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  • What Next After Burning Of The Ivory

    Kenya is set to set up ablaze the biggest stockpiles of ivory seized by the authorities. President Kenyatta is expected to lead to burning 105 tonnes o ivory estimated to worth about Sh.8 Billion the street value on the 30th of April at the Nairobi national park. According to conservation lobby groups reports,1,000 elephants were lost to poachers in 2014 alone and that every 15 minutes an elephant is killed globally. Last year, estimated 100 elephants died in Kenya and Africa about 33,000 elephants are killed every year.

    Records from 1975, had put elephants population I n Kenya at 160,000 but the number has tragically reduced to 35,000 as of 2015 records. Africa at large has seen a 60 percent drop in elephant population over the last decade pressing all the alarm buttons. Kenya, which relies on tourism as its revenue background and wildlife including elephants making up to 70 per cent of the attraction, has all the reasons to be alarmed by the drastic decline of animals facing possible distinction thanks to the escalating poaching. Tourism generates an average annual revenue of Sh.300 billion to Kenya.

    Coincidentally, President Uhuru won’t be the first president to put up the ivory up on fire as all his predecessors have done the same making the exercise look like more of a custom. In 1989, President Daniel Moi set on fire the first 12-tonne of ivory stockpile with a Sh.1.2bn street value, in 2009, President Mwai Kibaki set the second batch of 335 tusks on fire weighing about 5 tonnes. President Uhuru initially in 2015 had burned about 15 tonnes of the ivory. This year is the biggest stockpile in history ever to go up in flames.

    First lady Margaret Kenyatta sets on fire the ivory at Nairobi National Park
    First lady Margaret Kenyatta sets on fire the ivory at Nairobi National Park

    Expectedly, many opponents of the burning strategy have come argued that the government would adopt other methods like selling off the cache and using returns to fund conservation instead of burning and putting everything into ‘waste’. However the president in his statement and in line with this year’s theme of worth more alive stamps that ivory is an illegal commodity and that the government can’t engage in illicit trade in the name of disposing of the tusks.

    Burning of the tusks according to the Kenya Wildlife is meant to send a message to the poachers that the elephants are more worthy than their tusks and also to cut supply to the market by eliminating biggest pile in history from the market link. Question many should, therefore, ask themselves is what happens next after the stockpile is reduced to ashes and possibly cut off the customary burning year in and out.

    Several interventions that should be correctly emphasised on includes

    Harsh anti-poaching laws and antagonistic enforcement
    Crime will thrive mostly where laws are loose and implementation is not the up-to task. International, ivory trade has been announced illegal but despite this universal declaration, the trade continues to thrive putting into blast the sissy law enforcements especially in Kenya.

    Fatefully, Kenya has the toughest anti-poaching legislations that poaching now attracts a Sh.20Million penalty or life incarceration. Despite the stringent legislation, poachers and dealers continue to manoeuvre with the illegal trade. Several investigative reports including the 2013’s of KTN’s Denis Onsarigo,revealed how poachers are known but the larger racket enjoying state protection.

    To break these links, honest investigations must be taken up upon and that those convoluted brought to book for the system to be seen as genuine in combating poaching. Failure to attack the matter at its roots will give the proponents a field day with the script that burning of ivory is a mere PR stunt while the real concerns are being swept under feet.

    Effective control over movement of ivory
    Evidently, Ivory doesn’t have wings that they can fly themselves out of the country to the market destination countries. These tusks are moved and sail through the borders under full authority watch. If we can seal all the loopholes, we can restrict the movement, put up a block around. Scrutinise the freight companies which are said to be proxies used in pushing the tusks out of the country.

    Authority officers clearing containers without or knowingly the containers having ivory must be severely punished. This intervention will cut off a movement of the commodity. Cargo verifications were important to stop illegal product flow.

    Collaboration with local communities and civic education
    It has been found much of the poaching is often done by the locals surrounding the parks or at least they help a lot the poachers to perform their criminal acts, killing and making away with the tusks. Dealers are known to pay the poachers a small amount of money after the kill. Civic education to these community members on the benefits they stand getting on keeping the elephants alive than from the tusks will go a long way in eradicating the menace.

    Most of the locals engage in the illegal trade out of ignorance not knowing they stand to get more benefits from tourism remits if the elephants and wildlife are kept alive than when they are killed and tusks sold. Instilling this important vector will give locals sense of ownership and urge to protect the wildlife. This intervention luckily has been in place in some communities and has seen some poachers rehabilitated and now working along game rangers to combat poachers.

    If we failed to implicate the proposed and end things with burning ivory, we would have failed. The wildlife, Kenya’s heritage is facing extinction a big blow that would be to our economic health. The sustainable strategy must be put in implemented to ensure the security of animals. Use latest surveillance technologies on animals and weapons to fight off poachers and above all bring to books the known poaching cartel into books.

  • Kenya Is A Cruel Marriage, It’s Time We Talk Divorce

    Kenya Is A Cruel Marriage, It’s Time We Talk Divorce

    By DAVID NDII

    A decade ago, Prof Bethuel Ogot, one of the country’s towering intellectuals, pronounced the “Kenya project” dead. Kenya has never been a more distant idea than it is now at the beginning of the 21st Century. Nationalism is dead, replaced by sub-nationalism. The tribe has eaten the nation. A few years ago, the country exploded into an orgy of political violence.

    There may be some people who will be wondering why Prof Ogot is talking about Kenya in terms of projects and ideas. Is Kenya not a concrete reality, an internationally recognised sovereign state?

    Although the notion of a nation as an idea is an old one, it is Benedict Anderson’s 1983 book Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism that offered the most cogent articulation of the concept, and in so doing shaped the contemporary study of nationalism.

    In essence then, belonging to a nation is simply the sense of connectedness with people one does not know and is unlikely ever to meet. The intellectual problem of the study of nationalism is understanding why and how people develop or fail to develop this belonging. Of note, the fact that this connectedness is not necessarily unproblematic.

    Horizontal comradeship

    As Anderson puts it: “Regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is always conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship. Ultimately it is this fraternity that makes it possible, over the past two centuries, for so many millions of people, not so much to kill, as willingly to die for such limited imaginings.”

    The meaning of Prof Ogot’s pronouncement should now be clear. It is a failure of the imagination. The failure to develop and propagate a national narrative alluring enough to nurture a “deep, horizontal comradeship” beyond the tribe. The reasons for the failure of Kenyan nationalism is a subject for historians to ponder. When the history is written, four squandered opportunities will stand out.

    The first was a decision by Jomo Kenyatta’s Kanu’s administration after independence that wealth was more important than people. Jomo Kenyatta himself metamorphosed from an erudite fiery nationalist to a parochial acquisitive tribalist.
    The second opportunity came in 1992. The transition to multiparty politics afforded the Opposition leaders opportunity to set the country on a different political trajectory. Tribalism got the better of them.

    The third one came a decade later in 2003 when the country elected Mwai Kibaki on a platform of inclusive politics. Kibaki tore up the political covenant, tribalised the government and went back to the post-independence doctrine of wealth above all else.

    Kibaki’s administration

    The fourth is between the enactment of the new Constitution in 2010 and the 2013 General Election. It is a period of contest between the political values espoused in the Constitution — democracy, rule of law, transparency and ethical leadership on the one hand, and tribalism and corruption of the past on the other. Tribalism and corruption triumphed.
    We are now hurtling towards another election more ethnically polarised and angry than ever before. Our election arbiters, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and the Supreme Court, are corrupted and discredited. As I have observed in this column before, all our multiparty elections with an incumbent president defending have been violent. If Uhuru Kenyatta is declared winner in another sham election, this country will burn.

    Where we go, thereafter, is a matter of conjecture. What I do not see is another accept and move on — the tyranny of peace could only have been a one-shot game. Another mediated grand coalition is a remote possibility, but to what end? The last one was predicated on the enactment of a new Constitution — we have it, we don’t respect it.

    It is a matter of record that the Coast has harboured separatist aspirations for a long time. The ongoing tribulations of governors Hassan Joho and Amason Kingi are only the latest additions to a long list of indignities visited upon the region and its leaders by the overbearing centre.

    Nelson Marwa

    In Nelson Marwa, President Kenyatta would seem to have found a commissar in the exact mould of Eliud Mahihu, his father’s nasty overbearing Coast supremo. Ngima yumaga mutu-ini (Ugali comes from flour).

    The Coast has all the important building blocks of a successful nation — a common language, a long political history and cultural heritage, a deep sense of a shared identity as “watu wa pwani”, and grievance.

    With its 500km coastline, an exclusive maritime economic zone five times its landmass, historical trade and cultural ties with the Arab peninsula and the wider Indian Ocean rim, and millions of people in its landlocked hinterland, the Coast nation will be starting off on a very strong economic footing.

