Author: jamaapoa
•Wednesday, September 27, 2006
the month of september will be etched in my mind
all my lifetime.
it brings to me the memories of your existence,
it reminds me that you lost that living battle that everyone loses.
it makes me realize how mortal i am,
how vain life is, how fragile humanity is.
and that one day, in that battle field,
i will lose that fight too.
childhood scenes fill my mind,
the wonderful storybooks that you bought me,
some inspirational, like 'gogo gets there'
the village boy who beat all odds
to make it successfully in life.
did you have me in mind?
all those childhood magazines like the 'rainbow' and 'sparkle'.
what a feeling to have had my articles published all over the country.
yet you never missed getting me a copy, even if it meant going to far away towns.
and the sunday nation, you never missed to buy a copy, at least so that i get a read.
by the way i got addicted, i have never missed a copy for years.
before i was ten, you had taken me through the pilgrim progress,
ditto the holy book especially the proverbs,
what wise counsel from a dad to a son?
by that time, you had introduced me to st augustine and monica,
you shaped my life whilst young,
'teach a child in the way he should go,
and when he will be older, he will not depart from it'.
you were my hero till eighteen,
you believed in me, cheered me on my way to victory,
nursed me when i fell to the unfairness of daily living.
my high school days were eventful and challenging,
yet you encouraged me to greater heights of success.
your prayers for me always left a tear in my eyes.
and he did hear you.
joining the fast paced career development world,
you endeavoured to understand what was it i pursued and did.
you were literally there for me...
i never lacked, your life goal for us,
'education is the greatest investment in life' and,
'education is the best inheritance one can ever get'.
and you were careful to make sure my mind
distinctively learnt to pursue wisdom, virtue and education.
i wish you were here longer,
i wish i knew that day, i massaged your feet, was the last.
i wish i stayed longer by your bedside.
i wish i never went to work that day,
i wish i sang that last song with you.
but iam consoled, you left happy and content
with the effort i put, and you told all, i was your pride.
never to forget the blessings and well wishes you muttered
under the weight of forever...
one year on, without you around, i soldier on.
your wise counsel engraved in the depth of my soul.
though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
i will not be afraid,
for you went across the bridge,
where there are no more sorrows....
you will never be unhappy again.
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Author: jamaapoa
•Wednesday, September 20, 2006
no. that is the instinctive response that most kenyans minds can conjure up when this question is posed to them individually. we all know who is corrupt; the government, the police, the local authorities, the civil servants and the list goes on and on. this week’s events have made me ponder this question more introspectively and i doubt whether i am not wanting.
as suggested in an earlier post, john githongo, the anti-graft czar, once appointed as permanent secretary in charge of ethics and governance is stealing the headlines and news shots in kenya. his barter trade of words with the kenya anti corruption commission chief, justice aaron ringera, is the latest foamy opera in our local press. one of these men of eminence is lying, and the sentimental and judgemental Kenyan populace has no problem in guessing who is lying. githongo is infallible, what with his gadgetry tools of trade? one of his claims that justice aaron urged him over lunch to go slow on his revelations, if not false truth, will make justice ringera earn a barb for his gullibility, naivety and dunderheadness! justice ringera knows too well that his former law partner’s, one kiraitu murungi, sadistic and heinous laughter was broadcast all over the planet as he tried to dissuade githongo from stepping too much on the graft-infested, vomited-on big toe; in the words of former british envoy, edward clay.
as i vindictively searched my soul, i vainly tried to define corruption, then put my soul to the scales of this incriminating practice. a couple of events ran in my mind just as they would on judgement day. no need to fear the day, it will happen in a flash, a fraction of a nanosecond, a timeless event that mortals need not worry about coz destiny will be reflective. the worst would already have happened; seeing oneself on the other side of the divide.
straight from high school and into a middle-tier college, time came for me to register as a citizen of the republic. what a joy that finally i have graduated from the kaptula (shorts) club, and can actually sit in the chiefs baraza and stand in the council of elders or so i presumed. getting a national identity card was the first time i smelt corruption in the air. a dense, humid, suffocating and sulphurish smell. the chief needed me to contribute to a harambee which from the invitation card presented was already past tense. no questioning the intent and no way to circumvent it. the assistant chief, who always carried a rubber stamp and a faint ink pad in his kanzu also needed something small to refill the ink in order to serve the other countrymen better. my chief later premiered in a name and shame citizen radio programme, wembe wa citizen and was shaved bila maji.
