PROSE SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER 2018 ǀ 12TH EDITION
A P U B L I C AT I O N O F E P S I LO N P U B L I S H E R S
THE FACE OF LEADERSHIP Reuben Coulter
PUBLIC POLICY Walk the talk
TRAVEL
The road to Eldoret
WWW.EPSILON.CO.KE
C O M M U N I C AT I O N ON PROGRESS
2017/2018 Our Communication on Progress 2017-2018 is now available. https://www.epsilon.co.ke/download/1797/ 2
PROSE MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER 2018
W E LCO M E
N OT E
Of scaling businesses, trappings of power, editorial changes and some good news. It is hard to believe that we are already in September. I recently read online that there is a retail store in the United Kingdom that has put up its Christmas tree! I know that they year is ending when the jacaranda trees start to bloom. My father tells me that as a young boy, this is how he knew that the year was coming to an end. As we take stock of 2018, we focus our attention in this edition to SMEs. They are key drivers of many economies, and as far as I am concerned, SMEs are relevant in this economy more than perhaps any other time in history. Befittingly, our leadership interview in this edition is with Reuben Coulter, the global CEO of Transformational Business Network (TBN). The core mandate of TBN is to help SMEs put in place systems and processes that make such businesses investor ready, and as a result help them to scale. This is impact investing. He shares with us his career journey and what made him take the path of helping SMEs to scale. What happens to these leaders once they scale? Elsewhere, Lucas Maranga in his column, Lucas on life, cautions us against the trappings of power, and how insidious these trappings are. I would go as far as to say, it is the reason that many
politicians and top executives find it really hard to fit into the humdrum of everyday living once they leave their positions of power as something goes askew somewhere. I reckon that the higher one climbs, the more grounded one must be. Finally we wish to inform you of some editorial changes. Prose will from this issue be published four times a year, and not six as has previously been the case. Oh and one last thing, we are pleased to share some news with you, UK based MEA Markets launched an inaugural award, the African Excellence Awards, of which Epsilon Publishers Limited emerged the winner in the publishing category. Accordingly, we received the best corporate publishing house in Nairobi. We are proud of this achievement and we reiterate to continue serving our stakeholders and clients with our commitment to act with integrity, to take responsibility for quality and to deliver excellence. As we march towards the last quarter of 2018, we wish you a strong finish to the year.
Mumbi Gichuhi
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CO N T E N T S
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TRIVIA
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Mind your language
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LITERACY
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On mother toungue
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PUBLIC POLICY
PAGE 10
Walk the talk
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ADVOCACY
PAGE 12
A case for the boychild
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LEADERSHIP
PAGE 14
Breaking away from the herd
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FACE OF LEADERSHIP
PAGE 16
Reuben Coulter on scaling businesses
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LUCAS ON LIFE
PAGE 20
The trappings of power
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ARTS AND CULTURE
PAGE 24
The evolution of art scene in Kenya
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TRAVEL The road to Eldoret
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BOOK REVIEW Quarter Life Crisis
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PROSE
AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2018 ǀ 12TH EDITION MANAGING DIRECTOR R. Mumbi Gichuhi OPERATIONS MANAGER Mary Wagura EDITOR Mark Muthiora LEAD CREATIVE Patrick Waswani ACCOUNTANT Joyce Mbugu EPSILON PUBLISHERS LIMITED Gemina Court George Padmore Road P.O. Box 1175-00606 Nairobi Kenya Tel +254 (0) 733 333 600
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FICTION
publish@epsilon.co.ke www.epsilon.co.ke
Coming and going @publisherkenya
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facebook.com/epsilonpublishers Epsilon Publishers Prose is published six times a year by Epsilon Publishers Limited. The opinions expressed therein are those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent the views of Epsilon Publishers Limited. © 2018 Epsilon Publishers Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission from the publisher.
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T R I V I A
quiz
The Oxford dictionary defines a quiz as a test of knowledge, especially as a competition between individuals or teams as a form of entertainment. It also means to ask someone a question or questions. So, can you invent a word? Apparently, the word ‘quiz’ was invented by one Richard Daly, a Dublin theatre proprietor. He made a bet that he could make a nonsense word and that the public would derive meaning from it. Consequently, he had his staff write the word on the city walls and within a short while, the word became part of the English language.
MIND YOUR LANGUAGE Charactonym
Merismus
A charactonym is a stylistic device where a fictional character is named after their distinctive character trait. Examples include ‘Shylock’ in William Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice, ‘Snow White’ by the Brothers Grimm and ‘Mrs. Malaprop’ in Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s play, The Rivals.
A merismus is a figure of speech that combines two contrasting or complementary words to refer to an entirety. Examples include ‘lock, stock, and barrel’, ‘high and low’, ‘near and far’, ‘body and soul’ and ‘life and death’. For instance, a momentous situation can be described as ‘a life and death situation’.
“
Famous quotes
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ALIKO DANGOTE
Africa’s risks are mainly perceived and not real. Unfortunately for us in Africa we are not really very good at telling our own story. But things are changing and people are beginning to understand that things are going very, very well.” - Aliko Dangote, Nigerian business magnate
Brogue
A strong outdoor shoe with ornamental perforated patterns in the leather
Maudlin Self-pityingly or tearfully sentimental
Zephyr A soft gentle breeze
MIRIAM MAKEBA
We’re always fighting amongst each other. Who gives us the arms? And then we become indebted to wherever we are buying them from - with what? The very resources we need to keep there.” - Miriam Makeba (1932 – 2008) South African singer and civil-rights activist
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FRED SWANIKER
“By 2030, Africa will have a larger workforce than China, and by 2050, it will have the largest workforce in the world. One billion people will need jobs in Africa, so if we don’t grow our economies fast enough, we’re sitting on a ticking time bomb, not just for Africa, but for the entire world.” - Fred Swaniker, Ghanaian entrepreneur and leadership development expert
ETYMOLOGY APOTHECARY (NOUN)
One who prepares and sells drugs or compounds for medicinal purposes. It derives from the ancient Greek word apotheke. The earliest records of apothecary as a profession date back to 2600 BCE
FLEA MARKET
A flea market is an outside market specialising in cheap and used merchandise. The term comes from the French Marché aux Puces de St-Ouen, which was a market that traded in shabby second hand goods the kind of which could be flea-infested.
MALARIA
The word is borrowed from the Italian word mal’aria, contracted form of mala aria, ‘bad air’. Originally, this denoted the unwholesome atmosphere caused by the exhalations of marshes, to which the disease was formerly attributed.
