Mpesa

Mpesa
As I settle down to write this Rod is sending money through his mobile phone. Safaricom (linked to Vodafone elsewhere in the world and local E African networks ) is a leader in this technology. You simple register for mpesa (which means ‘money’ in Swahili) with your phone number and you are given a PIN code. At the Safaricom outlet (there are dozens everywhere) you ‘top up’ your account and then can send cash to anyone with a cell phone. I think the minimum you can send is 300/- (about $3) and the most about 6,000/-. This has caused a revolution amongst the ‘unbanked’ of whom there are millions in a country where a banker’s cheque would cost you at least $10. People are sending cash home to relatives, some top up their phone before going to a restaurant and pay by mpesa. Travelers do the same and withdraw the money at the destination with no risk of being robbed en route. To withdraw the cash you have to show ID, so even if your phone is stolen your cash would be safe.
Safaricom is negotiating with the UK to extend the service overseas to catch the custom of the ‘diaspora’ - all the Kenyans working abroad and who send floods of money back home.
It’s nice to have a good news story where Kenya is in the lead.
Elsewhere things are not so good. The Deputy PM, leaving for a conference in Spain with a delegation including the Minister of Agriculture, announced that the Kenyan government has the famine situation well in hand and ‘no one will die of hunger’. Over the last few days the newspapers reported that people are eating grass in some places and that three children have already died of malnutrition. Other children are too weak to go to school. One of the government’s main strategies (of which he seemed proud) is to ask for donations from the international community. He wants to revive the child feeding programme which, if I remember correctly, was stopped by donors because of corruption.
The Agriculture Minister was censured by the President last week for mishandling his ministry, but it has made no difference.
In the cabinet reshuffle, a man who was Minister of Finance (and reportedly a good one) was reinstated and caused a furor. He was implicated some months ago in a very shady scheme to sell a 5 star hotel in Nairobi to a Libyan consortium in secret and with no tender process. In a rare show of integrity the MPs gave a vote of no confidence in him and he stepped down. So now the Pres has seen fit to bring him back to a different portfolio.
It’s similar to what happened in the Electoral Commission. The highly paid and incompetent members were at last dismissed after a long fight. (They were blamed for much of the mayhem at the beginning of 2008) Then a temporary body was needed and the one in charge of that quite simply recalled 20 of the dismissed members to serve anew.

But in our small corner we are doing the little bit that we can. as I mentioned before scholarships have been awarded to six or seven needy boys. There were 300 applications and 50 interviews.
Here is the account written by one of our colleagues after the interviews:
One boy comes in and sits down. He is wearing a torn sweater and black boots with fur that are held together with tape. He sits down and tells me he doesn’t need a scholarship as he has one, but he needs the money to shop and get to the school he has been called to. Harrison Nyongosa is an amazing young boy and instantly I know this is one young man that needs help. He wrote his Kenya Primary School Exams in 2006 and scored 413 marks out of 500. He was called to Starehe Boys School. a prestigious school in Nairobi. He had a fully paid scholarship but needed to pay for his trip to Nairobi and an additional fee of 5000 Kenya shillings for uniform and other items. He did not have the money so could not go. He was then called to Kakamega high school and could not afford the fee s so he went to a local school near his home where school fees were less. So he started form 1 in 2007 and went through term 1 and term 2 with straight A’s. He then started term 3 and was chased from school because his family could not pay the school fees. So in 2008 he had no money and could not continue in secondary school so he returned to primary school and redid standard 8 and scored 433 marks out of 500. One of the highest in western province. Again he was called to Starehe boys school and could not pay the shopping and transport fees. So he came to the interviews with his father to ask if we could help him. It was a very easy choice for me to make as I saw how smart this boy was and how determined he was to get to school. His father had tears in his eyes when I asked him why he could not find the money. He said he had tried everyone and no one would help. So I did not hesitate and told him Iwould pay those costs. He came back to see me the following Tuesday and I took him shopping and got his bus ticket and sent them on their way to Nairobi. I will go visit the home on Monday before I leave Kenya. This young man has a future now, and it will be exciting to see how well he does. I can’t wait until September when I see how well he did.If you are interested in the scholarship organization run by Canadians who have spent several years in this area, check out http://www.kenyaeducation.org/

Lastly here is a picture of the meeting with the head teacher of Emmaloba when we looked at the book requests for the Rotary grant to the school. I hope I will have pictures of the children when the strike is over.