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Archive for November 23rd, 2009

Atlanta Loses another Young Man

Posted by jambonewspot on November 23, 2009

Story by KimKamau and BMJ Muriithi(Kimmediagroup.com)

Samuel Kisaka Mwawasi

Samuel Kisaka Mwawasi

Barely a month after a young Kenyan student collapsed and died at Kennesaw State University, the Kenyan community in Atlanta is grieving once again after another young man lost his life following a head-on collision accident which occured a few miles from Hartsfield International Airport, South of the City of Atlanta. Samuel Kisaka Mwawasi passed away on Saturday afternoon at Grady Memorial Hospital where he had been taken after the Friday night grisly accident. He is the son of pastor Donald Mwawasi of Believers Celebration Church in Marietta, Georgia.

Mwawasi, 28, was driving home from meeting his friends when the accident happened on Old National Highway in college park, Georgia at around 4am. He was taken to Grady Memorial hospital in a critical condition after sustaining serious internal and external injuries. Atlanta police told KEN that it took a while before the authorities could get hold of the family. Other reliable sources told these reporters that when the parents arrived at Grady Hospital, they could not immediately see him as a team of ten doctors was working endlessly to contain the profuse internal bleeding. However, at around 3 pm EST., he succumbed to his injuries and passed on.

“It is so sad that we have lost such a humble, hardworking young man who was so loved by his parents and the community at large”, said Dr Robert Ndonga, a close family friend who is in the funeral committee in Atlanta. Asked whether he knew the fate of the other driver, Dr Ndonga said the information on the accident was still scanty but the East Point police would soon release the report.

There will be prayers on Wednesday November 25th at 6:30PM at Believers Celebration Center, where Pastor Mwawasi ministers, 1492 Roswell Rd. Marietta, GA. 30062.
The memorial service will be held on Saturday, November 28th at 4:00PM at Kenyan American Community Church, (KACC) 771 Elberta drive, Marietta, GA. 30066.

Funeral arrangements will be communicated later.
Your Prayers, Presence and Financial support will be greatly appreciated.
For more info:

Pastor K.K. Kiroko 678-656-8446,
Apostle Zephaniah Muturi 678-200-5989
Dr. Robert Ndonga         770-899-3313
Pastor James Maina 678-365-1156

Posted in Obituaries | Tagged: | 1 Comment »

Kenyan Found Dead In NY Lake

Posted by jambonewspot on November 23, 2009

By Tony Karanja

Jambonewspot.com

tgkaranja@jambonewspot.com

A Kenyan Man was found dead over the weekend in Meyers Lake in Lewiston. The man who was not identified at the time his body was found has now been positively identified.

According to the Niagara County Sheriff James Voutour, the dead Kenyan man is Ireri Gitari, 57, whose last known address was in Buffalo.

Mr Gitari is said to have been in the US for the last 15 years according to sheriff’s department investigators. The sheriff also said that at the moment, no next of kin has been located.

According to the Lewiston Police Sgt. Frank Previte, Gitari is said to have wandered off from the group that he was “camping” with. It was at this moment that he ventured into a wooded area and got lost.

State police and Border Patrol officers were called in and an extensive search followed, using K-9 officers, night-vision equipment and ATV patrols. After about two hours of searching, Gitari’s body in Meyers Lake.

 He was pronounced dead at the scene.

According to some media reports, Gitari seemed intoxicated at the time of his disappearance and his death is currently not being considered suspicious. 

Sheriff Vontour said that investigations were ongoing and that they were looking into various possible contributing factors. He said that they were looking at factors which include intoxication, water temperature, weight of Gitari’s clothing and his swimming skills.

Posted in Diaspora News | Tagged: , , | 8 Comments »

Kenya seeks to test one million for HIV/Aids

Posted by jambonewspot on November 23, 2009

The health ministry in Kenya has launched a three-week campaign to encourage up to one million people to take an Aids test.

Ministry officials will go door-to-door in a bid to more than double the number of people checked since voluntary testing clinics were set up in 2004.

