Kimathi House Fire: We Lack in Rapid Response and Fire Fighting Skills

Posted on April 2, 2012 by David Mugo

On the evening of Sunday 1st of April 2012, I happened to be in town at around 6:30pm and I was supposed to meet someone and decided to wait for them at the Exchange bar at the Sarova Stanley Hotel. Moments later, I finished my meeting and was ready to head home. It was about 7:45pm and stepping out of the hotel, I saw a crowd of people and a fire truck. The building across was on fire. The 5th floor of Kimathi House on the junction of Kenyatta avenue and Kimathi street had a fire coming from just one of the shops at the corner adjacent to Barclays bank on Moi/Kenyatta avenue.

Kimathi street on fire... Picture taken from a BlackBerry device, not the best quality

From my (very unprofessional in fire fighting skills) view, the fire was at a stage that needed only a single fire truck and a few fire fighters to contain. It was still in one room. What amazed me is that the truck packed on Kenyatta avenue was doing nothing at all while we watched the fire move from that one room and quickly spread to other rooms. An hour later, no drop of water had come out of the truck and a second truck came, tried their luck on it but their pressure was only enough to get to the 3rd floor of the building. At this point the entire wing of the 5th floor facing Kenyatta avenue was on fire. The fire was getting wild and scary.

After a few moments, private fire fighting companies joined the efforts. At this point, more than 1000 people were gathered around the building. G4S’ truck was succeeding in getting to the 5th floor and they managed to put off the fire at the edges of the wing facing Kimathi street. The fire was still far from over. More and more fire trucks came in, more from the city council and a few private companies, including KK security.

At about 9pm, the fire on the 5th floor started dying after consuming everything that was flammable, but there was a corner fire on the 6th floor that was just starting. There was more than 8 fire trucks around the building but none had the hydro-cranes to lift fire fighters to the level of the floor that was burning.

A few minutes later, a modern city council fire truck with the cranes arrived at the scene, leaving everyone wondering where it has been since 7pm while the fire station was only a few metres away from the scene of the incident. What was even more amazing is that it took more than 30 minutes before they could move up the crane and even when they did, they could not aim at where the fire was, in fact, they were watering the trees around the building. By this time, KK security and G4S had manually elevated ladders on the building and there were people up on the 5th floor putting off the fire. Eventually, these efforts saw the fire die.

I (as you probably do) have many questions. We have had city council fire fighters blame their inability to stop fires on roads, people and a lot of other reasons, what was their excuse for letting this fire go that fire into destroying people’s businesses and property? Their offices are 200m away from the building and even when they were all at the scene, it was private companies that put out the fire, do we really need a fire department in the city? I know the answer is yes we do, but there is a need for the government to take action on the city council before it lets people die of fires while they pay fire fighters every month to do nothing.

The government should engage the private sector which seems to deliver anyway and fully outsource the services from them with set regulations and I think every Kenyan will agree that we shall all feel safer this way.

Another thing I noted is that Kenya Power showed up at the scene at 8:55pm – while they had put off power on Kimathi street, the building has an automatic generator and it went on soon as the power was cut. All buildings should have adequate fire control measures and again, these are rules set and regulated by the same city council. The government should assign private firms these roles because we have buildings in the city that are just a disaster waiting to happen. Unfortunately, these are the buildings whose rent is low and that is where we have most people operating from.

Someone do something before it is too late.

The First Wikimedia Kenya Board Elected

Posted on April 1, 2012 by David Mugo

After being confirmed a full chapter, Wikimedia Kenya is fast moving towards stamping its mandate and achieving its goals in Kenya and the region. On Saturday 31st March, the members of Wikimedia Kenya elected members of its historic first board. The members were presented with 7 candidates for the 5 available board positions. It was a highly competitive race and looking at the bios of the candidates, it was a tough call for every member who had a vote. I was among the candidates having began working with Wikimedia Kenya about 2 years ago.

