Good morning and welcome to today's event a reminder to media on the line Please press star one to enter the queue You will be limited to one question and one follow-up with that I will hand it over to Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth Good morning. I'm Mike Farnworth, BC's Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General And I'd like to thank you for joining me here today And I'd like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional territory of the Laquungen speaking people the Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations Stopping violence, supporting safety and creating security are central to our work as government That's why I'm pleased to announce that we are providing 22 million dollars over the next three years To support survivors of sexual assault and gender-based violence We're investing in services people need by providing stable annual funding for sexual assault services For the first time in 20 years This new funding will allow service providers to focus on providing the care people need when they need it We understand that the safety and well-being of our citizens depends on us helping to stop gender-based and sexualized violence And it's essential that people who have experienced sexual violence can immediately access medical services, counseling and support Beginning in 2023, more than 10 million dollars will be provided each year for direct funding for community-based sexual assault services This new funding builds on the more than 42 million dollars already provided annually To support over 400 victims' service and violence against women's services across British Columbia Service providers have been able to apply for one-time only funding through programs such as the Emergency Sexual Assault Services grant program However, this annual funding will better support the work that they do to help survivors In the coming months, work will be done to develop a process for funding these services And now I'd like to turn it over to Grace Law, our Parliamentary Secretary for Gender Equity Who is a passionate advocate for both survivors and service providers Thank you very much, Minister My name is Grace Law and I'm BC's Parliamentary Secretary for Gender Equity I am incredibly grateful for the chance to be here today and to be part of this announcement Like so many others, I have worked on the front lines of anti-violence work And I have seen the devastation and long-term effects of sexualized violence When survivors are not able to access services that are trauma-informed and survivor-centered When and where they need it And too many people in our province still do not feel safe People continue to be to face violence and to feel at risk and targeted in their community Most of these people are women, Indigenous women, immigrants and newcomers Those who are racialized, trans people and others in the 2S LGBTQ plus community As well as those with disabilities are especially targeted for violence Sexual assaults and sexualized violence happen in every kind of community Urban, rural, it happens at work, at school and in the home And that is why we need to make sure that services are available I was so proud to be part of our previous announcements That provided a total of 20 million to assist community-based sexual assault response throughout the province These services are essential They ensure access to basic care like medical care, emotional and crisis support Safety planning and options for accessing justice These services are survivor-centered, they're trauma-informed and they're culturally aware And we know that service providers and community organizations that deliver this care Need stable funding And that is why we're here today I'd like to take the opportunity to share an example from a service provider in Port Alberni Over a four month period last year when a sexual assault response team was established 15 survivors, all of them women between the ages of 17 and 56 Were accompanied to the hospital and received care and personal support This is more trips to the hospital for forensic exams than in the entire previous year Not because there was more violence, but because more survivors sought help once supports to do so were available All but four of these women were indigenous, only three had a friend or family member present And this means that if someone from this team had not been there The survivor would have navigated care and undergone a forensic exam alone Alone and unsupported after being traumatized and subjected to violence Out of the 15 women, five needed a safe ride home but had no money for a cab or bus So the team members assisted Six needed to submit their clothing for forensic examination And the team was able to provide new underwear, socks, t-shirts and leggings Had these services not been available, the women would have left the hospital in hospital clothes only Services like this deserve predictable and dedicated funding They cannot, as they have been forced to do, rely on unpredictable and insufficient grants Tomorrow we will start our engagement discussions that we announced late last year Discussions with experts and community that will develop a gender-based violence action plan And ensure that survivors can access the care they need We have a lot of work ahead of us, good work that will make a difference in the lives of British Columbians And while this is a huge step forward, we know there are still gaps, there is work to do We've heard from survivors, from service providers, from other stakeholders And we know that we can't do this alone, but we can together I'm really pleased now to introduce Nenu King from the Ending Violence Association of BC Thank you Parliamentary Secretary Lower Sexual assault is considered the most under-reported violent crime in Canada While other crimes are on a decline, sexual assault is on the rise Early intervention along with emotional and practical support for survivors can get them on their path to healing Provincial emergency sexual assault funding was cut 20 years ago as the minister indicated And Eva BC along with many others advocated for over 18 years Working with the provincial government to return these essential fundings for sexual assault survivors As P.S. Lower said in 2020, we were pleased to hear the announcement of a provincial grant program To breathe new life into community emergency sexual assault programs Eva BC continues to administer these funds and saw organizations from across BC Enhanced existing programs and or develop new ones to ensure that sexual assault survivors get the support they need Some of those funds were earmarked and directed to indigenous organizations to create programs with culturally safe responses This announcement of 22 million to support those who have experienced sexual violence is a message to all survivors that they are not forgotten We are thrilled that our provincial government has committed to ensuring that services for sexual assault survivors are critical And need to be part of the overall response to gender-based violence I'd like to turn it over to Elijah to speak on what this means to our frontline services Thank you Nino, very good to be here with you, Minister Farnworth and Secretary Lorre I'm Elijah Zimmerman, the executive director at the Victoria Sexual Assault Center I'm going to take a few moments to share how this money helps survivors with a look at the services we provide VSAC is an urban center on the Congan territory and we're fortunate to have a best practice, the only kind in Canada 24-7 365 clinic with a sexual assault response team or we call it SART Our clinic is for anyone of any gender 13 and up, what this means is a survivor reaches out after assault Either calling our access line or the Vancouver crisis line, Vancouver Island crisis line And a SART team member then supports them as they attend an examined hospital or often they attend our clinic Where a forensic nurse examiner will care for them in a trauma-informed design space that is comfortable for support and care Recently had a survivor share with us, he was so nervous, he wasn't sure how it would feel to come to this kind of clinic But it made a huge difference that he felt seen and supported and cared for in such a difficult moment Survivors can also choose after using our clinic to see a crisis counselor for 10-12 sessions We also have victim service workers that can help survivors make police reports or go through the court process if that's what they choose to do All of what I've just shared here is a glimpse at the many steps or options that survivors have and it can be overwhelming And that's why it's so important that we have wraparound care that we can walk with survivors each step of the way Having this kind of core and stable funding means survivors can count on this best practice now and in the future Imagine, or for some of you, you already know, the feeling of experiencing sexualized violence and knowing there are services available to help you In what might be the most difficult time of your life Knowing that support extends beyond the acute moment and to a process over time, knowing you are not alone The contrast of not having this is stark and still a reality for too many people We know early support exponentially helps a healing trajectory This is good for the person, their families and our communities so they can heal and live a life of dignity, respect and health Here at VSAC we support current and historical survivors and we've seen that need grow in the pandemic More complex needs related to sexualized violence, more survivors coming forward and fully engaging our services This step of core stable funding begins to recognize the depth and breadth of need we have for these services across BC Thank you Thank you very much. We will now questions from the media. A reminder to reporters on the line, please press star one to enter the queue You will be limited to one question and one follow-up. Our first question today comes from Mira Bains, CBC Sure. This question is for Nenu Kang. Hi, Nenu. And I'm wondering about both the pandemic and sort of the effects on the increased rates of sexual assault Can you just talk a little bit about that and how the money will help with core funding? Thanks, Mira. Good to hear your voice. One thing we've been hearing when we're reaching out to our members, member programs And what they're sharing with us on the front line is that they have had increased rate of clients coming through their doors And I think Elijah will confirm that. We've got an increased number of gender based violence that includes everything from intimate partner violence to sexual violence To stalking and other forms of violence. So we're hearing that in general from services from across the province But in particular with sexual assault services, we know that there's also an increase in this type of crime And as Elijah pointed out, what's really important is the immediate response that a community has to someone that's experienced sexual violence And we do know that there's a disproportionate rate of sexual violence against particular groups of women, whether they're indigenous women We also know immigrant women. We've also heard that international students in the universities and colleges are experiencing disproportionate levels of sexual violence So it's really important for sexual survivors to know that there's something in the community that is easy access And it's not necessarily that they're going to use police as their first intervention It's the supports that are trauma informed where