First Impressions

The Gambia is a wonderful country. Having said that, the aviation world has not been fair to this tourist gem because everybody who is here has some untoward experience to narrate about the difficulties and at times comitragic distances they had to cover to get here. Can you imagine a South African having to fly to Brussels and then back to West Africa. Even Nigerian and Ghanians who are literally next door neighbour have to struggle to get here. Nobody got here on less than three flights. For me it is a sad statement about how much work African states need to do to dismantle the borders that hinder travel and commerce. Many delegates from Nigeria had to drive from Dakar by road. Kenya Airways is doing booming business connecting many of the major capitals in West and Central Africa, but hopping from those main hubs of Lagos, Dakar, Freetown to the smaller state capitals is impossible. Just this month Air Senegal has collapsed and Bellview had problems with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authorities. This left many of the delegates hoping to come down either with useless tickets or stranded with no connections. Virgin Air Nigeria will start flying from July 1st into Banjul and that will offer the best connection yet to Gambia because Lagos has got lots of air traffic from the rest of Africa. The tourism industry here hardly uses scheduled airlines and is dependant on Air Charters from UK and other European capitals. If the air connections to Gambia are sorted out, this country stands to gain alot from regional tourism courtesy of the regional powerhouses like Nigeria and Ghana. Further afield they can easily attract tourism business from Southern Africa, South America, Europe all which are within reach. I wish the "Siling Coast of Africa" all the best and promise to be a lifelong ambassador.

Banjul here comes Kenya

The 22nd All Africa Public Relations Conference will be held between 24th and 28th May at the Sheraton Hotel, Banjul and a delegation of Kenyan PR practitioners will attend and represent the motherland. I will be amongst the group mingling and networking with my colleagues and peers; in no hurry. Usually when we meet in our professional body meetings and events, we are harried and pressed for time. I therefore look forward to a relaxed week, learning one or two things about the country and how my peers from around Africa are communicating. I will keep you posted.....

Burnt Out

Does anyone ever get a feeling like the time left is less than time spent? I am feeling like this candle- very little of me is left. There seems to be so much more to do in such little time. How does one extend the time available to them? Is it about better time management? Is it about self awareness? What is it? 

Migingo & The Art Of State Propaganda

For a while now, I have pondered over the importance of what I will call The Migingo Saga.

Why is Migingo happening now? At the initial stages of the saga, analysts thought it was a ploy by Museveni to rally Ugandans together againist the "big bad rich neighbour". On close scrutiny, one realises that Kenyan leaders are the ones that needed to divert the nation's attention from pressing problems of famine and drought, corruption, mis-rule and general lack of leadership.

Everytime I try to place the importance and relevance of the island saga, I get drawn closer and closer to the conslusion that its mere state propaganda aimed at keeping Kenyans emotionally charged and directing all of our national stocks of venom towards our neighbours to the west. Uganda also seems to be in the know and must have been requested to "play along", how else would you explain all the drama and theatrics they are involved in- sending their brigadiers to the island and Government Spokeperson to Nairobi, Kibaki meeting with Museveni in Lusaka, etc. The only unscripted part is the one of Kenya looking like a sissy simply because someone forgot to let Kianga and Wetangula in on the secret. So we end up with State officials seeking a diplomatic solution, while Ugandans and common Kenyans are spoiling for a military fight!

This tatics have been used in the past and at different intervals we have had to deal with "manufactured crisis" like guerrillas here and there, sedition, coup plot, cabinet reshuffles, a cure for AIDS, pyramid schemes, etc which are meant to keep the citizens on tenterhooks for months on end and their gaze away from the real problems.

What company do you keep?

The other weekend while having a beer with friends of a friend, one of them posed and asked what kind of role models do we expose our kids to? His view is that most parents like hanging around their "kind", which means that if you are a lawyer then all the successful adults that you expose your kids to apart from family members will be in the law and enforcement careers. The twist was that in Kenya today only a small percentage of people are engaged in formal employment or in the the type of careers that every parent wishes their children to engage in. Invariably too many Kenyans are in "jua kali" or informal businesses. To make matters worse our type of businesses lack professionalism and you will therefore find a very successful real estate player raking in millions but plying their trade from a parking lot or a cybercafe! Professionals are looked down upon and those in public service are demeaned. He went on to observe that in the olden days, civil servants were respected and it was an honour and privilege to serve the nation. Teachers were respected and emulated, doctors too. Poor kids are therefore left no choice but to emulate the "wheeler dealer" uncles they are familiar with. With this comes the oft lauded cutting of corners that Kenyan business world is associated with. The hero and heroines of Kenyan business-lore are all strugglers who cut a corner here and suplied "air" there! In such a world where every "uncle and aunty" is in business, are we not limiting the options left for career chioces to our kids. To make matters worse, TV has filled the vacuum with a very unrealistic reality of aliens and a Harry Porter-type world full of sorcery black magic.Will it be a wonder when your teenage daughter finds inspiration in Gothic culture and your son becomes a slave of hip-hop culture? As we discussed the issue, it dawned on many that a "bling" and informal culture was seeping slowly into our society. The most respected in our midst are the tie-less "bling"-ardoned businessmen who drive a flashy and pimped car, keep irregular hours and remains vague about what they really do for a living. The discussion got me thinking. How do I expose Natasha and Gregory to the right kind of people. Inspirational and not hyped types. What advice on careers do I give them? While I may not have a game plan to share now, the discussion was food for thought and I hope I will be conscious to what and who they learn from.

