Category Archives: Kenya motoring

Motoring moment

Chrysler 300 officially here

One prediction (or wishful thinking) from a year ago has come true and there was a Chrysler 300 sitting in the DT Dobie showroom on Sunday. The car which has won numerous awards, and featured in every other rap video since it was introduced, can now be bought by Kenyan motorists (w/right hand drive steering) at a price of 5 – 6 million shillings ($85,000 after our prohibitive taxes are added up) [Chrysler site prices them at $25 to $36,000]

Unfortunately it shares the DT Dobie showroom with its corporate sister – the world beating Mercedes Benz E-class which is just about every other Kenyan’s dream car. Also, as with most American cars, the engine size does not make its fuel consumption pocket friendly at our petrol prices (~$4.3/gallon) even though Chrysler states that the 300’s consumption is better than that of a Subaru Legacy GT (common on Kenyan roads).

Is coolant necessary?
Over the weekend I had to top up a car radiator and found myself having to choose between water and coolant. In my experience coolant (aka anti freeze) is designed primarily for winter weather driving where water (in sub-zero temperatures) will freeze and damage engine systems.

Yet, most cars are imported to Kenya from winter countries (arriving with coolant already in the radiator system) – and while Kenyan drivers have always used water in in their car engines (petrol & diesel), many vehicle owners insist on using coolant since that is what the car is accustomed to.

But is it really necessary? Coolant is sold at petrol stations at prices ranging from 250 shilling to 500 shillings ($7). This is as much as what many drivers pay for fuel at the station. I have always used water, and while have occasionally bought coolant, I have never noticed any difference.

In searching the web, the best answer I could find, implied some benefit to some cars from using coolant instead of water.

Many cars overheat because dirty water is poured in to the radiator (usualy by petrol stations attendant). If car owners were careful about ensuring that onlu clean water is used, they can save some money instead of buying unnecessary coolant.

bullet proof cars
There was a story in the Sunday Nation about a company (Radar Danminar) that would soon be selling bullet-proof Toyota land cruisers for 19 million shillings ($270,000) . Alternately they could make your current car bulletproof in a few weeks time for 10 million shillings.

The article rightly points out armored cars are not the answer/will not prevent car jacking of motorists as their cost is too high and you can only arm huge, powerful cars like Land cruisers, Mercs, or BMW’s, and not smaller 1600cc Toyotas that most Kenyans drive.

Opportunities on the horizon

Yesterday, for about an hour, Mt. Kenya was clearly visible from Nairobi, high in the horizon with its snow peaks. It’s occasionally visible, usually early in the morning and it was a sight to see until some clouds moved in.

looked like this
Anyway, also on the horizon is:

Cheap Flights:
East African Safari Air has introduced a buy one, get one free ticket to Mombasa up to December 12.

also Coldtusker & Kenya Airways were correct about Kisumu – today EASA has also canceled flights to Kisumu citing the poor state of the runway

VIA Uganda has introduced one way fares of $69 from Nairobi to Entebbe starting on Monday.

Hotel revival :
At the Coast new hotels are springing up to capture the increasing number of tourists and visitors at the coast. Sarova are adding a hotel at the South Coast, Neptune may add two facilities more while 2007 could also see a return of Intercontinental hotels to the Kenya coast.

Marital lawyers:
Yesterday also had a nice chat with a group at which it was unanimously agreed that, in light of the Samuel Gichuru divorce & property fight, there is a growth market for lawyers who specialize in divorce cases, investigators to trace assets, and lawyers to draft creative prenuptial agreements.

Green cards: Just over a week left in the US 2008 diversity visa lottery as applications must be submitted online by Sunday December 3.

Women directors at state corporations of the Republic of Kenya: Following President Kibaki’s recent directive that 30% of the posts in public service be allocated to women, the government has now invited qualified Kenyan women invited to submit their CV’s to join the boards of state corporations – they must be university graduates with proven track records in senior management experience and be individuals of high integrity. Submit CV’s to the Secretary, state corporation advisory committee, Office of president, P O Box 62345-00200 or KICC 9th floor Nairobi.

Other Jobs

East African breweries:
– Head of human resources – EABL Kenya demand
– Human resource manager – EABL Kenya supply
Apply to hr.recruitment@eabl.com by 8/12

Country sales representative (Tanzania) at Haco. Apply to jobs@haco.co.ke by 1/12

Head of marketing at Housing Finance. Apply to human.reosurces@housing.co.ke by 4/12

Project administrator at ICRAF (world Agroforestry centre)/CIMMYT. Apply to icrafhru@cgiar.com by 8/12

ICT strategy consultants at Kenya airports authority. Apply through Hawkins.associates@khigroup.com

Kenya commercial bank (Tanzania)
– Head of corporate banking
– Head of retail banking
Apply to the divisional director HR KCB 48400-00100 by 30/11

Public relations officer at Pan Africa Insurance. Apply to hr@pan-africa.com by 29/11

Safaricom careers: senior manager reporting, optimization engineer, senior optimization engineer, senior CRM systems developer, credit controller, senior manager – organization development & change management.

Tiomin :
– Chief accountant
– Internal auditor
– Human resource officer
apply to apply@tiomingkenya.com by 30/11

But
There’s more madness from the City Council of Nairobi whose strong-arm tactics continue to frighten businesses out of downtown Nairobi. From knocking over restaurant sidewalk flower pots even as they plant their own at roundabouts, to charging exorbitant amounts for businesses to put up signboards (i.e. advertising) or any promotion. Yesterday Kenya airways staff were handing out flyers promoting the “2,500 to Mombasa fares” and they all bore “city council planning department/urban design/development section” stamps at the back – I wonder how much that cost or how long it took someone to rubber stamp each flyer.