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P O E T RY
Dream away Dream away your poverty Dream away your sadness Dream away all your sorrows Dream away all your lost causes Dream away and dare not wake up. Dream of sunshine on a misty morn Dream of starry nights by her side Dream as if high on lullabies with the wind caressing your face and moonshine to forget past hurts. Dream of stampeding wildebeests Dream of the marauding hyenas Dream to the beat of the djembes fluttering lightly in the dead of night spirits of the dead awoken, libation.
Original The original is a copy of the masterpiece. The original is all polished and dandy but, malfunctional. Flawed is the prototype the original sketch the artist’s vision. Mould to moult the original invents metamorphosis and man, now roams the skies.
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PROSE MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER 2018
L I T E R AC Y
ON MOTHER TONGUE
M
ũrogi wa Kagogo. A novel by the great Ngugi wa Thiongo. I hear it is a great read, more so, if you can read Kikuyu. And if you can’t, there is the English version, Wizard of the Crow, which collective wisdom has it that though it is retold brilliantly, you can’t help but feel that there is quite a bit missing. This mainly has to do with matters translation where nuances are lost, plus the book is heavy on the African oral tradition. As it may be, I have made a date to read this book, the Kikuyu version. And why read this great novel in Kikuyu where I will plod on painfully while I can read it quickly and pleasurably in English? I imagine it is for the same reason that one reads publications in their mother tongue – be it Spanish, Kisii or Zulu - and which is to improve their fluency and language as a cultural identifier from which to derive a sense of identity and belonging. And just so you know, there is the International Mother Language Day that seeks to promote
awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and promote multilingualism. The other reason for wanting to improve my Kikuyu is a not so altruistic. Namely, that I harbour political ambitions and I may just find myself back in the village vying for this or that political post. And they just don’t give votes to people who cannot speak their language. And why did I not learn the language in my formative years? I grew up in a cosmopolitan area and conversing in mother tongue was cause for punishment at school. Then again, city politics, tribal in nature, did not encourage one to identify with one’s tribe by way of speech. As a matter of fact, I and most of my friends were and are still mostly known by our Christian names. This makes it hard to pin us down to any particular community and stereotype us accordingly, which is rather a sad state of affairs. What is your experience regarding your mother tongue?
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P U B L I C
P O L I C Y
WALK THE TALK WANGARI MUIKIA
S
itting by her colourful array of fruit by the roadside, Damaris gestured vigorously towards her sale stock of mangoes in peak season in Meru. They were 100 bob per kilogramme and I could barely keep my poker face considering the bargain. But I couldn’t let on my satisfaction. My jaw was set, my eyebrows were furrowed and my head was moving sadly from side to side. I was going to pay 80 bob for a kilogramme of juicy mangoes like the self-respecting Nairobian that I was. I could almost hear myself now, boasting to my husband, my mum, the neighbours, the cat – anyone within earshot about this deal. Together we would ooh and ahh over the horde, and then lament the exorbitant prices offered at the supermarket for the same load. But I have never once haggled and bargained for the so-called bargains supermarkets offer. Yet here I was whittling Damaris down when I know full well that chances are, she is school-uniform buyer, meal-provider, house-renter, sanitary-towels buyer and general economic pillar of her household. That 20 bob coin change I was haggling over would probably fall
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into the wrong pocket of my purse, roll out of my carelessly placed bag onto the car carpet, and settle between the nuts and bolts that secure my chair to the vehicle, never to be seen again – except perhaps if Clandestous, with his quick fingers finds it while washing my car. I go to Meru often. I worked extensively with the county government there to help them enhance their public finance management practices and save money that can help them develop their county faster. Helping the county generate money to serve the Damaris and her fellow Amerucans. The irony is not lost on me. Damaris has an agricultural advantage given that Meru is a virtual garden of Eden. The sector contributes over 80% to county household income. However, most of this farming has been gradually shifting from traditional cash and food crops to export focused horticultural production, which fetches relatively high prices in the market. Except for miraa of course. Miraa is the main agricultural cash crop in the region with business as hot as the engines of the Proboxes that fly the Meru-Nairobi highway to get their crop to their clients on time. And yes, I said
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fly, not ply. The diminishing market for traditional cash crops means that it might be easier for one to get string beans and radishes in Meru these days, than matoke bananas and nduma. Which is what subsistence farmers like Damaris grow because they don’t have the specialised materials to enter the export-focused horticultural game. With less focus on the products Damaris sells, there is less focus on supporting the infrastructure Damaris needs to sell her product; like markets. he scarcity of market space to sell fruits and veggies, grown partly for subsistence and partly for sale, forms a significant barrier to expansion for Damaris. And even if she had a huge mango ranch, she would still have to deal will paying cess fees in multiple counties to sell her crop. Still, humble Damaris also has to deal with paying market fees in markets that do not have well-functioning toilets, or running water, or have clean and safe spaces where to sell her products. So she prefers to setup shop by the roadside. Yet it is not through ill-will by the county government that she doesn’t have these services. It is because of challenges in many areas -
but most significantly in public finance management. Many times they find that they are under-resourced, under-staffed, and working within a fluid organisational context because they have not planned how to deploy their finances in a way that addresses citizen priorities today and infrastructure development for the future. A county needs a multi-year vision, corresponding plans to achieve the vision, responsive budgets, realistic revenue forecasts, citizen engagement, and smart procurement and asset management amongst other key public finance management considerations. These will make the difference. What stops the counties achieving this? In some counties it’s the politics, in others its lack of technical capacity. Sometimes it’s all the above. But oftentimes it is corruption. A report from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission released in March this year, placed Meru as the
seventh most corrupt county in Kenya, between Tharaka Nithi and Laikipia in 5th and 7th place respectively. That these counties border each other would form the basis of an interesting study on regional corruption. It goes without saying – the lack of strong leadership at the national level and the county level, that not only fleshes out responsive policies around corruption, but also implements them without fear of favour, has created fertile ground for impunity to thrive. Corruption is a governance issue that has a significant negative impact on public finance management and any recommendations for improvement on the same. But Damaris still needs to sell her fruits, and we must help. To ease Damaris’ livelihood, we identified several solutions with Meru. One in particular was to formulate a market registration and entry system to allow users to prepay for space so that counties can get a larger and more
predictable cash infusion to provide for market facilities, while Damaris could pay for market space in advance when she has bumper sales (using a stamped card to indicate how many market days she had paid for, used, and how many were left). This is a workable solution that will have an immediate effect in the life of Damaris and for the county government. So as I stood there, by the roadside, shaking my head at Damaris, I caught myself, awarded myself several ‘you hypocrite’ mental slaps, and forked over the 100 bob per kg for the mangoes. As it turned out, the selfrespect I was looking for was not the 20 bob so called discount – the 100 bob killer bargain and the mental fist-bump to Damaris was.
