Governance by ‘working with the grain’ is the solution for Kenya? are delvoved structures the solutuin to provision of goods and services? This blog takes a critical outlook

 

Kenya - Institutions, power, politics and poverty

we should be dedicated to "discovering institutions that work for poor people". That means exploring the kinds of political, economic and social arrangements that, if adopted, would enable Kenya to make faster progress towards development and the elimination of extreme poverty. This should aim to identify ways of ordering politics and regulating power and authority that might work better than those now in place. Examples and models that have worked in toher countries can be adapted tot the kenyan context, adapted tweeked and improved. This can be done on the basis of a careful and critical look at what has worked well in Africa itself in the recent and not-so-recent past. What has worked in other countries outside africa in similar socio-economic contexts and models and stages of development of the developed countries.

This can combine research with research-training, organisational capacity strengthening and policy development. Research can be done in ways that recognise the substantial, if often underrated, resources for collective problem-solving that are to be found in African societies. In this way, societies can contribute positive examples to shape a new vision of progress on the continent which will be attractive to emerging constituencies for change. In my opinion this would develop an african model of development to complement various development theories of modernisation, liberalisation, globalisation and sociolism.

Adaptability in Action.

In a way, human beings behave like bees. If you place several bees in an open-ended bottle and lay the bottle on its side with the base toward a light source, the bees will repeatedly fly to the bottle bottom toward the light. It never occurs to them to reverse gears and try another direction. This is a combination of genetic programming and learned behavior.

Put a bunch of flies in that bottle and turn the base toward a bright light. Within a few minutes, all the flies will have found their way out. They try all directions up, down, toward the light, away from the light, often bumping into the glass but sooner or later they flutter forth into the neck of the bottle and out the opening.

We often allow ourselves to become locked in our present circumstances even if we are unhappy and really want to be reaching in a new direction. What we’re doing may make us miserable, but at least it’s familiar. One of the most important factors in achieving personal success is the willingness to try things out, to experiment, to test new ground. In fact, this is the only way to learn and progress: trial, error, feedback, knowledge, trial and success. It is a far better thing to try to succeed and fail than to do nothing and succeed.

This week:

* Try it

* Change it

* Do it

Stop stewing and start doing!

Motivation from Within the champion in you!

Motivation is a contraction of motive and action. An inner force that compels behavior, it comes from within, not from any external circumstance. You know where you’re going because you have a compelling image inside, not a travel poster on the wall, a financial statement with a big bonus, or a slogan in the hall. The performance of many externally motivated individuals begins declining as soon as they win contests of one sort or another. I’ve personally witnessed this among Super Bowl champions and World Cup teams that lost the incentive to maintain their excellence after winning the cup, the honors, and the cash.

If you’re really committed to peak performance and leadership, you must motivate yourself from within. Studies of achievers show that inner drives for excellence and independence are far more powerful than the desire for wealth, status or recognition.

The Inner Drive

Behavioral scientists have found that independent desire for excellence is the most telling predictor of significant achievement. In other words, the success of our efforts depends less on the efforts themselves than on our motives. The most successful companies, like the most successful men and women in almost all fields, have achieved their greatness out of a desire to express what they felt had to be expressed. Often it was a desire to use their skills to their utmost in order to solve a problem. This is not to say that many of them did not also earn a great deal of money and prestige. William Shakespeare, Thomas Edison, Estee Lauder, Walt Disney, Oprah Winfrey, Sam Walton and Bill Gates all became wealthy. But far more than thoughts of profit, the key to their success was inspiration and inner drive by creating or providing excellence in a product or a service. All were motivated by the desire to produce the very best that was in them.

Go for the Inner Applause

The late Ray Kroc, who founded McDonald’s Corporation when he was in his 50s, stressed the importance of people working for the inner satisfaction, not just for the money. Ray said most people find it difficult to associate applause with their work when they can’t hear literal applause—but the important applause should come from within. It is the faster heartbeat, the pride and satisfaction of accomplishment.

Kroc told the University of Southern California’s Business School that the first thing a business executive needs is love of an idea.

If you don’t love your concept, drop it. If you prostitute yourself at an early age by taking a job where the money is, you’ll be working for money all your life. Loving their work is particularly important for younger people. If they lose that love early, they may never grow to anywhere near their potential for self-actualization.

Hire People Who Have Empowered Themselves

An inner drive for excellence motivates you always to be the best you possibly can in whatever you do. Leaders and managers should take special note here. They must be careful in their use of external motivators—money, perks, prestigious offices and titles in trying to inspire their team members and employees. Enduring motivation must always come ultimately from within the individual.

