Kazi Kwa Vijana Initiative

Kazi kwa vijana the new thing for the unemployed youths, funded by the ministry of youth affairs, Kazi kwa vijana consists of various branches of works from digging trenches, environmental clean ups such as the Nairobi river and also tree planting. All this was brought about by president Kibaki on helping to curb unemployment, but for how long will this project survive? that's the main question. It has been a month since it started and the payment criteria was on a weekly basis but since then most of the youths claim that they haven't been paid.
The youth fund now is set to be raised to 5billion over the next three years. The youth enterprise development fund has so far financed more than 65,000youths across the country, and created 200,000 job.Also in addition there is the women enterprise fund, currently 1.2billion is currently set aside for the fund. 92,000 women has already been disbursted with 682million, and still an additional 500million is to be added to raise the total available for women to 1.7billion.

The challenge of being an ICT entrepreneur

ICT entrepreneurs face a myriad of challenges. But as Zachary Ochieng finds out, it is not all doom and gloom for those who have the spirit to soldier on.
The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector has been one of the key contributors to the impressive growth performance in Africa over the last decade. To sustain this growth momentum, it is imperative that African governments, besides fostering peace and stability, create an environment that would be conducive to the growth and development of ICT entrepreneurs and nurturing young talents similar to the Silicon Valleys in India, United States, Israel and other countries. Recognising the economic potential of ICTs for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), they should be assisted in increasing their competitiveness by streamlining administrative procedures, facilitating their access to capital and enhancing their capacity to participate in ICT-related projects. An example would be to offer incentives in form of tax rebates to ICT entrepreneurs who export their goods or services out of the country, inorder to encourage export of ICT services.
Private equity always expensive
Michael Macharia, founder & Group CEO, Seven Seas Technologies (SST), the top local ICT integrator and provider of integrated business and technology solutions, says today the only source of capital is private equity or loans from commercial banks which are always expensive and hence it is time the Government invested in a pool of funds to support ICT entrepreneurs in  form of Government private equity either by teaming up with  private quity firms that are well established, who would then manage the fund and also guide and mentor the enterpreneurs in their Boards  to ensure proper deployment and utilization of the funds for growth .
“Entrepreneurs would be encouraged to develop products for export if, for instance, the Government offers them loans which can be written off later and  tax rebates on the revenues generated from exports. Countries like China and the Philippines are offering 10-year tax holidays to their IT companies. This way, Kenya can become a regional ICT hub”, Macharia says, adding: “As an ICT company, our largest overhead cost is the people element of our business in terms of salaries, travel and training. If these people develop and offer unique  products and services to the regional and international market, then we should qualify to get rebates!.. Otherwise what motivation do we have to innovate and be the next Silicon Valley beyond personal sheer determination and will?” Access to capital remains a major constraint
While appreciating that Kenyan entrepreneurs have great ideas with more young talents waiting to be nurtured, Macharia says access to capital remains a major constraint. Arguably one of the most successful ICT entrepreneurs in the region, Macharia, 34, ventured into business at the age of 24 using his own capital, later bringing on board a venture capitalist and evenutally a leading private equity firm and has since transformed the  SST group into a billion shilling plus business.
Macharia cites the Indian ICT industry that has witnessed excellent growth in the past two decades. Capitalizing on its advantages of talent pool, lower cost of operation and the innovative remote delivery model, India has established itself as a global leader in the ICT sector.
Collaboration fostered between new innovation destinations
Today, India is clearly acknowledged as the global services hub. He adds the foremost implication of innovations in the India ICT space was the collaboration that it fostered between the new innovation destinations like US, China and Israel. Between countries, there are lots of collaborative efforts towards raising funds to invest in state-of-the-art technology companies that will benefit both the countries. This leads to the development of the entire innovation ecosystem comprising of entrepreneurs, high-tech companies, startups and possible buyers .To achieve the same they created a culture or innovation and an ecosystem to nurture and encourage entrepreneurs. The Government, industry, institutes, investors and other stakeholders came together to create such an ecosystem.
“In Kenya, if we foster and encourage a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, we could enable global competitiveness and equitable growth a reality in the ICT industry and other related Industry sectors”, Macharia adds.
Bitange Ndemo, Kenya’s Information and Communications Permanent Secretary concurs: “The speed of technological changes always is a problem in developing countries where capital is scarce.  It is often very difficult to catch up when enterprises are undercapitalised with less returns that take far too long to achieve the pay back before technology changes.”
Ndemo agrees that partnerships are necessary in order to inject optimal resources that can assure better returns and a shorter pay back period.
“One of the challenges we face as entrepreneurs is the acceptance of your own product in the market. The other challenge is the time it takes to be accepted as a successful entrepreneur”, Macharia observes.
Not enough role models in the market
Then there are also historical challenges. According to Macharia, there are not enough role models in the market or there is little or no effort  given by the media to showcase such success stories .The enterprenuers themselves also need to make an effort to showcase their successes. 
Moses Kemibaro, Business Development Director and co-founder of Dotsavvy Limited, shares similar sentiments.
“By far the hardest challenge when getting started is funding. Most ICT entrepreneurs in Kenya and regionally normally have to start using their own savings as well as funds from friends and families. This is how we started. We also aggressively pursued business when we started to keep moving and asked for referrals all the time. Networking was also key by looking for business everywhere - you would be amazed that business is indeed everywhere if you network a lot and ask for it”, Kemibaro says.
According to him,  another challenge is that of building brand awareness and visibility for your business - being unknown and unproven makes securing business really hard.
Competitive poaching is commonplace
“There are many challenges. The beginning is the hardest! Cash flow is by far the biggest one – ensuring you get paid is absolutely essential for the business to keep running. Securing and maintaining top notch talent is another - employees leave for better pay and competitive poaching is commonplace in ICT businesses. Establishing and maintaining good business practices and processes is another. I find that lately innovation in terms of offerings to be challenging since there is so much competition and you have to stay ahead of the curve to remain relevant when competitors are trying to win your customers.” 
Inappropriate curriculum
Timothy Waema, Associate Professor, University of Nairobi’s School of Computing and Informatics, says inappriate curriculum remains a major challenge.
 “The Computer Science/IT curriculum does not have adequate business courses while the Business curriculum does not have adequate IT/computer science courses. There is also lack of Government policy on incentives for ICT entrepreneurs, e.g. software developers or IT consultants. Then there is the widespread perception among university students that they are being trained to get a good-paying job”.
All the 7 public universities, more than 10 of the newly created university colleges and over 14 private universities offer a degree in computer science, IT or equivalent. They in total have a total enrolment of over 2,000 CSs/IT students and producing over 500 graduates year to year. This excludes the Diploma graduates. In addition, there are very many business schools that have Information Systems as a specialization - over 30 academic units train in business studies or related disciplines (e.g. economics) with some IT specialization. This is where other entrepreneurs come from.
“That is what universities are doing. Whether these are enterpreneurs or not is another discussion, which will involve examination of curriculum. But suffice it to say that anecdotal evidence shows that fresh graduates are increasingly creating their own companies and running them”, Waema says.
 
