Kamau wa Ng'ang'a

{ Code is poetry ;} | E pluribus unum | Avant-garde | #SAP #SystemIntegrator

[Kamau wa Ng'ang'a @pollpaul]

Great Is Thy Faithfulness https://t.co/HzEEAiLhGa

[Kamau wa Ng'ang'a @pollpaul]

@Teddy_Ke @kenyasgossips Me too. Slow drivers are the worst.

[Arsenal @Arsenal]

It all worked out.

[FUNNY DROPS @toondrops]

"Can't control yourself to laugh."

[Kamau wa Ng'ang'a @pollpaul]

@bayer04_en @Arsenal Maximum respect to Leverkusen. Since the first game you have been very awesome. #Arsenal

[Bonnie Mwangi, CPA, LLM, MBA @MwangiBonnie]

If you have 32 minutes, I will show you how Nairobi County loses 32,949,346,981.

Yes, that's not a typo. KSH 32 billion.

Let me walk you through a trip to hell.

Data from 2023-2024.

The county had KSH 33 billion to spend. To serve 4.6 million residents.

The county employes around 16,000 people. 0.3% of the county population.

Step #1 - First order of business: Use 55% of the budget to pay salaries, to this 0.3% of the population.

That is KSH 18 billion. Now you have KSH 15 billion left.
You are told that the county entered into contracts with certain firms in 2021. The contracts were all supposed to lapse in 2022. They lapse. There are no extensions.

KSH 6.7 billion.

Side Note: Ghost workers galore. Quoting the auditor:

"Review of the bank remittance for April, May and June, 2024 revealed that seven thousand, seven hundred and seventy-seven (7,777), six thousand, one hundred twenty-three (6,123) and six thousand, eight hundred and three (6,803) officers respectively, shared the same bank accounts, agent code and branch code."

So let’s understand this fact pattern.

This year’s wage bill goes up by 55% relative to last year. And the city did not hire 55% more people or raise salaries by 55%.

Then, you find out that, the auditor found out that between 6,123 and 7,777 people who got paid by the county as employees, shared their bank account with someone else who also got paid.

In other words, between 6,123 and 7,777 of the county’s 16,000 employees are couples.

That is what Sakaja wants you to believe.

In addition, quoting the auditor verbatim:

“Review of the bank remittance for August, 2023, revealed that seventy-four (74) officers shared the same name.”

74 officers have the same biographical information.

Step #2. Use KSH 1.2 billion to traverse the globe for totally useless trips.

In a city full of garbage - as you can see in one of the attachments, the county politicians and their lackies pull out their passports.

Book flights to Morocco - Marrakech, Morocco - a resort city, at the cost of KSH 37 million. They want to go study "proactive management". In Morocco. Two full weeks!

Look at examples:

19 people — Marrakesh, Morocco — “Proactive Management Programme — Ksh 37,235,843 (15 days, 10th–24th June 2024)

8 people — United Arab Emirates — “Conference Facilities and Training”— Ksh 29,771,200 (7 days, 12th–18th Feb 2024)

14 people — Vancouver, Yale Town, Canada — “Seminar on Leadership Management and Conflict Resolution” — Ksh 10,920,000

9 people — Italy — “Training on Strategic Stewardship” — Ksh 9,822,120 (8 days, 13th–20th Dec 2023)

14 people — Canada — “Workshop on Leadership Management & Conflict Resolution"— Ksh 9,611,748 (7 days, 5th–11th Dec 2023)

6.7 people — Dubai — “Personal Branding and People Professional Summit” — Ksh 8,993,450 (16 days, 18th Aug–2nd Sept 2023)

8 people — New York — 8th United Nations General Assembly — Ksh 8,782,764 (8 days, 16th–23rd Sept 2023)

9 people — Dubai, UAE —" Esami Pre-Retirement and Pension Planning Programme”— Ksh 8,132,061 (8 days, 29th Apr–6th May 2024)

8 people — Vancouver, Canada — Conference — Ksh 6,761,520 (17 days, 22nd July–7th Aug 2023)

6 people — Istanbul, Turkey — Budgeting for Performance Management Programme — Ksh 6,751,523 (11 days, 12th–22nd Oct 2023)

6 people — Singapore — Financial Analyst Planning and Control Programmes — Ksh 6,735,227 (10 days, 1st–10th Nov 2023)

6 people — Turkey — Budgetary Performance Management Course — Ksh 6,699,198 (11 days, 12th–22nd Nov 2023)

The city is full of garbage. And @sakaja and his lackies are flying from Marrakesh to Vancouver.