That’s why empowerment and vision are so crucial to team performance and quality. Their power and their vision, not those of the leader, must compel team members. Interviewing potential members, you should look for internally motivated individuals who hold their work important for its own sake, who love their field or their industry, who seek the exhilaration of testing their limits and contributing to the world. Be wary if they show more interest in your compensation package than in their contribution package.

Commit to achieving peak performance and leadership, by motivating yourself from within!

This I Believe - Make it your creed. and sow seeds of creatness  in you!

I believe in myself.

I believe that all people have the equal right to become all they are willing and able to become.

I believe that I am a good as anyone in the world. Although I may never be on the cover of global top magazines, I still have time to be one of the people who make a really positive difference in the world.

I believe that although I may not be the best looking in the group, I'll always be looking my best in every group!

I believe in this and the next generation, and believe we'll build a better nation.

I believe that good health means more than wealth.

I believe in caring and sharing, rather than comparing.

I believe of all the people I see, still I'd rather be me!

 

I HAVE FAILED TO BE YOUR MP LET ME BE YOUR GOVERNOR/SENATOR

I Have Failed as an MP, nOW I wanna be your Govrnor-Ha Ha Ha HAA ''what not you again' corrupt and a failure'' Mr MP.  that's very un-nice way of talking to a leader. I have big plans for the people in 2013. By 2030, I can promise this--Kenya will be in the second world. This won't happen i if I am not re-elected in 2012. This won't happen if we all not do our job. Each one has his job. You have your job. I have my job which you gave me. I need to complete the projects I started.
Kenyan MPs are a misunderstood lot. We work very hard. But the ordinary mwananchi is just jealous. Not everyone can be an MP at the same time. You gave us 5 yrs to be your MPs. Let us be your MP.

• Why dont like spending your money wisely...me am very wise I spend 2500 ksh for lunch everyday at serena and am actually going there. Why dont skip on of your lunches just a day and pay the 2000 NHIF contribution per month. You voters you perplex me...anyway kama hamtaki medical cover shauri yenu
• I am a professor of politics you can never remove me..three degrees one from the professor of politics himself MOI, I have studied a masters from Mugabe (who got seven degrees) and onother from Emilio Mwai Obako
• Ok ok ok I know you need direction am your leader and our tribe is being oppressed... dont tell anyone whisper whisper....but let me tel you Fiddel must take langata if we are to survive...ok! and Jimmy Othaya when i leve..ndio hizo projects Ziendelee ok... good people our tribe will remain supreme..am confident mumeniskia sio...hasanteni na mkae hivyo..wakenya you are wise people... asanteni.

Emulate the principles of personal achievement and go for the bigger goals.

 

by Laibuta Ole Kai Kai on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 at 12:53

 

• Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement. Without a purpose and a plan, people drift aimlessly through life.
• The Mastermind principle consists of an alliance of two or more minds working in perfect harmony for the attainment of a common definite objective. Success does not come without the cooperation of others
• Faith is a state of mind through which your aims, desires, plans and purposes may be translated into their physical or financial equivalent.
• Going the extra mile is the action of rendering more and better service than that for which you are presently paid. When you go the extra mile, the Law of Compensation comes into play.
• Personality is the sum total of one’s mental, spiritual and physical traits and habits that distinguish one from all others. It is the factor that determines whether one is liked or disliked by others.
• Personal initiative is the power that inspires the completion of that which one begins. It is the power that starts all action. No person is free until he learns to do his own thinking and gains the courage to act on his own.
• Positive mental attitude is the right mental attitude in all circumstances. Success attracts more success while failure attracts more failure.
• Enthusiasm is faith in action. It is the intense emotion known as burning desire. It comes from within, although it radiates outwardly in the expression of one’s voice and countenance.
• Self-discipline begins with the mastery of thought. If you do not control your thoughts, you cannot control your needs. Self-discipline calls for a balancing of the emotions of your heart with the reasoning faculty of your head.
• The power of thought is the most dangerous or the most beneficial power available to man, depending on how it is used.
• Controlled attention leads to mastery in any type of human endeavor, because it enables one to focus the powers of his mind upon the attainment of a definite objective and to keep it so directed at will.
• Teamwork is harmonious cooperation that is willing, voluntary and free. Whenever the spirit of teamwork is the dominating influence in business or industry, success is inevitable. Harmonious cooperation is a priceless asset that you can acquire in proportion to your giving.
• Individual success usually is in exact proportion of the scope of the defeat the individual has experienced and mastered. Many so-called failures represent only a temporary defeat that may prove to be a blessing in disguise.
• Creative vision is developed by the free and fearless use of one’s imagination. It is not a miraculous quality with which one is gifted or is not gifted at birth.
• Sound health begins with a sound health consciousness, just as financial success begins with a prosperity consciousness.
• Time and money are precious resources, and few people striving for success ever believe they possess either one in excess.
• Developing and establishing positive habits leads to peace of mind, health and financial security. You are where you are because of your established habits and thoughts and deeds.

