Dear Chairman/CEO/CFO,
I would like to request the Board not to hold any meetings, functions, AGMs, EGMs or provide any patronage to the Grand Regency Hotel as long as the sale does not meet prudent & transparent guidelines expected in the disposal of public assets.
The GRH relies on patronage from businesses as its core client base. The denial of the business is a silent protest in the vein of Gandhian philosophy as practiced successfully by Dr. Martin Luther King & Nelson Mandela. I hope this drive the message home to the corrupt whether they be Sellers or Buyers.
It is my hope that the Private Sector takes the lead in protesting unfair policies that the political establishment pursues.
Thank you,
Coldtusker
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16:05
The Grand Sale that Never Was
» You Missed This 
The madness and falsehood about the sale of Grand Regency Hotel must stop now that none other than KACC director Aaron Ringera has clarified that he DUTIFULLY advised CBK governor to do what was legally right. No sane Kenyan can fault JUSTICE RINGERA given his impeccable record of being the dragon slayer. Let the uninitiated know that we owe OUR CLEAN judiciary to Ringera’s RADICAL SURGERY in the bench, an exercise which left many appellate judges fighting losing battles for reinstatement.
Anybody doubting Ringera’s resolve and astuteness must have his head examined. Give it to the guy he surely earns his Ksh. 2.5m per month pay check. Justice Ringera and his dedicated team of corruption busters epitomize the ingredients of a working nation. When Githogo tried making mirages look like true reflections it was Ringera who told him nothing but the truth lest he joins the long list to ungrateful Kenyans who think with their mouths. What truer friend could one ask for? Now see, Githogo is suffocating from British gales and winter after disregarding Ringera’s wise counsel to go slow - asiyesikia la mkuu!.
Justice Ringera knows his appointing authority who he serves with ZEAL and unquestionable loyalty. He works for results and thanks to him he succeeded in repossessing the pricey Grand Regency by persuading one Kamlesh Pattni to play ball. For the records Moi took over a decade to unsuccessfully get that deal done. Contrast that with Ringera’s reign where in less than three years Kenya has not only EXORCISED Goldenberg’s ghost but also summarily and effectively declared the phantom Anglo Leasing a deal that NEVER WAS. We must appreciate true unique skills when we see the results they produce. What is more, Justice Ringera made it clear during Grand Regency's handing over ceremony that the repossession feat was not only historic but also a huge leap forward in fight against GRAND CORRUPTION. And should the heat become unbearable the funds can be anonymously be WIRED back. We have a rich history to fall back on.
Disruptive propaganda
Every patriotic Kenyan must help in speedily bringing to a halt the prevailing and DISRUPTIVE mad season of finger pointing and buck passing. The so-called sale of Grand Regency was a sale THAT NEVER WAS. Basic logic would point you to proceeds from a sale BUT in this case there is none. And why would a WORKING Government engage in business in the first place? All the noise and propaganda will only succeed in DERAILING our path to economic growth. Kenyans are so much used to low expectations so much so that when Kibaki engages on GRAND missions to expand our economy most of us are left whining and concentrating on sideshows.
While the world is faced with grim economic recession, Kenyans will soon supplicate at the feet of far sighted HE Kibaki when cheap oil starts flowing from Kenya pumps thanks to Libya. Well, lesser leaders like Botswana’s VP Mompati Merfahe can preoccupy themselves with trivia in condemning DULY ELECTED Mugabe just like other bridesmaids join the chorus to seek cheap political attention outside a club they don’t belong. The truth is Zimbabwe is not Kenya and we have our own unique strength to withstand and re-emerge from RAPE of an already WILLING NATION. Kazi indelee.
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15:58
Grand Regency Hotel - IPO? Dreaming...
» Rants, Raves & Reviews The GoK could have sold GRH to the public and make it a public entity... but there would be nothing there for the politicians... would there?
GRH with a market value of KES 3bn would have been larger than the market caps Unilever Tea, Kakuzi, Rea Vipingo, C&G, Marshalls, Sameer Africa, etc... It would have been as large as ALL the AIMS firms combined!