Seventy Four Ninety (74.90) is the price of your vigilance

If you ever doubted that oil marketers operate a cartel in Kenya, then here is the evidence. After all the noise we made about the oil marketers fleecing us with unjustified mark-ups and after the Energy Regularory Commission threatened them with price control, they are now "self-regulating". A close look at all the station forefront's reveals a unified price of Kshs. 74.90 cutting across Kobil, total, Caltex, Shell, etc.

In the past it was not uncommon to find a difference of as much as six shilling in the price of unleaded super petrol between two stations marketing the same brand only 3 kilometres from each other. Most notorious were the CBD stations and those in the Hurlingham area. Thika Road, Muranga Road and Eastlands were the places where you got value for money. Not any more it seems. There is consesus now.

Did petro consumers ask for too much? Wil ERC do anything now.

Nakuru is ahead of the street lighting pack

With a smooth 160 kms road to the town, Nakuru is fast becoming a favourite destination of mine. On a recent trip, I was impressed by the designs of the street lights- one has a flamingo encasing the light while the other is artistic in design. You wont see anything like this in Nairobi where the workmanship of the recent revamped traffic lights in CBD was disappointing.

Enough Of Talk- Why Mama Lucy Has My Support

Images of the Molo Tragedy that will not be in the mainstream media

Since last night, many have debated on whether it was right or wrong for the first lady, Mama Lucy to direct her diatribe towards Hon. Saitoti, the Minister incharge of internal security. My take is that she has a democratic right to comment on any issue that she wishes to. Her privileged position so near the centre of the executive arm of Kenyan government also affords her an insight that many of us may not have. On the Sunday morning that NTV broadcast live from the scene of that grisly accident, I was angry at the run-of-the-mill speeches made by Hon. Saitoti, Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga, Hon. Ongeri, Hon. Beth Mugo, etc that "tunawaomba wananchi wetu.......", "nihatia ku....", "serikali yetu inajitahidi...." etc . This was the usual government-speak that you hear coming from all government officials right from the village chief all the way to the highest office. "..if funds become available....", "we urge the relevant arms of government to re-dedicate themselves...blah, blah....."! With the Molo tragedy coming so soon after the Nakumatt inferno in Nairobi, what I expected to hear was that government will implement, sack, charge, amend a law here or a bye-law there, change the way we transport inflammables, store them, etc. I also expected that the "leaders" would acknowledge the factors that caused the mad rush to scoop oil despite the underlying danger. I was hoping they would concede that poverty drove the poor villagers to their untimely and un-necessary deaths. All the "leaders" who spoke at the site have the ability to make real change in the country with specific regard to safety laws and eradicating poverty. They are not mere wananchi! They are members of both the cabinet and parliament- who can influence positive changes in this land. They are the expected to make a show at leading. Pep talk will not do. I hear that the cabinet has ignored an inter-ministerial cabinet memo on Disaster Management which was put together by a task-force comprising numerous ministries and city council. Such a policy shaping document is obviously not as lucrative or as interesting as maize, oil, telecommunciations, privatisation and IPO! While our cabinet handles the "fun" agenda, the people's interests will remain in the back burners forever while we continue to die of inaction. Who will save us?

Difficult Communications

A communications peer working in the financial sector recently confided to her pal that she had had it and wanted out. The reason? Being a communications manager in a transnational financial institution, every innovation, strategy, intervention or activity she has suggested to her fellow managers has been met with unified resistance. Everybody around the management table is an pseudo-expert in communications; they each know a better way of writing, saying, connecting to their target audience better, faster, cheaper and sexier than the in-house expert!

That to me sounds like the story of every PR practitioner working in any organization outside a media, advertising/PR Agency, religious or terrorist organization! Communicating is not that easy after all-otherwise can someone explain to me all these failed organizations, gaffe-prone CEOs, politicians, scientists, etc. Who will explain to me why half the world has earned such horrible reputations? Why are so many individuals and organizations spending millions to undo negative images?

