POST VOLUNTEER FUN

After a hard days work of mapping and running around making a trip that almost made me look lame and useless(Story for another day),I decided to go through the #KenyaDecides on Twitter.And boy oh boy,Did I see interesting and crazy tweets.

Sample this:

Waarrr enyewe #kenyadecides :: Ati This dude refused to buy 2kilos of meat simply bcoz it was #RED n so he bought #GREEN skuma wiki for 5sok

Haki Mshai!RT @Geekymz: Waiting for my brigand friend to come pick me we go vote.If she's not here by 4pm,al just go by myself #kenyadecides

Green supporter ignores red traffic light and crashes into red supporter. The two are still exchanging fists by Globe Cinema. #kenyadecides

RT @Kirembu Done my laundry but my pinkie is still coloured which kind of ink is this #kenyadecides )) It's #jv, LOL

Haha, sad but funny, in the mock IDP vote there were 400 voters, 430 voted YES and 20 voted NO (450?) LOL http://bit.ly/9wbMLj #KenyaDecides
Wyclef Jean to announce his run for Kenyan Presidency in 2012 on CNN's Larry King show this Thursday #kenyadecides #uchaguzi
No tension whatsoever. If anything my hood looks ripe for a street party. This is how all polls should go #KenyaDecides
@Postinor: Can 5pm reach so I can go cook that chicken!! #KenyaDecides
Second time 4 my mum 2a poll station. She never bothered until recently. #kenyadecides
I think moi n ruto should kesho mek thea way to westie 4 bendover thursday. Coz thats wats gonna happen #kenyadecides
Man assaults wife with green onions after she refused to use tomatoes to prepare morning omlette for breakfast due 2 red color #kenyadecides
Need an artist 2 draw up a pic of the viral constitution baby Red Wafula Green throwing up a peace sign #kenyadecides #uchaguzi
Since Kenyans love free things, i suggest that IIEC to introduce: Fichua voters card, Ng'arisha maisha na referendum #kenyadecides
I hear Kibera is soo peaceful that tomorrow, instead of uprooting their beloved railway, youths plan to scrub and wash it #kenyadecides
SMS: red or green,we are all black,lets maintain peace.youth 4 peace, kibera mashimoni.
SMS: 132 kevanda pri sch, my phone has entered in a pit latrine and am now using this line, around 300 pple have voted.
SMS: #Uchaguzi SMS report: "Woman goes into labour at Kabete polling station. Voters have pre-named the baby 'Red Wafula Green" #kenyadecides


More coming.......

Safaricom's Innovation Forum Terms & Conditions

In light of this discussion that came up on a local techie-list,Skunkworks, by a blogger,Al Kags, about Safaricom's innovation terms and conditions and I quote word for word about the section that caused a bit of question :

Terms of Idea Submission By Submitting your proposal to Safaricom, you agree:

(a) That the submissions and its contents will automatically become the property of Safaricom, without any compensation whatsoever to you;

(b) That Safaricom may use or redistribute the submissions and their contents for any purpose and in any way;

And the section elicited a lot of replies.But after looking at the situation critically,I came up with a different angle to the whole story.My view is based on a book I have been reading about "The fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid" - By C.K Prahalad.He argues that some lessons that come up during "innovation sandbox" is to embrace constraints that become non-negotiables in the development process. In my opinion this are some of the non-negotiables that Safaricom has been having and in return they are able to bring up some very interesting products in the market.I can be biased or termed as a Safaricom sympathizer,but if they never do such things as tying you down the development process of the products will be slow and non-effective.Hence,we wouldn't have had products like bonga points,MPESA and M-KESHO just to mention a few.