worse was to come when i later went to collect my national id from the divisional headquarters. i was told to part with a fifty bob –that was big money then- to grease the knees of the clerk who was searching it from a heap of uncollected ids. i had to understand that robots operate mechanically and their joints needed to be oiled so often in order to control friction and curb rustiness including attitude and emotion corrosion. i offered to bring some lubricant and engine oil to grease the joints. this incensed the clerks and they were more than determined to tame this mjuaji from the city. i had just learnt some legal and economic lingual which i unleashed in a bid to hasten the popping up of my id. ‘this is unacceptable, a clear form of caveat emptor, the jurisprudence of ids is not in your jusrisdiction, ceteris paribus’. i saw the clerks smile and imagined i have really impressed them and my card was on the way. it was an impious smile, the lingual that came from the lips of the clerk failed to register in my courteous dictionary and i have never heard such ‘nice’ words to date. they were in fact closing for the weekend and i had to go back the next monday. it was ten o’clock on a friday morning.
i revisited the offices later after a month and tried to be ‘civil’ like the civil servants who were serving me. i had vowed not to break the law i was diligently studying. one is not supposed to enrich themselves through false pretences, i kept reciting. nationalistic citizens uphold the rule of the law. this maxim saw me all the way to the clerk’s supervisor, a lady who enjoyed, mockingly, hearing my teary story, up the ladder to the district officer after which i learned my tearful corruption filled lesson. they were all accomplices. well, it wasn’t as much as the one that david munyakei, the goldenberg whistle blower died learning. is there a place for honest people in kenya?
fast forward to the millennium and i was handling some procurement worth slightly over five million kenya shillings. one supplier came with a wonderful proposal, "give us this tender and we will buy you lunch worth 10 per cent of the total contract". just straight from campus, sleeping on the floor with a black and white great wall television and a meko gas cooker was all that ran in my mind at the hearing of that proposal. half a million bob would see me furnish my small abode lavishly, with no sweat and no loans! but wait a minute, did you say lunch worth half a million? eeh sir, no! today i was wondering whether i have not been assimilated into the business world of kick backs, rubbing backs and ‘networking’.
a while back, i had to spend a few days within the corridors of the central police station of one of our major towns. a former college mate was ‘inside’ and i was among the cloud mandated to see the process of ‘removing’ him through by activating the networks i have within the force. this pal of mine had been wrongfully criminalized by a business partner they had fallen out with, who was out to teach him a lesson. the lesson involved having my pal spend a few days in the cells then later have him released without being charged. spending in a cell is enough punishment that ensures you nearly go berserk, get molested by 'remand-birds' and escape with several hard-to-cure rashes. your self-esteem, business credibility and acumen suffer in the process too. what a way to bring a foe down. all you need to do is grease the palm of a cid officer and the job is as good as done. these cid guys are intelligent enough to imagine and manufacture a wild range of offences, once their brains are well oiled.
this was a hard task, unlike the campus days when all you needed to do was to round up a troupe of ‘comrades’, feed them with hooliganistic tendencies and direct them towards the central police station to rescue a comrade in distress. this time we were a group of five which comprised two budding lawyers. the counter attack was to foil the plan of my pal’s biz partner and ensure our pal did not spend in the cells. it took us over six hours to have our comrade out. no amount of legal jargon and pestering worked. the networks i thought would help failed too. but oiling the already greasy palms of the officer did the magic. this counter productive attack-retreat activity went on for a few more days and all palms involved in this game were sticky, smelly and blackened: our souls too.
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Author: jamaapoa
•Friday, September 15, 2006
I travelled out to the countryside to see my folks. My folks call themselves “senior citizens”, that’s their cocky euphemism for “retired”. My mom called me last month and said she wanted to ‘have a talk with me – my mom always wants to have a talk with me about one thing or the other. They moved out of the city which they say is “polluted with negative energy”. They prefer the pristine village scene pf mooing cows and rumbling green hills. My pops, a former engineer, spends most of his day poking his nose around the engine of his vintage Peugeot 505, the only thing he loves more than my mom. Almost.