the survivors are believed where services are culturally perhaps linguistically appropriate Even if the particular service doesn't have the type of supports that individual needs that that organization knows who else to make appropriate referrals to All things that this money that has gone into communities from across the province These are the services that have been able to increase infrastructure and work along with other services in their communities to enhance the response to sexual assault survivors. Thank you Myra, do you have a follow-up? Yes, I do. And this question is from Minister Farnworth and it's on a different topic. Minister Farnworth, there are questions over another convoy That an organizer, the organizers, one of the organizers of the Ottawa protests, they say they're heading for Victoria later this month Are you concerned about that and what if any preps are being made to prevent what happened in Ottawa happening in Victoria? What I can tell you is that we do monitor whenever we hear of these kinds of things taking place around these so-called convoys That being said, we have seen the legitimate peaceful demonstrations that have taken place here in Victoria And the police have done, I think, an incredible job in terms of handling the situation And I expect that that's exactly what they will continue to do Next question comes from Bender Sajin, CTV Hi, Daria, just wondering if you can talk to us a little bit about what the impact has been on organizations like yours to not have this core funding over the past 20 years As I understand, you have to apply for grants. Is there uncertainty? Has there been sausages in the services that you've been able to provide? If you can just talk a little bit about that impact and whether you believe that there's any benefits in the future in having services like these come under a specific ministry So nearly 20 years ago when these sexual assault fundings were cut, many organizations had to close their doors Many programs were shut down. Few organizations from across our province continued to provide supports to sexual assault survivors And many times they had to tap into funds that they raised from the community They had to apply for grants and short grants from other ministries to cobble together various fundings just to make sure that they weren't turning away survivors of sexual assault And I think Victoria Sexual Assault Center is a really good example of that and there are many others I could name But we do know that across our province, particularly in rural communities, there were organizations and programs shut down And so what Eva BC has been advocating for, it's a provincial organization that supports close to 300 frontline programs What we've been doing is working really closely with the provincial government, pulling other stakeholders in the community together and working alongside of them And saying that part of gender based violence response in a province is to focus on sexual assault support services We've done as a province, we've done a good job, relatively good job in providing supports to intimate partner violence responses But what we need is a sexual assault policy in our province that's going to help us triage what we need across the province with regards to training frontline workers to respond to sexual support We need consistent funding in these programs so that programs aren't having to figure out where their next year's funding is going to come from We also need to be able to pull communities together to look at the various services that are in place, not just the frontline emergency sexual response, but what happens to survivors for their long term trauma recovery phase So when you ask what have we been advocating for, we've been advocating for consistent ongoing funding so we're thrilled about this announcement We're looking for ongoing supports to these programs so that they can continue to provide the best services possible We also want to continue to advocate for a sexual assault policy in our province so that we can pull together provincial stakeholders from various ministries And frankly, where this money lands, you know, I'm less concerned with that I'm more interested in the champions from within our provincial governments who are going to continue to insist that we need to have equitable funding across our province for sexual assault services Binder, do you have a follow-up? I'm good, thank you Thank you very much. We move on to Lisa Yusta, City News I apologize, it's about something, a different topic, someone else's care of covering this story for our station Minister Farnworth? I'm just wondering if you can talk about Alberta is going to stop pausing their provincial fuel sales tax People are very concerned about how they are going to live with prices expected to hit about 250 midweek For the affordability government, what are you going to do with gas prices to make this at least less unaffordable at this point in this very dire situation? Thank you for the question. The reality is, is the gas price situation is driven by events outside of provincial control The situation and invasion of Ukraine have dramatically upset the energy markets, not just here in British Columbia, but in fact right around the world At the same time, you know, in terms of affordability, we have taken a number of initiatives on affordability in general to make life more affordable Whether it is around providing significant savings in terms of childcare in this province, moving towards $10 day childcare Whether it has been the changes that have come about in ICBC insurance that have seen people's insurance drop on average of $491 a year Along with the rebates that we were able to offer At the same time, recognizing that if there are other initiatives that could be taken Obviously we will try and look at that, but there is no simple solution to the situation of rising fuel prices Lisa, do you have a follow up? Yes, I know it is not simple, but Alberta is making the need to remove their provincial taxes or pause, I should say, pause them Could DC not pause them at this point in time when gas arguably is completely unaffordable? The only planned increase is the one cent litre on April 1st And one of the challenges on that taxation side as a number of economists and fuel experts have indicated Down the fuel companies don't just jack the price up to take advantage of the margin that you may have created The reality is that there is significant instability in the energy markets on a global basis Directly related to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia We have time for one more question today, we will go to Shannon Waters BC today Hi there, I wanted to ask about the timeline for this funding A couple of questions on that front, Minister Farnworth, I believe it was you who said that the way that this funding is going to be rolled out Will be developed over the coming months, so I am curious what the timeline is for actually delivering these dollars to I believe it's the 50 centres around the province that will be benefiting from them And also if you have a breakdown of what the funding is going to be year by year So the funding is stable funding, it is $10 million annually The next step is the development of the procurement process We would like that to be done as expeditiously as possible The new funding starts on April 1st of 2023 In the meantime the existing grant-based funding remains in effect And so organizations can count on that funding Knowing full well that on April 1st 2023 it moves to stable ongoing funding That they don't have to worry about either getting through a grant procurement basis And that's on top of the $42 million that's annually already provided For programs dealing with violence against women and gender violence in general Shannon, do you have a follow up? Yes please, this would be either I think for you or Elijah One of you said that this funding and the fact that it's stable and permanent Will begin to address the need and I'm wondering if for either of you You anticipate that this funding promise is going to be enough to meet the needs For the programs that you are delivering Elijah, go ahead I can speak to that This funding enables us to have a bit of confidence towards all the programming And services we offer But we will still continue to need to look for donations and fundraising And other grant programs So this is a great first step Definitely a restoration after 20 years I think that's a great thing to be doing But the need and the awareness of supports and services needed It's quite large here in our province and really around the world So I think we do need to keep working towards meeting those needs Thank you Vance and attendees, that concludes today's event


This is the outline of the talk. I will first provide an overview of the Quark bootloader. Then I will focus on the firmware management functionality. And then I will discuss a security extension that is coming in the next release. And finally, if we have time, I will discuss some internals. And specifically, we manage persistent data in the bootloader, metadata in the bootloader. And finally, some concluding remarks. So the Quark bootloader is the reference bootloader for the Intel Quark microcontroller family, which is basically the Intel Quark T2000 microcontroller and the Intel Quark SC microcontroller C1000. The bootloader is developed as part of the software stack that we have for this family of microcontrollers. And the software stack and the bootloader is available on GitHub and released under a 3BSD license. So what are the main features of the bootloader? Obviously, we have some bootstrap features, initializing the system. And we also support some functionality that allows to restore the context from deep sleep, because this is not done in Arthur. And we also have some first time initialization process, like the Trim Code computation. In the next release, we are also adding some security artening features. But the main topic of this talk is actually the firmware management functionality, which I will discuss briefly. Just let me first provide an overview of the Quark MCUs so that you can have an idea of what kind of hardware we are talking about. So both the SoC, the D2000 and the C1000 feature an X86 core called the name Lakemont that runs at 32 MHz. The C1000 is more powerful than the D2000. It also has another core, an Arc core, which is part of the sensor subsystem of the SoC. And it has more RAM and more flash. And it also features a USB controller. From the flash layout point of view, however, and from the bootloader point of view, they are quite similar, because we have to put our bootloader in the OTP region, which is AK for both SoC. And yes, so the bootloader has firmware management functionality, and specifically it supports firmware upgrades, obviously, but also some FM functionality like key management that is coming in the next release, actually, and some system information retrieval and application arrays. So you can query the device in order to know the application that are installed, the partitioning, and so on. And these firmware management functionality are available over two transports, both UART and USB. Obviously, USB only for C1000. The biggest constraint that we had while developing the bootloader was, as I said already, the 8K limitation because we had to fit it in the OTP, the one time programmable flash. Despite that, we decided to adopt a modular approach. And that was done mainly with the goal of achieving extensibility and the possibility of adding new transports