If a picture is 1000 words a video is a million!

Here at Genius Executives, we've been very busy the last couple of months. We've re-branded our company  and put together a strong team to make sure we remain the top outsourcing and consultancy company for small businesses in Kenya,

One our the biggest challenges we've been facing however is how to tell someone about our revamped EVA products that now come in black-boxed packages called Genius Boxes. Working through hundreds of different speech ideas and text we came to realize that a video can say best what EVA and Genius Boxes are all about. Won't want to take the fun out of the viewing so you can go ahead and see it for yourself here.

The Love Letter

After shocking the sensibilities of a conservative audience with my first time speech on cars; I went back to the same audience with this mellower version:

Boo Boom Boo Boom

What was that sound? What was making that sound?

It was the middle of July and unlike most days in that month; the sun was a blazing ball in the sky and the heat stifling. I had walked almost a mile to meet you. My shoes were dusty, my hands clammy with sweat and my legs ached. I was irritable and tired and then I saw you. 

Boo Boom Boo Boom

It was my heart, beating, audible, in love.

Strong but curvy, your colour a deep flawwwwless mahogany and smooth, oh so smooth. My hand involuntary stretched to touch you, but I stopped myself before I made contact, fearing by putting my sweaty and dusty palm on you, I would mar your beauty. You were the vision from my dream, and I instantly knew I could not live without you.

I finally got the courage to take you home that afternoon but it took me time to get used to having you in my life. For days, I would wake up early in the morning and in a fit of panic, rush to you lay fearing you were just a dream. When we were with others, I would jealously guard you, could not and would not let anyone lay a finger on you, wishing to preserve your beauty.

As days passed, and my fear of your fragility faded, we grew even closer and I more comfortable with you. Day in and day out we would go for long drives together criss-crossing the county, partying in the cities; today we were in Naivasha tomorrow Mombasa. On nights, we’d dance with the lights, the stars and the booming stereo.  We lived and loved, soaking in scenery, the lights, the wind, the highways, and the winding country roads. I would hold you close listening to you purr and my heart would swell with pride that you were mine. You would never let me down, always there beautiful and strong.

I was tired and angry and made a mistake and our world came crashing around us so fast. It was my fault, I shouldn’t have been on the road, I shouldn’t have put you through that. I tried to save you, I swear I did. I veered to the left, and pushed hard on the brakes trying to stop us, but we spun off the road and landed in a ditch. I was not hurt, but you would never be the same again.

After that day, you would grumble and whine when I took you out. On some days, we would be moving together and then all of a sudden you would stop and refuse to move. I would coax and plead with you but you sat there groaning and coughing dark clouds. Your dark episodes dragged me into spirals of despair. I couldn’t eat; couldn’t sleep filled with worry and desolation.

Everyone told me to let you go, but I couldn’t bear to part with you. I wanted you with me; I needed you with me. I would not let you go. We would see this through together. And so slowly I worked, day and night on you, nursing you back to what you used to be.

Every day was a challenge; a challenge to reclaim the beauty of my love. I would spend long hours with you, pouring out my heart and soul. Sometimes it would look as if you were getting better and I’d urge you to come out into the sunlight with me. But many times it was false hope and I knew you needed more time. With time though I got better at bringing you back, and one day you were finally well enough to share the sun and breeze with me once more.

My heart still beats for you as it did that long day ago in July. You might not look the same as you did then. Yes you have changed, but those changes have given you more character. Maybe you are no longer smooth and flawless but each bump, each scratch has meaning. They tell stories of the adventures we shared, the life we lived together. We might no longer go for long drives or wild escapades as before but every moment we spend together still brings comfort and joy to my soul. I’m glad I stuck by you; because you are my one true love, the Mercedes Benz of my dreams.

An open letter to the Chief Executive Officer of Kenya Power

Dear Eng. Joseph Njoroge,

KENYA POWER’S RE-BRANDING IS A WORK IN PROGRESS

First of all let me commend you for the great strides you have made at Kenya Power. Despite working in an environment with high cost of supplies, rampant vandalism, legacy employees, and generally hostile consumers you have managed to accomplish a great number of things. Applying for new electricity connections especially in rural areas has never been easier or cheaper. Prepaid meters have introduced certainty in billing and protection of revenues for our national utility provider. You have also worked hard to improve the customer experience with more responsive customer care, use of information technology and a charter on response times.