In spite of your skewed opinion of me, I should shock you and tell you that I come from a very solid God-fearing family. My upbringing was not any different from any of you who snootily turn their noses at my lifestyle and ideals. I got spanked for using “dirty language”, I was scolded for eating at the neighbour’s, I had my “Sunday best” which I religiously donned to church every Sunday and like your mom, mine always admonished talking with food in the mouth. I took my first sip of beer at 18 for chrissake!
That night I got to shags, my mom sat me down after dinner (after my pops had retired to bed, because he can never sit through my mom’s kangaroo courts without nodding off) and gravely announced that to me that she was “worried” about me. She was worried that I was not bringing a sexy number home to her and ‘announce’ my intentions. She needled me with questions like ‘what’s taking you so long to get a girlfriend?’, ‘don’t you want a family one day?’, ‘where is your life headed, son?’, ‘aren’t you scared of ending up lonely?’ the charade! But I listened respectfully without interrupting her the way I was brought up. After her tutorial on marriage, (the umpteenth one this year!) I smiled and told her that I will bring her a sweet daughter-in-law soon. ‘good things come to only those who wait, mom’, I said, rubbing her cheerfully on the arm. She gave me a weary smile. She worries too much about me, but I love her to bits.
My parents have had a solid marriage for over thirty years, full of trials and tribulations no doubt. In my books they have had a fruitful life. I have four siblings; my big sister has been married for over ten years with two gorgeous kids to show for it, my younger brother has been married for a year now with a pregnant lovely wife to show for it. My kid sister has a man who I think should marry her if he has any sense at all (he’d be a fool not to). I am the black sheep in the family who feels nothing for marriage even after being orbited by these outstanding marriage records in the family.
I will come out and make a bold confession; marriage scares the living daylights out of me. I am not cut for marriage, much less a relationship. I have come to accept that I am built differently. I am weird. The major irony is that I really love women; I truly do, with my whole heart! I cherish them, I like to hear them laugh, I love the feel of their touch, and the taste of their lips. I love how they smell (ok, some of them). But my major problem is that I have a very low threshold for concentration when it comes to women. I get bored too damn fast!
I have always wondered how anyone in their right mind would date one woman for over six months! I would get bored out of my wits! Now, to even imagine that I would stick with one woman forever is just plain spooky. My greatest fear (apart from poverty) is getting married and waking up one morning and looking at my wife and asking myself how on earth I got there.
I know, marriage changed people, but it would break my heart if I was unable to take my wife out to dinner because she added weight in the wrong places. I would not reconcile with myself if I took some slim 22-year-old belle for a cocktail function because I was too embarrassed to carry along my fattish 32-year0old wife; the mother of my children who I adore, the wife who has faithfully stuck by me through the arduous trials of life. Isn’t that enough to breakdown a man with guilt? Ye all married men; I seek your wise counsel.
Marriage has adopted a spooky casualness. It no longer has that sacred embodiment it once possessed with our parents. Now, it’s a bit like a restaurant; you walk in and if you don’t fancy the service or the colour of their cutlery you up and walk out to look for another one! I see many of my peers jumping in marriage with not a compass or a map to navigate its treacherous paths. I don’t want to be that guy who ruefully calls the divorce lawyer after three years because his marriage has hit the fan! Where are all the marriageable ladies anyway? Which pub do they go to? Which church choir do they sing? Where do they shop? Which hood do they live in? what size are they? Where do they fuel their cars? Do they eat pasta? Do they wear things or mother’s union? Where are the marriageable ladies folks, because maybe I’m meeting the wrong crop of ladies because I still insist on passing by njuguna’s for a pint?
The ladies we hang out with are smarter, richer and wittier. They hold good jobs. What we can do, they can match or even do better. It’s nice to hang out with them, catch a pint and brainstorm about politics or stem cell technology. But you would be stark raving crazy to have them as a wife, because they are a bunch of second-guessing talk-back machines! Who the hell wants that?