in the future. And potentially also OTA in the future. So let's see how the model design on the firmware manager is protocol stuck. All the firmware management functionality is DFU-based. This means that we use DFU for sending images and comments and requests to the device. And obviously, DFU is a USB specification, is a USB protocol. So what we did, we adapted it for UART. And we introduced what we call the QUARK DFU adaptation, the QDA protocol. We will see it shortly. And on top of this DFU-based communication layer, we have defined an image format, the QUARK firmware upgrade image format, and the QFM protocol, the QUARK firmware management protocol that basically allows to have some functionality different from upgrades running on top of DFU. And these are, again, the one that I said before. And specifically, the most important one is probably key provisioning done over DFU. So DFU, as you probably know, stands for Device Firmware Upgrade. It's a USB standard. And one interesting feature is that it does not define any specific image format. What it does provide is basically a way to transfer data to the device with what is called DFU.load and to extract data from the device with DFU uploads. And both of these transfers are block-based. We decided to use DFU because it is an open and well documented standard, which is also used by many other projects. And it is really designed for resource constrained devices. Specifically, as I said, it has a block-wise transfer that basically allows us to write a block of the image at the time, because given our limited resources and especially our limited RAM, we cannot store our image in the RAM or in a special portion of the flesh. We must write it one block at a time. And then another feature of DFU is that all the transmission is controlled by the device, basically. So the device is giving the timing of the communication. So you never have the risk of the host fluding the device by sending too many messages or stuff like that. Another advantage is that there is already some host tools available for it. And probably the most famous one is DFU util that supports both Windows and Linux. And these open source as well. And finally, we lack the fact that DFU does not provide a specific image format, but leaves the vendor the choice to define its own. Because we wanted to add our own metadata and our own authentication mechanism in our image format. So as I said, DFU is a USB standard, but we wanted to support UART as well. So what we did is we add this QUARK DFU adaptation protocol, which is just an adaptation layer that makes basically DFU and the state machine of DFU and the communication protocol of DFU available over UART as well. And actually, the QDA protocol makes DFU available over any message-oriented transports. Since UART is actually stream oriented, we added another layer, the X-modem protocol, which is an old file transfer protocol that we use to transfer QDA packets. We basically use it to turn the channel into a message oriented one. And we choose it because of its simplicity that allows us to have a reduced footprint. So the QDA protocol basically provides all the DFU request response messages. So you feed a lot, upload, and all the other control comments. And it also mimics some of the generic USB functionality among which the alternate settings feature that we use, as we will see. I like to stress that as a separate QDA is not limited to X-modem UART, but it can be applied over any message-oriented protocol. Indeed, during the early development phase, I basically use it over UDP so that I could test the code directly on my laptop. So since we are porting DFU to a different transport, we also needed a different host tools for the user. And what we did, instead of reinventing the wheel, we took DFU till and we modified with fork it. And we basically removed the USB layer, which is libUSB and replaced it with a QDA UART layer. And the modified DFU till, we call it QMDFU till, and is available on GitHub as well under a GPL2 license. So thanks to USBDFU and the QDA DFU, we basically have a common DFU-based communication layer on top of which we transfer both upgrade images, which is the main intent of DFU, but also we transfer what we call the other firmware management request using the QFM protocols that I mentioned already. So the image format is very simple, is actually a block-wise format, which is meant to be transferred using DFU that divides the images in blocks. And in the end, this format is just an header that we add to the binary. So we prepend this header to the binary and this header will be transferred in the first block, in the first DFU block. So it is processed before the image. Yes, this is the information that we have in the header and the other is actually divided into two sub-header, a base one that contains common information for processing the image, like the vendor ID, the product ID of the target device, or the application version numbers, some metadata, but this header can be followed by an extended header and we use this extended header to add authentication as we will see later. Another interesting decision that we made is that we do not put in the header any specific explicit memory address, but we use the concept of partition. So we assume that the flash is divided in partition and every image is targeting a partition. The current partition scheme is quite simple. On D2000, we have just one partition designed to host an X86 application and on Quarka C, we have two partition, one for the X86 core and one for Arc. Other partition schemes are, however, possible, including multiple partition per core in order to have some functionality like a fallback image in case of future OTA extension and stuff like that. Yes, this is the flash partition that we have in our MCUs. So as I said, we didn't want to have just firmware upgrades, but we also wanted other functionality, available, especially because we wanted to do key provisioning, and so we defined this QFM protocol, the Quark firmware management protocol, which is basically a request-response protocol. Requests are sent using a few download transactions and response are collected, are either piggybacked on the status of the download transaction, the resulting status, or if they are complex responses, like the system information response, they are extracted using a DFU upload transaction. An example will probably make it clear, like, when we want to do a key update, we transfer the update key request and the key itself in a DFU download transfer as if it was an image, right? But it is not an upgrade image, it's a new key. And then we see from the status of the transaction, we know if the key update has been successful or not. For system information retrieval, things are more complicated. Again, we transfer the request in an download request, but then we collect the response using a upload request. So we extract the response basically from the device, that's the idea. Before I mentioned that we make use of alternate settings and to use with two is that basically, we have decided that we wanted to provide a way for the device to know if the host was going to transfer the QFM packets or images. So we decided that alternate setting is used for transferring QFM packets, while alternate settings one or greater than one are used for firmware upgrades. And specifically each alternate, we have one alternate setting for every partition. The advantage of doing that is that on the FUTil, you can list the alternate settings that you have and you get this nice overview of the partition that you have in your system using a native to the FUTil. So nothing proprietary. Obviously, we also had to implement some host tools, so not just embedded code here. We decided to use some Python to be platform independent and we have two scripts basically. One for creating the image, that these image creators script basically converts a raw image into QFU DFU image that can be downloaded to the device using a DFU tools. And then we have another script that basically implements the QFM functionality and allows it for instance, information retrieval or key provisioning. And internally these other script calls DFU, UTIL in order to transfer the request and collecting the response. So this is an example of how QFU images are created. As I said, you have to specify the binary that you just compile and then you have to specify the partition on which you want the binary to be installed and then you can specify other metadata like the application version. And then you enter film management mode and then you flash the image using DFU, UTIL or QM DFU, UTIL depending on if you want to use USB or UART. The important thing is that you basically have to specify the same alternate setting of the partition. These are a few examples of our QM manage, the QFM script can be used. And this is an example of the kind of information you can retrieve from our bootloader using DFU. And for instance, the version of the bootloader, the SOC type, the number of core you have, if you have an application installed or not and stuff like that. So as all of what I've shown so far is already available, what I'm going to show now is the secure female upgrade extension that will be available in the next release and it is expected in weeks. And what this new release will provide is basically authenticated firmware upgrades. Unfortunately, given the limited resources of our SOCs, we couldn't use a public key scheme. So we use a simple symmetric key scheme, which is HMAC. And this means that the image is verified using the same key that is used to sign it. And this also means that the key must be located in the device. And we decided not to encode the key in the device, but to provide users with the key management functionality so that they can around time provide the key. And the key can also be updated in case it is leaked somehow. How we provide the secure female upgrade extension is almost kind of simple. We extended the other adding the HMAC extended data which contains all the information that is needed to authenticate the image. An interesting concept is that we do not authenticate, well, we don't compute the HMAC for the entire image. What we do is that we authenticate the other. And inside the other, we put an array of ashes, one for each block that compose the image. So during the upgrade, what happens is that the first packet that we transfer is the other. And we authenticate the other, computing the HMAC of it and comparing the one that is in the other. Once the other is authenticated, we know that the Shah are authentic. And then we start receiving blocks of images and for every block we compute the Shah of the block and we compare it with the one that we have in the other which was authenticated. So the block itself is authenticated. A problem that we had to solve was how to ensure partition consistency, how to handle failures that can leave partition in consistent state like reset during an update. In order to do that, we basically associated a consistency flag to each partition. And this metadata is stored in the bootloader data which is some data that is handled by the bootloader in a persistent way. So what we do is when the upgrade starts after we have received the header and authenticated it and when we receive the first block basically, we mark the partition as inconsistent. And then we start writing it. And once the upgrade is terminated, we basically mark the partition back as consistent. If during the upgrade something happens, like a reset, the partition will remain marked as inconsistent. And