WHY IS FIN-SEC. DR. RICHARD ROTICH MISSING IN ACTION?

[jakaswanga]

ACHTUNG: DR. RICHARD ROTICH, STATE SECRETARY FOR FINANCE

Dear Minister,

I will be long about this one, Sir Richard, so bear with me as I will with you! ---It is the economy stupid!

I will dig up a few unlearned lessons from the past, and use them as pin-pricks on you, thou current secretary of finance, Dr. RR.
I think you are a smart alec, therefore already wrestling with the permanent crises of all 'late' countries, especially in our Afrika, and in that endeavor [you] should be too alert to be woken up by a slap.**

I noticed during his tenure at the finance docket, the current president was too pre-occupied with his own fate at the hands of Guillotine Ocampo, to pay any attention to his real brief as Kenya's gate-keeper against bankruptcy. A negligence which led for instance to the following [[alarmist ] criticism by Bill Kerrow, way back on OCT. 16TH 2011.
www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000044895&story_title=despite-promises-kenya-is-facing-an-economic-meltdown&pageNo=1

Despite promises, Kenya is facing an economic meltdown
Updated Sunday, October 16th 2011 at 00:00 GMT +3 --By Billow Kerrow

Are we staring at a disastrous economic meltdown in our country? Contrary to what the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister said this week, the economy is anything but healthy. I am baffled when he claims that the fundamentals, macro-economic indicators, are sound. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Instability in macro-economic indicators is obvious. The interest rates are headed to the roof. Soon, they will be in the region of 25-30 per cent with most banks already raising base-lending rates to nearly 20 per cent.

Inflation is just shy of 20 per cent, well above the five per cent level projected in his most recent Budget. The worst of all is the exchange rate; the shilling has lost nearly 30 per cent of its value in just under a year, and still on a free fall. Stock prices are tumbling down at the Nairobi Stock Exchange.

In his June 8 Budget Speech, the minister stated that he will "ensure low and stable inflation and interest rates as well as competitive exchange rates" to achieve the targeted GDP growth rate of 5.3 per cent.

Were you, Dr. Rotich, one of the technocrats who, according to Bill up there, had reached the conclusion that the macro-economic indicators were healthy, and the economy sound, and adviced the DPM $ MoF accordingly, such that Billy was totally misguided in his scorn? selling falsehoods!

The other explanation would be too horrible to contemplate for me; that is, that your macro-economic technicalities, or you technocrats, were overridden by politics, and UK was simply not up to the job, and the handlers of Kibaki had other purposes, sinister, for having a lazy and inept figure head at that key department of finance, just as on the other side, Raila too delegated an equally embicilic drunk of a brother.

Hmmmm, ineptitude by design.

Yes, the undisputed enigma of Kenyan politics and renowned strategist Raila, and the most brilliant economist of post-colonial Kenya, Mwai Kibaki, were also the kind of men who, running a tag-team in their unfathomable patriotism, or rotten-headed graft schemes, would unleash such wickedness on Wanjiku's purse. Tricksters running a pyramid scheme with the support of talented, anonimous bureaucrats.

I exclude you from that faceless mass of talented technocrats who underpinned the GCG great robbery. Because I am cutting you , Dr. Ricardus Rotichus slack, as Onyango Oloo of Pyongyang would sigh in admonitory digi-tutorials!

Now, Dr. Richard Sir, you were there, and you saw what you saw, and you know what you know. About the scene of the crime.

I think I know there is a huge mess at the treasury, and there is need for vision and some brass-tacks approach, keeping figures in check, running a tight shop, and giving Kenyans the facts and the consequences, all hard, of run-away government expenses on mere consumption [like the infamous Ruto's African gallivant adventures], and an overbloated bureaucratic deadweight, divolved and central.

The question being asked loudly, is whether for all your Kennedy pedigree, you are a scam too. I do like to remind folks of this: Kibaki and Saitoti were exceptional brains, and long-serving stalwarts at Finance. How come we are still here while for instance Malaysians went places?

You must then show me a different magic wand: let there be a season of boom with youth unemployment reduced from 50% to 20% in one term, and Lo, out of your papers arise a djini that does even better on that!

You understand the roots of my scepticism? Once bitten, twice shy. Twice beaten, lost faith! Perhaps I am a lost case then, and no convincing act will lull my doubting Thomas genes. But you could at least force me to be the proverbial fool arguing with facts and making a larger fool of himself!

Let us have you present that budget, with micro- and macro-economic stuff to shut me up!

LAKINI....
For the moment this is a honeymoon, and I am still in the slack-cutting mood. Though of course the same slack-cutting cleaver can easily mutate into a throat-hacker, if you care for dark imagery.

I am starting my generosity by letting myself think you are different, not only because you have been to a ranked School that manufactures global executives of some noteworthy grit, but also because you subsequently made a career of your profession at the heights, or thereabouts, of the treasury and the Central Bank. Kibaki and Saitoti came from academic backgrounds to the top, and had no idea of a key element: how a bureaucracy works. At the same time they quickly succumbed to pathological greed.

A bareaucracy can stifle and sabotage the best of ideas or policies. The bureaucracy can then be a dangerous sea that can turn nasty and swallow any state-of-the art vessel, unto oblivion. I presume you have the navigational equipment to sail the bureaucracy, while wholesomely lacking in the faculty of greed that begets major graft.

A basic point:
You have travelled around Dr. Rotich, and watched how crucial Railway travel is around the world where economies are moving swell. So when you look at Kenya's meagre colonial-built track-net-work being reclaimed everywhere by tropical bush, whether you are going to Isiolo, or doing the Nairobi-Kericho, then if your Kennedy-trained mind does not switch gears to fathom the problem and factor it into your master-plan for national rejuvenation, vision 2030 model, then of course you will end up a Mudavadi tenure. A lost man!

But I view you as a child of the eye of the storm, and there can be no hiding place for you, dear super-technocrat, nay, if you can not, then no one can. No one within the ideological paradigms wherefrom you operate.
You are the last of the 'Mohicans'!

And if a man like I cuts you that amount of slack, then you are in trouble. Because it means the times are mighty desperate, and drowning men are clutching at straws!

You are borrowing money to pay salaries --Jaindi Kisero ridicules you somewhere-- and pleading for more DONOR funding while fronting an independent dignity-minded PAN-AFRICANIST revivial across the continent? HMMMMM

That world where beggars and people whose houses are on fire thump their chests in foreign lands is in my opinion fictitious. A comedy show with a tragic dynamic. ---BEWARE SIR!

Let me tell you a story to end this instalment.

NB: Ben Mkapa the Former President of Tanzania went on a begging trip one day to the EU --just like V-i-P Ruto and you in Japan yesterday there are more palatable euphemisms to describe these begging trips--- and one of the things in his shopping list was a presidential jet. Mkapa is a Princeton alumni, and in Brussels he met former classmates in top financial jobs at the EU. And they joked, because Mkapa had been exceptional in econs class:
'Hey, bloody me! what happened to you Mkapa? you topped econs class at a prestigius institute only to turn out a beggar!? Africans!!'

Ben Mkapa was game:

'It is a choice between becoming an institutional kleptocrat or an international beggar, though both is the rule in Afrika. Cut me some slack! I am a beggar but no thief. I still top the class in Afrika! And you white bankers are just all thieves. It is therefore the honour of a honest African beggar against that of crooked European bankers!'

And the old classmates urinated on themselves with laughter! One of the guys he was calling a 'mafia' could be the current beleaguered Chairman of the ECB, the italian Draghi!

There is of course another version which does the rounds: That Mkapa said he went to an OAU summit and every head of state had a posh jet. When his wife noticed, she threw a tantrum, either a private jet, or the marriage over!

'I am happily married, Draghi. And you are going to keep me happily married! the Tanzanian told the Italian, collecting an old debt from old student days!

Ach Richard, these are office anecdotes as they are told in every capital city all over the world. --Like the one they tell in Nairobi, about a Kalenjin top economist who was deployed to head the treasury where the national language is Kikuyu. The receptionist and doorman looked at him and assumed he had come to clean the toilets. And that is the office they showed him, the toilet.

Just an office story, like the Mkapa story!

PS: I said I would be long on this one, so I will be back. To bandy more stories with ya, doc. You know we Jaluos are domodomo, that is why we do law and education alot. Those are professions where you find people crazy enough to pay you to be domodomoring! In fact as a historian they pay me to tell stories about already dead worlds! I am Always speechless when my salary comes in. In history the only story-tellers that got paid, a meal only, were musicians!

But if I come across you at the negotiations table when we teachers demand our fair share of the loot ---O yes the labour unrest is not over--- and you throw that sh!t at me, then will you come across the mind of a historian as a meat-cleaving Enterprise on the mind of an accountant!
Please do not be missing too much from the action, Dr. Richar. You saw the Mpigs creating national unrest making dangerous financial plans that freeze the nation. It reveals a vaccum, that power hates.
You know that. So report to duty. Now.

Ciao, amigo.

[jakaswanga]

Jun 1, 2013 10:10:49 GMT 3 jakaswanga said:

ACHTUNG: DR. RICHARD ROTICH, STATE SECRETARY FOR FINANCE. Dear Minister, ---It is the economy stupid!

Please do not be missing too much from the action in Nairobi, Dr. Richard. You saw the Mpigs creating national unrest making dangerous financial plans that freeze the nation. It reveals a vacuum, that power hates.
You know that. So report to duty. Now. Ciao, amigo.

Dr. RR sir,

HERE are just a few examples of the happenstances which indicate a vacuum at the top of your office, that you have taken a vacation from the battle station, and are still loafing with broads.

1. increase in country funding.

--When there was an impasse between County executives and the central state over devolution funds, it was William Ruto, though you too were at the meeting, who announced he had reached the deal to increase and release the funding [the amounts which had been withheld illegally by mandarins acting in concert with Francis Kimemia, now cabinet stenographer].

Such a deal requires THE MAN OF THE TREASURY to be the front, explaining the technicalities. ---Wherefrom could the state find such a huge sum in a day?
Why had it not been there the previous day?
Was it still being used in gambling in a foreign stock exchange?
What would you tell the others in line, demanding their perks upped or threatening mayhem?

2. 'Pimpocrat' Ruto and his opulent gallivanting executive jet.

When the row burst over VP Ruto's executive jet-flight to promote our new-found fiery Pan-Africanism, it was Bitange Ndemo of information who hit the wall when he came to hold fort, explaining the costs were a meagre 20M, not a whooping 100M!

That is a fwack up! You should have called Bitange and inquired sternly of him how far that 'fibre optic cable grid' running from Mombasa to Kigali has gone in the previous week! and if he has been CUTTING COSTS!

In this century, a beggar country with a Kennedy School economist running finance, can not hire a fresh executive jet, while another liner is parked at State House, ati exclusively presidential. Me thinks that is Queen Marie Antoinette baking cakes to feed pigs while the Parisian populace starves, fat with rage. When asked, her majesty the Queen said it was her 'royal prerogative' to behave such.

Later, before her neck was chopped off inside jail after the Parisian mob ejected her from the Bastille, she asked in self-conceited rage how dare you of the axe-man. He replied with self-indulgent cheek: 'it is both a pleasure and a privillege to be the one to cut your head off, glutton witch! But I regret they did not let me ravish you first, O hot ex-Queen. I hate wasting pu-ss-y!'

It is called THOUGHT REFORM in old europe. The emergence and ascendancy of a new vision on reality, a vision that only toys and mocks the old.

So let me hear you, a Kennedy been-to, concurring with Bitange Ndemo and Aden Duale. You kneel down for a $108M loan from the IMF, then hire a jet while another is parked, rationale ... 'muthamaki's prerogative'!

3. 'Let there be a minimum wage' Labour Day 2013.

Uhuru Kenyatta, 'just like that' on labour day, gave a directive that the minimum loan would be effective immediately. No mention of the total costs to business and treasury, nor an understanding of the reports about an imminent 'sovereign default'! which meant even funding by BORROWING itself, local or external, was more or less already in the red zone.

It does not work like that anymore in the modern world Richard. First the math FROM YOU and your crack econometrists like Man-K of Jukwaa, then a bill through parliament. But more important, is to tell the president to his face he is a nut-head: Better Treasury negotiates with COTU first and, under the chairmanship of an independent arbiter, reach a BINDING definination of the minimum wage. Then an IMPLEMENTATION protocol is agreed within an appropriate and feasible time-scale. Economic growth holding!

Jesus Christ Rotich! not even god dictates the economy anymore! the last time 5 loaves fed five Thousand is centuries ago when Jesus was still alive! but even then other reports say it is a figure of speech, and god's son works no miracles neither! So Uhuru Kenyatta can not just stand up and say: LET THERE BE A MINIMUM WAGE, AND WALHALLA, THERE! A MINIMUM WAGE! ---You heard of a command economy somewhere? then show me the Paradise it created!

NB: There is a time Tony Blair as UK-PM made a financial commitment [necessary for the survival of his credibility ---an electoral promise to the NHS it was I think] without having consulted his chancellor of cash Gordon Brown. Word is, had Spindoc Alistair Campbell not had the brutality to smash a hockey-stick into Brown's skull, Gordon's rugby-rough hands would have squeezed Blair's neck off his torso!] 'Never ever do money without okaying it with me, you back-stabbing bastad'. He thundered and looked so ominuous that the MI5 details around the PM fidgeted uneasily, on their gun-holsters . But that is another long story for later.

I know you neither are of the temperament of the Scottsman Brown, nor possessed of the courage to shake your head at your appointing authority Kenyatta, nor Ruto, but I am sure you have the bureaucratic wit to inform theirr courts, that there is a running brain at Finance, and thinking has entered the game. When thinking enters a game, things change. Like when Eric Cantona joined Man-U, more brainy than heady, more skillful at reading the game and making the lethal pass than spectacular dribbling to naught, a new era unfolded for the venerable Marshall, Alex Ferguson. Now retired.

4. Ruto 'ordered' electricity tarrifs frozen. 'Just like that.'

That while may reap populist cheers, was of course pure stupidity. If it was to be policy, it would be your treasury officials, after going through the books of the company, and factoring all else, who would reach a binding agreement with the sector and all stake-holders. An agreement underwritten by the head of state and DP, which then would better be announced by the CEO of the electricity company.

--That is the modern world Richard. A politician does not dictate the operational costings and market pricings of the product of an independent company. If he wants to do so, then he must first NATIONALISE it. Man, I do not have to go to Harvard to know that much! Jeesuus!

