Dear Commish Iteere,

I know you are a busy man. But please tell me you did not take the adage ‘Set a thief to catch a thief’ seriously? I hear there is now a Police Intelligence Unit tasked to spy — as it were — on fellow officers.

 True it will cause any bribe-taking policeman a lot of sweating if they were keep looking over the shoulders at their partner, wondering whether they were from the Intel unit. Reminds Palaver of the Soviet Union’s NKVD and Gulag years. Palaver likes your style.

It is a joy to drive along Mombasa Road but the decision to ‘plant’ metal pillars, ostensibly to frustrate overlapping motorists serves little purpose. We appreciate the intention. However, the pillars restrict all motorists to the chosen lane and whenever a vehicle breaks down, it invariably grows a tailback since there has been no provision for lay-bys.

Similarly, the Mai Mahiu-Narok stretch could do with markings. Why let a minor detail spoil a good thing? Now Rwanda President Paul Kagame doesn’t just talk for the sake of hearing his own voice. Kagame praised the way China does business in Africa and criticised the West for choking the continent on aid.

 In Kenya, they are building roads, while Guinea just confirmed a mining and oil deal worth more than $7b. In Liberia, everyone is invited to learn the Chinese language for free, and in Sudan, China completed its biggest foreign project, the Merowe hydroelectric dam. And this week, Russia and China signed trade agreements worth $3.5b. Is anyone reading the writing on this wall?

Kudos are in order for Mombasa Resident Judge Mohamed Ibrahim. Last week, he made a precedent-setting ruling, questioning the legality of a time- and resource-consuming practice.

Why are murder suspects required to make "routine" appearances in court every 14 days while their cases are pending? The judge declared the trips unnecessary and "a waste of resources and public money" and "I order this practice is forthwith ceased". Who can question solid logic such as this? Not Palaver.

And finally...

... the Berlin lift in which Sports Minister Hellen Sambili got stuck and the one in Birmingham that had Kenya’s top runners sweating for an hour. Where have all the conspiracy theorists gone?

—palaver@standardmedia.co.ke