every boot what we do is to check for inconsistent partitions and erase them and mark them back as consistent. We have to erase them because we have no way to recover from them. But it's better to have an empty partition so no application booting than an application that boots and that is corrupted and can create safety issues. As I said before, we also provide a key management feature. So the key is not encoded, the device. When you program the bootloader, the device is unprovisioned. And then you have to provide the keys. And we basically define a special key update request as an extension of the QFM protocol. And this request is authenticated as well using the firmware key, which is the key that we use for authenticated the image, but also another key, which is the revocation key. We call it revocation key. This double signing adds some security. And it is important to note that the key update request is not encrypted. This is obviously not fine for OTA, but since we are supporting only wired and point-to-point transport, like UART and USB, the risk of a med in the middle attack is negligible, I'd say. So it is fine with our current configuration, but if we move to OTA 10, then this is a decision that we must revisit. And as I said, we have two keys, the firmware key and the revocation key. The firmware key, the importance of having the revocation key is that, and double-signing the update of the key, is that if the firmware key is leaked, an attacker can update, can change the firmware, but it cannot update the key. So it cannot take complete control of the device. And at the same time, if the revocation key is leaked, but the firmware key is not, again, an attacker cannot update the key because it also needs the other key. That's the main reason of having the two keys. And the revocation key can be updated as well using the same mechanism of the firmware key. So again, there is a double signature there. These are the packets that we use. And basically they are the same packets. The only thing that changes is the type that identifies which key must be updated. And then we transfer the key as well and we compute the H-mark of the packet, using both keys, which means we compute the H-mark of the entire packet using the firmware key and then we get an H-mark and on this H-mark we compute another H-mark using the revocation key. And the final H-mark is compared with the one in the packet. First time provisioning is a bit special here because you don't have the key set yet. So what we do is we define some magic key that are assumed to be preloaded, which are basically zero. And so during the first provisioning, you must first provide the revocation key, which is signed twice with the magic key. And then you provide the firmware key, which is signed with the magic key in place of the firmware key, which is not there yet. And then the revocation key that you just set. We also try to enforce the key provisioning by not enabling the upgrade until the keys are set basically. So bootloader data. I mentioned before that we have to store some persistent data and the bootloader has to manage these persistent data in order to work properly. Well, the best example are the authentication keys that must be stored somewhere, but I also mentioned already the partition consistency flag. And this bootloader data must be resilient to update failures and possible attacks. And we try to achieve these resilience with duplication and verification at each boot. So basically the bootloader data has two copies, identical copies, store each copy as a CRC to verify its integrity. And the two copies are stored in different flash pages. This is because when you update even a single byte of a page, you have to actually delete the entire page and then update it. So you kind of put the two images in the same, the two data in the same page. And then every time BL data is updated, we update the two copy in the same order. Main first, backup then. Yeah, this is where we store BL data now as a CRC. And as I said, at every boot, we perform some verification of BL data to ensure that data is consistent. There are a few cases that we need to consider. The first one is the lack of initialization. BL data is not meant to be flashed together with the bootloader, but during the first boot, the bootloader creates it. And the bootloader detects lack of initialization by verifying that the flash region where we store the data is completely blank. So FFF in our case. And then another situation that can happen is that one of the two copy is corrupted. And this can happen for instance, because during why we were updating the copy, we had a power loss or a reset. And this is detected because the CRC will not match. And so we go and check the other copy, which should be valid. And then we copy it over the corrupted one. The other copy will contain the latest valid bootloader data. Then there is another situation in which both copies are corrupted. This should never happen because we update it since they are stored in different pages. So they cannot be updated at the same time. So if that happens, we consider it a hardware fault or a kind of hardware security attack. So for us, this is an undercoverable situation and we enter an infinite loop. We do not reinitialize the BL data because doing so will put the device in unprovisioned state so the key can be changed and security is compromised. Yes, this is the detail of the verification flow. As you can see at the end, after we have sanitized BL data, verify and sanitize BL data if needed, we sanitize the partitions. And this is the content of BL data. I'm not going to go into many details here, but as you can see, we store the firmware key and we have these partition descriptors and target descriptors which basically are our way to define our partition table. We decided to store the partition table not to our code, the partition table in the code, but to have it in BL data because in the future we may want to have some kind of runtime feature that allows us to change the partition table. And this design will allow it. So we have this concept of partition and targets. A partition is a portion of flash that is designed to host an application. And each partition is associated with a target which is a computing unit capable of basically running the hosted application. At the moment we support just one partition per target. So as already mentioned, on D2000 we have only one target, so we only have one partition and on C1000 we have two targets, Arc and AX86, so we have two partitions. But the design actually allows us to have multiple partitions per target so that we can implement for instance a fallback partition in case of OTA updates so that if the updates fails we still can run an application and we can have some kind of partition that is meant to host a different application and somehow the user can switch between the two. So the possibility are many here. And another thing that this design allows is having what we call external target or partitions. So on our board we can have some, for instance a BLE module. So some peripherals that is external to SOC but they can have some firmware as well. And we can define these as a new target and a new target will have a new partition, a new partition will have a new alternate setting. And when we set that alternate setting basically we process the QFU image in a different way and instead of programming the flash we program the BLE module. This is not done yet but the design allows it. Yeah, this is the final flash layout that we have. As I mentioned before we put all the code of the boot loader in the OTP. But this is truly for firmware management over UART when we use USB in the case of the C1000 there is no way to fit the USB stack in AK at least we didn't find it. So what we did is to add the second stage boot loader that is booted only when firmware management is requested. So conclusions. I said that there are some code that we think could be reusable because it's not platform dependent. This is the DFU state machine which is also independent from actually the lower layer communication layer because we use the same DFU state machine for both UART and USB. And then there is all the DFU over UART adaptation. So the QDA protocol and DX modern protocol. They are actually platform independent and we have used basically the same code on both the embedded device and our modified version of DFU till. So it's exactly the same code, C code. And then, well, there are the Python scripts for generating the images. Unfortunately, the code for parsing the image and flashing that is SOC specific. Some, this is the last slide. Some lessons that we have learned is first of all that the modular approach pays back in embedded as well. We are glad that we go choose to not pre-optimize for footprint because this allows us to adapt to changing requirements. And as I said, we could use some of the code on the host tools as well. So not just the embedded and we somehow could validate the DFU state, the same state machine is validated on two different transport and two different possible communication errors. And then again, we try to reuse as much as open source code as possible. So instead of reinventing the wheel, we use DFU till and we fork it. The advantage of doing that was also that basically we provide the same user experience for both DFU over USB and DFU over UART. And another thing that we find great was using link time optimization. That basically offset most of the overhead that the modular approach introduces. So combining the two was a great thing for us. We could save from 15 to 20% of flash of footprint. The only drawback of LTO is that complicates debugging quite a lot. So that's all. Thank you for your attention and any question? Yep, I'm not totally getting it, sorry. Yeah. Look at the re-vocation key with the DFU key. And that results in a valid key, different. And that double encryption is exactly the same which is going to alter the key, not increasing your cryptocurrency. Well, you need both key to update the key. No, I'm using the equivalent key. I'm sorry. Because of the way the algorithm works, if you encrypt with the two separate keys and two steps, it's the equivalent of taking that and using the third key to end up with the same result. Yes, thank you. Oh, yeah, I see your point now. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Yeah, the point is that the third key is not stored anywhere, it's the combination. Yeah, well, the idea was defending from a leaked key. So you had both key to be leaked. But yeah, if you can. Or find you for the key. Yeah, yeah, but then you have to find it somehow. So it's a different kind of attack. It's not a leaked situation. No, but I see your point here. It's a good point. Yes. What's the scenario that you think of? We just imagined that at some point a fender may decide to just delete the firmware that it has on his device. It's just something that actually we got asked to. So. You go into this infinite loop. Yeah. It might be tampered. Yeah. Yeah, we got asked. Not the brick device, but temporarily render it in an output loop, maybe. We just got an extra loop. Maybe project some sort of proprietary interventions in a different like a key. Yeah. That also makes sense. Another question. Next up, do you see what's quite an option with an Intel without? Sorry. Can you repeat the question? Do you see what's quite an option of this architecture inside Intel? I don't know. We also, yeah, that's what we also, we will see. Yeah, that's an intent. Another question. Okay. Thank you very much.