Challenges are surmountable
Though challenges abound, they are surmountable. According to Macharia, one of the ways of overcoming the challenges is to create an incubation platform that is sustainable. One of the reasons behind SST Group’s  success has been its credibility in the development of local talent.
“We have about 70-80 percent talent from local universities and polytechnics. We have a very clear recruitment programme in which we hire staff and train them, before eventually giving them proper career roadmaps and certification”, Macharia offers. Again retention is always a challenge .
With a young workforce, companies face the challenge of meeting expectations in a market where talent is in the driving seat. The biggest problem that brings about talent shortages is the increasing gap between what universities provide and what the industry needs. So all companies in need of the talent should build close relationships with these institutions to help build a pipeline of skilled employees that can fill talent gaps quickly and cost effectively .
Knowledge 4 Life
 “At SST we have created a platform that allows this kind of training to be available to those who need it. That is why we came up with the concept ‘Knowledge 4 life’. Knowledge  4 life is an initiative available on the social media networks too that allows us to train pre-screened university students when they are on holidays or weekends at our training centre for free”, Macharia says.
“We use our own already highly trained, experienced and specialised experts who we recruited from the same universities to train and mentor them. We then team up with corporates, integrators and competitors who are in need of these resources. In that way, we hope to have a vetted pool of staff available for the whole ecosystem and the cost of labour is maintained at realistic levels”.
 SST came up with the idea of recruiting students after realising that the labour costs in the open market are exorbitant while the relevant supply is not available. While acknowledging that staff retention remains a big challenge as employees leave for greener pastures, Macharia says he works closely with the company’s Chief Talent Officer who devotes considerable time in talent management  because talent is key to the company’s success, not to mention that great talent is willing to work for a company if it has a great and inspiring vision they can relate to, and a clear employee value proposition.
Share options for staff
“We have come up with share options for our staff to enable them own equity and create long term view of wealth creation. We see that as a way to keep them focused on the business and long term objectives rather than short term benefits .It does not mean we dont encourage the talent to leave and see what the world has to offer but we always leave the door open for them to return and this happened in several cases and they return with much more knowledge and experience”, Macharia offers.
The challenge, Macharia says, is to ensure  that the company gets enough projects to keep talent motivated since most large organisations including government are  risk averse to local organisations in terms of delivering complex projects .
“We, however, have come to understand this view and overcome it by stragetically teaming up with global delivery partners where we insist to be part of the team deploying projects so we can get the experience. In a recent case, we had an exchange programme where our staff were based in Portugal for a year to shadow and learn from the more experienced companies as we worked on a very strategic project for one of our key customers . The customers was happy with the arrangement and it has worked quite well for all parties.”
Indeed, the challenges facing ICT entrepreneurs are numerous. However, Kemibaro, who has been an entrepreneur for seven years, says in terms of beating or managing challenges, it requires first and foremost an unrelenting tenacity to build your dream - even when you do not have money to fuel your car or pay your rent.
“This is the key to being successful in the face of entrepreneurial challenges. Thereafter you can then engage strategies and tactics that will then keep you going. For cash flow, making sure services are delivered on time and quality is key. It is also important to hire competent team members who can deliver to client expectations. Sometimes it’s not just a better salary that keeps staff but other motivators like a good working environment and work-related travel for instance”, Kemibaro observes, adding: “I think branding is a key differentiator for business development as is having a good customer portfolio and testimonials that ensure you can get the job done. Another key factor is having technology that gives you an edge in the business market as well as business processes that add value across the board.”
Strong brand a powerful magnet
Macharia concurs with Kemibaro that a strong brand is a powerful magnet for potential employees and talent retention.
“As enterprenuers, we dont spend money and enough time on the image our companies project and clarity in what we stand for. Nurturing loyalty to the company’s brand and values is an increasinly important factor in talent attraction and retention since the fundamental backbone of our business is talent. And as SST continues moving up the value chain in Application Integration ,consulting and Outsourcing services where margins are more sustainable ,people are the number one priority.”
Sharing his experience with CIO East Africa, Macharia says SST  was incorporated ten years ago and has a staff complement of 90 globally, with the number increasing by 25 percent every year. Besides Kenya, the company has branches in Uganda, Ethiopia and project offices in Rwanda. The company has undertaken significant and critical projects for some of the largest corparations, government institutions  in the region and with a key focus in establishing some deals in Nigeria this year .
“Today we are a billion Shillings Plus business, we used our own sweat capital at the start of this business. It was a major sacrifice but at 24 years what did I have to lose ?. I was fortunate to meet a venture capitalist, by the name James Gachui, who later became a great mentor, and invested in the business after 3 years without looking at any balance sheet. Both our companies took a business trip to India and he was inspired by the energy and vision I had for the business and industry. Eighteen months ago, we raised money through Aureos Capital, a global private equity firm with offices in Kenya. The Private equity investors coming on board have assisted us grow and bring a high level of financial reporting discipline required  for enterprenual business to scale and go public”.