Let’s get one thing straight, I am a very confident man. There is nothing negative you could say about me that would put me down (er, unless of course you say that I suck in bed). I love my life the way it is, I can confidently say that my self-esteem is in mint condition. So really don’t start jumping to hasty pseudo-psycho analytical conclusions that I feel threatened in any way by this crop of high flying Alpha women. But the basics hold, law degree or not; I believe a lady should cook my food while I mow the lawn and fix the plumbing problem. That is how it worked for our parents. That is how it should work. That way everyone is happy. Unfortunately it doesn’t work this way because this happens to be the year 2006 where wives draw a timetable for who’s cooking because Wednesday happens to be her day for manicure and cooking will ruin it. This happens to be the year 2006 where pre-Cambrian men like me should wake up from the degenerate conservative slumber and smell the bloody coffee.
Having gotten that sexist mash mash off the way, my mantra still stays; a wife should be a demure lady. Period. Otherwise, if she wants to be a man about everything then why not just marry a man instead? I have come to accept that the model wife in my mind is a façade. She doesn’t exist. I will gladly settle for singlehood, thank you. Marriage has become a domestic circus without an entrance charge and I hate free things. My father’s generation had it well; they got all the best girls. I guess pops knows that, and that’s why he never sits to listen to my mom give an earful on why I need to find a good girl and settle down. He knows I’m screwed. Men his age who are still running round keeping 23-year old ‘mistresses’ in little bed sitters in south B know perfectly well what I’m talking about. They look at the little devils they keep as mistresses and know without a doubt that their sons are doomed.
Copy pasted from 'The Leader' weekly newspaper (The Bachelor column) published by royal media services
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Author: jamaapoa
•Thursday, September 14, 2006
Adored by the Somali people as the ultimate peace provider, but resented by the West as the embodiment of Islamic extremists out to introduce the dreaded Sharia law, the head of the Islamic Courts does not present a picture of an extremist. He comes across as a conciliator.
SHEIKH SHARIF AHMED presents an easy demeanour despite the daunting challenges facing him as the head of the newly formed Somalia Union of Islamic Courts.
With the warlords out of Mogadishu for the first time since Somali plunged into crisis in 1991, the burning question is whether the soft-spoken Sheikh Sharif is the man to save Somalia from itself.
Adored by his people as the ultimate peace provider, but resented by the West as the embodiment of Islamic extremists out to introduce the dreaded Sharia law, Shiekh Sharif does not present a picture of an extremist. He comes across as a reconciliator.
....
Some of the residents who did not freely venture out of their houses for 16 years still take caution despite assurance by the Islamic Courts, that insecurity has been contained.
Patrol jeeps manned by militias in civilian clothes mostly teenagers who skipped going to school during the war still common.
Entry procedures at the Mogadishu International Airport, are quite simple. It just takes the jotting down of a passenger's name, entry date and period of stay, and you are on your way to the city.
But one cannot help noticing the sorry state of the airport. Departures and Arrivals are in the same place only separated by a rope, while waiting passengers sit on plastic seats normally used for garden parties.
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Author: jamaapoa
•Wednesday, September 13, 2006
the second national operator may be licensed in january 2007. seven bidders are being evaluated to offer competition to telkom kenya. the operator will be licensed to offer mobile telephony, fixed landline, internet gateway, vsat communications, voip among other telecommunication services in one license. kenya has a 12 million mobile user base compared to 2 million fixed landline users.
telkom kenya is gearing to face stiff competition after liberalisation of the telecoms sector. for example, jambonet, a subsidiary of telecoms is no longer the sole internet gateway as a number of isps have been granted the gateway license. this has brought telkom to its senses. it is also going through a restructuring strategy as sprucing it up for initial ipo at the stock market takes shape. it is now re-focussing its energies to its core business choosing to outsource non-core operations. it has laid a fiber optic cable from nairobi to mombasa and has currently initiated a fiber optic link from nairobi, naivasha, nakuru all the way to western kenya border with uganda. kenya data networks, a merali company has such a link from nairobi to mombasa and within the city center. in august telkom launched a fixed wireless product dubbed satspace to compete with current retail fixed wireless providers flashcom and popote.