It’s a fact that the PR trade in Kenya is looked down upon. Lately a new demeaning trend has emerged where public organizations are seeking to recruit a corporate & regulatory affairs manager with a purely legal background? Legal experts are the anti-thesis of PR experts. You cannot ask a legal advisor in an organization to double up as the image and reputation advisor helping the organization navigate a myriad of stakeholders with varying needs! A lawyer’s orientation is to sue, to threaten and to use the existing law to defend the organization. Who will stand up for the profession?

My Village MP Insults His Voters

During last year's Kenyatta Day holiday, my village MP decided to give every Location in his constituency a bull to slaughter. A white settler doing this for his farmhands in the 1950s would have received accolades. But this is 2008 in independent Kenya. One Location in this part of Kenya has a population of about 200,000 people. How can you live with yourself? How can you go home sleep soundly with the knowledge that you have made your subjects happy! Is a morsel of meat what these people want, nay need? Who are your advisors, mheshimiwa? Are you in touch with reality? Your constituency is only 40 kms from Nairobi, but many parts are not accessible in wet weather! You have grinding poverty, poor health facilities, kids out of school, insecurity, etc. What are your priorities?

The Year Is Gone And So Is Kenya's Innocence

2008 is by far the most horrible year that the motherland has had in the recent history. We started off with the post election mayhem that cost over 1000 lives and millions in lost property and business opportunities. In the course of the year our healing was delayed by the greedy MPs, high cost of living, drought, fuel shortages, political bickering and brinkmanship that had the country drunk and directionless when resolve and leadership post-Waki and Kriegler Reports was all that we prayed for. The healing was somewhat accelerated by the best Olympic performance and our cousin Obama’s win in America. This our annus horibillis was a year during which our politics lost the veneer of respectability, our decades-old communal hatred came to the fore unhindered by pretences of civility and the collective innocence was forever lost. As we usher in the new year, the initial signs are that we have not learnt any lessons and our politicians are already engaged in sparring fights over which way to go with the new constitution, taking differing positions on the new ICT Law (media bill) and all the posturing in readiness of 2012 that is going on amid all the mwananchi problems that no one seems to care about. Thousands of IDPs are still in transitional camps waiting for their leadership to sort out their problems. It is no wonder Kofi Annan, Kenya's nanny and chaperone has had to cajole and reprimand us with his "Op-ed on Kenya" now running in all the dailies. He says that "in my view, while the progress has been remarkable, the pace of the reforms should move faster. That is because the window of opportunity for serious reform will start to close sooner than we might wish. I am already concerned that a premature focus on the 2012 elections could distract the country from the more pressing priorities-pursuing the IREC and CIPEV reforms and tackling the other long-term issues identified in Agenda Item Four of the National Dialogue. I appreciate why some have dubbed Agenda Item Four the "mwananchi agenda", as it deals with those deep-seated problems that most directly affect the lives and livelihoods of most Kenyans-whether its poverty and inequity, youth unemployment, land grievances, ethnic discord, stalled judicial and other institutional reforms, or lack of action to counter corruption. Kenyans are demanding more effective-and more expeditious-action on the "mwananchi agenda". They are eager to reap some benefit from the National Dialogue agreements. And their growing impatience is exacerbated by rising cost of living and a perception that their elected representatives-the "ruling elite"- are paying insufficient attention to their daily plight. Moving quickly to fully implement the tasks agreed in the National Dialogue talks would go a long way towards changing that perception" . I doubt if anyone is listening out there, but I am willing to be proved wrong.

Media Coverage of American Elections

The Kenyan media seems to have come of age, at least going by the enthusiastic coverage that the American elections got. For the first time in a long time, a number of stations sent senior reporters and editors all over the States.

KTN had Opondo, NTV had Basset Buyukah and Joe Ageyo in Europe, CTV had Alex Chamwanda and Louis Otieno, DN had Macharia Gaitho and Warigi Gitau at some point. Kiss FM had Maina Kiai who was also doing features for NTV. We had the usual correspondents like Kevin Kelly for DN, Mulaa for EA Standard. Is this a new beginning for media houses? Yes they have been sending Sports Writers and Editors to Olympics, All Africa Games, Commonwealth games to cover our own athletes etc, but political and business stories have not been given many resources.

When the President goes abroad, he may take one or two journalists from the private media houses, but generally he is given coverage by the Presiential Press Service (PPS). There is need to think seriously about the role of independent journalists. Business understands that and KQ will not hesitate to put 50 local journalists on an inaugural flight to Istanbul or some other such destination. The Obama and Mc Cain campaigns were accompanied by loads of journalist on their official planes. The same jounalists would be moving between the campaigns at ease. Can we learn something here? Our politicians believe that you can only allow a journalist near you at your own peril.

KBC still drawing from national coffers has recently placed a tender for OB vehicles. Of course technology has changed so much that their ubiquitous two-trailer OB trucks are now outdated. KTN is running their OB from a land rover, NTV and CTV from vans. Kudos to our media.

The Obama Album