Collins Sirmah

Entrepreneur && Software Engineer

[Collins Sirmah @CSirmah]

If you are interested in becoming a very good self-taught developer/software engineer/cyber security expert/ethical hacker etc, then I'd recommend you go through this pathway. https://t.co/ItE4NSEyM7

[Collins Sirmah @CSirmah]

@Lukorito_ Basic internet research shows sim toolkit was there from day 1, and has been part of GSM standards from 2001.

[Collins Sirmah @CSirmah]

@ponton_alex Where will the capital for future growth come from? This IPO is an exit for existing investors. The net margins are too low to support fast growth.

[Collins Sirmah @CSirmah]

@Ja_Kamnara high cost of power starts like this.
One of the concessions Dangote asked for is that we stop "cheap" fuel imports - Which indirectly means that the refinery can't compete with imported fuel on price(see Nigeria). What's the point of the refinery if we can't lower fuel prices?

[Collins Sirmah @CSirmah]

@nelorora @BravinYuri There are more optimal options. If you can make a 40sq. 2M house affordable, then for sure you can make the 1M land + 1M house affordable? At the end of the day it's the same total amount of money.

[Collins Sirmah @CSirmah]

@nelorora @BravinYuri nobody hates poor people. It's a bad deal for them. For example, a 40 sq. M 2 bedroom house in Eldoret built on public land(won't have land ownership rights) is 2 million. You can find 1/8(500 sq. M) of land within Eldoret City limits for < 1M.

[Collins Sirmah @CSirmah]

@BoardLotSultan @TonyGachok15769 It should be obvious that govt. and Safaricom will win their case when they appeal.

[Collins Sirmah @CSirmah]

@CasNonsense distribution - Fresh produce goes through too many steps between the producer and the last seller. It increases costs + wastages and consumes more capital + time. Twiga tried to optimize that.
It's a hard problem and what killed them wasn't the lack of problem but margins.

[Collins Sirmah @CSirmah]

@Dr_OOwiso @CasNonsense distribution - Fresh produce goes through too many steps between the producer and the last seller. It increases costs + wastages and consumes more capital + time.
Twiga tried to optimize that.

[Collins Sirmah @CSirmah]

@TheNjoroge Those business people can run small businesses but can't scale(they've created a job for themselves pretty much). Scaling is harder, has newer problems but if cracked is where true wealth is built.

You'd appreciate Twiga if you've done farming or worked in small food businesses

[Collins Sirmah @CSirmah]

@IAtalkspace All you need are some of those problems to make startups not work because the margin between success and failure for startups is very small.
One brutal problem we have, which Twiga was sort of trying to solve, is the informal sector - rewards staying small not scaling.

[Collins Sirmah @CSirmah]

@KibayaInTrouble @IAtalkspace and that is a very big business problem at scale that nobody has been able to crack.

[Collins Sirmah @CSirmah]

@HonKangata Farm gate prices in places like Uasin Gishu is now close to 70, a difference of Ksh. 23. Any reason?

[Collins Sirmah @CSirmah]

@thekenyatimes Drought. Next ni unga, eggs etc.
April to August long rains failed completely so most farmers don't have feed for cattle. This is how maize ilikuwa inakaa and you need maize for feed.

[Collins Sirmah @CSirmah]

@EWN_star @MoRidez ni drought. The April - August rains failed completely so no feed for cattle. Next ni bei ya unga. It's gonna be really bad. Most farmers are experiencing 100% crop failure and you need maize for silage. https://t.co/W7dfD4Hhvj

[Collins Sirmah @CSirmah]

@kenyanpundit Need to change messaging though, especially for different regions. For starters, show in simple understandable terms how constitutionalism ties to a better economic outcome. And to take advantage of current issues e.g drought.

Economic messaging is what wins elections.

[Collins Sirmah @CSirmah]

Failed maize in Eldoret in July. I've never seen something like this my entire life and I won't lie if I say I am not scared.
We need to talk more about this and import maize like now before prices go up. Wheat futures have just hit their highest in a year.

[Collins Sirmah @CSirmah]

@WashiraX That's a 99.9% compression. It's insane. Try removing color then compressing using something like ghoscript. But loseless won't work and 10MB is too small. KRA should do something about it

[Collins Sirmah @CSirmah]

@WambuiBMW @wnyakera Out of their 26 man squad, 12 were born in France, 4 Belgium, 2 UK, 2 Switzerland and would have represented those countries if called up. Of the remaining 6, 2 moved to Europe when very young. So only 4 grew up in Congo. Of all African teams in WC, only SA uses local talent.

[Collins Sirmah @CSirmah]

Heavy rains in Feb/March meant many farmers missed planting.

Poor/no rains in April, May, June means the few who planted have suffered losses already.

Potential El Nino during harvesting so more losses.

But no plan for this in the budget.

We'll react to this too late.

[Collins Sirmah @CSirmah]

@mrstephendeng But Chinese will eat their lunch if they continue insisting on closed charging stations. It's probably what's stopping mass adoption of their bikes outside urban areas since it limits riders to a certain radius.