Macharia is upbeat about the future of the company.
“Our dream is to really create a pan-African ICT organisation through collaborative synergy brought together by private equity fund with their other strategic investments in other ICT companies in South Africa and Nigeria”, says an upbeat Macharia, adding: “We want to become the biggest outsourcing and application integration business in this market. “Our destiny is simple. We want to be a pan-African organisation delivering IT services in the consulting, applications and  infrastructure outsourcing arena.  In my mind I am clear that we want to be efficient, more agile, using our own local skills utilizing a consistent geographic neutral delivery plaform and our own IP and I am extremely bullish we will achieve this through strategic partnerships, talent management and gradually shifting from a‘box’ to a service oriented organisation, hence our positioning statement “Service Excellence Delivered.”
Incubation arm to nurture entrepreneurship
The company is in the process creating an incubation arm to nature entrepreneurship and innovation within the organisation .
“In two to three years, we’ll have gone  IPO or a synergystic merger or acquisition with a global organisation.  We’ll look for organisations that share a common vision with us”.
Macharia says one issue that needs to be addressed is the need to adopt quality frameworks in the region.
“We don’t have standards. I would say the standards of ICT are controlled by vendors. We need to have standards, like those of engineering where all technological courses have a standard qualification. Just like in other global markets, we need to harmonise standards in the region in terms of software development, infratsructure and security management. Some of the standards include and not limited to (CMMI, ITIL , ISO ,PMI ),  but these will have to be driven by customers and the organisations like the Kenya ICT Board . They have to insist on a level of certification and competence and in turn the local companies will sharpen their internal delivery process in order to compete at a global leval .”
BPOs collapse in quick succession
It is the lack of standards that is partly to blame for the collapse of BPOs in quick succession. According to Kemibaro, Kenya is relatively unknown and untrusted as a BPO destination. The firms in this sector have to discount services heavily and do not have the credibility to access key accounts directly  - instead working through intermediaries. Also, until the high speed cables arrived, bandwidth has been too expensive and unreliable so services being offered could not be done so efficiently or profitably. There is also the issue of service delivery - Kenya is relatively new to BPO work so the investment alone required to train and create high standards as well as processes is high - its a steep and expensive learning curve.
Waema says that while the collapse is expected with all start-ups, we still do not have an appropriate strategy and support to encourage growth rather than death of BPOs.

According to Ndemo, the problem with BPOs is less than optimal investment in the sector. 
“We plan to locate them in one area where resources can be optimised and each can grow.  You need at least a 250 seat capacity to succeed yet most Kenyan enterprises have less than 50 seats”.
Regional ICT hub
Despite teething problems, Kenya still has the potential of becoming a regional ICT hub.
“Like with banking, Kenya can become a regional ICT hub. Most of the big banks are now in Kenya. As for ICT, Kenya should tap its human resource and encourage local investors. The Government must be seen as a high adopter of technology and have the right incentives to make people invest”, Macharia observes.
Dotsavvy’s Kemibaro sees the need to  have centres of excellence for training and service delivery.
“Strategic partnerships with international businesses and countries who have achieved what we are trying to do is key. We also need to disconnect ICT services as meaning BPO - there are many ICT niches that Kenya can be successful at and not just BPO. We, for instance, export our web services to clients in the US, Ireland, Zambia, Tanzania and Uganda. Imagine the potential of ICT from this perspective - every Kenyan ICT business could be a global business from right here in Kenya even if its a small firm”, Kemibaro observes.
But while acknowledging that the Government has  done most of what needs to be done in the ICT sector, Ndemo says,   “we need to scale up the transport and energy sectors which impacts on what we do in the ICT sector”.
On his part, Waema says the Government should develop solid and quality infrastructure, take talent development seriously and prioritize it, create an enabling environment - especially political, policy, regulatory and institutional and have a high level leadership and championship of ICT in government that is cascaded at all levels of Government.
And therein lies the challenges and the opportunities for enterprenuers for Vision 2030.
 “There needs to be much more marketing at Government level through Public-Private Partnerships (PPP). This is already one of the reasons the BPO sector has challenges - there is a lot of work to be done and 2030 is just around the corner. But the process has begun and it’s getting better everyday. We can make it happen but so much more effort is needed right here and now”, Kemibaro observes.
Macharia agrees.
 “In his Jamhuri day speech, President Mwai Kibaki made reference to technology, mentioning about the digitisation of court and land registries. This is very encouraging as technology can be used to eliminate corruption. These are great strides and opportiunities for the local entrepreneurs to rise up to the challenge. We plan to play heavily in this sector. The government is always the largest spender”, Macharia says.
He further adds that a key learning that has always motivated him is Peter Drucker’s ‘The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity’.
Overall, the future of ICT looks bright in the region.
“There are so many prospects that it’s hard to tell. BPO has already been seen as key for Kenya and the region. But what about KPO? Not much has been done in this area (yet). There are many KPO prospects for the region for professional services. In many cases, KPO requires far less resources to set-up than an BPO business. As a region, it would seem that the rest of the world has run off with most of the opportunities but consider Ushahidi which was delevloped in Kenya for crisis reporting and is now a global phenomenon. There are many success stories waiting to happen”, Kemibaro says.
According to him,  we need more innovation centres for ICT as well as funding for  good ideas.
“We need to improve industry standards and practices. We need to tell our children that being a lawyer or a doctor is not  the only profession worth having and that they can make a living  as techies doing software and animation. There is a very very broad scope for the future in the region”.
On his part Ndemo says Kenya will soon be as competitive as India or the Philipines.
 “We shall soon be leaders in content production”, Ndemo enthuses.
As part of Vision 2030, the Government is looking for appropriate facility to develop incubation centres  for ICT young entrepreneurs.  This facility will be classified as an Export Processing Zone (EPZ) for the entrepreneurs to take advantage of the benefits in such a location.  The Government is also developing a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) that will have far greater benefits that before and will also embark on aggressive capacity building programme.

