Monday 31 October 2011

Kenyan Leaders’ Deadly Obsession with Power

It’s ironic. Col. Muammar Gaddafi called those protesting against him ‘rats’ but when he met his brutal death, he was hiding in a culvert like a rat. The heartbreaking irony in the life of the late Professor Wangari Maathai was that her greatness of was a function of President Moi’s excesses and when she died, an overwhelming sense of shame and guilt prevented the former president from joining the rest of humanity in celebrating her illustrious life and it could not even permit him to join fellow dignitaries at her State Funeral. Such is the regret and humiliation the

Monday 3 October 2011

Safaricom Business Model is Unethical

Safaricom business model was and is still based on the 'capture of subscribers' and locking them in forever. This happened and continues to be the case because of several things: One, the conditions in the mobile telephony sub-sector were conducive back then when Safaricom came into the scene with only one competitor who was exorbitant. Two, Michael Joseph an expatriate with considerable knowledge in mobile telephony business models and having studied properly our peculiar calling habits, chose the capture model. Three, the capture was based on tariffs all along until the company went public. In the IPO, the company chose to make the share price ridiculously affordable by discounting it heavily so that every subscriber could own a share and something which would have the net effect of further ring fencing the hapless subscribers. The only reason Safaricom has the audacity to raise its tariffs in the face of stiff competition and in the thick of biting inflation is because their subscribers are locked in for good.

The Curse of High Incidence of Economic Illiteracy

Our country is currently experiencing an economic trauma that is characterised with chronic inflation and a severely weakened shilling that is has put to the test the resilience of our economy. The Central Bank is pitted against commercial banks trading accusations over what is the real cause of the situation and how best to deal with it. So far opinion among economists is equally divided over where to place the blame and which remedial measures should be taken to bring relief quickly. Regrettably, due to our high economic illiteracy incidence,

Saturday 1 October 2011

The ICC Suspects and Defence Teams Mistakes

The International Criminal Court (ICC) established by the Rome Statute, is the world’s first permanent treaty based international criminal court established for the purpose of ending impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community. H.E. Dr. Kofi Annan accurately observed that prior to the establishment of the ICC, powerful men committed crimes against humanity knowing all too well that as long as they remained powerful