The latest drive has already met public resistance, in a country where taking a test can be equated to promiscuity.

Between 7% and 8.5% of the adult population suffers from HIV/Aids.

One reason that the figure is not more precise is because the vast majority of Kenyans simply have not been tested.

That is why the government has launched its latest programme called Jitambue Leo – literally “know yourself”.

In it, teams of health department workers will knock on as many doors as they can over the next three weeks, hoping to reach one million people.

If they do, it would be a staggering increase on the 700,000 who have been to voluntary counselling and testing clinics since the programme began five years ago.

But the challenge is huge.

People living with Aids carry a heavy social burden and even taking a test is seen as a sign of sexual promiscuity.

But Minister of Public Health Beth Mugo says too many Kenyans are dying not because they have Aids but because they simply do not know they are HIV-positive and therefore are not getting treatment.


Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8375127.stm

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Boy president out to end child abuse

Posted by jambonewspot on November 23, 2009

He is the president of the Children’s Parliament, but David Malingi said he was humbled to share a table with Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo and Unicef country representative Olivia Yambi during the launch of the state of the world’s children web site on Friday at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi. Photo/ JAMES NJUGUNA

He is the president of the Children’s Parliament, but David Malingi said he was humbled to share a table with Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo and Unicef country representative Olivia Yambi during the launch of the state of the world’s children web site on Friday at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi. Photo/ JAMES NJUGUNA

The eloquence and confidence are hard to match as David Malingi, 16, presents the children’s agenda to politicians, ambassadors and presidents across the globe. Activist, counsellor and mediator are just some of the titles he adorns in his Kaloleni home; he is also the president of the Children’s Parliament in Kenya. Just last Friday, Malingi shared a table with Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo during the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child at KICC in Nairobi. “I was humbled to sit next to him. I used the chance to give my views on the judicial delays in children’s cases,” he told the Nation. The Standard Six pupil at Ribe Methodist Academy in Coast Province says his dream is to live in a world where indifference to children does not exist, and their talents are nurtured. Last month, Malingi travelled to Geneva, Switzerland, to mark the celebration since the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, an experience he describes as “a golden opportunity to represent my peers”. He presented a paper on children’s agenda to delegates and made a global call for all governments to give priority to programmes targeting children. “I want to help children to speak against injustices that have for so long haunted them,” he said. Malingi, who was born to an unemployed father and a mother who is a nursery school teacher, is also a member of the Area Advisory Council in his Kaloleni home, where he plays a role as an arbitrator in conflicts involving children. “I failed to join primary school early enough due to lack of fees but I’m determined to be a child rights activist and ensure access to education to all children,” said the first born in a family of four. In one case, he brought together two rival families in a rape case involving a 12-year-old girl and a 27-year-old man. “I sought audience with the parents of both and called for calm in order to solve the conflict,” he said, adding that he was able to counsel the girl and refer her to a crisis centre where she was counselled further and taken to hospital. “The man accused of rape also apologised though I referred the case to the Provincial Administration.” The two families are now in better terms. “Why should defilement and sodomy cases be heard for up to one year later while the current law gives a provision of not less than 72 hours?” Malingi challenged the Judiciary, adding that delays caused trauma, pain and suffering for the child. During the celebrations, Mr Mutula termed the political succession debate as “selfish”, yet few politicians paid attention to the fact that the new draft had included the rights of the child in section 41 for the first time. “The current debate on the constitution is politically inclined, leaving out the most vulnerable citizens, the children,” Mr Mutula said. The minister was appalled by the delay in hearing cases involving children. “Among the reforms are plans to introduce ICT to hasten the handling of cases in children’s courts,” said Mr Mutula. Those working in the children’s departments countrywide would undergo refresher courses so they could deal with emerging issues affecting children more efficiently. Malingi counsels peers regarding life skills and education in their lives. The greatest challenge, he says, is when children fail to take him seriously or adults ignore his interventions during crises. As Kenyans discuss the draft constitution, the youngest and most vulnerable citizens of the country ask adults to have sober minds during the 30-day period. In the Bill of Rights, Section 41, children are extensively discussed and said to hold a special place in society with the parents, family and the State put to task to protect and nurture them. According to government statistics, there are 19.2 million children out of the 36 million people in Kenya. Every child’s rights will be protected should the draft constitution become law. Harmful cultural practices on children are not allowed in the proposed law, as are exploitation, neglect or abuse.