Young Kenyan entrepreneur finds success in sunflower oil business

The processing firm as viewed from the roadside

Most young men holed up in Nairobi have only one desire: to get a well paying job, and then rise through the ranks to head a company. Very few take the alternative route – entrepreneurship. But Mathew Kiilu is an exception. At 24, he has set up a 2.5 million Kenya shillings ($33,000) oil pressing firm in the heart of a rural village Kenya. EAiF reporter got a chance to have an up-close and candid discussion with the young man.
It is 2.30 pm, the sun is blazing hot in Makutano village, Makueni District – about 80 miles from Nairobi. Kiilu has his white shirt and hands greased in oil, beads of sweat cover his face as he inspects the mammoth oil storage tank.
After what seems like eternity, he retreats to the front office where he is setting a mini shop for retailing his pure oil named Hafya. But what would make a young man, born and raised in the city, to retreat into the village? “I loved discussing business plans with my friends and family [ and it was during such a moment]  when the idea of sunflower processing came to mind,” Kiilu says when he settles for the interview. His friends were against the idea partly because it was not “youthful” or attractive. “But my old man played a very big role in this. He encouraged me,” notes Kiilu.

Mathew Kiilu

He explains, “I just decided to shut out the negative voices and go for what my heart craved for. Life without risks has no romance.” He was in his third year at the Nairobi University in 2007 studying electrical and information engineering – that he started the project with the support of his father.
But why would Kiilu opt for the village? “It was about cutting costs, number one. It would have been very costly to set up in Nairobi in terms of renting premises and other factors. But again I also wanted to offer some employment to my people in the village.”
There were obstacles to grapple with. Despite not being far from the nearest electricity source, KPLC took 10 months after his application to connect power to his business location.
“Getting sunflower seeds for pressing was a hustle, especially after the post-election violence, just soon after the work had begun. We had difficulty getting seeds from Western Kenya,” Kiilu says. Western Kenya was the worst hit during the post-election violence of 2007 ,so he decided to source seeds from Mombasa and Oloi Toktok.
An engineer himself, Kiilu has been able to cut costs by fixing electrical and other technical aspects of the plant himself. He diagnoses mechanical problems on site and repairs them as they arise.

storage tank

Extracting oil from sunflower seeds is a technical and tedious process. Referred to as oil pressing, the extraction process begins with the mechanical expulsion of oil from the seeds. This initial process gives out an end product of unrefined oil known as ‘cake’. The ‘cake’ is transferred to a settling tank where decantation – heating of the oil to do away with particles – is done before the partially refined oil is relocated to a storage tank. Filtering is then done to remove pulpy invisible dust, in a procedure referred to us ‘rooting’. Lastly, the oil is refined before it’s packed in varying quantities.
To do this effectively, Kiilu says that he had to start small and use his profits to make improvements and get other necessary machines. For one to successfully set up a pressing firm, an oil press, vacuum cleaners, refiner, settling tanks, food storage tanks, bottling line and shrink-wrapping machine are mandatory.
Kiilu currently packs 500ml retailing for Kshs 105 ($1.4), 1 litre at Kshs 200 ($2.6), 5 litres at  Kshs 850($11.3), and 20 litres at  Kshs 3,400 ($43.3). The waste product is a protein-rich substance sold to animal feed firms.

Still youthful, Kiilu is upbeat about his future. Striking as a jack of all trades and a master of all, young Kiilu is experimenting with flour milling through his mother company, Kilimanjaro Light Industries.
The road to success, he notes, has been bumpy and even now, Kiilu still struggles to push the product to the end market. Sunflower seed prices have since gone up, and the cost of production continues to skyrocket.
But again, as he says, failure to take risks is failure to enjoy the romance of life!

KENYANS, WHAT SCREWS US UP!

I start with a broad question. Kenyans can we tell what is eating us up? What keeps us weighed so law in almost everything? Our “weights” that hold us down are the emotional gung in our subconscious, our programmed sense of self and reality, and the endless mind-numbing claptrap that assaults our eyes and ears via the Western and US media, the Western education (indoctrination) systems, our politically sick politicians, our suppressive economists, and all the other mind doctors selling us their view of what our reality should be- who is cut for PM, which tribe does this and that against this and that.  These are the influences that create the light at the bottom of the bottle, hypnotizing us and keeping us in ignorance of our true destiny.

I remember listening to a tape of the late Bill Hicks, the American comedian. He was talking about a film called Basic Instinct. His summary of the film: “Piece of shit”. However, great debate ensued about the picture. Was it too this or too that? Much of this “debate” Was hyped to promote the movie and Bill Hicks offered the following advice: It’s a piece a shit, walk away.

If we Kenyans did that more often, we would not waste our energy day after day on irrelevant political debates and stupid arguments over the so-called “issues” that are only there to divert us from what really matters — our own evolution out of ignorance, and our own ability to love and be loved. But we get hooked in by manufactured debates and diversions. We see irrelevant events and statements from our Kenyan leaders as vitally important, instead of walking away and seeing them for what they are: irrelevant diversions.

