In the early 60s, Senior Chief Njiiri Karanja was a VW Beetle “influencer”, used to promote the car to fellow Africans.
Note the text in the ad.
F3: He sits outside his Murang’a homestead, flanked by members of his large family - and VW.
Before we compare Kenya to London and other “middle income countries”, let us examine our reality.
Sit with Wafula, a boda boda rider in Gitaru, and walk through his day. From morning to evening, he might make 15–20 short distance trips. On a good day, he brings in about Ksh 1,500–2,000.
Out of that, fuel takes a significant share, now add bike repayment or rent, a little for maintenance, and by the end of the day, what is left is barely enough to take care of his family needs, let alone save.
This is the reality for many Kenyans.
The issue is what fuel costs a Kenyan whose income has not kept pace, whose business depends on daily movement, and whose survival is tied to every shilling spent at the pump.
In the UK, higher prices exist alongside higher incomes, reliable public transport, functioning healthcare, and social systems that return value to the taxpayer.
Hapa Kenya, hizo mizigo zote ni za mwananchi, who already is stretched, with little cushioning and even less return.
So the question remains, is fuel affordable for Kenyans, within our reality?
The government must answer that without comparisons, but with solutions that ease the pressure on everyday lives.
Watched an Alex Mwakideu interview the other day he was talking to the legendary judge from Vioja Mahakamani. Millennials, you know her ~That no-nonsense mama who took zero nonsense in that courtroom.
Now here’s the wild part they never had scripts. Not a single one. They’d just show up, pick roles, agree on the case, and go. Cameras rolling, take one, done.
So every punchline Alphonse Makacha and Dot Makokha ever dropped? Pure improvisation. No rehearsal. Nothing prepared. Just talent doing its thing in real time.
Kenya really had something special with that crew.
And here’s the part that gets me AG Amos Wako was fully behind the show. He’d supply them with real court cases and actual judgments from Kenyan courts. So when the judge passed her verdict on screen, it wasn’t made up. It was legally accurate, straight from the constitution.
Comedy on the surface. Civic education underneath.
That’s a level of craft most productions today can’t touch.
Golden era. Salute to those legends. 🫡
As @PrecisionAutoKE, we are very proud to have trained and mentored @joan_reals.
Seeing her make headlines for the right reasons is truly satisfying.
We’ll always have her back.
Chinese automaker BYD’s U9 Xtreme EV just hit a verified top speed of 496 km/h (308 mph) at Germany’s ATP proving grounds, making it the new fastest production car in the world, beating the Bugatti Chiron's 304.77 mph.
• 2,978 hp
• 80 kWh LFP battery
• 1,200v platform
• New track-grade LFP Blade Battery with dual-layer cooling, capable of 30C discharge rates for improved thermal management. Density of each cell is increased by 170% compared with the lower trim U9 800V system.
• Up to 500 kW charging speed
• Each of its four motors spin at a max of 30,000 RPM and is made of super thin 0.1mm silicon steel, a first in mass production