    The Somali part of the country never wanted to be part of it in the first place. From the brutal Shifta war, to the Wagalla Massacre to the latest round-up of Somali’s under the so-called Operation Linda Nchi, no part of the country has suffered for Kenyan nationalism like North-Eastern, and the Somali population in general.

    And yet, the State continues to treat them as second-class citizens, and some of us now see every Somali as a potential terrorist. What does Somali Kenya have to lose? Nothing. What does it have to gain? Dignity.

    The Luo Nation. From Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Ochieng’ Oneko, Tom Mboya, Argwings Kodhek, Robert Ouko and Raila Odinga— no other nation has sacrificed so much for so little in the name of Kenya project.

    Discrimination of other tribes

    It is perhaps fitting and inevitable that it is a Luo intellectual who pronounced the failure of the project. I think it is about time that the Luo Nation asked itself whether it is not time to cut its losses.

    The Mt Kenya Nation. The ten counties that have constituted themselves as Central Kenya (Kiambu, Murang’a, Nyeri, Kirinyaga, Embu, Nyandarua, Meru, Tharaka-Nithi, Laikipia and Nakuru) have about the same population (8.5 million) and land area (40,000 sq.km) as Switzerland. Switzerland, despite being landlocked and a non-member of the EU, is the most prosperous country in Europe.

    There is an increasingly popular narrative in the region that it contributes a disproportionate share of revenue to the Exchequer and gets much less than its fair share.

    It is the narrative underpinning Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria’s “Punda Amechoka” signature initiative. If that be the case, the region, I should say we, have the most to gain economically from autonomy.

    The challenge for the Mt Nation is its large diaspora, particularly the land-owning ones in the Rift Valley and at the Coast.

    But these are issues that the respective nations would be left to resolve bilaterally. It is not fair that all the nations should be dragged into wars or live under tyranny because of Kikuyu and Kalenjin nations land feuds.

    The country still broke up — balkanised to be specific, into six successful ethnic nations (Serbia may yet yield one or two more). They could have broken up peacefully like the Soviet Union.
    What are we waiting for, a genocide? Reke tumanwo (We’d better go our separate ways).

    [email protected]

    PROF DAVID NDII IS AN ECONOMIST AND PUBLIC INTELLECTUAL.

    THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED BY THE DAILY NATION

  • Corruption in Kenya… and the president is always watching

    Corruption in Kenya… and the president is always watching

    The story of corruption in the post independent Kenya is a long one.

    Ever since attaining her independence in 1963, Kenya has suffered from widespread corruption not only in the public but in the private sector too. The ominous part of it is that the scandals have in a way or the other touched on the Presidency. This has overtime degenerated into a monster-like culture of impunity where the elite have notably whizzed their way out of obvious corruption allegations scot-free! I look back and here’s what historians have;

    Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, the corruption founder and grand land thief

    Kenya has many problems but land is capital and has always been the Elephant in the room.

    All this land problems in Kenya emanate from one man – Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s 1st President after independence.

    See when the white Settlers came came in Kenya, indigenous Africans were displaced and their land converted to large commercial farms. The MAUMAU led pro independence war erupted forcing the Britons to hand over power to Kenyans. Jomo Kenyatta took advantage of the confusion and awarded himself the relinquished land.

    Secret papers of the late Sir Michael Blundell, the white settler leader who acted as the liaison between Kenyatta and the British government indicate that Mr. Jomo Kenyatta backstabbed his fellow war comrades and signed secret pact with the British government not to interfere with the skewed land distribution at independence. The narrative is corroborated in the secret notes of Kenya’s second vice-president, the late Joseph Murumbi, deposited at the Kenya National Archives.

    The land question haunts the country to this day, an entire generation after Jomo Kenyatta’s death. That was Kenya’s foundation – Land grabbing and corruption.

    Moi the Golden-berg Kingpin

    In 1978 Daniel Moi took over as Kenya’s second president. During Moi’s reign, corruption was honing. Notable enough was the 1990s Goldenberg scandal and subsequent cover-ups. The Goldenberg scandal is thought to have cost Kenya the equivalent of more than 10% of the country’s annual GDP. Half-hearted inquiries that began following pressure by foreign aid donors but they never amounted to anything substantial during Moi’s presidency.

    Kibaki, the man who is thought to have rigged his way to the presidency

    Kenya’s third President, Mwai Kibaki, was elected on an anti-corruption platform in 2002. During his two term regime, his regime suffered several corruption scandals, some at the heart of the presidency and earlier than imagined.

    We all recall in 2007, when Kibaki was declared a victor in the presidential elections amidst unending allegations of electoral manipulation and bribery involving the election officials. What followed was a historic violent turmoil causing the deaths of more than 1000 people.

    I will not go into other scandals that followed suit.

    Uhuru Kenyatta – The president who even knows that Kenyans are corrupt

    In 2013, another regime change was beckoning and another round of presidential elections were held. This time under a new constitutional dispensation. Relative peace was experienced but again, there were further allegations of vote- rigging. Notable enough are the allegations that the Supreme Court Judges accepted bribes to rule against Uhuru Kenyattas close rival, Raila Odinga in 2013 Presidential Petition.

    More than a dozen corruption scandals have dogged Uhuru’s regime. All at the heart of the presidency.

    “experienced in stealing and perpetuating other crimes”

    Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta seems to be fully aware of this shameful and damaging statistics. His recent public rebukes say it all; During an address in Israel while on a state visit, Mr. Kenyatta himself said that Kenyans are “experienced in stealing and perpetuating other crimes” in an address during a state visit to Israel. From the speech in Israel, many argued that the president’s speech was rhetoric, and the comments were seen as an attempt to encourage Kenyans to develop their country like Israel.

    In a renewed attack, this time during a burial ceremony of former MP and Assistant Minister George Ndung’u Micigi in Muranga County, Mr. Kenyatta accused Kenyan leaders of going against the wishes of their people.

    This are just two instances I have selected indicating that he knows the corruption levels in a country he is leading. The worrying bit is that Mr. Kenyatta is just talking about it hence concerns that even the president is not serious about tackling corruption.

    So what can be done?

    The president needs to realise that he has been doing a lot of mouth service. His first term is almost over and there is still no effort that convince anyone that he is ready to swipe against corruption!

    The president needs to stop talking and instead let the actions speak for themselves. Everybody is tired of the empty talk. Somebody needs to take out the vultures devouring Kenya before it too late.

  • South Africa starts giving oral PrEP to HIV-negative sex workers – Its time Kenya did the same

    South Africa starts giving oral PrEP to HIV-negative sex workers – Its time Kenya did the same

    Early March 2016, South Africa announced leading-edge interventions to address the high HIV infection rates among sex workers. The planned actions included; the provision of immediate antiretroviral treatment to all sex workers with HIV, and also to offer daily oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to HIV-negative sex workers so as to prevent them from acquiring the infection.

    While designing the plan, South Africans encompassed the multi-faceted lives of sex workers tackling not only their health needs but also psycho social support, alcohol and substance abuse treatment, reducing violence and economic empowerment.

    Kenya should be noting down the important lessons

    Although Kenya has been providing both emergency antiretrovirals and post-exposure prophylaxis (Pep) treatment, which suppress the HIV virus if taken within 72 hours of infection, sex workers are often left out this HIV response due to criminalisation, stigma, discrimination and Violence. But how can pre-exposure prophylaxis be offered to a group the is already existing in Kenya illegally? (Sex work is illegal in Kenya).

    1. Curbing stigma

    Implementing PrEP will mean that implementing groups such as Ministry of Health first take the service to the sex workers and afterwards encourage the sex workers to seek psycho-social support, alcohol and substance abuse treatment and economic empowerment services offered countrywide.

    The combination of HIV-related stigma and stigma associated with sex work prevents sex workers from seeking HIV testing, and sex workers are also less likely to receive treatment.

    2. Strategic de-criminalisation of Sex work.

    There is strong evidence that criminalisation of sex work (Sex work is illegal in Kenya) encourages behaviour associated with a high risk of HIV infections and other sexually transmitted infection. Additionally, where sex work is criminalised, violence against sex workers is often not reported or monitored, and legal protection is often not offered to victims of such violence. Additionally, health-service providers often neglect their duty to provide care when attending to sex workers.

    HIV in Kenya

    The first case of HIV in Kenya was detected in 1984 and by 2013, Kenya had the joint fourth-largest HIV epidemic in the world in terms of the number of people living with HIV. Roughly 58,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses in the same year.

    Multi-level Interventions were launched including the declaration by the then President that HIV was a National Disaster. Remarkable achievements came through but the fact is that HIV remains a major threat to public health not only in Kenya but globally. The latest available data and evidence shows a general decrease in the HIV infections. Additionally, too many people are becoming infected with HIV, too many people do not know that they have HIV, and too many people are dying from AIDS-related causes.

