enterprising kenyans in the diaspora!

I wonder what bloggers take of the story hitting the headlines recently about Kenyans defrauding the US govt of millions of shillings in tax claims. in fact today one daily has reported that the fraud was in terms of billions. this is a pure embarrassment to our govt who just recently announced a huge foreign income mostly from these same Kenyans. how does it feel as a government to know that most of the money that comes to the country was stolen from pensioners in the US. it portrays Kenya very badly. and if this was only in Kansas, then how many more will be discovered in other states and countries? I have been reliably told that Kenyans easily make it big in the US of A not only from their hard work but more from the fact that in that great nation, lying is as uncommon as truth in Kenya. am told that Americans don't expect people to lie so anything you tell them they swallow hook line and sinker. on the contrary, Kenyans don't expect you to believe what they tell you since 70% of what you are told are lies. no wonder when a person in the position of president lied to hios close friends in 2002, people did not condemn the president but rather the persons who were duped. even when he lied to 30 + million kenyans, it was still taken to be as normal as breathing. in fact this month has been a month of great discovery to me. i found out that 60% of my so called close friends told me lies a whooping 85% of the times mostly to manipulate and take advantage of me. but i digress. am told that Americans also expect people to be self respecting and to respect the elderly. stealing from such people is unthinkable. that i understand is the reason Americans were annoyed at Clinton. it was not so much about the affair, but rather that he lied and under oath!

so Kenyans abroad have been lying about their status, their education, their identity and anything else they can lie about and since Americans don't expect it, they never do proper background checks.

back to the story of the fraud. this is not the first case am told but probably the first of such magnitude to be brought to court. should the US authorities feel stupid and want to dig deeper and wider, more kenyans may be nabbed in other forms of fraud and schemes and i wonder what that would mean to the genuine ones who want to get real education and do real jobs there.

but reports from the Kenyan property market suggest that the interest in the same from investors abroad has been very encouraging and during the first ever property expo, the response was superb. only that e-er er hm. the property developers would definitely be lying about the target completion dates of their projects some by a massive 3 years!

more 'good' things in the market

conventional wisdom states that among the asset classes, money markets would normally be more stable hence less risky than equity markets. well that only means that they would also offer lower returns. on that same breath we are told that most equity portfolios returned an average of 40% last year. the year which was touted as the best of all the narc years as far as investments were concerned. if you work out crude mathematics, that would translate to about 3.5% per month. though we all know that its not as simple as that. this year has been a bad year for most and people don't expect much. enough 'investors' have lost their money to cleverer people in pyramids. indeed in an earlier post i had mentioned that money only flows from the dumb to the sharp.

But now this very year, some other sharp people are giving investors a dream profit. they call themselves softlaw, you give them 2000 USD and then sign with them an agreement, either to earn a flat 400 USD per month for six months or to share gains or losses 50% a piece with them when they occur. softlaw i gather from their website is associated with karanja who for sometime tried to market a get rich quick scheme involving forex called Genius Executive Centre. for me it was too sugary and i gave it up. doctors say sugar isn't good for your health, be it physical or financial. but i know many people who are there. they have opened US dollar accounts with banks to process the investment
no comment on their prospects. just a wonder that such people still exist in Kenya.
Elsewhere its apparent that the nse is slowly waking up from the long slumber. some counters have registered real significant gains over the past month. eg ARM, BBK, KPLC etc, more others are also showing signs of coming up with time. i suppose that the explosion of last year may repeat itself next year after elections are held and boys have been separated from the men. the clever guys are rushing to buy this year so that they can sell to the dumb next year.


on another note, i have been musing over the question of discrimination, its clear that many people face discrimination as long as they are few. such people include, the strong (physically), the intelligent (in fact these are the most discriminated people on earth. everyone is scared of them due to their brilliance and yet they are quite rare) survival for any body facing this vice is always herculean. i need to read more on that