Daily Nation

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Man who stabbed his Kenyan girlfriend gets 32 years in jail

Posted by jambonewspot on November 23, 2009

SEATTLE – A man who stabbed his girlfriend while they were riding in a car on Interstate 5 near Northgate last October was sentenced Friday to 32 years in prison.

Cristel Murphy, 43, of Kent, pleaded guilty in September to first-degree murder for the stabbing death of Jane Wa Kariuki, 42.

Murphy has a previous manslaughter conviction. His 32-year sentence is near the top of the sentencing range, officials said.

But the victim’s sister, Ann Kariuke, said she was hoping for a longer sentence.

“It was a very difficult day, obviously, but we feel that the judge hasn’t executed what we hoped for,” she said.

According to police reports, Murphy was in the back seat of a car on Oct. 16, 2008, when he grabbed Kariuki, who was in the passenger seat, from behind and stabbed her multiple times.

Kariuki was rushed to Harborview Medical Center where she later died.

Investigators said the pair had been arguing all day and Kariuki had informed Murphy he would have to move out of their home.

According to a police report, Murphy got out of the car after the stabbing, threw the knife on the ground, lit a cigarette and sat on a guard rail along I-5 as police rushed to the scene.

He was taken into custody without further incident.

The incident tied up traffic for hours while investigators processed the crime scene.

Court records show Murphy has a history of domestic violence dating back more than a decade, including two assault convictions for attacking Hariuki. He was also convicted of manslaughter in North Carolina in 1985.

Source:KOMO News

How the stabbing happened: http://www.kirotv.com/news/17738596/detail.html

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Truth is the first casualty

Posted by jambonewspot on November 23, 2009

When the battle against superstition, stigma and scant sex education is over, the fight to treat HIV patients begins. So what is stopping more Kenyans from taking antiretroviral therapy?

Residents of Kibera listen to a talk about TB at an Amref health centre. Photography by: Anthony Karumba

Residents of Kibera listen to a talk about TB at an Amref health centre. Photography by: Anthony Karumba

By Kirsty Taylor-The Guradian

Some striped cloth and a basket full of earth formed Damaris Cagina’s first line of defence when she kept falling ill. “I was getting sick for months at a time – I couldn’t walk,” the slight 34-year-old from Kenya’s rural Makueni district recalls.

The domestic worker took her HIV-denying husband’s advice and turned to witchdoctors to shake off the string of infections she later discovered sprang from the virus.

Waiting in line to see the doctor at Makueni district hospital’s HIV/Aids clinic, Cagina now scoffs at the practices she once trusted to ward off ill health.

“I went to very many herbalists to try and find a cure, but they didn’t know what was wrong with me,” she explains. “They told me my mother-in-law had bewitched me. They told me to buy special fabric – a white cloth with red stripes – and to put soil in a basket to stop the spell. I tried it all but nothing helped. It was only after very many visits to herbalists that I decided to come to hospital.”

Cagina is one of the estimated 1.4 million people living with HIV/Aids in Kenya today. But like many of them, she first refused tests to discover her status, viewing a positive result as an immediate death sentence and spiritual curse.

The country’s government has supplied antiretroviral therapy (ART) to suppress the virus to patients for free since 2006.

According to a 2007 Kenya indicator survey, of the 390,000 adults estimated as being eligible for ART at the time of the survey, around 140,000, or 35%, were taking the medication.

“Stigma is still the biggest challenge in terms of gaining treatment for people with HIV,” Makueni district hospital’s medical superintendent Dr Charles Maina says. “People can pay a lot of money for spiritual remedies before seeking medical treatment. They only come to hospital when they are not able to recover – by that stage their conditions can be very complicated.”

