The apparent lack of charm in Kenyan Men

Ok another male bashing post! Not really. Just check out these two videos of two men, one Kenyan and another Tanzanian telling their lover to wait as they are stuck in traffic. Having said that did anyone notice the lack of Bongo Music everywhere?

Jam na Kam- Rabbit



Pi Pii- Marlaw

Customer care- When will they start caring?

I love dealing with small business, i know the big businesses are taken care of.

Thus my heart breaks everytime , i visit these outlets. I know that though i am patient and resilient with these businesses, a lot of people wont be. It is

• The inattentive MPESA agent- I have the option of using an ATM but they just don't seem to care.
• The tailor who won't keep their promise- I have the option of buying from the thousands of malls in Nairobi.
• The hair dresser who overbooks and keeps you waiting- Too many hairdressers in town
• The hotel that wont give you change unless you ask for it.
• The gardener who does the shoddy job.
• The shop owner who won't smile at customers or rude to the customer.

Eventually these small business run out of business. Not because of capital or all those fancy things people at SME conferences talk about but because they don't know just one secret. That Customer is King. That is a constant. In contracts we use the term best endeavours. That as a business you will do anything and everything in your power to satisfy the customer, sometimes even at your own cost.

Soap Operas

I find myself watching Mexican Soaps despite the fact that i have quit them over and over again. When i am not obsessive about them, i do find myself entangled in the drama. For starters, they are all over our TV stations. For a while, i predicted rather wrongly that there would be Mexican Soap fatigue. I guess not. You have to agree with me, just like the outrageous Naija movies showing all day, the night belongs to the Mexican soaps.

I have wondered why our script writers do not manage to capture the same kind of grip on their viewers.

Currently i only with dedication watch Changing Times which comes on KTN on Tuesdays 8.30 p.m. and sometimes catch the Mother in Law on Citizen TV on Sundays. I catch Machachari a few times too on Wednesday on Citizen TV. I stopped watching Makutano Junction (another former favourite), either i lost the plot or they did.

After self introspection, i have come to the sad realization that this among many other things is the reasons i am enamoured and several of others with these soaps and others with Naija movies. Maybe our local scriptwriters/producers or whoever comes up with all those shady scripts can learn;


Creation of extreme emotions of love and pain.

The writers of Mexican soaps/Naija movies are ruthless! They can give a character so much pain. And where there is love, there is abundance! Then, there is the hot guy who is brilliant (successful) and hot and hot and the extremely poor girl who must go through extreme pain to get to her man.Rich man, poor gal. Same story over and over again, executed with ruthlessness and brilliance!

The two things that we as human beings attract and avoid

It is said that human beings avoid pain at all cost. They have know to tell the story that all pain must come to an end and is replaced by the blissful marriage that happens at the end of the story line. They know that the poor gal must marry the Rich boy. The cruel never goes unpunished. That is the essence of every human hope. That you cannot get away with evil. They satisfy the human spirit always. I know there are many people who do not watch Changing Times but there was this love triangle when Patricia was fighting with Lisa over Arnold. Patricia managed to scheme her way into the man's life, then WON! When the day came to choose, Arnold chose the master lying schemer. How now? That for me was the anti-climax of a love triangle! How boring.


Stretching the characters either as a victim or villain

Our script writers are lazy/boring. Take for example (another one) Changing Times where one character can go missing for even 3 episodes, you can't even tell who are the lead characters. In Mexican Soaps, the lead characters, lead the program. Every other character is related to them in a way. T



Creating beauty and ugliness with equal measure

If there is anything to notice is the fashion and beauty of the characters. Lots of make up and jewellery. The characters must look out of this world otherwise they would just be like the rest of us.

Exploiting poverty and opulence

The victim usually the poor girl must lead a life of deep pain and sometimes abject poverty. She must probably been abandoned on birth and raised in a humble background. The guy on the other hand always has an opulent life. It is the houses, the cars, the clothes that make the difference.

Creating culture

By watching a Naija movie, you can tell that the Nigerians believe in culture, in their exaggerated outfits, big houses, witchcraft, you cannot fail to tell that art imitates life. What culture is there to be told in Kenyan soaps? You can tell by watching the Mexican soaps that catholicism is a major deal and of course serenading your woman!

I remember a proggie way back in the early nineties called Tausi that kept everyone glued to their TV or their neighbours. Do you?

Remember this song? Enjoy