I am stopping here for now --this list of commedies runs far, but they are ABCs I did not want to bother to tackle, thinking afterall, first session full cabinet is yet to meet, so I should do more slack-tutting! I was more irked by the actions of Mpigs. De-gazetting SRC kinyume cha sheria, and threatening to do as they pleased with the nation's finances.

Where is the minister of finance to stand up in parliament and show thought, action, grit and leadership. I mean these over-fattenened hogs are running amok, having no talk-back from THE MINSTER OF FINANCE, the guy PAID to take care of business! WHERE THE FWACK ARE YOU, DR. Rotich?

Aaah, humping geishas in Japan at the cost of Wanjiku!? Just another kleptocrat on permanent French leave?

I am cutting you slack man, cut me some back. Help me cut down my fellow tribesmates Mbadi and Midiwo. They are run-away nuisances! ---'We' shudder to think what arrogance would now be on display had 'we' won the elections!

I will be back!

[OtishOtish]

Jun 1, 2013 14:23:58 GMT 3 jakaswanga said:

Me thinks that is Queen Marie Antoinette baking cakes to feed pigs while the Parisian populace starves, fat with rage. When asked, her majesty the Queen said it was her 'royal prerogative' to behave such.

Why bother with an 18th-century European dowager when we have our own 20th-century greats.

This reminds me of a long-forgotten fellow whose face I recently saw as one of the many images of Pan-African Heroism: the AU, like the OAU, still calls Addis Ababa home.  He was born Tafari Makonnen, but that wasn't good enough once he established that his ancestry went back to a "fruitful" encounter between King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. So let's be mindful of his full and proper name and title: Haile Selassie I, Negusa Negast (King of Kings), Elect of God, Conquering Lion of The Tribe of Judah, His Most Puissant Majesty and Distinguished Highness, the Emperor of Ethiopia.

Anyways ..

A "good man", I am told, on account of his Pan-African Heroism,  but apparently not terribly good at PR: while millions of of his citizen-Ethopians were starving to death, and journalists from all over the world had descended on the place, the Conquering Lion was happy to be photographed feeding prime beef (imported!) to his pet lions.

"Sadly", he went the way of Great Royalty: an upstart cub---another Haile, known as Mengitsu---fatally clawed the Conquering Lion, buried him under his toilet, and for a few years proceeded to literally shite on his head. As for his starving compatriots, Mariam Haile Mengitsu simply dispatched them off to a "better world", something close to 2 million by the time he was done. And always one to lead by example, he personally did quite a bit of the dispatching.  

Both Hailes served as  heads of the OAU, as did Mobutu, Idi Amin, Mugabe (who took in the latter Haile), Moi, ... 

No doubt, you also remember another great emperor: Bokassa I (formerly a mere President-for-Life, Jean-Bédel Bokassa). I wonder what happened to the African original of president-for-life? Kenyans, being Advanced Thinkers and not inclined to waste time on half-measures, took things to the next level: the president was declared immortal. The Attorney-General, a Sir Charles, simply woke up morning and declared that it was a very serious crime to even imagine the death of the president. (Back then, the CID could detect such imaginings.) But which president, you ask? The president of the local charity organization? the president of the local football club? ... That was no problem, because the brilliant Sir Charles had already foreseen that and determined that legally the word "president" could be used to refer to only Johnstone Kamau the Father of The Nation.

The differences between father and son! Faced with the current greedy, loose-cannon MPs, the mzee would have said something about nyoko nyoko, mama yako, and then just cracked a few heads .... Preferably heads from the western parts of the country.

[jakaswanga]

Otishotish,

Negusa Negast The Lion of Judah is how Tafari Makonnen saw himself even as he lorded it over the greatest famine in history, with all those water resources untapped to irrigate!

little wonder Mengistu used his dead mouth as his urinal! Hope Uhuru Kenyatta does not graduate into the Muthamaki of Muthamakis! Because it looks like King of Kings as a title in Afrika is not an invitation to a happy ending. Last I saw was Khadaffi growing a tail in a terrible video footage!

[jakaswanga]

I AM ON YOUR CASE DOCTOR RICHARD ROTICH. AND I WILL BE AT IT FOR A WHILE BEFORE I MOVE ON!

Of course it is a tall order for historians to move on! they are fellows with their eyes looking back! the future does not interest them, unless it promises bunga-bungas!

But back to business then ...

Because Uhuru Kenyatta in my estimation is too pre-occupied with his ICC sores to think straight and, especially, give the matter of Kenya's industrialisation ---the infrastructural take-off skeleton needed---- the competent 24/7 all-round attention it needs, it is to you Kennedy Man I turn to, even before I bother to know the name of the minister in charge of Industrialisation. I presume he or she exists somewhere in the inner-wear pockets of Uhuruto, paying his or her lip service to the duo.

In any case we also read the memoirs of those who industrialised their countries, be these Taiwan or Malaysia, and from them we get a fair idea of how much work, thinking, attention to detail, dedication ,24/7 vigilance and performance alertness, goes into achieving the results required, especially when a vision is so lofty ---like our 2030, and the Jubilee Manifesto.

Elsewhere on another thread, I am moving through the president's public proclamations and dry-running them through reality on the ground, and everytime I bounce. And with the parliament gone bullocks over their pay dispute and threatening government shut-down, it isn't like this government is gonna take anybody any place without some men emerging to set priorities. It is all currently a headless chicken running around situation. Now doc, do convince me otherwise! that I cut you more slack!

Uwi Wololo! Listening yesterday on Jamhuri day, I lost my temper about that Railways Crap Uhuru talked.
www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000084976&story_title=president-uhuru-s-speech-during-madaraka-day-celebrations

In addition to these measures, I would like to reiterate that my Government is keen on transforming the structure of our economy so as to create sustainable employment opportunities to our growing young population. This is important because the only sure way to fight poverty is to create wealth and the best way to do that is by rapid industrialisation.

We are committed to sparking an industrial revolution that will ensure we are able to manufacture the necessary tools and equipment for economic activities as well as to carry out value addition of our raw materials and primary commodities.

It is for this reason that I formed the Ministry of Industrialisation and Enterprise Development. This Ministry will be the heartbeat of our industrial revolution and export diversification agenda.

It will ensure the full implementation of the Sessional Paper No. 9 of 2012 on the National Industrialisation Policy Framework for Kenya (2012-2030) which is aimed at transforming Kenya into a globally competitive regional industrial hub in line with Kenya Vision 2030.

The key projects that will drive this process include the development of integrated steel mills, development of SME parks; promotion of the One Village, One Product programme; and productivity improvement for SMEs. It is our conviction that these initiatives will play a critical role in attaining our objective of creating one million jobs per year for the nextfive years.

One would need to be mad to disagree with such firm convictions! Go Kenyatta! Go!

Fellow Kenyans,
To further facilitate the growth of our economy, we will continue to expand the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. Our primary aim is to bring down the cost of electricity and at the same time ensure it is reliably and widely available. I am aware that a reliance on hydro-generated power makes our power supply unreliable, while thermal electricity is costly and pollutes the environment. In view of this, my Government will continue to put more emphasis on green energy development with a special focus on geothermal and wind.

Now my scepticism begins to get the better of me!
You could say in the SHORT-RUN power bills will sky-rocket. VP Ruto tried an ill-thought intervention which has fallen flat. And so meanwhile here is his excellency talking more hot-air, like he did way back at his inauguration.

Regarding infrastructure, we will prioritize road construction and maintenance in the next five years under the 2nd Medium Term Plan of Vision 2030 which spans from this year to 2017. Among the key projects earmarked for implementation is the LAPSSET project comprising of a new road, rail and pipeline network connecting Kenya to South Sudan and Ethiopia; the Northern Corridor Transport project and the Kenya Transport Sector Support Project which involves the rehabilitation of targeted regional and national roads connecting Kenya to her East African neighbours as well as enhancing inter-county roads connectivity. We shall also secure adequate funding to begin immediate construction of the standard gauge railway line from Mombasa to Kisumu.

This is when I hit the roof and ran to this thread, instead of posting in the relevant UK: BETWEEN SPEECHES AND PERFORMANCE!

Was not this Uhuru Kenyatta the Finance Minister when Gen. Jeremiah Kiang'a was hoisted atop the Kenya Railways corporation, and hefty budgetary disbursements thrown at him to embezzle?

I believe right here on Jukwaa is a thread where the competence of Kiang'a is querried savagely, and the whole idea of placing some army retiree to head such a crucial corporation at a decisive moment in the strategic expansion of infrastructure, is plotted as just another front for graft transactions and keeping the tendering system incestuous.

AND NOW TAKE A LOOK AT THIS, SIR DAVID, and bear with my wrath!

www.businessdailyafrica.com/Kenya-Railways-Sh50bn-in-the-red/-/539546/1864588/-/t6lopvz/-/index.html

Sunday June 2, 2013. Auditor-general says Kenya Railways insolvent
Posted Monday, May 27 2013 at 21:36. In Summary

Auditor- General Edward Ouko says the corporation’s liabilities stood at Sh59.44 billion against Sh9.33 billion in total assets, leaving it with a negative working capital of Sh50.11 billion for the year ended June 2011.

Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) is insolvent to the tune of Sh50 billion, making it yet another State-owned enterprise that has gone bust.
In an audit report tabled in Parliament last week, Auditor- General Edward Ouko says the corporation’s liabilities stood at Sh59.44 billion against Sh9.33 billion in total assets, leaving it with a negative working capital of Sh50.11 billion for the year ended June 2011.
“The corporation is therefore technically insolvent,” Mr Ouko says in a qualified opinion on the corporation’s books of accounts.

Our patriotic General has now served his country well, no doubt earned himself more post-service accolades at an off-shore; and the auditor can report thus

A qualified audit opinion means the auditors did not find completeness of information provided by the firm or could not determine the validity of the information provided.
Kenya Railways management has attributed the massive negative working capital to a heavy loan and interest charges burden of Sh41.13 billion that it continued to shoulder even as its revenue sources have dwindled over the years.
“In the circumstances, the financial statements have been prepared on a going-concern basis and on the assumption of continued financial support from the government and creditors,” the auditor adds.
General (Rtd) Jeremiah Kianga, who chairs the corporation’s board, said the government had settled the Sh4.8 billion tax arrears it owed Kenya Revenue Authority and agreed to a restructuring proposal that would convert long term debts to equity.

And back to square one: now President Uhuru is going to order YOU, DR ROTICH, to rape Wanjiku once more to foot up bills for projects she already paid for years ago! remember Uhuru Kenyatta's trillion KSH. budgets which SPECIFIED INFRASTRUCTURE as PRIORITIES? ---How about a Kennedy-Schooled mind giving them a look-over and telling us some?

You get how come my temper is so short these days doc? We are just going around in circles with our projects. Vision 2030 or Vision zero-zero. Eating, like Njakip call it, is the only game in town. 3 more days and I ran out of any slack to cut you, our super-star at finance!

The continued decline in Kenya Railways’ financial position makes it ever more difficult for the government to use it as the agency that would lead the planned revival of railway transport in Kenya as part of the drive towards the achievement of Vision 2030 development blueprint.
Railway has been identified as key to modernising Kenya’s dilapidated and chaotic transport system – especially in the movement of goods from the Mombasa port and in efficiently transporting the rapidly growing urban population.

Elsewhere I found myself compelled to remind Ababu Namwamba wa Nereah wa Amadi, future candidate against or running mate with Ruto, that Railways is an old technology, been around for over two centuries, so if we can not have a Nakuru-Kisumu built by a wholly Kenyan company in 3 years, then neither he nor Ruto will be ;)president!

Decay of the railway system that was first built by the British in 1901 has left Kenya and the larger East Africa to depend solely on road transport with far reaching ramifications on the cost of goods to consumers and the state of road transport in the region.
Economists have estimated that an efficient railway transport that moves up to half of the total annual cargo discharged at the port of Mombasa would bring down consumer goods price inflation by up to five percentage points.
Kenya Railways returned a Sh2.13 billion loss in the year under review up from a Sh1.98 billion loss the previous year -- increasing the corporation’s accumulated losses to Sh24.07 billion at the end of June 2011.
“The corporation’s negative equity stood at Sh9.55 billion compared to Sh12.77 billion the previous year,” the auditor says in his report dated August 1, 2012.
(Read: Kenya Railways rolls out a Sh43bn debt clearing plan)
At the centre of Kenya Railways’ financial troubles are parcels of land worth millions of shillings that have been allocated to private developers without the consent of the corporation.

By EDWIN MUTAIPosted Monday, May 27 2013 at 21:36

NOW, READ THE FOLLOWING HORRORS: THEY HAPPENED AS THE RESPECTABLE GENERAL JEREMIAH KIANG'A WAS ON DUTY. ---A SLEEPING SENTRY OR AN INSIDER JOB?

“Land measuring approximately 3 acres within Limuru Railway Station, constituting industrial plots No 7882/2-10 has been allocated to private developers.

Similarly, private buildings have been put up on another piece of land measuring approximately two acres within Kikuyu Railway Station without the corporation’s consent,” Mr Ouko says in his report.

In Mombasa, parcels of land measuring approximately one and 0.75 acres adjacent to Mombasa Railway Station have been allocated to private developers, again without the corporation’s consent.

Mr Ouko has also questioned KRC’s books of accounts saying the corporation has included in its net receivables balance of Sh3.52 billion some Sh815.3 million due from the Rift Valley Railways.

“The amount which represents unpaid concession fees, rent and supply of spare parts has remained outstanding for a considerable period of time. Consequently, the full recoverability of the receivables balance of Sh3.52 billion as at 30 June, 2011 could not be confirmed,” the report says.

The audit has also questioned the failure by KRC management to incorporate in its financial statements some 38,250,000 shares worth Sh382.5 million that the Numerical Machining Complex (NMC) issued to it.

Kenya Railways has also been found to have breached important tenets of corporate governance in its payment of irregular sitting allowances to public officers who are non-board members.

“During the year under review, the management of the corporation paid sitting allowances totalling Sh1.52 million to public officers in attendance during board/committee meetings contrary to Section 10(1) of the State Corporations Act Cap 446, which requires that such allowance be paid to chairmen and board members only. The corporation therefore contravened the law,” the audit report says.

The audit also found inconsistencies in the statement of cash flows noting that the provision for bad debts of Sh34.9 million charged in the year under review had been adjusted to arrive at cash generated from operations, while the same had been included in the amount deducted from gross debtors’ account.