Kenya Re cautious sale

The govt seems rather careful about kenya RE. is it a question of concealing stuff or what. first, it took forever to get the ball rolling. then when it did , there was no funfair like in other cases and the prospectus is as scarce as truth in a kenyan parliament. but what caught my eye most was the minimal amount of shares on offer. only 240 million which compares badly with the 2billion of kengen. it means the govt isn't bullish on Kenya Re. it looks like someone trying to sell a rotten egg, you only show a bit of the shell. in fact due to the minimal number of shares on offer, Kenya Re may be a good bet especially for the speculators given that the pyramid has collapsed.

but yesterday i saw mirage on TV or was it? was that Michael Joseph of safaricom signing an agreement on mpesa with posta (postbank is offered at the posta tills in the rural areas) Has anyone ever seen anything like that? posta have their own postapay. how on earth did Michael Joseph convince them to carry the rival mpesa product?

at the end of the news i just saw a genius in the man cause posta have probably the widest coverage in terms of outlets and having the convenience of safaricom mpesa where you do not have to fill in any papers nor line up to send money will simply spell death to postapay

sharing the wealth

Safaricom is not finished with innovation and expansion. they have re-introduced and re-branded simu ya jamii where they are giving the vendors a really great deal. the handset costs only 6000 and you are also given free branding and 1000 airtime. on top of that Safaricom will give you a margin of 7 bob for each minute.
The problem with is that safaricom themselves long killed the simu ya jamii market with their bamba 50 as well as cheap mobile phones meaning that more pple are able to get phones and load airtime. However for the very creative people who can walk around and 'hawk' the SYJ as its called in the market and such like places. the deal is deadly!
By the way did you notice that Safaricom quietly re branded itself and acquired a new sweet logo?

still on safaricom, Mpesa agents are required countrywide. the money transfer thing has really hit the market hard but the problem where Akamba bus service still beats them pants down is the distribution. the margins are low for the agency business but with numbers, millionaires are going to be made by safcom just as it happened with the airtime dealers

sharing the wealth

of targets and lies

I wonder what it about kenyans that they can never respect timeliness or is it deadlines ? I attended a housing expo at KICC in 2005. we had this wonderful offer of housing where everyone was supposed to pay only 4 million for a 4 bedroom maisonette with DSQ , community shopping center, nursery school , perimeter wall etc. and further it was supposed to be in south B only 10 minutes drive in the traffic. the catch was that you had to pay 10% immediately and then finish the whole amount in 3 months time. the construction was promised to complete by July 2006! to date these 'developers' have not even done the ground breaking thing a whole two years down the line. and those who gave out their money cannot get it back without losing 10% of the 10% down payment as administrative costs. the same story is told by those who bought into the diamond park idea which also started in 2005. that particular development at least is almost finished but is about 1 and half years out of its target finish date. The same applies to phenom and many others.

At Bandari villas, arguably one of the best new residential estates, workers are being laid off yet most houses have only their walls put up. the show house is ready and magnificent. However the workers are being laid off at this time when 26 out of the 42 houses in phase 1 do not even have the ring beam. yet the target time of completion is September 2007, only two months from now.

But maybe this target thing is as Kenyan as the kibaki govt promising constitution review by March 2003 then by June , then by 2005 then never! or the ODM fellows keeping on moving time lines and having all sorts of excuses. My frustration is that such kind of lies and laziness it is very costly especially for a country which wants to become industrialized by 2030. nothing can ever be done if you don't have deadlines which you respect. its also very disrespectful to the customers here also referred to as investors. 4 million shillings in 2 years is a lot of money even if you are conservative enough to put it in a fixed deposit at EABS which gives 10% p.a. on each million.

cost of risk

When i was young while being not so young i met an old who was a retiree. he had come to the internet service firm i was working for to pay for his subscription. at that time internet service was a preserve of a few since the rates were high and very few people had personal computers in homes. in fact having a PC at home was a sign in itself. the man seemed rather satisfied with himself. though he did not look the 'part' at all. he had a not so striking suit but it was well kept. he then went ahead to give a free lesson on the secrets to a happy life. he told us that he kept one conviction, to always live below his means! and for life he had lived well below his means and that was how come he was still happy in his retirement; when his peers were either dying or killing their children and other relatives with bills.