The election was held at a meetup in Upperhill’s Public Service Club at the snooker room and it was by secret ballot after a set of rules and regulations set by the election team, headed by Chris Riwa.After the tally of the votes, the new board was announced as follows.

Oscar Limoke
Stephen Wanjau
David Mugo (Myself)
Ann Njeri
Alex Wafula

All of the elected board members have been working with Wikipemedia Kenya for at least two years each and for sure it is a team that will make history in executing projects for Wikimedia Kenya, now a registered society in Kenya.

Part of the mandate of the board will be creating relationships with organizations and government ministries and departments to document more of Kenya’s rich culture, history, leadership and more. The board will also see further involvement of Africans in Wikimedia and Wikipedia. Kenya is only the second chapter in Africa and this means we have to work hard to grow this.

This again is something I am highly proud of and I will work my best to elevate Wikimedia Kenya to great heights.

My Love-Hate Relationship with Safaricom

Posted on February 2, 2012 by David Mugo

My favorite corporate is probably Cadbury’s not because I’m such a great fan of chocolates but the joy it brings my little girls every time I spend some cash on Cadbury’s products. On my own consumption, Safaricom often ranks first and at times, it ranks the worst. Once in a while I have been caught in situations that make feel really bitter at how Safaricom treats me, their customer. There are also times that I feel greatly happy to be their customer.

My favorite Safaricom moment is when I receive an M-Pesa notification that I have received some cash. Well, that must apply to a lot of people. Safaricom has put Kenya on the front line in innovation and this actually makes me really proud. It felt good to view a TED talk titled “Why Kenyans do it better” by Alexander Oswald (See video below), another Safaricom moment for me.

Many of those Safaricom moments occur quite often, when data speeds at my house hit 14mbps and often when I go out of town and to these really remote places but I still have a stable 3G connection. I love Safaricom at those moments.

Quite often, Safaricom customer care also solves most of the usual problems although at times you find yourself better knowledgeable on some issues about their products that they actually are. Not a very common case though (this is where I think I would suggest different levels of customer support).

Then, comes the day Safaricom defines the moments when grammar is an issue with Safaricom product development. This is when Safaricom uses words like “Unlimited” to sell capped data, without explaining the conditions well and you run to upgrade and the moment you are up and about, you spend another 2 hours trying to solve the unsolvable problem with customer care unsuccessfully.

My worst though is the “Post-Pay Bundles”. First of all, I think (tried finding any other definitions of post-pay online and I could not find any) POST means after unless Safaricom meant post payment as in submit payment. This so called Post-pay bundles are actually prepaid, at the beginning of every month. Which grammar genius did Safaricom get to name their products? It is a great product, only I should be made to know what exactly it is. I have used it since April 2011 and 10 months later, I have had to deal with what I would call the worst billing system I have ever used. I have complained, sent suggestions and anything else I could, but nothing. I got used to the fact that it is prepaid. I still like the wrongly advertised product so I go on to use it.

Dear Safaricom, find a better billing and notification system for this product. Yesterday, I got a notification that my usage was above my limit (Which is not true, I have not used the bundles assigned, so “USAGE” is the wrong word to use) and a minute later, my line went off. I cant call anyone. I work amongst high profile people who more than often cannot pick up numbers they do not know. It means I am totally disabled. Alert me early enough, even give me an hour or two to pay up. By the virtue of how much M-Pesa transactions go through my line, you should know I will not ditch my line because of Kshs. 6000. You need to find a way of treating your customers better, there is me who can write and complain, there are those who will just walk away.

While you are too big to listen to everyone, take care of the small things that recur every month and you could consistently make it to the top of my favorite corporates.

On Mutoko, Social Media & Hate Speech

Posted on January 31, 2012 by David Mugo

Caroline Mutoko was 90% right on what she said on her article

Caroline Mutoko’s Monday column (See article) on the Star yesterday seems to have triggered a new height of controversy which she is already used to. While I think Carol made one or two statements that could be the potential trigger for the anger I saw on social media yesterday and part of today, I think 95% of what Carol states is true. Subsequently, I am of the strong view that Carol has no idea what Twitter is or what it’s about and her definition of social media is Facebook.