“A loss on sale of fixed assets of Sh85.3 million adjusted to arrive at income generated from operations is not supported. The net book value of assets disposed is Sh71.28 million against the gross disposal proceeds of Sh42.63 million, gives a loss on disposal of Sh28.64 million,” the auditor says.

Mr Ouko also found that cash and cash equivalents valued at Sh3.73 billion was not in line with the derived balance consisting of Sh1.94 billion net increase in the year and a cash and cash equivalent brought forwards of Sh667.69 million all totalling Sh2.61 billion.

“The statement of cash flows, consequently has not been prepared as per the requirements of International Accounting Standards No. 7 and the accuracy of the cash and cash equivalents balance of Sh3.73 billion disclosed as at 30, June 2011 could not be confirmed,” Mr Ouko concluded.

Nduva Muli, KRC Managing Director, said the corporation recorded a 12.4 per cent increase in gross revenues to Sh1.46 billion compared to Sh1.3 billion the previous year.

[e-mail]1 | 2 Next Page»

LAPSSET:
kenyaengineerjournal.blogspot.nl/2012/03/lapsset-corridor-president-kibaki.html
And I will be back Doctor, to tell you a bit more on this:

BAGAMOYO PORT PROJECT, BECAUSE KENYANS ARE JOKING
www.jamiiforums.com/jukwaa-la-siasa/449966-with-%2411bn-bagamoyo-port-tanzania-prepares-to-take-on-ea-hub-mombasa.html

The nature of that 'joking'! of which you are the falcrum of!

Yes Rotich, when you were not yet Finance Minister, I think you were privy to the discussions at which the other partners in the region voiced their unease at the behaviour of Kenyans. Some of these parTners speak French, and may be something was lost in translation, but they are perturbed enough to consider Dar-Bagamoyo as an alternative transport hub to Mombasa-Malindi.

Can you save the day and the game? Richard.

[jakaswanga]

Aah, Dr. Ricardus Rotichus! the cabinet managed to sit in quorum for the first time. Congratulations. But please tell your boss not to be giving stupid agony-column advices, neither to newly weds nor the economy. He should stop talking about unity while his parliament is bringing down his agenda, insisting either you pay or they filibuster.

I found the following intriguing enough to ask you about.
www.businessdailyafrica.com/Jubilee-faces-Sh2tr-debt-puzzle/-/539552/1749560/-/r4u94nz/-/index.html

Three options are available to the Jubilee coalition’s success in running a government that will deliver on its promises to the electorate while maintaining a fiscal balance that is required for long term growth.Mr Kenyatta could calibrate the growth of the debt if he wins a large amount of donor support for some of his economic programmes. He could also opt to increase taxes to get the money he needs to invest in the economy to secure long term growth or he could simply renege on some of the budget bursting promises in his party’s manifesto.

A CLOSER LOOK AT THESE OPTIONS.

Let us work from the above premises, Dr. Rotich. I am not saying they are God's truth, but they are reasonable, and plausible enough to warrant some serious thinking, and in your case, rebuttal.

Maintaining fiscal balance required for long-term growth. This looks like the necessary agenda of any Finance Minister, clueless or not, therefore even you, Richard, already have your historical mission edged in stone. The question is, are you a hit, or a flatter?

1. donor support as a source of funding for the budget [to seal the budgetary deficit].

This is the famous dependency complex. Paul Kagame's model of growth. But Kenya is of late PAN-AFRICANIST and a champion of modern AFRICAN NATIONALISM. Uhuruto the leading wolf howling at the [ex] colonial grotesque. So how serious is it to bite the hand that feeds you and beg a meal of it at the same time!? It can be done, and you will do it of course, but first is naturally the psychogical admission that Uhuruto are babies full of sh!t, and need an ideological nappy quick. ---I noticed Japan has decided to honour that 'begging trip' to Tokyo. So I suggest you do more begging trips to 'donor' lands and when they ask you about PAN=AFRICAN NATIONALISM, you tell them you are a technocrat who deals in reality, not the stupid illusions of political rhetoric, So all you know is that the VP costed you a lot of money hiring an executive jet to be stupid.

You are a Harvard man Richard, you know they will ask you with a patronising smile, if that executive jet was really necessary, and if more of the same is coming! So you must prepare a Ben Mkapa answer!

2. Increasing taxes.

That is what every government does in an economic crisis. But where will you increase your taxes? Fuel? electricity? Income taks? ----Notice you will be competing LOCAL GOVERNMENTS who will be taxing even pavements where hawkers making less than a dollar a day station their wares! That is a bottom-dredge tax regime and politically explosive. So your options will be VAT, and with inflation and cost of life already tight for the majority of the population, this is further bleeding the patient for treatment.

It opens Uhuruto's flanks for some sword stabs from the opposition making noise over Wanjiku's fate.

3. Renege on (budget-bursting) promises in the manifesto of jubilee.

Well, scrapping plans does always happen. That is, politicians are known to make wild promises which they have no intention of keeping, so it is no big deal when they renege on some. The trick is to carefully pick the ones to jetison afar! Key ones must be effected, if the next election is not to be lost, nor re-won by rigging.

Scrolling down here there will be figures on the external/external debt as %s GDP -2012]
www.knbs.or.ke/Economic%20Surveys/Ministers%20Presentation%20ES%20FINAL.pdf KENYA SURVEY.

It has given Kenya a bad credit rating at the international commercial financial market, though I believe the oil-find, before it is shown to be a paper-tiger like Nigeria's resources, can be used to bluff our way upwards the ratings, so as it were, you can 'trade in futures' ----Like once the great Californian company Enron did before castle in the air collapsed.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron_scandal

The Enron scandal, revealed in October 2001, eventually led to the bankruptcy of the Enron Corporation, an American energy company based in Houston, Texas, and the de facto dissolution of Arthur Andersen, which was one of the five largestaudit and accountancy partnerships in the world. In addition to being the largest bankruptcy reorganization in American history at that time, Enron was attributed as the biggest audit failure.[1]

NB: But really your greatest worry now must be the recurrent expenditure. Devolution has meant a massive increase in the bureaucracy as high-paying offices are doubled. The governors and their cabinets are not taking less than Mpigs! and the Mpigs are not taking less than the President and VP! And you have to fund two houses of legislation for the same results as with one.

It means we are using the expansion of the perks-ridden bureaucracy as an employment scheme for the educated elite. But what are they going to run? the same $40bn GDP economy of yester year?

Kennedy man, all things staying the same, still you have a miracle to perform. Otherwise a bomb to diffuse!

It is the economy stupid. So work me some magic, I am still cutting you slack!

[jakaswanga]

Jun 1, 2013 10:10:49 GMT 3 jakaswanga said:

ACHTUNG: DR. RICHARD ROTICH, STATE SECRETARY FOR FINANCE. Dear Minister, ---It is the economy stupid!

Please do not be missing too much from the action in Nairobi, Dr. Richard. You saw the Mpigs creating national unrest making dangerous financial plans that freeze the nation. It reveals a vacuum, that power hates.
You know that. So report to duty. Now. Ciao, amigo.

MISSING IN ACTION CONTINUED . ---after the reading of the budget which should be a seismic event!

www.nation.co.ke/News/Sh700-million-for-Kibakis-new-office/-/1056/1884298/-/qyiifwz/-/index.html --700M office for ex!

I think Dr. Henry Rotich is going to be a running soap at the treasury. Hospitals, fearing fresh mothers wont pay because their president advertised 'free maternity care', are running a 'pay before you see your baby policy' for new mothers, because the president forgot to send the cheques or if he did they did not reach, and here is Kennedy-man Rotich setting aside 700 million to buy the septuagenarian billionare Kibaki an office. Not to mention the great send-off package the ex-prezzo already has, which registers as % of GNP!
Could an econometrist worth his salt really make that decision, knowing he is going to tax cooking-fat, mechele, maize flour in a country registering malnutrition at a worrying statistic? ---What did Mank of Jukwaa say about PRIORITIES again? someone remind me please!

NB: There is also the strange case of the 1.5% levy on imports to built the railway. Because of EAC regulations this additinal tariff will only encompass KENYAN IMPORTS. One of those chief imports is OIL. So in the short-run, before we start tapping Sudan's black gold, and milking our own Turkana cow, this measure is already an 'inflationary vector' or factor, or accelerator. Such that the announced reductions in the price of some forms of pump-oil, are mere cosmetic tricks, of the old wh-ore pretending youth. Beguiling Wanjiku this way with a zawadi, while setting her up for the sucker punch!

Well, we are seeing it coming from miles away as they say in the USA! We are in the death row with all appeals done dead.

DAILY NATION: The Treasury has asked the National Assembly to approve the allocation of Sh700 million for the purchase of a building to house an office for retired President Mwai Kibaki, the Nation can reveal.

A joker this one! Just wait until you hear from Sossion of KNUT and his KUPPET counterparts like Jakaswanga. Then you will know to let sleeping dogs lie ---that is, let ex heads of state eat the loot they already bled the treasure when they were in office.

MPs are understood to have discovered the allocation as they questioned the failure by the Treasury to allocate the Sh5.4 billion Constituency Development Fund money for the remaining part of the 2012/2013 financial year.
“What they had attempted to do, through the Supplementary Estimates which were tabled on Tuesday, is to reallocate CDF money to other activities, which included building an office (for) Sh700 million for retired President Kibaki among others,” an MP familiar with the matter said.

So we are playing bureaucratic tricks? trojan-horsing? we no longer trust in our abilities to make sense? so must revert to fraudulent presentation? stealth to sneak in 'rot'!

If that is the game the treasury is adopting, I am sure Uhuru will be sending a lot of Ruto to all-night last-minute meetings to clinch deals! Because the Mpigs can play poker and bluff games too. And the president is already a wounded beast, lumbering around blindly.

Mr Kimemia told the Sunday Nation the allocation is necessary because under the Presidential Retirement Benefits Act President Kibaki assented to before his retirement, he is supposed to have an office and staff.
“He is supposed to have an office under the law. He is entitled to an office and staff, a full secretariat to manage his programmes the same way we did with former President Moi,” said Mr Kimemia on the phone.

“I thought you would say (Sh700 million) is too little.

When stupid things happen in this government, always know you are smelling Kimemia!

I knew it! A man gone to Kennedy school and preparing to negotiate with the IMF for paltry cash injections, does not want this kind of wastage on his CV! It would give the IMF the MANDATE to completely take-over the decision-making at the treasury. Like the so-called TROIKA of ECB [european central Bank], the EC [european commission], and the IMF have done with the Greek Central bank and MoF. [ministry of finance].

The barbarian Kimemia, a King in his cave in Nairobi, or a king frog in his pond in Mount Kenya, does not know how the big world out there works! ---Just re-read Kamau Macharia's letter to the UNSC!

[jakaswanga]

DAILY NATION:

The Treasury has asked the National Assembly to approve the allocation of Sh700 million for the purchase of a building to house an office for retired President Mwai Kibaki, the Nation can reveal.

I retorted: A joker this one! Just wait until you hear from Sossion of KNUT and his KUPPET counterparts like Jakaswanga. Then you will know to let sleeping dogs lie ---that is, let ex heads of state eat the loot they already bled the treasure when they were in office.

HERE IS THE TEACHERS WARNING: --MAY BE WE WILL HAVE THE DOCTORS AND NURSES TOO RUMBLING AND GRUMBLING AGAIN.

www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000086064&story_title=teachers-fury-as-funds-for-allowances-and-promotion-miss-in-rotich-s-budget

By AUGUSTINE ODUOR
The Government is headed for a major confrontation with teachers unions this week after it failed to factor any funds to cater for their interests.

Of the Sh1.6 trillion budget read by the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich on Thursday, no money was allocated for promotion and recruitment of teachers.
Also missing was the money to pay teachers’ allowances as negotiated under the 1997 agreement. The Government, however, set aside Sh53.2 billion to implement the free laptops pledge for Standard One pupils.

what do you think, fellas, is the real market price for the labour a Kenyan Mpig? Should they really earn higher than surgeons? [we we will take the issue of the theory of labour valuation in Kenyan labour market with Dr. Rotich elsewhere or at a later date. But suffice is to note, mildly, that is questionable the remunerations of Kenyan politicians reflect the value of their contribution to the wealth of the country.

www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000085743&story_title=knut-furious-with-snub-in-budget

Kenya National Union of Teachers furious with ‘snub’ in Budget. Updated Tuesday, June 11th 2013 at 22:22 GMT +3
By AUGUSTINE ODUOR

Kenya: Kenya National Union of Teachers ( Knut) has summoned its National Executive Council for a meeting to clear way for nationwide strike. The move comes after Parliament failed to factor in the budget, money for their allowances.
Knut officials yesterday said NEC will meet today even as Education Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi said talks are underway to avert the planned industrial action.

Union’s top leadership said they are infuriated by MPs’ failure to factor in the Budget funds for promotion of teachers and implementation of a contentious legal notice.

“We have summoned NEC and if by Thursday we don’t see the money, then we shall proceed with our course,” said Knut national chairman Wilson Sossion.

Rafiki yangu Sossion: sasa watakushitaki huko nyumbani: mbona unatakaka kuharibia 'watu wetu'! Itafika siku utakuja kutuomba kura hapa, na tutaonana! --chunga wewe!
Interesting to see how you balance class interests with the politics of ethnic loyalties!.
You will remember way back, how the spoilers from the 'Nyanza royal block' declared no anti-Raila Luo will get their votes. They lost!

small world!

[jakaswanga]

THE BUDGET THAT FAILED TO MEDIATE, BUT SERVED TO ESCALATE THE TENSIONS IN LABOUR RELATIONS. ---ANYANG' NYONG'O [health], MUTULA KILONZO [education], AND NJERU GITHAE [finace] ALL AGAIN.

----Where did the Kennedy-honed mental gears of Dr. Henry Rotich stay parked? I am not amused when brilliant boys disappoint me in a test! I kick balls, don't spare the rod, and indulge in a bit of physical abuse of butts, Old school style! kiboko za kale!

Sasa lala chini Dr. Rotich upate zako! ndiye usije ukalale tena kazini.

Prof. Ngugi wa Thiong'o was once asked why so many of his fellow academics were silent on the crucial issues he was so passionate about. This was just after his last release from detention and his subsequent begin of exile. Ngugi responded with something like: we should not overate our academics. Some are so empty, they are afraid if they opened their mouths, everyone would be shocked at what empty heads they really are.

