A Search for Unity

I saw “East Africa’s first Ad-truck” today. This isn’t your average haulage vehicle with advertising on the side; it’s much more specialised. It is a large truck, modified to have transparent walls against which are mounted rolling advertising banners. Inside the truck (you can see in because the window-rollers alternate between banners and a transparent screen) are a bunch of people holding advertising placards and products, generally bouncing around, gesturing and posing at motorists to get their attention. It roves around town all day.

The truck was sauntering along at a leisurely 10 km/h when I caught up with it, billowing smoke and paying no heed to lane markings on the road. It approached a busy roundabout, and a few drivers confronted with this novelty come close to having an accident because of the distraction. The truck meandered along, leaving a trail of coughing pedestrians and congested traffic behind it.

Companies thinking of advertising on this new advertising platform might like to consider what message they are sending out to the public: “not only do we mind clogging up the already congested roads in your city and increasing the risk of traffic accidents, we also don’t care about the environment and public health. We do however care about giving you one more in-your-face marketing campaign to brighten your day and increase our ad-sales. We hope you will go out and buy our product!”

This week, Kenya’s MPs voted to give themselves a salary increase. They will be earning KES 1.1 million per month, with a 5% increase per annum to account for the rising cost of living. What’s more, they backdated the new salaries to 2008.

Let’s just put this into context. MPs in the United Kingdom earn an annual salary of £65 738, which translates to approximately KES 670 000 a month. That is almost half that earned by their Kenyan counterparts. Don’t forget that the cost of living in Kenya is probably an order of magnitude less than in the UK; nor that the minimum monthly wage in Kenya (KES 6 130 for cities) is roughly the same as the minimum hourly wage in the UK; nor that 40% of Kenya’s population lives on less than $2 a day.

Here’s what some of them had to say while the motion was being discussed (taken from the official Hansard of Parliament, for 30^th June 2010).

Hon. Mr. Ogindo:

Members of Parliament are the representatives of the people. At our level of development and our level of civilization, representation means that you guide the development programmes in your region… The levels of development in our areas and constituencies are still very low… Sometimes, Members of Parliament are called upon to chip in. It is from [our salaries] that we chip in towards development initiatives.

…on the face of it, one would think that [the salary increase] is being generous. However, every Member who comes and stands here and makes a contribution, it is a life lasting contribution. We want Members of Parliament to remain honorable to their graves. We also realize that a Member of Parliament has a life after Parliament.

Hon. Mr. Duale:

…in my view, monetary rewards or the amount of money you pay a Member of Parliament cannot adequately compensate the heavy responsibility he is shouldering in formulating both economic and political development of this country. Members of Parliament serve with dedication… Today, if you analyze in totality, the environment in which an hon. Member in Kenya operates, I can say without fear of contradiction that nobody can compensate an hon. Member for what he is doing for this country. We should not cheat ourselves.

…When we pay the CEOs of top companies, especially parastatals, billions of shillings and the so-called opinion shapers of this country do not question, we are telling them that if people feel hon. Members are paid heftily, they just need to join Parliament. They should wait for five years, stand for elections and come to this House. If they feel they are earning less where they are, they should come and see.

If you’re struggling to understand quite what he meant, you’re not alone!

Hon. Mr. Nyambati:

I want to also say that a Member of Parliament should be even more respected than a CEO who earns much more. CEOs in this country earn much more than Members of Parliament. Members of Parliament must be facilitated to do their duty of representing their people; their duty of oversight and legislation.

The motion was passed without a single voice of opposition during the course of the debate. It just reeks of corruption, greed and arrogance. I don’t know if there could be a more damning indictment of the political class in Kenya.

There is a story that I remember from some years ago. It went something like this:

A fresh-faced new MP won the votes of his constituents with promises of a new era of politics: transparency, fairness, proper representation and a voice in the corridors of power. They were hopeful that this time things would be different. This guy meant what he said. He would work to address the concerns of the people.

Five years later, the MP (now two inches wider at the waist) is campaigning for re-election. His constituents haven’t seen much of the sweeping change that he had promised five years ago, but he has an answer. “Friends, you know that when I became an MP I had nothing. I had no money and no means to support my family. How can an MP command respect in the capital when he has nothing? So I have spent the last five years filling my pockets and raising my stature in politics. But now things are different. This time I have no obstacles to fulfilling my duty to you. So re-elect me and I will serve your interests faithfully, using my newfound stature to help you.”

