The Real Jay Z

*I’m write this while watching (on Aljazera) Zuma deliver a painfully slow speech at a press conference in Pretoria*

As greatly anticipated Jacob Zuma (or Jay-Z as he is nick-named down south) has easily cruised to victory and is now poised to becoming the next president for Sub-Sahara’s strongest country - South Africa. Now we wait to prove the divergent and controversial sentiments the man has elicited across the continent and the world at large.

Despite his popularity in SA, the man is known by the outside world for all the wrong reasons. Unabashed polygamist, uneducated freedom fighter and a canny politician with a way around justice are some of the few (cruel) words used by TIME and The Economist to describe him. Some consider his presidency a big gamble for SA that may back fire.

Power has a way with revealing the inside persona (we saw it with our own kibs in 2003). So now we wait and see who the real Jacob Zuma is.

Scangroup Peek

Scangroup Ltd. has announced its FY08 results indicating that:

- PBT went up 24% to Ksh.437 mln;
- revenue rose 21% to Ksh.1.4 bln;
- Net asset/share increased by 60% courtesy of WPP investment;
- EPS grew by 20% to Ksh.1.79
- Free Cashflow up 98%

I had the honour to listen to Lowe Scanad (K) Ltd.(a Kenyan ScanGroup subsidiary) MD, Sameet Ambegaonkar, delivered an invigorating presentation yesterday on strategy and tactic at the British Council – leadership forum. The guy has vast experience and knowledge (29 years in strategic planning for major FMGC firms that has seen him work with Amu – India, Tata, Coca cola –India n Kenya, EABL, Safaricom) in advertising.

The Group, in a joint venture with Hill & Knowlton, has also launched a new public relations firm known as Hill & Knowlton East Africa. (51% Scangroup, 49% WPP – which still owns 27.5% in Scangroup)

More scanned info @Grains of Masala

e-book - It's Our Turn to Eat

This email is on behalf of my friend who is a friend to Michela Wrong who is a friend to Githongo (So I'm a friend to Githongo!)

April 9, 2009

Dear All,

Harper Collins have finally come up with an e-book of "It's Our Turn to Eat", which has been widely circulating in pirate form on websites and mailing lists in the last few weeks because of a boycott by Kenyan bookshop owners nervous of being sued. So Kenyans can now buy and download a legitimate PDF file of the book, by clicking on (thanks steve for the link correction):

We've tried to keep the price as low as possible - you'll see that it is a lot cheaper than the hard copy. We're also hoping to make this something Kenyans who don't own credit cards can buy on M-Pesa, but at the moment that's proving a logistical nightmare.

Please spread the word. There’s no reason, now, to circulate or download bootleg copies of the book.

Michela Wrong

Consider this my Easter present. Happy Easter guys!

Equity Bank Suspended!!

Kenya's Central Depository and Settlement Corporation (CDSC) has suspended Equity Bank as a stocks agent for two weeks, it said in a letter to stockbrokers dated Wednesday...read more

up-date: this was later in the day revised by CMA after Equity banks appealed. (Something does not sound right here)

Subaru Kenya: Courting Disaster

Nairomour has it that Subaru Kenya (currently under the management of ECTA (K) Ltd.) may be going the Marshals E.A. way with the withdrawal of Subaru products from its chain of business. Toyota Kenya is fighting hard to get the Subaru dealership from ECTA, citing economies of scale as it general reason.

The rivalry between Toyota Kenya and Subaru Kenya is said to have stem when ECTA poarched a high level manager from Toyota. The Toyota manager in the eye of the rivalry is said to have been very instrumental in Toyota Kenya’s business development. In a bid to get back to ECTA, Toyota Kenya management, who are fellow country men (Japanese) with Subaru, decided to under cut their Kenyan competitors by convincing their bosses in Japan to cease the Toyota dealership with ECTA and sign up with them

As if that’s not enough, poor management decision has seen ECTA hire too many highly paid top managers since the passing on of the founder and neglecting the little small workers. Their Shock absorbers competitor, Robbs, has capitalized on this mistake and has launched an aggressive campaign to poarch some of the best, experienced workers from ECTA by offering them almost double their salaries and a better working condition. Right now things are looking really bad for ECTA.

March Tweeter

Ok, I agree with you, I’ve not written anything coherent on this blog for a very long time. The recent few have been more of announcements than blogging, just to keep the blog alive. March was my tweeter month of the year (and one very hectic month). Tweeter is simply a micro-blogging platform that makes it easier communicate with other people (Tweeps, tweeples, tweeterers) over the internet. It’s sort of a chat room that goes beyond that and has more functionalities than simply chatting – tweetpic and so many other things I’m still learning more about.

My journey on tweeterville has led to meeting great people. some I never knew before like @kahenya – the fire tracker, @pinkm – the excel expert, @louizah, @kaboro, @paulakahumbu – the wildlife expert, @EdObie, @JustDes and others I knew before – some personally some just over the net like @bankelele, @RyanShenHoover, @Cho1 and @ConceptAdvisory. Despite the time its taken me from meeting some deadlines and neglecting Kainvestor blog, its a great experience that you can carry around in your mobile phone, keeping you busy in a boring situations (not in cars or matatu’s – it can be dangerous depending with type of phone and route taken)

My quest on tweeterville continues as I learn more tricks to answering one simple question, ‘What are you doing?' in only 140 words.