WANGARI MUIKIA info@expertise.co.ke
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A DVO C AC Y
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A CASE FOR THE BOYCHILD
A
recent conversation around the dinner table almost ended up in a fray as my son complained bitterely about the lack of attention that the boy child was getting. He griped about how many opportunities in virtually every field was being availed to the girl child; scholarships in every discipline, internship programmes and so on. Inasmuch as I could see his point, the milestones made towards the protection and the elevation thereof of the girl child has been tremendous and has gained considerable momentum over the last few years. Such milestones have meant that girls have equal access and opportunities to education as boys do. Keeping girls in school has saved girls from harmful practises such as female genital mutilation, early marriages and child pregnancies. Initiatives such as menstrual managment have also gained traction. In fact just recently, Uhuru Kenyatta, the president of Kenya, signed a bill into law, stipulating the government would provide free sanitary towels to girls who had reached puberty in a bid to stem absenteesm from school. The Basic Education Amendment Act also provides that the Government will provide environmentally safe ways to dispose of these towels. These are many opportunities that were not available to girls even ten short years ago, and the impact is starting to be felt. The business world is no different. In Kenya for example, other initiatives that the Government is making a 30% provision for women, the youth and persons with disabilities in public procurement. In terms of lending, some institutions have favourable lending terms for businesses that have more than a 50% ownership by women. Recently, a friend of mine said casually in a conversation that her organisation has seven departments, all of which are headed by women. That was never the intent, she explained, we just found ourselves at the top. On the flipside, the use of alcohol is on the rise and rise, especially in rural Kenya, and your guess is as good as mine, the culprits are young men who seem to have a collective loss of the will to live. Their days are wiled away drinking cheap brew from dodgy looking cans, and made from dodgier ingredients, which are often laced with substances such as methanol to make them more “potent�. Every few
years, there is usually mass hospitalisation of young men, who have imbided these lethal drinks, if one can call them such. These drinks have caused blindness, paralysis and in extreme cases death. The question then that begs, can these young men really be judged? As girls are being told that their dreams are valid, which they indeed are, boys on the other hand seem to drift aimlessly from one incomplete pursuit to another. Who is to blame? Is it their lack of role models from fathers and uncles, as it was in the years past? Is it that they don’t engage in enough physical pursuits to expend their energy and to feel a sense of security? Or does the education system not lend itself to enhancing their masculinity? Whichever way, something has gone askew somewhere. Coming back to the girl child, she is told that she does not need a man to succeed, that they can do all things by themselves. While this is true, nature needs balance. Nature needs the masculine and the feminine to co-exist and to complement each other. When these same girls grow up, they complain that chivalry is dead. No one pays their bills anymore. No one opens doors for them anymore. Entire songs have been written about dead-beat boyfriends, deadbeat fathers and dead-beat husbands. It seems to be a social malalignment that needs to be readjusted. What has fueled girl empowerment is hope. From the time the girl child is in school, a picture of hope is painted for her. How her life will look when she passes here exams and goes to high school. How her star will shine bright at University. The doors that will be open to her when she graduates. And the kind of opportunities that will come her way as she starts to scale her career. How about the boys? What are we telling our boys? What kind of future are we painting for them? Incidentally, the boy-child lagging behind is not just an African problem so to speak. They boy-child is also lagging behind even in more industrialised countries, where one would think that equal opportunities for boys and girls are a given. As we continue to draft policies and to create opportunities for our girls, we should ensure that no child is left behind.
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L E A D E R S H I P
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BREAKING AWAY FROM THE HERD
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t some point in every SMEs life comes a moment when it must choose whether to remain where it is or to break away from the herd. To every small business owner, there is every reason to let the status quo remain, due in part that the thought of putting systems in place evokes sheer terror, and due in part that the thought of the business owner handing over the reins to others evokes even more terror. Yet, for a business to grow beyond itself, systems are the only way through which this can be achieved. From the perspective of leadership, I humbly submit that this process is an inside-out affair that can only be initiated by the owner of the business. I have witnessed countless business owners attend course after course and seminar after seminar on how to automate businesses and these owners are unable to loosen the vice-grip with which they run their enterprises. It doesn’t help that our predominant African culture (and I use the word African loosely here) does not lend itself to the leadership of letting go. In all fairness, most SMEs are built through sweat, blood and tears, more so because funding and financing opportunities are few and far between. It is for this reason that business owners run very tight ships, in which they remain at the helm as Captain with a view of every intricate facet of the business. It is for this reason primarily that the change over from owner-led to systems led businesses need an inside out approach. The desire for change must stem from the owner. There needs to be the recognition
that the business has reached the apex of this kind of organisation leadership and now a new way must be found for the business to charter to bigger waters. It suffices to say that expansion is not for everyone and some business owners are content to keep the size of the business just as it is, and this is perfectly fine. For businesses whose owners think that the business needs fresh input, so to speak, a good place to begin would be to examine the mission and vision of the business. A self-serving mission is not a mission. For instance, I am going to start this business in order to feed my family. While this is a valid reason to get up at the crack of dawn each day, the mission must be bigger than the daily challenges that we are all faced with. Therefore, does the mission and vision with which the business was began still hold? Have the problems that the business solved previously changed? Are there new opportunities for the business? Have other opportunities shrunk, for example, been overtaken by events such as technology or change in legislation? In other words, the motive of the business owner is crucial. It is said that there are four ways of tackling something: doing the right thing in the right way, results of which are excellent; doing the right thing in the wrong way; results of which can be rectified once the wrong is righted; and the final two categories, the wrong thing in the right way and the wrong thing in the wrong way; results of which will never yield any good fruit!
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T H E FAC E O F L E A D E R S H I P
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REUBEN COULTER ON SCALING BUSINESSES
R
euben Coulter is the CEO of Transformational Business Network (TBN). Prior to this he was a Fellow and Associate Director for Africa at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. He is also the founding CEO of Tearfund Ireland, an international development organisation and has been Chair of the Irish Humanitarian Committee and advisor to Oxford Ventures, a social enterprise consultancy. Reuben has vast experience in the humanitarian, development and investment world. This has seen him work in Darfur, Congo, Liberia and Ireland. His experience in his line of work across the different sectors being that unless you fix the underlying economic problems in society, it is hard to fix the social systems like education and healthcare. This means that, in essence, systems need to work from the inside out. As to what lessons he has learnt over the years pertaining to leadership, Reuben states that true vision brings life and energy. This means that as a leader, you have to know the purpose of your business and keep telling that story again and
again. That way, it will inspire and engage your employees and customers. Still on leadership, he says that great teams create sustained growth. Thus you have to hire people who believe in your vision, are aligned with you values and are more talented than you. Moreover, being a leader means you have to listen wisely. This means you have to spend more time listening to your employees and customers and discern what their deep needs are. As to what prompted his move from the humanitarian sector to development to impact investment, Reuben says that it all has to do with serendipity. That and the realisation that he needed to influence more how business was done in Africa. This as he was somewhat frustrated by the slow pace of reforms where political leaders paid lip service to matters economic and social developments due to lack of political will to do things differently.