I found this mantra very good and i adopted it. and so i have been trying to live below my means as advised by the old man. however i have recently discovered that even though it sounds sweet, its rather misleading since its difficult to determine 'your means'. Is it the paycheck or the investment precedes you get currently or business? living below your means can also mean lowering costs and hence avoiding taking any risks. it means never trying new frontiers, never tempting the untested. but that will make you remain where you are forever. The truth is that human limits have never been achieved. people who try things keep on surprising not only the world but also themselves. even large firms have long discovered that cost cutting is not what affords you large profits but rather more aggressive marketing, innovation and expansion. if expansion limits are reached then you must start being creative with yourself and re-invent yourself.

a life of no risks is probably the most risky life known to man.

The Nairobi star has finally been launched and true to its hype, it seems to target only the young. it is as kiss fm as the breakfast show. but Caroline this morning alleged that newspaper vendors have been paid not to sell the new daily. well thats competition for you. it happens everywhere and no one should cry foul. however in our office the reception of the paper has been that of disgust. everyone who saw it screamed, oh a tabloid!

Best new blogs

I have discovered two best new blogs for my entry. one about a young African should i call him manufacturer or implementer called Kamkwamba from Malawi. his story has been blogged by very many people. but now with the help of some well wishers he has established his own blog to tell his own story in his own words. its inspiring to say the least.

The other called Saharan vibe treasure of information both historical and contemporary about Africa and her resources especially her people. the blog has been there for a while but the information is strikingly refreshing. I have made the Saharan vibe a daily must read.

tuliwalaza!

Tuliwalaza 23-16! yes i finally succumbed to a higher power and went to watch the rugby match between Kenya and morocco thanks to the persuasion of my nephew who is an ardent fan and player. Morocco, the announcer said is ranked 3rd in Africa after South Africa and Namibia. Kenya is ranked 6th. A decent placing if you ask me given we only hear of our other boys being ranked in the tens. contrary to my popular belief, the crowd at this joint was very decent, very enthusiastic and very funny. i loved them. the game was funny too and the ball was in motion less times than it was being fought for. the average weight of the morocans was 100Kg according to the announcer and that of kenyans was 90KG. needless to say, Kenyans did badly anytime there was a scram. but they were quite tactful and fast and the crowd played even a bigger role. i all it was an enjoyable encounter. maybe coz of the win or maybe coz of the company.

after the game is when i found out that the spectators of ruj are not your everyday folk. the car park was full with 'strong' cars and there was a temporary snarl up on the busy ngong road. i was reliably told that the players would go for diner then drink themselves silly. that explains why those players are pot bellied like that. am still wondering how such big guys manage to run that fast and with that much energy.

On the way back, the car completely refused to go past china center , it forced a turn into the center where amaica always hosts kenge kenge the orutu masters. at china center there is also martinis, a very choici pub with sweet lights and beautiful ambiance.

17B!

17.78Billion is the new profit record in east and central Africa thanks to the aggressive marketing and innovation by on Micheal Joseph of Safaricom. the gross turnover rose by 35% to 47.44B, the customer base grew by some 50% points to 6.02 at the end of 2006.

The Income Tax charge of Kshs5.182bn will be the largest income tax payments this year from Kenyan companies. However in addition to this amount, Safaricom is a major contributor to the Government in terms of VAT, Excise Duty and License fees. In the Financial year under review, the total amount payable was Kshs18.4bn, an increase of 40.5% over the Kshs13.1bn in the previous year.

wow!

And so the war is on!