Deep-rooted stigma and patchy health education has led many to cower from the disease, which has seen the country’s life expectancy rates shortened by 20 years in the last two decades.

Even those signed up to take their two daily doses of ART drugs often struggle to adhere to the lifelong treatment – an error that can lead to drug-resistant strains of the HIV virus and of opportunistic infections like TB.

Those waiting on Makueni hospital’s concrete benches for repeat prescriptions, or tests to check their viral loads, tell how the nationwide food and water shortages are especially hard for those surviving on ART.

“You have to have good nutrition to take the drugs,” says 37-year-old mother Ruth Sambua, who tested positive in 2004. “I dig ditches in a food-for-work scheme but it doesn’t give you enough food to get by.”

Fatal waiting times

At Makueni even emergency patients can queue for hours – some die before being called by the nurse. Others cannot afford to travel from homes at the edge of the hospital’s 70km catchment area. The government-run facility’s two ambulances often sit idle for lack of fuel.

While sick patients travel miles by foot, progress to control the HIV virus moves at walking pace. Medics are anxious for solutions, yet many have dismissed a radical new proposal to eradicate the HIV/Aids epidemic in the space of a decade.

A World Health Organisation (WHO) consultation this month examined whether treating all HIV/Aids patients with ART could halt transmission of the disease. Experts examined a 2008 WHO report’s claims that treating the disease immediately, rather than the standard practice of waiting until a patient’s immune system dropped, could cut new infections by 95% in just 10 years.

The study used mathematical models predicting that universal annual HIV testing followed by blanket ART for positive patients could see new cases fall to less than 1% of a treated population within 50 years – even in Sub-Saharan African countries with a high disease prevalence.

But the scheme would be a shift for many health providers following current WHO advice. Guidelines state patients should receive ART only when their CD4 count – used to determine low immune levels – drops below a certain point.

“Can you imagine starting someone who is still very healthy on ART? It would not do them any good,” argues Walter Kibet, a clinician at the African Medical and Research Foundation’s (Amref’s) Kibera health centre in Nairobi.

“Fine, transmission may go down, but it does not stop completely,” says Kibet, who treats patients in Africa’s biggest slum. “You risk transmitting a medicine-exposed virus to someone who has never taken any [ART] medicines. This is how we can shoot the virus into resistance.”

While Kibet says ART adherence using current guidelines was improving, he argues that extending prescriptions is no solution. “We need to focus on what we call prevention with positives. We say: ‘OK, you are positive, but you need to protect others and yourself from re-infection by using condoms’.”

Dennis Wanyama, Medecins sans Frontieres’ clinician for Kibera agrees, adding: “I don’t think it is something that would be doable for our set-up here, because we don’t have enough medicines, equipment or human resources. Also, if you start someone on ARV with a high CD4 count the side effects can be greater than normal.”

But Ministry of Health district Aids coordinator for Nairobi West, Margaret Mwangi, says: “It [universal testing and ART] could be a good idea – if you started with a high CD4 count that person might be able to live a longer and better life.

“The government are fighting so that

we should have enough drugs for everybody – there are many issues but now there is enough [with careful management].”

Even recent hopes that a breakthrough vaccine against the HIV virus had been found, are now being called into question in some quarters. In September, it was victoriously announced that an Aids vaccine tested in Thailand had protected 31% of inoculated participants from becoming infected with HIV.

But quibbles over data analysis in the 16,000-volunteer study are already casting doubts over the statistical power of the findings. Some members of the scientific community now argue the vaccine in fact protected only 26% of those who received it.

Back at Makueni district hospital, Maina has more immediate concerns: helping those already infected with the disease. Though drug supply is not currently an issue, even some medical staff remain unaware of ART’s essential role. Maina says: “They don’t understand how ART can prolong someone’s life. It is naturally difficult for them to counsel a patient on medication they don’t believe in.

“A chief from the area called the hospital recently asking for names of HIV positive patients from his area,” the clinician recalled. “He wanted to know their burial dates for his diary.”

Defying even her own expectations, Cagina has been living a healthy life on ART since 2005. She borrows the 90KSH (94p) Matatu fare to hospital when she lacks the funds, and tells everyone she meets about living positively with HIV.