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In summary, TBN supports entreprenuers in scaling their businesses, by enabling them to develop a business strategy and to develop a scalable operational model.”
On the other hand, impact investment would enable him to support entrepreneurs at the grassroots level to scale up. This would see him move them from the superficial answer of lack of capital as to why their businesses were not succeeding to connecting them with the right kind of capital, ensuring they were investment ready and turning them into values based businesses. In this regard, TBN focuses more on the entrepreneur than the investor. Reuben expounds that TBN is a global, values-based community of investors and entrepreneurs who are using business to transform lives and impact their nations. And just what is impact investment? He says that it is investment for social and environmental returns in addition to financial returns. This means that entrepreneur and investor values have to be aligned concerning their definition of impact, return and level of risk? Beyond capital, investors also bring in business advice and networks to allow the businesses they have invested in scale up. Essentially, this is what TBN does: scaling up organisations – small and mediumsized enterprises – to be able to absorb
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more capital investment. Reuben says that most businesses are a reflection of the entrepreneur’s personality. Thus, if you are visionary but disorganised that will be reflected in the operations of your business. At TBN they help entrepreneurs scale up by: knowing themselves and how to develop teams which complement their strengths and address their weaknesses, identifying the strategies, systems and processes for growth and then mobilising the resources (financial and non-financial) that they need. In summary, TBN supports entrepreneurs in the following ways: Scale for Success - a 6 month accelerator programme that enables businesses to develop business strategy and plan and develop a scalable operational model; Investment Advisory - tailored support to enable businesses to develop their financial models and value proposition to become investment-ready and secure investment and; Community – TBN’s alumni remain part of the network and engage with other values-based business leaders and international and local investors through conferences and events.
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REUBEN’S READING ROOM
Reuben is currently reading New Power by Jeremy Heimans - about how new models of leadership and business are disrupting the world, E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber - why small businesses don’t succeed and what to do about it, and Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power by Andy Crouch - a theologian looks at how we can harness power to impact the world and prevent it from corrupting us.
As to how budding entrepreneurs can get access to seed capital, Reuben affirms that if entrepreneurs are looking for a community of like-minded people to grow their businesses and attract investment, then they should apply to TBN’s Scale for Success programme via www. tbnetwork.org. Further, Reuben states that TBN partners with international investors who are looking for purpose-driven enterprises in East Africa to invest in. For example, Arrow Capital, a US based debt fund, recently extended a credit line of KES 20m in Ecomaji, a water recycling business, to enable its expansion. Johnson and Johnson Impact Fund, a $15m health and wellbeing fund, is in the final stages of due diligence on a Kenyan hospital network which is developing its facilities. As to whether impact investment would be more successful if systems were already in place, Reuben opines that this should be the case. He points out that it would be hard for businesses to thrive economically in a system where people lack economic and social rights and where economic growth is captured by only a few to the detriment of society. That
notwithstanding, there is hope for Kenya and Africa as systems can be institutionalised and bettered. This by dint of drawing from the European model in the last couple of centuries as it moved from agrarian existence to an industrial existence courtesy of the industrial revolution. Initially, though workers were oppressed, with even minors being employed in factories, a few entrepreneurs introduced reforms such as reduced working hours and better housing for their workers; which reforms were gradually copied by others and eventually codified in legislation. As such, entrepreneurs have a bigger role to play besides creating employment as they can demonstrate new way of doing things regarding social responsibility. Currently, TBN areas of investment include the health and agriculture sector. This as investment in these areas creates more jobs in low-income communities when entrepreneurs scale up in contrast to an area such as information technology which creates relatively less jobs.
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LU C A S
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L I F E
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THE TRAPPINGS OF POWER LUCAS MARANGA
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was in Mombasa recently to grace the Coast Open at Mombasa Golf Club. The event also known as the Barry Cup is in its 99th year and took place at one of the most picturesque golf courses on the continent. This is one of the places that golf began in Kenya. The clubhouse smells of rich history with many old, black and white photos and plaques hung on the walls that take you down memory lane. A section of the golf course is a on a cliff with more than one kilometre of coastline facing the sea. That makes it a challenging course to play despite its small size because of the strong winds from the ocean. One needs to approach it with the caution and respect it deserves. If you don’t, you will be punished by
playing a very bad round where you not only lose the prize, but also golf balls, and to some extent, your dignity. I was glad to run away from the Nairobi cold. Mombasa is addictive with its warmth and slow pace of life seducing you. As has been tradition, the chairman of the Kenya Golf Union attends these events every year since it is part of the year’s calendar of events. It was my second out-of-town assignment as chairman and I found it irresistible. First of all, folks seem to have forgotten my name and most are calling me Chairman. I’m yet to get comfortable relating to that title. Lucas has been just fine all along. The hotel I stayed in gave me a complimentary stay because of my position (or title). Our
union rep at the coast, the golf captain of Mombasa Club and other officials all bent over backwards to ensure I was well taken care of. Is this what is called trappings of power? I wonder. I could get used to this. So why was I slightly uncomfortable with all the attention and delicate handling? It could be partly because I feel undeserving of all this limelight. That got me thinking about this thing we call power. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, the saying goes. Am I experiencing power? Will it corrupt me? How will I know when I’m getting corrupted? How do I ensure I don’t get corrupted? These are the thoughts going through my mind now. The world has many cases of good men and women who took over leadership at various levels, be it heading a country or organisation. Initially they were an answer to prayer to their followers but with time they made their followers start praying again. Only this time for their removal.
