[kictanet] [Skunkworks] <OT> : No Electricity, No Fuel, No Cooking gas! I need my hot coffee or need some answers.....

Tue Dec 6 05:20:06 EAT 2011

I think we should borrow the learnings from the Telco sector and use them to liberalize the energy sector. 

As for the rot in our society I'm afraid that is still a Journey long to be travelled. Let us not however despair as a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step.

Dr. Ndemo, the fact that a senior Govt official can also go without power for two weeks tells me (in a cynical kind of way...) that we have at least 'democratized' non-delivery of services.

Wariga, I partially agree with your assertion that Government should be involved in power distribution/generation. A dose of the private sector will also help. I believe the way forward is to have a competitor to KP. You can't liberalise a sector and then only have one distributor - its nonsensical and defeats the whole purpose of liberalization.

Dr.Ndemo gave us a lesson a few weeks ago about the need for redundancy in the availability of power and how critical it is to the economic development of any country.  We cannot belabor that point further.

So the question is what do we do going forward?

I have abit of a contrarian view. Not everything is lost. I would also like us to celebrate our small victories so that we can be encouraged to continue moving forward and contribute to making this country great.

Nation building must be tempered by personal sacrifice. The rights of a few must be sometimes sacrificed so that the many can have more rights. BUT as we do this we must ensure that our Core - the Operating System - is virus free. Free from foreign disruptive objects, from infections both self inflicted and the ones introduced by others.

The biggest problem I believe facing us is the total breakdown in our systems of differentiating good from bad. This is part of the operating system I'm talking about. As Tom Friedman put it in his book, the world is flat, if your operating system is corrupted how do you even get into the computer to access your productivity tools like word, excel and the rest?

I'm afraid if we don't fix this then all the gains we have made - freedom of speech, liberalizing our economy so that for example 60+ percent of Kenyans have access to mobile phones will be for nought.

Ali Hussein
Managing Partner
Azania Technology Group 
+254 773/713 601113

Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 5, 2011, at 1:14 PM, warigia bowman <warigia at aucegypt.edu> wrote:

> Under basic economic analysis, it makes more sense for government to run utilities that the private sector. They should be run based on rate of return regulation. 
> 
> Even the smallest, most pathetic town in the US manages their utilities better than Nairobi. 
> 
> The utilities were put under private sector control during the world bank frenzy for liberalization in the late 1990s. 
> 
> I am so sorry you are suffering like this. 
> 
> I find no electricity and no water nearly unbearable. Reminds me of my time working at Kabarak University. 
> 
> WMB 
> 
> On Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 12:06 PM, <bitange at jambo.co.ke> wrote:
> At some point we did not want government in the management of utilities.  We wanted private sector.  So fuel, gas and power became privatized.  I have not had power for the past two weeks.  The small generator I have cannot sustain the energy requirements for my consumption.  That is why I advocate for more energy production.  This will force KPLC to begin seriously to market the power and make customers happy.  In the absence of excess power they become complacent and guard profits.
> 
> As for private sector in Kenya, we have problems.  We cannot complain about the Government and private sector in the same sentence.  It means we have all failed.  We must accept this if we need change.  If government had issued the titles, the master file would have been changed.  It was not even as unscrupulous people fleeced fellow Kenyans.   When tenders are given to foreign companies we complain that local companies are discriminated.  These locals have no morals and no shame.
> 
> Let us admit that we have all failed and seek divine intervention.  Let us embrace a value system that ostracizes those who go against the norms.  Even the most corrupt have the audacity to point fingers at government and we listen to them as we do with saints.  We must have the courage to remind such people where they acquired their wealth from.  We are just about to go to elections when practically every candidate cannot explain the source of their wealth.  Do you really expect change from such rot?
> 
> Ndemo.
> 
> Sent from my BlackBerry®
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Rad!" <conradakunga at gmail.com>
> Sender: kictanet-bounces+bitange=jambo.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.keDate: Mon, 5 Dec 2011 10:19:45
> To: <bitange at jambo.co.ke>
> Cc: KICTANet<kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> Subject: Re: [kictanet] [Skunkworks] <OT> : No Electricity, No Fuel,
>  No Cooking gas! I need my hot coffee or need some answers.....
> 
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