There is a lot of incitement and hate speech happening on Facebook within the Kenyan circles, that is a fact. There are statements that each side of the political divide is trying to circulate to demean the other sides. If the so called social media guru’s seem to think that there is no incitement and hate speech going on, we are blind to the facts. We are closing our eyes on a possible build up to serious events that could cost peace and stability in our country. We have people posting carelessly on social media even in their own true identities while others hide behind fake profiles.

These trends unfortunately end up shaping the opinion of the young Kenyans on Facebook and mislead their political or social stands. We need to rethink Carol’s article and as social media, we have a responsibility just as the mainstream media does of maintaining peace and trying to build resolutions and mature discussions as opposed to insults and incitement.

Twitter numbers are growing alarmingly in Kenya and more and more youthful minds are daily engaged on it. We share ideas, links and crack ourselves to jokes. I think we should keep it within that scope. Share ideas that can build each other, our nation, our economy and in general our personalities. It is not nobble for any society to correct the wrongs of one of their own with insults. It is wise to go and correct them with facts, let them see their how different things are in reality as opposed to their views.

The approach Kenyans took on Twitter took on Mutoko is familiar, when one person does something and we all go seriously attacking them with insults and immature jokes. Let us be trying to make correction, not to kill spirits. We need to appreciate the role of each one of us in society and need to live together as a nation. We need this more than ever during this period when Kenya is at cross roads with lots of decisions and an election in a few months. Let us be sober and judge others as we would want to be judged. Mutoko highlighted some facts that we cannot delude. We are guilty as a community, lets work on it instead of trying to step down on the person who is trying to tell us where we are wrong. Let us be responsible and accept our own mistakes, it starts from there.

Imagine a scenario outside social media where someone makes a mistake and we all gather around him and start calling him names, making fun of him and embarrassing them. My view is that we would look more stupid that he does. We would be better off sitting them down and giving them facts and correcting their mistakes.

Kenya is a country in need of healing and the youth are best placed to cultivate the required unity. We cannot be driven by a flow ignited by one misunderstanding of someone’s statement. We need to be responsible.

Mutoko was wrong in putting us all in the same basket but we were wrong at how we picked her statements and how we reacted to them. It is your role and my role to make sure we have a better society by contributing positively to society.

Come Help Build a Class for Needy Pupils (And Meet DJ Raidar :))

Posted on December 16, 2011 by David Mugo

Today I am delighted as I join the Nailab, The 1% Club and the rest of my team at Trinc Media in an exciting funds drive to build a classroom for Indupa Primary School in Kajiado. The school has a serious shortage of classes, forcing pupils to take turns in the classes and when the weather allows it, they study outside under trees.

Regardless of the route you took to get to where you are, you have successfully managed to get an education and this is how today you can read this blog. Have you ever taken a moment to ask yourself why you got where you are while there are others who either are better placed or in worse conditions than you?

Back in January of 1997, I had to drop out of high school for the lack of school fees. I spent my year out of school doing signs and paintings to make money so I could back to school. It was a hard road and during that year, I learned quite a lot about life. I was a 17 year old on the loose, trying to pick all the lessons that came my way with no clear guide of what was right and what was wrong. I mixed with all sorts of people in the tiny town of Nyahururu trying to fit in and gain recognition. Painters and white color career people did not mix well but I knew I was not there to stay and I needed to be ahead of my time and mix with the right people. My form three was not at school but in the real world. Eventually, I had made a noticeable mark in the town and I felt like I belonged there. Early 1998, I had saved enough money to get myself back to school but I could not go back to form 3, my money was not enough for two years of school, so I skipped and went to form 4. I made it and got to a point where I can command some influence and yes, I am going to use it for good. This is a call for us to participate in the lives of these situations. By building a class, we are creating massive wealth for our future generations.