I'm John Mosby, president of Highline College. On behalf of all of our wonderful students, staff, and faculty, I want to wish everyone a happy holiday, a safe end of 2020, and a much, much brighter and exciting 2021. Take care.


Thank you for keeping us company again, this is why in the morning my name is Adereva Hilawee, time for politics, now we have seen our politician floating the guidelines given by the Ministry of Health and indeed the World Health Organization, why is this so? Then we have this faction that is allowed to hold meetings, then there is another that is not allowed, if they do the police will be there to tear gas them and disperse them. Why do we have this dispensation of the laws of Kenya, if we don't have the meeting then it should be for everyone, not the individuals. But then we have to put things into perspective, helping me to do that is Bechis Kairu, health economist and an analyst, good morning. Good morning, how are you? I'm very well. I'm very well, I've been enjoying myself during this COVID time, it's a time of reflection. Now, when I feel really na feel about this COVID-19, if the father of the house says something, the family members or that kwa family will have to obey, they will have to. Yes. But of course even the father, he put in the Pianama Sharti, in a way na fa Piatronishinji. Yes. We have our leaders, elected leaders. Yes. But what has been given by their colleagues, they are not leaving by that. We have seen even our own senator, Nairobi senator being arrested for violating the guidelines given by the Ministry of Health. I wonder whether that was essential. We've also seen meetings being held, political meetings being held. Yes. They are not observing social distancing in the name of speaking to our community. A good example is what was happening in western. Actually, the western region has been highlighting all these political meetings. What do you make of them? I think we are a nation again and this has always been my stand. We are a nation that we don't have a value system. We don't have ingrained values within us that govern us. So right now we are seeing spikes in the number of COVID cases. And Motahikagwe the CES comes out and tells people, take precaution, social distance. That's a song they are singing. But now the same leaders are the same ones now violating and they expect the citizens to also follow suit. So it's not possible because a leader always comes from the society.  If majority of the people within the society are people who don't follow rules, people who don't adhere to whatever guidelines that have been given, chances are even the leaders that we are having are going to be of the same kind of caliber. Now it is interesting that in this country we have whereby laws are put, they only apply to some people and not apply to others. So for the number one a inchi uta pigwa rungu na karao umpaka to death because you don't have a mask. But our leaders will meet, there will be no social distance and they will not be taken anywhere. A number one a inchi a kishikosaiika mahakuna social distance ama hajavaa mask, ama hajaput in the guidelines, they will be fined heavily. But someone like our senator was caught violating the rules kafu past kafu nini. Atashikwa, nothing will happen. Are you seeing that? So what kind of, why can't we have leadership by example? Lead by example, even Jesus led by example, even Paul told his disciples, follow me as I follow Christ, as I do it, do also. But now our leaders are telling you don't follow me but don't do as I do. You do as I say. That's the kind of leadership we have do as I say, not do as I do. But most of the chances are when you are a leader people will do as you do. They will not do as you say unfortunately. So I think that is I think carelessness in terms of our leaders and the worst of it is that this whole COVID if per se based on the data that is being aired out that actually we are losing lives. And these lives like the other day we saw a medical doctor succumbed to death. Previously there was a nurse the week before that though it was not so much highlighted. I don't know why because I think all healthcare workers matter. So previously there was a nurse who also passed away. Now we've seen a comedian in the media industry. And if just like Motahikagu had said to behave abnormally, this is it to treat abnormally. So if we cannot see that over time if the government officials, our leaders do not take precaution what will happen is then everybody will just follow suit. People will start going to burn. Now apparently they are previous clubs are now being opened. Unfortunately they are now opened. They are just operating as normal up to even 3 a.m. in the night. Some of you here they belong to them. Exactly. So now it reaches to a point then what are these measures and guidelines are you trying to give out if at all nobody is adhering to it. And is it that may be because now it also heightens the issue of people questioning whether is now COVID for real because if our leaders are behaving in such a way could they be using COVID as a way of controlling us. Are you seeing? So if COVID is being used as a way to control us then people will start now thinking that COVID is not real. So as much as the medical experts would be shouting COVID is real but they are like how can you say COVID is real and yet the same lawmakers are the ones breaking the law. Now speaking of violating the rules and actually the one for the social distancing do you think it has been politicized in the sense of there are people who are allowed to have meetings political meetings and then there are those who are not allowed to have meetings and if they do so the police will be with them. I once made a comment and said it seems now COVID-19 has ceased from being a medical issue to now a political issue and we can see it all over the world not only in Kenya we look in even in America now it's more of a political it's now being used for political gain so it's now going to be used as a campaign to against Donald Trump. So it has also been used to also fight Tanzania for example the WHO, the UN they all trying to fight Tanzania because they are saying they are not reporting any cases at the same time they are saying Maghufuri is going with an iron fist. So now when we look at now COVID it has shifted from being a medical issue. You know it's not like the HIV AIDS was initially although to some other expert and other investigators they feel HIV AIDS at some point was being used as a political tool to control the masses but now when you look at now how COVID has approached now it has become politicized rather than using expertise or professionalism in dealing with it. So now people I shall say every leader uses chaos to their every crisis you can always use every crisis to your advantage. So now we are seeing this crisis of COVID is being used as a tool to tame political laries of your opponents and if you are the one in governance use it to your favor so that you can disarm your opponents and how do you do by it so when your opponents tries to hold rallies they will be held accountable the police will be there we saw how Bonikaluware meetings were disrupted but if you are pro government like Kakinoparanya what will happen is people are not even being taken to court all the police being involved so that tells you already what does that process a picture to the public if our leaders are not taking this COVID seriously then why should we also take it seriously so even the spiking of the cases don't blame the common one in chi because manki see manki do if you guys are meeting for meetings even me I'll have my own bash my own birthday party to convene my own members I'll have my own bread of shower I saw another comedian they held a bread of shower they held a bread of shower so now when you think about it but they will just copy what the politicians are doing so now COVID-19 is becoming now more of a political issue than a medical issue scientific issue because now the politicians are the one now going ahead of us and that's why I keep on insisting there's so much intellectual dishonesty that is going around this whole COVID thing and as we play around we are playing around with the lives of people we are playing around with the livelihoods of people because right now we are still having that rooming of an economic crisis and it's keep on threatening threatening our economy but it seems we are not so much so much into how this COVID thing is affecting people it's affecting people mentally it's affecting people financially it's affecting people even physically so and then remember even now high school students and even primary school students and other school going children have lost a whole year which in the whole lifetime they may never recover it it's something that has been indented in them for the rest of their lives why because we have careless leaders who don't think about the masses they don't think about the people they are leading and I'm sorry to say but for seeing the near future we'll have very several politicians several leaders actually contracting that disease themselves so that they can also feel the pinch the common citizen and experiences because the thing about this whole COVID a high bagui it will attack anybody whether you are rich whether you are poor, whether you are old whether you are young whether you have a medical degree or you don't have any medical degree the only funny thing is that I have not seen chokoras I'm still seeing them rooming around it seems God is really protecting them or maybe the immune system maybe it's an investigation people should do but the leaders should know that as much as they are taking it so casually and using it as a tool I should say sometimes healthcare is used as a political tool to manipulate the masses but for how long because the same masses you want to manipulate even you are a human being with blood flowing through you no one is immune to death I should say nobody is immune to death nobody is all susceptible to death so you cannot go around and play around with people's health thinking you are immune to death it could be you nobody would have thought some of these celebrities would succumb to death but we are seeing many of them succumbing to it so nobody is immune to death so you cannot go around joking and thinking you are above your immortal nobody is immortal they think because they have money because they have access to better healthcare facilities they feel that they are immune to this whole situation but they forget life and death does not belong to them life and death belongs to the maker and they should stop playing around with people's lives and I think I wish they were intelligent enough to take advantage of this whole COVID because now they have been exposed actually what we have been building as a country for the last 56 years is now being exposed in the open we realize we have a poor