Unfortunately some do not want to know. “My husband is one of six brothers and three of them have died,” she says. “I tried to advise their wives to get tested but they will not accept they could be dying of HIV. It is very sad. They all still believe they have been bewitched by my husbands’ mother.”

But when her husband forbade her to continue treatment, she had an easy decision to make. “He said I had to choose staying with him or visiting the hospital. “I chose my health, so I left him. He should be checked too but he is better at taking a drink of beer than going to the hospital.”

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/

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Kenya will not get extra time to study draft

Posted by jambonewspot on November 23, 2009

NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 23 – Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Mutula Kilonzo has said that it is impossible for Kenyans to get more time to familiarise themselves with the draft constitution.
 
Mr Mutula said the 30 days set for Kenyans to go through the constitution would not be extended, as the country could not afford to buy more time in order to get a new constitution. He stated that Kenya had enormous challenges ahead and had to have a constitution to guide its 2012 election, which needed constitutional law to determine how many constituencies there were and how people would vote.

“The period will not be extended. Read my lips. We have debated a constitution for 20 years and this journey started long ago. To extend the 30-day period is to look for trouble. The government would like to finish this process by June next year so that all those who want to become president and prime minister can then know the sort of governance structures expected,” he explained.

Mr Mutula further said that voter registration would also be done in time for the referendum and proposed the hybrid system of governance for Kenya, saying that all other governance forms had failed in the past.
 
“We have already tried the parliamentary system under President Jomo Kenyatta and it took only a year for that system to be dropped. We have tried the executive president again under Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, President Moi and President Kibaki. We have tried the hybrid which is the system now enabling us to stand here and I think it is the way to go,” he stated.

He further explained that the draft constitution did not have any centre of power thereby ruling out the possibility of two centres of power.

“The draft constitution has no centre of power because it is this so called centre of power that has created the problems that we have now. The end result is that whoever holds that power thinks that he can reward his cronies by sustaining corruption and impunity. Therefore the draft constitution looked at from both political and legal point of view is a function of the responsibility you have. The concept of centre of power is very old politics and very old constitution,” he explained.

Mr Mutula also pointed out that Administration Police (AP) had not been mentioned in the draft constitution, adding that he had received some objections from across the country on the issue of APs, which he would forward to the Committee of Experts.
 
“I respect the APs and I consider them to have a clean record (if you ignore some instances of the post election violence). I have always believed that an institution set up in 1903 ought not to be wished away and I don’t think the committee should confuse provincial administration with Administration Police because although the two institutions work together, they are separate,” he said.

The Minister further stated that it was not possible for Kenyans to get two or three drafts of the proposed constitution as it was against the law and that it would mislead the country.

“We passed a law for this process and we did not ask for two drafts. We only wanted one and besides the key word is harmonised. This is not an invention of the Committee of Experts. It is a harmonised draft, which means the committee looked at the Kilifi draft, the Waki draft, the Naivasha Accord, the current constitution and above all they looked at all the written memoranda that Kenyans sent forth,” he said, although stressing that he still had reservations with regards to the draft constitution.

“Please note that I am not saying the draft is perfect. I have issues with some of the clauses and I think it needs more polishing. However we are going all the way and must produce a new constitution.”

The Justice Minister also added that civic education could not start to educate the common citizen on the pros and cons of the draft constitution explaining that it was not yet necessary as it would be conducted before the referendum.
 
“At this point we cannot start civic education because the draft constitution is still a proposal. However let me salute the committee of experts for availing it as a pull out in local papers to ensure this draft is available to the wider public,” he said.
 
He noted that the public had shown tremendous interest in the draft constitution and promised that more copies would be re-printed and availed in Kiswahili.

“The Committee of Experts says that they have ordered a re-print of another 500 copies. I however intend to inquire if they could increase this number and I think the public is entitled to see it in both English and Kiswahili. For those who have access to the internet the document is already available both in English and Kiswahili on the website of the committee of experts,” he noted.