    In a report by UNAIDS/Lancet, no African country reports a prevalence of HIV infection of less than 6% among sex workers. In comparison to the rest of the world, the median prevalence of HIV infection in sex workers in sub-Saharan Africa alone is 20·5% as compared with the global median of 3·9%.

    Kenya ought to and home from South Africans.

    If this is actually implemented fully, the sex workers an important but neglected population that has a very high risk of HIV will be reached. In the case of South Africa, a total of 70000 sex workers will be reached in a three year period.

    Who has already applauded South Africas plan

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has already welcomed South Africas plan.

    “We applaud the South African Government for this bold plan and for offering early testing and treatment and PrEP to sex workers,” said Dr Gottfried Hirnschall, Director of WHO’s HIV/AIDS Department.

    “This plan is an important step to scaling up treatment towards ‘treat all’ and to reducing HIV transmission effectively and rapidly.” added Dr Gottfried Hirnschall.

    South Africa has the highest number of HIV-positive people in the world, with an estimated 6.3 million people living with HIV. Sex work is estimated to account for as much as 20% of new HIV infections in the country. A recent Integrated Biological and Behavioural Surveillance Survey showed extremely high HIV prevalence among sex workers, with as many as 70% of sex workers in Johannesburg living with HIV.

    In September 2015, WHO recommended that PrEP be offered as an additional prevention choice for people at substantial risk of HIV. South Africa is recognized as the first country in Africa to translate this recommendation into national policy.

  • The International Women’s Day: Blame game masks gender parity in Kenya

    The International Women’s Day: Blame game masks gender parity in Kenya

    The International Women’s Day was marked on 8th March 2016 under a global theme that was to push for 50-50 gender parity.

    Like the rest of the world, Kenya marked the day set aside to reflect on the gains and challenges that women face. Several events were held by different organisations and persons. Social media was awash with #IWD messages in a myriad of angles. Common to all these events was the fact that Kenya is not yet there and more importantly, we are doing nothing apart from a ping pong like blame game.

    The statistics

    Lets face it, Kenya is struggling to meet an even smaller quota envisaged under the two-thirds gender rule.

    Amongst the “Executive tire” in which there are 57 publicly listed companies with 467 Directors, only 54 Directors are women. Widening the gap even more is the fact that of the 57 firms, 23 have no women Director(s) on their board.

    On the political front, where the important decisions are made, Kenya has been an eyesore. The parliamentarian women falls below the constitutionally set threshold – both elected and nominated women in the National Assembly and Senate stands at 19% and 27 % respectively.

    In the region, Kenya has been overtaken by “younger states” in the region such as South Sudan and Rwanda who have all achieved gender parity. Currently Rwanda is leading globally with about 64 percent of its members of Parliament being women. South Sudan, Tanzania, Burundi and Uganda have all achieved the 30 percent threshold. This means that in their Parliaments, the not more than two thirds of the same gender rule is already in effect.

    What we are doing – Blaming

    So far playing the blame game is what we have been doing. It is also what we seem to plan to do in the near future! It’s literally a blaming contest

    1. While commemorating the 2016 IWD at Serena Hotel, Female executives in Kenya hipped the blame on the ‘old-boys syndrome’ Business Daily Africa. These Execs said that the male dominated boards and public entities openly included women as a sign of tokenism totally disregarding laid down criteria of seeking competent women to fill in the positions.
    2. You also recall AG Githu Muigai and The Constitution for the Implementation of the Commission (CIC) being stoned and accused of laxity in the drafting of the Third Gender Rule law. See Video.
    3. The CIC also blamed and accused the Parliament’s Justice and Legal Affairs Committee for usurping its mandate in the implementation of the two- third gender principle. All Africa.
    4. Everybody blaming everybody in power for reluctance in implementation of gender equity.
    5. Women blamed for waiting to be spoon fed with freebie affirmative action posts as women.

    What we can do

    The Constitution of Kenya 2010, has domesticated Kenya’s international commitments such as; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, The African Union Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) and the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa, hence has to uphold these principles and pull up their socks to attain equitable gender representation not only in all spheres.

    One way to go about it is to remember that blame game doesn’t count. Nobody has an actual problem with the constitutionally entranced gender balance rule. However, the bone of contention since promulgation of the Constitution is the matrix, logistics and formula in ensuring that each House of Parliament is constituted properly.

    The blame is too much. First stop blaming and genuinely work towards the realization of the dream. 50-50 gender parity is the ultimate goal remember.

  • Kenya is too forgetful

    Kenya is too forgetful

    Kenya the forgetful nation
    There is no honest discussion about the state of things in Kenya today. A country that has not totally healed from 2007/08 post poll chaos has its institutions rotten. Corruption runs deep in every arm of the government, The Executive, The Judiciary and The Legislature. The head of the judiciary, CJ Willy Mutunga is expected to retire in June; The Deputy Chief Justice Kalpana Rawal’s fate hangs in the balance. She is embroiled in a retirement battle with the Judiciary Service Commission. One of the senior judges of the Supreme Court, Justice Philip Tunoi is facing graft allegations. Tunoi is accused of receiving a two million dollar bribe from Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero to rule in his favour in an election petition case that was filed by Kabete Mp, Clifford Ferdinand Waititu.

    The allegations against Justice Tunoi stain the entire judiciary. It’s already in the mind of Kenyans that rulings in the Supreme Court, which is the highest court of the land, depend on the depth of an individual’s pocket. People are now calling for the disbandment of the court, Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC) that is mandated to fight corruption is a toothless bulldog. Where will the nation turn for arbitration in case of a dispute? That is the million dollar question that everybody is turning a blind eye to.

    Kenya with its memory of a mosquito is never proactive. It is still deeply divided along tribal lines, divisions that the politicians use to the best of their advantage. The country is headed to yet another election that will be strongly fought. The opposition have vowed to set up their tallying centre, what will happen in case of conflicting results? They have also vowed not to go to the court again in case the elections are rigged. Kenya has forgotten what happened when it never chose the court way after 2007 disputed election results.

    Dr P.L.O Lumumba says that Kenya has always been in a campaign mood since 1992. That is very true and the president’s one month ‘development tour’ of the coast set the pitch to its all time high, eighteen months before the elections. The coming polls are going to be strongly fought and do or die indications are already evident from both sides of the political divides. Deputy President is on record saying that the ruling coalition must win Nairobi gubernatorial seat in the coming polls by hook or crook. These kinds of unpalatable verbal diarrhoea are common with the likes of Moses Kuria and former Nairobi Mayor, George Aladwa. Nothing can be done to them, they have the power and might to delay and deny justice.

    The rain is beating this nation hard but it won’t mind when it began, it will only try to unite when it gets stormy. To unite or come to a table for unity talks require facilitators but who will when all the institutions are rotten? ICC was the last fire wall but unfortunately Kenya is the crafter of a proposal that may see Africa’s mass withdrawal from the Rome statute. When the nation was burning after disputed polls in 2007/8 The then AU chairman John Kufour who had come to mediate was treated as a mere tourist who had come to enjoy Kenyan tea, Former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa was turned away. Former UN Secretary General Koffi Annan who brokered the peace was later accused of baby seating the nation.

    They say history repeats itself, who will come this time round? Religious leaders especially the church has been turned into political dens at the price of fundraisers. African Union is a busy body, one wonders what their priority is, a union of 54 nations that can’t send troops to Burundi just because Nkurunzinza has threatened to attack AU troops. Burundi has not known peace since May last year when President Pierre Nkurunzinza forced himself into a controversial third term. Hundreds die in that poor nation daily, leaders of the region are doing nothing.

    Heads are deeply buried in sands, the electoral body; IEBC (Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission) is too broke to even carry out voter registration, its credibility is questionable with a section calling for its disbandment, the term of its commissioners expires two months after elections institutions should be fixed. Instead, this ‘democratic’ country with slimming media freedom is busy equipping its police with APCs (Armoured Police Cars).

    It is preparing to deal with violence rather preventing it. Rogue politicians are on their roof tops shouting hate speech, making two or three court trips and then it is business as usual. Their case files are left catching dust at the court shelves, Kenyans with their roach memory forget and move on. This is that place where politics overshadow everything. A hotbed of a vibrant culture, accused politicians are never brought to book. Their cases are rushed before it tartars their integrity.

  • Taxi Wars

    Taxi Wars

    The investors in Kenyan Transport Industry will never allow sanity
    There is a business war between traditional taxi drivers in Kenya and Uber. Uber which is a new entrant into the Kenyan market uses a mobile app which allows consumers with smart phones to submit trip request which is then routed to uber drivers who use their own cars. The model makes it possible for people to simply tap their phones and have a cab at their location in the minimum possible time. Founded in 2009 in San Francisco, America, uber is now present in over 58 countries across the world. It has proven to be to be an on demand transportation service which has brought a revolution in taxi industry globally.