education system we realize we have a poor healthcare system we realize we cannot even cushion our own people when it comes to financial losses we realize even our old people we don't even have a system of protecting our old people we realize we don't have manufacturing industries that can help but by now I was expecting them promoting individuals like now they came up with a ventilator thing they would be promoting individuals who are coming up with a material that can make better masks imagine a country like Taiwan that is close proximity to China right now they are COVID free you find that they only had around 486 cases and what did the government do it started making masks the correct mask what is a cloth mask that people are wearing around and moving around and we are thinking that people are safe because the only thing that it's been prevented is maybe the cough droplets and whatever but in Taiwan the government distributed masks to every citizen to every single the correct mask the three ply masks and to the ones who are more atrix who have been distributed to the point they even did they did not do a lockdown people are still going on with their businesses people are still carrying on with the economic activity wearing the mask because it was free so now we have a government you are given funding by the world bank you are given funding by the IMF you are given funding by the WHO but imagine at no single point did they even ever distribute masks so how do you expect the cough to flatten it can't because already where you could have genuinely come in as a government and saying you love your people and distribute masks to each and every individual but now people had to go out of their way to be innovative wana rarua and go mahali wana shodna so as to have masks so by now we should have seen people coming up in scientific ways of inventing the material for making masks and we make a lock and even the two small loops for putting kumaskio we couldn't even manufacture that but now I was expecting because for over 56 years we have been having graduates who have done a lot of technology and production and engineering this was the high time that we could have brought these individuals together and said can we create this material where do we get these chemicals can we create our own by now we should be thinking of how can we be inventing our healthcare system for the future now we have governors and high profile people putting ICU beds in their own hogs so what about that Wanjiko who cannot afford even a meal be able to put an ICU bed in their own institution in their own compound speaking of the meal the CS Motaikagu is on record telling the members of the public if these politicians call you do not go, do not be foolish enough to go and actually there's a point he said you are a foolish to go of which it's okay but now tell me this person has no food at home and then you hear your Mweshimiwa is somewhere giving out food won't you go whether there's COVID or not they will always go now do you think now this COVID until like you were saying politically the manipulation will use the dishing out of food and the mask to the populace just to listen to them but of course exposing them to COVID 19 you should say politicians are opportunistic kind of individuals sorry to say rarely do we have politicians who are genuinely leaders so for them because we see from March from the lockdown it was like 5 also months and sometimes they felt my competitors they're also looking at 2022 they have sort of like anaesthetic kind of personality I would say quote and quote because why can't you if you're an MP of a certain area you know the MCS of that yes why not involve the chiefs must you stand somewhere and declare that you are the one who has contributed for what gain even Jesus said if you're doing good don't let the right hand know what your left hand is doing but because it is for selfish gain not really for helping individuals so that they can show on social media they have been helping individuals show that they are doing something but this is your right as a citizen for your government to provide these basic necessities so why should we be at the masses of individuals for us to access basic necessities right so if they were genuinely working for the people they don't have to call people and to scramble and then they are the same ones saying social distancing even I'm disappointed with why can't you put what is it called put policies that can govern and ensure that beyond a reasonable doubt that these individuals should be prohibited right because he is a CS he means he is part of the executive there is the police and the army why not stop these senators and these politicians from doing that and we have a government that does not have a tooth that it cannot be able to stop a lawmaker because now what is happening it seems like the MPs the senators are above the law but yet we have a constitution around March and April the public were furious of their leaders they were saying we are not seeing our leaders where are they now do you think they are not trying to respond that we need to strategize things and that's why we are calling you for meetings but do you have to appear so that people can feel your leadership I don't think so because if you have set systems in place you don't need to appear because things would just be flowing right but because we have leaders who are again I would say they like feeding from the energy of people and they have to appear so that they can feel as if they are working you know in Kenya we have this this value whereby even when you are working in a place so long as you have appeared it's assumed you have worked but that's not true I may keep on appearing every time but I am doing literally nothing I am just appearing you come and hang your coat just to show that your presence is there but in actual essence you can work even a single hour in that office this is something we have seen in government office people just come hang their coat and they go and carry on their daily things but a whole 8 hours and they will still pocket in a salary they have done nothing to the service of individuals so you don't have to appear for there to be effects that you are actually doing something in that society so why could they they calling MCS kwa chacha kuli kwa atu kwa the chiefs the chiefs knows each and every individual in that village if it's unga na mafutia kupika na unga angano why not package in inba and you don't have to declare that writing your name in bowl it's very funny so you just go and tell them the MP of this area has decided to give you this kind of food it's distributed per home this is the time even we should have involved now technology Rwanda right now is using robots even to test people were suspected to be COVID-19 Rwanda was also using drones in terms of delivery of vaccines and delivery of blood and delivery of other medical products now why could we use our own technology because we are sure we have engineers in this country we could have produced all manufactured food distributing gadgets you just we have a database why did we even do the sensors sometimes we don't leverage on the things that we have and we don't have to import these things we can just use it locally it just shows the cognitive thinking is very low it's literally very low because this is something they would have solved by just using the structure really set in place and all these people they know one another is in Yubakumi I should say we have very good policies written on paper very nice beautifully but implementation is the problem and we don't need rocket science to implement some of these a few things the other thing would have been since they were saying they were giving 2500 to each and every family then instead of distributing the food we have to pay a lot of money because at least they won't go drink the money but at least they can actually go and buy but because people have this tendency and they don't have any impact they don't have any skill but sometimes alagasy should outlive you because even wangare maza is not with us for example but we still have alagasy about environment and keeping the environment clean and protecting the environment right but does she have to appear so that now we can protect the environment I don't think so because alagasy was being felt wherever it is now this behavior by our politicians trying to take advantage of the situation violating the guidelines by the ministry of health now what kind of message are they sending to the youth who wants to be leaders in this country what kind of message they are sending to our young people they are just sending a message of impunity right so even people aspiring to become leaders so they can have that power of impunity why am I saying that case in point we saw one politician walk in a club shoot someone and they walk free everybody now would want to aspire to be a politician to gain that power so that they can be careless and break the law and nobody would actually ask them because you seem like you are bigger than life exactly bigger than life instead of them showing the youth when you become a leader show servanthood because leadership is servanthood they don't want to show leadership as servanthood so it even becomes a way of escaping poverty and a way of coming to control people but in ideal sense of leadership the people so that the community or the nation can move in a certain direction but not even when you ask most of our leaders you being a member of parliament of this constituency where do you see this constituency ten years to come majority they will not tell you although they will just blab blab some things of their manifesto but in ideal sense they cannot move from point A to point B if you ask an MC the expectation of these people in this world where do you expect them in the next five years majority of them do not have vision they are all visionless to the extent even to the highest level where do you see Kenyans go in the next five years they will just tell you the big four agenda but where are we moving from Karatina to Moranga to Nairobi because that's what our leader should actually project actually they should be reflecting come on NAMP of your constituency with this whole COVID thing if your dispensaries are not functioning this is the high time to think maybe they need to be allowed within your constituency that can actually help your constituents but they can't sit down to think such things all they think is temporary things or just birak patching up so what will happen is that it creates another aura whereby you want to become a leader or a politician so that you can have control so that you can have wealth so that people can fear you so that you can look above the law just going with that sense of power but instead of having the ability to show people when you become a leader it's more of servanship and people to applaud you and