Mashada Blogs » June 23, 2009

Stuff Kenyans Like: # 14 NYAMA CHOMA

2009-06-23T18:47:00-04:00

And lets not confuse Nyama Choma to Grilled meat, because often I hear people talking about Nyam Chom like its grilled meat. Nyamchom is Nyamchom, Grilled meat is grilled meat - its the Jungu stuff you grill using a Kenmore Gas powered griller.

Nyama Choma is a different beast. Kenyans Love Nyama Choma - because there are only two things that can go down with Nyama Choma. UGALI and BEER. Grilled meat you can eat with anything, rice, crackers, salads, corn - as they serve it in the US. But Nyamchom.. hebu try serving a real Kenyan Nyamchom without Ugali regardless of his tribe - there will be a problem.

Regardless of the health issues, this is one food that Kenyans have been unable to let go or moderate. Just look at the number of cars and people packed at Choma Zone or at Buffet Park on an average weekend.

ps. Nyamchom has to be served on a slab or a plate with salt on the side, having Kachumbari is a bonus but not required. BUT THE SALT is a must have.

Diary of a gay Kenyan: Looking for a cock

2009-06-23T14:23:00-04:00

You’re probably wondering what a bird’s doing on a gay man’s blog. Give me a moment all will be clear.

Recently I met up with an old friend Sue from back-in-the-day for a chat. She split up with her long term boyfriend Jeff four months ago. Over tea she pours her heart out to tell me how she’s lonely and looking for a male companion with whom she can once in a while also be intimate but no strings attached. I ask her what kind of man she wants and I’m shocked by her reply:

“I don’t care what he looks like so long as he’s got a nice cock!”

Poultry farmers queue here.

Rants, Raves & Reviews: Olympia Capital Holdings Ltd - Cautionary Statement

2009-06-23T14:01:00-04:00

OLYMPIA CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT

Olympia Capital Holdings Limited (OCHL) owns 51% of Olympia Capital Corporation Limited (OCC), a company listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange. In December 2006, OCC purchased 74% of Plush Products (pty) Limited (Plush).

For the fnancial periods ended December 2006, February 2008 and February 2009, Plush did not contributed positively to the bottom line of the group. From September 2008, following the slipping of the South African economy into a recession, we saw a signifcant drop in our sales that made the company go into a loss making situation.

We believe in the products and the market, but not the model to market that we have used to date. A decision has been made to close the company, sell the assets to meet our obligations and consider re-entering the market with a leaner model.

The closure of Plush will not have any negative effect on the operational group proftability, however we will only tell with time the effect that the loss of the actual investment will have on our group balance sheet.

Michael Matu

Chief Executive

23rd June 2009

Many folks have been asking about Olympia Capital Holdings (Kenya). The shares' trading was suspended on Monday at 11am but resumed trading on Tuesday after the statement was released. We will have to wait for the FY 2008-9 results expected by 30 June 2009.

The conventional wisdom in financial markets is that the longer the delay in announcing results, the worse they are.

[KQ released their 2008-9 results 1 week later than usual. Well, there was a Kes 7.5bn charge to profits relating to hedging.]

It is highly likely that OCHL will have to write off the ENTIRE equity injection into Plush-Yokota. And there is a chance that the profitable units might suffer as well from the cash drain or 'connection'. Nevertheless, OCHL's acquisition of Plush has set Olympia back many years.

That said, Plush has NEVER contributed to the bottomline for OCC (Botswana). So this action will stop the cash outflows for now.

Still Proud to be Kenyan.: Heard a Man Die; though I have seen Plenty.

2009-06-23T11:08:26-04:00

It is now exactly a week after I sat for the CFA exams. It is 1:51 am, in the dead of the night over here and I have just been rudely woken up by shouting men and a crying man. I am usually a light sleeper and I am usually woken up even by a [...]

The African Accent: Does Sex Sell?

2009-06-23T10:58:00-04:00

Somebody asked me to write about sex. Apparently sex sells. Even the top three words searched on the Sheng Kamusi seem to suggest so. But when I did a little research, I realized that only scandalous sex sells.

For example, IPS News had an article titled 'Family Planning Not Only For Women' published on June 18th. When I posted it on Facebook, like I usually do with most articles I find interesting, there was not even one comment on it. That's not strange. Not all my Facebook posts get comments. I don't think anybody read it though. Maybe I should have quoted an excerpt:

"Family planning is only for women. And it makes them promiscuous. I would never advise my wife to use those things [contraceptives] because the role of a woman is to give birth to children," Zaddock Odhiambo, a 28-year-old father of six remarked.

Then there was the IRIN Africa article titled 'South Africa: One in four men rape'.