Certainly if Kenya Power continues on this path you will delight your customers with a world class service that improves their lives. Naturally in rebranding a parastatal you will encounter challenges, but all challenges are solvable. I’d like to share some suggestions on how to overcome some challenges currently facing your firm so that you can achieve your goals even faster:

• Customer Support on Telephone and Social Media

Dealing with upset or difficult customers is not easy; I can attest to this as a small business owner. However this is a most critical element to world-class service standards. Right now, getting support through your emergency number telephone number can be very frustrating experience. Yes the phone goes through, but only to a contact person who will transfer you - before fully understanding your issue - to a number that will ring for three minutes and then disconnect. Yesterday I made five consecutive calls with each ending in disconnection. Exasperated I finally pleaded with the contact person to be put on hold rather than transfer my call while she researched on my issue. The contact persons also rarely if ever give their names so when you call back you can’t be sure you’re speaking to the same person and have to repeat your issue.

Your twitter account @KenyaPower is another positive addition to your helpdesk but you need to devote more resources and personnel to make sure it is relevant and responsive. Queries I raised several times one month ago have gone unanswered to date. Your customer care department must continuously evaluate its performance and welcome feedback from its consumers to improve.

• Handling Accounts Owned but Landlords but used by Tenants

For perfectly understandable reasons most landlords of mutli-tenant properties choose to register the Kenya Power accounts under their own names. This however creates a tricky situation for tenants who actually use the account when a problem arises. As one of your staff members succinctly put it: no contract exists between Kenya Power and the tenant. For example your staff will disconnect all the accounts of the landlord if one or more of the accounts are in arrears. This greatly inconveniences other tenants who have paid their bills. I’m sure there exist legal and regulatory arguments that might make finding a solution a challenge, but we’re counting on you to continue showing innovation even in such areas and find a solution.

• Knowledgebase and Escalation Procedure

If all your consumers would pay bills on time, it would reduce your disconnection/reconnection overheads and at the end of the day make electricity cheaper for all of us. In addition as a shareholder and citizen I am quite motivated to ensure that no revenue of our utility company is lost. So when I report a meter that is moving even where the electricity is disconnected I would expect a swift and structured response. Instead what happened is that I got four different solutions from four different Kenya Power contact persons. It is important that your firm builds a knowledge base of common issues from which all contact persons can refer and where they are unable to, a structured way to escalate the issue. This will definitely ensure faster resolution of problems and delight the customers.

When I remember the KPLC ten years ago and compare it with the Kenya Power of today, I am pleasantly amazed at how much things have improved. I look forward to seeing even greater progress and I remain firmly in your corner cheering you on.

Screw Textbook Publishers

I feel very fortunate in the time I have spent as an entrepreneur. Not only have I gotten to meet a great number of different people: partners, suppliers, clients, proteges, employees but I've also provided products and businesses of utility AND made money. I like think of myself as an innovator as most of my ventures have been firsts: 1st person to publish the laws of Kenya online, 1st person to launch a low cost business centre, 1st person to automate the company registration person; but I do not naively believe that I was the first one to come up with these ideas. Rather I was the first one to move from conceptual stage to actual implementation. As any real entrepreneur knows, implementation is 80% of the work.

If you regularly read this blog, you'll therefore know that when I get a new business idea I usually share it freely. No need hoarding an idea, get it out to there and then make it a race to see who can make it work first. It is with this same spirit that I'd like to share an idea I had today after a twitter chat with @ndinda_, a study on iPad tablet use improving student scores, and Kenyan textbook publishers recent intention to increase prices by 50%.

Currently the cost of purchasing new textbooks for a student in primary school costs about Sh. 5,000 (12 books) per year in public schools and upto Sh. 25,000 in private schools (where the prices are included in the fees and more books are bought). In high schools the costs are roughly 25% higher.  If these prices are increased by 50% we're looking at the lowest cost per year being Sh. 7,500 for textbooks.