Happiness is not my right BUt Goal TO BE ACHIEVED WITHIOUT A BARGAIN FOR FAILURE.

by Laibuta Ole Kai Kai on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 at 13:23

A merry heart makes a cheerful man: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken;Positive mind repairs the heart and rekindles the Mind!

I`m the happiest man on the earth, inspite of not having all the essential components of happinness or is NOT embracing the TOOLS of SADNESS
I`m happy even though life takes the toughest of the path in the journey but I journey and trounce the Toughness EMERGING TOUGHER.
Is that because i forgot to cry or there is no tears in my eyes, I dont know, but i`m happy coz I Choose to be and work to BE.
Or is it that life always gives me what i want (RATHER I TAKE IT) inspite of testing me to the core???? Or do I originate from the CORE. You TELL Me "LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT".
Or is it the hatred for everything that is second best, or for being one??? CANT CLAIM TO BE THE BEST BUT I STRIVE TO BE THE FIRST AMONG EQUALS.
Is it the ignorance toward the conservative "pursuit of happiness" Or is it because i believe that happiness is not my right BUt Goal TO BE ACHIEVED WITHIOUT A BARGAIN FOR FAILURE.
Or is it just becaus i dont have the ability to distinguish between Pain and Happiness!!! OR DO i TURN BAD LUCK INTO GOOD LuCK COZ I believe every experience is An opportunity IN ITSELF.
Remembering that the stone which the builders refused became the head stone of the corner... Here i`m the stone

Kenya needs a solution for small traders

by Laibuta Ole Kai Kai on Thursday, 07 October 2010 at 08:41

Kenya needs to support and protect the rights of small-scale urban traders if it is to address the glaring inequality and poverty in the country. Small-scale trading, such as hawkers and roadside stalls/kiosks, contributes about 18 percent of Kenya’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and supports 77 percent of the Kenyan urban workforce, yet is routinely failed by local councils who do not provide basic services and harass and solicit bribes from traders. I do not want to use the stereotype term "hawkers"

"Small traders have become gardens for local authorities to harvest money, harass, arrest and violently evict. Their business sheds are demolished without notice, theri goods looted or confiscated and never returned," .
Nearly one in five traders (18 percent) have experienced harassment or violence from city council officials and askaris, while 13 percent have at some point been evicted by the council. 11 percent have had goods confiscated, with half of the goods never returned.
Over half of traders do not pay the official licence fees to the city council, which at Ksh 25 per day can amount to more than a quarter of their weekly profit. One in four traders surveyed earn less than Ksh 500 ($7) per week. A third have experienced harassment when seeking licences and have been charged up to double the official price.
"While the licence fee is a legal requirement, the council should remember that it has a duty to provide basic services in return. Access to water, electricity and garbage collection affects how efficiently small businesses can be run. Yet most traders have to pay large amounts of their meagre income to private vendors because these services are not provided by the city,"
While nearly two thirds of the traders now have access to water, an overwhelming 93 percent of those get it privately. The city council provides water to just four percent of the traders. Less than half of traders have access to electricity, and the vast majority who do (81 percent) obtain it through dangerous illegal connections due to the lack of council supply.
The government must  ensure traders’ rights enshrined in the new constitution are respected, and to implement supportive policies such as creating permanent trading spaces, reducing licence fees, recognising traders’ associations, improving access to small loans and credit schemes, and clamping down on harassment. Most people from experience belive that the Kenyan government is not supportive of small traders.
Thir is need to  inform traders about their rights and legal processes, by engaging with local authorities and coordinating traders’ associations. about Three quarters of traders are not aware of their rights, and the majority do not understand and have not been informed about council regulations and court procedures. With over 100 different traders’ associations operating across Nairobi and council officials interpreting laws differently in various locations, there is a need for much greater coordination and information.
"There is need  to help dialogue between poor traders and the city council, so that both understand each other better. At the moment authorities see traders as a nuisance to ignore or exploit, while traders see officials as a source of harassment to be avoided wherever possible,"
Mistrust of authorities is apparent, few ever report rights violations and harassment, and even those few very rarely to the police. Corruption continues to be a major concern, with many having at some point bribed a council official or police. Most paid bribes in order to avoid arrest and continue trading.
The Kenya government and local councils must find a viable solution for local traders.