There are thousands of kids in different setups of life that for some reason do not make it to the point where I was and they end up never achieving an education. Some are due to circumstances that we can change. The 1% Club does exactly that. Getting you involved in a way that you may feel is small but eventually everyone’s 1% makes 100%.

The hundreds of kids that will benefit from this project may not even know how it came about but they will feel the effect in their lives, it will be a better chance for them in life to take charge of their life. Let us participate in making this work.

The 1% Club basically uses social media to get individuals to participate and here is a number of ways you can get involved.

Donate cash by M-Pesa (See details here on how to do it)
Come to the Nailab end of the year party (Pay 350/=) and have fun with us as we try to raise funds for this project. All the proceeds of the party will go to the project. I will be there myself DJying… your once chance to catch me on the decks and experience something I learned in 1997. This will be open from 10am to 10pm.
Blog about it.
Tweet, Facebook and Spread the word online about the project.
Tweet this blog and share the link on your Facebook page.

It always feels good to give back and remember, you do not give because you have too much but because it is a chance to help someone get from a bad place to a better place. Share the little you have, start sending your donations by M-Pesa now.

Tips for Tanzania as it Turns 50

Posted on December 9, 2011 by David Mugo

Tanzania at 50

Within the last 3 years, I have had a really good chance to visit, live and even work in Tanzania. A great country I must say in a lot of ways. The friendly people, great views on the roads as you drive on their highways, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Serengeti National Park and probably one of the cleanest towns in East Africa, Moshi, just to name but a few. I lived in Dar es salaam, the fastest growing coastal city in East Africa for about 18 months. It was lovely, nice white beaches, really friendly people and all their 3 clubs (then). I happened to find myself close to people in high offices and even had a chance to play a role in president Jakaya Kikwete’s campaign in 2010 – a successful role for that matter.

During this time, I happened to meet great people, both at heart and in might. Tanzanians have the biggest hearts. The nicest people to work with and fun to be around. I specifically cannot forget the footsteps I walked in courtesy of one guy named Rahim Kangezi Zamunda. A guy you can easily write off at first but one of the most resourceful people in Tanzania (story for another day). I could go on and on in and the good side of Tanzania is massive. I humbly congratulate the people of Tanzania on this day as they celebrate 50 years of independence. I know I always have a home in Tanzania.

For Tanzania to remain this good and for everyone else to keep seeing the positive, I would like to point out a few things that Tanzania could do better and make life better for it’s people.

Media Freedom & Corruption:
While Tanzania claims to have media freedom, there is still a lot of government control in the media, including private media which risks its business operations if it went against the wishes of the powerful government. One classic example is when the live broadcast of (opposition leader) Dr. Slaa’s campaign launch was shut down when he started exposing corruption initiated by CCM leaders.

Tanzania in my view after staying there for 18 months and interacting highly with the powerful, is one of the most corrupt countries in Africa – probably worse than Kenya. Kenya’s media reports openly and is allowed to vet and investigate ~~without~~ with less interference from the government while also publishing their findings without fear. I cannot say the same for Tanzania. Rushwa (Kitu Kidogo, Bribe) is a way of life in Tanzania, pushing further poverty levels in a country full of resources and denying justice and basic services to people who cannot afford to buy their way around. The media has a role in exposing these scandals and putting the government on spot on issues it can address.

The media has also played a huge role in this by agreeing to be bought off. Most small private media houses survive on sold headlines and “news” that is paid for. This in turn is the worst kind of deception to the people of Tanzania who in turn take the news as bible truth.

Another thing the media should do is give celebs and their private lives a break. I specifically remember talking to a former news anchor who was once married to a rich and powerful man at the port of Dar es salaam. She was frustrated at home and she could not dare leave the abusive man due to fear of the media. Eventually he threw her out and as if that was not enough, the story was all over the cheap dailys. This is the case with every other celeb and the worst thing is that the media makes up stories trying to explain each little bit.