    In other countries the legality of uber has been challenged by governments and taxi organisations which claim that its use of drivers who are not licensed taxicabs is unsafe and illegal. United Kenya Taxi Organisation through its spokesman Ashford Mwangi accuses uber of driving 15,000 traditional taxi drivers out of the business. They offer cheaper rates, are readily available and common among the youth.

    Drivers who asked the government officials to negotiate with them over uber’s entry into the market threatened to hold a mass protest if their call is not heeded. They also threatened to come up with their own version of uber to connect drivers in the country. From where I sit their grievances are more or less baseless. Competition in business should be healthy; you only need to know your competition and their market position. This feud has been characterised by attacks on uber drivers, their vehicles vandalised and ultimatum on government to drive them out of the market. These calls are criminal.

    Interior Cabinet Secretary, Joseph Nkaiserry after meeting the drivers last Wednesday directed the ministry’s Principal Secretary, Karanja Kibicho to convene a meeting between the drivers and uber management before the stalemate escalates. He said the issues raised by the groups should be addressed and a lasting solution reached. The ministry had earlier vowed to insulate drivers threatened for embracing technology offered by uber.

    The government of the day boasts itself of being digital and responsive to technological innovations. On the same breadth one can only expect a swift application of the law to what only amounts to a criminal case. The long meetings and negations are delaying justice, someone has been attacked and his car has been vandalised, why do you still negotiate with that person. Competition is the nature of any business. Both traditional taxi drivers and uber drivers are legally approved to do the business. “The police have launched investigations into the cause of and nature of attacks and those behind the attacks will face full wrath of the law,” interior ministry’s spokesman Mwenda Njoka said in a statement.

    The transport industry in Kenya has for a long time been characterized by lawlessness. It has a poor reputation but the players are not concerned because they are only focussed on profit maximization. Fares rise and fall depending on the time and weather of the day, dangerous driving which poses serious death traps is almost the norm. The matatu section is a sham; Sacco’s have failed a big deal. The industry is still under goons and organised gangs who control routes.

    This is due to poor enforcement of law. National Transport and Safety Authority for instance will not crack the whip on PSVs playing loud music; they have instead chosen to let the previous law allowing loud music and graffiti to stay. The famous Michuki laws are now things of the past. This industry will never change; politicians see it as one important voting bloc. Police are the most corrupt and senior policemen, politicians and civil servants are also investors in the industry. As the say goes, you can’t cut the hand that feeds you. These investors cannotq be expected to enforce loss that will drive of the business or deny them votes.

  • Women leadership in Kenyan politics is still void

    Women leadership in Kenyan politics is still void

    The present women political representation in Kenya stands at 15 percent against Rwanda’s 56 percent, South Africa’s 42 percent, Tanzania’s 36 percent and Uganda’s 35 percent. This is an increase from 9.8 percent that was in the previous parliament. The increase is greatly attributed to the provision of the current constitution which was inaugurated in August 2010. The constitution recognizes women, youth, persons with disabilities and ethnic minorities as special groups deserving constitutional protection. It also reserved seats for the 47 women representatives.

    Despite the affirmative action, women participation in the 2013 polls was low. No woman was elected as senator or governor. Women in National assembly are only has 5.5 percent of the 290 seats and of 1,450 ward representatives only 88 women (6 percent) were elected. This poor performance in politics is blamed on the country’s patriarchal culture and electoral system. Politics requires an enormous outlay of social capital and the process of political capital accumulation tilts in favour of men. This has rendered women sycophants of wealthy male politicians.

    Charity Ngilu left a mark when she rose to the top of political heights as the first woman in Kenya to run for presidency in 1997 polls. Running against the then seating President Daniel Moi, Ngilu finished fourth. Former president Mwai Kibaki and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga were also in the race that Moi won. She was a trailblazer in the sub Saharan Africa and the entire continent that is known for its corrupt ‘Big Men’. Ngilu again announced in 2011 that she would run for the country’s top job in 2013 but her name was not the ballot. In what would have been her second stab at the presidency, her ambitions were flashed out in power brokering deals prior to the elections. She supported President Uhuru Kenyatta and later served in his administration as the Cabinet Secretary for Lands but was later kicked out on graft allegations.

    There are many women in the current parliament but who stands out? All are sycophants to their political party chiefs. Some were caught up in euphoria and got to parliament like that; example is Nairobi Women representative, Rachel Shebesh who has made headlines not for her good work for the electorate but alleged affair with the Nairobi senator Gideon Mbuvi. Nominated senator Joy Gwendo is another woman leader in the middle of controversies, making headlines for failing alcoblow test and spending a night at Muthaiga police station. She has been at the centre of love a triangle where friends accused her of husband snatching.

    The criteria for nominations need to be reviewed, some people get party nominations into parliament not for what they stand for but how close they are with party chiefs. Joy was found guilty of disrespecting the party that nominated her to parliament, The National Alliance (TNA). She was suspended for actively supporting the opposition but that suspension was later lifted after she brought in ‘tribal’ defence. I am a believer that the best losers and people who are positively popular with the electorate should be given the first priority in nominations.

    The 2/3 gender debate is still on, women still want more representation but what are they doing with what they have so far? There is intense debate with a million questions surrounding the functions and mandates of women representatives. Many have expressed their dissatisfaction with women reps due to their perceived ineptness and complacency by some. They are more of a waste to taxpayer’s money. They are not any sufficiently eloquent and compelling in articulating the issues that got them the people’s vote. Women reps are Members of Parliament and they primarily should promote the interests of women and girl child within their counties.

    The same affirmative action that saw the creation of positions of women representatives also recognises the rights of women as being equal in law to men, entitled to enjoy equal opportunities in political, social and economical spheres. It is the role of women reps to lobby and advocate for the rights, freedoms and interests of the women and girl child who are perceived as a ‘weaker sex’ to lift them to the standard where they should be at par with their male counter parts. We are yet to see a women rep who is actively doing this. Just like majority of their male counter parts, they are busy enriching themselves.

    It’s a pity that after over fifty years of self governance we still lack any elected woman leader who stands for something like the late laureate prize winner, Wangari Maathai did. She was a stronger environmental and political activist. In women leadership today only the First Lady Margret Kenyatta is doing a commendable job, her ‘Beyond Zero Campaign’ is touching and changing lives across the nation. It’s improving maternal and child health outcomes in Kenya.

    She organises First Lady Marathon annually to raise funds towards ‘Beyond Zero’ initiative. It is also working to accelerate the implementation of national plan towards the elimination of new HIV infections among children. As we urge for the number to rise from the current 15 percent, the elected women leaders must be seen doing something. Women organizations like Maendeleo Ya Wanawake (Women Development Organisation) should be revamped to champion the rights of women. The organisation is deep in slumber beds.

  • Why the voice of Africa’s informal economy should be heard

    The informal economy in Africa is big business. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that its average size as a percentage of gross domestic product in sub-Saharan Africa is 41%. This ranges from under 30% in South Africa to 60% in Nigeria, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

    It is also a huge employer. It represents about three-quarters of non-agricultural employment, and about 72% of total employment in sub-Saharan Africa. About 93% of new jobs created in Africa during that 1990s were in the informal economy.

    The International Labour Office defines the informal economy as:

    All economic activities by workers or economic units that are – in law or practice – not covered or sufficiently covered by formal arrangements.

    Today the informal economy appears to be as important as ever to Africa and its future development. But governments, and international organisations like the World Bank and ILO, do not like the informal economy. As a result international policy has veered from supportive to antagonistic.

    At times opposition to the informal economy has been violent. One example is the notorious Operation Murambatsvina (“get rid of trash”) in Zimbabwe in 2005. At best it is directed at pulling the informal economy into the formal economy.

    Antagonism is driven by a range of reasons. Informal firms do not pay tax. In addition, reports abound of child labour, low wages (especially for women) and low job security as well as high incidence of HIV.

    Yet, as the Swedish International Development Co-operation points out, many governments are unaware of the contribution of the informal economy, particularly the high involvement of women.

    The report also suggests that it is expanding and is here to stay. And a World Bank report points to a trend of people with higher levels of education entering the informal sector as a career of choice.

    A glimpse of the future

    Political economist Fantu Cheru asserts that:

    … a closer look at the informal sector in Africa provides a glimpse of what could be achieved if Africa’s economies and financial policies were more attuned to the continent’s everyday realities.

    He sees the informal economy as being community-based, representing:

    … socio-political entities, with their own rules, forms of organisation and internal hierarchies, constituting a node of resistance and defiance against state domination.

    The point is that practices more closely allied with collectivist communities may be far more appropriate than “modern” management methods. These methods are based on Western principles and neoliberal economic policies. They have largely been discredited as inappropriate to African communities.