He was re-elected. Maybe now that he had stocked his own kitty he really would help his constituents. And after all, he did have a point. A man needs some clout before he can be heard in political circles.

Another five years pass, and it is campaign time again. Things haven’t changed much. Poverty is undiminished. Many parts of the constituency are still without water, electricity and roads. Corruption in local government is still rife. There is a strong opposition candidate standing for election this time, and the electorate are leaning towards him.

This time the MP isn’t so sprightly jumping onto the raised platform to speak. He has gained another two inches at the waist and his arteries are somewhat narrowed. He cuts quite a different figure from the tall, lean, energetic man he was 10 years ago. But he speaks with conviction. “Friends, I have let you down. I did not keep my promise to you, and things have not changed. But you must understand, after my family and friends saw my success, they became jealous. They began to think that I did not care for them. And you know that without friends and family a man is nothing. So I had to look after them and make them comfortable, so that they would continue to support me.

“Your choice in this election is simple. You can vote for the opposition candidate — but know that he too will do as I did. He will look after himself first, and then his family and friends. It will be a long time before he is ready to give you his attention. I, on the other hand, have done all that, and am ready to serve you now. The choice is yours.”

Edit: It gets worse. The figures I quoted above are from the original motion based on what is known as the Akiwumi report. Since then, the MPs decided to bump the salary to KES 1.24 million. There is plenty of public outrage reported in today’s papers.

There is no shortage of controversy and complaints about Network Solutions, but here is my advice to anyone thinking of doing business with them: think again.

Here’s why.

• Their terms of service are questionable, if not downright misleading. Here is what the service agreement says in the section about country-specific domain names (I registered a .co.uk domain with them several years ago):

  No transfers or legal name changes are allowed for .am, .at, .be, .ch, .cz, .de, .es, .com.es, .nom.es, .org.es, .fm, .li, .mx, .com.mx, .co.nz, .net.nz, .org.nz, .pl, .ru .co.uk, .me.uk, or .org.uk country-specific domain name registrations, which includes, but is not limited to, CRA, RNCA, channel transfers, account consolidation by 2 or more users.

  (where RNCA is a “Registrant Name Change Agreement”, and CRA is not defined anywhere in the document!)

  The implication is that once you have registered one of these domains with Network Solutions, you are not permitted to change registrar or transfer ownership of the domain — and you are therefore stuck with Network Solutions, and with the domain, ad infinitum. This struck me as somewhat unfair, if not illegal.

  I wrote to Nominet, the .uk domain registry, to find out whether I was indeed locked in for ever as a result of failing to read the fine print when I registered my domain. The response:

  I believe the ‘transfers not permitted’ relates to transfers coming into Network Solutions.

  The American companies seem to be unable to accept .uk domain names in although they can register them directly. They should still be able to transfer the domain name out for you, however if they are unable to, you may do so by logging into your account with us and completing a ‘registrar change’ online.

  So the restriction appears to be only on transferring domains to Network Solutions, not away from them. And if they don’t cooperate, you can make the change unilaterally. Funny that they don’t say so in the agreement.

  Incidentally, there are other controversial bits in the service agreement too, like this, for people who buy hosting plans from Network Solutions:

  You agree that any domain name directory, sub-directory, file name or path that does not resolve to an active web page on your Website being hosted by Network Solutions, may be used by Network Solutions to place a “parking” page, “under construction” page, or other temporary page that may include promotions and advertisements for, and links to, Network Solutions’ Website, Network Solutions product and service offerings, third-party Websites, third-party product and service offerings, and/or Internet search engines.

  So, you buy a product on condition that your supplier can use it for their own marketing purposes. Nice!

• Their administration interface is ghastly. Getting the simplest things done is a mission, not least because at every step of the way you are affronted with aggressive marketing of add-on products that you really have no interest in. Every time I log in, I have to decline several “special offers” before I can get to the control panel.
• Their customer service is poor. They promise to respond to support requests within 24 hours, and they do. But the response I invariably get is along these lines:

  Thank you for contacting Network Solutions Customer Service Department. We are committed to creating the best Customer experience possible. One of the first ways we can demonstrate our commitment to this goal is to quickly and efficiently handle your recent request.

  With regard to your concern, we have forwarded your request to the appropriate department for immediate attention. Please allow 1-3 business days for the issue to be resolved.

  See how 24 hours has now turned into 1-3 business days?

• Finally, their prices are far, far above the market average.

I’m pretty sure that the majority of their customers are those (like me) that registered with them when Network Solutions was the only place you could go for this sort of thing. Thank goodness that has changed.