PROSE MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER 2018 FOOTNOTE SECTION
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Power isn't control at all—power is strength, and giving that strength to others. A leader isn't someone who forces others to make him stronger; a leader is someone willing to give his strength to others that they may have the strength to stand on their own." –Beth Revis In Kenya, we have more examples than we can count of good leaders turned bad. Why is it so hard to handle the power that comes with leadership positions? Are most of us that weak that we can’t handle power well? In the short time I have been in leadership, I have observed that the way one starts being treated differently because of their position puts a certain pressure on them to behave superior to their followers. That should stop because when a leader sees himself as one among equals with those who chose him, then a sense of reality and humility is maintained. But when we hype up our leaders’ ego so much they inflate so rapidly. Soon their egos rise up to the clouds like balloons full of helium gas. Only this time the gas is ego. And with leaders out of touch with reality, effects of that are there for all to see. Poor governance, corruption, greed, abuse of power and the list goes on. My hope and prayer is that I will remain grounded during my term, focus on what I was elected to do, and move the organisation a few steps in the right direction. It also serves us well to always remember that as leaders we will return to the same people who elected us once we are out of office. If we betray them when in high office, the proverbial chicken
will come home to roost big time. One of the ways to remain grounded for me is to keep a few of my peers close so they can act as ‘AlcoBlow’ (my reality check) when I seem to be getting drunk on power. Unfortunately, many of us want power for power’s sake and that’s where many leadership problems stem from. To some extent, even we the voice of youth have aped our seniors and ended up seeking power for self-preservation and enrichment. What a sad state of affairs. My earnest hope and desire is that after my term in this office is over, I will look back and see that I have left the organisation better than I found it. I may not win the popularity contest but I pray for courage to do right at all times for the sake of the sport and the organisation. In fact, I dare say that’s when true riches will follow because even the universe will conspire to reward us when we do good and move on. I’d like my reward to be other opportunities to serve my country. Good leadership is not easy to achieve, but it can be done. The author is a mentorprenuer, public servant and storyteller.
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THE EVOLUTION OF THE ART SCENE IN KENYA
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ectronica Circle swings to electronic dance music. Simply Tomas rocks. Sanaa Arts Hub that is the expressway to Eldoret. Lake Turkana Cultural Festival for traditional art, food, dance, song and peace. Mullenum Art Academy that reimagines the coast. The Magunga as a theatre of stories untold. Welcome to the diversity that is Kenya’s creative space. But before that… Once, there was Kenya Cinema on Nairobi’s Moi Avenue before the advent of the mobile phone. Then, when we closed school for the holidays, that’s where we would meet – outside – for the weekend’s rendezvous. Perhaps, to watch a play centred on a literature setbook at the Kenya National Theatre. Else, to watch rappers battle it out at the British Council’s WaPI event; or if you were into reggae, a jam session at Florida 2000, or F2. A couple of times too, we would do a movie at the Kenya Cinema – all foreign movies, which meant that local actors were not accommodated in this space. The Kenya National Theatre was where actors got their break, usually by way of setbooks and if lucky, on to television. WaPI and F2 opened doors for many musical artistes. And if you were a writer, well, you had to submit a manuscript to one of the country’s (educational) publishers and wait for an eternity to hear from them before Storymoja and Kwani? happened. The old gatekeepers. Then along came the mobile phone, quickly evolving into the smartphone and suddenly, internet was everywhere. And with the internet explosion, social media came into force. YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram… blogging, vlogging, ecommerce sites that placed art hardware – on the cheap – at your lap, and accompanying software to enhance your art, ecommerce markets for your art; really, an unprecedented revolution. The new gatekeepers to art where you could make and share your art widely without needing anyone’s permission, approval or marketing budget. So, what does it all portend for the art scene in Kenya? Is it an indication of us trying to find our own creative space and to write our own identity? And when we
say ‘own’ identity, what exactly do we have in mind? The artiste as an individual or as conveyor belt for his cultural heritage? What of glocalisation where global trends, say house music, is applied to a Luo traditional song, or its lyrics thereof to create a synthesis of the old and the modern? (Takes a break to listen to Lectronica Circle’s Ango). Where is one to draw the line regarding matters cultural appropriation? Sampling? In mind, Kirby Ferguson’s talk that “Creativity is a remix.” Or if you are into religion, that there is nothing new under the sun. I am of the opinion that Kenya’s creative space is a multiplicity of individual, local, regional and foreign influence. Hence we have artists like Ayub Ogada touring abroad and having their cultural music used in major films; and when you have Kanye West sampling your music and crediting you for it when you are oblivious of this fact, you have ‘arrived’. At the coast, we have chakacha and taarab as unique sounds while in the cities, anything and everything goes. And as the art space expands, the debate continues: art for art’s sake or are there economic, social and political considerations behind the art? I will say, art cuts across this spectrum. Hence we have the starving artist or the artist who has a main hustle while art is merely a form of personal expression. We have the well-to-do artiste who just bought a Range Rover last week and is all over social media fawning on just how blessed he is… At the political front, we have the artist raising political awareness and agitating for change or peace or both, the variables are many. So, what is the equivalent of today’s Kenya Cinema now that it closed shop? Well, nowadays when schools closes and you stroll to Nairobi’s CBD on a Sunday afternoon, you encounter little groups of teens strolling about. The common denominator? Two or three professional cameras – again, the price of cameras has gone down - in each group as they take shot after shot, mostly of themselves. Else, they are skating at the car park adjacent to Aga Khan Walk. And Kenya’s cultural montage keeps adding on, layer after layer.
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T R AV E L
THE ROAD TO ELDORET
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am on my way to Eldoret to see a friend though I have been there or have passed there several times. The town brings mixed emotions in me whenever I am in town or passing through town. As far back as I can remember, I have always had relatives there. Then again, election times in Kenya were always fraught times in our house. There was mama telling dad that we should move upcountry where it was safer. There was papa worrying for his kin in Eldoret… Now, Eldoret as a typical town has all manner and shades of Kenyans living there, which is a good thing in itself, diversity. As I pack my bag, I recall the first time I went to Eldoret unaccompanied. I had just finished high school and decided that a holiday there might just be the thing to restore me from exams stress. Mark you, the mobile phone was then slowly creeping into every home after mobile telephony became affordable. That and the fact that every third kiosk in the neighbourhood was a ‘simu ya jamii’ – mobile
telephone kiosk, the way every fourth kiosk is now an Mpesa shop. Then, Eldoret Express was the first bus company you thought of when travelling to Eldoret. Their buses, blue in colour and yellow and orange stripes supposedly to evoke how fast they were. Before I left the house, we had to pray for my journey mercies, then advice not to accept food from strangers and so on. I reached Eldoret alright – in fact, we entered the town to Kamande wa Kio’s Sweety para para – which is to say that whenever I hear the song, I think of Eldoret. I sat next to a middle-aged man, the age of my father or thereabouts and who, just like my father, engaged me with many a tale. He would also point out interesting locations and narrate their story. At first, I thought him cumbersome but soon started enjoying his tales. He alighted somewhere along the way and wished me safe travel for the reminder of the journey. So, it is slightly drizzling and night has
It would be remiss to talk about Eldoret without mention of the many Kenyan athletes who hail from this part of the country.