The Justice Minister also cautioned politicians, the civil society and other private groups of people against voting out the draft constitution before reading and understanding its contents adequately.
 
“Let me now address the special groups who have engaged in debate on particular issues and think that the proposals do not address their requirements. I’m simply asking them to look at that document (and this includes the media for heaven’s sake) and say how it can be polished to better reflect their wishes without presenting us with ultimatums and conditions before accepting it. If you think the president should be both Head of government, Head of state and god just say so,” he said.

Mr Mutula also reminded the Kenyan public that it was illegal for anyone to incite or make hateful speech with regards to the constitution.

“Please remember that the national, cohesion and integration act (section 62) bans people from making contemptuous, attacking and inciting speeches particularly at this delicate moment. Everyone has a right to voice out their opinions and even demand that a whole section of the constitution be removed but do not derail the process,” he stated.

The thirty day period given to Kenyans to read through the draft constitution was proposed by politicians. They will get 21 days after the public finishes giving its views.

CAPITAL FM

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Corruption at Safaricom Kenya

Posted by jambonewspot on November 23, 2009

By Jeremy Kinyanjui
21st November 2009

There appears to be a lot that is troubling wrong at the biggest corporation in East & Central Africa i.e. giant mobile phone service provider, Safaricom Kenya.

Financial, technical and intellectual systems for one, are clearly stretched at Safaricom Kenya, and are at breaking point.

Safaricom Kenya for instance, was meant to pay out a dividend of 10 Kenya cents per share on 9th November 2009, (http://appfrica.net/blog/2009/09/09/saf … ia-m-pesa/) but there is no indication that this has been done (refer to the Safaricom Kenya Annual Report & Accounts for the financial year ended 31st March 2009, both hardcopy, & softcopy i.e. www.safaricom.co.ke).Other source- http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/InsidePa … d=418&

When a dividend for a publicly quoted company falls due, the practice is that formal announcements & protocols are set in motion, including formal notification of the declared dividend being made to the shareholders of the company, the Capital Markets Authority & the Nairobi Stock Exchange, by the publicly quoted company in question. Should any changes to the defined timetable arise for one reason or another, then the three key parties i.e. the shareholders of the company, the Capital Markets Authority & the Nairobi Stock Exchange, should again be immediately notified about the revision, and if need be, penalties/sanctions/reprimands applied on the Board of Directors & Management for this lapse.

Safaricom Kenya is in a financial crisis by every indication. Safaricom Kenya carried out a month and a half long exercise asking shareholders to sign up and receive their dividends by way of Safaricom Kenya’s M-Pesa money transfer service. As at the date of this letter i.e. 21st November 2009, there is no indication that payment of dividend has been effected to Safaricom shareholders who opted to receive their dividends through Safaricom Kenya’s M-Pesa money transfer service, bearing in mind that Safaricom Kenya was meant to effect dividend payment for the financial year ended 31st March 2009, on 9th November 2009, as stated above.

Even then, the decision by Safaricom Kenya to use M-Pesa to pay the 2008/2009 dividend to a substantial number of it’s shareholders, reeks of deceit and outright theft of it’s shareholders in particular, and the people of Kenya in general.

According to data released following the high profile Safaricom Initial Public Offer of March 2008, the majority of retail shareholders were allocated 420 shares each following massive over-subscription. Safaricom incidentally, has approximately 850,000 shareholders, almost all of whom are small scale retail shareholders.

As mentioned above, Safaricom Kenya is meant to pay out a dividend of 10 Kenya cents per share for the financial year ended 31st March 2009. This means that majority Safaricom Kenya shareholders are set to get a dividend of 42 Kenya shillings for the financial year ended 31st March 2009. It is claimed that that the Kenya Government does not deduct a 5% withholding tax for locals (i.e. Kenyans), for any dividend payment less than 50 Kenya shillings. The Ministry of Finance/Treasury is yet to confirm this, but assuming that it is indeed a statute in Kenya fiscal law, then majority Safaricom Kenya shareholders will therefore get a dividend of 42 Kenya shillings.