Such stringent and "nasty" rules are part of the business, that is now raking the Kenyan Government millions of shillings from taxations and which in return benefits the Kenyans.I think there normally vested interests in each of the businesses we do and capitalism is what earns the company's revenue.They have recently moved into selling domain names at a cheap price and ensuring that using our MPESA you can pay for them.Meaning what,if somebody didn't come up with the set of tough and "non-ethical" rules then innovation would be retarded.As much as I say,there is nothing called fairness especially when it comes to making money,and thats what Safaricom is doing. In the Innovation Sandbox,C.K Prahalad,continues to state that that there are a couple of factors that are contained in it.One of them is mordern technology.Just going by the number of awards Safaricom has been given over the years,it was using a combination of innovation and use of modern technology to push the products to the people at the bottom of the Pyramid,and thats the common mwananchi.If MJ was to be asked where Safaricom's most money comes from is from the innovative products and solutions they bring to the common mwananchi.

In my humble Opinion,I think,such constraints are good and bad depending on how you look at them.Safaricom's CEO Micheal Joseph Gave his right of reply,which was posted on Al Kags Blog,in which he stated that they are trying to find a balance in the innovation area,which I found quite interesting and realistic.Am thinking in-order for a company to survive in this tough and turbulent Economic situations and guard its position as a market leader some,"rules" like this have to come into play.

GIVING CHILDREN A CHANCE

Kibera, Anyone who hears Kibera,one thing comes into his mind.

I think a picture is worth a thousand words.You can describe it in as many words as possible depending on how descriptive and creative your mind is. But deep within this funny clay and mud-made walls stands a number of good things.One of the many good things is humanity.Over one million people live here.And every single day a kid is born into this society.

Children are a gift from heaven,whether brought about by irresponsible sexual behaviour or planned.In the Bible,the Holy Book, Jesus Christ himself,compared the heavenly kingdom to the little ones.And in a society where almost 3/4 of the population is termed “poor”, children are not allowed to be children as they grow up.Some of them at a young age of 3 years get molested,beaten up and man-handled in a society that doesn’t care about kids. Figure this out a kid that is age 3 being beaten up and thrown into the rain,because of an alcoholic mother who has no time to feed the young one. Hence,kids at this tender age jump a step and start fending for themselves.This is a big concern to a society that should value kids,and protect them as they are leaders of tomorrow. Much more can be said about what happens.We already have the negative publicity of what happens in this place.

But on a positive note,I visited a place where kids are allowed to be kids.I loved the place.Its located in the muddy houses that are seen the photo above. 

This is one place where kids at a tender age get shielded away from heavy work and are allowed to be kids.They get to be children.To be a child,you need to undergo various steps and stages of life.That includes sleep, lots of play and creative development in terms of what they think they want to be.The colouring, the crayons and drawing.That’s what in my opinion makes a child grow.And Turning point is one place that makes kids feel at home and can make the best of it all.

Imagine all this happy faces getting to reach a point where they can have and provide for themselves and become better law-abiding citizens?

I had a chance of meeting Joanna Bayley,who works with the Turning Point Trust, as a fund-raiser to the making the young ones on loose their big dreams.

Am thinking,this kids look beautiful and really want to stay being children.How about we make it possible for them to play,live in a safe and humble environment where we can nurture them to be where we are or even better?

Contact me or talk to me directly,we can plan a visit or something to see how we can make them have better days in an environment that does not care about them.

Lets make this kids enjoy being kids.

E-Commerce in Kenya

I might not be as objective as can be in my post,but I will try and do due justice.

E-commerce (Electronic Commerce),provides one of the biggest and yet the best market place, that I can currently compare it to our market place with the only difference being you get extra services, like you just sitting in your house and your item of desire is dropped at your comfort and when as needed. This kind of market place (Flee  market) has grown as much internet has grown in the past few years.The good thing about the flee-online market is you get to utilise some payment which could be a little different from the norm.You get to use “plastic” money, meaning you don’t necessarily have to have hard cash to get your item at your door step.

Right in this country we have a phobia.According to Juliana,she actually thinks its a cultural thing.Well,I beg to differ,i think its phobia,from certain stories or incidences that have occurred in the past with people and generates fear that something might happen to them if they use credit cards.Thats so wrong,People should take advantage of the “plastic” money that offers a lot more security if anything.We are always thinking that in case we use our credit cards,we will loose our hard-earned cash to scams and phishing.Well,there are many things to counter that.Will review that in just a bit.