Now, barely a month we laughed at the mayor’s ludicrous suggestion to double parking charges (i.e. 70 shillings in the morning 70 in afternoon), the council has informed motorists that from December 1, parking off-street will cost 100 shillings per entry – previously it was 100 per day. Also the new fee applies to motorists who bought and paid for quarterly monthly permits. So, in addition the almost 4,000 shillings they paid in October, they will have to fork over another 500 per week.

Mbagathi (No) Way

Construction of the new all-cement Mbagathi Way road is proceeding at a strange start-stop pace. Some weeks, the contractor works as fast as possible, puts down a kilometre of cement, other days there’s no work or with just a few pieces of stone moved around – and it now appears the company is reluctant to complete the road or will take as long as possible.

The road is now dangerous, especially at night, and accidents are more frequent – as some days the road is one-way, others its two-way traffic, with new routes being opened up by matatu’s as they escape the traffic jam which can stretch from Langata road to Ngong road.

Cost of going shags & other observations

Made a similar trip before, and this time I decided to quantify the trip in terms of the expenses. People upcountry ask why I visit so little and I try and explain that the distance and the cost are a burden.

Trip Costs
5,200 shillings ($72) for car fuel on the 950-kilometre journey
13,200 Car repair
10,000 (Pre-trip) car service
4,000 Cash handouts
3,200 Drinks
1,800 Fuel (diesel and kerosene for others)
1,500 Hotel
1,000 Food shopping (for others)
900 Food (mine)
250 Supplies
200 Newspapers
Total spent 41,250 shillings ($573)

Lessons learnt
– Avoid driving own car unless absolutely necessary. It’s better to take a bus and remove the pain (really bad roads) and cost of car travel out. (68% of this trip costs were car-related including 13,000 shillings for a pair of new shock absorbers after I hit a pothole)
– Keep your movements as mysterious as possible, just show up and leave before people discover you’re around and try not to be expected.
– Eating costs are not much, because food is served in households and it is so much that you can get by on one (lunch) meal a day.
– Radio and TV are still the primary way that people get information up-country. Newspapers are not widely circuited – I had to make 3 phone calls to arrange to get the Friday newspapers and reliable cyber café to browse the Internet or check mail are rare things – cybers are not seen as a viable business and have very short hours. E.g. at the post office
– All our roads should be built by Chinese engineers and companies as the roads they built have stood the test of time over many years. We should also beware of roads put up before an election, as they often collapse within less than a year. It is shocking to find two stretches of a road, done by two different companies, where one is in great shape and the adjacent stretch had as little gravel as a school tennis court. Actually, our roads collapse because load limits are not observed, and lorries on the roads are too heavy.

Dallas, Freakonomics, Zim$

Crime Freakonomics
I am now reading Freakonomics, the fascinating book about an economist interpreting everyday questions with unique perspectives. Driving home through a traffic jam yesterday got me thinking about traffic police and roadblocks in Kenya. Some Q’s to consider:

  • Do police actually help the flow of traffic? I’d argue not and that they make it worse on some routes by holding up traffic for 10 minutes on some roads while letting others pass.
  • Do roadblocks actually help reduce crime? Some do and I know people in hijacked matatus who have been rescued by police. But many more roadblocks are simply cash points that target matatus and lorries where random checks are lax and since they are usually stationed at the same points every day, crooks know to avoid them.
  • Are the man hour’s armed policemen spend at roadblocks and checkpoints better used elsewhere? They should be used in roaming patrols or undercover work and the police should hand over traffic control to another body like the National youth service (NYS).

One less bell

Kengeles Yaya is no more. There will be a new restaurant opening up there soon with new owners. Good luck buddy!

The problem with shared ATM’s

Barclays Bank ATM’s were not working for most of Saturday and Sunday, inconveniencing the weekend social activities of many of their customers. Barclays run their own network and outsiders can only use their machines with visa-branded cards. But what if the same happened to another large network like KCB, Co-op, Kenswitch or Pesa Point? I used to use a Kenswitch and if the network was down, ATM’s of all the member banks would dispense cash (if they could) based on the previous days’ account balances. Anyway, it’s important to know your bank network and have access to another system for emergencies.

Zimbabwe Goldmines

Was chatting about my SA trip and some of the recent troubles in Zimbabwe which I shared. A frequent traveller buddy then offered a tip that we should travel to Zimbabwe with US$ and buy up real estate, minerals and other commodities in Zimbabwe which are greatly under-valued owing to the currency crunch in the country. Once the political situation improves in a few years (we hope & would be taking a huge risk) the investments will give tremendous returns. Oh and suddenly everyone what to know what a blog is that can get one to South Africa gratis

Arsenal for sale

Someone is buying up shares of Arsenal FC at about ₤5,000 pounds each i.e. 700,000 shillings per share

Standard

Is someone at the Standard reading this blog? Recent speculation here about Safaricom’s next product appeared in the newspaper today.

Mimi Couch ‘Tato pia

KBC is going to show re-runs of the TV show Dallas i.e J R Ewing & co, starting tonight and on Wednesday nights. How will the show fare, how has it aged, and how much of its lustre has gone? KTN have a comedy block on Sunday that runs back-to-back episodes of Different Strokes, Sanford & Sons, and the Jeffersons. Between them, I’d say that Sanford has held up the best and is still watchable, with the Jeffersons slightly behind because it was being copied so much and no longer seems racially revolutionary, while Different Strokes has aged the worst because of what happened to the kids (in real life) when they grew up.

True or False?

In a case of extreme cost-cutting at an investment bank, employees will pay more to use the staff canteen for the convenience of being able to eat closer, the bank has installed a sprinkler system which will drench anyone smoking for more than five minutes and toilet cubicles doors will automatically open five minutes after staff have entered to do their business.