Proactive management. Conflict resolution. Personal branding. Retirement.

You could make up this stuff, even if you wanted to.

When they are done with these shenanigans, Ksh. 1.2 billion is gone.

You have to wonder: Is there no course on how to collect garbage? Nothing like that, even in Galilee Israel?

Folks, this is insanity. This is not the behaviors of people who have common sense and business sense. It is not the behaviors of people who treat every shilling as the last shilling we have. Which is what must happen in government affairs.

So, KSH 1.2 billion is wasted like that.

Total damage so far? KSH 6.7 billion in salary heist 1.2 billion in wasteful travel=KSH 7.9 billion.

Let’s keep going.

KSH 839,933,289 in salary expenses cannot be substantiated because there is ZERO records. No names of employees, departments, evidence of payment. Just a claim. Basically, KSH 839 million in the KSH 18 billion I mentioned above have no support whatsoever. This wage bill itself increased by 55% this year compared to last year.

The county still employes less than 0.5% of the county population.

Step #3. Lose Kshs.140,944,662 through a “duplicate payment” to a “vendor”. No explanation for why a duplicate payment was made. And this is not corrected.

Step #4. Lose Kshs.478,485,041 to pending bills that nobody has ever heard about.

Step #5. Lose another Kshs. 2,005,937,441 in relation to pending bills.

Pay attention here.

The county says it owes KPLC Kshs.724,964,162, but when auditors verify the balance with KPLC, they find out that the county actually owes Kshs.2,730,901,603.

This likely says that, the county pretended to be paying down pending bills at some point, but the funds went somewhere else, such as, a corrupt official’s bank account. So the bill is still outstanding, but the cash in the city’s accounts is gone.

Step #5. Lose another Kshs. 791,013,848 in relation to pending bills. The auditor finds an additional 791 million in bills that are owed, but which the county has not reported.

At this point, let’s make sure you understand how pending bills come about.

If you are a government and you are smart and accurate in budgeting, you can estimate what you will spend. And if you are Nairobi County and you have Ksh 33 billion to spend, you have enough to pay your way. But, if in budgeting you put down “Ksh 500 million in luxury travel and then spend Ksh 1.2 billion, then you won’t have Ksh 700 million to pay the entire amount. That is a bill that ends up being hidden, or increases pending bills. But there are also many cases where corrupt politicians introduce pending bills as a way to steal. You blame the previous government, and then prioritize paying new claims that have no support.

Or, cash is stolen from bank. That cash was designed to pay certain bills, and now, there is no money to cover those bills. They become "pending".

Step #7. Lose Kshs.6,269,546,657 to 4 lawyers. Of the actual “genuine pending bills”, is Kshs.6,269,546,657 owed to just 4 lawyers. Equivalent to 20% of the annual budget. Can you believe that?

Listen to the auditor:

"It was noted that most of the Court cases related to issues such as disputes of unpaid claims for goods/works/services completed by contractors, un-procedural termination of employment contracts, irregular procurement processes and poor contract management. The judgements entered against the County Executive resulted to a high cost of litigations and interests."

In other words, corruption and mismanagement of county affairs take another Kshs. 6.3 billion. 100% wasteful.

Step #8. Lose another Kshs.1,393,234,865 in compensation that cannot be supported. Payment vouchers generally used for temporary workers worth 1,393,234,865 have no support. No one can tell you John Maina or Alice Omondi was employed here, for x amount of time, and got paid Ksh X.

Step #9. Lose another Kshs. 28,861,597 in compensation that cannot be supported.

Within the healthcare delivery expenses, it is found out that (62) National Identity numbers were used to pay people duplicate payments. In other words, one person appears in sone system used to pay. They get paid. You look at another system used to pay people for different things. The same person, same ID, appears again, and is paid.

Consider these additional damning factors:

>>Some officers’ basic salary changed multiple times during the year with some changing 6 times

>> Three thousand, two hundred and sixteen (3,216) officers changed job groups more than once, twenty-four (24) of whom changed job groups three (3) times.

>> Three (3) officers had their payroll numbers attached to different National Identification numbers at various times of the year.

>>Twenty-four (24) officers had their payroll numbers attached to different Tax pins at various times of the year.

>> One hundred ninety-seven (197) officers had their birth dates changed multiple times.

Step #10. Lose another Kshs. Kshs.301,400,000 in “bursaries” that cannot be accounted for. The county says we sent money to schools X, Y, and Z.

The auditor tries confirming these claims. And nobody can confirm it.

Step #11. Lose Kshs.140,313,872 in claimed “civil works expenses”.