Kenyans when shall you grow up?  It’s fascinating to observe, as your mind expands and the cell door creaks open, how the issues and concerns that occupy our minds, screw us up, and give us a bad sense of self, simply don’t matter.

We are just conditioned to think they matter and so we expend our energies and wind up our emotions worrying about things that others program us to believe are important. Who is our man in state house? who is the PM? Who is our MP? Who owns this or that? Who sleeps with who? Are we too fat? Are we too thin? Are we too tall? Are we too small? Are our breasts big enough? Are our willies big enough? Are we losing the hair on our heads? Do we have too much hair on our bodies? Are we wearing the latest uniform (sorry fashion) that someone we have never met has decided is “in”?

We are deluged by advertisers and the television “programmers” funded by advertisers which tell us how we should be, look, and feel. You’ve got a wrinkle on your face? Oh, my dear, your life is over. It’s the end of the road. Unless, that is, you buy this super-duper face oil named after somewhere that sounds exotic. It will save your life. Hey, look at this curvy, sun—tanned, blonde we paid vast sums to show her burn on a beach. Buy our oil and that could be you. (Author leaves word processor in order to vomit.) Our good traditions are dead and buried. Kenyans want to be actors in other people’s scripts.

The West knows best and has the most honest leaders, we say.

So, a Western representative Koffi Annan is sent to mediate to end a problem intentionally created by our own Hollywood-like politicians.

Almost all Kenyans are as confused and looking for a way out, wherever they are in the so-called developed Diasporas. To me the West and US, as is Hollywood is the home of self and mass delusion; in Hollywood there are more facelifts and hair transplants per square mile than probably anywhere else on the planet. It is no wonder. The Hollywood mentality is the ultimate illusion and it is obsessed with the physical senses. Its industry, its very reason for being, is based on illusion, with false backdrops, false sunlight, and plastic.

As did Kibaki and Raila during the coalition talks putting on artificial emotions, both are together today just as two actors who can’t stand each other come together for a warm caress. My darling, I love you (cut!)… you asshole. To me, Hollywood is a wonder to observe it symbolizes magnificently the illusions that keep our minds enslaved. It sells to the mass psyche its version of history and of what is beautiful, successful, and important. This invariably relates to archetypal images of butch men with firm faces and plenty of hair (real or otherwise) and ideally shaped women straight out of wardrobe and make up.

Some actors know all this isn’t real, but many forget to leave the illusions on the set. They live them and take on that celluloid world as their reality It is a world of fear, insincerity and insecurity: you were brilliant darling, what was I like? Oh Dorothy darling, I’m so glad you won the Oscar (lucky bitch). Their sense of self comes not from what they are, but from how they are perceived by those who control the illusion machine and by an audience conditioned by the illusion machine.

Kenyans you have lost it not only by practicing tribal politics and looting our economy. You are out there making yourselves look more like western robots in all of your looks and likes.

A few questions for those who buy this idea that there is somehow an ideal shape, height, weight, hairstyle, age or willy size. Who says? Who decided that? Did you decide that because it was your original thought or because that is what you have been conditioned to believe? The latter, almost certainly. What’s more if your friends and family have been conditioned to believe the same (and most of them have) you feel an even greater pressure to aspire to that manufactured image of physical perfection. I saw a documentary about Hollywood men in which this guy’s sex life had been destroyed by an operation that went wrong… an operation to fill his willy with fat from another part of his body to make it look bigger.

Uhhhhhh! I know, I know, my eyes are watering too. My God, what’s happened to us? What happened to our infinity of understanding, Oneness and self love? I think it bought a movie ticket.

Is it just me? I mean what does it matter if someone has a larger or smaller body than the “ideal”. Does it make them a bad person? No. Does it make them less intelligent? No. Does it make them less able to give and receive love? No. So what does it make them, then, what’s the big deal? It makes them different to the conditioned version of “normality”, that’s all. And what is this “norm”? Is it normal to be a suntanned blonde with a polished smile showing her bum to a camera?

I’ve just come back from town and I didn’t see one of them anywhere. I would have noticed, I’m sure. All I saw were people of different shapes, colors and sizes adding to the variety of life and experience. Not a bare bum or sun tan in sight.

Not only women are lost out there. Most men in Kenya don’t want to be seen as if they have lost hair and instead shave their heads clean to hide this reality. What’s this terror that Kenyan men have of losing their hair? Oh my life’s over, women won’t be attracted to me… save my hair, take it from my armpits, anywhere, Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!! Let’s just go through this again: when you lose your hair does it make you a bad person? No. Does it make you less intelligent? No. Does it make you less able to give and receive love? No. What’s more, it doesn’t even make you different. Look around you, most men lose their hair. And get this: what would be our reaction if we lived on a planet in which the physical body had no hair on its head and suddenly it started to grow? Oh my life’s over, women won’t be attracted to me… remove my hair; stick it under my armpits, anywhere, Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!! Exactly. It’s just conditioning, that’s all it is.

The irony of all this, and the knowledge that will end the manipulation of Kenyan’s emotions by the Western multibillion-dollar-hate-your-body industry, is that there is no need for all these potions and creams and willy surgeons. Our bodies are a reflection of our sense of self. They are a physical expression of our mind and emotions. You can see in the faces of people if they have been through extreme emotional pain. It is written in their features.

If we feel good about ourselves we will transmit the same energy to our bodies, if we feel unloved and unwanted, our bodies will manifest that, also. The same goes for aging. We don’t have to age as we do. We expect to age because that is our reality and so we age. Incidentally, returning to that Hollywood theme, those actors who fear losing their looks or their hair are far more likely to lose them. We attract to us what we most fear because overcoming fear is essential to our evolution. Relax. Whatever you are is OK. It’s your role in the movie at this moment. You are what you are and you can change what you are by changing what you think you are. That, too, applies to our bodies. It is just a temporary body – you are eternal mind and spirit. But if we get caught into the trap of accepting the manipulators version of what 15 normal and “sexy”, we will have a lifetime of diminished self worth if we don’t have a body that conforms to that.