say wow I would like to be a leader to serve my people but now most people want to become a leader no julikana you say mekana you you are above everybody else and you are amassing a lot of power which I think is the wrong thing to to try and become a leader and that is what is ailing Africans that is what is ailing our continent because when you look at most developed countries if you look at the forefathers of those nations they had that servanship they were like we project that there will be better roads in this place we project that our children will have schools we project that our children will have inheritance and that's how you will find them they will come to Africa take our golds, take our diamonds take our silver why to have an inheritance for their children we Africans what inheritance have they left us it's more puvati and more puvati in real sense right but when you look at the developed nations you find that even the poorest of them all is able to be even given 200 dollars in a week they able to have shelters that if you are a child born in that society you can go to a school all the age university without even making any payment but because there is already an inheritance that the forefathers of that nation were projecting for that country we would now bring it here in Africa for me and my family generations to come they will have nothing left for them nothing you would build schools that will enable the children then even if you don't give me money I can access information you won't build infrastructure so that at least with these roads I can be able to to transport my product you won't bring in internet and electricity at least I can create my own innovation from scratch so that I can try and uplift the community so what ends up being people end up looking so hopeless and yet we have knowledge and information as individuals I believe Africa we have one of the brightest minds ever true I want us to shift gears now talk of now the political alignments we have seen the ANC say that now we are disassociating from the DP the Tangatanga team now at this point now that it was believed the DP has made inroads in the western region do you think the disassociation of the ANC from Tangatanga so to speak has made any impact from the western region I would say yes and no reason being right now and I had earlier on stated is the Luya Nation is trying to be wood everybody wants to woo the Luya Nation it's like everybody now is focusing on the Luya Nation because any of the Luya Nation in itself it has numbers but the unfortunate thing about the Luya Nation sorry to say as much as we are not supposed to go tribal but that's how our country is the Luya Nation in itself it's already subdivided among us itself and what you can notice is now there is Musaliam Dawadi there is now a Tangula here this Oparanya trying to area then there is Atwali you can see already there are already so many subdivision because they are afraid if one of the 2022 projected candidates is able to consolidate old Luya votes as one then there will be trouble there will be trouble and you see now like for the DP as much as people are saying oh the Kikuyu vote nini nini but he is also laying his own ground he can even just split just have a half of it because even we look at in 2002 when Uhuru was vying for presidency the Kikuyu vote did not vote as 100% a portion of it voted for Uhuru a portion of it voted for Kibaki so I think William somewhere was also playing the same trick I don't need 100% no people expecting that he needs 100% Kikuyu vote no he only needs a portion of it and then if he gets the whole Kalejin vote block that's it then if you get the Luya nation vote as a block you're good to go the rest it doesn't really much matter but then on the other end Hillary they have to deter from that they have to stop on that and then you see now right now Musalim Davidi feels he has a greater chance he has a greater opportunity as I said earlier sometimes people think he's more of a safer what a safer bet in terms of neutralizing the temperatures in this country he looks a bit neutral because the other two types of candidates there will be a lot of heated tension Musalim is also trying to buy his cards he's also trying it's like that girl who tries to weigh her options kuna wano mehengia na mkatiya wana jadibu kuwe options but the game being played here is to ensure that the Luya the Luya nation does not go as one block so they have to ensure it's as divided as much as possible because the moment the Luya nation will go as one vote one one block that already tells you kapa kuna kuna first to recon because remember right now they are trying to split majority are trying to split from Raylao Dinka and now they want to go as a Luya nation now they are crying out kama a Luya timi achnyuma sana ni ni ni ni we never get an opportunity and when you look at the Luya nation there is not that one major king standing up and saying we are all running behind because you see like now the Kalenjin as much as Giden Boy is trying here but he didn't have that kingship aspect like William Samoei Ruto so you see now most of the Kalenjin they are like they can all rally up behind William then now already now in the Kiku Nation with people have always been they had a meeting yesterday but a few CACs were there and the MPs it was held in Embo and the story was the planning and I think it's a week earlier they had another meeting here in Nairobi I think the Mote Kenya region is trying now to see who is our next king and some rumors had it maybe they are thinking of Kenya then it was like no it is not him so I think it's a surprise from the Mote Kenya region now going back to western now one of the reasons given by that fraction of leaders they were saying they have decided to support President Uhuru because they have seen the leadership in the house that is the parliament they are not there they want to be in the government for the remaining few days at this point do you think our politics our leadership is maturing or it's only throw out the interest of individuals no we've not yet matured I think until a certain group of individuals pass on that's when we'll have a new kind of Kenya because the pre-colonial post-colonial individuals are still hovering around you cannot put new wine in old wine skin it's not possible so what is happening is the Kayang generation which I call it between the age of 18 to 35 because these are the ones I believe would be the next leaders in the next dispensation remember they are observing and they are seeing the ills and the mishaps that are going round where they would have done better sometimes if you go on the government pages you will find people amazing ideas because they feel this is what you should have done this is what you should have done but because of handles and systems that have been set in place they have hindered so much progression but my belief is that I foresee in the future this old caliber has to go you cannot put new wine in old wine skin it cannot even comprehend but what is happening within the country we are having young voices young people rising up young people thinking different young people coming up and saying we can do this in a different way and as we progress towards 22 and I think maybe that's why William Ruto is really trying to focus on the young people because that is where the next level is going to be because remember the literacy level young people is quite high like the older population and now the world is becoming like a global village becoming a global kind of quote and quote government because that's what the world is going towards so until the old gods are all eliminated one by one because I know nature in itself will have to take its course then that's when we should start seeing better reforms and better unity and better development why am I saying that remember it's still the same age of between 18 to around 35 most of them maybe you are from a mixed marriage maybe babako nmluya mamako nmkiku so we have a lot of intermarriages that have happened over a period progressive period of time to the point ita fika mahali you cannot stand and say wakiku tuna fote even then na mimu enyanim jalom kiku nita ndawapi no that is what actually really happened because you see once education has set in people don't think about the cultural aspect and everything so people have gone to school they have mingled with other communities so over time there is a new breed there is a new caliber of individuals that have cropped up over time and at the heighten of it now there will be the ones taking up leadership and everything so they all are now thinking tribalo sisi wakiku yu sisi wakalengin sisi wanini over time it will now be overridden because of that intermarriage and that interprogression but come 2022 the same card is going to still be played and that is the card because why would people now be meeting for example for what and there was no youth apparently why wouldn't people sit down and say this guy can lead irrespective my name should never be betraying me in this day and era but as we are now we still have the old wine and you cannot put old wine in new wineskin it's not possible but there is a new wine that is being brewed in this country but it cannot fit in the old wineskin if you try to fit in the old wineskin I tell you not be able to be progressive alright now we are out of time and before we get those comments from our audience maybe you could give us your final recommendations on what to think about the whole affair of our leaders how they are behaving the meetings that have been happening like that one in Ember where we have not seen the youth being involved does it mean we lack experience does it mean we lack what it takes and if so we lack it who is our mentor how are we how are we to become leaders of tomorrow because they have refused of today alright I would say that we've not yet have leaders who have the servant kind of mentality we've noted had such kind of leaders we are all our leaders have taught us selfishness competitiveness you know there is not that like I can do good for the sake of humanity every Kenyan even to that teacher who is teaching they all think mimi mimi mimi that's the culture we have in this country we must agree that's the culture we have in this country you will find even a doctor who is himself over the welfare of even a patient because we have that mimi mimi kind of mentality and that has been been brewed in because that was not the African setting the African setting was for the benefit of the whole community but came in a culture where it's me, I and myself I don't care what the rest will happen to them but me, I and myself if I am okay I'm good to go because how can the whole governor be putting up an ICU bed in his own home and the local hospital that is there you have not been able to put ICU bed really that already shows you the level of selfishness that we have