This remark generated a lot of irritation [to put it mildly] back home, and I think I remember a scathing retort by one very prominent professor of history from the shores of Kavirondo. May be continued sniping from clashes in the senior common room, one never knew.

Today I do not want to cut you any slack doctor. WHY?

I believe you have let the presidency down. Note I did not say president! --that one is already down!

Barely one week after your budget speech detailing financial priorities, A WAVE OF LABOUR UNREST has hit the country, forcing the president to back-pedal, plead around, and desperately incur political debts as he strives to avoid drowning in 'industrial-action' chaos. Forgive my archaic use of 'industrial action' to substitute in for general labour unrest.

The political aspect of a budget --may be you missed that because you are a 'technocrat' without political antennas, is that it must not shut the country's vitals down, by antagonising wide sectors of the organised labour, unless one is decidedly THATCHERITE, and is bent on extirpating unions by tricking them into a fight that will leave them wounded and vanquished.

You and your Uhuruto bosses are the farthest things from THATCHERISM I can think of. So that above is hypothetical.

So these 'confrontational omissions' on your part were by negligence. That is my coclusion. But perhaps negligences forced upon you, because you, of own volition, surely would be intelligent enough to know Sossion is no fool.

1. How could you miss, even after the 11th kraal of Mpigs rejected the supplementary request to tie up last years deficit, to accommodate the teachers allowances which have been pending since 1997? Did you imagine you could give fresh Mpigs 1M cool a month, and turn around to tell Sossion Wilson, that you have no money to top him up ---and that he should sue Njeri Githae [he promised us the money that lying goon, and you were his assistant if not brains!]--- and KNUT would wag its tail like a disappointed dog who knows the masta will have a bone some day, patience?

Then the Nurses: the CBA, the collective bargain agreement, is already an agreed fund/compensation carried over from the previous regime. Government must have continuity! And yet your budget had no allocation for it? Are you out of your mind? or is this the academic contempt of doctors for nurses? ---Now Macharia, the new health secretary, is all over the place PLEADING for a resumption of services at KNH.
www.nation.co.ke/News/Call-off-strike-nurses-urged-/-/1056/1889000/-/vrkq2oz/-/index.html ---[macharia tells knh nurses to halt strike]
.
Did you forget tough Anyang' Nyong'o once sacked all Kenyan nurses over industrial actions? while, as Kenyans suffered in medical neglect, he himself flew with Mugo to sojourn in excellent medical care in the USA, all expenses paid by Wanjiku!

Did you not see, that by a deliberate omission of the CBA, you were planting a seed of discord and repetition of the said steps under Nyong'o, and your former boss Githae? Methinks you saw, but were overruled --So read the memoirs of Nigel Lawson if you may. # I will come back on this one. He was Mrs. Thatchers chancellor of the exchequer for a time.

NB: Now the crisis is so hot, the secretary for education has effectively been sidelined. Uhuru has personally intervened, and sent Ruto, like wit the SEREM [SRC] and 11th parliament over their wages, to chair meetings and mediate. That is a crisis. A major one. But apparently Uhuru feared Mpigs more than he fears KNUT, and now he reaps the earlier opportunity cost.
www.nation.co.ke/News/President-Kenyatta-moves-to-avert-teachers-strike/-/1056/1890432/-/1gruvg/-/index.html

The treasury, letting itself be cowed by the Mpigs into terrifying exorbitance, lost the argument and the authority to read the riot act to others about 'high wages are dangerous to the economy'!

Uhuru croaked that same line again today 21/06/13. Same thing he did during Mutula's funeral, only to award the Mpigs a sky high take-away. That is what I mean by he is already down. when a president means something is in the best interest of his nation, people and career, he acts on it with conviction.

Seing the Mpigs kitty at end month, who does Uhuru think he can fool? hiw wife perhaps? who for marital peace will answer, of course darling, those fwaking teachers must shut up and eat chalk and forget 'historical injustices'! ati 1997 agreement! That is history. Kenya has moved on!

KENYATTA MOVES TO AVERT TEACHERS STRIKE.
www.nation.co.ke/News/President-Kenyatta-moves-to-avert-teachers-strike/-/1056/1890432/-/1gruvg/-/index.html

WILSON SOSSION.
Ruto asks TSC to negotiate with KNUT. That TSC has barely met its constitutional quorum!

here is the man who once told Githae: wewe tafuta pesa, usicheze na walimu. Change Githae to Rotich. Same old game. New season.



www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-125138/knut-hints-strike-next-week --1997 allowances.

www.nation.co.ke/News/Nurses-at-KNH-strike-over-allowances/-/1056/1887926/-/kobmcbz/-/index.html --nurses on strke

AND YOU DO NOT HAVE MONEY? OR YOU DO NOT KNOW MANAGEMENT? TAKE A LOOK HERE BELOW, DOC.

www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000086408&story_title=kenya-loses-sh500-billion-to-wasteful-expenditure

enya government loses Sh500 billion to wasteful expenditure
Updated Friday, June 21st 2013 at 00:09 GMT +3
By James Anyanzwa

NAIROBI, KENYA: Taxpayers risk losing about Sh492 billion of the 2013/2014 Budget.
A forum of accountants noted that avenues through which funds are lost include State wastage and flawed procurement contracts.

The money is nearly twice the total amount allocated to infrastructure development (Sh288.5 billion) in the 2013-14 budget.

[jakaswanga]

Jun 9, 2013 8:28:17 GMT 3 jakaswanga said:

www.businessdailyafrica.com/Jubilee-faces-Sh2tr-debt-puzzle/-/539552/1749560/-/r4u94nz/-/index.html

Three options are available to the Jubilee coalition’s success in running a government that will deliver on its promises to the electorate while maintaining a fiscal balance that is required for long term growth.Mr Kenyatta could calibrate the growth of the debt if he wins a large amount of donor support for some of his economic programmes. He could also opt to increase taxes to get the money he needs to invest in the economy to secure long term growth or he could simply renege on some of the budget bursting promises in his party’s manifesto.

A CLOSER LOOK AT THESE OPTIONS.

Let us work from the above premises, Dr. Rotich.

1. donor support as a source of funding for the budget [to seal the budgetary deficit].

2. Increasing taxes.

3. Renege on (budget-bursting) promises in the manifesto of jubilee.

Well, scrapping plans does always happen. That is, politicians are known to make wild promises which they have no intention of keeping, so it is no big deal when they renege on some. The trick is to carefully pick the ones to jetison afar! Key ones must be effected, if the next election is not to be lost, nor re-won by rigging.

Aah dr Rotich! I was minded to start by mocking you a bit on the fact that barely one week into the reading of your great piece of work, the budget, nearly every key point of it is back to the negotiating table.
--16% proposed VAT on daily bread
--The capital gains taxs [after the Nairobi stock exchange suffered a meltdown --which I think should more be explained by Bernard Bernanke's switching off the liquidity pump!]
--the lap-tops for nursery kids
---Security budget, education budget.
--Kibaki's office is small change!

What you did then was present a sketch, a work in progress you had no intention of defending. Or may be it was not your work you were reading from? you were just an errand boy? ---Still, an errand boy with a Harvard grade, should have a bit of backbone and defend stuff he reads in public!

But this renege, as a teacher, or to be more specific, the reasoning behind the proposed renege caught my attention and reduced all else to the back burner.

Take a look: www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/Knut-calls-strike-as-MPs-told-pay-deal-obsolete/-/1064/1893472/-/item/1/-/fobwchz/-/index.html

This came as the parliamentary committee on education, chaired by Murang’a women’s representative Sabina Chege, heard that the 1997 pact signed between Knut and the government was obsolete.

OBSOLETE, meaning NULL and void. Kenya moved on, go negotiate a new one!

And more on the same ...
www.nation.co.ke/News/Govt-declares-teachers-strike-illegal/-/1056/1894276/-/f2yguv/-/index.html

Labour Commissioner Sammy Nyambari clarified the issue further, stating that the Legal Notice 534 of 1997 which is the basis of the on-going strike had not been procedurally filed according to the Labour Relations Act.

Not procedurally filed, therefore technically void, in law. We call that a bureaucratic Kafka-esque! And Kambi Kazungu of labour the knight in shining armour! Hmmm

We feel you right sir, thy money-man! Remember how Kibaki turned and told Raila he had no recollection of some MOU they allegedly had signed?

yes, I hear there is another one between Ruto and Uhuru.

Renege, a fascinating word. Kenyan style.

[jakaswanga]

www.businessdailyafrica.com/Jubilee-faces-Sh2tr-debt-puzzle/-/539552/1749560/-/r4u94nz/-/index.html

Three options are available to the Jubilee coalition’s success in running a government that will deliver on its promises to the electorate while maintaining a fiscal balance that is required for long term growth.
Read more: jukwaa.proboards.com/thread/8472/why-richard-rotich-missing-action#ixzz2Y6UnMZR8

I think it is time to give up on the fancy brains of Henry Rotich. Junk.

OPINIONLet’s think straight: Taxing workers to the bone won’t grow the economy

By MUTUMA MATHIU [e-mail] -----Posted Thursday, July 4 2013 at 19:00

Can you fund a government from taxes on shopping? I find disconcerting these days the diligence with which KRA officers go through my dirty laundry, looking for shopping to tax.

I have never seen it anywhere else in the world, and I have even been to Russia and Ukraine, the most unfriendly spots on God’s earth.

The latest taxation measures, including VAT on essentials, are to me the kind of ideology-deprived decisions that an inexperienced government would make; on the recommendations of an accountant, who is very good at counting the beans, but not at seeing the bigger, long-game picture.

What do we want to do with this country? If we want to move to a middle-income status by 2030, that suggests an expansion in manufacturing, which suggests some of those things that Vietnam, India, China and other clever Asian countries have done: becoming factories.

If you want people to outsource manufacturing to your country, there are a couple of things you must do consistently over many years.

First, you must invest in people, specifically health, education, housing and social services. You are not going to grow a world-beating labour force if workers are going to the toilet on newspapers spread out in the living room.

Secondly, you want to ruthlessly drive down the costs in your economy. If you tax your workers until they are nearly dead, you will have wage inflation.

These days we slap a 30 per cent plus tax on the highest grossing individuals. Taxing more does not mean collecting more. It just means more avoidance.

When you tax everything, including rent, how do you expect to have an economy in which costs are low enough to attract international manufacturers?

I met a man who was looking for a place to manufacture low-cost cellphones. And China was not in his radar. Labour costs, which he estimated at 17 per cent in that country, were for him too high.

So he was looking at Indonesia and Malaysia. Kenya can’t compete with China. What hope does it have of competing with Vietnam?

About the only Kenyan manufactured products found in American supermarkets are jeans. This is manufacturing done by Kenyans but insulated from the fiscal madness of our economy.

The decision whether to tax workers more or leave more money in their pockets should be determined by the answer to this question: Between the government and private enterprise, who is more efficient in applying resources?

Our government is one of the most wasteful entities in the universe. Anything you can buy at Sh100, the government will pay Sh1,000. In its thinking, innovation and use of technology, the private sector is 50 years ahead of the bulk of government.

If the public sector were to be given the responsibility of developing housing for Kenya, for example, we’d have a worse crisis: projects would never be completed on time, the costs would be astronomical and the quality crappy.

So rather than trying to tax landlords to death, why not provide financial incentives to increase the supply of housing, thereby making home ownership cheaper and rents more affordable?

Hard-boiled politicians like Mwai Kibaki, who ran the economy, as Minister for Planning and as well as Finance for 14 years, instinctively knew that there is nothing more important than the basics.

If you can’t feed the population, you are out of power. In a Third World country, the greatest threat to the State is the cost of food.

www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/-/440808/1905060/-/item/1/-/q4lqd5/-/index.html

[jakaswanga]

Jul 4, 2013 21:45:20 GMT 3 jakaswanga said:

I think it is time to give up on the fancy brains of Henry Rotich. Junk.
Read more: jukwaa.proboards.com/thread/8472/why-richard-rotich-missing-action#ixzz2Y6UnMZR8

Here,bwana Rotich, is the historical scale where your Harvard brains are rated as junk. I guess you went to the right school, though you got the wrong job.
Take a look at the right school for and the right job: Ludwig Erhad and his little miracle back then.

LUDWIG ERHAD: WIRTSCHAFTSWUNDER [THE GERMAN RECOVERY AFTER THE 2ND WORLD WAR.]
www.econlib.org/library/Enc/GermanEconomicMiracle.html

And here is the joking version!

It also took that long to jumpstart the economy because of measures put in place after World War II (economic stimulus was expressly a no-no for two years). Plus, Germany’s brightest minds (as well as patents, etc) were snapped up by the Soviets and the other Allies. Within those two years of Germany’s broken economy, the United States picked every ounce of meat from the country’s technological know-how.
On the flip side, the United States gave Germany more than one billion dollars in aid to help finance its future success, realizing that a hurt German economy was trickling down to the rest of Europe. By 1971 (less than 30 years later) all of the money had been repaid.
Now, what does that tell you about Germany’s Wirstschaftswunder?
After the 1940′s ended, the next decade (as well as into the ’60s and ’70s) ushered in an economic growth that was one of the best in the world, pretty much doubling the value of all the country’s exports, which included those “punch buggie” Volkswagens.
More than sixty years after the devastation of World War II on Germany, the country still prospers (thanks to the Wirtschaftswunder), enjoying one of the highest standards of living on the continent (if not the world).
Hey, it’ll give us plenty of leisure time to play Punch Buggie, won’t it? ;-)

I wont expect less from a 40-something post-independence generation African who went to a ranked school. He works no economic wunder, he is toilet paper, down the historical sewer. Now Rotich, you toilet paper or not? I think you are toilet paper.[taxing sukuma-wiki vendors beside the roads who will be lucky to make ksh. 50 profit a day!] what a creep!

[jakaswanga]

Fellas, you can take this to the bank!

Joseph 'Supremo' Kinyua, former finance PS, Is the man who wrote the Uhuruto-Rotich budget of June 2013? His parting shot?

It was not an original Rotich, and that is why the Harvard golden-boy did not look inspired like a man reading from his own genial work!? No, he was performing on rote!

www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/Will-Treasury-old-boy-Joseph-Kinyua-call-time-on-his-long-career/-/539550/1905200/-/item/3/-/g834np/-/index.html

Those who fault his reign at the Treasury also point out that he is an old school bureaucrat too ingrained in the old ways of doing things that he is virtually incapable of leading the implementation of critical reforms in public finance or other public offices.

