Monday this week I attended the talk by CK Prahalad on the Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. This talk was quite an eye opener but the government role is key to its success.
Today the government of Kenya went a step ahead and launched the water irrigation project to address food shortage by making Kenyans less dependent on rainfall.
By the way only 30 % of the viewers on Kenya Television Network ( KTN ) had confidence in the government’s intentions. I celebrate a step in the right direction and I want to believe good is possible?
On a sad note Lake Naivasha is drying up, lets pray for rain? Most of our rivers are drying up and this is truly a situation we need to start addressing and fast!
What is your take? What can we do to reverse this trend

Shortages, Shortages, Shortages. That is what we are beginning to experience as the the drought lingers on. Last night the electricity was not back at 6 pm as they had promised. The excuse was a transformer had blown. I went to bed before power came and woke up to no water to bath. This is a sad affair and if you take it a notch higher and you find many people don’t have a home, land, job or food and poverty is everywhere! We as a country need to address these shortages.

When there are shortages, no one is immune to the suffering it causes. When a Nation like Kenya or a society is mismanaged not even the leaders or rich are immune to the effects of the suffering. Looking at crime, road carnage, aids, etc when all hell breaks loose it knows not class… or status. It gets everyone, the degree and speed will vary, but let no one think its not affecting everyone me included. WHY LIE ? To me it is a WAKE UP CALL?

Last week was one long and educative one, mainly on how to trade with the US, with ourselves and with Africa. I have gathered a lot from African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Foum, but it took my whole day and by the time I got home I could do nothing else.

We have received the grants applications for July 2009 and I will be arranging a meeting with all the Entrepreneurs Grants applicants sometime mid next week. Please check this blog often for the details of the meeting where the winner of July grant will be announced .

The other day while watching the news my heart was disheartened by the news article of the little girl who was chopped and her maid.
One person can be insane but when three collectively gang up to commit such an atrocity on an innocent soul, I find it way beyond insanity. My only peace is in believing that the little angel is at a better place.

My prayer goes to the little girl’s parents and relatives. This is just too painful for them to bear, to accept and move from.

I do not know what drives someone to such insanity. Could it have been drugs, hatred, greed, jealousy? What would surely justify such an act?

I visited Bangalore, India for a franchise exhibition where my hope was to sign up a few franchises for our youth and also for other hard working Kenyans.

One of the areas that Driving Kenya Foundation will embark on when I come back home is to start the drive for 1 million jobs. This will not come easy, for success we have to work hard to transform our mentality & attitude to help us derive work ethics within us that can drive and see us dedicate & commit ourselves to reach our goals of a perfect Kenya by 2015.

One thing we need to cultivate are debates on issues that will serve the best interests of our people, whether The Hague, Local Tribunal, TJRC, Mau Forest or review of land tenure systems & jurisdictions. The best discussions are those that will help us transform ourselves individually and also collectively.

In response to the Entrepreneurs Grants that was launched a few days ago, applications are beginning to pour in from all over the country.
We will wait for a cut off number before we start to short-list the applicants.
The short-listed applicants will be contacted via email and a further selection will be made to determine the winner or winners of the grant. Keep the applications coming and spread the world so that we can have more innovative and well deserving applicants getting their chance at this grant.
Please visit Esther Passaris website, to complete the grant application form.

Earlier in the month I posted about giving a chance to one or more Kenyans to go for their dreams through a monthly grant. Although micro finance is available in the country it is not accessible for all.
This grant is my way of helping some Kenyan to achieve their dreams and create employment.

I will mentor the winners and I know this will make a difference. If you want to participate in this grant complete the application form which is found at Esther Passaris website. Please note that all the fields are mandatory. If you do not have an answer to enter in any box then fill it with N/A.

Spread the word so that we can have as many participants as possible. Who knows this could attract some of our young inventors and youthful entrepreneurs out there.

Good Luck!

I posted in my Facebook wall today that I would like to give out between Kshs. 50,000 and 100,000 every month from my earnings for a deserving Kenya development project on capital for investment.
This project should yield returns, create jobs and advance the life of any one of my supporters. One condition is one should have a bank account.

If any one of my supporters is interested, then let them tell me about their specific project? It need not be a going concern, it can be a new idea too.
Applications will be done online and you can expect to get the link to the application within the week. I do not want any stake in any project nor do I want to be paid back, all I want is for the project to succeed. I shall be available for advise with a team of mentors, however if you are successful then you can join Omega where you can invest… more about that in a latter post.

For now let us hear what nugget of ideas you’ve got out there. Good luck to all of who will apply for the month of July capital and know that my decision is final. Go for it, its a chance to get moving positively!
Visit this blog frequently for any new information about this project.

Life in Kenya is worrying as the incidences and headlines we awake to are just as frightening as can get. From suspicion and allegations of paedophile priests to evangelists being charged with pornography. Rising insecurity, you keep hearing of carjacking, extortion through sms, school kids being kidnapped with ransom requests of millions of shillings, among many other evils. If one is involved in an accident, stopping might just mean death for the motorist. Stealing of fuel from transformers and overturned tankers and
the subsequent blackouts, fires and burns is becoming a national preoccupation! Hunger and many of our brothers still dying from it.

One is bound to ask where are we going as a nation?
Where are we as a people heading to?
Who can come and lead us to Canaan, and remove us from this mess we have gradually sunk into?

Things cannot be allowed to deteriorate any further or we risk
following the many nations in Africa like Somalia who have ended up with non functioning governments and that just is anarchy!

What do you think we can do? We have shouted ourselves horse in
the press, we read it and see it daily in the media. Whose
responsibility is it to make the changes required to reverse this
unfathomable crisis we are trending right now?

This is a challenge to all of us not to tire but at every opportunity
endeavour to be heard until someone, somewhere, hears us and starts
ACTING!

On 4th June I shared in my facebook that I was going for a HIV test. What I didn’t expect was the barrage of comments both negative and positive that I received.

One thing about the internet is the freedom people have to speak their minds. One interesting point that I want to bring up was the point that my post was irrelevant. But considering it solicited over 40 responses then I think my post was definitely not irrelevant but very pertinent to the reality of life today in Kenya.

Let no man or woman feel that HIV is something to be swept under the carpet. I wish we had more leaders and other Kenyans coming up to show their status as this would make sure they become more responsible in their efforts to guard their status. This would also create an awareness.