You are told that the county entered into contracts with certain firms in 2021. The contracts were all supposed to lapse in 2022. They laspse. There are no extensions.

There is NOT ONE document telling you what the contractors were to do, and for how much.

But the county goes ahead and pays Kshs.140,313,872.

Step #12. Lose Kshs.32,964,416 in a contract to build a kitchen. A contract is irregularly issued to a firm to construct a kitchen.

The auditor says:

“Physical verification of Central Kitchen for the programme in October, 2024 revealed several issues at Toi Primary Kitchen. Visible cracks were observed on the wall, despite the kitchen being completed only a year earlier.

There was no electricity meter installed. In addition, water connectivity was not installed by the contractor, instead, the implementor connected the water at their own cost. There was also poor workmanship of the pavements and the installed gas pipe was not connected to the cooking vessels, rendering it unusable.”

Step #13. Lose Kshs.10,103,488,814 in a contract to build “affordable” homes.

Any contract exceeding Ksh. 5 billion requires approval by the Attorney General. The county won’t get it. They use “specially permitted procurement” method where only one bidder provides a quote. So there is no competition, which is likely why they did not seek the Attorney General’s approval.

@SakajaJohnson and his lackies select the desired partner. ZERO competition. They don't seek the approval required.

A note on this particular one: There are actually 4 contracts valued at Ksh 31 billion which the auditor is expressing doubts. About legitimacy of the amount.

Quoting the auditor:

"In the circumstances, the ownership of the land, value for money and regularity for the housing projects contracts totalling Kshs.31,047,436,654 could not be confirmed. In addition, Management was in breach of the law"

My estimated loss is the Ksh 10 billion as presentative of what the loss could be. It is the only "estimate" in this analysis, and again, it is less than the Ksh 31 billion the auditor is questioning.

Step #14. Lose Kshs. 2,282,899,172 in stalled projects.

Quoting the auditor:

"Review of construction projects undertaken by the County Executive revealed that projects valued at Kshs.2,282,899,172 in respect to the construction of various projects have stalled. It was not clear why these projects remained stalled for years while the County Government embarked on new projects, some that still end up stalling due to non-payment of contract sums due. Failure to manage the projects in line with law may lead to loss of public funds and poor service delivery."

Step #15. Lose Kshs. 16,510,760 by awarding contracts to the highest bidder, when lower ones are available, and against the law.

Step #16. Lose Kshs.223,304,547 in shoddy works and projects. The County issues 4 contracts to build 4 stadiums at the cost of Kshs.1,036,551,255.

Stadiums in Kawangware, Ziwani, Kangemi and Dandora.

After Kshs.223,304,547 is paid out, the auditor notes:

>>The floodlights were non-functional and the internal lighting had not been installed.

>>The field’s surface was uneven, with noticeable bumps and depressions in certain areas, which rendered it unsuitable for football activities.

>>The electrical cables and wiring system on the field were exposed, increasing the risk of theft and vandalism.

>>The roofing materials used were substandard and showed visible signs of deterioration due to exposure to direct sunlight. According to the field management, rainwater frequently leaked through the roof, leading to water accumulation in the seating areas during rain.

>>The public address system was non-functional, as explained by the Management, who confirmed that the speakers were not operational.

>>There were visible holes in the perimeter wall. Rather than allowing footballs to bounce back into the field upon contact, footballs created holes due to penetration.

The stadium walls were constructed of soft boards, which could easily be penetrated with little force instead of durable concrete stone walls.

Total damage: KSH 32,949,346,981

@Mizani254 @MoGAbdi @PropesaTV @HillaryGondi @fit_ermined @EricLatiff @MigunaMiguna @NairobiCityGov @KenyaGovernors

[Paul Brown @0xQuasark]

You can ignore reality, but you can't ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.

[Silas Nyanchwani @nyanchwani]

Life. Man.

When you are 25, 35, or 40, it looks like a lifetime away.
If in a good place at 25, say a graduate with good career prospects, and a steady lover, everything seems possible. You imagine you can squeeze a family, husband or wife, two kids, dream home, a PhD, and live your dream life by 35 or 40.

At 25, you look at older relatives or people with messy lives, and you wonder what could have gone wrong.

I remember the first time I attended my daughter’s PTA. I was a relatively young man. There were older folks, older men with vitambis, one or two with greying hair, and in my own youthful folly, I may have cursed inwardly, wondering, “where were they?”
When you are young, you will never understand how someone can be older and be jobless or be rudderless or without a family. When you are young and successful, you become criminally blind to the surprises of life. Sometimes things go so right, you win so much, so consistently, you forget about failure or losses. And these are the people likely to be hit the hardest when life happens.