Today as was yesterday thousands of Kenyans are lining up in US and Western Embassies and missions applying for visas to escape to those parts of the world they imagine happiness awaits they entry.  What they later find out is usually a shocker – the great myth that happiness can be pursued.

Kenyans have long since joined the already duped world population out there duped into pursuing happiness with a bigger fridge, or the latest car, or a bigger house. “If I just had this or that,” they say “I’d be happy.” But when they get it, they’re still not happy. Most people go through their entire lives without being truly happy. Of course there may be moments when they feel blissful, but those moments are so fleeting. Their “happiness” is normally measured by levels of unhappiness. The harder you try to find happiness, the more elusive it becomes. The reason is simple: if you are in a constant state of pursuing happiness you can never be happy. You’re “now” experience is always the pursuing of happiness, never happiness itself. Your happiness is always in the future and not in your now. Its like sitting on one of those horses on the fairground rides. It doesn’t matter how fast the carousel is turning, you never get any closer to the horse in front.

John Lennon once wrote that life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. In the same way, happiness is constantly passing us by because we are spending all our time pursuing it instead of “being” it. The only way to be happy is to be happy. That is a state of mind within your control whatever you are doing. It doesn’t require a new Ferrari or an extension to your dangly bits. Happiness is not a pursuing, it is a being. The harder you chase it, the further you push it away. It can be likened to chasing a butterfly. The more desperately you charge at it, the more it will elude you. But if you stop trying so hard, lie down on the grass and relax, there is a chance it will just come and land on your shoulder.

A similar example is the swimmer trying to reach a ball in the water. The harder and more desperately he swims, the more he disturbs the water and the ball gets further and further away. If however, he is patient and relaxes, he will reach the ball using a lot less effort and emotion. We are called human beings and yet we have become human “doings”.

Why kill fellow Kenyans because of a piece of land? Why cause insecurity just because we want to be presidents of PMs? To be happy. We heads must be sick and our souls gone to town.

We are conditioned to chase everything, including, most significantly, happiness. This constant state of pursuit obscures the truth that life is a lot easier than we are conditioned to believe and does not require the enormous expenditure of physical and emotional energy that we observe every day living our lives as if someone had just shouted “fire”.

Another thing that hooks us in emotionally and seeps our energy for no good reason is the way we are offended by what others say or do. People are offended by different things because they are programmed by different Hassle-Free Zones (a religion, political “ism”, what we were told was “right and “wrong” by our parents). What offends one person won’t offend another because they will have been conditioned to be offended by different things.

Tell a Christian that Jesus was an asshole and they will be mortally offended. A Muslim will not. Tell the Muslim that Mohammed was an asshole and he’ll be offended, but not the Christian. It’s all in the mind. What happened to us? We do as we are told like fully paid up robots. There may be some people reading this article who have been offended by my use of the word shit. If you have, it might be worth asking yourself why you are offended. Shit is merely the one syllable sound which has been accepted to mean a substance we all produce and if we didn’t produce it we would eventually explode. Very messy. I use the word shit because the nature of the substance it describes is brilliantly symbolic of the propaganda we are pressured to accept as our reality on this planet. If anyone is offended by the word shit, it is not because I am being offensive because that is not my intention. It is because you have chosen to be offended. It is all taking place in your mind, not mine. Even if I was trying to be offensive, you still don’t have to take it on and be affected by it.

Mind Revolution Thats what we need

The word “revolution” in its contextual meaning entails a fundamental change, a complete change either in ideology, power, organizational structure or any entirety which could sum up to make a whole. To take a leap beyond what is previously defined by building a broader base of understanding in view of the foregoing, it is important to note that the historical antecedence of revolutionary breakthrough vary widely in terms of methods, duration and causes that has occurred through human history with an intended aim to achieve result that includes a major change within and outside the cultural, economical and socio-political sphere.

What prompts and constitutes a revolution is bent on matter of outlook and modification of exiting values since more modern examinations of its causes reveals that it owes largely to stale ideological system of ideas and severe deprivation of governments indifference and callousness towards human suffering amongst the destitute segment of the population.

In truth, with all liberty of conscience and freedom of thoughts, it is of my opinion that we should be moving towards a paradigm of cooperative production which if properly harnessed could lead to a co-production revolution. A difference in definition and approach gives rise to the explanation that at a particular time, we are heading for a destination not to protest economic and political failure, social ills and individual plight but seek reform that a revolution is the most effective means to achieve as sequentially stated, economic, political, social and consequently individual change. To take on popular dimensions of the revolutionary trend, seizure of power, undermining of authority, massacre, political protests and imprisonments are on most cases usually thought to bring about an essential change but a refined ideology and mind metamorphosis are the prescriptions for that change.
As I have asserted, it must be remembered that the revolution of the mind has the highest chance of occurring solely on the grounds of innate change, consciously, in a subliminal sense or otherwise even if a major drawback of this innovation is predicated upon the assumption that human nature is weak, mankind is essentially selfish, the mind is unwilling and the purpose of life is a search for personal stability and order, we can promote justice, strengthen the government through a change in ideology which remains a fulcrum to which all other developments are patterned on, though most of them are fundamentally political, individual hunger for pursuance of goals with determination and a long term perspective can help effectuate this change. Inevitably true it is when it said that we humans are capable of undergoing a transformation in life since nature itself has compelled to move forward and not to remain static.

