Coffee sector revival?

66 applications for coffee ‘A’ marketing licenses have been made from a broad representation of companies eager to enter the lucrative but locally cliquish industry.

From blue chip companies, to connected holding companies to coffee farmer co-operatives and societies – applicants include Aristocrats Coffee, Cetco, Dorman’s, KPCU marketing services, Magana Holdings, Mbo-I-Kamiti Farmers, Plantation Services (Delamere), Sasini Tea & Coffee, Tetu Coffee, Tropical Farm Management, and Valentine Growers. Applications were also received from 2 firms to be coffee buyers, 6 for coffee milling and 5 for packing.

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.

Charterhouse still closed

Branches of Charterhouse Bank remain closed today to customers despite a vague order given by an Eldoret Court was followed by jubilant employees of the Bank (dancing on TV) promising that it was only a matter of time before the bank resumed operations.

CBK’s argument that money laundering was the reason for placing Charterhouse under statutory management was never strong and whether any laws were broken remains in doubt. Charterhouse was not a bank in danger of collapse and has fought the order from day one. The bank had 3.1 billion shillings in deposits, loans of 2.7b and even reported a 76 million profit in the half-year to June before it got embroiled in the Nakumatt tax evasion furore.

Money laundering is closely linked to tax evasion and KRA has been pressing banks to scrutinise customer transactions for suspicious activity while international authorities have also been urging banks to monitor for terrorist-related funding/transactions.

Smaller banks seem to be the preferred choice for many business people as they allow greater flexibility and accommodations including late deposits, high-interest rates on deposits, and unauthorized temporary overdrafts.

No Apologies

Years ago there were Africans, say Kenyans, who excelled at Alliance High School, then at Nairobi or Makerere Universities. Then opportunities beckoned for many of them – for some, it was jobs in the colonial or the new African governments. But for others, they yearned to learn more, and applied for or won scholarships to the West or East for further learning. Maybe there was a CIA or underhand motive behind the generosity of these governments i.e. give us your best leaders and we will mould/educate them to do our bidding after they return home.

You have all seen some of those class pictures from prestigious universities with one black or brown or yellow face staring back among the sea of white faces. They may have been subjects of curiosity or hostility, but these students had been hard workers in their countries who had excelled, and many continued to excel at their new institutions. Afterwards, some returned home, some chose to settle there, while others disappeared in the vast north.

The Digital Indaba of 2006 was not like that, however.

First thing to know about it was that it was not a solitary conference in the wilderness. It came at the tail end of Highway Africa, Africa’s largest annual gathering of journalists, now in its 10th year. The conference this year addressed several topics including MDG’s, access to knowledge, web 2.0, corruption, EASSY, community media, among others.

Running through all these was the theme of new media – in which journalists and the media continue to embrace the challenges and opportunities brought by digital technology and the internet. This year the organisers formally added on bloggers forum aka the digital indaba that covered the last two days of the conference.

Some raw numbers: There were more black faces than white faces, speakers and delegates, at Highway Africa because there are more black journalists than white journalists in Africa. There were more white faces at the Digital Indaba because there are more white bloggers in Africa and the world. And yes – white South Africans are Africans.

At the conference, we learnt that countries like Egypt and Iran have many thousands of  blogs while India and China have millions of blogs. At any meeting, it is impossible to get a truly representative sample, something even organisers of blog conferences in the last two countries admit.

The organisers selected some bloggers from Africa to attend. From Kenya, these included Mentalacrobatics and Kenyan Pundit who were both Kaybee award winners this year.

According to the daily newspaper, which was published each day of the conference, there were 36 Kenyans invited. That’s only behind Nigeria, Algeria and of course South Africa. We met and got to know many of them, who work at the Nation, Standard, KBC and several other media houses in Nairobi. They too had applied for scholarships and won for their work this year. For many, it was not their first time at Highway Africa. Unfortunately, many of them left before the Indaba started, but I am sure you’ll see more of them staying on next year to discuss their new blogs.

Yes, we bonded, we did not sell out. Elsewhere, others have eloquently written about the lessons drawn from the week in SA. I was very happy too meet, hear, talk, or interact with Adam Clayton Powell, Alaa Abd El Fattah, Alec Hogg, Andrew Kanyegirire, BeckyIT, Bheki Khumalo, Ben Akoh, Brenda Zulu, Chris Kabwato, Colin Daniels, Dali Mpofu, Emeka Okafor, Ethan Zuckerman, Guy Berger, Henry Chasia, Kenyan Pundit, Lyndall Shope-Mafole, Marazzmatazz, Mentalacrobatics, Mike Stopforth, Neil Jacobsohn, Ramon Thomas, Vincent Maher, among others from both conferences. They have all influenced Bankelele in a positive way and I hope the results will become apparent shortly

Next
There will be more indabas in future, TED Africa (in Arusha) and others, which I hope to attend if I feel they will add value and I am still keen on blogging. If there are scholarships I will apply for them, if I am still keen on blogging. I may win some, or I may not. I hope others Kenyans win/get these opportunities and also draw some positives.

Mentalacrobatics has thrown down the gauntlet to Kenyans bloggers to organize their own meetups like South Africa, India or China. We have had several mini-conferences at Buffet Park to celebrate the bond of blogging, but maybe it’s time to have a formal one, with serious discussion, but will we exclude White African, Kikuyumoja, Kenyan Cricket, or others on the basis of race?

That would be stupid because in the online world we don’t even know half of who we are. We are largely anonymous, using pseudonyms to draw ourselves out. I hope we can draw some corporate sponsors, educational and government institutions like South Africa has done. Otherwise, without that, there are no scholarships, prizes, dinners and concerts.

Next at Safaricom?

As promised last month, Safaricom has already introduced a new tariff known as Saasa. Their MD also promised a new product which will change our lives.

While talking on the aircraft with Mental at Johannesburg awaiting takeoff to Nairobi, his Vodacom phone showed out location as Johannesburg Airport – and this was same thing that caused a mini scare on July 1 this year when Safaricom phones displayed users’ locations on the phone screens.

I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that the revolutionary Safaricom product will be similar to look4it from Vodacom SA, a product which enables phone users to, among other things; locate the nearest cinemas, ATM’s, petrol stations, find out the weather forecast, find your nearest hospital/emergency facility, hotel. Worryingly it may also identify the location of your cellphone, locate an employee’s or family member’s cellphone and communicate this by SMS or over the Internet.