A business partner in the UK told me how his sister recently alijitia kitanzi. The sister was a bright student all her life and ended up working in a large, global corporation. When she was laid off, the accumulated stress from the loss of her job and undetected depression sent her on a spin ending in death. She was 38.

What is ten years?

It sounds long. Right?

Yeah, but all it takes is one bad, long-term relationship to waste some six years. And you need up to two years to heal. That is, if you are strong and there are no kids. Divorce is a different ball game altogether. It takes almost two years from the point you decide to divorce, to another long year of back and forth, doubts, and all. Post-divorce is a terrible time, and both men and women handle it differently, and people move on in different timelines.

You think ten years is a long time, but all it takes is people saying “tutam” in a mannerless way, and you are stuck in a bad job or jobless for another three years, barely scraping by. We rarely talk about how bad governments keep being shackled in poverty longer than necessary.

You lost a job, and before you know it, three years have passed since you got another one. Some guy commented on my post that it took him 13 years to find a job after losing his first one.
Yaani, 25-42 is such a tumultuous period, and nothing in our constitution prepares you for the vicissitudes of that critical period. Marry right, and you have hit a jackpot. Marry wrong, and a decade of your life is flushed down the drain just like that.

A lecturer in a Kenyan university can turn a basic master’s degree into a nightmare, and what was supposed to be a two-and-a-half-year course can turn into a harrowing five years. There is a year you will drop it altogether, until a sensible friend encourages you to go back and finish.

You can fall sick unexpectedly and get derailed. Things can go wrong. May be ni wachawi wa kwenu. Maybe it is the poor choices you will make.

For instance, in the deep throes of passion, when the sex is good, when her legs are on your shoulders, and you are fishing deeper, you don’t stop to think that maybe, this guy, so good and tender, is a deadbeat-in-waiting. When a girl is all feminine, all-loving, all respectful, as a man, you never think for a moment that in two years she will turn you into an alcoholic milaya, sleeping with anything to get back to her, which is foolish already. Nobody, at the peak of a good relationship, stops to imagine that their partner will be the source of their future anguish.

And red flags?

Useless indicators. Red flags occur to you in startling clarity in hindsight. In hindsight, everything is so clear. But in real time, we assume. Assumption is the mother of all blunders adults are likely to commit.

Can you game life? Can you extract good outcomes if you play right?

I bet you can. Or maybe, everything is predestined to happen, as it happens, and we are just unwilling actors playing out a script whose end we don’t know.

I no longer know these things. Nowadays, I am willfully ignorant.
I saw this meme, and it’s like all of us are here for the first time, so “tupunguze advice”. We won’t stop dishing advice; those of us who do need some humility.

What I have learnt is that advice only makes sense after the experience. Not before.

Sometimes people come to me and all they want is for me to agree with their preconceived notions. When I point out different perspectives, they either go cold on me or disappear, only to reappear a few months later, saying, “Silas, you were right.” I don’t revel in them learning the hard way.

I am also like that.

There was this girl I loved and was so head-over-heels into her. And she had a sparkling charm, and something I had desired in a woman for such a long time. One day, I went to pick her up from the airport with my friend. After we dropped her off at her place, my friend told me to dump her. He was unequivocal with his advice. I was adamant that she was a good girl and that my friend was being unnecessarily hard on her for very humane, if girly, mistakes. After all, no one is perfect. My friend gave me that weary look we give friends who are about to trip. I thought he was jealous. I thought he wanted her. I felt myself smarter than him.

Roughly, a month later, the girl did the thing. No anesthesia. Ushawahi achwa hadi unajicheka? I had to hide from my friend for a while. He still laughs at me. And I hate him because of that.
But after she did that thing, my friend’s advice made sense. He had seen what I could not see when I was in love.

Anyway, to young people, live your life with diligence and discipline. There is so much within our control. And there is more that is beyond our control.