the nairobi stock exchange adopted the automated trading system (ats) and all has been picking up well except for wednesday morning, the third day after the transition from the open outcry system, when the sytem could not operate for two hours. this was caused by a failure of the central depository system (cds). the capital markets authority allowed nse to extend trading hours to 3pm instead of the 10am to noon period. the public gallery will be abolished and investors will be relying on the media for insights into the stock exchange.
nation tv launched a business programme ‘money matters’ to be aired every wednesday 8.30 pm coinciding with the ktn’s business weekly programme.
kenya reinsurance (kenya re) is currently evaluating bids for consultancy services in preparation for its privatisation early 2007. the government is expected to offload 40% of its stake in this firm through an ipo at the nairobi stock exchange.
jubilee insurance will complete its cross-listing by listing at the dar es salaam stock exchange by the end of the year. jubilee is already listed at the uganda stock exchange.
kenya airways will start flying to paris, france from october 26 this year. kq will fly three times a week to charles de gaulle airport from nairobi every tuesday, thursday and saturday.
tanzania is the latest darling of the world bank within the east africa. it has been rated as one of the world’s top 10 reforming countries according a world bank study. this happens as uganda’s arv stock worth usd 700,000 expired in government stores.
kenya received a boost this month to its conference tourism initiatives. there is the ongoing international youth employment summit starting 13th to 17th september 2006 and the afrocities – african summit of local government- conference scheduled on 18th – 22nd september 2006 at the kenyatta international conference center.
kengen’s expected profit boom may be reduced significantly following the failure of the company’s expected sale of bulk power to kplc at a higher tariff. The new price of sh 2.36 per unit was to commence in july 2006, when the interim power purchase agreement that provided for sh 1.76 per unit expired.
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Author: jamaapoa
•Tuesday, September 12, 2006
karl marx was not very wrong after all, when he theorised that religion is the opium of the masses enough to give the poor illusions of fantasies otherwise unachievable in reality. somewhere in kinangop at the heart of the rift valley is a group claiming that the world will begin to end from 12th september midnight. the house of yahweh followers prophesy a nuclear holocaust ignited by usa invasion of iran. they have dug underground bunkers complete with one year, one month supply of food when the end of the world is expected to last. actually it is not the end of the world but the total annihilation of mankind, except the sect members, the remnants saved by god. in the event that this does not happen, the leader has been quoted saying, that will be enough proof that yahweh is a liar. the global sect leader is somewhere in the usa regularly receiving monthly tithes and offerings and i am sure is least worried about the end of the world. he knows for sure that the world goes nowhere and just rotates around its own axis and stupidly revolves around the sun in the same old orbit, same old religion. as for our poor peasants, our own version of noah, they are all over the press, celebs in their own right for the time being.
talking of salvation, religious leaders and preachers should study our politicians and learn something about self redemption. today, it is the likes of william ruto, joseph kamotho, kalonzo musyoka, mutula kilonzo, musalia mudavadi, ole ntimama and others who are lecturing kenya about corruption and democracy. how times change. in a preachy rejoinder, if man can change like that on his own, how about a divinely changed man? kenyan politics have now gravitated towards two mainstream parties; the newly registered odm kenya (odmk) and narc kenya (narck). it is basically a two prime horse race between raila odinga and mwai kibaki. raila has managed to set the political agenda for the country since 2002 and that makes him the de facto leader of the opposition, whatever the name they settle for. he ‘made’ kibaki king and has taught him a few governance lessons every time they settle for a duel. narck has a way of playing into the hands of odmk in addition to political goofing and lack of able propagandists. but martha karua deserves praise for how she has managed to redeem the image of the government at its most critical setbacks. john michuki, the internal security minister who was voted the best minister in 2004 coz of spearheading matatu sector reforms is the current government’s major liability today.
i am currently indifferent to both narck and odmk. in the words of samuel kivuitu the chairman of the electoral commission, genuine change in kenya will be realised in the next generation. the current crop of leaders lack sincerity and are not ready to change their hearts for the interest of the nation. i however laud the economic gains of the kibaki regime. today i had a chat with some kenya revenue authority officials and the level of revenue collection and push towards self budget sustainability is impressive.