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fa c t s a b o u t e l d o r e t l o c at i o n
330 kms from Nairobi and sits at 6,857 feet above sea level a d m i n i s t r at i v e c a p i ta l
Administrative capital of Uasin Gishu County size
5th largest town in Kenya i n t e r n at i o n a l a i r p o r t
Depsite having an international airport, it is yet to achieve city status origin of the name
The name Eldoret originates from the Maasai word “Eldore� which roughly translated means a stony river & commerce It serves as a major corridor to Uganda and South Sudan. It is by all standards a cosmopolitan town with a robust economy and vibrant commerce. industry
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visited the town when we make our entrance to Kamande’s Sweety para para. And my phone battery has run flat. Mind you, it’s my first time to visit my aunt here unaccompanied and for the life of me, I can’t remember my way to her house. So now, I am at a simu ya jamii. The lady who operates it is kind enough to stay with me till my cousin finds me and picks me up as she was closing for the day when I came to her kiosk. My cousin and I, we run around in circles till we find each other and the lady can now go home. If it was Nairobi, I would have been on my own. This time around on my umpteenth visit to Eldoret, I think of how much things have changed. Now, there is a shuttle operating 100 yards from where I reside and there is no need to go all the way to town to board a bus. Plus, my cousins are all married now and how they always press me to come with my people next time I visit them. I am getting there, cousins, I am getting there. And when I do, then, my people will be your people too, cousins. It is early March when I make my trip there to Eldoret. I always make a point to avoid going there doing the Christmas period. You know how risky our roads are, more so, the roads at the Rift Valley region - Salgaa and Sachangwan come to mind. I pack light as I will not be staying there for more than a day or two and I will not be visiting any aunts or cousins, unless I am not quick enough to hide from them should I chance upon them. Then again, I can always wriggle my way out, that Eldoret is my stopover to Malaba or so. Luggage loaded and passengers ticketed, we make our way out of Nairobi. And one great thing about travel by shuttle rather than the bus, there are no passengers with strange cargo such as humongous solar panels or live chicken to cause you discomfort. Which, again, makes the trip rather boring as fellow passengers, in the manner of Nairobi folks, bury their heads in their smartphones. On the bus, however, you are busy making in-laws and sharing mahindi choma – corn on the cob and such like. Pretty soon we are on Waiyaka Way, a highway named after a famous Kikuyu chief in the colonial era. This chief, the story goes, had a run in with the white man and which led to his interment – alive – in an unmarked grave somewhere in Kibwezi. As we go through the area, Greater Dagoretti, I recount in my mind just how closely
intertwined this area is with the nation we now call Kenya. I think of the Lari Massacre and how it is said that the children of the ngati, The Home Guard, are the ones now enjoying the fruits of Uhuru. A rather simplistic narrative, if you ask me. Then there is the Great Wall, in my mind, of China. Rather, the Great Wall of Kinoo or the Great Wall of Waiyaki Way. Possibly, the concrete wall is to induce some order, sort of driver internship, such that drivers will stick to their lanes as they leave Nairobi. And for the sad Nairobian returning to an unfriendly home – there is always a sadness when you find yourself back in Nairobi – the wall is a psychological marker that they are back in the big city and can now pick up their perpetual frown. You know how there is that name that stick to you in your travels. Mine is First Born Christian Church, somewhere by the roadside in Kinoo. And now that we are passing here, my mind goes to overdrive. Did they banish fifth borns like me from attending church here? And these first borns that attend church here, does it mean that they can only attend church with only one child in tow? Or are there such consideration like this child here is a first born on the maternal side of the family, this other on the paternal side and give the two children a pass to attend church. Then I think of the Passover. There must have been a committee. The Committee on Stopovers, Road Chapter. Kikopey if you are going to Western Kenya, Mtito Andei for Mombasa-bound travellers, Malaba or Isinya if you are sneaking to Uganda or Tanzania… else, it is a cartel thing. Because these stopovers, depending on the bus or shuttle company, drop you at specific, overpriced, fast food joints. Still, when your bladder is full, any stopover is as good as the next. And such stopovers are part of the travel experience. And once you get to Eldoret, there is some bit of Nairobi there… Huruma, or perhaps, that is as far as the similarity goes. In contrast to Nairobi, the city is clean, green, spacious, friendly and affordable. Food is aplenty, the people unpretentious and crowning it all, the Eldoret International Airport.
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B O O K
R E V I E W
QUARTER LIFE CRISIS
ALEXANDRA ROBBINS & ABBY WILNER
Despite the hundreds of books, novels and magazine articles dedicated to explaining the sometimes traumatic transition through middle age and the ways to cope with it, the midlife crisis is not the only age-related crisis that we experience. As Yoda whispered to Luke Skywalker, “There is another.”’