Safaricom responded with a hummer yesterday announcing upto 50% reduction in call charges in some cases. its a sure signal to celtel and telkom kenya that they have got the muscle and they wont hesitate to use it. this sign is also good for the investor public who are angling to take a rightful share of the pie and the war once Safaricom goes public. Safaricom however is flexing its muscles even more with a national roll out of the 3.5G network in the offing. with this new technology, voice will now ride on the data network and speeds will be much higher. It sure spells the death of the Internet service providers as we know them. In fact the acquisition of the pan african provider Africa Online by Telkom SA is a sure signal that things are going to be thick. Telkom SA has re engineered itself and is all out to slice the mobile telephony pie in Kenya just like they have done already in Nigeria. Telkom SA is an rough and aggressive if not abrasive competitor and all the peers in Kenya better be warned. But even Telkom kenya is also not joking with anyone. if the map of their wireless coverage is anything to go by, the competition is just getting started. indications are that their service is so popular that they are unable to keep up with the demand and are unable to print enough scratch cards popularly known as credit in these parts. on its part, Telkom kenya has gone into the offensive and poached two leading managers from Safaricom. Thats a serious warning and if celtels announcement on their intention to drive the prices further down is to be noted then safari com better rush back to the drawing board. they will have to work harder for their 6.5Million customers who still feel that Safaricom's profits are not justified and that the rates are still too high. the public feels that Safaricom just has too much money! However given that last year that huge profit was got from only about 4.5million subs, it means that this year it will be even higher given there were more subs thanks to some aggressive marketing and innovation like the bamba 50 in the past year. But for us investors, we keep on wondering what is taking the cooking of this dish so long!

In another development, its hats off to Nakumatt for making the 30 best retailers globally. after the award won by KCB , it makes you jivunia kuwa mkenya. Nakumatt IPO is promised to be in 2009

untested waters

Last Friday it was time to test the untested waters of music. The alliance francais was hosting makadem and the villagers. I always ignore music shows organized by AF and any other non Africans since i am normally afraid that the music they like would be metallic, cold or dry. and not poetic, soft and romantic like the Africans do it. but this time they said in the posters: The Ohanglaman! and poor me swallowed hook line and sinker!

contrary to my belief that 'white' people are time conscious, the show started an hour late and the first on stage was the feminine looking olith ratego. Olith sings sweet slow luo dodo. with very poetic and witty lyrics. but it wasn't his day and soon Marcus Kamau was called on stage. Kamau is more white than barak obama. his music as he said was African rock whatever that means. the most remarkable thing about kamau was his excitement. you could just love how much he enjoyed himself. and so onto makadem. Ok it was a trick. makadem plays no ohangla but boy! the energy! the electricity! the guy is a specialist in afro-fusion. he had some really funny and poetic lyrics. the energy was high and he gave a really good account of his being there that evening. He then handed over to odhi a new musician and also Zippy. Zippy was not very impressive to me apart from her gyrations. Most of her songs are actually luo folk songs which we used to sing when i was young. but she had great stage presence.

Makadem then closed his show with a hilarious and again electric song Kisumu bound bus. also hats off to his accompanying ladies who were dancing beside him though i kept on fearing their wrap around would fall down given the gyrations of their hips

Hear some of Makadem's music here

A development Budget

Overall, i must say the budget was impressive with the minister massaging most of the important growth areas such as ICT, transport and energy sectors. I was also impressed by the fact that contrary to what others feel, the ministers speech had very little political leaning and mostly dwelt on how to achieve the coveted status of a newly industrialized nation. Very good incentives for those in the low cost houses. An area which has truly been begging for attention. Also better terms for the pensioners as the taxes are removed. Also impressive is the focus on the common man ie by focusing on the SACCOs, women and youth. I think in this regard women are the greatest beneficiaries since they will benefit as youth (upto 35 years) and as women. Also the recruitment of more teachers is hugely welcome. its a known fact that teachers are the catalyst of rural economic growth. Like in an earlier post this year, most rural economies start with the teachers. The increase of policemen is a clear indication of focus on provision of security. however more should be done in this area. the police should be managed better and they should focus more on preventing crime instead of arresting young pple for not carrying their ID cards!

right now, focus of the investor and business public should be on how to reap the maximum benefits from these measures instead of trashing the budget and terming it an election campaign strategy!!!

a full speech can downloaded from the Treasury website

elsewhere i think we need to congratulate kipsigis Teachers Sacco on the completion of their Hospital. I think this is a great achievement by the teachers. the hospital located along the sotik-Kericho road is really a statement of determination, good management and foresight. It is a sure sign that SACCOs and like minded societies are great savings and investment avenues.