but kibaki is not a man of the people, he has disdain for the man on the street masked in his gentleman ness. his, is a class presidency, as one political analyst commented at the beginning of the narc regime. it is a regime bent on wealth protection and not wealth creation. raila on the other hand is too attention seeking and too radical for a politically conservative nation like ours. a nation that sacrificed real revolutionaries like james orengo and joe donde at the altar of status quo and ‘regional’ allegiance. that is why it prefers kalonzo musyoka in its opinion polls coz of his cool nature. but listening to the kalonzo of today, one is left feeling it will be another mistake to give him the presidency. narc has failed kenya on corruption, governance issues, land issues and the constitution but has scored highly on economy, business and maendeleo wilayani (rural development). of course, it could have been much better if the original narc held together but it was not to be.
however, i do not think that odmk will follow up and recover the looted millions of goldenberg and anglo leasing scandals, nor will it bring to book the killers of former foreign affairs minister robert ouko, j m kariuki and the others. unless it expels some ‘luminaries’ (note the change from revolutionaries), i doubt whether it will have the will to resettle and resolve the tribal clashes sagas or curb the extravagant public expenditure by the government. i do not foresee it doing much on the negative tribalism angle. currently it is a political sin to be from an ethnic region in the company of odmers. i could be wrong.
political alignment towards the two main parties is spelling doom to the only two women presidential aspirants ever in kenya. charity ngilu is slowly sliding into oblivion with the entry of kalonzo as the tribal (eeeh regional) kingpin of ukambani. whether in narck or in odmk, ngilu has been trivialised and rendered irrelevant to our new paradigm ‘regionally’ divisive politics. wangari mathai the nobel peace laureate and the mp for tetu has been a fence sitter ever since and soon the tide will sweep her off politics. word on the street is that she is quitting politics at the end of her current parliamentary tenure. she was more productive, most accomplished and well utilized when she was not in politics all the same. other parties like ford Kenya, kanu and ford people have been left rugged and dry.
with talks of minimum and maximum reforms off our news, we await the return of anti graft czar john githongo to give kenya new political focus, breaking news and sms alerts. kenyans are quite forgetful with reduced attention spans, we always need reminders and personality pop ups to refresh our memories. i almost forgot that senator obama, the only luo (kenyan, i beg your pardon) who will ever on earth have a go for the usa presidency was around. it is escaping my mind what his visit was all about. for now kenya is happy to be a walking nation once again. the matatu sector forgot to adhere to michuki matatu sector reforms. we surely have come full circle.
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Author: jamaapoa
•Sunday, September 10, 2006
this must be a hard and grieving time for my favourite kenyan gospel artist reuben kigame. maybe even harder for him than when he realised he was becoming blind while still young. mercy wanderwa kigame, reuben’s wife passed on last tuesday following a road accident near kabarak university after her car rammed into a lorry. that was the most shocking news to my ears since last year september when i lost a loved one. death has a way of defying comprehension and kigame’s loss resuscitated the grief, denial and guilt that has refused to go away one year down the line. myriads of questions clouding my mind regarding the fairness of living go unanswered. mercy had been kigame’s best earthly companion and only god understands why he needed her that soon.
reuben has been a source of consolation and encouragement to many through his musical ministry with sifa voices (who brought us the popular church worship ‘wastahili bwana’). in addition, through his word of truth ministries and the newly launched 97.1 fish fm based in eldoret, he has touched many hearts. i never missed his sermons whenever he was scheduled to preach at main campus taifa hall or nairobi chapel during my campus days. quite philosophical contemporary christian dialogues that are to say the least stimulating. i will never forget how his first album ‘kweli itakuweka huru’ while he was a student at kenyatta university with his old time buddy douglas jiveti impacted my early church life. reuben and jiveti have this year released a nice christian reggae album ‘god’s reggae’. i hope and pray that god will give reuben strength to cope with the demise of mercy and strengthen his outreach programs.
may he too be consoled like he did to many during the august 98 nairobi terrorist attack when his song ‘cry the pain’ featured in his country album ‘never alone’ filled the airwaves. i long for that time prophesied when we will look at death and ask ‘death where is your sting and grave where is your victory?’ (another country – gospel country album). this track was in reflection to the death of a partner in ministry; brother ngumba.
