Nakumatt fire

On Wednesday afternoon a generator blew up in the Nakumatt store in downtown Nairobi causing an inferno. Nakumatt is roughly the equivalent of WalMart for the range of items it sells. By the accounts of eye witnesses and those who escaped, the doors were locked to the outside. Guards are always most interested in preventing theft and at the first sign of trouble the shutters come down and egress is controlled. This is what happened when we were caught in the riot in Kisumu last year. They have now announced the recovery of 25 bodies and there may be more. The fire hydrants were inoperative and the response of any fire fighters extremely slow. We have learned that a Fire Safety Management Policy was presented to Parliament three years ago but has sat gathering dust. At that time only 12 of 175 existing councils had established fire brigades. Of these only 3 have the basic capacity to carry out rescue operations but depend on the Armed Forces, the Airport Authority and the Kenya Ports Authority.One must also it seems have a licence to install fire extinguishers in a business and it is not easy to obtain one.Another scandal to be investigated.On the good news side, the teachers’ strike is over, although some protests continue. It is hard not to sympathize with teachers who were to receive 3,000/- (about $45) per month raise - and there was dispute about paying it all at once-, when MPs earn nearly 1 million per month (about $15,000) and only pay tax on one fifth of that. In the hunger crisis which the government claims will be helped by importing maize, a report today says that 8,000 tonnes of the cereal are sitting in Mombasa because of delays in ‘paperwork.’ The longer a consignment sits in the port, the higher the demurrage charges to shippers and handlers.Meanwhile we find small joys and things to gladden our hearts. The computer school, after its move, is doing ok. We have students, although not full classes, and Vincent is marketing furiously. Pineapples are large, juicy and plentiful at this time of year. I stopped to buy one from a street vendor a couple of days ago. "How much for this one?" I ask. "120 bob." (That’s just about exactly $2) "Hmm. Do you have anything for 100?" "Yes, this one," patting the exact same pineapple. This is bar- GAIN-ing Kenyan style
I told you about mpesa which now has 5 million subscribers. (By the way I ws wrong about the upper limit. It is much closer to 30,000/-($500) and more by arrangement) Safaricom also has a small modem which we have been using for internet and email. It is a small attachment (a bit larger than a flash drive) which contains a SIM card just like a mobile phone. So it is basically a dial up connection with a number of MG attached to each top up. We top up through our cell phone just as we do for regular phone service. Although it can sometimes be slow, it is a wonderful improvement on carrying the laptop to a cyber cafe.