Kenya RE questions without answers

The delay in floating Kenya Re is causing more questions in addition to what bloggers and investors have asked before. the loud silence and the seeming lack confidence in the part of those handling this issue is not helping matters at all. maybe there is fear that institutional investors may not been keen on this offer which would deal a deadly blow to the firm. the effects would be worse than those of Eveready. Eveready has followed sameer, another merali firm which has perennially traded way below its IPO price. But if Kenya Re also fails to get suitors then the government may be forced to put its offers on hold maybe till the monster of election goes away. but that would be a two edged sword in that elections are rather unpredictable and the govt of today can easily become the opposition of tomorrow. its also looking rather certain that even if the head of state achieves his personal victory, most of his foot soldiers will definitely fall by the way side and this time he will end up with a worse hung parliament than what he has now. most of his octogenarian friends may also fail to cross the murky waters come December and the old man would be surrounded by ambitious, hungry young politicians with no respect for tribe.

If that happens then some of the economic policies including sale of some of these parastatals may prove quite difficult. I would think that if indeed the government wanted to sell then the best time would be now. waiting waiting hurts the tummy so the sages say! we waited too long for kencom and kengen. I also look forward to a speedy decision on sale of safaricom to the public.

on another note, its a wonder that Access Kenya took off to a rather slow start but looking at where the continent is going, AK looks like a growth company. forget about the current statistics on the firm. its in the correct segment and good tidings are expected. IT and energy are the segments to watch right now especially in Africa and since the price is this low, this is a counter to position in.

KCB does it

Its hats off to KCB for bagging the AI index award. According to Business Daily , the bank beat strong challenge from Orascom, MTN etc.

Elswhere, speculation is high on the possibility of HF going the Equity way since CDC is not keen to exercise its rights when the offer comes up. When you go to HF you realize that the institution is very experienced in the lucrative mortgage industry. what one wonders is how come they allowed so much competition to come in. as it is now, HF though quite flexible still does not want to take any huge risks and still offers their home loans at very high rates. At 15.75% they compare badly with Stanbic at 11.5% and even stanchart at 13.75%.

more speculation; what will the finance minister do to us this Thursday? more taxation or less? KRA has not been meeting targets lately. its unlike 2 years ago when the employees were almost always assured of the bonus which came as a result of beating targets. this past two years have been bad. I am hoping that the good minister would give more incentives especially in the housing segment in order to encourage more savings. more creativity may be required to net more tax. ie widen the net further as opposed to steeping it.

Powers of love

last week, i heard a lot about rugby, safari sevens and associated fun. my nephew who is a die hard rug fun wasted no opportunity he had to prepare me for the ultimate adrenaline rush. it was supposed to be the sports event of the year and there was no way i could miss it. he even 'bribed' me with the story about extremely gorgeous girls who also attend the tournament. on top of that there would be mad entertainment at the village . Well all that worked very well to prepare me for this great day. i have never attended any and this was going to be a very good first time. i like first time things. that alone makes my adrenaline rush. So you can imagine that everyone i know , got to know about my intention to go watch the game and come Saturday, i was all prepared and ready. I even got a complementary ticket by some struck of fate. i then started out to the Ngong road venue. I was heading to the venue, when i got this call from my long time thespian friend Kodhek. he told me that Kakamega high school were presenting their play The Composition at the national theater. On top of that they would present 3 dances, two other award winning plays, poems and mimes. The entry was only 300 bob! I cant remember what happened but i know that the car refused to go ahead but instead opted to do a U-turn and head straight to National Theatre.