Now instead of this imagine a situation where each student can get a 7" android tablet at Sh. 10,000 running an e-book reader, plus plenty other learning apps. Not only will the parents spend less money on textbooks  (on a 3 year use of the tablet) but their children would score 25% higher, and be ready for digital age right from the beginning.

Bored? I'm sure you've had or heard the same idea. What makes what I'm saying any different, what is special or workable about my idea?

To get this to work you need to sort out two things:

1. Uniformity in deployment of the hardware - you can't count on parents to buy their own tablets you need to get the school to do it for them. Start with private schools who have much greater flexibility in their approach and routinely include textbook costs in the fees. The schools will also need an incentive - simple, offer them money. Let them make a margin on the hardware (which will also allow them to justify the WiFi you'll ask them to setup).
2. Textbooks in e-book format. Of course you can try and get the existing kenyan publishers on board with the project but I suspect that would be a long, arduous, and ultimately unsuccessful mission. There is too much money they risk losing by giving in to something they don't control - not to mention their general conservatism.  The alternative is to get individual publishers who are trying to break into the market or screw publishers all together and put up free textbooks - widely available online. I can personally attest to the fact that the depth of quality of free textbooks beats many KIE publications hands down. This might be another reason to approach private schools first who are not subject to government control. After publishers see their sales crashing through the floor, they might just wise up and join you.

Is it easy? No. Is it possible?.... that's a rhetoric question.

When SoftLaw started converting over 50,000 pages of the text of the laws of Kenya into soft copy, many people laughed at us and told us we were on a fools errand. Now we get to have the last laugh as the cost of consuming all the laws of Kenya has dropped from as high as Sh.300,000 to Sh.0.

Can the same be done on textbooks? Of course. Am I going to be in the race? Hell Yeah!

Mulika Mwizi

In one of my first classes at the University towards my law degree I encountered what must be one of the most eccentric lecturers in Kenya. Besides a deep seated hatred for apples (for the crunchy sound made when eaten) he was a multiple accident victim whose injuries had left him with a condition where he could lapse into complete catatonia. Not only did this affect his duties at the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda where he was a prosecutor but it could also make him re-boot halfway into his lecture. On re-boot (despite lecturing for hours already) he would begin "good morning class today we are going to look at..." In spite of this, I still found myself immensely enjoying his class and the subject he taught - criminal law. There were many reasons why I liked criminal law but perhaps the number one reason was because of some of the fantastic stories we discussed. We would study intentions and acts of murder, manslaughter, arson, cannibalism, conspiracy, buggery (don't look it up),  treason and lots more. Our class was like a modern day police procedural TV drama or detective novel.

Of course at some point, the stories would give way to studious review of the law. Fascinating among this was the very extensive definition given to the crime of stealing. To understand just how wide the definition of stealing is, take a look at it's definition in the Penal code. Here's an example:

Did you know that if Njoro gives you Sh. 100 when you're in town to take to his mama mboga in South B and while you're in the matatu since you only have money in m-pesa, you use Njoro's money to pay the fare, intending to repay it once you can withdraw from m-pesa in South B that you have stolen? 

Well it's doubtful that Njoro will prosecute you but today let me highlight some other more obvious examples of wizi that I've encountered.

1. Plagiarism by Standard Media 

Kenyan bloggers have long complained of the shameless copying and pasting by the MSM (main stream media) of their blogs and passing off the content as original. In their defence (if you can call it that) most of these "journalists" passed through a school system using the same copy n' paste approach to their studies. As a tenant in the university district I can attest to the blatant, unrepentant copy n' paste culture that is second nature among university students. Well despite blogger's occasional noise, it seems MSM have got away with it most of the time. So confident in their impunity, it seems one David Odongo decided to lift an entire article almost word for word from an international website. You can see his article here:  (might be pulled down by the time you get to read this, so I've also done a print screen you can look at here); now take a look at the original article published a year ago here. Standard Media and David Odongo, consider yourself MULIKWAD.