    But the informal economy is largely marginalised. It has a weak voice and is rarely listened to by policymakers in government or in international organisations. When policies are made they affect a large percentage of firms, entrepreneurs, employees and communities. But it is unlikely any have been consulted.

    Issues that could be given more prominence in policymaking are access to capital and the provision of relevant training. More important is what the formal economy can learn from the informal economy as a model for economic development.

    Indigenous practices in a globalised world

    If communities that rely on economic activity in the informal sector are indeed the repositories for indigenous management, entrepreneurial and employment practices it is little wonder they are not listened to.

    Indigenous refers to practices, knowledge and values that are related to, and grow out of, local and community circumstances. These often stand in contrast to international or global practices, knowledge and values produced by universities and international corporations.

    The dominant discourse is that indigenous practices are outmoded, archaic and out of tune with modernity. Yet seeing indigenous practices and those in the informal economy as frozen in time is a mistake. Even the glib packaging in management consultancy circles of concepts like “ubuntu” presents a glorified perception of indigenous knowledge being static and timeless.

    As Cheru has pointed out, the informal sector may represent a resistance, an alternative to the prevailing globalised view.

    Even so, it exists in the globalised world. While constantly adapting, sometimes resisting, it is never apart from globalisation. Rather than eschewing modern technology, communications, the internet and social media, Africa has been embracing it. This is happening through:

    • better cellular telecommunications;
    • access to cheap smartphones; and
    • initiatives, not without controversy, such as Facebook’s internet.org, providing free and wider internet access.

    Hence, Facebook told us in June 2014 that:

    … there are 100 million people coming to Facebook every month across the African continent, with over 80% on mobile.

    This includes a majority of people living in the informal economy.

    These developments are providing new tools to trade, to market products and to work. They may even be changing the nature of employment. With practices and organisations still rooted in local contexts and communities, identities are changing.

    In addition, social media has the potential to change things by providing greater voice and potentially better representation.

    Political leaders may have to start listening to entrepreneurs, managers and staff working in the informal economy to formulate more inclusive policies that may prove more relevant to Africa’s development.The Conversation

    By Terence Jackson, Professor of Cross-cultural Management, Middlesex University

    This article was originally published on The Conversation.

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  • Jubilee suffers blow in DP’s backyard

    The Jubilee Alliance Party has dealt a blow in Deputy President William Ruto’s backyard after it failed to win the Nyangores Ward by-election in Bomet County.

    The win by the People’s Patriotic Party of Kenya (PPK) candidate is a blow to the Deputy President William Ruto, who has been involved in power struggles with the Bomet Governor Isaac Rutto, especially after the latter declined to support JAP.

    PPK’s candidate Andrew Maritim, with the backing of Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto, won with 4,853 votes against Richard Kipkorir’s (JAP) 2,314 and Benard Terer’s 56 votes, he represents CCP.

    Turn out stood at 71%.

    JAP is the party William Ruto and Uhuru Kenyatta will be seeking re-election in 2017. The leaders have been urging former members of the URP and the President’s TNA to join the new vehicle to consolidate nationwide support and boost their chances of being re-elected.

    Wiper wins in Masongaleni Ward
    Elsewhere in Masongaleni Ward, Wiper candidate Philip Kisangai won with 1,952, Florence Kasiku of The Independence Party (Tip) secured 1,239 votes, Muungano’s Dominic Mutote had 1,036 votes, Richard Kasyoki of CCU garnered 894 votes and LPK’s Charles Kioko trailed with 205 votes.

  • CBK names banks with friendly loan rates

    CBK names banks with friendly loan rates

    The Central Bank of Kenya has published average bank lending rates showing the most expensive and least expensive lenders.

    According to the list, Housing Finance and Family Bank have the lowest loan rates in the last quarter of 2015 while Middle East Bank and Guaranty Trust Bank were the most expensive.

    Personal Loan category
    In the personal loans category of between one and five years, K-Rep Bank at 25.7 per cent offered the most expensive credit as at mid-December 2015. Consolidated Bank comes second, charging 25.4 per cent interest as December 15.

    The lender with the third cheapest personal loans is Middle East Commercial Bank at 24.2 per cent. UBA Bank takes the number four slot at 24.1 per cent on personal loans. Guaranty Trust Bank charged 23.7 per cent interest.

    Conversely, in the personal loans category for between one and five years, Habib Bank Ltd at 8.4 per cent charged the cheapest rate. Guardian Bank Ltd at 14.1 per cent offered the second cheapest loans while National Bank of Kenya at 14.7 per cent was the third most affordable. Family Bank and Housing Finance share fourth slot.

    Rates may be higher than stated

    CBK notes that the loanees may actually be paying higher amounts than stated since the banks may levy other fees and charges, including administration, processing, valuation, legal and commitment fees, among others.

    “Therefore the effective rates charged by individual banks may be higher than these published interest rates depending on the other fees and charges levied on loan products by the specific bank,” says the regulator.

    “The actual rates are based on negotiations between the bank and the borrowing customers. It should be noted that the published interest rates only constitute banks’ lending rates.”

    Business Loans
    For business loans repayable between one and five years, K-Rep Bank at 27.2 per cent gave the most costly loans as at December 15. It is followed by Jamii Bora Bank at 24 per cent with Guaranty Trust Bank coming in third at 23.4 per cent.

    Meanwhile NIC Bank at 22.7 per cent comes in at number four as the lender with the most costly loans. Transnational Bank is the fifth most expensive lenders at 23 per cent interest rate.

    Conversely, UBA Kenya at 15.2 per cent offered the cheapest business loans while Gulf African Bank at 16 per cent was the second cheapest lender of business loans. First Community Bank at 16.8 per cent is the third cheapest lender of business loans.

    Diamond Trust Bank at 17.2 per cent is the fourth cheapest lender while Bank of India at a rate of 17.5 per cent is the fifth cheapest lender.

    For the overall average weighted lending rate for each commercial bank which represents the weighted average rate across all loan categories (corporate, business and personal) and maturities (overdraft, 1-5 years and over 5 years) Middle East Commercial Bank at a rate of 24.6 per cent is the most expensive lender.

    It is closely followed by K-Rep Bank at 24.2 per cent which makes it the second most costly lender with Guaranty Trust Bank at a rate of 23.8 per cent becoming the third most expensive lender. Credit Bank at a rate of 22.5 per cent is the fourth mostly costly lender while I&M Bank at 20.8 per cent is the fifth most costly lender.

    The move is meant to promote competition and transparency in pricing of loans and reign in on high interest.

  • Run Down To The Brink Of Bankruptcy, The Fall Of Kenya Airways

    Run Down To The Brink Of Bankruptcy, The Fall Of Kenya Airways

    By Payton Mathau

    For years now, Kenya’s national carrier, Kenya Airways (KQ) profit-and-loss account has been, worryingly, sliding south, with the executives blaming several factors like the cost of fuel, the dropping number of passengers and, more recently, the Ebola outbreak in most parts of West Africa that forced them to suspend flights to these destinations for some time.

    The airline’s chief executive Mbuvi Ngunze, in a recent opinion in the mass circulating weekly newspaper, the Sunday Nation, even blamed that slide on “intense competition and more recently the threat of terrorism…that have adversely impacted global travel. There is also political instability, natural disasters and an increasingly tight regulatory environment,” he wrote.

    The list of excuses has been endless, and even includes the industrial actions by pilots and other cadre of staff.

    Even in the face of the worrying loss-making by the country’s flagship carrier, the executives have remained upbeat, at least on the surface, that KQ has made several positive strides.

    In November 2014, the airline posted a half-year loss of Sh10 billion. This was not isolated because in June 2013, the company had also posted Sh7.9 billion loss for the financial year ending in March 2013.

    “Over the last decade, KQ worked hard to successfully shed the image of an ailing airline dependent on government lifeline. Since it was privatised in the late 1990s, the airline grew rapidly, lifted by strong fundamentals and embracing a culture of competitiveness and innovation. Before the current challenges, KQ was one of the most profitable airlines even earning the “Most Respected Company in East Africa” accolade,” Ngunze’s opinion article in the Sunday Nation read.

    But investigations by Nairobi Law Monthlyhave revealed that the breathtaking extent of loss-making at KQ was perpetrated by the high and mighty, who, even at the moment, are angling to kick out Dutch airline KLM as a major shareholder in favour of the an airline from the Gulf States.

    Many may recall that the Dutch airline KLM, which is now being strenuously pushed out in favour of Etihad, is the one that had stabilised KQ, and their code-sharing framework has not only had positive returns for KQ but also opened for it most of the European routes.

    The investigations uncovered that the genesis of the extreme turbulence KQ is experiencing could be traced back to Anglo Leasing-type deals when top management and senior government officials formed special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to fleece the carrier.