It is quite doubtable that a society can be built anew through revolutionary ideology, institutional change and self induced measures but we cannot completely sweep away the old idea and begin something new as a liberal solution. The usual analogy I can make to buttress the fact is that of a house, “The present occupant (we) can renovate, alter and add new wings but if an attempt is made to remove the foundation, the whole structure will collapse and the ideological configuration scattered. We can re-organize ourselves and effectively control circumstances with carefully nurtured minds and every ounce of wisdom. It is certainly within our power to do so when a popular movement which involves a mass mobilization and positive transformation occurs when we visibly see a reform is necessary. The mind is a terrible thing to waste so all we need is a collective cooperation that will offer the best revitalization that is yet to be proposed by anyone by producing a profound change at great speed.

In addition to the data developed, it is clear that a society that lacks ideologues is doomed unless there are individuals who are ideologically balanced, change and development will be merely possible hence the future therefore holds a promise for the ideologue that which heaven holds for the devoted Minded Individual.

Beer contains female hormones!

This is definitely of concern...

Beer contains female hormones!

Last month, Wits University and RAU scientists released the results of
a recent analysis that
revealed the presence of female hormones in beer.

Men should take a concerned look at their beer consumption.

The theory is that beer contains female hormones (hops contain
Phytoestrogens) and that by drinking enough beer, men turn into women
.

To test the theory, 100 men drank 8 pints of beer each within a 1 hour period.


It was then observed that 100% of the test subjects :
1) Argued over nothing.
2) Refused to apologize when obviously wrong.
3) Gained weight.
4) Talked excessively without making sense.
5) Became overly emotional
6) Couldn't drive.
7) Failed to think rationally.
8) Had to sit down while urinating.
No further testing was considered necessary.

Send this to the men you know to warn them about drinking too much beer!

Great news: Buy Kenyan airtime online at a discount!

Finally, we can buy Kenyan airtime online at discounted prices. Check out the brand new website http://www.airtime.co.ke. It's not a flashy site, but it works, and the airtime is cheap. The airtime actually comes with a discount of 2%, so 100 bob of airtime will only cost you 98 bob. That leaves you with 2 bob to buy a sweet. If you buy 1,000 bob of airtime, you save 20 bob, and you can buy a soda with that.

All you need is a VISA credit or debit card. You simply need to select a product (they do have Safaricom, Zain, Yu and Orange airtime with denominations as small as 100 bob), add it to your cart, and checkout. The PIN delivery is automated and instant upon successful payment.

Saving money online

Apart from the obvious conveniences of such a site in Kenya, I guess this site will also become popular with Kenyans in the diaspora and could provide some stiff competition for sites such as MamaMikes and Babawatoto; e-commerce sites where airtime vouchers are some of the most popular items but currently come at a 15-20% price premium. So the savings for Kenyans in the diaspora will be a lot bigger than just a sweet or a soda.

Mobile phone operators may also make online credit/debit card purchases of airtime possible in the near future, as is the case in several other countries across the world.

What do you think? Does this new site have the potential to become a success?

Matatu IPO

There was a small advert in the Nation this week for a private placement to raise Kshs 600 million ($7.5 million) as investments in the public service vehicle (PSV) transport business.

The promoters, PSV Investments, say they have already investment in PSV’s commonly known as matatu’s through transport companies, savings & credit societies (SACCO’s), and individual owners. They are selling 6 million shares at 100 shillings each, with a minimum investment of 5,000 (~$62) for individuals and 100,000 (~$1,250) for institutions, and the Vice Chairman is Dickson Mbugua who’s often on TV defending the Matatu Industry as an official and a spokesman. It opened on May 17 and closes on July 3.

The PSV business is one which has had difficulty getting organized investments because if the poor reputation of the business. This is because of the reckless driving habits of drivers, gangs involved in management, insurance claims & losses.

(this matatu ran me off the road this morning, and I had to drive on the pavement to avoid an accident)

Nevertheless matatu owners are able to obtain loans from some banks but who limit their exposure by financing less than they would for an individual e.g. where a bank may finance 80% or higher of a vehicle cost, for a matatu that’s only about 50% with the owner paying the different. In some cases they also shorten the repayment cycle to weekly installments, instead of monthly, to prevent diversion mismanagement of cash as a matatu generates (and spends) most of is cash on a daily basis.

SACCO’s have a reputation for running the best matatu business, and listed transport company, Express Kenya, has also invested in the PSV business via KBS and Citi Hoppa, as detailed at last year’s invested in PSV business, as discussed at their 2009 AGM.

Private placements are riskier in terms of entry and exit, and I’m dealing with two unique placement cases now: one with an investor who wants to exit from a minority shareholding, but at a greater price than the majority shareholder will pay and another placement in which the promoters have been incommunicado for six months after urging investors to buy into a company. It’s not clear if the CMA is aware of this or if there is a transaction advisor or prospectus for the company.

2 Biggest Reasons Business Start-Ups Succeed

I was reading some articles recently about the top reasons why businesses fail and when I couple that with what I’ve learned from all my interviews with experts I would say without a doubt the 2 biggest factors to business success are;
NOT FRONTLOADING
1) Typically successful launches don’t front load.
Statistically, the biggest failures in business are restaurants and contractors. The reason is simple. Much of what they do relies on market forces beyond their control and when times get tough they still have huge overhead to carry which are major impediments to scaling down quickly. Especially in the case of restaurants. They have to carry the overhead constantly whereas at least a contractor can start to back away from capital intensive projects when he or she senses a need to do so. Of course this depends completely on what type of contractor they are. Manufacturing missiles during a cold war isn’t near as lucrative as it is during actual war. Being halfway through a hi-rise condo project when the economy falls apart however could cripple any entrepreneur no matter how revered they are – can you say Donald Trump?
PERSONALLY ATTACHED TO THE IDEA
2) Successful entrepreneurs like what they are doing and feel it matters in the grand scheme of things. This is the wild card component, the human side of business. Without getting some worth out of what you do, you will make the other dozen or so mistakes cited as reasons for business failure in my upcoming blog post – “The Dirty Dozen” The 12 Biggest Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make When Starting A Business.
As I see it here today, these are the 2 biggest reasons businesses succeed or fail in the long run. Sure, there are a bunch of off shoots but these really seem to be the main 2 components that dance so closely to both success and failure.