With his expertise and long experience, the cabinet ministers who have served at the ministry have had to rely on Mr Kinyua and there is an extent to which he appears to have played the role of the de facto Minister for Finance.

One of those who served under him said he had wanted to be appointed the cabinet secretary in the same ministry or be given some other senior position.

I have been monitoring how Obama's Harvard clan have been handling their crisis --they had a close shave with sovereign default in the USA too, and they have had to raise the debt-ceiling severally, so things are bad there too. But you can watch Bernanke at the FED fiddling in a rational and sensible manner within his world-view.

I do not think that Washington Harvadian clan is any better than Henry Rotich, so I have been hard-pressed to find a reasonable explanation why our golden boy is so earthen in his economic practice!
ANSWER: Poor lass aint callin' a single damn shot! Just a fwaking figure-head, like that helpless Havard girl cunning Obasanjo once put at Finance.

[jakaswanga]

I will soon quote generously from Notorious Onyango Oloo. That is that Jukwaa pest of ours whose digitals are a hoard of cluster bombs that rain on the political landscape, leaving no bunker of illusion intact and, in its wake, a scene from the worst excesses post Mad Max to behold.

This notorious OO had dived deep in his macro-economic analysis of the Jubilee cabinet dream-team, and putting on my oxygen armour, I hang on his coat-tails to scavenge the various mangled remains in his wake, and see if, like Dr. Frankestein, I could concoct a monster of some coherence. ---I have really wanted to find a logical explanation why golden boy Henry Rotich has been so absent as to be irrelevant in the policy skeletons of our land.

What is it that has neutralised him so? Was he, all along, a dummy? a radiant display object which nevertheless is not the real thing? And if he is not a fake, where is the evidence of his skills, his modernist commands of the needed solutions at his docket?

I think I have hit the jackpot! Dr. Henry Rotich is still a junior taking orders not issuing them. And just like Notorious Oloo wondered aloud with some insight .. (he was 5 levels below the minister just a few days ago! therefor a parachuted nondescript) ---a figure head perhaps his fate it be?? could it be?

Now, we have seen colonels overthrow regimes and assume command over fieldmarshalls with supreme confidence, so Rotich's juniority needed not matter ---If he were warrior blood authentic. But then this microscopic scorch alert puts paid to false hopes:
1.

We all saw the guy sputtering, stuttering, quaking and almost quacking when the President invited him to the State House lectern to say a few words to the wananchi gawking at his image on television screens across Kenya.

He is that kind of man then. Easily awed. Easily owned.

2. JOSEPH KINYUA DID NOT GO AWAY! OH NO! ---(He is now at State-House as president Uhuru's chief economic advisor.

Who is Joseph Kinyua you ask?)

Joseph 'Supremo' Kinyua, former finance PS, Is the man who wrote the Uhuruto-Rotich budget of June 2013. His parting shot it could have been. It explains why figure-head Rotich did not look inspired like a man reading from his own genial work! He was not. He was a puppet, and he knew it.

www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/Will-Treasury-old-boy-Joseph-Kinyua-call-time-on-his-long-career/-/539550/1905200/-/item/3/-/g834np/-/index.html

Those who fault his reign at the Treasury also point out that he is an old school bureaucrat too ingrained in the old ways of doing things that he is virtually incapable of leading the implementation of critical reforms in public finance or other public offices.
With his expertise and long experience, the cabinet ministers who have served at the ministry have had to rely on Mr Kinyua and there is an extent to which he appears to have played the role of the de facto Minister for Finance.
One of those who served under him said he had wanted to be appointed the cabinet secretary in the same ministry or be given some other senior position.

Some lower rank apprentice from Harvard was not going to write the Kenyan budget with Supremo Rotich still alive. And you can take that to the bank ---the Bundesbank I mean, not your rotten banks with toxic portforlios in their vaults!

Meanwhile, Rotich's former bosses are still his bosses.
I do not know whether Uhuru did this deliberately, to make sure all his bases are covered, or whether it is coincidental. But I suspect the worst where big money meets big politics!

www.nation.co.ke/business/news/Former-Treasury-chiefs-land-plum-State-jobs/-/1006/1927952/-/109w7c3/-/index.html

President Kenyatta is turning to his former colleagues at the Treasury for key State appointments— a move analysts say he could be going for trust and loyalty.
Already, six former officials at the ministry of Finance and by extension the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) have landed State appointments.

And here is the move of moves. Like a horse-whiperer, Supremo Kinyua will be directly injecting into the president's ear!
What did we say Dr. Henry Rotich was again? secretary yes, but not of state finance! ---and you can take that to the bank. ---The Bundesbank I mean, not your Tom Dick and Harry banks on quicksand foundations!

Mr Joseph Kinyua, who was recently appointed a presidential adviser on finance and economic affairs, worked as the permanent secretary at the ministry of Finance.

And that is the sad story with which I can now close this thread: WHY DR. HENRY ROTICH IS MISSING IN INACTION!

He sunk. And the sharks ate him.

Mr Munyori Buku, who worked as director of communications at the Treasury, now heads the department of external communications and media at the Presidential Strategic Communications Unit

I trust will give us his version, and, dear Kenyan, you will decide if that one is bankable too!

Here is the Notorious Oloo I promised to quote at large:
demokrasia-kenya.blogspot.nl/2013/04/a-macro-economic-analysis-of-jubilee.html -macro-economic analysis of the cabinet picks, the case of Dr. Henry Rotich

Henry Rotich, you know the middle ranking Ministry of Finance functionary who has been catapulted to become head honcho of the revamped Treasury portfolio.

According to page 5 of the April 26th edition of the Standard, Mr. Rotich was the Deputy Director in charge of macro economic policy at the Ministry of Finance since 2006.

That means he was FIVE LEVELS below the minister until just a few days ago. That means he was junior to the permanent secretaries, deputy secretaries, under secretaries and directors that he will now be coordinating and supervising.

Quite a meteoric rise eh?

We all saw the guy sputtering, stuttering, quaking and almost quacking when the President invited him to the State House lectern to say a few words to the wananchi gawking at his image on television screens across Kenya.

Now get this.

All his former bosses are there by dint of the Public Service Commission (the bulk of them at least). The ones who are not going to be relieved of their jobs, retire, or as they say these days, “move on”, will retain their titles and privileges in the Kenyan Mandarinate. It is going to be surreal contemplating the prospect of the relative equivalent of a senior clerk dressing down his former managers- if it comes to that, that is.

But that is NOT what tickled my fancy.

I am made to understand that according to the 50/50 arrangement between TNA and URP, the finance plum job had been RESERVED and GUARANTEED to Deputy President William Ruto.

Those who are assuming that Rotich, because of his Kalenjin surname was Ruto’s pick are in for a rude shock.

Who was Rotich’s Oberhaupt his Vorgesetzte when Uhuru Kenyatta was still in charge of Finance?

That was a rhetorical question.

Henry Rotich, in turns out, was a TNA pick!

I made the mistake of thinking Rotich's brief would be Wanjiku's corner!

I may be back.

[jakaswanga]

I came across the financial secretary somewhere, fumbling about a ksh. 121 billion SUPPLEMENTARY BUDGET!

Was wondering IT ended:

By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU Kenya:

Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury Henry Rotich has asked MPs to postpone their Christmas break until they approve the supplementary budget. Mr Rotich pleaded with MPs to give him until Thursday to finalise the preparation of a Sh121 billion supplementary budget.

He told the MPs that while the amount looked colossal, the Treasury would ensure that money was raised without burdening the taxpayer or freezing key projects.

Rotich told the Budget and Appropriations Committee at a meeting in Parliament buildings that because the recess will go on until February, the Treasury was willing to meet the MPs so that they deal with the supplementary budget, because come February 15, Treasury will be engrossed in preparation of the Budget Policy Statement. “You may want to consider postponing your recess so that we conclude this process,” said Rotich yesterday.

The Constitution sets February 15 as the last day by which the National Treasury ought to have submitted the Budget Policy Statement — a three year forecast of the economy, and the budgets. In March, the committee is expected to approve the Budget Policy Statement and by April 30, the two Houses — Senate and National Assembly — have to approve the Division of Revenue Bill and the County Allocation of Revenue Bill. By June 30, the House has to approve the national budget and give a greenlight for the government to spend money. “We’re hoping that because of the workload earlier in the year, you could dispose of the supplementary budget before you go on recess,” said Rotich.

The chairman of the Budget Committee, Mutava Musyimi (Mbeere South), said a decision on whether to postpone recess can only be taken by the Speaker Justin Muturi and the Majority Leader Adan Duale, and that such a decision will have to be approved by the House Business Committee. The MPs were scheduled to go on recess on December 5. The Cabinet Secretary also told the committee that the Sh18.9 billion that had been agreed for teachers, nurses and university lecturers will also be included in the Supplementary Budget.

NEXT STORY » Journalists send strong message to Uhuru over draconian media Bill Read More... inShare
Read more at: www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000099357&story_title=Kenya-rotich-pleads-with-mps-to-postpone-break

CHRISTINE LAGARDE OF THE IMF WAS IN NAIROBI THIS ist WEEK of 2014! What did she find? ---I Have not seen the photo-ops with Rotich, nor the perfunctory press releases. But .. the kitchen has not been up to date…

State borrows heavily to fund MPs’ pay, devolution
Updated Thursday, January 2nd 2014 at 23:49 GMT +3 0 inShare By Jevans Nyabiage Nairobi, Kenya:

The Government is spending more to pay off interest on local debt after its borrowing shot up dramatically over the last six months.

Kenya’s gross domestic debt increased by a massive Sh118 billion in six months to reach Sh1.2 trillion by December 20 last year, according to new data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). The banking regulator says this resulted from a rise in the stock of Treasury bills by Sh43.1 billion, Sh46.9 billion in Treasury bonds and Sh27.2 billion in Government Overdraft. There was also Sh900 million in other domestic debt, which include clearing items in transit, advances from commercial banks and pre-1997 Government Overdraft and Tax Reserve Certificates during the six-month period.

Read more at: www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/article/2000101383/state-borrows-heavily-to-fund-mps-pay-devolution

Then I took a look at this: THE STANDARD GAUGE RAILWAY BUSINESS

www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/article/2000101450/why-rail-project-could-be-kenya-s-biggest-scandal-yet

THEN YOU –permanent secretary transport Nduvi--- TELL ME THIS:

The Ethiopian railway does not go through a national park. The Mombasa-Nairobi railway will pass through a national park and the National Environmental Management Authority (Nema) says the civil works should not interfere with wildlife movement. This means we will have to construct a 100-kilometre viaduct (a long bridge-like structure carrying a road or railroad across a valley or other low ground),” says the PS.
Read more at: www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/article/2000101451/transport-ps-explains-railway-s-huge-cost-difference-with-ethiopia

Then I would make the decision, human rights before animal rights! I don’t have the money to pay for animal rights of passage and comfort in a park!

This financial secretary called Henry Rotich! Is he really a human being or merely a pre-programmed robot? NEMA decided there would be a 100 km viaduct at a cost equivalent to the educational budget for the year! Haha! That Nema decision has another explanation, plunder.

One day I decided to give my young daughter a treat. A first flight. We would fly to Entebbe from Kisumu on the cheap, then come back with Akamba executive [then not yet defunct] on the same day. Now the girl had waved me off one time into a mighty Lufthansa liner at JKIA, but the flight to Entebbe was on one of those tiny planes –your jetlinks, 540s etc. The girl refused and burst into tears! She wanted Big Lufthansa or she was not going anywhere! My empty pockets and other responsibilities were totally irrelevant to her childish fantasies.
That is how I see NEMA. They do not know the story at the treasury. If they do, they are executives engaged in a grand scam! No two ways about it!

Missing rotich, when such like the following ‘’alarmist’’ reports are aired.

This fluctuation has put at risk stability of the Kenya Shilling against major international currencies. Latest data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows that official foreign exchange reserves declined from Sh385 billion ($4.5b) in July to Sh366.4 billion ($4.3b) in October 2013. But by December 19, 2013 forex reserves had picked up again to $5.992 billion, equivalent to 4.24 months of import cover. This was after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pumped in Sh9.4 billion to further strengthen the foreign exchange position. “This IMF support is only a short term measure. A long term solution to support the shilling is needed, which includes increasing key exports like tea, coffee and meeting the EU sugar import quotas,” said Kariithi Murimi, a risk consultant.
……………
At present, Kenya has a high import bill which means it is importing more than it is exporting, a trend that impacts on the shilling exchange rate and forex reserves position.

Both coffee and tea prices are down on the international market following instability in key markets such as Egypt and a depressed European Union (EU). The IMF funds were released under a three-year extended credit facility programme approved in 2011 and which has now come to an end. Instability in Kenya’s forex reserves means CBK has little room to manoeuvre and cannot intervene aggressively in the forex market to deal with currency volatility. Mopping up For the most part of 2013, the CBK has intensified the mopping up of the shilling from the forex market and selling dollars to banks in a bid to stabilise the currency. This operation has taken toll on foreign exchange reserves. Forex reserves held by CBK cushion the shilling from high volatility by assuring importers that there is sufficient foreign currency to pay for imports.
Read more at: www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/article/2000101428/experts-worry-over-state-of-forex-reserves

Is there a portion of the loans to fund the LAPSSET which are denoted in foreign currencies of the west? Then there is your writing on the wall which Rotich is not reading! Lazy head!

You can increase the export quotas of coffee, tea and veges all you want! But their PRICES are not going anywhere but down! The market is as good as saturated, and competition is ever growing: ---you know, like Ethiopia and Zambia now produces CHEAPER FLOWERS than Kenya, and have overtaken us as the leading exporters of that love-tiding to Europe or wherever!

www.nation.co.ke/business/Declining-tea-and-coffee-export-prices-set-off-alarm-bells/-/996/2134540/-/6ukomcz/-/index.html

So something non agricultural please! For export. Worry not, dear citizens, there is blak gold in Turkana! And that is why blue-eyed boy Rotich is unperturbed. Any other explanations welcome!

bUT THAT ONE of borrowing money deeply to pay salaries! that is the way of the old greeks!