    Majority of these SPVs were incorporated in tax havens like the Cayman Islands, and through a complex web of transactions were buying and selling, or leasing to KQ aircraft at mind-boggling fees.

    As such, the SPVs have, in essence, have continued to strangle the national carrier in a complex web that KQ cannot and will not easily get out from, unless something more radical happens.

    Media blackmail

    Most of these SPVs were incorporated during the former CEO Titus Naikuni’s era, and Ngunze, who took over from Naikuni, was a high-ranking official at KQ.

    Kenya’s local media attempt’s at disclosing these deals have been met with specific threats to journalists as well as the KQ executives withdrawing their adverts, at least until they play along.

    In the early and mid-2000’s, KQ wanted to buy a new fleet of Embraer, the Brazilian-manufactured mid-range, aircraft, but could not make the down payment for the planes to the manufacturer. It thus borrowed money from some financiers to make the down payment.

    In order to borrow the funds for the down payment, KQ transferred the purchase agreement for the fleet of planes to a new company that would become a borrower proxy for KQ.

    According to the documents in possession of NLM, the borrower was Amboseli Limited, a special purpose company that was registered in the Cayman Islands. Amboseli Ltd was structured so that should it go into bankruptcy then KQ was to be at arm’s length – thus the phrase Bankruptcy Remote Orphan (BRO).

    An orphan structure is a financing term referring to a company whose shares are held by a trustee on a non-charitable purpose trust. The company is said to be an “orphan” as it is not beneficially owned by anyone. Orphan structures are usually used in offshore structures to ensure that the assets and liabilities of the subject company (in this case Amboseli Ltd) are treated as “off-balance-sheet” with respect to the sponsor of the structure (in this case Kenya Airways).

    Other reasons for creating an orphan structure are to avoid or minimise regulation which might otherwise apply to a structure, and to ensure that the company is “bankruptcy remote” from companies in the same group as the sponsor. Orphan structures are relatively common features of securitisation vehicles, where the asset backed bonds are issued by the orphan company (Amboseli Limited).

    Shares in Amboseli Limited were to be held in trust for the benefit of whoever is putting up the money for the aircraft purchase. The trustee of all the shares in Amboseli Ltd was yet another special purpose vehicle called Walkers SPV (special purpose vehicle).

    In the agreement, Amboseli Ltd was to use the purchase agreement signed by KQ with the manufacturer of the Embraer aircraft to approach unidentified lenders who would advance the funds necessary for payment and delivery of each plane until the fleet is bought entirely.

    The terms of this agreement was that KQ would pay to Amboseli Ltd the sum of Manufacturers price plus Amboseli Limited’s “running costs” plus interest owed to the lenders engaged by Amboseli Ltd.

    KQ was to repay Amboseli Ltd in instalments in the course of 12 years, according to March 2014 annual report, and each instalment is called a borrower’s contribution.

    The borrower’s contribution is due from KQ whenever Amboseli Ltd is due to make an interest payment on the loan. In each instalment KQ pays the sum of: The interest due to be paid to the lender by Amboseli Ltd plus Amboseli Ltd’s running costs.

    On the delivery date of the aircraft, KQ was to pay Amboseli Ltd the Balance of the purchase price. This means Amboseli Ltd would, on the same delivery date, pay the balance of the purchase price to the manufacturer, plus repay the lender for the particular aircraft.

    In the structure, KQ would only take delivery, not title (the real proof of ownership), of each delivered aircraft. Amboseli Ltd was to deliver the title to another company called Samburu Limited “to whom the Delivery Facility is made by the long term lenders.”

    From the chart in the documents in possession of NLM, the immediate questions were (1) where is Samburu Limited placed on the chart? (2) Who is the facilitating agent referred to on page 1 (paragraph c) of the document?

    As at March 31, 2014, the KQ had 47 aircraft, either owned or on operating leases, according to KQ’s annual report. These comprised five Boeing 777 wide body jets, one Boeing 787, six Boeing 767 wide body jets, 13 Boeing 737 narrow body jets, 20 Embraer regional jets and two Boeing 737 freighters; formerly passenger aircraft, one converted to a freighter during the year, while the other had been converted the previous year.

    Our attempts to get Ngunze, KQ’s CEO, who is officially the company spokesman, to respond to the specific questions were rebuffed, in a response couched to avoid at all any discussions on them.

    “The right process for enquiries into KQ is Wanjiku Mugo, copied, in who is our Corporate Communications Manager. Perusing your questions, it is clear to me that you have not had sight of our annual report where we make disclosures on financing transactions. Kindly refer to the attached on pg (pages) 115, Note 29. This may then inform the questions you have,” said Ngunze, in an e-mail also copied to the company secretary Teodosia Osir, delegating the role of the official company spokesman to his junior.

    From a cursory look, Note 29 answered nothing, at least not the questions we had sent to KQ for their response about the incorporation of the SPVs in the Cayman Island, ownership structures of the lenders and facilitating agents and the net effect of these special purpose companies to KQ.

    Meanwhile, Wanjiku Mugo, who had been delegated to respond to communicate with us, remained cagey, only directing us to the link to the same document Ngunze had pointed at.

    “Thank you for your inquiry. I see Mbuvi (Ngunze) responded to you on where you could find comprehensive answers to your questions. Please refer to our annual reports that are available on our website,” Wanjiku Mugo said.

    Behind the scenes, the KQ management sought to thwart the publication of the exposé, unsuccessfully. When that hit a snag, Ngunze, in an unsolicited opinion article in the Sunday Nation, perhaps to dampen NLM’s queries, sought to challenge “A lot of untruths and innuendos (that) have recently been peddled in the media and other circles regarding Kenya Airways.”

    Meanwhile, KQ’s expansion strategy, Project Mawingu, in the recent past has been the acquisition of the B787-8 Dreamliners, currently Boeing’s flagship product. The national carrier was to borrow, through a similar but complex web a sum of $1 billion (Sh95.4 billion) to purchase the nine Dreamliners.

    In the recent past, perhaps saddled by the debts to some of the interest-bearing loans and borrowings from lenders, which according to the 2014 annual report include Swara Aircraft Financing Limited, Barclays Bank PLC, Ndovu Aircraft Financing Limited, Nyati Aircraft Financing Ltd, Kifaru Aircraft Financing Ltd, Chui Aircraft Financing Ltd, Tsavo Financing LLC and Aberdare Ltd, KQ appears to have ditched buying the expensive Dreamliners. The Dreamliners price averages $225 million (Sh21.5 billion) for a single aircraft.

    Instead, KQ announced that it would be leasing the aircraft from AWAS Aviation Ltd who is to buy them and then lease out to KQ. The decision to abandon purchasing the Dreamliners came after KQ had acquired seven of the nine it had planned to purchase.

    Though AWAS Aviation Ltd is an Ireland firm, information that NLM has exclusively obtained indicates that its ownership structure has many Kenyan interests. In fact, one famous political family in the country, NLM established, could be holding significant interests in not only the firm but most of the KQ’s lenders.

    In March 2014 annual report, KQ also paid to its lenders a staggering Sh89 million up from Sh62 million in 2013. The lenders, the annual report indicates, are Barclays PLC, Citibank NA, Citi/JP Morgan and Afrexim for aircraft loans. Meanwhile, Cooperative Bank financed engine purchases, and KQ also has in its books short term facilities. The tenor of the borrowings range from one to 24 years since 2005, with interest rates of between 3.41 per cent and 6.59 per cent annually.

    “The loans were obtained for the purpose of funding aircraft acquisition, aircraft spare engines and for pre-delivery payments for ordered aircraft. For the purpose of holding collateral for the financiers, the aircraft are registered in the name of special entities whose equity is held by the security trustees on behalf of the respective financiers. The legal title is to be transferred to Kenya Airways Limited once the loans are fully repaid,” the annual report states.

    For now, it seems KQ is in deep turbulence – like Mumias Sugar Company which is seeking Sh5 billion from the government to stay afloat after years of mismanagement – and the carrier may be forced to make an emergency landing. That emergency landing may come very soon and could even jeopardise its intention to fly to new destinations, including the United States.

  • Meet Harban Singh Amrit, Shrewd Asian Billionaire With An Empire Cutting Across Kenya

    Meet Harban Singh Amrit, Shrewd Asian Billionaire With An Empire Cutting Across Kenya

    The man who had fenced off part of the playground for the Langata Road Primary School is a multi-billionaire with interests in construction, aviation, horticulture, property, tourism industry and fishing just to name a few.

    Harban Singh Amrit could rank among one of the wealthiest Kenyans but his riches are linked to dirty deals stretching way back to the days of the founding father of the nation Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and later his successor Daniel arap Moi.

