[Type R]

I cannot speak for africa but i have a view of kenya.

Imagine, a local company tries to start manufacturing (not assembling) cars. Haya, the chief production engineer is a, say, kikuyu. The chief design engineer is, say, a mkamba. (by now, all kenyans know where i am going with this. That is the sad thing.) the general manager - technical operations is, say, a maasai but his father was actually a kikuyu who was "adopted" in narok and married a real maasai woman. Both the cde and the cpe report to the gm-to. The procurement manager is a luo who has grown up in ukambani and speaks fluent kikamba.

Mind you, we have not yet come to the most difficult part, the design and production of a marketable car. Yet our hands are full of problems!!!

all the above staff are highly trained, some have even worked at the mercedes factory in stuttgart, other engineers have been for training in japan with toyota, honda, etc. So training and experience are not in short supply. Objective: produce a mini-car to rival the starlet, vitz, yaris, etc.

Many "contacts" have already talked to the procurement manager trying to secure supply contracts for various sub-components. Pm will base his decision of what supplies to procure based on kitu kidogo, vested interests (e.g. He will use a nephew to form a company and import what the pm has already pre-decided he will order). Chief design engineer, cde - let's say he's the one honest fellow, makes a perfectly workable car prototype. He hands over to production. Cpe has problems with the design, and fights it. Kumbe, the design is ok but it is that the parts that the pm had pre-ordered differed slightly from the cde's final design of the car. Cpe and cde go to war against the cde, asking him to draw a better design, and even give him spare parts (my!) to use as his basis. "how can i base a design on components?!!!" cpe mobilises and incites the lower-level engineers. Cpe fights but seeing that he will lose (the gm-to's kyuk blood becomes an issue, cpe is a kyuk and the cde's kao exposure which he banked on is useless), he resigns.

Pm is transferred and becomes the cde (crazier things happen), a new pm is appointed (cpe's rela, kyuk). Now the company is in harmony but the resultant car is not.

The purchasing manager has designed a car based on components that his shady supply system has availed. The former cde is blamed for "consistent delays that evaporated when he left." the car is a total mess. Even after alignment, it cannot drive straight. Exhaust system heat warms the back seat. If you exceed 100 kph on a turn, god bless your children.

Meanwhile, the former cde is busy in stuttgart learning german for his new job in a major deutschland manufacturer, which will be shipping the new generation model to kenya in less than a year. So much energy wasted and not one joule focussed on ensuring that a car with integrity is produced.

don't ask me where the md was in all this mess. He is the key to all this mess. He is "the buck stops here." the md is what is wrong with africa if he allows the above scenario to unfold unabated. That is what is wrong with africa: leadership, the lack thereof. Lack of focus, sidetracked by tribal/personal sideshows.