[jakaswanga]

Aaahahaa, Dr. Henry Rotitch! Did someone say the future of the Kenyan project hangs together with the success of devolution!?
If this is the way monies are going to be spent, structurally just about 0% on development, I guarantee a collapse. I never saw a nation go anywhere with a zero percent rate investment! That one is not even called stagnation! But the good news is only half the counties are spending zero on development! So I should consider for instance fleeing from Kisumu to Nyeri!

sitting allowances
Among counties that committed their entire budgets to recurrent expenditure and left nothing for development are Mombasa (Sh767 million), Kisumu (Sh338.4 million), Uasin Gishu (Sh278 million), Murang’a (Sh258 million), Makueni (Sh271 million) and Homa Bay (Sh280 million).

According to the report, counties that had the highest ratio of development to total expenditure were Nyeri (30.3 per cent), Tana River (26 per cent) and Tharaka Nithi (25.5 per cent).
“The PFM Act requires the counties to allocate at least 30 per cent of their budgets for development activities over the medium term,” said the report.

www.standardmedia.co.ke/mobile/?articleID=2000101793&story_title=audit-reveals-massive-wastage-by-counties

By MACHARIA KAMAU and STEVE MKAWALE
NAIROBI, KENYA: Governors spent ridiculously high amounts of money in allowances and other unnecessary expenses, leaving their counties with little or no money for development.
More than half of the 47 counties —27 to be exact — did not spend a single cent on development during the quarter between July and September.
A report by the Office of the Controller of Budget shows that during the first three months of 2013/2014 financial year, counties spent a measly 7 per cent of the money available to them (or Sh872.9 million) on development while splashing billions on personal emoluments for county staff and Members of County Assemblies.
The report shows that out of the total expenditure, personnel emoluments accounted for 55 per cent, operations and maintenance 38 per cent and development expenditure only 7 per cent.

Henry Rotich, are for real as minister of finance!? These figures, even if % error challenged, are still a clear and eminent danger! ----Start looking for bail-out money!

The Controller of Budget notes that while counties had committed to setting aside at least 30 per cent of the money available to them to development, many of them did not and only one crossed the 30 per cent threshold during the quarter.
According to the report, counties that had the highest ratio of development to total expenditure were Nyeri (30.3 per cent), Tana River (26 per cent) and Tharaka Nithi (25.5 per cent).
“The PFM Act requires the counties to allocate at least 30 per cent of their budgets for development activities over the medium term,” said the report.
“Although all counties met this threshold in their budgetary allocations, actual expenditure on development activities remains a major challenge given that on average only 7 per cent of total expenditure went to development programmes during the first quarter of FY2013/2014.”
The counties also spent colossal amounts in sitting allowances to MCAs, which the Controller of Budget says is unsustainable.
“The counties spent Sh473.4 million for payment of sitting allowances. Nairobi City County spent the highest amount of Sh113.3 million followed by Kisii, Migori and Meru which spent Sh28.9 million, Sh25.2 million and Sh17.1 million respectively. Counties that had the least expenditure were Turkana, Tana River and Lamu of Sh1.1 million, Sh1.3 million and Sh1.4 million respectively,” said the report.

When are they starting to pump that oil? These sitting allowances need oil money. Raising them from taxing jua-kali artisans, roadside mandazi-sellers, petty retailers and the already strained Wanjiku, will break the camel’s back!
Come, Harvard stud, work some magic! ---what did the ‘’horse-whiperer’’ Christine Lagarde whisper in your ear!?



www.businessdailyafrica.com/Kenya-seeks-IMF-emergency-loan-as-shocks-loom/-/539546/2136660/-/h1cxbh/-/index.html

The Treasury has asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for an emergency loan it plans to use in responding to looming economic shocks.

Seat belts, fellow citizens, seat belts!

[OtishOtish]

Jakaswanga:

An emergency loan from the IMF? I take it this is not the time to howl about imperialist Western organizations or celebrate the great, new friendship with Kung Fu ... By the way, the railway thing looks very "impressive", if real; even Nigerians must respect such levels of "creativity" in eating. I say "if real" because at a certain level it reads like the script for a comedy.

[jakaswanga]

Jan 8, 2014 21:13:29 GMT 3 OtishOtish said:

Jakaswanga:

An emergency loan from the IMF? I take it this is not the time to howl about imperialist Western organizations or celebrate the great, new friendship with Kung Fu ... By the way, the railway thing looks very "impressive", if real; even Nigerians must respect such levels of "creativity" in eating. I say "if real" because at a certain level it reads like the script for a comedy.

Otishotish,
Having run into a wall, gotten stunned and out of his wits, Henry Rotich adviced President Kenyatta to kneel down and beg. And Uhuru did not disappoint. No,the condemnation of imperialists with evil designs on Africa which the son of Jomo mouthed in his 'Kenyatta Day'' speak was mere gallery pantomime!

Mr Kenyatta made the request in a glowing speech when he hosted Ms Lagarde Tuesday at State House, Mombasa.
“We remain vulnerable to future shocks and we must be able to effectively deal with them if and when they arise…. My country needs an insurance-type facility that can be accessed as and when needed with sufficient resources to effectively deal with potential shocks,” Kenyatta said.
“Your style has won you accolades amongst your peers and IMF member states. Calm, cool, persistent. We add, inclusive and considerate. With calm heads, and partners like yourself, we need to take unconventional decisions to fuel prosperity for our people.”
During her visit to Kenya, Ms Lagarde met with top government officials including the speakers of the National Assembly and Senate as well as the parliamentary budget committee.

I am not sure whether Rotich is DELIBERATELY ushering Kenya into the jaws of the crocodile ----watch how Greece has been writhing since the trap-door slammed shut on it!

You Know Rotich being a Harvard fellow, he could be a member of the secret society of bankers projects, whose mission is to see through policies meant to rip taxpayers of their various countries to guarantee banker’s bonuses. Operation destitution.
If Rotich were serious about the INDUSTRIALISATION OF KENYA, the vision 2030 etc, he would have pointed out to Uhuru Kenyatta, that the public wage ratio MUST BE brought down from current 14% to 7% in two financial years. And that COUNTY governments must be enforced to spend 40% on development.
All these are untouched: add that to the wastage of corruption, then we can not say Rotich is taking care of public business, but OTHER PRIVATE BUSINESS.

The great reform would certainly entail, in my opinion, either the halving of the number of Mpigs, or the halving of their salaries. And for MCA’s, the minimum reform is half salary, plus the declaration of the portfolio [councillor] to be a part-time job. And a take it or leave it MANDATE.
But now, after making riotous nationalist speeches castigating imperialists, Uhuru Kenyatta surrenders his economic policy To the IMF! Only children of a certain age can so castigate their parents benefactors, only for them to, a few hours later when hungry, run to the same parents/gaurdians demanding to be fed!
And mama will of course smile knowingly, and open the cookie jar a bit!

O Mwai Kibaki –who would not take a call from the likes of Lagard or Hollande, you were a fire who left office for the ash called Uhuru! Poor Muigai, yet to be forged to purpose! (mande pok opong’o ondong’!)

[OtishOtish]

Jakaswanga:

Yes, that is how it is done. The Good Book says that there is a time for everything---a time to breath fire and a time to lick ... You know how it is on Friday night when the barmaid at Mama Mboga's tells you to get home because it is late and trouble might will waiting if you tary, and your response is that you are the boss and when you get home you will harshly remind them of the fact. But when you get home you beg and plead and make up stories about getting home at 2AM because you were kidnapped ... an emergency.

Anyway ... my wedding anniversary is coming up, and I'd like your opinion on this little speech I've prepared for the day:

“Your style has won you accolades amongst your peers and other families in the area. Calm, cool, persistent. I add, inclusive and considerate. With calm heads, and a partner like yourself, we need to take unconventional decisions to fuel prosperity for our family.”

Maybe I need to throw in "sexy" and "beautiful" somewhere?

[jakaswanga]

RUTO PRAISES CHINA, CONDEMNS THE WEST; UHURU FAWNS THE WEST, TOASTS THEM TO HEAVEN!!. Is this the bad cop good cop act, or just the subtle hallmarks of a total confusion at the top!? Or, is H.E Uhuru just being realistic, having been given all the intel on the actual state of the Kenyan economy!? And realisation sets in, without the West, his neo-colonial fortunes are crashed stock!?

allafrica.com/stories/201312150039.html

DEPUTY President William Ruto has praised the Chinese leadership for refusing to be "herded in strange destinies" by the West. In a veiled attack on Europe and the United States, Ruto yesterday described the Chinese government as a "worthy teacher, partner, true friend and a friend indeed" to the people of Kenya.
"This is a result of the great handiwork of leaders who refused to be herded to strange destinies by external forces and influence," he said during a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Kenya and China.

And further, expounding on this thesis of Juche or self-reliance, the DPORK waxed:

Ruto said the progressive model that China had followed to her current leadership in the world economy made a lot more sense to Kenya's immediate circumstances "than other models based on remote realities."

Earlier on, he was equally on a rhetorical flow, this time perhaps mitigated by the fact that the issue at hand was more of a personal nature, and destiny-shaping indeed.
www.kenyan2013.com/2013/11/18/us-britain-and-france-are-no-longer-our-friends-ruto-says-as-he-indirectly-praise-china-and-russia-over-icc-cases/

sunday November 17, 2013 - Deputy President, William Ruto, has launched scathing attacks at US, Britain and France for rejecting the deferral of Kenyan cases in The Hague saying him and President Uhuru Kenyatta were not surprised by the decision.

Speaking at the launch of Bureti Constituency Strategic Plan by MP, Leonard Sang, at Litein East School, on Saturday, Ruto accompanied by over 40 Jubilee coalition MPs said the deferral request has clearly shown who true friends of Kenya were.

“We are saying what happened yesterday is a clear testimony of genuine friends who can stand with us when it is shining or raining. We thank them for standing with us. We have a plan … we will work and endure any difficulties.” Ruto said.

“They say adversity is the mother of invention. We will sort out these things because they are side issues,” Ruto added.

And then enter his excellency Uhuru Kenyatta to spoil the [West-Bashing] party!! There he goes, our prezzo, fallen to his feet, wagging his tongue lyrical, sniffing at Christine Lagarde’s knickers purse, if unknotted.

“Your style has won you accolades amongst your peers and IMF member states. Calm, cool, persistent. We add, inclusive and considerate. With calm heads, and partners like yourself, we need to take unconventional decisions to fuel prosperity for our people.”

More about those accolades later. But here is a sample from a business opinion columnist

www.businessdailyafrica.com/Opinion-and-Analysis/Treasury-must-not-take-Kenya-back-to-begging-ways/-/539548/2137708/-/pqdpws/-/index.html The IMF single-handedly pushed for the inclusion of basic consumer goods under the value added tax (VAT) bracket, which immediately triggered a surge in prices of commodities that constitute the biggest portion of the consumption basket for the poor people.
A measure that was supposed to raise Sh10 billion for the Treasury has pushed yet more Kenyans to economic destitution, unable to avoid the cost of basic food items, medicines and school books.

But for now this reminder about the import of her toasting.
mobile.nation.co.ke/news/IMF-boss-to-meet--Uhuru-and-Rotich-/-/1950946/2135656/-/format/xhtml/-/b1v59k/-/index.html

But the gist of her tour will be discussions with Mr Rotich, talks which will focus on partnership between Kenya and the IMF following the successful implementation of the programme supported under the ECF.

Successful implementation of an IMF-orchestrated IMPOVERISATION program! ----Talk about being herded into strange destinies by external forces and influence! And, add to that, talk about your nation’s fate entrusted to bodies peddling models based on other remote realities!

Now [O exalted Digital Duo] where is the great handiwork of great leaders who resist such!? -----Ayayayayaya! Muigai wa Kamau you really said this:

Mr Kenyatta made the request in a glowing speech when he hosted Ms Lagarde Tuesday at State House, Mombasa.
“We remain vulnerable to future shocks and we must be able to effectively deal with them if and when they arise…. My country needs an insurance-type facility that can be accessed as and when needed with sufficient resources to effectively deal with potential shocks,” Kenyatta said.
“Your style has won you accolades amongst your peers and IMF member states. Calm, cool, persistent. We add, inclusive and considerate. With calm heads, and partners like yourself, we need to take unconventional decisions to fuel prosperity for our people.”
During her visit to Kenya, Ms Lagarde met with top government officials including the speakers of the National Assembly and Senate as well as the parliamentary budget committee.

Read more: jukwaa.proboards.com/thread/8472/why-richard-rotich-missing-action#ixzz2q0sxGguM

Obviously the Kenyan papers, only good for meat rap, and their digital copies not worth a hit, thoroughly misquoted the president! May be such disinformation is part of the media war they are engaged in against the digital duo; the war Kamalet was engaged in talking about in the other thread here!

jukwaa.proboards.com/thread/8905/media-war-jubilee-who-winning

Hosting and toasting Lagarde in Nairobi was like a herd of rats fawning a serpent! Plotting to serve one of their own, Wanjiku, in a ritual sacrifice to win more good fortune from Omweri! [the giant snake of legend in Luoland]

On the other hand, if we look at the political economy of a tropical gangster class. Uhuru Kenyatta is a major player in the banking sector. The Kenya government, since 2008 is borrowing more from the local market. So Mr. Kenyatta the businessman could simply be sweet-talking the IMF lady to give the Central Bank of Kenya the money to be loaned to private banks of Uhuru at a zero rate. The Uhuru banks can then re-loan the same money back to the state at an exorbitant interest rate!
A fortune doubling formula. Most men will have a gigolo-pick-up routine for that.

This kind of confusion at the top of the Kenyan political pinnacle need not have complicated explanations! Straight forward business and profit will do for me as plausible explanations!

Those potential shocks could simple raise the fear the looming bankruptcy of the Kenyan state could, in its wake, sink the ‘’overextended’’ banks too! You own such a bank, you want to cover the risks!
Now then, Muigai and co could just have done great business with Lagarde's outfit. The problem is all of it at the expense of Wanjiku. What is it then, that makes the fin-sec so radiant and happy?

[jakaswanga]

Jan 9, 2014 0:44:01 GMT 3 OtishOtish said:

Jakaswanga: Anyway ... my wedding anniversary is coming up, and I'd like your opinion on this little speech I've prepared for the day:

“Your style has won you accolades amongst your peers and other families in the area. Calm, cool, persistent. I add, inclusive and considerate. With calm heads, and a partner like yourself, we need to take unconventional decisions to fuel prosperity for our family.” Maybe I need to throw in "sexy" and "beautiful" somewhere?