Sure enough the kings of schools drama festival were preparing the stage for the presentations. and even their thespian/principal Oliver Munishi was with them. i later learnt that the event was really a launch of the old boys association of Kakamega African Government School. It was a very good evening, and i got to know that Kach has really churned out some great men in the country. ie, Najib Balala, who was also the chief guest, Ochilo ayako, Japheth shamala, Dr. Khaminwa, etc not forgetting the current vice president Moody Awori! The launch also saw the launch of the website, and we saw pictures of the old school. pictures which am sure must have given the old boys some great nostalgic moments. people really cheered especially when the picture of the gate, the dining hall and dormitories came up. Rufftone (omundu strong), who is also a young old boy of Kach then gave us a lip synced version of his new song Tsinyanga Tsiwere before the boys gave a real good account of themselves with a dramatized luhya dance. Ruftone first stage performed at kakamega high school and he said that it was the principal , Mr. Oliver who gave him the confidence to rap during a dramatized dance.

However going back to the pictures of the school, one gets a sick feeling. how is it that the structures look that bad when great people have been churned time and again from the school. i think we need to develop a culture of giving back to the community especially schools. That school badly needs even a fresh coat of paint. thankfully Balala started with giving a pledge of 30 million shilling for new dormitories.

visions and ambitions

I attended a vision and ambition launch at the panafric last night. It was being done by a young man from Marakwet West. the man is hoping to take over the mantle and free the marakwets from all their trials and tribulations. i learnt yesterday that marakwet is a place in kenya where mangoes and oranges still grow wild. or maybe lets say grow without anyone laying claim to them. yet i was told again that the people in this rich land live in abject poverty. one thing that struck me from the crowd was that it was quite diverse. there were very few marakwets in the evening. another interesting thing was that two other brothers in this family have ever tried to capture that seat but failed. so this third one is the proverbial David who was anointed by Samuel. incidentally he was called samwel himself. Many people showered him with praises and words of encouragement. it looks like the people from these area are rather polite if the tone of the night is anything to go by. they talk so gently almost to a whisper. its a wonder then that marakwet is so known more for the insecurity than for mangoes growing and falling off in the wild. in fact the 'MP' promised to sort out the security issue once elected.

and talking of security or lack of it. i agree with comments in my recent post that economic growth when insecurity is at this high level is nothing. bloggers commented that we should never talk of wealth creation and economic growth if the security of that wealth cannot be guaranteed. Agreed.

but still on security, the mungiki rage that is threatening to paralyze the center of the country where also the power sits is not as easy as the media puts it. i met this guy who told me that indeed business men are being invited to join the gang after paying 300,000/= membership fees. the conditions were the same as the ones of Julius Ceasar, if you join we will protect you from all your enemies and cover you in gold else we will throw you to the circus maximus! today mungiki has indicated that they will expect residents of muranga to pay 200 bob per day for each matatu, 50 bob per day for each homestead (pay for living in muranga) and 100 bob per day for each kiosk or shop.

economy growth edition

the maths and statistics are out and it shows a clear trend that the economy is growing at a rate never seen before in this country. not even before independence. the guy who put that in the papers was clever to start all the way from 1956, a 50 year analysis. the analysis was very interesting. but was the report surprising? hardly. Even though politicians are bad mouthing the report and saying its a campaign gimmick , you have to agree that the growth has been felt in many areas. coz otherwise i would need to be told where those 5000 cars per month are coming from and going to. and if you go to the super market, you line up for that long, and the mobile phone profits (12. something billion!) those guys must have been laundering money if it was not coming from Kenyans. even about tourism, we have read over and over about shortage of beds and of people turning their houses into lodges. further, beer consumption has gone up even after the brewer started the responsible drinking campaign. the list doesn't end there ...

...and or all that we need to raise our hats and bow!

voice of the young?

