Monster Week

monster truck finale



Three ministries are fighting for the monster trucks and other assets of the about–to-be-disbanded CKRC.

Flora Kenya
A look at some of the major flower farms in Kenya. From Timbuktu Chronicles

Banking Secret #1
Cheques over 10 million shillings are cleared on the next day, unlike smaller cheques which normally take about a week to clear.

Nigerian Shares
During the Arsenal-Chelsea game shown on Super Sport, there were numerous advertisements about an on-going rights issue of Union Bank of Nigeria. Am not sure what the cost of advertising is on DSTV, but it’s unlikely that Kenyan banks or institutions will place adverts on DSTV especially for a rights issues. Note that the 2004 KCB rights issue had a total budget of 104 million shillings of which only 13 million was set aside for advertising.

mobile phone questions
- Safaricom House is a new office building next to Njuguna’s on Waiyaki Way. What will happen to the old Safaricom House in Westlands?
- Now that I have bought a Celtel line for 49/= and received a second free Safaricom line for buying 100/= worth of credit on Luthuli Ave (both of which are dormant) what is my average value (ARPU) as a subscriber to both companies?

Tourism
Workers in the tourism sector are being encouraged to learn Mandarin to cope with the 10,000 (and growing) tourists from China who visit Kenya each year.

Housing
Construction of Eagle Plains Housing Estate, a 350 housing development off Mombasa Rd, is expected to resume after a Nairobi Court dismissed an objection to the construction of the estate filed by Nakumatt supermarkets against the developer and the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA). Nakumatt had complained that location of the proposed estate, which is next to its headquarters, went against the spirit/business theme of the area, which already has 13 major industries.

Retrenchment Pipeline
The Minister of Finance has approved a tax waiver of benefits to be paid to retrenched employees of the National Bank of Kenya (NBK), Kenya National Trading Company KNTC and the Civil Service. As part of the package, civil servants will not be allowed to re-join the service for a period of three years.

Jobs
At the Kenya Times newspaper;
- managing director
- chief accountant
- adverting manager
Apply to the secretary to the board, kenyatimes@timesnews.co.ke by January 6.

Educational opportunity
The Cornell Assistantship for Horticulture in Africa (CAHA) provides a doctoral assistantship in horticulture to a student from Sub-Saharan Africa. More details here and the deadline for applications is March 1, 2006 Thanks, Kevin.

Correction
The Nation corrects a story they had published earlier to the effect that Uchumi had fired PWC as their auditors.