Njakip! I do not want to cause a new war, but I have some deductive ways of estimating your age! So let me leave the obvious one and take a detour. You are a man who has been around, you have been to Patpong in Thailand and served in audience to an all-female orchestra where the trumpet was being blown by that thing!. The point I am making is that you were not born yesterday! which means you certainly can no longer tell the anniversary of your wedding [you have forgotten even how many years you have been married unless the missus reminded you], or you just married a fresh one the other year and the entertaining patpong-like extravaganzas!are embedded in your memory, and owing debts of gratitude! Definitely you must include the words incomparably sexy and divinely beautiful!

Such a day, is the occasion for superlatives! BTW, how many times did you say you have been married? No wonder those wounds between you and never mind!

[jakaswanga]

www.nation.co.ke/news/Uhuru-orders-audit-over-Sh1-8bn-ghost-workers/-/1056/2157676/-/syy7xbz/-/index.html

President Uhuru Kenyatta has ordered an external audit of the public service payroll after findings indicated a possible loss of Sh1.8 billion a year in irregular payments to ghost workers.

Come on doctor Rotich! Do you know what it means when the president orders an external audit, bypassing the accountants at the treasury!?
It means the guys at the treasury have colluded to the embezzlement and can not be trusted to dig out the dirt. And of course it is simply common sense that, with the intellectual and technical firepower at its command, the treasury could have on their own, and on their watch, easily unearthed this scam and plugged the hole. So they have been enjoying the proceeds of looking the other way! [PM Joseph Kinyua playing possum I suppose!]

I warned you Rotich, you were missing in action. A Harvard trained cum laude can not discover a ksh. 150M/month scam in ten months in his department!? You are giving that business school a bad name! Either deliberate negligence, or downright incompetence.
Option three is too terrible to bear: fear prevented you from action. Unnerved, you froze to death. And the gravy train shot ahead.

“It is with this in mind, and considering the significance of these preliminary findings, and the consternation that these revelations portend, that I am directing the Ministry of Devolution and Planning, in collaboration with the National Treasury to outsource this assignment, he added.
The President said a final report of the external audit is expected to contribute to the rationalisation of the public service.
(Read full statement here)

Rationalisation of the public service. William Ruto was correct at his first take: guys have to be fired. Massive lay-offs, or the rationalisation is dead. But rationalisation carried through, may just be the death of the Jubilee coalition [thus Ruto's 2nd take, beating a hasty retreat: no lay offs, just re-deployments ]. So? A formula has to be concocted where things stay the same, but an appearance of change is given.

Can not just make that omelette without breaking that egg! Try and see!

NB: And you, as purse man of the republic, Rotich, you should not have appeared unsure of what the SGR will cost. I checked on open source, and discovered the estimation of low-tech railway lines is an old science. Guys been doing it for over 200 years, and with the latest top-end computer models, which integrate up to the minutest currency fluctuations, a lower and upper figure is not a divine incantation. ABC.

I therefore found it spectacularly dangerous that you, finance cabinet secretary, was not an authority of the actual Rail costs of this Chinese thing. --If the minister of finance does not know such sums, really it becomes the devils alternative! yawa! I can only quote the contempt of Amilcar Cabaral for the technical comprador elite: unguided, whatever their spectacular station in learning, they are sheep!

[OtishOtish]

Jakaswanga:

You seem to assume that your friend & associates are primarily concerned with running a national economy. You might want to consider other possibilities. For example, seen from the outside, National Comedy or National Eating Enterprise could explain a great deal more.

Or, as one wag put it, perhaps a problem in communication: Kusema Na Kutenda or Kusema Na Kutender?

[mank]

I will start here, to set my hypothesis up:

Jun 1, 2013 14:23:58 GMT 3 jakaswanga said:

It does not work like that anymore in the modern world Richard. First the math FROM YOU and your crack econometrists like Man-K of Jukwaa, then a bill through parliament. But more important, is to tell the president to his face he is a nut-head: Better Treasury negotiates with COTU first and, under the chairmanship of an independent arbiter, reach a BINDING definination of the minimum wage. Then an IMPLEMENTATION protocol is agreed within an appropriate and feasible time-scale. Economic growth holding!

My hypothesis is that the excellencies have no regard for professionals, and want to be seen steering the wheel at every turn, perhaps to get all the glory. So Rotich and his economists can run their models all they want, but when it comes to decision time the excellency's mind and mouth carries the day.

Jun 1, 2013 14:23:58 GMT 3 jakaswanga said:

Dr. RR sir,

HERE are just a few examples of the happenstances which indicate a vacuum at the top of your office, that you have taken a vacation from the battle station, and are still loafing with broads.

1. increase in country funding.

--When there was an impasse between County executives and the central state over devolution funds, it was William Ruto, though you too were at the meeting, who announced he had reached the deal to increase and release the funding [the amounts which had been withheld illegally by mandarins acting in concert with Francis Kimemia, now cabinet stenographer].

Such a deal requires THE MAN OF THE TREASURY to be the front, explaining the technicalities. ---Wherefrom could the state find such a huge sum in a day?
Why had it not been there the previous day?
Was it still being used in gambling in a foreign stock exchange?
What would you tell the others in line, demanding their perks upped or threatening mayhem?

2. 'Pimpocrat' Ruto and his opulent gallivanting executive jet.

When the row burst over VP Ruto's executive jet-flight to promote our new-found fiery Pan-Africanism, it was Bitange Ndemo of information who hit the wall when he came to hold fort, explaining the costs were a meagre 20M, not a whooping 100M!

That is a fwack up! You should have called Bitange and inquired sternly of him how far that 'fibre optic cable grid' running from Mombasa to Kigali has gone in the previous week! and if he has been CUTTING COSTS!

In this century, a beggar country with a Kennedy School economist running finance, can not hire a fresh executive jet, while another liner is parked at State House, ati exclusively presidential.

.... So let me hear you, a Kennedy been-to, concurring with Bitange Ndemo and Aden Duale. You kneel down for a $108M loan from the IMF, then hire a jet while another is parked, rationale ... 'muthamaki's prerogative'!

3. 'Let there be a minimum wage' Labour Day 2013.

Uhuru Kenyatta, 'just like that' on labour day, gave a directive that the minimum loan would be effective immediately. No mention of the total costs to business and treasury, nor an understanding of the reports about an imminent 'sovereign default'! which meant even funding by BORROWING itself, local or external, was more or less already in the red zone.

I thought we would have to think deep, but it is proving trivial. Now I think you were lecturing the Secretary not for making bad decisions over our money, but for letting someone else do it.

The politician is behind the wheel; it is the politician who decides what projects need money first and most, and when it comes to making and announcing such projects Finance Secretary better stay put in the pockets of their excellencies. That, or there is the door (I think those are the terms)! The Fin Secretary, apparently, wields no power of the type you have always thought of this Rotich. No one with an economists mind will be caught committing the kinds of project decision errors as you accuse the man above. RR, apparently, is commissioned to meet with foreign dignitaries and representatives of international banks, for political correctness. ... not making money decisions.

Jun 1, 2013 14:23:58 GMT 3 jakaswanga said:

..Me thinks that is Queen Marie Antoinette baking cakes to feed pigs while the Parisian populace starves, fat with rage. When asked, her majesty the Queen said it was her 'royal prerogative' to behave such.
...Jesus Christ Rotich! not even god dictates the economy anymore! the last time 5 loaves fed five Thousand is centuries ago when Jesus was still alive! but even then other reports say it is a figure of speech, and god's son works no miracles neither! So Uhuru Kenyatta can not just stand up and say: LET THERE BE A MINIMUM WAGE, AND WALHALLA, THERE! A MINIMUM WAGE! ---You heard of a command economy somewhere? then show me the Paradise it created!

NB: There is a time Tony Blair as UK-PM made a financial commitment [necessary for the survival of his credibility ---an electoral promise to the NHS it was I think] without having consulted his chancellor of cash Gordon Brown. Word is, had Spindoc Alistair Campbell not had the brutality to smash a hockey-stick into Brown's skull, Gordon's rugby-rough hands would have squeezed Blair's neck off his torso!] 'Never ever do money without okaying it with me, you back-stabbing bastad'. He thundered and looked so ominuous that the MI5 details around the PM fidgeted uneasily, on their gun-holsters . But that is another long story for later.

I know you neither are of the temperament of the Scottsman Brown, nor possessed of the courage to shake your head at your appointing authority Kenyatta, nor Ruto, but I am sure you have the bureaucratic wit to inform theirr courts, that there is a running brain at Finance, and thinking has entered the game. When thinking enters a game, things change. Like when Eric Cantona joined Man-U, more brainy than heady, more skillful at reading the game and making the lethal pass than spectacular dribbling to naught, a new era unfolded for the venerable Marshall, Alex Ferguson. Now retired.

4. Ruto 'ordered' electricity tarrifs frozen. 'Just like that.'

That while may reap populist cheers, was of course pure stupidity. If it was to be policy, it would be your treasury officials, after going through the books of the company, and factoring all else, who would reach a binding agreement with the sector and all stake-holders. An agreement underwritten by the head of state and DP, which then would better be announced by the CEO of the electricity company.

--That is the modern world Richard. A politician does not dictate the operational costings and market pricings of the product of an independent company. If he wants to do so, then he must first NATIONALISE it. Man, I do not have to go to Harvard to know that much! Jeesuus!

I am stopping here for now --this list of commedies runs far, but they are ABCs I did not want to bother to tackle, thinking afterall, first session full cabinet is yet to meet, so I should do more slack-tutting! I was more irked by the actions of Mpigs. De-gazetting SRC kinyume cha sheria, and threatening to do as they pleased with the nation's finances.

Where is the minister of finance to stand up in parliament and show thought, action, grit and leadership. I mean these over-fattenened hogs are running amok, having no talk-back from THE MINSTER OF FINANCE, the guy PAID to take care of business! WHERE THE FWACK ARE YOU, DR. Rotich?

Aaah, humping geishas in Japan at the cost of Wanjiku!? Just another kleptocrat on permanent French leave?

I am cutting you slack man, cut me some back. Help me cut down my fellow tribesmates Mbadi and Midiwo. They are run-away nuisances! ---'We' shudder to think what arrogance would now be on display had 'we' won the elections!

I will be back!

Man! That is good fury. How I wish RR would humble himself enough to set the matters straight with us, or at least to start saying "money is my docket, your not-so-excellency!"


Oops, this was not the post I have been looking forward to replying to .... I mixed thing up. I will have to search and be back.

[jakaswanga]

THE IMPORTANCE OF CHARACTER IN EFFECTIVE GOVERNMENT POLICY

WONT SHAVE THEM ALL WITH THE SAME RAZOR ANYMORE I am told kids must be shaved gentler! Since they cut easy, soft-tissue heads!

Labour productivity gone negative on a national scale, is a slippery slope. When relative to your neighbours your country is uncompetitive, down you slide to the bottom of the valley. And there shall you stay until them of a stronger mental breed mind their task. Labour productivity gone negative, it means anything you can produce or do, others do faster, better, cheaper and more elegantly. It means even your prostitutes become too dirty for the worst of crazed consumers! Bestial scavengers become your niche. Dog porn starring college beauties your fame. As for Lupita’s Oscar, I see her mostly described as Mexican-American!

So when I gathered what the comparative figures of the productivity %s of the Kenyan bureaucracy (and political class) are, and in the same table saw that their remunerations, comparatively again, are over competitive (as in amongst the world’s highest), it struck me that there is a story here the size of the asteroid that obliterated the dinosaurs from the top of the food chain, and ended their evolutionary options.

The disconnect [inverse relationship] in Kenya between productivity and remuneration, is a crisis, a hiatus in which the future of the nation disappears live, swallowed like a body six feet under the gathering dunes of the desert. Yet some ask, is it really that much of an existential threat! –where is the stagnation? is it not just a group crying wolf, using government deficit as a scarecrow to enact an impoverishment of workers –-how can the registered +5% economic growth rate be called bad!? Aint this talk of skyrocketing ‘wage-bill’ just a ready made bogeyman, an alibi, to roll back hard-fought-for gains by labour!? Damn!

…Well…

In human society, someone has to work for the collective bread I am afraid. Work Work Work! is the magic incantation here, however biblical that may sound. If the top layers are not working, then someone else down must work: that is why the aristocracy had slaves. And, somebody has to keep them working, and up the productivity of labour.

While the slaves worked to death for less than pea-nuts, the aristocracy reaped the proceeds of their sweat and toil. Someone has to pay the bills anyhow; but the aristocracy, thus freed from the daily grind of production targets, could indulge themselves in notions like romantic love, and cuddle the whole day writing poetry, without a worry –except for the disruptive eventuality of a rebellion by the slaves. In that respect, everybody knew on whose shoulders and back the system rested and ran. And, what it took to keep it so. ----No world for illusions, economics.



usslave.blogspot.nl/2011/09/slave-tortures-mask-scolds-bridle-or.html


Here is an iconic image of LAW & ORDER in the sugar plantations of the Carribbean.



Now, Kenya seems bent on a miracle. Everybody employed is an aristocrat, earning keep doing nothing, yet no slaves to surrender sweat and blood, and be expropriated of their all. –Lo, that minimum wage at the down end. It wont be enforced of course, but it is an official warning: below this, you are misusing a Kenyan. Chinese Railway builders are thus informed: import your own kind to enslave on the SGR,! Use and dump yes! but not I Kenyan. And at the top end, the Kenyan mandarinate does nothing, but earns empire-running rates. They have said goodbye to work, they swim in theft. The Kenyan bureaucrat has evolved into a rogue parasite. Perfect parasites strive to not kill off the host, nor test their patience too much. They live and let live, but not the Kenyan bureaucrat. No, ours are a rotting abscess on the public body. But our politicians have of course discovered TAXATION as an instrument of serdom-ing the population.

I was thinking Henry Rotich as a younger turk man would recognise the ideological indicators, and make the professional effort to get through to his age-mate Uhuru Kenyatta, that they should become at least smart parasites, and evolve away from the scorch-earth policy of their KANU-bred ancestors. But all hope is now lost; Dr. Rotich, a protégé of the veteran parasite Joseph Kinyua, is a too much a dyed in the wool sheep, which is perhaps why he was deemed trustworthy enough to be slotted. A safe pair of hands by the virtue of having those hands totally ever limp. An orderly of the variant put down with: did I say I pay you to think, boy!?
And so, the no less scorch-penned Digital Onyango Oloo could report: ‘the new secretary for finance gawked and quacked live on TV, fumbling profusely before the appointing authority.’
--That was the digital in which Oloo took as through the Bretton-Woods roots of the new Jubilee cabinet, ominously warning us to look out for straw men.