Of course, interested bidders for the management contract could have been Serena, Fairmont among others... but again what would kibz or kimunya have gotten?
In Zambia, Lusaka's premier hotel, the Taj Pamodzi, majority shares were sold to the Taj Group of India but it remains a public listed entity... It seems Zambia have better government governance than we do...
Who knows, KQ - publicly listed - could have taken a stake in GRH & marketed it as their exclusive hotel for its passengers & crew but would k&k benefit?
I am going to boycott the GRH unless it is (re)sold for a fair price in a transparent manner. I will urge ALL listed firms NOT to hold their AGMs there in protest at the farce.
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15:52
East Africa: Praying to the Undersea Cable Gods
» White African The most recent technology review has a good article on the transoceanic internet cable build-out happening world wide. It’s got a nice little map visual too, which allows you to see where things are (white lines) and where new undersea cables are being installed.
East Africa is one of the last major regions in the world to not have true international broadband (aka: “fat pipes”). Having just returned from a 3-week stint in Nairobi, I can tell you that these cables will make a huge impact on the local market.
Uploading video, watching video, uploading images, sending emails with images, receiving images, downloading applications, uploading zip files, FTP, VoIP calls… and more. All that stuff is painfully slow or impractical to do right now. You don’t realize how much you use these types of service in the rest of the world, until you’re forced to do without for an extended period of time.
I, for one, will continue to pray to the undersea cable gods that East Africa will see this cable by this time next year.
[Sidenote: I know a certain individual is interning at Google doing a paper on how the lack of bandwidth has crippled web business in East Africa. I'm looking forward to seeing it.]
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10:28
TAHIDI HIGH
» Couch Potato If there was a local Kenyan show to be addicted to this would be it. It's the best we have. Over the years local productions have always been stereotyped and stereocast but this programme has always remained fresh and surprisingly entertaining.
The cast has a fantastic dialogue. I have always insisted the key to a programme is the screenplay followed by the storyline. Rarely do you have ten minute pauses within each sentence uttered or cheap incidental music to occupy time and dialogue. There is a smooth flow in acting unlike other local programmes where you can tell one is waiting to deliver the next line. We need spontanous flow...perhaps its bad directing as opposed to bad writing...but we never care since we shall always dismiss it as "typical of Kenyan progs."
I watched "Mother in Law" that premiered this Sunday and I do not see this show lasting very long. Again we have familiar faces that have been recycled into this new show. Cheap dialogue and their flow between english and swahili was not smooth leave alone natural. Why would someone cast an actor from "Better Days" and not want to hire fresh faces? So if "Better days" returns what happens?
I'm I the only that sees the folly in recycling?
Citizen has made an effort to promote and produce local shows...but none stands in comparison to Tahidi High. Besides the writing, I think the cast does an amazing job. The likes of "Omosh" to the bad boys "OJ" and "Freddie" ..."Principal Morgan"..."Joni"...though some are recycled products of French Cultural Centre- they are nonetheless not common on T.V and play their roles very well.
Kudos to Tahidi High and the entire team. It is fresh and funny. Oozes originality and plenty of potential. Only loophole is this is a High School Drama and time factor is usually the worst thing to happen to a show running on an actual time line. So what happens to the star-characters of the show when they finish High School?
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9:31 Notes 01-07-08
» Gathunuku - Musings from Parselelo Kantai in The Africa Report on the state of the nation in the wake of last December’s elections and the tragic ensuing events. His article “Now the Hard Part” opine that the deep chasm between the ruling class and wananchi will continue to be a significant obstacle to progress on every front. Thought provoking.
- Yes those petro-dollar driven SWFs are indeed piling on influence as fast as cash. This article (free registration required) in the transcendent McKinsey Quarterly has a detailed analysis of the scale of how $140 per barrel oil is having effect on world investments. Closer to home, tales of new ventures actualised in a most determined of manner only illustrate the measure of liquidity in the GCC and other oil exporters. A major international bank is also reportedly looking to these funds for salvation.
