Tuesday 13 November 2012

Top 5 Careers of the future.


In case you haven’t looked outside your window as yet, things are changing fast, and rapidly so. While I believe that traditional careers like medicine, commerce, law and engineering will continue to be in demand in years to come, there are some new emerging careers that will dominate in the near future. So, these are the top 5 careers which I believe will be in demand in the near future.

1. Data miners/Data Scientists.
The information being churned out is simply mind boggling. We simply don’t know what to do with all this information. Professionals who will make sense of the data, and unearth useful insights that we can digest and use fast will be most in demand. And it’s really not hard to figure that out. Apart from natural resources, companies that deal with information are the most valued. Think of media companies, telecommunication companies like Safaricom, Airtel, Orange, and Yu, or internet giants like Google, Facebook and twitter. These companies don’t produce the information itself, but they make useful insights, and distribute the

Martha Karua hits out at Uhuru and Ruto Camp.


In a bitter reaction to Uhuru Kenyatta’s assertion that the Presidential candidates in central Kenya join him or face the wrath of voters, Narc Kenya presidential candidate, Martha Karua, has come out fighting. On her Facebook page, this is what she posted, “We must all exercise our right to vote responsibly. Every Kenyan who meets the constitutional threshold can vie for any position and top political seats are not a preserve for the few political elite. 
Ask yourself whether you can employ a suspect in your business or farm knowing very well that they have to attend court after their cases have been confirmed! If your answer is no then how can we as a country contemplate to elect a President or deputy who is required to attend the court abroad for crimes against humanity? Is Kenya short of good leaders who are not suspects? I have faith that Kenyans shall see through the veiled coercion being deployed against leaders from certain communities. I am firmly in this race and together, we shall make it!”
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Sponsor demands an apology from Gor Mahia.


Gor Mahia football club must own up and apologize for the violence and the destruction of property caused by their fans after the team failed to win the Kenyan Premier League title. Football stakeholders among them the Football Kenya Federation and team sponsors Tuzo, have challenged the club to take necessary steps to avoid pushing corporate away. Gor fans were accused of vandalism along Jogoo road on Saturday, after a 1-1 draw against Thika United denied them the trophy.

Tuzo through the parent company Brookside Dairy Limited, condemned the acts of hooliganism, adding that the incident is likely to jeopardize the relationship with the club. According to the dairy company, Gor Mahia should issue a public apology and give an assurance that such acts would not happen. Gor Mahia club had itself to blame, as the title was theirs to lose. They now go for the 18th year without a trophy, although credit goes to their coach for lifting them from relegation to just a whisker away from lifting the trophy. But just as sad, ‘Almost doesn’t count’.
Source-NTV.
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Saitoti took my son 24 years ago, claims teacher in court


A man has gone to court, claiming that the only son of former Internal Security Minister George Saitoti, is actually his own son who was stolen 24 years ago.
Mr Sebastian Maina Ngunju has asked the Nakuru Senior Principal Magistrate for leave to privately prosecute a Mrs Mary Saitoti, whom he claims to be the wife of the former minister, who died in a helicopter crash on June 10.
In his affidavit, filed in court on November 8, Mr Ngunju claims that he and his wife are the parents of Mr Zackary Musengi, Mr Saitoti’s son.
They claim that the minister’s son was born to them on September 21, 1985 and was the third-born in a family of five. He further claims that his alleged son was stolen from their Subukia home.
Now he wants to be allowed to prosecute Mrs Saitoti for allegedly concealing a kidnapped person.
Mr Ngunju also claimed that Mr Musengi was actually born Stephen Wachira and was kidnapped three days to his third birthday by a woman who was later arrested, charged and acquitted by a Nairobi court.
“I have never stopped searching for my son and at one time, I tried working as a mason at Saitoti’s home with the hope of seeing my child but I was unsuccessful,” he alleged.
He alleged that when he saw the minister’s son, he recognised him. “To my surprise it was him, he resembles my children and without any doubt, I recognised him,” claimed the man.
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Monday 12 November 2012

10 things to be Watchful of as you start your Business.


