The Blues
It’s that time of the month again.
Stanchart Top Bank
Market Intelligence published their eighth annual banking survey this week, and ranked Standard Chartered as the top bank in Kenya, followed by Barclays and surprisingly coming third was Equity Bank no. Other rankings are Citibank 9th, KCB 25, National Bank 26, and Co-operative Bank at number 30.
Corruption
The Economist took its bi-monthly look at Kenya and notes that the prosecution of anti-corruption cases will continue to fail as long as they are handled by the Attorney General’s office – and that Parliament should transfer these powers to the Anti-Corruption Commission.
Privatization
Both the Daily Nation and the East African Standard condemned the Privatisation Bill passed last week in Parliament, because it handed the entire privatisation process over to a "Gang of Eleven" - political appointees handpicked by the president and the Minister for Finance and who are not subject to approval of the Parliament . Earlier drafts of the Bill had provided for the involvement of bodies such as the Law Society of Kenya, the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya and the Federation of Kenya Employers in the privatisation process.
Elsewhere, India has abandoned plans to privatise a dozen profitable state-owned companies.
Airport Hotel booming
The new Panari Hotel is doing roaring business from airline passengers and crews. Because of its location on Mombasa Road, about halfway between Nairobi city and JKIA , hotel guests rarely have to worry about traffic jams on their way to the airport for their flights. It is also quite convenient for Wilson Airport passengers.
Debt forgiveness
The Kenya Planters Coffee Union (KPCU) has re-opened a debt moratorium window 1st September to December 31st 2005. This will extend debt relief to farmers by giving them a chance to repay principal amount (no interest will be charged) from 31st December 1991 to 31st December 2001 with all interest payments forgiven.. However, this is not likely to fly as coffee farmers are asking the government for complete, 100% debt forgiveness including principal.
Sports Weekend
Saturday 20 August
12:30 - 15:00 MNET/SS1 Tri-Nations:: Australia vs SA,
13:00 - 14:15 SS2 Formula One: Turkish Qualifying,
14:10 - 17:00 SS3 FA Premiership:: Man Utd vs Aston Villa,
14:15 - 16:30 SS2 Scottish:: Rangers vs Celtic,
17:00 - 19:15 SS3 FA Premiership:: Liverpool vs Sunderland,
17:00 - 19:15 SS6 FA Premiership:: Newcastle vs West Ham,
19:15 - 21:30 SS3/CSN FA Premiership:: Birmingham vs Man City,
22:45 - 01:00 SS7 Spanish Super Cup: Barcelona vs Real Betis,
Sunday 21 August
14:30 - 17:00 SS2 Formula One: Turkish Main Race,
15:00 - 17:45 SS3 FA Premiership:: Bolton vs Everton,
17:45 - 20:15 SS3 FA Premiership:: Chelsea vs Arsenal,
18:00 - 21:00 SS1 IAAF GP: GP - Sheffield,
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4 comments:
Lakini bankelele, how about the Yankees in their wildcard race vs the league leading White Sox -- baseball.
After not understanding baseball for my first 15+ years here I have finally come to know it after coaching little league. What a game!!!
Kenya is cricket country, and baseball is not shown at all - all I know this year is that the Boston Red Sox ended a lifetime of humiliation by thrashing the Yankees.
I learnt NFL football from Nintendo, and baseball was much harder to grasp.
The most popular sport remains Football (Soccer to Americans).
Cricket had a bisrt of recognition during the 2003 World Cup when some matches were held in Kenya.
Round 1
Kenya beat Sri Lanka which boosted Kenya's image as SL was a contender.
Kenya also beat Bangladesh & Canada but this was not surprising.
New Zealand boycotted the match in Kenya on account of fears of safety & that allowed Kenya to proceed to the 2nd round (Super Six).
Kenya beat Zimbabwe who had lost its best players due boycotts & politics over mugabe's stupid antics.
Australia & India beat Kenya but Kenya squeaked into the Semi-Finals using previously accumulated points from Round 1.
A note that 39-year old Asif Karim scared the heck out of the Aussies when he took 3 wickets in 8.2 overs! And he just conceded 7 runs. Asif won the "Man of the Match".
In the Kenya-India match, Kenya almost upset the applecart though Ganguly (India's skipper) came thru for them. This was almost a spectacular upset!
Kenya met & lost to India in the Semis.
Australia didn't lose 1 match during the WC & were eventual winners.
Anyway, sad to say that the wrangling among the players, KCA & other parties has reversed most gains Kenya made during 2003 WC.
So many new players could have been discovered had the management of the game been done in a professional manner.
Well, if Kenya can get its act together in 2007 hopefully we can see wonders BUT Kenya is no longer an underdog coz the world is on notice!
Kenya making the semi-final of the. World Cup was a greatest feat since they beat the West Indies in '96 World Cup. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport3/cwc2003/hi/newsid_2490000/newsid_2496300/2496361.stm.
It would have been nice to also host New Zealand in the '03 Cup, in addition to Sri Lanka for Naiorbi games.
Sadly the momentum from the world cup has wasted away in wrangles over cricket money and management, and the odumbe gambling trial.
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