Streamline Tax & Labor Laws:
Dar es salaam, the country’s commercial capital has about 65% foreign professional workforce. Like everywhere else in the world, expatriates earn way more than the locals and when tax laws are not strict, all these money ends up going to build other economies. I know a lot of foreigners working in Tanzania with great salaries but no work permits which means no tax remittance. With all the resources Tanzania has, including gold, diamonds, tanzanite, tourism and its huge population which could translate into human capital, Tanzania’s economy is still weaker than Kenya’s. I would say that most of the wealth that would be building Tanzania’s economy is building other countries. Tanzania’s GDP is still way too low and with the resources it has, lack of proper management is the only possible explanation why its growth is still very slow.

Enrich the Education System
I did not take much study of the education system in Tanzania but in my mind I tend to wonder, why do most companies go for foreign management? Most CEOs and senior managers in Tanzania are foreigners. This in turn translates to more posts for foreigners even on the junior ranks than the locals. I would say this has something to do with the education system. First of all, you cannot teach me everything (including sciences) in Swahili all my primary school life and the moment I get to secondary school, you switch to English and expect everything to just translate automatically. I will first be trying to catch up with the language before even understanding what you are teaching. I think all subjects should be taught in English all the way. Tanzania has a lot of universities, I still wonder where the graduates go. The number of foreigners in the professional community in Dar is worrying.

Africa/Tanzania is Able
This is a mentality across Africa. Most of us have been brainwashed to think that our solutions are coming from the west (or Europe). We have unexplored natural resources that compares to no other continent. We have a population filled with energy and we have all it takes to drive our own economies. One thing I have realized is that no one will give you anything for free. There is a good reason why Somalia is still unstable while Kenya is not. The west has their interests where they have something in return. Africa can be self dependent. While I did not agree with how Gaddafi handled Libya in his last days, I think no other African leader has shown such confidence in Africa. We need to realize that the west also needs us. It is not a one way traffic.

In conclusion, I still think Tanzania is still one of the greatest countries I have been to in Africa. The people are definitely the best. Happy independence day, reflect on what independence you have, what it means to you, to this generation and future generations. I challenge young people to view things beyond the eyes of our aging leaders. Congratulations again. Long live Tanzania and its people.

Raila Odinga the World’s Highest Paid Politician?

Posted on November 30, 2011 by David Mugo

A recent report by Investopedia placed Raila Odinga as the 3rd highest paid politician in the world – earning more than the US president, UK prime minister and even funny enough, more than Kenya’s president, Mwai Kibaki. The same report went further to indicate that Raila earns 240 times more than the country’s GDP per person, making him the World’s highest paid politician on that ratio.

The graph below compares this data with other countries.

Now, I will take a different turn on this story. Raila wants to be president of this country. Through his businesses, he is already one of the richest people in the country. I would like to just look at a few possibilities here and I would love it if you walked with me through it.

How is it possible that he earns more than Kibaki?
We all know that Kibaki is the CEO and the commander in chief of Kenya. In a natural assumption, he should be earning higher than the prime minister who is either placed second or third on this ranking after or before the VP (a story for another day). Well, I have no official explanations but I will try and look at the scenarios that would result to this. The most likely explanation is the fact that the post of the PM was created under his negotiation, which means he negotiated his mandate, role in government and his salary and allowances. Remember the $427,886 (approximately Kshs. 42,788,600 – about 3.56m per month) is only his basic salary. Now let me rephrase that. While Kenyans were butchering each other in his support, he was behind closed doors with international standard security negotiating how for the next 5 years he will make 213,943,000 shillings from the dying Kenyan economy. If this were the scenario, I would say that is probably the most selfish, heartless and undeserving leadership this country would ever get.

Clearly, something is not right. We have people still living in tents, I do not even want to imagine their life during this rainy season. The people who lost their lives and those who were displaced suffered because ODM called for mass action to contest the disputed elections in 2007. They paid with their lives for Raila to be the prime minister and almost another election year, thousands of Kenyans are still living in IDP camps.