..Sawa..
Let me talk some more about general IDEOLOGICAL AWARENESS and political architecture, or roadmaps as far as political administrations go.

Because president Uhuru Kenyatta is a conservative by ideological inclination, it is to the right wing of the political spectrum that I shall go, to tell my long story in shock: Using Maggie, or

MARGARET THATCHER.

When Tory or Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher came to power after a gruelling election, she was surrounded by an Old Boys network, Eton-Oxbridge we should say. Some were orthodox, conservative economists who, while they saw themselves as steady hands on the wheel of MV Brittania, as heirs and guardians to a great heritage, the fresh Premier saw in them only objects of contempt who, together with their despicable Left Wing equivalents like Tonny Benn, were responsible for the demise of the once Great Britain. Thatcher thought Old Tory Ted Heath and Co had turned Britain into a European laughing stock ---the sick man of Europe as she was known, and to boot, they seemed to revel in it in self-depreciatory wit. It all sickened Margaret. It was a contempt so deep in antipathy, it became a patriotic pathology. ---‘I am the only man in this room!’ she reputedly thundered at the crop of Oxbridge alumni gathered at No 10 in cabinet, -(the women cum men in that room included Big Guns like Nigel Lawson, Ken Clarke, Michael Hasseltine, Lord Soames, Francis Pym, Douglas Hurd, Geoffrey Howe, John Major.)



www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/8521277/Margaret-Thatchers-Cabinet-was-a-battle-of-wills.html

In the first years she had to fight to establish her very authority. She faced the most difficult test for any leader: senior ministers who simply did not support the policies she was setting out. The bloodiest battleground was public spending. Cabinet ministers not only defended their departmental budgets but at times fought as if they were in different parties. At one Cabinet meeting Jim Prior, the Secretary of State for Employment, brought along Keith Joseph’s election address to show why a proposed saving would be entirely inconsistent with previous promises

Yes guys: the bloodiest battleground was PUBLIC SPENDING here we come. Public Spending, that is where the public wage bill is filed under.

I did not go to Harvard like Rotich, but I sure was awake during a period of harsh debates. I remember a hall in London at which at the Thatcher-Bashing podium sat young Ken Livingstone [Red Ken] and Tony Benn –may God rest his soul in pieces, fwacking old Marxist dog, some members of the Tory Party must have prayed yesterday when Old Benn died.
---Hmmm, I can not just roll over the passing of this knave Tony. (Nothing in common with his namesake Blair the Liar though! The Blair the lying Tony we will soon let the mince-meat maker Robert Fisk who reports for the Independent from the Middle East, chop for us to pieces in another link!)

TONY BENN, 1925-2014.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/14/tony-benn-dies-aged-88-labour-politiican

Benn was a divisive figure within the Labour party because of his steadfast support for traditional socialism. His son Hilary, the Labour MP for Leeds Central and shadow secretary of state for communities and local government, famously described himself as "a Benn, not a Bennite". The Sun once asked whether his firebrand views made him "the most dangerous man in Britain".
Some old ministerial colleagues from the 1970s and 80s privately made plain they would be making no public comment, reluctant to speak ill of the dead. But bitterness against what they still see as his destructive and dishonest conduct during the Bennite ascendancy remains toxic.
His death prompted tributes from many Eurosceptic MPs who remembered his longstanding opposition to the European Union.

and here is something on the old red devil from a former interim leader of the labour party

Margaret Beckett, a contemporary during some of the most bitter Labour infighting in the 80s said of him [Tony Benn]: "He was an absolutely brilliant speaker ... he had such clarity of expression." She added that he was "a charming, nice man. He made enemies and kept enemies but on the whole most people regarded him with a good degree of affection long before it came to the stage when it was thought he could cause no harm. He was out of step for many years with whoever was in the charge of the leadership. He wanted to make people think and that was an admirable thing."

Yes, Good Old Tony Benn, in the BBC studios talking politics opposite the accomplished broadcaster and Westminster pundit Antony Howard, that was a major school in British posh, eloquence and mastery of the workings of the inner sanctum of UK power .

I try to operate on two unconnected levels. One on the practical level of action in which I am extremely cautious and conservative. The second is the realm of ideas where I try to be very free"

If we can find the money to kill people, we can find the money to help them -----Tony Benn, 1925-2014

But yes, Public spending and the Greater London Council occupied Margret Thatcher, and she was out to destroy the latter together with its Trotskyst trouble-shooter, Red Ken, who was a thorn in her side. Maggy was convinced it [GLC] was a parasitic racket contributing nothing to the city, merely bogging it down. Lean and mean was the buzz word. Two buzz words which our dear baby of finance Rotich should learn first, before the expected papa Muigai and mama Ruto flows through his tongue.

Margaret Thatcher, keen on sanitizing the state and reducing debt, or merely ideologically bent on thinning out the nanny state, removing safety nets for the working class, thus motivating them by the fear of destitution into horrendous working conditions, recognised she would have to find soul mates elsewhere, men and women who saw the bigger picture, and loved Britain enough to take a major risk with her politics.

A ‘raving lunatic of a witch!’, one of the Old Eton club boys later wrote of her, in a paragraph later excised from his autobiography as too hecklish (for the hypocritical ruling class that is, since Working Class spit-fire images of Maggie were definitely worse.)



The humour was brutal and downright nasty.



Now, just as history would have it, that raving lunacy was what was required to transform Britain forever, as Maggie did, for better or for worse. Therefore Maggie went to fish for some real catch as my father would put it. A big fish that could swim with the sharks that were circling, plotting and homing on her slow motion at No 10. This means, bypassing the sharks from her party, she went to other waters or academic seas, and there she found the ideologue she needed.

We must not forget to say the Left too had its sharks smelling her blood, and they did not come more ferocious than the Scot Arthur Scargil of the National Union of Miners [NUM]. But that is a very long story. ---But we can remember what a hasty retreat DPORK Ruto beat a few weeks ago, when his suggestion to trim down the civil service was frowned upon by the Civil Servants Union backed by COTU paper tiger Atwoli. A frown from the would be victims, and the legendary Samoei folded up like a tapped centipede. [okolo kidwong’g as the Luos say]

Too, Margaret Thatcher needed balls of steel if she was to survive this battle set up. And she needed backboned mental company. Econs Don Prof. Alan Walters would fit the bill.

THE LATE PROFESSOR ALAN WALTERS, THATCHER’S MENTAL BACKBONE

www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/jan/05/alan-walters

He was first appointed as an adviser by Thatcher in 1981, and helped her chancellor Sir Geoffrey (later Lord) Howe, in persuading her to take one of her biggest gambles in the 1981 budget, which overturned Keynesian orthodoxy by raising taxes in the middle of a severe recession. No less than 364 leading economists wrote to the Times questioning the government's policies after the budget speech.
Howe said yesterday: "He was a really stimulating man and one of her closest advisers in what we called Thatcher's bunker at the time. He had an enormous influence on government policy and in 1981 myself, Lawson, Terry Burns [then chief economic adviser to the Treasury] together had to persuade Lady Thatcher to introduce a tough budget."

Not interested in saving any particular class, nor political constituency for that matter, and not beholden to particular brokers, Alan was a ruthless monk pious before the academic models in his head, and Thatcher was a perfect receptacle, since in him she found a free mind who could help her beloved Brittain assail the hated Germans and the dirty French, and become great once more above these historical rivals in Europe.
Alan wanted everything that did not work either destroyed or abandoned. And Alan did not believe the state could do anything more efficiently than the free market of private entrerpreneurs, so everything had to be privatised. All state schools, jails .. mentioning only the controversial ones. Yes, even the historic icon the National Health Service [NHS]. Indeed this was an ‘insane’ regime!
www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-sir-alan-walters-economist-and-adviser-to-margaret-thatcher-whose-monetarist-ideas-defined-her-reign-as-prime-minister-1228172.html

Alan Walters' career exemplifies what Hegel called "the cunning of history": accidental and incidental factors interact with "necessity" in unexpected ways to create new, hard realities. Greatness was thrust upon him when Margaret Thatcher, then wrestling with her tangled inheritance of economic chaos as Prime Minister of a government which was not of her mind, decided she needed her own personal economic adviser. She appointed Alan Walters, whom she had met and learned to appreciate some years previously. Walters lived up to the challenge to an extent that few would have predicted. His two-year stint at No 10 added a dimension of economic doctrine, logic and consistency to the largely instinctual Thatcherite canon.
Of the qualities needed for a prime-ministerial economic adviser at that time, knowledge of economics was less important than character, since it was necessary to fight a mind set which dominated the civil service, academe, the broadsheet press, and, in a word, the establishment. Walters fitted the bill.

Like forests are burnt that new growth arise, Thatcher (backed by this man who ''fitted the bill'')would unleash the fire of the market on the rotting British society –there is no such thing as society she would later say—and not flinch even as hitherto considered heirlooms were sold off or gutted.
A witch dedicated to profit, with a superstitious feverish belief in the market, worshipping private property, selling off council houses! (and capturing the tenant class from the labour party in the process! –until the debt man came calling with a repossession and eviction notice!)
NB: Here is an interesting if cautionary detail from the USA, on possible side-effects of [market fundamentalism] privatised jails running for profit: the so=called kids for cash scandal: PENNSYLVANIA. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal

The "kids for cash" scandal unfolded in 2008 over judicial kickbacks at the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Two judges, President Judge Mark Ciavarella and Senior Judge Michael Conahan, were accused of accepting money from Robert Mericle, builder of two private, for-profit juvenile facilities, in return for contracting with the facilities and imposing harsh sentences on juveniles brought before their courts to increase the number of inmates in the detention centers.[1][2]

Because I am a convert to treating people equally before the barber , and not using kid gloves or double standards, when President Uhuru Kenyatta, a conservative, addressed the nation and talked industrialisation, I decided to look at the archives of my adventures in foreign lands and see who else, a conservative of the market, had transformed his/her country apace in the face of adversity and mountainous opposition from any number of Jaluos in black, … without denying them access to VIP lounges at airports, accusing them of false coups, nor trying to buy them out with money looted from the already depleted treasury.
I did not want to say, in dismissive scorn like Otishotish, --Aaach, African leaders talking, better things to do than listen to them! Even a parrot takes them not serious. No, I wanted to take the son of Jomo seriously, and run him through the lens. May be beneath his tired eyes, screams a character with content to be taken in stock. ---Digital Oloo admonished patience, ‘’cut Muigai some slack. First time using a condom is always clumsy, he will soon get the rhythm of power alright, and get the damn country moving!’’
Then he appointed Dr. Rotich his economist strategist. I thought good. Rotich went to Harvard –where Obama and his troop went; and Alan Walters went to Oxford. Oxford is good, but not as good as world-leader Harvard . So I thought this Rotich, if he is minded, he will be our Alan Walters, too if Muigai knows the score of Industrial transformation, and understands the call of his name Uhuru.
Do not laugh yet. I am saying Henry Rotich has the brains to do what Alan Walters did. But he is not going to do it. Why? That is why I am linking the Independent obituary of Sir Walters. The Obituarist reaches a curious conclusion on Walters. That, professors from Oxford come a dime in the UK, more so in economics. What distinguished Walters from other brilliant professors, was his CHARACTER. The content of his character.

They are all clever there at the top. But it is the character of man that shall make the difference. That is, very few finance ministers have gone to Harvard, but most economies around the world just work fine. Harvard is holy, but no miracle worker. Just the printing ;)press for the dollar.

Now you can laugh, because Uhuru Kenyatta appointed Joseph Kinyua as his Alan Walters!---madha fwaka talks sparking industrialisation, then glues his ears to Kinyua! would be comical if he were not the president of Kenya. Now that he is, it is the making of his tragedy. Nothing Uhuru Kenyatta sets out to do, works. Even taking his own pay cut voluntarily draws only derision!

THE GAMBLER by Kenny Rogers goes somewhere like this in lyrics:
….You got to know when to HOLD ON,…know when to hold on ..
Know when to walk… away…. You got to know when to run….
…..
I say you gotta know when your country aint gonna make it to Canaan soon. That is when you gotta choose CORD or Jubilee.
So from now on, fellow Kenyans, I am back to the double standard. I wont be judging Rotich with the same measurement I use on Wolfgang Schaube of Germany. I will join Otishotish and say, well, African politicians, you got to dumb it down a bit. And like Mwalimumkuu of Jukwaa once famously said of Kenya’s famous gay writer [Banyivanga Wainaina]: when you looked at him, you kind of saw he was OFF!
Yes, when you look at an African minister of finance, you kind of see they are not ON! Treat them as you would a kid, please. Hawajatosha kipimo ya wakubwa. When we do adults [public wage bill] only, we send them to sleep.

With adolescent girls like professor Margaret Kobia running Public Service Commission, you do not want to take that title professor too seriously after you read the following.
www.nation.co.ke/news/The-clique-of-public-servants-on-special-terms-/-/1056/2245914/-/og9p9y/-/index.html

A new cadre of public servants hired on super salaries is contributing to the ballooning wage bill, enquiries by the Sunday Nation reveal.

The big number of advisers, consultants and quasi-state officials recruited by the Jubilee government on special terms in the last one year further puts to question President Uhuru Kenyatta’s message of austerity following revelations that the unsustainable wage bill of almost Sh500 billion needs to be cut.
But the chairperson of the Public Service Commission (PSC), Prof Margaret Kobia, defended the hiring of the new officials, many of whom were party activists before Jubilee came to power. Many of the advisers, she said, bring special skills.

They never saw an opportunity to waste money they left idle. That kind of infant elite then. In deed no honour among thieves.

Consumer Federation of Kenya (Cofek) secretary Stephen Mutoro said these super-paid public servants end up killing the morale in the civil service by duplicating duties and earning huge salaries.
“The super-paid civil servants are basically in their own world – they are paid so highly for doing so little to the extent that they adversely kill the morale of the mainstream public servants who in return do everything in their ability to sabotage such newcomers instead of serving the public,” said Mr Mutoro

This Kamau’s boy Muigai, just plain out of his depth at State House. And Ruto? Aach, just another corpse sleepwalking in town. ---Character, O character! You have it, you do not spend over 80M gallivanting around in a private jet, then talk about a run-away public wage bill!