    The man popularly referred to as Amrit in the Asian community in Kenya, is also believed to be behind the grabbing of large tracts of prime land in Nairobi together with the one time commissioner of lands the late Wilson Gacanja.

    Some of the land he grabbed and the property he developed can be found along Waiyaki Way, Mombasa Road, the plush Lavington area, Westlands, city centre and upper hill area among others.

    Investigations piecing together the properties owned by Amrit including some of which he has sold running into billions of shillings. We may not conclusively know how much Amrit is worth but his close friends, associates and family members confirmed that he is a wealthy man.

    Some of the properties are landmarks in the country in which blue chip companies are housed leaving one to wonder whether they know the history associated with their acquisition.

    He is credited with putting up most of the education institutions associated with Moi including the kabarak school and university in Baringo, Sunshine and Moi educational Centre in Nairobi and most of the school’s scattered all over the country named after Moi.

    Due to his links to Moi he was the main contractor for the government and all the national cereals and produce board (NCPB) silos were done by his company.

    Those who worked close with the businessman confess that he exaggerated the costs for each of the projects he did for Moi and ensured he made massive profits or negotiated for a bigger stake for himself.

    A shrewd businessman who many say is a sweet-talker, Amrit is said to carry himself as an architect when in real life he is a draughtsman that surrounded himself with the best architects in the market whom he used to build his massive empire.

    The businessman made numerous promises to speak to us regarding his wealth and properties but for more than a week he failed to honour any of our appointments.His excuse was that he was unwell.

    The father of three boys is the man who owns the land and structures on which the three Safaricom houses along Waiyaki way now stand. The one near Sarit Centre and which hosts the Human Resources department is built on the grabbed land that belongs to the Nairobi Westlands City sub-fire station.

    It is not known how Harban managed to get the land. But given that he was a close friend of retired President Moi and a confidante of the then lands commissioner it is no surprise that he could get all the prime land in the city.

    The Safaricom headquarters where the chief executive Mr Bob Collymore sits is constructed on land belonging to the provincial administration. It is telling that next to the house are the offices for Westlands DO.

    Ensconced between the Safaricom house and the Pizza Garden restaurant is a rather new skycraper, Skypark Plaza where the National Police Service Commission sit. This also belongs to the tycoon.

    In Westlands area, Amrit is a joint owner of three buildings along Woodvale with businessman Manek Shah and former vice-president the late Prof George Saitoti. The value of these properties are believed to run into hundreds of millions at the current valuation.

    Towards the Spring Valley police station in the same location is an imposing Hindu temple. The land on which the temple stands was grabbed by Harban Singh Amrit and the late Gacanja. It was then sold to the Hindu council by the two. We could not quantify how much the two made.

    In Parklands area behind the Simba Union complex is another parcel of land that was grabbed by both Amrit together with another of his partners, Mukesh Gohil. The tycoon claimed that the land belonged to the Union to be used as a crematorium. However, there is no access to it and his attempts to negotiate with the Simba union to create a road have failed. When he made all these moves, Amrit was the chair of the Sikh Supreme Council.

    Still in Westlands area and now along Rhapta road, he has an imposing office not far from the Rehema House. He has named his offices, Rehema House apartment. Amrit is the one who was asked to put up Rehema house for the National Fund for the Disabled of Kenya.

    People who worked closely with him claim that he charged an arm and a leg for the building despite the fact that the funds were drawn from Kenyans to help the physically handicapped.

    Further along Rhapta road are the magnificent Chelsea Park apartments that go for sh28 million for a three bedroomed apartment or sh140,000 per month. Harban Singh Amrit owns the land on which they stand. The parcel of land runs to the river which he ignored environmental advise to put up structures along a riparian area.

    His massive home on the exclusive address along Riverside drive is a sight to behold. It is said the land was given during the Moi era with the help of the late Gacanja.

    In the city centre, stands the View Park Towers along Uhuru highway and next to Utalii House. Amrit put up the glassy structure that has 20 floors for sh300 million. He sold the building to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) for sh900million. Soon after it was sold, it was detected to have structural problems as cracks were found in the basement. This did not stop the tycoon from pocketing a cool sh600m.

    His close associates disclosed that Amrit put up a penthouse for himself in View Park Towers where he would receive politicians and dish out favours and also cut deals.

    That was not the only business he transacted with NSSF. His company, Harban Singh Associates was given a contract to put up a parking complex for the workers fund at community. For years, the parking was never completed. But Amrit and one of Moi’s sons made at least sh1 billion from the fund.

    Between Utalii House and Kenindia Insurance building is a parking space. It bel;onged to Amrit and he sold it to the Kenya Methodist University. We could not verify how much he made from that sale.

    At Upper Hill in Nairobi, land that belonged to the East Africa Community believed to be seven acres was taken by Amrit.

    Along Langata road behind the now controversial Langata Road primary school is the Airport View Villas. They stand on land that once belonged to Kenya prisons. The four acres are believed to have been Amrit’s reward from Moi for putting up Sunshine School.

    Away from land, the tycoon also has interests in the tourism sector. If you are driving into Nairobi along Mombasa road, the new fly-over for the Southern by-pass is the Eka hotel. The one-storey five-star hotel is the property of Harban Singh Amrit. It sits on one of the many parcels of land he owns along the road.

    In Amboseli national Park is the Oltukai Lodge. The literature on its website says that the lodge is “one of the best spots in the world to watch elephant with the backdrop of Africa’s highest mountains, Mount Kilimanjaro”. This is just one of the outstanding properties in the tourism sector that belong to Amrit.

    In Mombasa, the tycoon had interests in Castle hotel, along Moi avenue. However, it is said he sold his shares.

    Perhaps it is his need to fly his clients to Amboseli and Mombasa that he is also the proud owner of a hangar at Wilson airport.

    In farming, Harban Singh Amrit, has not been left out of the flower business that thrives along Lake Naivasha in the rift valley. He owns the Aquila flower farm. It sits on 300 acres of land that originally belonged to Agricultural development Corporation (ADC).

    Further afield in Lake Victoria, Amrit set up a shipping business and gave it to his one of his three sons to run it together with a friend Sharad Patel who produced the block-buster movie on Ugandan dictator, the Rise and fall of Idi Amin.

    It is not just in Kenya where the tycoon has property, he is said to own real estate in New Delhi where one of his sons lives and takes care of his interests.

    Now in his early 80s, Amrit is said to have slowed down in life. But it is not strange to find him every other weekend doing “koroga” (communal self cooking) at the Nairobi Gymkhana Club along Forest road in Nairobi.

    Fact Box of H.S. Amrit properties:

    > 3 Safaricom houses in Westlands

    > Skypark Plaza, Westlands

    > Eka Hotel, Mombasa Road

    > Rehema Apartments, Westlands

    > Chelsea Park apartments, Westlands

    > Oltukai Lodge, Amboseli

    > Hangar, Wilson airport

    > Airport View Villas, Mbagathi way

  • How Kenya Airways was Run Down

    How Kenya Airways was Run Down

    KQ is in a dep mess. The national carrier is a shell of its former self. The thieves have run roughshod and fleeced the company millions in a well crafted scheme which seems to be meant to run it down and then cheaply buy the airline off.

    The people behind the strategy includes former CEO Titus Naikuni, current Finance Director Alex Wainaina Mbugua and 2 top State House (Office of the President) personnel.

    The scheme to run down Kenya Airways started right from the Office of the then President Kibaki and involved senior OP and DoD officials. Also roped into the deal is KQ Finance Director and the current CEO. The Finance Director is said to be so deep into the corrupt deals meant to bring down KQ to its knees that he recently bought 14 very high end properties in Johannesburg with 6 of the properties being located in the affluent Sandton area.

    First, they set up four offshore companies called Twiga, Amboseli, Jetspace and Samburu which knew what aircraft Kenya Airways (KQ) needed and so approached Boeing and Embraer to deliver the same. The problem is that, without investing a single cent, the owners of the companies got KQ LPOs and managed to use the same to get loans from Afro-Exim Services.

    Of the KQ fleet, the Embraer E170 series are being phased and replaced by the E190s. Key individuals in the Office of the President are said to own the 5Y-KYR, KYS and KYT. Another 10 aircrafts with registrations 5Y-FFA to FFJ are said to be owned by another powerful Kenyan family which earns them more than $500,000.

    Currently, none of the Dreamliners (Boeing 787s) are flying. This is because the maintenance cost is so high and the owners who have not been fully paid for the aircrafts are said to be planning to detain some of the planes in case they fly outside the country. One of the planes was recently detained in China and released only at the intervention of key State House officials.

    Most of the KQ board members who are aware of the illegal happenings are pocketing up to $6million per year in kickbacks as they are promised a standing fee per hour clocked by the operational aircrafts.  The recent KPMG report does not mention the illegal withdrawals in KQ reserve accounts in London. It doesn’t even detail the wastage which the company gets by outsourcing engineering work to other airlines.