it was touching to see such union across tribal boundaries (that our politicians use to hatefully divide us) and visual challenge when mercy (kikuyu) wedded reuben (luhya). later when reuben’s father in love went to be with the lord, reuben put together and sung a kikuyu album ‘unyite na guoko’ translated ‘hold my hand’ comprising mercy’s father favourite kikuyu hymns. mercy lived the theme of a prominent song in the album, ‘ngukinyukia o kahora njerekeire o matuini’ translated ‘i will steadily make my way to heaven’.
to his three daughters may the lord be with them as they face life without their loving mother in the spirit of his song ‘enda nasi’ (‘go with us lord’) featured in his album with sifa voices ‘ombi langu’ (my prayer). for reuben kigame may you be strong, consoled and have ‘amani moyoni’ mwako as you sung in your kiswahili hymn collection album ‘amani moyoni’.
as sad it is for kigame, his daughters, relatives, friends and those of us who have benefited spiritually from his ministry, am sure mercy kigame is sharing the glories of the land where there is ‘no setting sun’ just as reuben dedicated that album to his wife.
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Author: jamaapoa
•Saturday, September 09, 2006
monday the 11th september 2006 is a d-day within the stock exchange fraternity. the much awaited automatic trading system, simply ats will go live on this day. this will phase out the open outcry system and pave way for electronic trading of shares. transactions will no longer be written on the board but will be beamed and electronically projected for every one to follow the dealings. the trading floor located at first floor of nation centre will still be a much visited 'palace' since all the brokers will still be congregated there religiously. dealers will be armed with a flash disk, cd or a diskette (wow!) of their excel-saved orders to the trading floor and into their designated computerized compartments within the trading floor.
no more shouting and haggling, ats will automatically match orders. surely some jobs are on the line. unlike the tea harvesters and the fiery central organisation of trade union boss one francis atwoli, who are embroiled in a deadlock with tea plantation owners over the introduction of tea picking machines, nse brokers have welcomed the ats system albeit grudgingly. millennium corporation from sri lanka or wherever who brought us the central depository system a.k.a cds and share investors are the ultimate winners. trades will be taking a maximum of three days to settle, buy on a monday and sell them by thursday. dealers manipulation of the market prices will be severely limited and their larger than life lifestyles will for once be checked, though to a limit. i am sure there will be loop holes to exploit, necessity is still the mother of invention my friends. no one knows the father yet.
well, nse is still a mile away to achieve full automation including by the minute online update of dealing progress, integration of broker systems with ats and cds as well as brokers enhancing their systems to cover prompt online trading. slowly we are seeing the disappearance of prompt trades and secret nominee accounts, choreographed share price increases, unchecked across the book trades that have been an avenue of ripping off unwary investors.
the brokers are under hellish pressure to professionalize their operations, improve their customer relations, perfect service delivery and enhance their systems to be more efficient and allow for online management of accounts. capital markets authority is under pressure to license more brokers as the clientele base permutates. the government is being pushed from all directions to privatise more money minting parastatals. though the govt have to mark time to allow the trancentury merchants of venice to capitalise on the deals.
sadly a number of the brokers are overwhelmed by the share craze that hit the market during the kengen ipo. one wonders what will happen when other gems like safaricom, kenya re, suntra stocks, eveready, nakumatt, mega bank, nse, pipeline as well as further privatisation of mumias and national bank hits the market. one broker has even adopted a policy of operating from nine am to three thirty pm, chasing clients who want to be served before nine or after eight (they have a casually dressed and rude ceo who literally does that on their main door). that broker seem to have raked enough money and if you chance to threaten to leave coz of their black and white services, they are more than happy to send you packing. of course, after waiting for your sale or ipo refund cheque for more than a month and nasty feedback that the system is down so no cheques are being processed at the time. this is very frustrating for most investors. unfortunately, where you think you will have better services coz of word of mouth referrals you have to queue on the street announcing to all and sundry including paparazzis and githongoisers* that umehepa job.
i feel that ats will be a comet to some brokers, hot, heavy, impactful and out of this world crunching lazy bones into smithereens and plutonizing others from the planetary knighthood.
*githongoisers – acquaintances, colleagues, buddies etc who smile and talk to you nicely when they see you queuing on the street waiting to sell or buy shares only to tell on you later.
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