in our leadership so I think we need people who are genuinely servant leadership and as I had earlier on commented is that we really need to ask ourselves what kind of fabric are our leaders made of what do they stand for what are their values and can we look back and say for sure over the last 10 years this kind of a leader stands for these values because for example if we brought uhuru what is the value system of at least kibaki we knew he was an economist in the essence him it's my merit if you can do the job you can do the job now we have to go home now so we need to sit down and look at our leaders who has that servanthood kind of thing who has that love for the people and can we observe that previously from the interaction with individuals because if somebody abuses their mother then there is no way they are going to maintain a good wife it's not possible so that's the same concept if looking backward this person has no value system this person has no culture this person by his interaction does not love the people then that outright tells you what kind of a leader this person will outright be but the message I would send to our leaders is that if they want this whole COVID-19 thing flattening of the curve and Kenyans overcoming it it has to start from them they have to show they have to show that they also are trying to to be able to ensure that they are also trying to contain this whole situation but if they continue behaving the way it is then don't expect the cases are going to reduce and don't come on TV and start blaming Kenyans actually we should start the blame from the leader and Motake Kago should not come and start telling Kenyans oh CG you guys are behaving nini what were you doing in a meeting in Eambu you yourself so we should try and stop this blame game let's pretend a lot of time apparently there is someone who is trying to mention like you have said now Shugandini and Asama they are taking advantage of this time to prepare themselves for 2022 elections and Anto Vanto says they are making citizens to question corona what they don't do and the vice versa thank you so much Beatrice for coming and highlighting your whole idea how you think of the current events of our politicians she has been my guest Beatrice Cairo health economist and an analyst my name is Dereva Hillary I will be seeing you again in the evening have yourself a very good day and good morning for them that I have woken up this time


Good morning, Mayor Adams. Ladies and gentlemen, happy St. Patrick's Day to you all. I want to thank Mayor Adams for opening up your home to the Irish and to the friends of Ireland in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. For those of you who may not know, my name is Mayor Hall Martin, Deputy Prime Minister of Ireland, our Tawnishte, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence. And it's a great privilege for me to be with you this morning in this wonderful home. And I know it's a tradition for the Mayor to host this breakfast. No one here takes it for granted, and everyone greatly appreciates it, Mayor. Thank you very much indeed. It is wonderful that you host this reception, and by extension recognise the positive contribution to this great vibrant city made by successive generations of immigrants, including so many from Ireland who have made New York their home. Your city's history is interwoven with Ireland and the Irish. And I'm delighted to bring warm greetings from the government and from the people of Ireland to you and to everyone gathered here. Mayor Eric, I'm in the United States on the eve of an important anniversary, 25 years since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in April 1998. America's support for peace on the island of Ireland was critical in reaching that agreement. Throughout the peace process and ever since, the bipartisan support of the many friends of Ireland across all levels of government and from communities across the United States has been essential. And each time that a crisis has arisen and the support of the United States has been sought, including in recent years, it has been given. This ongoing commitment from the White House to Gracie Mansion continues to make a real difference to the lives of people in Northern Ireland. And it is our privilege to use the occasion of the 25th anniversary to honour the unique contribution of the United States and this great city to the peace process. Through you, Mayor, and to all of you, I sincerely say thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Today we mark the Irish-U.S. Partnership as New York celebrates its heritage and we celebrate together. Mayor Adams, thank you once again for hosting us here this morning. I am a proud citizen of Cork in Ireland and inevitably, Corkonians are followed everywhere by Kerry people, reminding us of their greatness and that has happened this morning also. But today I will be marching in the parade nationally representing all of you in the parade and looking very much forward to it. So, us Gwelge, in the Gaelic language, Goliwilmahogwilfgallir, Bannachti, Nefela, Padraig, Arufgallir. Happy St. Patrick's Day and see you all on Fifth Avenue. Good to meet you all. Good. Mayor of the City of New York, Eric Adams. The voice of announcement forgot to say, oh, Adams, oh, Adams. Really happy St. Patrick Day and thank you so much for being here and to all of our dignitaries and I just want some of our folks to come up, particularly Congressman Crowley. Joe, can you come up? Where's Joe? Come on up, brother. Come on up. We want to see you. Sit it up, my brother Tim Kennedy. Come on up. Come on up here. These are just good friends and my good friend Councilman Danny Drum. And my amazing dean of the Congressional Delegation that's here as well. Congressman Howard Hughes, it's good to see you. Congressman Nadler is the dean of our delegation and he's fighting on behalf of us to assure that we receive the resources we need here in the city. And I just really want to take a moment and thank all of our leaders that's here, particularly the representative of the U.S. United Kingdom, Barbara Woodward, permanent representative of the U.N., United Kingdom, Emma Wade-Smith, the Council General of Helena Nolan, Council General of Ireland, of the just getting all my notes here, can't read my own handwriting. And really just all of us, our permanent representative to the U.N. as well and just all of us for coming here together. And I just wanted everyone to come here and join the stage with me because we are united. And when you think about the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Peace Agreement, it is something that should resonate throughout our entire globe. Peace is a way that we can bring prosperity to everyone. And no one knows that better than those who are Irish descendants here in New York City. I always tell the story. Many years ago, being in Ireland, I was speaking with some of the residents as I moved throughout the beautiful country and acknowledged and recognized the joy of the seven phases and shades of green, looking at your liquid sunshine, understanding how to appreciate rain and all that it has to offer, buying some of my favorite wools, sweaters that I still wear today. But the most significant part of it was said to me as we were sitting around and enjoying the beautiful atmosphere, a gentleman stated that it's about the family name. And you are taught in Irish heritage that never to do anything that's going to embarrass the family name because it will last throughout the generations. And whenever action you take, always remember the family name. And those are the same things that my mother used to say to me is about the family name. And we need to instill that spirit and energy again that every action our children and every action we take, we take it with the understanding that we're carrying the rich tradition and legacy of all that came before us and what the family name represents. And when you think about the family name of the Irish residents here in New York City, we cross over to Brooklyn Bridge, we need to acknowledge it was the Irish residents that built that bridge. We ride our MTA systems and we have to acknowledge the role the Irish Americans played in building our railroad and transit system. And then we think about the prerequisite to our prosperity, public safety. It was the Irish Americans that came and bolstered the population in the police department, bolstered the population in the fire department. This city is known for its diversity in the various heritage and ethnic groups that come here and make this city great. Nothing personifies that more than what the Irish community has done, will do and will do and continue to do in the future. So today when we march up Fifth Avenue and it appears as though everything turns to green and New York City then starts its own way of seeing the many shades of green, but we also see the many shades of the ethnicities that make up our city and that makes us great. I thank you for what you contribute, but also calling you to talk to your children. As we move further and further from generations, we fail to realize the richness of our heritage and evolution. Yes, our children, this young man here, he knows in New York, he knows in New York that's modern in New York that's different, but that's not the New York that many of his great-grandparents knew. They knew in New York that denied them the right to move around in New York that forced them into areas that were unsafe and unsavory. They knew in New York that had signs that were degraded into the Irish people. So as new arrivals come here, let's reflect on what our ancestors went through when they came here. Because one day one of those new arrivals was sent at this podium and talked about how receptive we were to those who came here fleeing persecution just as many of your ancestors fled persecution from Ireland and from the colonialization and the potato famines that they experienced. We come in for one reason only, because this is the only country on the globe that has dream attached to his name and we appreciate that dream and that dream should go for all who pursue it. So I thank you and I say a happy St. Patrick Day to you all. Thank you very much.


The NIL ruling, in the ability to give out money and pay players and get players money for them to join your squad has started a beef between two lifelong friends. Two guys from West Virginia, one has climbed to the mountaintop one time, the other six or seven, two guys that have changed the sport of college football from the same area during the same time who have done things parallel to each other, one winning at a much higher rate than the other. Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher about to throw hands. We're talking old school Donnie Brooke. Hell yeah. We're talking West Virginia right to the mouth. Nick Saban, all right, throws a left back at Jimbo Fisher.