    Some of the areas which have been used to get money out of KQ includes the outsourcing of various services like training, hotel and catering as well as importation of everything including toothpicks. Take the renovation of the IOCC building which is next to the Presidential Lounge at JKIA. Renovation work were so expensive and KQ ended up importing even pens, water dispensers and seats to spruce up the Engineer’s working area while what was imported could have been acquired cheaply locally.

    Staff using the IOCC (International Operations Control Centre) wondered why KQ had to import water dispensers from Germany while they could get the same locally. The renovation of the building despite the company knowing very well that the building will be brought down when the new runway is being built.

    There was a time KQ spent an average of Ksh 1.5million on each and every staff member on useless trainings which did not benefit the said staff members in any way. The training was compulsory and those who failed to attend were sent on compulsory leave until they took up the training at the KQ Pride Centre.

    One company which benefited most from the uncontrolled KQ outsourcing is the STOIC tracking. The company installed vehicle tracking and fleet management system in KQ vehicles being used on the tarmac to control speed. The speed limit is 25 Km/h. The company was being paid Ksh 4 million per month from 2005/2006 financial year to Dec 2014 when KQ decided to stop the service having realised that it didn’t prevent the staff from exceeding the speed limit on the airport tarmac. Only KQ installed such a service in their vehicles at the airport while the likes of 540, KLM and Qatar did not see such a need.

    Now KQ is not in a state to meet its financial obligations. Staff salaries are paid late and remittances for staff contributions to Union, SACCO, NSSF and NHIF are not being done in time as KQ is left to rummage through the financial mess they created to sort themselves out. In February, KQ staff salaries was only possible after IATA sent the airline its codeshare contributions.

    SACCO remittance happened on 13th March and not February 20th as always. Some contractors like Jubilee Insurance knows the precarious financial situation at KQ very well but want to debts to accrue further so as they would not want to interfere with the relationship.

    The bad financial decisions at KQ started after the 2009 KQ strike where Naikuni told the Cabin Crew that their work and “Cabin Crew ni kama waiter naweza kuenda Kencom na nipate wengi.” (Cabin crews are like waiters who can easily be recruited from Kencom bus stop). That was true to an extent. But consider the cost involved in training the Cabin Crew at Pride Centre. KQ charges over $3,000 for a 6 months Cabin Crew training where they only spend 3 months in class and the others just doing nothing. In fact at KQ, the staff always know that though the work is simple, KQ charges training of the staff more expensively that it would cost to train a medic locally in the same period.

    Naikuni then said that he would teach the Cabin Crew a lesson resulting in the retrenchment of the over 420 cabin crew. KQ then decided to outsource the assignment of recruiting and managing the Cabin Crew to Career Directions which is owned, managed and operated by Naikuni’s long known girlfriend Lucy Mmari.

    KQ was meant to save with the outsourcing but that failed to work as service quality deteriorated. KQ ended up recruiting almost 1,000 new Cabin Crew through Career Directions. The company pays the CCs only Ksh 40,000 from the previous Ksh 80,000. The difference is not a saving to KQ since the airline pays Career Directions around Ksh 120,000 per month per Cabin Crew.

    KQ made no savings on the salaries and there was no need since Cabin Crew salaries was just 1.3% of the total annual cost incurred by the airline. In the meantime, now the new Cabin Crews employed through Career Directions have been made to supervise the old and mature few who remained employed directly by KQ while the mature ones earn better salaries.

    With the quality of cabin service declining, complaints emerged on social media and many at times were Cabin Crew caught having sex with passengers on air or shoplifting make up for personal use (in Bombay in India). Generally, the staff who are so loyal to the national carrier decided to steal to improve on their image. It is now believed that some KQ staff might be engaging in importing contrabands to boost their income as the airline continue to suffer.

    For March, KQ staff who are suppose to be paid on 20th will have to wait for the sale of a Boeing 777 aircraft registration number 5Y-KQT at a cost of $57million to be able to earn their salaries. A brand new 777-200 plane like the KQT being sold goes for just over $250million. Considering that the plane is a 2005 make, the plane being sold is almost brand new. It is however believed that some KQ technical staff might have taken some of its parts leaving the plane being sold a SHELL. But the plane already has a buyer who has paid part of the money.

    According to a senior pilot, “it is just sad that KQ cannot get to enjoy flying the 777s and make money out of them immediately after fully paying for them.”

    Another plane with registration ending KQS is also scheduled for sale. Of the 77-200s, only KQU and KZY are flying but might be up for sale soon. Another plane, a 777-300 with registration ending KZX is parked but sometimes serviced for Amsterdam route.

    Enter the Boeing 787s aka the Dreamliners. Of the 17 staff KQ trained to handle the improved fleet, 6 never touched the KQ fleet as they were immediately poached by Qatar, Emirates and other rich and ambitious airlines. A total of 12 of the 17 Boeing Dreamliner trained staff have left the national carrier while the remaining are mulling leaving. Only one Boeing Certified engineer is left to support the Dreamliner at JKIA.

    With airlines like Qatar Airways so moneyed that they are buying two Boeing 787 Dreamliners every day in CASH, this was bound to happen.

    There are loud rumours within the KQ maintenance crew that the airline cannot afford to provide in-flight entertainment (IFE) in the 737-800s as the vendor who sold the system and provide maintenance services is owed so much money that they now detain any system sent to them for maintenance. KQ knows that it is suppose to provide in flight entertainment on every flight which goes for more than 5 hours. It’s just not able to provide the same.

    Apart from the money owed to the vendors, KQ also owe the taxman, KRA a lot of money that the taxman once detained some equipment over a Ksh 30 million debt which has not been settled.

    In the last 5 years, KQ has lost a total of 75 Engineers and employed 150 (from Nairobi Aviation) new young and inexperienced technicians (calling them engineers) who have never touched an aircraft in real life. KQ has also poached close to 40 Kenya Airforce Servicemen to boost its fleet technicians. Many of the current pilots and engineers claim that they fear for the national carrier as it is playing poker with passengers’ safety.

    Another avenue in which KQ is losing money is the maintenance agreement signed with Royal Thai airline, Qatar Airways, KLM, Aviac Technologies and others. As KQ planes fly to Paris, Bangkok, Amsterdam and other destinations, someone within KQ decided to sign maintenance agreements with other airlines with experienced staff on the ground. The sad bit of this is industrywide, it is not advisable.

    What happens is that the airlines or companies with maintenance agreements with KQ will always ensure that KQ planes are grounded longer for minor and inconsequential defects so that their companies can maximise their earnings. One such instance happened in Amsterdam last Monday when Kenya Airways lost a total of Ksh 47million in one flight because KLM engineers refused to clear the flight for take off over some “valve leak” which was found not to exist. When such a thing happen, KLM engineers would earn $250 per hour per Engineer or $120 per technician. This money is paid directly by KQ to the KLM accounts and is not inclusive of repair and spare parts costs which cost millions of USD. Why would KQ refuse to station own engineer in such locations and loose Ksh 47million in one instance. The practise was common in Paris when Aviac Technologies services was contracted to maintain KQ planes that 90% of the flights were always delayed or cancelled.

    It is not sometimes wrong to give out such contracts but is nonsensical for KQ to give out such contracts when no one is giving them the same.

    When such a thing happens, KQ is bound to pay accommodation for the affected passengers and crew. KQ is also bound to pay other costs like meals, transport and communication. When preparing an expense report, KQ staff would also sneak in some expenses which hard hard to verify like “cost of airtime.”

    Expense sheet prepared by KQ staff for KQ116.

    The time to save KQ is now. The company is flying full planes and making money. The problem is that some executives have intentionally decided to kill the national carrier and launch their own. In the words of one senior executive, “KQ is not making a loss. KQ is just over spending.”

    KQ’s 10 year plan were copied by airlines like Ethiopian Airlines (ET). But you can’t compare ET as it is run in a dictatorial way. You remember the ET pilot who flew a plane to Greece. Many ET crew are monitored and banned from leaving the country the moment they try to seek greener pastures elsewhere. You can’t compare how ET crew lives with how KQ is but ET is still afloat but if they still rely on the KQ plan, it will go down soon.

    As KQ goes down, it is still spending almost Ksh 96 per litre of Jet A-1 fuel while the price has fallen to almost Ksh 45 per litre. KQ is bound to spend this much because it is hedging fuel and bound by the contract until the year 2017.

    Though KQ has even retrenched some “overage pilots”, the fact is that they don’t have money to pay them and told them to wait for 6 months. The problem is that KQ might not be able to last for 6 months.

    As KQ continue to sell properties (sold go downs in Embakassi and planning to sell headquarters) to cover costs, it is not clear how long this will be allowed to go on.