In the comment section of an international publication, I came across a list of five things that young companies and entrepreneurs must be
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prepared to face when launching their ventures. In the same breath, I decided to do a list of ten things that a typical young Kenyan company or entrepreneur might have to be watchful of. If you want to a launch a business or company in Kenya, here are the ten things you must be cautious of.

1. Banks are not your friends.
Banks are hard-core investors and should be treated as such. They want big returns for minimal capital invested. Unfortunately, you will be more worried about repaying the loans than concentrating on building your venture. Get your starting/seed capital from savings, friends, family or angels. What’s more, even though capital is highly desirable for starting a business, it is by no means the only ingredient to a successful venture. Cash flow is much more important than capital, and sometimes, too much capital at the start could lead to

Low Pay for Workers is the cause for brain drain in Kenya.


For close to ten years now, Equity Bank has had a pre-university mentorship program
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for the brightest and most talented KCSE stars across the country. According to the bank’s April 2012 newsletter, sixty five of their scholars have gained admission to top notch universities across the world ever since the bank introduced the pre-university mentorship program.  This year, some of the bank’s scholars that have been admitted to various universities in the US include Lydia Katini Mwangasha, the best female student in the 2010 KCSE exams who has been admitted to Harvard University and Allan Machuka Marube, the second best male student in the 2010 KCSE exams, who has been admitted to Princeton University.

However, apart from the bank just sponsoring these brains to go abroad, has the bank also ensured that some of the brains come back to the country, to utilize their skills? It is obvious that any student that receives admission to these universities would turn down an admission slot at one of the Kenyan public universities. With the lecturers’ strikes, and sometimes even strikes by students, bright students are an easy prey for overseas universities that are hungry for top talent. When it comes to talent alone, there is absolutely no way Kenyan universities can compete with these overseas universities. The amount of resources these universities command is mind boggling. Yale University for instance, pays for full tuition, full accommodation, a monthly living stipend, plus a ticket to and from home every year. Their stated mission is to get the best talent in the world, regardless of its location. Other top Ivy League and private universities like Harvard, MIT and Stanford would also likely offer a similar package.  Few Kenyans admitted to such universities ever return. I would hope that Equity Bank, apart from just encouraging such brains to study abroad, has mechanisms to ensure that they also put some of the skills to good use back home.

Proponents of brain drain argue that it is a good thing if our best can compete with the rest of the world. That only shows that we are capable of matching up with the best. They also point out the increased remittances from the African diaspora, and how it has helped boost economies back home. In deed, remittances for some countries such as Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia constitutes a huge chunk of their foreign exchange.

A radical idea proposed to combat brain drain is a FIFA-risation of the talent exchange. In such an arrangement, rich and developed countries would compensate poor countries for the talent they got from such countries. It is the same way in FIFA, when a club buys a player; the originating club is given some transfer money every time the player is bought by another club, so as to compensate the club for all the time, effort and money it took to develop the talent. Likewise, rich countries would compensate poor countries for the money the poor countries end up spending on future doctors, lecturers, engineers, only for them to end up serving in rich Western countries. Ethiopia has increased the number of doctors and nurses it trains by four times in recent years, perhaps out of a realization that it simply can’t hold all its doctors and nurses within its borders. It may very well reap big if a FIFA-risation arrangement is to be adopted.

Philip Emeagwali, the famed Nigerian-American computer scientist who has been credited as among the pioneers of the internet era, and is often regarded as the ‘Bill Gates’ of Africa, sums up.

He reiterates that in any country, human capital is much more valuable than financial capital because it is only a nation’s human capital that can be converted into real wealth.  He says that money alone cannot eliminate poverty in Africa, because even a trillion dollars is a number with no intrinsic value.  Real wealth cannot be measured by money, yet people often confuse money with wealth.  When you give your money to your doctor, that physician helps you to convert your money into health – or rather wealth.  Money cannot teach your children, teachers can.  Money cannot bring electricity to your home, engineers can.  Money cannot cure sick people, doctors can. When the medical doctors immigrate to the United States, the poor are forced to seek medical treatment from traditional healers while the elite fly to London for their routine medical checkups.
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