For more information Visit  http://www.youngentrepreneur.com/business-coaching/2-biggest-reasons-business-start-ups-fail/

Drive to improve Kenya Internet content

The Kenya ICT Board is pleased to announce the launch of a KES300m grant to promote the development of local digital content and software applications. The process kicked off with a ‘call for proposals’ in today’s Daily Nation newspaper.

The main purpose of this grant is to propel the emergent lucrative but yet underexploited local content industry to growth. The grant which targets the local content developers including software developers, film, animation, advertising, publishing, gaming and education professionals and all content creators, will provide the funding required for the development of quality applications relevant to the Kenya government and private sector.

Digital content, a major contributor and driver of economic growth in developed countries, can be broadly categorized as content accessed from electronic devices like personal computers, game consoles, mobile phones and digital TV. The internet offers the most common form of distribution of digital content. Digital content can include anything from internet based marketing, gaming, online education content and services.

Worldwide, digital content activities are transforming traditional industry structures and business models. Local examples include mobile payment systems like M-Pesa and Pesa Pal and government e-services like online PIN registration. Thus the digital content industry has vast potential as a major contributor to our economy and society through employment creation, capital investment and export earnings, provision of skills and capabilities to traditional as well as new and emerging industry sectors. At the same time it is also significant as a means of expressing Kenya’s unique cultural identity.

With over 3.4m users of the internet in Kenya, research indicates that the importance of the internet outstrips those of several key developed countries. Even so, the latent demand for local content is underlined by the fact that surveys show that lack of local content is the main reason many Kenyans shy away from accessing the internet. On the launch of the grant facility, the CEO, Kenya ICT Board Paul Kukubo, commented: “We are pleased that we are launching this grant at a time that the ICT industry is growing and access to the internet all over the country has vastly improved. The future for content industry is bright. Talent, creativity and skills are key drivers of competitiveness in the content sector and we expect that this grant will enable Kenyans everywhere to develop world class locally relevant content and get this industry to rapidly match the lucrative opportunities for talented content developers in developed nations.”

Kenyan content developers have already demonstrated their ability to be innovative, creative and entrepreneurial in their creation of content that is relevant to our people. The increase in locally developed software applications, websites, films and animation has been extraordinary over the past few years. However, despite evidence of commercial potential, it is not currently competitive in attracting funds and investment capital. This content grant will give content creators in the country a chance to demonstrate their talent, in both the artistic, social and business environment and propel investor confidence in the sector in the long term.

Speaking at the press conference, the Deputy CEO, Victor Kyalo commented, “It is important that with the landing of the fiber optic cables that we as a country produce local digital content, not just ‘access’ other peoples content. It is very positive that Kenyans embrace and appreciate ICTs, but more important is that there are more Kenyan made e-products available in the market. We want this grant to motivate the local content creators and software developers to originate, create, and adapt quality content that the country needs .We intend this content grant to be a driver for the long term development of content and recognize that private and public sector need to pool resources to meet the capacity challenges this lucrative sector faces.”

The Government attaches high priority to addressing skills shortages because of the threat they pose to productivity and economic growth. To address this, the Kenya ICT Board has a number of initiatives purposed to build skills in the ICT sector. Among these are a Centre of Excellence for the BPO sector, an incubation program for software developers and a software certification standard that will give international accreditation and competitiveness to our local developers. Additionally, the board is creating organic growth within the ICT sector by training entrepreneurs (over 1,000 already trained) to run digital villages all over the country. All these coupled with the improved infrastructure, has put Kenya in the forefront of potentially explosive growth in the content and software development sub-sector.

About the grant
The content grant is divided into two major sections: USD1.5m for private sector applications and USD2.5m for government applications. The latter will be used to propel the utilization of ICTs to improve government service delivery. The government has in the past few years firmly embraced ICT to become more efficient and responsive in the delivery of its public service, from processing ID cards, driving licenses, registration of companies, revenue collection and currently, the digitization of records at the Ministry of Lands and the judiciary, with more government departments to follow. This is all in line with Kenya’s vision of becoming a globally competitive and prosperous nation with a high quality of life by 2030.

The private sector grant of USD1.5M is open to firms and individuals to develop applications that would be of benefit to the general public or improve the delivery of existing private sector services.

The first round of grant allocation will award a maximum of USD50,000 per firms and USD10,000 for individuals. The Kenya ICT Board expects to make at least one call for application per year over the next three years.

The content funded by this grant will build capacity within the ICT sector create efficiencies, build social capital, increase utilization of ICTs by local communities and demonstrate to the world, Kenya’s talent for creation of digital content.

Key dates

• Call for proposals: 2 June 2010
• Deadline for proposals: 19 July 19, 2010
• Successfully grantees announced: 15 August 2010
• Disbursement of grant money: October 2010

For more info;
www.ict.go.ke/

http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/business/Kenyabusiness/Drive-to-improve-Kenya-Internet-content-4263.html
http://www.ratio-magazine.com/201006023230/Corporate-Press-Releases/Kenya-Press-Releases-Kenya-ICT-Board-Launch-USD4m-Content-and-Applications-Grant.html

Young Business Kenya Goes Mobile

Young Business Kenya goes mobile: you can now access your business blogspot from your phone.... simply type the address http://buzzcity.mobi/ybke
online business with young business kenya.