The activities of the vijana tugutuke group as well as statistics from the good old samuel kivuitu may be sending us a very strong message. if its indeed true that 67% of the registered voters are currently young people then it may be true that the youth are seriously fed up with the old men's leadership and are focused on wrestling power from them. if the attendance of the gutuke rallies are anything to go by then the old should be afraid , very afraid. and good old samuel already challenged the youth when he stated that he first went to parliament when he was only 26 years old and that he was elected in westlands and not his tribal backyard. now any youth with fire in his belly would give that a serious thinking. in deed we know that the likes of matiba were in senior civil service positions when they were only 24. it would be interesting to see the young people like nyambane (walter) , kiarie, kaimenyi driving to parliament to debate policies with the likes of michuki. comedy of comedies!

and again last week when michuki was talking about mungiki , i couldn't help but notice a similarity with mau mau. may be mungiki are not only about extortion of money from matatus and kidnapping. what if they insist that only mungiki members be allowed to stand for election in the areas they control? if they can bravely take on the police and murder like that with abandon, they must be knowing they are standing on dry ground. maybe mungiki is another way young people are again telling the older generation that if you wont share, we will take by force! mungiki may just be another revolution like mau mau. we know that even then michuki must have dismissed mau mau as just thugs but they were more than 'normal' thugs. and even though they were crushed they bloodied the noses of michuki and his colonial bosses

but if my seemingly allegations were to be true, what would that portend for the investor public? that the leadership would change hands from the old legacy business men to young gun trotting men and women who only want to start creating their wealth?

however, am afraid that the mungiki could simply prevent the older politicians from even presenting their nomination papers and that would make them go to parliament unopposed.

a weekend of culture

ok, i expected this posting. in fact i feel that by posting am only meeting my expectations. the day was Friday, i had seen a small advert about a ramogi night at the great carnivore. to celebrate luo kit gi gi timbegi (culture) i knew for sure i was going to give it a miss. the last time i went there it was too packed. but this friend of mine insisted i take him since it was going to be his first time. i protested that i was broke, but that excuse did not fly since he offered to buy the tickets and the beer!

we got there at 8:30 and already there was very little parking left. inside there were no seats left but the musicians were not yet ready. we found the new luo-english dictionary being sold near the door. on the culinary side were varieties of roasted maize, roasted gizzards, fire roasted chicken, fish potato etc. but they did not yet have ugali. (food isn't food without ugali!) one surprising thing was that unlike the last time i was here, there were no politicians, at least no MPs and the other surprise was that the crowd was rather young, maybe about 35 and below. current top musicians were in attendance and the very first one was the young and beautiful lady Maureen. looking at her you could not associate her with ohangla. traditionally ohangla is played by men with dirty lyrics. but when Maureen took to the stage, the house came down. you could not stay on your seat.However you could hardly dance since the floor was so packed so all you had to do was let the music sway you in the crowd. this time maybe since it was such a young crowd, the air was full of very sweet perfumes. there were two dance areas. so if ohangla was not your cup of tea, you simply moved to where dola kabary was belting his benga beats

I think when it comes to organizing these kinds of things carnivore is way ahead of the park. i was pleasantly surprised that in spite of the large crowd, their professional service remained untainted, and the waiters were affording a smile even after walking several kilometers back and forth taking orders from the excited revelers. i know how difficult it is to serve young rich people. After 1 hour you would easily pick up a fight. but thumbs up to these waiters and their managers.
How carnivore keeps on surviving the turbulence of the entertainment scene baffles one but may be it is because of the high turnover of entertainment managers in the place. in Kenya your club can kick for just 3 months during which time, patrons would be only too happy to even sit on each other or stand but then all of a sudden they disappear into thin air and you are left with all the renovation and the expansion you recently did. you never know what hit you. but carnivore has survived all that.

on another note, courtesy of Benin Mwangi i have come across this very nice site which led me to this very heart warming and inspiring story.

Benin Mwangi has really advanced in the business in Kenya and Africa line and he keeps me posted on very great new happenings in and around Africa.