Forget you owe me

It's yet another day, and you may be one of the few working hard, or the many relaxing and enjoying the fruits of labour (theirs or someone else's).

Then you get a call, or someone interrupts you. Things for the person are very thick, and they need an emergency loan. "See what you can do". Alternatively, they may be wanting to expand their business, which they copied from the one doing well across the street. After all, if its doing well across the street, or next door , it will do well here.

Some, like your neighbour, may be rude enough to knock at your door on Saturday morning, and after you take enough man hours to get to the door and respond, you find that they are sorry for waking you up. You then find out that they need some money to pay their house-help which they do not have, and you been very eager to get back to sleep, make the mistake of lending them double the money, change to be returned immediately and the rest by the end of the day.

As for your friend who needs some cash to celebrate Christmas before the delayed salary arrives, or is stuck at some border post after they overspend their meagre earnings and need to get back to Nairobi, you are kind and stupid enough to lend them.

As for the friend who needs to copy the business across the street, they go to the bank and borrow enough cash to buy a car and make a spirited attempt at copying the successful business. The bank happens not to trust their business sense, and asks them to provide tow guarantors, who the bank strictly vets. You end up being friendly enough to become a guarantor.

The biggest problem with helping people out when they are in the thick is that they forget that they owe you. It escapes me how somebody who was so broke could forget that you bailed them out of the problem. After making you alter your spending to save their skinny asses, they will get back to leading a normal life and leave you to absorb the cost.

Things can get worse. If you were stupid enough to become a guarantor, you may wake up one day to find the copycat business closed, all cleaned up, and you may also be rudely surprised to find that as of last evening, they no longer live in your town, and no one knows where they moved to.

As the bank raids your earnings to repay their loan, it may be an opportune time to think about that business and how you were the only customer.

At times, you wonder whether its actually beneficial to lend to friends who are quick at forgetting that they owe you. It may be better to refer them to professional lenders, aka Banks who know how to better deal with amnesia.

Maybe we can borrow a leaf from SavvyKenya on how to deal with difficult creditors via social media

Comments

Beers in Kenya: A sober opinion

Note: This is a dated post and has since been mostly passed by events. SAB Miller beers including Castle and Peroni are no longer widely available in Kenya after their exist. Sirville Brewery was bought out by Brew Bistro before being permanently shut in a tax dispute. Kenya is a land of milk, honey, beaches and taxes. I have penned, or is typed, a newer post here . Peroni - One of the best beers in Kenya. Did a taste of canned and bottled Italian, and bottled Tanzanian I like the tangy flavour and body in Tanzanian Peroni. The can is close. Heineken drinkers will like the Italian one. I have had a short beer swigging stint in my life. It has however been long enough for me to share my opinion of Kenyan beer. Interestingly, over the course of sharing such opinions with other drunkards connoisseurs, I have found that we all have different views as to what beer is the best, which one makes you too drunk, or which one gives one free, extra hangover for every ha...

Lusaka and Livingstone Zambia to Namibia By Road

Zambia is a pretty large country, an exciting one and with no shortage of potholes. For instance, take the direct route from Lusaka - Livingstone to Namibia through the Sesheke - Katima Mulilo border crossing. Typically, roads are either good or tend to have potholes here and there. However, the last 120 kilometres of the Livingstone to Sesheke/Katima Mulilo route are best described as potholes dotted by some road here and there for the just thirty kilometres past Kazungula town, which is also the Zambia - Botswana border crossing. Trying to drive to Sesheke is so bad it will take you anywhere between 4 hours to 6 hours to navigate those 100 kilometres. You may or may not have your dignity at the end and your vehicle may be in more than one piece. If you really must use the Sesheke - Katima Mulilo crossing as of December 2022, then take the 900 kilometre longer detour from Lusaka to Mongu then back to Katima Mulilo. It doesn't guarantee you absence of potholes, b...

The Nairobi City By-Laws that Never Were

Well, you have all heard about the proposed Nairobi city by Laws, currently awaiting approval by the Local Government minister. The proposed laws seemed to be quite comprehensive, and ranged from simple laws governing traffic-lights-conduct to the outrageous ones which seek to limit the behavior of city dogs. We here at gramware have been having a feeling that some of the laws on dogs were referring to a word used to co-notate the gender of a female dog; and commonly used to refer to human beings with outrageous behaviours. Still, we think that there are some laws that city hall missed, and we decided to list some of them here. Most of them might be outrageous, and probably a reason why they didn't make the cut. Here they are: It shall be illegal for a city Resident to stop on a street to stare at a video screen for a period of time longer than 15 seconds. any resident contravening this shall be charged with obstruction. Pedestrians within the city shall attempt to walk in almost ...

Kenyan Beers and Craft Beer Reviews for 2025

It's 2025, and you asked for yet another Kenyan beer review. Let's cut straight to the chase - we keep the many stories for once we are drunk. Right? This year we categorize the beers according to breweries. Bila Shaka / Bateleur Flagship is Bila Shaka which is a rich flavoured but bitter IPA with 6% volume. They focus more on quality and experimenting. Home to many pleasantly (sweet per 2 people. I agree) favoured beers like Dire Straits, and for the ladies who love it a lot on the sweeter side, there's Honey Badger. These come in at about 5% or so. Jua Kali isn't as sweet as the above and is a mixed rice and barley beer, for some reason popular in the hot coast. Capitan is their bar beer and is a light-ish, pleasant beer at 4% volume and a good time passer when you're there for a long and good night and have things to do the next day. My favourite local brewer and highly recommended, especially Dire Straits. It's a medium beer, don...

Kenyan products: The art of punishing your consumer

This post was written in 2011. Facts may have and indeed have changed - but the conclusion has not. Dormans instant coffee tastes better than Sasini instant coffee. Ramtons electronics are manufactured for Kenya's Hypermart Limited, yet maintain a high product quality Peanut butter used to taste so good, but you could not afford it on the pocket money that you got back in school. A few years later, you have your first real job and your first "disposable" income. You buy your first real tub of peanut butter, probably the first in your life. You feel proud that Dominion peanut butter is manufactured in Ruiru, a town that you visited in your campus days to withdraw your pocket money, it was the nearest bank ATM to your campus. This was before Equity bank became a mainstream bank and decided to open an ATM in your campus, and before M-Pesa meant that you ...

Dennis Kioko

Search This Blog