Now here’s the bombshell… Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph & Safaricom CFO Les Baille, claim that about a quarter of it’s retail shareholders (approximately 212,500 shareholders), registered to receive their dividend payments for the financial year 2008/2009 by way of Safaricom’s M-Pesa money transfer service. Safaricom Kenya charges 30 Kenya shillings for such M-Pesa money transfer transactions, meaning that many of the stated 212,500 retail shareholders, will receive a net payment of 12 Kenya shillings. What’s more is that if there is no statute in Kenya fiscal law allowing for a waiver of withholding tax of 5% for any dividend payment less than 50 Kenya shillings, then the saga gets even more comical, because 5% of 42 Kenya shillings is Kenya shillings 2.10. Net dividend after deduction of 5% withholding tax for many retail shareholders will therefore come to Kenya shillings 39.90. A majority of Safaricom Kenya retail shareholders receiving their dividends through the Safaricom M-Pesa money transfer service, should therefore receive a net dividend of Kenya shillings 9.90 after the M-Pesa transaction fee of Kenya shillings 30 is deducted. This is assuming that there is no statute in Kenya fiscal law allowing for a waiver of withholding tax of 5% for any dividend payment less than 50 Kenya shillings. The difference anyway between Kenya shillings 12 and Kenya shillings 9.90 is not much. It is Kenya shillings 2.10, which is not even enough to send a local text message in Kenya.

How about the remaining approximate 637,500 Safaricom Kenya shareholders? Why have they up to now not received their dividend cheques for the financial year ended 31st March 2009? These were meant to have been despatched on 9th November 2009 as mentioned above. Inspite of the fact that many of the remaining 637,500 shareholders will receive net dividend cheques of either Kenya shillings 42 or Kenya shillings 39.90, and inspite of the fact that Safaricom Kenya has made no arrangements and/or provisions for how these low value dividend cheques will be cashed, why have the dividend cheques not been mailed out yet? Is it because Safaricom Kenya does not have the money? Is it because Safaricom Kenya is broke? Is Safaricom desperately scrambling to raise funds to pay the 2008/2009 dividend, by amongst other ways, the just launched low denomination, lower market end Kenya shilling 10 & Kenya shilling 5 calling cards? Safaricom Kenya is desperate & is doing little to conceal it.

The company reportedly made a very attractive gross profit of 45 billion Kenya shillings for the 2007/2008 financial year and an equally attractive gross profit of slightly less than 40 billion Kenya shillings for the 2008/2009 financial year. These are huge huge sums of money. Even assuming a flat Kenyan corporate tax rate of 30%, the quoted revenues would translate into approximate net profit amounts of Kenya shillings 31.5 billion and 28 billion for the financial years ended 31st March 2008 & 31st March 2009, respectively. Where is all this money? Where are all these so called “reserves”? Are they fictitious? Are they illusionary? Are they just on paper? Are these just doctored figures that keep being prepared & presented to the public?

Safaricom Kenya has an issued share capital of 10 billion ordinary shares. Safaricom Kenya made a staggering 50 billion Kenya shillings during it’s stated initial public offer of March 2008, because each Safaricom Kenya share retailed at 5 Kenya Shillings during the initial public offer. Add to this the staggering attractive approximate net profits above of 31.5 billion Kenya shillings & 28 billion Kenya shillings for two years in a row, and it becomes really baffling why Safaricom Kenya is not able to pay a dividend of only  Kenya shillings 1 billion for the financial year ended 31st March 2009, and why they are openly fleecing it’s shareholders and Kenyans in general, by further stealing 30 Kenya shillings from every one of the approximate number of 212,500 shareholders who have “opted” to receive their dividends for the 2008/2009 financial year via Safaricom Kenya’s M-Pesa money transfer service. The Safaricom Kenya dividend payment for the financial year ended 31st March 2009 comes to merely 1 billion Kenya shillings in the circumstances, because an issued share capital of 10 billion ordinary shares multiplied by the declared dividend of 10 Kenya cents, comes to only 1 billion Kenya shillings, a pittance for the “giant” Safaricom Kenya, the “biggest” corporation in this region i.e. East & Central Africa.