- Word that another stock brokerage might be having problems has one inevitably wondering if this is more than just teething troubles.
- All the best to this chap, LiveQuotes is true ingenuity.
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9:26
Mugabe's Madness. And, What's That Headline Again?
» What An African Woman Thinks But really, Mugabe. Eish.
One has to wonder what's going on in that head of his. What can he be gaining from clinging to power to this ridiculous, insane, mindboggling extent?
And what does he see when he looks at the broken and battered and bruised and ailing Zimbabwe that is and compares it with the promising Zimbabwe that was some fifteen odd years ago?
How can he hold his head high when he's leader of a country where a loaf of bread costs 3 billion dollars, an individual can withdraw a maximum of 25 billion dollars a day, and in order to do so, she has to queue for upto 3 hours?
On the offchance that Mugabe allows someone who's reading this blog an exclusive interview with him some time soon (you never know, be prepared, and all that other jazz), here are some questions I'd like you to ask him, on my behalf:
Ask him about the people he says he's standing up for against the imperialist white man and what his 'standing up' is costing them and whether he's asked them lately whether they want him to stand up for them and what they said.
Ask him whether, when he closes his eyes and thinks about all that Zimbabwe is capable of becoming and then he opens them and takes a close hard look at what Zimbabwe is today, his heart swells with pride.
Ask him whether he is absocomplelutely mad. Or, scratch that. I know the answer to that one.
(Seriously, Go Hang? Is that it?)
* * * *
I was surfing the net just now, looking for the latest news on how the African Union is dealing with the Mugabe question when I came across a most amusing title to a story on Mugabe. The International Herald Tribune has an article titled: "Mugabe Rejects Calls For His Ouster" Well, oh, ok. As opposed to that other thing that Mugabe might have done which is gleefully welcome his ouster?It's my window, but I don't own the view.
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8:56
1 JULY 2007
» My Life is...Mochalicious! A year ago today, Mr Mocha! and I decided to make it ‘official’ as they (I don’t know who they are, but you know what I mean) put it. Today, our relationship has reached its one year mark and we couldn’t be happier. This past year has had its ups and downs, but I thank God [...]
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Step One, Step Two, Step Three
» What An African Woman Thinks Step One: allowing myself to grieve the impending loss. To look at eleven odd years- what has been, what hasn't been, what could have been.
I can hardly believe that one became two became seven became a whooping eleven.
Wow.
How now?
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Step Two: Packing up the dreams God planted.
I'm a chronic collector, have I ever, ahem, confessed that? Seriously, there's no beating me at this so don't even try.
I can dig up the Success Cards I received when I was about to sit my CPE.
And every other cute little note that someone, anyone, ever sent me. Perhaps I should stick almost in there, just in case. But really, every.
I was going through my stuff the other day and found an "I'm sorry I was late" note a friend sent me some eighteen years ago. Stand back and take a moment to absorb that.
And, and, and, when I was through reading it and reminiscing, I did not throw it away-I stashed it back right where I'd found it, certain that I would stumble upon it again, a few years from now, and it would make me smile. Again.
So. Packing up.
This afternoon, I decided I might as well get round to it now, to lighten my load at the end of the road.
So far, I've found fourteen half-used notebooks stroke journals semi-hidden away in different parts of the office. I was startled, once again, at some of the things I've thought and felt and written.
Sometimes, I can hardly recognise me.
Also, ohmygoodness, was that me?
Lots of knick-knacks and dodats: the joy of finding a scarf, exquisitely wrapped, brought by friends from faraway places that I'd forgotten about (how could I?); my The Kenya We Want Mug (aawww); random coins from most every place I've travelled to; and even, a packet of Sasini Tea (don't ask, I cannot tell).
It is an emotionally exhausting exercise. In every drawer there is another memory, waiting to be dusted out, contemplated, and packed away into a box-for now.
*******
Step Three: Praying for the discipline to finish well.
