alarms were all blaring and from the corner of my eye I saw the police helicopter hovering overhead.

Within a few moments the place was crawling with APs CIDs GSUs and all number of regular cops. I looked towards the High Commissioners house and saw dozens of foreigners all in handcuffs.

A police chopper landed nearby and the officer who emerged introduced himself as the senior acting deputy assitant commander of the Anti drugs unit. He explained that they had been watching the whole set up for a long time.” Kafirastan as a country does not exist. These crooks came to our country under false pretences. They are simply here to assist in the smuggling of drugs from Asia to the lucrative European and America markets. I can not imagine how they got away with opening a fake High Commision but the enquiry that I will order will be bigger than goldenberg,anglofleecing and Ouko combined…..” Mr Mutiso here, is their main dealer in Nairobi. He collects a stash every week and delivers it to hundreds of small time city dealers to feed the poor mwananchi. The dealers on the street refer to him as chameleon, because of his motor. He is the scum of the earth.

Mutiso and the fake diplomats were bundled onto a lorry and sent to Industrial area for the night. I asked Charity if she was OK and she told me she would be fine once the cops fixed her door.

I went to central with the other cops and recorded a statement. When I got out I was surprised to see Mrs Mutiso waiting at the front desk. All she said was that she had watched the events live on KTN and she knew that her drug dealer husband was behind bars at industrial area. She said that it was late at night, but “would I mind coming home with her to take a look at the boiler” I was too tired and sleepy to say no and that is how I moved in with bi Mutiso. The woman has made me general manager at CPU and fired the rumour mongers. I have inherited a black and yellow Biemer and life is OK.

We are planning to hold a smallish party to celebrate my good fortune and also thank my AP commandos for their help. I want live entertainment and outside catering but I live quite near to a sensitive address so I have written to Bw Emeelio to ask if will be OK. He sent me a fax saying that all was fine and he saw no problems at all. Only problem with that assurance is that just like in Mutiso’s boma it is not the men who vaa the trousers these days, is it?