A few things I have learnt, I can tell my 25-year-old self:
1. Your personal goals (career, academic, social, spiritual, hobbies) are yours and yours alone. Never let anyone interfere with them. Not a spouse, not a child, not a family member. Indeed, there is room for adjustment here, a compromise there, as sensibly as it is possible. But never sacrifice personal goals for the greater good of something that can end like a relationship.
2. Don’t judge. Most of us millennials became those unmarried uncles and aunts pretty fast. We became the lucky unemployed uncle and the struggling aunt before we even knew it. Accept your wins as a young person with grace, and your losses with greater grace.
3. Don’t be addicted to anything: alcohol, drugs, sex, or gambling. Nothing enslaves or wastes time like treating an addiction. If you must drink every weekend, if you must use drugs, if you are gambling, you are on a very treacherous path. Morgan Housel said that self-control is having empathy for your future self. Ask an addict how difficult it is to stop a habit that has become their second nature.
4. Quit bad relationships sooner. It doesn’t matter if his pipe cures your demons. Or she rides the ghosts out of you—date people who are likely to complement your life desirably. Nothing wastes more time or derails people more than staying longer in useless relationships.
5. For men, know that at some point, between 25 and 45, you will lose something extremely important in your life. It can be your family (wife and kids), a dream career, your health, yourself, etc. What matters is not that you will lose that thing. What matters is how you handle the loss.
6. Save. Save. Save. Invest. Invest. Invest. However little. However much. You are never too young to be financially wise. Being financially wise is more of an attitude thing than the income you make itself. That is why a government employee earning Sh 50,000 has a better savings portfolio than an NGO guy earning Sh 200,000. Invest in financial literacy, son.
7. Invest in knowledge.
8. Have fun, as in live. Eat your best food. Date your crush. Drink what you like. But all the fun must be earned.
9. Always remember that the years go by very fast. And sometimes, life happens. Your dreams of what you will be ten years ahead may end up misplaced, and you can never predict where you will end up. I have a friend who is working in Kyrgyzstan. Good luck finding that on the map. Dude had completely different plans for life.
10. This came last because it is controversial to most people, but I will always encourage young people to find God.

May the week break.
Uncle Silas.

[Kamau wa Ng'ang'a @pollpaul]

@njokingumi He has absconded responsibility just like that. Now he is gravitating towards another woman.

[Eric @amerix]

Mambo ya Ruto nilinawa mkono.

Kenyans gave him an opportunity to redeem himself, but every day, he moves closer to his waterloo.

How do you help such a person?

You just leave him to continue making deliberate blunders or gaffes until he implodes.

[Kamau wa Ng'ang'a @pollpaul]

@C_NyaKundiH Úrimú

[Kamau wa Ng'ang'a @pollpaul]

@GacanjaTN @Murakariuki Mura will definitely do it. He keeps his word.

[Kamau wa Ng'ang'a @pollpaul]

@Bastaprenuer @Asamoh_ 😅😅 or flag poles

[Kamau wa Ng'ang'a @pollpaul]

@Iam_Gadifele Eish!! This is a sad one.

[Tucker Carlson @TuckerCarlson]

Big companies are poisoning Americans. Dr. Mark Hyman has been saying that for thirty years. He’s finally been vindicated.

(0:00) Bobby Kennedy as Trump’s New HHS Director
(4:04) Obesity and “Ultra Processed Foods”
(20:07) Does Junk Food Cause Cancer and Alzheimer's?
(40:31) Who’s Funding the Chronic Health Disease Epidemic?
(46:39) Healthy Food Decreasing Violence in Prisons
(52:51) Vaccines
(1:07:14) Why You’re Not Allowed to Sue Vaccine Developers
(1:11:31) Bobby Kennedy’s Plans
(1:17:05) How to Detox Your Body
(1:27:26) Donald Trump and the Medical Awakening

Includes paid partnerships.

[Elvis @Elvis_Localman]

This regime is full of educated fools who spend their time kissing the behinds of other men for handouts instead of using their education to better our society through research 🔬 and innovation. I have now come to terms that one can be educated but never learned! And that fools grow old too.

[Kamau wa Ng'ang'a @pollpaul]

@edward_buri @TeresaNjoroge In the end triumph. God does not sleep.

[Mutie Mule @mutiemule]

#Solutech@10 with Dr. Vimal Shah and our amazing clients.

#SolutechAt10

[Kamau wa Ng'ang'a @pollpaul]

@kiruik I can’t wrap my mind around this. He is very much out of touch with reality.

[Kamau wa Ng'ang'a @pollpaul]

Tutigithie. Out with old.

[Barack Obama @BarackObama]

It took several days to count every ballot in 2020, and it’s very likely we won’t know the outcome tonight either. So please keep a few things in mind as you make your voice heard today:

– Thousands of election workers around the country are working hard today. Respect them. Thank them. 

– Don’t share things before checking your sources. 

– Let the process run its course. It takes time to count every ballot.

[Presence is not submission @ImbayiK]

Atuondolee tu huyo mama anajaribu kurun nchi yetu na wale watu wanataka kuvaccinate ng'ombe