2. PayBill Trickery by Kenya Power


Kenyans pretty much agree that Kenya Power is the number one most despised supplier, more so because if we want to have any semblance of modern living, we almost must use them. They've been called many things, and thieves probably ranks pretty much up there. However most of these accusations are usually conjecture from their fluctuating charges or informed by the fact that fuel costs of electricity exceed actual consumption costs by almost 25%. This month however I discovered that there might actually be theft of customer's accounts going on through the Safaricom M-PESA PayBill system. The scam seems to be that payments made by PayBill to Kenya Power are not recorded on their accounting system, putting consumers at risk of being disconnected and probably lining some accountant or techie's pockets. This has personally happened to me and despite one month of trying to contact Kenya Power for resolution, nothing's changed. So to use your own call to action, Kenya Power here's me MULIKAING you.

3. Nation Ads not run by Classifieds.co.ke (AJA Ltd)


AJA Ltd run a website called Classifieds.co.ke which is supposed to allow you to pay for classified ads on the Daily Nation. When Classifieds.co.ke was first launched, I was one of the early adopters and wrote a glowing email to their developers (Mugambi) and almost did a whole flowery post on them in this blog. I have always admired online products that make tasks convenient so despite some early problems. It seems this was a big mistake. Last week I paid for a very date specific ad and even called AJA's office to confirm my ad would be run, which they assured me it would. I was quite upset therefore when the next day I chanced to buy the paper and found the ad had not been run. I immediately dispatched an email to them asking for a refund, figured I would do it the old-fashioned way. They ignored my email for two days and only after I called them three times the following day did they respond (3 days after the ad was to run) to tell me they would not be giving me a refund and I should choose another day. So here's how the scam goes, you pay for a classified AD and it's not run in the paper. AJA will keep quiet praying that you haven't discovered this and if by chance you do eventually discover, they will stonewall for a couple of days and eventually ask you to pick another day when they can run the ad (at this time they hope to have roped in another sucker to pay for your rescheduled ad and the cycle starts over again). Worse off if you pay for several days, as they will run it only on the first days and then just stop running it altogether. Yes, I'm probably a sucker as this has happened to me three times now but I really wanted to give these guys a chance. Sad thing is though it is such shifty companies that give the whole online business in Kenya a struggle for credibility. Since I noticed Nation promote the Classifieds website through their paper; in public opinion they also assumed liability for anything that AJA Ltd does so Nation and Aja Ltd MULIKENWI.

Well it's getting dark now and I need my light to see the way home, but do you have a story of someone you want MULIKWAD?

UPDATES: 26/9/2011

It seems everywhere I go, someone else wants to have a go at my small ka-wallet. No sooner had I finished this post than two more "suppliers" tried to illegally part me from me from my cash.

4. Nakumatt Cashiers - boblarceny

Despite the CBK undertaking a massive campaign to get shillings back into the economy, Nakumatt staff continue pilfering customers change which is in shillings. Recently I went shopping and on checking out my change was twenty-one shillings. The cashier gave me a twenty shilling coin and then promptly ignored me. Other times, I might have simply walked away, but on this day enough was enough. While other supermarkets also have change scarcity, at least they give you something of nearly equal value to the change e.g. a matchbox, or a sweet.  Nakumatt however never bother to give you change. The cashier tried to tire me by testing my patience telling me when he got a customer with change he'd give me my one shilling. Little did he know amechokoza nyuki. I made such a scene that the entire checkout staff had no choice but to look for a shilling. At some point he tried to give me a Sh.5 to get rid of me, but the thought that he had stolen that change from some other shopper would not allow me to take it. These checkout fellows probably process 20 customers on average. With 16 counters running 14 hours a day, if each customer is defrauded an average of two shillings it means Nakumatt (or its staff) is pocketing Sh. 268,800 per month. That's a helluva lot of cash so Nakumatt and your bob-snatching staff I have MULIKAD you.