I do not want to huff and puff and blow this house down.
(Even when I want to, I don't want to, really.)
First, it's taken up a big chunk of the life of me. Second, I think there's a great deal that I've accomplished here that I can be proud of. Third, even if I cannot go where this place is going, even if I cannot stay, I think I owe it to myself to walk away with my head held high.It's my window, but I don't own the view.
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3:42
Aides to Rogue Kenyan Finance Minister involved in Shady deal Paraded in Shame (Includes Central Bank Governor)
» The Benin Epilogue Part I: Africa-Ready for Business The Grand Regency Hotel changed hands at Sh1.85 billion and not Sh2.9 billion. Earlier reports by the finance minister Amos Kimunya were proved wrong by evidence produced by his cabinet colleague, the Minister for Lands, James Orengo who uncovered newer details about the shady deal.
A Libyan embassy official, Mr Ahmed Mabrouk, said the mission was not involved in the transaction, adding that the matter was purely between investors from his country and the Central Bank of Kenya.
Members of parliament have planned a motion of no confidence in the Finance Minister whose aides in the shady deal were paraded yesterday in shame. The list includes Kenya's Central bank Governor who had earlier denied any links in the transaction…... READ MORE
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MPs and the Media: Stop the Hypocrisy, Kibaki Stole Grand Regency Hotel in Broad Day Light As You Watched!
» You Missed This The secret “sale” of the Grand Regency Hotel at a throw away price and the boring subsequent debate has exposed what our MPs and the mainstream media are – they are grossly incompetence and lazy to do even simple research.The media behave like secretaries – taking dictation from our politicians without questioning a word and reproducing it as “news”. On the other hand, our lazy, tribal and incompetent MPs digest the same raw garbage channeled out by the same media, which disguised as news, and shout from the roof tops pretending to have made new discoveries. The MPs and the media and just two sides of the same coin.
The poor Kenyans are daily treated to a game of musical chairs by our politicians and the mainstream media. And they believe them. As expected, the mainstream media and the MPs are now trying to outdo each other contributing to the debate of the theft of the Grand Regency Hotel – as if any of them had the correct facts regarding the whole episode.
The James Orengos of this world, the Standard, the Daily Nation and its sister Sunday Nation (both of which are Kibaki’s mouthpiece) are now shouting loudest to capture the eye and sympathy of the public yet the deal was hatched and executed by Kibaki himself right under their nose. And none of them noticed it then due to their laziness and incompetence. Kibaki committed the crime of trading off the hotel way back in June 2007 and an year later, the MPs and the media are now shouting from the roof tops pretending to have made shocking discoveries! Please spare us your garbage-spewing mouths.
This is how it all began . . . .
President Kibaki made a three-day visit to Libya between June 4 and 6, 2007. A dispatch from the Presidential Press Service (PPS) to KBC and all the other mainstream media houses plus a posting on the website of Dr Alfred Mutua’s Office of Public Communications clearly stated in back and white that Kibaki and Libya’s President Muammar Gaddafi had signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) Titled "Agreement on Promotion Guarantee and Protection On Investment".
Under the MoU, President Kibaki committed Kenya into granting an exclusive trade pact to Libya, making Tripoli "most favoured nation" status - making it possible for Libyan companies to start at an advantage over investors when competing for lucrative contracts. The Grand Regency Hotel was as among the six projects that the Libyans had expressed interest in the Mou.
The MoU was signed by Kenya's then Minister for Trade, Dr Mukhisa Kituyi, and Dr Ali Elisaue, Secretary General of Libya's General People's Committee for the Economy and Investment. The document was endorsed by Presidents Kibaki and Gaddafi.
Interestingly, Kibaki was committing himself to sell Grand Regency Hotel to a group comprising Libyan investors trading as Libyan Arab African Investment Company almost nine months before Kibaki’s cronies persuaded Goldenberg scandal architect Kamlesh Pattni to surrender it to “the Government” (Kibaki is not the Government). By then, the hotel was still Pattni’s property and there was no indication that he would surrender it to anyone. Why was Kibaki so confident into signing such an MoU based on a property in private hands and why was he so desperate to do so?