Safaricom Kenya has also just issued a corporate bond for 2 billion Kenya shillings, and reported that it will issue similar such corporate bonds in phases. Why is a company with such huge reserves borrowing such small amounts of money from a hard pressed Kenyan public? Why does a company that has made huge staggering approximate net profits of 59.5 billion Kenya shillings over a two year period, have to go back to the Kenyan public to borrow a mere 2 billion Kenya shillings for it’s “expansion” programmes. Moreover, this is in the midst of it’s failure to release a declared dividend for the financial year ended 31st March 2009 for a small amount of 1 billion Kenya shillings.

Safaricom Kenya is in a heavily desperate situation & I would personally not be surprised to even hear that they have not paid their employees and/or suppliers. One even wonders what the real state of numerous other smaller Kenyan corporations/enterprises/businesses is.

Safaricom has resorted to sending all manner of annoying, valueless, irritating & nonsensical near daily promotions to it’s huge subscriber base of close to 10 million users, amongst other things, merchandising “branded” laptops at “throw away prices”, asking subscribers to sign-up for English premier league updates for the “Big 4″ English football teams i.e. Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, and asking subscribers to download ring tones and/or “Skiza” tones from www.safaricom.co.ke. One of the annoying, valueless, irritating & nonsensical promotions even asked subscribers to download “gospel” tones from www.safaricom.co.ke at “premium rates”, disregarding the fact that a huge number of Safaricom Kenya subscribers are not Christians. This is extremely insensitive & outrageously fails to recognise the cosmopolitan nature of Kenya’s people, showing indeed, just how desperate Safaricom Kenya is. I mean why not just send out promotional text messages in Kikuyu, Luo, Gusii, Kalenjin, Taita, Kamba, Meru, Luhyia, Maasai, Somali, Samburu, Borana, Dorobo, Rendille, Gujarati, Sheng or any one of the numerous other dialects in Kenya, if this is the case.

One also wonders what Safaricom Kenya sets out to achieve in sending out  promotional text messages for it’s branded laptops that they claim cost “only” Kenya shillings 19,999. Are they targeting lower market end subscribers for whom they have just launched low denomination Kenya shilling 10 and Kenya shilling 5 calling cards for and for whom they look set to also further soon launch a Kenya shillings 2 calling card for, or are they targeting the higher end of the market that already owns laptops?

This country is in serious trouble. Who else is enjoined in the Safaricom Kenya conspiracy of deceit, open lies and open theft? The Capital Markets Authority, the Nairobi Stock Exchange, Parliament, the Ministry of Finance/Treasury?

In general, this is a good time to tread very cautiously. Safaricom Kenya is in dire straits, but so is the rest of the Kenyan economy. The Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KENGEN), has just announced the “successful” subscription of it’s just issued corporate bond. East African Portland Cement has also just announced that it will soon issue a corporate bond to help offset it’s huge loan servicing obligations pegged to the Japanese yen. Pan African Paper Mills, Webuye, is insolvent. The giant Kenya Planters Co-Operative Union (KPCU), is also insolvent. Uchumi Supermarkets is also desperately trying to remain relevant with all manner of announcements of the flashy financial instruments that they shall use in their recovery, despite the failure of their debenture issues. Barclays Bank of Kenya is also a big player in the long term syndicated corporate bond market, despite having declared enormous profits for a continuous 17 year period. Similarly, Kenya Commercial Bank recently saw the need for a rights issue despite also having declared huge profits for several consecutive years. The Kenya Government itself is heavily borrowing from the Kenya public and from overseas, and has only just announced a subscription “extension” of it’s Infrastructure bond, “owing to great public demand”, another way of saying, “Please guys, buy this bond… We are not playing and desperately need the money!”

The global financial crisis whose “de facto” commencement can be said to be the spectacular September 2008 collapse of Lehmans Brothers in the United States, has noticeably began arriving in Kenya.

You can reach the author at  jeremykinyanjui@yahoo.com

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