Raila, a known high spender, would have in my opinion fought for the IDPs resettlement if he was a genuine leader who cared about this country. This also includes other senior leaders in government. Kenya went down to the lowest it has been since the Maumau struggle and the best these politicians would give it is reconciliation.

The media seems to favor Raila too much and when these kind of reports are published, they do not make it to the local media since they will not be doing him any good. Just recently, Forbes published Uhuru Kenyatta as one of Africa’s richest billionaires and it actually made headlines.

Kenya is in serious need of leadership. I would say this coalition government has failed and one of the reasons why it has is because of lack of opposition. Everyone is in government. There is only opposition within with enough people trying to protect their own personal interests. Kenya needs a government and a working opposition like we had between 1997 and 2002. Kenyans deserve service delivery and selfless leaders who can make decisions based on the needs of the electorate and not their own selfish issues.

Open Letter to Alex Perry, Time & CNN

Posted on October 20, 2011 by David Mugo

Dear Perry (and your employer),

I am a Kenyan who loves peace and enjoying the freedom that we have in Kenya. Kenya is a wonderful country, I hope you have not visited the country and each article you write about Kenya is guided by some drunken research – if you had visited the country, you would have better facts. I do hope you do not even live in Africa since it would be proof you are one of those journalists that live in bars in the mix of prostitutes and other drunken foreigners who have no value for their work in a foreign country and think their only mission is to sleep around, over drink and enjoy our land thanks to your expat salary.

I am not a fan of your kind of writing so I probably would never have heard about you were it not for Twitter (yes, put that in your research notes) and people discussing your little piece on Kenya being dumb. I would have asked for an apology from you but when I went to your profile on the Time blog, I realized you must do most of your articles in a hurry to deliver an article and impress your employer. For instance, how the hell do you even confuse the countries in the 1998 Al Qaeda attacks? My 8 year old daughter who was not even born then knows that it was Kenya and Tanzania that was attacked and not Kenya & Nigeria as your vastly researched article reads.

I have keenly gone through articles you have written and realized you report negatively on everything. Prove me wrong, show me anything positive you have written about Africa. Maybe you have eyes only for negative things. Did you know that the drought in North Kenya and surrounding areas has a lot to do with natural climate changes? In your article, you spare a long one line to state that Kenyans raised $7 million to try and salvage the situation. 1 line. Let me re-report that for you. While the world watched people starve to death, while the the “first world” sent troops to Libya with millions of dollars, while you partied or did whatever you do with the money you are paid, compassionate Kenyans took it as their own burden, raised an amount that eventually fed the starving.

Mr Perry, I am disappointed at your ignorance of facts (am not sure you have time to search for the facts) but Al Shabaab cannot be allowed to run things in our country. We are hosting the biggest refugee camp in the world, thanks to their efforts. They have gone further to cost us essential income in tourism that countries like where you come from (wherever that is) runs to issue travel advisories on our land. They have kidnapped, rapped, killed and messed our people up, you expect Kenya to watch in silence? We do have a functioning government and while you think our military is weak, try find out the number of Kenyan peace keepers in UN and African Union forces (If that is a tough task, let me know, I might send you a fax with the figures). Kenya may be humble but not weak. We are not quick to run to war but this is totally necessary. It is a danger to the sovereign people of Kenya.

How you made it to be TIME’s Africa bureau chief is a wonder to me. If you applied for a job in any Kenyan media I am positive sure you would never get it. You survive on negativity, God rescue you some day.

My little advise to you, talk to Kenyans on Twitter, they will give you facts if you are lazy in your research. They will also give you a piece of their mind when you mess up with your job like you are doing. You are an insult to journalism in Africa. You have insulted the people of Kenya let alone the government.

I could go on and on. This is the point where I demand for an apology to the people of Kenya, through the same channel you used to write your shoddy article.

David.