Kenyans, should take advantage of our internet(Fibre) and start shopping online.You find its a lot cheaper to shop online than to shop in a store in town.Well,there is a debate of if for example if you shop clothes it will not fit,or a shoe will not be the right size,well,my opinion,here is simple,you know your shoe size,if you have been in this world for over 20 years,then you can never miss your shoe size or your clothes size.So cut me some slack,and avoid the B.S.

Look at the advantages we would generate from E-commerce in the country.Imagine of a situation where say Savannis or Text book centre,can have a site where you just go up online and you choose a book and within a span of 3 minutes you buy the book,then in another 1 hour its delivered at your address.Talk of total bliss all at a go.Think of yourself as a workaholic,the person who forgets stuff/shopping for your house,and once you land in your house you remember that you need some stuff to do your dinner,Log in and you are able to place an order and within an hour or less,you have things on your door step.

How about we reduce the stress of queuing and Kids nagging you kwa supermarket,and you just log –in online and have a go at what you want?That’s what we should aim at.Making sure people have things comfortably and conveniently.I think we need to explore more into the Electronic Plastic Shopping(EPS). Looking at it,what is actually missing is the infrastructure and of course the PR to make people feel secure while shopping and offer some incentives,of course like lower prices of certain commodities.

Expressing yourself

Just before I go on a trip of blog whoring and giving my comments on the one's I come across including one Chiira, I have to recognise the efforts of two Kenyans who are proving that we don't need anyone from outside to come and revive our economy.We can do it through various capacities all under one thing moving the country forward. Benjamin Kimuyu - the 25 year-old "rookie" who made a school in the "bunduz" get some airtime in our already highly-charged, political and scandal full media,happens to be my personal hero of the week.He demonstrated leadership and proved that young people in the society can also make it without any heavy experience required.Congratulations Sir,My regards to you.My hero number two,Jonathan Ciano proved that we know what can be done to our ailing economy.And given time and space we can move it to the next level.Congratulations heroes of the week.

Now on to other stories,blogs are a simple way of communicating to the outside world which indeed is becoming smaller by the minute.Some quiet people I know,like Chiira,do a fantastic job on this one.I think when you express your thoughts through writing like am doing or like miss mwikali or Shiko you get to experience them(the people) first hand.People like Wamathai and ElleceNabs live on the poetry side of things.I believe life is all about expression,whether through novels,poetry,tech pieces,or even bull*&*t,its all about expression.With the "invention" of Facebook and Twitter,I think we express ourselves more freely and more open out there. Sample a comment like this on facebook "

"Now let's stir the hornets' nest.....over 80% of evangelical congregations in this City are young/middle aged women looking for miracle solutions to very human challenges, and Esther Timberlake is just one of them. 2 out of every 3 women walking the streets are stuck in bad marriages and staying put and keeping quiet about it, and Ms Timberlake is theerefore in the vast majority."

Now just sampling that comment,shows that this is something somebody has been having in thought hence expressing it.

You gotta love this guy, Kahenya, the guy writes what comes into his head and especially when attacking some people in the IT industry who he feels are doing injustice to the country.Another one is Wanjiku, one of the country's top tech writers. I think all in all,expression through writing is necessary.And there many others.

Think of a lady who keeps a diary of events that have occurred in her life.I remember peeping through a ladies diary one time(Its not a habit,at times you can go blind), she had expressed her deepest desires,emotionally,sexually and physically.All in one goal Expression.

Keep writing and expressing yourself and have a lovely weekend.

P.S: Leo ni mauwano(As much as sweetie hates it) friday,feel free to join.Its a BYOB kind of thing from twitter.Location:Lifestyle lounge Time: Baada ya kazi.

FEELING IT

Life is all about felling it.You love it,you go for it.You use feelings to make life worth it for yourself and the others. As my first post on this blog and hopefully many more,I will put down a couple of mumble jumbled thoughts in here as a way of feeling it. Be it Tech-related,be it B.S, all in one spirit of feeling it. Feel free you flex your thought here.