How often do you wash your towel? Some people wash once a week, while some, once a year. The towel is a fertile breeding ground for millions of microbes, especially those found on human skin and on the gut. No wonder the towel is one of the objects that facilitate fecal-oral contamination (literally connecting the two ends of the gut). Worse still, most people keep towels in the bathroom (near the toilet). Every flush of the toilet sends mist with millions of microbes, ranging from H.pylori, salmonella and other deadly bacteria and viruses. When you wash your hands ready for a meal, and dry them with your body towel, there's high chance you are directly ingesting your fecal matter, or, if in a shared lavatory, someone else's faeces. Unless cleaned well, viruses such as human papillomavirus (causes warts, anal cancer and cervical cancer) can be transmitted when towels are shared with infected individuals. So, what to do? 1. Launder towels once a week. 2. Use hot water and det...
By Prof Makau Mutua In a dramatic visit to America, Ali Hassan Joho – the irrepressible Mombasa governor – has called Jubilee’s bluff.
In a public spectacle befitting the Prince of Mombasa, Mr Joho has left Jubilee’s Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto with egg on their face. That’s because the country’s top leadership has been publicly bloviating against Mr Joho.
The governor – himself no shrinking violet – has demonstrated his cojones by reprimanding Mr Kenyatta in public. In turn, the Jubilee duo has issued veiled threats against people they alleged were drug barons.
Barely two weeks ago, Mr Joho publicly repudiated Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto’s allusions that he was a drug kingpin. As if to prove his innocence, Mr Joho was received with open arms by the US.
Let me state this for clarity. A visit to the US – in which one is received in the inner sanctum of the Empire – doesn’t prove one’s innocence. However, it’s a fair assumption that the US government wouldn’t receive a kno...