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How does the life of a typical twenty-something pan out till that age? Home, school, college, then real life, or if you will, the adult world. At home, there is food, shelter, clothing, the monthly allowance, unconditional love; plus a few ground rules such as having to be home at a certain time and helping out with the household chores. At school, the routine is pretty familiar. Read, pass exams, respect your teachers and fraternise with fellow students. And depending on whichever part of the globe you are in, the school uniform to even things out. Then comes college and which basically mirrors school, minus the uniform and the school bell. So far, so good. Then comes the real world – the adult world – after college. Previously sheltered in an orderly world, the twenty-something can at times feel disoriented and lost. For one, there is no one to tell them when they are supposed to break for lunch. Then again, lunch costs money and which they have to work for… and rent and clothing and taxes. Meanwhile, their former classmates have started families, taken mortgages and so on while they are struggling to fit in their fourth jobs. It is this crisis, the quarter life crisis, which this books seeks to address. It does so by seeking to guide those who are in their twenties to successfully navigate this phase of their lives despite the many rapids that await them. Essentially a youth book, covering those as young as 17 to those about to hit 35, the book is divided into seven chapters covering a range of pertinent issues. In the introduction, the quarter life crisis is defined as well as its symptoms and how to deal with it. Written from the perspective of a fellow youth, the books is easily identifiable to fellow youth; more so, in that the author also reached out to other fellow youth about their experiences on this subject. The book opens with an imaginary neighbour in the form of Jim. Jim has just turned 50 – definitely a cause for celebration at hitting the half mark of a century in existence. And what is a man to do afterwards when he hits 50? If you are Jim, you dye your hair blond, trade your sleek car for a motorcycle and leave the missus for a younger, petite thing. And though neighbours sympathise with Jim’s (now former) wife, they
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understand that Jim is going through a midlife crisis; which everyone goes through when they get to Jim’s age. On the contrary, the crisis that the average twenty-something goes through in terms of identity, the quarter life crisis and which threatens to throw their lives into disarray, is hardly acknowledged. The authors contends that both crises – midlife and quarter life – are premised on the same basic problem though the resulting panic pulls in opposite directions. At their crux, both crises are about a major life change; and therein ends the similarities. The middle-aged person, coming from a point of stability, tends to reflect on his past to see if his life at the moment measures up against what he had envisioned it would be in his youth. On the other hand, the quarter life crisis occurs due to the unpredictability of the real world where the twenty something is no longer sheltered. Possible effects? Mental disorders including depression and suicide, hence all the more this crisis needs to be acknowledged as a real phenomenon and addressed. Chapter One of the book seeks to help the young man or woman answer that age-old question: Who am I? And how do they typically identify themselves regarding this? By what they do – their job descriptions, as that is often the only constant thing in their lives. Still, they perceive the inquirer to have passed judgement on them when they identify as what they do. Moreover, as many are dissatisfied with their first jobs, this can leave them felling dejected. The answer? Being flexible regarding jobs, job opportunities and pursuing careers that they are passionate about. Chapter Two tackles the need to embrace adulthood. This as leaving one’s childhood behind can be a terrifying prospect at times – the physical changes such as receding hairline, the realisation that, ultimately, they are responsible for themselves… which transition can either be a deal breaker or a revelation depending on how it is handled. Other topics covered in this book include how to deal with failure and doubt, decision making and relationships. On failure, the authors observe that the youth can feel overwhelmed by
the success of their peers. While they may know a couple of their peers who undertook huge risks to get what they wanted, many cannot convince themselves to chase after their dreams by taking big reasons. The major reason? “What if I fail?” The upside to this being that they can afford to fail oftentimes as time is on their side and those still single are mostly accountable only to themselves. On the work front, there is the issue of resentment the youth may have towards their jobs. This as the workplace can feel hostile and unsupportive while college had a sense of camaraderie and there was plenty of opportunity to socialise with their peers. And when it comes to that, do they stick out as they need the money, or do they jump ship – more so, if their suggestions on how to improve the workplace are ignored or they are penalised or they perceive to being penalised for this. And how are they to approach office politics where the advancement of a workmate might be at their cost? On relationships, the authors note that one of the hardest questions confronting the youth is the issue of when to marry and who to marry. This considering that the person they marry could potentially be the person they get to spend the rest of their lives with. Still on relationships, there is the issue of acquiring the right balance – work, family, friends, romance… the whole nine yards. And just for balance, the authors asked a 90-year old his thoughts on the subject. His answer being that the idea of a quarter life crisis as a counterpart to the midlife crisis seems accurate. That notwithstanding, it was his belief that people experience some sort of crisis in every decade. And what does the ninetysomething crisis involves? “Finding interesting things to do and learning to deal with the fact that many of your friends are gone.” In summary, the book is ideal for the youth, their parents, tutors and, perhaps, even their employers. This as the youth need all the support they can get to tackle this difficult phase of their lives.
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F I C T I O N
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COMING AND GOING T
ick, tock… painfully, the clock counts down the seconds, the minutes, the hours to the end of yet another working day. He stares at the wall. It’s only 2:14, yet he is supposed to clock 5; and that is if the boss does not call him into his office just when the day is about to end and holds him up for another hour. Today is one of those days. Today is a Tuesday, four more days to go before Sunday, glorious Sunday. Or not. For when the Sunday is spent washing and ironing and sleeping, there is nothing glorious about it. Today is one of those days. Cold, dark, sad and he is in no mood to chat up his girlfriend in the morning, “Wakey, wakey, little miss sunshine.” Today is one of those days. One of those countless other days he has left like standing up and walking away from his desk, from his job, from his life and going far, far, far away. Perhaps he should book a plane ticket, then a train ticket, then hop into the back of a rickshaw and disappear deep into Narnia. Today, that urge is particularly strong. Today he thinks of revolutions. Not technological or medical inventions that revolutionises the world; rather, good old revolutions where guns blast away and free citizens. He thinks that the military has let him and fellow citizens down. All that corruption and it stands aside and does nothing as the country goes to the dogs. We need a Simón Bolívar or a Che to shake things up – things he does not say aloud as walls have ears and treason is brother to heresy in Pengo. ***** Chief Inspector Makinya is incensed. The boss is on his case and wants results. The underground publication Citizen Power is gaining traction. It condemns the runaway corruption in the government and asks for the ouster of the country’s president for life, His Imperial Eminence Dr. Sir Charles Mangwana Tumbo, DDT, LSD, 1st and Senior Most Elder of Pengo 17 Tribes. HIDIOT, his acronym as the full title is rather a mouthful. He has just been from torturing a suspected dissident, a Dr. Meno. This Dr. Meno, a dentist, which is to stay that he is a proper doctor unlike the country’s leader. Quickly, Chief Inspector Makinya banishes the thought from his mind lest his boss or a colleague chances on him and notices him displaying the smile of treasonous thoughts. The Manual of Proper and Patriotic Citizenry, Chapter 18, Verse 4, Treasonous Smiles. “The treasonous citizen will often be
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caught gazing onto thin air, half a smile caught on his face for no apparent reason. The Committee of Proper and Patriotic Citizenry has investigated and found out that such a smile can only be ascribed to the sad thought of wishing ill to the country’s leadership.” Chief Inspector Makinya was part of this committee. In fact, the whole chapter can entirely be credited to him, if only his boss had let him take the credit for it. As it were, his boss had gotten a personal commendation from the president and an invite to luncheon at the big house on the valley where the supreme leader takes abode that is The Presidential Museum and Mausoleum. As he had to accompany his boss there, he had to threaten a certain tailor to make him a suit that could withstand the president’s scrutiny as his salary could not afford him one. Now, Chief Inspector Makinya is having another smile, the smile of a happy citizen wishing well the supreme leader. In part, his mind has gone back to his childhood. Often a loner, he had been branded a sadist. Perhaps, this had something to do with the fact that he would often be found catching frogs and rabbits and dissecting him. While it may have been seen as doctoral tendencies in another, the fact that Makinya dissected his prey alive suggested otherwise. Which is to say, torture came to him naturally. Having also been the leader of the special government agency that developed the country’s torture methods, his bosses sometimes discerned elements of a regressed childhood in him. This in part, having to do with his two preferred methods of torture. Introductory Methods to Torture I and Introductory Methods to Torture II. The Introductory Methods to Torture I was intended for what Chief Inspector Makinya termed as the ‘soft suspect’. On its part, the Introductory Methods to Torture II was designed for ‘degenerates’. In the manual, the ‘soft suspect’ was classified as the doctor, the poet, the professor and the journalist – the thinking class. The ‘degenerate’ was a member of the banished opposition party, more so, one with financial clout. As to the methods. The Introductory Methods to Torture I involved tying the suspect to a bed, spread-eagled, unshod, and tickling his soles with
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a feather. From his soles, they would then move to tickling his nostrils, ear canal and then tickling his sides till he confessed. The Introductory Methods to Torture II produced much quicker results. The suspect would be tied to a chair and sewing needles stuck under his nails. The accompanying screams would be recorded and played intermittently in the solitary confinement cell where the suspect would then be held. ***** What do you do when you are bored, you have plenty of time and you cannot run away? You start a seditious publication. And so, on that slow Tuesday a year ago, Citizen Power was born. At first, it merely consisted of limericks, bad poetry and substandard articles, the kind of publication that would be overlooked by the authorities that be. Still, it was this very fact that endeared it to the masses and made it very popular. Later on, serious discourses on the means to overthrow the government would be added. He had a background in computer science, which meant that he was versed on the trickeries of publishing anonymously and not having his address tracked down. Again, this very fact marked him as a suspect. This had him joining the ranks of the ruling party where he was the district’s youth chairman in charge of government propaganda. He too had earned a presidential commendation when their newsletter had been ranked the second best in the republic. As all things anonymous go, he had received an anonymous email praising his good work in creating an informed citizenry via his seditious publication. Attached was a brilliant article mocking the government’s attempts to censure the citizenry smiles. The article was a wild success and had resonated with the public. Consequently, the anonymous contact had become a regular contributor to Citizen Power. Six months later, contributor and publisher had met. Said the contributor on his false beard and monocle, he was a public figure – with hints of serving in the higher echelons of government – hence the disguise.