Our MPs have offices at Continental House, which they rarely use. They are always out in rallies politicking. The MPs have access to a modern library and research staff services, but they don’t use them. Our mainstream media – the National Media Group and the Standard Group – have well-trained journalists and modern libraries. But they rarely make good use of them.
If the media and the MPs are the public watchdog, they are supposed to scrutinise every deal that “the Government” enters – even with devils - with a microscope. Kibaki stole Grand Regency Hotel in broad day light while our MPs and the media slept on their job.
A PPS dispatch from Libya in June 2007 gave very strong hints about “the sale” of the Grand Regency to Libya (when it was still Pattni’s property) and yet that did not raise eyebrows amongst the lazy and incompetent MPs and media houses (most of them are run by Kikuyu managers and editors who are Kibaki’s loyalist). Why didn’t they smell a rat from the PPS hint?
Kumekucha, which doesn’t have the resources that the MPs, the Nation Media Group and the Standard Group have access to, was the first to expose how Kibaki gave away Grand Regency to Libya in exchange for campaign funds. That was in May. And as expected, some readers who read the story in this blog attempted to pour cold water on it yet the facts in the story were water-tight. The facts in the story were vindicated last week and everybody now seems to be in a hurry to catch up and contribute to a debate they least understand.
Just to re-cap for those who are not conversant with the facts, Kibaki had gone to Libya in June last year to beg money to fund his PNU campaigns and he promised to sell Grand Regency Hotel at peanuts value in exchange of the funds.
How did such funds help the Kenyan public? The money funded Kibaki’s and PNU’s campaigns and had nothing to do with the Kenyan people. The Sh2.9 billion Kimunya claims the hotel fetched will in no way go into public coffers. This was a debt Kibaki incurred and the Sh2.9billion was going to offset that debt. So, how does the public benefit? It’s like when you sell off a vehicle to offset a bank loan you had taken. The cash generated by the vehicle sale will in no way land in your pocket. In this case, Kibaki had already spent the cash he got from Libya in his campaigns and, therefore, not a single cent of the Sh2.9billion will go to the public. That’s the simple mathematics Kimunya is not telling the public.
Kibaki was to hand over the hotel to Libya as soon as he sworn in for a second term in office. But that didn’t happen because Kibaki topped up his votes and this triggered the post-election violence. Libya on the other hand was getting impatient that Kibaki had not honoured his deal and Gaddafi started exerting pressure on Kibaki to deliver what he promised.
On May 19, this year, President Mwai Kibaki flew to Kampala to meet Gaddafi in the thick of a political stalemate back in Kenya brought about by theft of presidential votes. President Gaddafi was in Kampala to commission a new mosque. President Kibaki’s only mission to Kampala was to plead for more time from President Gaddafi for him to honour his part of the MoU.
According to a PPS dispatch to newsrooms, the two leaders held bilateral consultation “to review the status and progress of the implementation of the agreed framework of co-operation between the two countries which was signed in Sirte during President Kibaki's visit to Libya mid last year.” Why didn’t the MPs and the media bother to find out what was this MoU and why was it that important for Kibaki to leave his house on fire to go and meet Gaddafi?
This is where Mr Justice Aaron Ringera, the head of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, and Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, Prof Njuguna Ndung’u, come into the Grand Regency picture. The two were under instructions to beg Pattni to surrender the hotel in exchange of amnesty over his role in looting public coffers through the infamous Goldenberg scandal. And the media happily reported what was on the face value when Ringera and Prof Njuguna woke up one day and put up a public show with Pattni announcing the Government had “recovered” the hotel from the Goldenberg thief. Media houses didn’t bother to dig beneath the surface. Why?
