Miss Kerigo : Why so serious?

Sorry for using a Wikipedia image, but after going
through my few photos from Primary school,
other than spotting don't-touch-my ankle trousers
which exposed my red socks, I also look high
in most of them. Miss Kerigo was too serious for
photos.

Today was a holiday, Eid Mubarak, in honour of our Muslim segment of Kenyans. Notice how the Kibaki government never announces random holidays  - this one was announced almost a month in advance. The previous Moi one was a show stopper, throwing employers' plans into disarray as he announced National holidays by the roadside amidst 'traditional dancers' who would later receive wads of cash in envelopes. Imagine some foreigner planning a business meeting in Kenya weeks in advance only for it to fall in a last minute holiday.

Back to the holiday, it is a day when one wakes up at 8 Am , only to go back to sleep for an additional 2 hours, oh the bliss. So after doing the above today morning, I woke up, and noticed that my memory, amongst other body organs, was up.

See I have a short memory, I rarely remember anything that did not happen in the last 24 hours, nor anything scheduled and planned to happen in the future. Today was quite exceptional when I woke up and remembered my second last year in primary school.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Stalls at Jamia Mall. Stalls are quite a fad in Nairobi, with
a group of stalls often selling the same wares. 

Hakuna Matata, karibu Afrika - Yet another tourist will be welcomed to this exotic paradise for a get away , but where we will work hard and assist them to have a close-to-home as possible experience. But hey, that was not meant to be the opening sentence for this post.

The title of the post comes from the popular Larry Madowo, known for his business reporting especially in shows like PM Live.  We were at some of those events that journalists, reporters and bloggers keep attending: - some product launch here , some announcement there. It was at one of those launches that someone was mentioning watching something on Afternoon Live. I asked whether they meant PM Live,  I rarely watch TV and had not heard of Aftrenoon Live. 


Apparently Afternoon Live is a business program aired by the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) as a response to NTV's PM Live. That's when I asked if the Kenyan Media would ever stick to originality, rather than copying each other.  Larry replied that it was a monkey see, monkey do affair.

Bata Hush Puppies: Made to leak

My pair of Bata Hush Puppies, proudly soaked after a walk
on wet roads

When one buys a pair of shoes for Ksh 6,000 (yes, about 60 US Dollars), their sanity should be called into question. This is especially so if  a shoe that costs anywhere from 6 to 3 times the cost of other respectable pairs of shoes is incapable of keeping water out of it's innards.

I am one such insane person, who was lured into Bata by the promise that the price was a fair cost to pay for the quality. A 10% discount at the newly opened Bata shop at Sarit was even more convincing and that evening, I took home my first pair of Bata shoes since my lower primary school days.

Four months later, I happened to finally get caught up in Nairobi rush-hour rain. This is the type of rain that pounds the city conveniently around 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., at about the same time that you also plan to rush home. The rain while quite sensitive of Nairobi's need of a reliable piped water supply  and reliable hydroelectricity, is usually quite insensitive of it's timing. This time round, it did not even matter that East Africa was reportedly in the midst of it's greatest drought in 60 years.

African businesses: Not a child's place

This post has been updated from the original post with additional content and verifications. Updated content is in blue. 

Vishal Patel, Executive Director , Copy Cat
limited used to spend his holidays working
at the business from the age of 12

The other day, no, the other month, I was lucky enough to attend Pivot 25. I remember that before the award ceremony at Pivot 25, I was chatting with John Waibochi,  Isis Nyongo and Moses Kemibaro. The event was taking place at the Ole Sereni Hotel which is along Mombasa road. It was here that I learned that Parkside Towers, one of Mombasa road's imposing structures and probably Victoria Furnitures (according to rumours) which is opposite Parkside Towers , all belong to the family that owns Tile & Carpet Centre. In addition , the Indian brothers own other real estate. This are rumoured to include an upcoming structure behind Victoria Furnitures.

Well, the Tile & Carpet Centre brothers are Kenyans, but of Indian decent, commonly refered to in Kenya as Wahindi. Waibochi said that he went to college with the brothers, and wonders what differentiated them from him such that they are that successful. If you know Waibochi, he is a seasoned entrepreneur by himself .

A  child hangs around it's mother's Grocery shop at Mukuru
kwa Njenga

Waibochi then ahead to explain what probably distinguished the Wahindi from himself. The Tile & Carpet brothers parents had operated a dukawalla  -  These are were small-medium sized shops that Indian families ran in the front of their homesteads.  Most of them have eventually grown into large enterprises at the moment.