"Asked about their age at the first time they had forced a woman or girl into sex, 9.8 percent said they were under 10 years old, 16.4 percent were 10-14 years old, 46.5 percent were 15-19 years old, 18.6 percent were 20-24 years old, 6.9 percent were 25-29 years old, and 1.9 percent were 30 or older."

Again, not a word from anybody.

But, the sex scandal allegedly involving Zain Uganda's operations director, [Name omitted after a reader request], continues to generate interest since the adult blog, titled 'Inside Karen Lucas; Plus other things sexual ... ' [WARNING! SEXUALLY EXPLICIT PICTURES] released steamy pictures of him, and young lady sharing intimate moments. I don't know if it is indeed Mr. Ops Director, since I've never seen the guy.

Rumor has it that he left the pictures on his work computer. An IT guy found them, and tried to blackmail him. When that didn't work, Mr. IT Man released the pics to the rest of the world. Apparently Mr. Ops Director has since lost his job. I tried to verify that with Zain Uganda, but I got no response, although their website still lists his name, as of the date of this post.
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Kenya Cricket: Still a day or so away...

2009-06-23T08:46:00-04:00

Despite claims in the local press that the new Kenya Captain and squad were to be finalised on Sunday, Tom Tikolo, CEO of Cricket Kenya has informed Kenya Cricket.com via email that:

"The issue of captaincy and team to travel to Ireland will be sorted out in a day or so as all the procedures are in place.

The coach issue is still pending as we await advice from all parties concerned. Meanwhile Andy Kirsten will be going with the team to Ireland on temporary basis."

On the coach issue, this is no surprise at it was already known that Kirsten would continue to act as coach for the Ireland trip. For those waiting on selection and to hear regards the captaincy, this continues to increase the frustration. In terms of selection, it may well be that the selectors will now wait until after the next practice match, due to start today, before making their final decisions. If they had been originally planning on sending the same squad that travelled to South Africa for the World Cup qualifiers, this does make a kind of sense as at least two players not in that party, namely David Obuya and Peter Kituku, both gave indications that they should at least be under consideration for places.

So in the meanwhile, we continue to wait. At least there is the practice match and we will endeavour to bring you updates as they come through.Become a fan of Kenya Cricket.com on facebook: [www.facebook.com]

Kenyantykoon's Blog: DO NOT DESTROY YOUR MONETISED BLOG

2009-06-23T08:32:50-04:00

Hi people? This is my second post today. the first was about Somalia trying to involve kenya into their political issues. I have been blogging for three weeks now and what was an aggravating activity is becoming quite fun. [Those hostel owners should switch on the WIFI again because I have to go to campus everyday to work on this [...]

Black Looks: In solidarity with the green people of Iran

2009-06-23T07:56:15-04:00

Show your solidarity with the green people of Iran If you think that the election in Iran wasn’t free and fair, or that there was swindling and fraud, and if you can, say something green on your blog, or turn it green temporarily, in solidarity with the masses doing the streets in Tehran, demanding freedoms. [...]

Black Looks: Gang rape in London

2009-06-23T06:23:18-04:00

A couple of days ago I published a brief post from South Africa which reported that one in 4 males admitted to being rapists. But rape in the city is not just happening on a large scale in South Africa. Here in London a recent Channel 4 Dispatches documentary highlighted the prevalence of [...]

SportsKenya: Athletics:- African Championships in 2010, what is going on?

2009-06-23T06:14:00-04:00

While the restof the sporting fraternity is focussed on the 2010 World Cup, we have a small matter of the African Athletics Championship which we ought to be thinking about. From media reports, we might as good as not hosting it thanks to the ongoing squabbles between the Ministry of Sport and Athletics Kenya officials.When Kenya was awarded this honour, it goes without saying ,it was long overdue just as it was with the 2007 World Cross-Country championships. Even though we didn't win the individual races, the event had the impact of changing the fortunes of Mombasa and the country in hosting sports events. But as we lost our senses come the Elections, we seem not to have woken from that slumber.The current Minister, who I'm increasingly seeing as a handicap to sports in Kenya has made it known that she has not been properly briefed by the former Minister. The Government has also remained mum about any funds committed towards the event. By now an organising committee ought to be in place, having visited previous hosts and looked into ways of improving on that offering.We also need to appoint more accountable officials not like what we had with the World Cross-Country championships where they took more than 6 months to produce a dubious report which seems to have been forgotten, thanks to the rubbing of hands here and there.As for Athletics Kenya, I said here before, we are stuck in a rut in terms of developing new ideas for the discipline. What do you expect when officials have monopolised offices for the last decade?