5. Restaurant Staff steal from Owner, Customer and You.


Now these have to be among the worst thieves as they will steal from everyone: the owners of the restaurant, the customer buying the food, and you as a taxpayer. Next time you eat out at a restaurant, ask for an ETR receipt and make sure the ETR receipt corresponds with the meal you took, the time you took it, your table number and the waiter who served you. If you do not you are perpetrating a magnificent fraud that sees waiters in busy restaurants pocket upwards of Sh. 15,000 per day! There are three main scams  which take place. When it comes to food, the waiters use a single ETR receipt for several customers. This receipt is never given to the customer but simply brought to show the customer how much he owes. It is then taken back and re-used for a different customer. Meanwhile the waiter will only indicate one meal was sold and pocket the cash for the rest of the sales. Where bottled drinks are involved, the waiter will use a stock-inventory loophole called "shortage" which allows for discrepancies during stock taking. The other scam is where the waiters bring their own drinks to the restaurant to sell. This means that they are basically running their own business within the owners' business with zero costs. Lastly, never order a double shot of anything, unless you are actually watching it being poured. This is because two singles are invariably always more than a double, sometimes 25% more. The excess drink left over is sold to a different customer at the waiters profit. Have you ever wondered how you find some waiters can happily stick in the same establishment for years upon years? It's because they probably rake in 5 times more than you sitting in that air-conditioned office with your shiny suit. Special MULIKO to the Wine Bar staff.

Live Blog Kenyans for Kenya Concert - a Teeniez Perspective

So I am watching the Kenyans for Kenya concert with my younger teenage brother and asked for his thoughts on why it looks like such a flop and why he would not attend. Here are his top 5 thoughts:

1. The event wasn't publicized enough. He only heard about it yesterday.
2. The presenters (Julie Gichuru, Anne Kiguta, Jeff Koinange) are too old to be hosting a show targeted mainly at young people (from the music being played)
3. The Citizen TV studio and the formal talk of the presenters make it feel like news read boring.
4. The line up of the artists should alternate good and not so good, that way the tempo and excitement can remain relatively high
5. The stage is too far from the audience.

My Brush with Al-Qaeda - Part II

Continued from http://startupkenya.blogspot.com/2011/08/my-brush-with-al-qaeda-part-i.html

One day earlier....


"Kindly spell the name for me sir"

"AL HAZEEF, A-L-H-A-Z-E-E-F, come on you have my passport why don't you just read it, I need to check in and go about my business"

"I'm sorry for the inconvenience sir, with passports in Arabic we always confirm the English translation." the pretty hotel receptionist Njeri looked up from her computer at the middle-eastern man impatiently tapping away at her desk. She hated this type: young, filthy rich with petrol dollars and ready to throw insults if things weren't done their way. Njeri started to sigh but caught herself midway - that would only aggravate the situation. She was glad that her shift was almost over, Mike would be at home by now and she couldn't wait to curl up in his arms and tell her about her morning.

A small light flashed on Njeri's computer bringing her back to reality. She had only been told about this situation in her training but never experienced it. Her heart faltered a bit, the color was amber which meant there was a significant threat level. Protocol demanded that she inform her manager immediately.

With a slight tremor in her voice she spoke to Hazeef "Sir, kindly give me a moment as I confirm your check in with our manager" she spoke the words that she had been trained to say.

"Is there a problem?" Hazeef asked, as a multi-lingual speaker he was very attune to vocal tonality and he could instantly tell that hers had changed.

"No, sir. Please give me a moment." Njeri almost stumbled as she turned abruptly to walk to her manager's office. "Damn it!" Njeri cursed under her breadth. The renovations they'd been doing meant that the intercom she could have used to call her manager was still out of order. Three more steps and she was at the manager's office and she barged in even though she could tell through the glass wall that he was with a visitor.

Hazeef watched the girl almost trip, half-running, half-walking into the back office. He could see her gesticulating as she entered the office, her agitation visible from where he was.

After two minutes Njeri and her manager came out of the office but Hazeef was no longer in the lobby.

"Ametoroka?" the supervisor asked no one in particular as he walked out of the hotel to see whether he might see him. The valet outside just shrugged his shoulders as he noticed his boss' menacing scowl.

"Okay Njeri, you need to file a report immediately. Also call the Israeli embassy and speak to Mr. Amit Benayum. He should be here in a few minutes to take questions. Damn it! These are just problems." the manager plodded back to his office reserving his choicer curses for the privacy of his office.

Njeri grudgingly trudged back to her desk. She didn't care about Hazeef, Benayum or reports. She was just upset though that she would not be going home soon and seeing Mike.

Read about Achieng, Hazeef, and Harry in Part III coming next week.