Ringera knew what he was doing contravened the same law he is paid Sh2.5 million monthly from tax-payers to uphold. Ringera has taken to court small fish (permanent secretaries, civil servants and watu wa mikono) for procuring goods or committing the Government into deals that had been single-sourced without putting up public bids. What’s so different between such deals and the Grand Regency rip off? In fact, Kibaki was signing hot air in the MoU since the hotel was then the property of Pattni! Why would Ringera sanction law breaking by Kibaki – a duly-elected President who has sworn to protect Kenya, her property and the constitution?
Kimunya – Kibaki’s blue-eyed boy – is merely legalising his master’s grand theft. Poor Kimunya. And he prefers to take the heat and filth from MPs and the media – who have made new discoveries - as his thieving master sits pretty at State House. That’s why it’s laughable when I hear MPs and Cabinet ministers demanding Kimunya’s sacking. Who will sack Kimunya? Can Kibaki sack himself?
In addition to Kimunya, Kenyans should unequivocally demand the truth from Kibaki himself, Dr Kituyi and members of delegation that visited Libya with Kibaki. Kibaki, Kimunya, Ringera and Prof Njuguna MUST all be forced to resign by the public and refund the campaign bribe Kibaki received from Libya.
Our MPs – Prime Minister Raila Odinga included - and the media are only shedding crocodile tears to cover up their collective incompetence. Kenyans are being fooled. Where were the MPs, the James Orengos and the media when Kibaki was stealing public property? Which other public property are in the Mou which Kibaki committed himself to give away?
The only MPs who can somehow escape blame are the new ones who were voted in during last year’s General Election. But Raila and the other MPs who were in the Ninth Parliament should give us a break. They were in Parliament when Kibaki stole Grand Regency and none of them raised a finger till now to endear themselves to the public – to be seen to be championing matters of public interest.
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0:53
Tuesday Tirades II......................
» My part of the world....... Sigh, bloggers block continues to compound with time. Anyway let me do what I can to combat it. Last weekend I went to the International Farmer's Market to get my usual supply of fruit, veggies and other occasional treats and noticed something. This maybe be stereo-typing, something I am not a big fan of; but Africans stare. There is this chica who was staring at me and I wanted to tell her to watch out otherwise her eyes would roll out of her skull, no my fly wasn't open, The Acolyte is just hot like that. Similarly a friend of mine who went back to Kenya on vacation told me how she went to Kenya and visited one of the new strip clubs that had come up. She told me how she saw a dude watching the mama dancing on the table for him, you see here when most peeps get a table dance; they will for the most part act like they are not that moved, now it was different with our Kenyan cat. The mama is dancing one the table and the dude had his face like 3 inches from the cooch. I doubt he was moonlighting as a gynaeo for the strippers but please you don't want to be that close, you don't know where that cooch has been. Sigh, Kenyans are in a class of their own I say.
The other day after issuing a disclaimer, this chica I talk to asked me how come many Africans don't wear deo. You see sometime back she used to work for some Nigerians and it seemed that many of the peeps who used to come around the joint used to subject her to noxious fumes. I also realised that you don't really notice the way that many folks especially everyday peeps on the street don't use deo much until you go back home on vacation or run across someone here who isn't using any deo at all. But of course this isn't to say that all Kenyans go around au naturale, most middle class Kenyans do use deo and other hygiene products but for the average Kenyan trying to survive on less than a $1 a day, smelling fresh is the least of your problems but on the other hand if you have made it to the States and have at least $2 you can get some roll on so I don't know about the peeps out here, they need to get their scent together.
I made a technical appearance at a Kenyan bash the other day. A well planned one at that, I was there for only 2 hours and it was a 10 min drive from home but noticed one thing that happens regularly. Why do Kenyans check into Kenyan bashes at around 1 am? It doesnt make sense to me especially if the club is closing at 3 am or 4 am, well I guess it's cheaper to get smashed at a pal's place and then go to the club and get completely plastered on one beer. I don't know how it works in other States and countries, please share.
Anyway the rivers of inspiration are running low, so I shall share these wonderful demotivational messages with you. View and get offended at your own risk
Government working just for you......
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