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What do you do when you are bored, you have plenty of time and you cannot run away? You start a seditious publication. And so, on that slow Tuesday a year ago, Citizen Power was born. At first, it merely consisted of limericks, bad poetry and substandard articles, the kind of publication that would be overlooked by the authorities that be. ***** Yesterday and today. Chief Inspector Makinya recalls yesterday’s events and this morning happenings. Now, his works calls for him to be inventive. Meaning that he has enrolled as a student in the university, economics. Economics is a better and safer course than political science which is heavily self-censored as the professors fear being spied on. At work and at school. At work, he dons on a suit, a coat, black shoes and official pants and is properly shaved. At school, he transforms into this dreadlocked, spectacled and hip student; very bright student. And he asks questions and drops snide remarks on the country’s state of affairs, with his professors not taking the bait as he might be a government spy. At home. Chief Inspector Makinya is a regular guy, recently graduated from a technical college and working in the local car assembly factory. His immediate neighbour on the left, third floor, Brightmost Flats, is Prof. Immunity Denied Mackenzie. Now, Prof. Immunity Denied Mackenzie teaches economics at the university. And he takes the snide remarks of the hip student and turns them into full
articles. One day, when the country is free, he will publish them as part of his memoirs. He does not read Citizen Power as his house was once ransacked by state agents who believed him to be its publisher. The incident had left him much shaken and several times, he has thought of deleting all his articles lest they visit him again. ***** He has just returned from a board meeting at his place of work. Could be a case of malaria as he had recently travelled to the coast on his annual leave, he had said when it was noticed he looked unfocused. As it were, his annual leave had just come at the right moment to enable him escape to the coast should state agents be coming after him. And why would state agents be after him? One of his regular contributors had been outed by state agents. As the government media reported, it is likely that Prof. Immunity Denied Mackenzie instructed his articles to be rewritten so that they could not be traced back to him. As it were, his confiscated computer had all these articles that mutated into the Citizen Power. It was only a matter of time before the publisher was arrested too.
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***** As usual, his boss took credit for the breakthrough towards arresting the publisher of Citizen Power. This time, though, he had the grace to thank Chief Inspector Makinya for a job well done. This, after chancing on the inspector’s smirk and which he attributed to a job well done. Truth be told, Chief Inspector Makinya was happy that his setup had gone according to plan. Now, he would let himself into the professor’s house when he was not in and copy his seditious articles. Once he was late and had rung the professor to open the gate to the flats. Could he return the keys a bit later as he had a lady friend coming over and needed to let her into the flats? You young people are all the same, the professor had remarked, smilingly, as he gave him the keys. The inspector, or should we say, the technician at the car assembly had then impressed the professor’s house key on a piece of bar soap and had them reproduced the next day. The chief inspector would then mail the articles to the publisher of Citizen Power with instructions to rewrite them so that they could not be traced back to him, the professor. This as the professor’s other writings could be matched with the original articles. And once trust had been established between the two, the chief inspector had finally met the publisher of this seditious paper that sought to overthrow the government. ***** Master of disguise. The Presidential Museum and Mausoleum. The president is livid and his cabinet is cowering as he hurls one insult after the other about their intelligence and mothers. While the minister in charge of propaganda deems the arrest of Prof. Immunity Denied Mackenzie as a great breakthrough towards bringing the people behind Citizen Power to book, the president thinks otherwise. His jet black hair – it is apparent that he has dyed it, could even be a wig – condescending black eyes and black moustache lends him an air of pure terror.
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Musical chairs. Collective action, stresses the president. Now, the ministers start outing each other. The minister of petrolheads was caught on camera talking to this dissident; the minister of domestic affairs and the home front is having an affair with a married woman; the minister of black magic and spiritual warfare does not hang the allseeing president’s portrait on his altar… such and such. The president is now shaking in fits of anger and brandishing his sword wildly. The ministers are now bunched on the other end of the room while the presidential guard stand on the other end ready to collect severed heads. The president has now stopped shaking. Today, it seems there will only be one severed head, not three as it happened the last time he was angry. Shortly afterwards, there was a cabinet reshuffle and nobody dares question the disappearance of the three cabinet ministers who were sacked. The big oval table has now been taken out of the room and the chairs, facing outwards, arranged into a circle. The music begins – the screams of Prof. Immunity Denied Mackenzie being tortured – then stops. The last man standing is the minister of defence and who just inverted the mean of this idiom, ‘last man standing’. His public execution is slated for tomorrow. The veil is lifted. The president is now alone in his 47th bedroom where he is to take a power nap till supper. Nobody knows where he sleeps as The Presidential Museum and Mausoleum has 99 bedrooms. He has moved the king-sized bed to the other side of the room and a corner of the carpet. The trapdoor is now open and which leads to the outside of the abode. Meanwhile, the president has discarded his wig, removed his moustache and his contact lenses. As he peels his first layer of his mask off, we encounter an anonymous, unremarkable and rather bland man, the publisher of Citizen Power. The third person revealed has much more character, Chief Inspector Makinya.
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