Now Is The Time To Unpack The New Life-Starter-Kit For Kenya

By David Mugun|Author|Management & Training consultant|Publisher

In the early '80s, when the HIV-AIDS scourge impacted on our neighbours in Uganda in unprecedented ways, the population was still stunned and in-between brutal regimes that had little time to understand what was happening to its people. As the facts became clearer, and with a cure still out of sight, they resorted to managing it such that, any day added to the lives of the frail victims, meant a lot in terms of the tons of hope that it gave to the respective relatives. As it came to be known widely, the sick often died of starvation because AIDS deprives its sufferers of appetite for any kinds of foods. To alleviate this problem, nutritionists advocated for the use of fresh fruit juices to help whet the appetites of the sickly. They settled on passion fruit juice. Unfortunately, Uganda, as fertile as it is, doesn't have the climatic conditions suitable for passion fruit farming. So they depended on parts of western Kenya and particularly in the Rift Valley to supply the much-needed fruit. Today, passion juice is the most widely consumed fruit juice in Uganda. In fact, commercialisation has brought in fruit concentrates that are processed for wide consumption. The fact here is that, the AIDS scourge brought about the passion fruit juice culture in Uganda. And today, we are at a crossroads wondering which way to go in the wake of another deadly virus. In the thick of the dark cloud that symbolises the doom and gloom brought about by the invisible Covid-19 virus, the brightly lit silver lining piercing through, reminds us that there is still plenty of light at the end of the tunnel. We are at a defining moment in both the history and the future of mankind's existence. In this mix, we can choose to thrive, merely survive, or perish altogether. This isn't the time for the fittest or the strongest but for those who adapt correctly. Some will do it the wrong way though. Certainly, in any new dispensation, there are those who get gnawed away completely or irreversibly by the rough edges of the unknown elements that dictate the situations thrust on them. For some, it is time to welcome a fresh beginning but for many, it is the commencement of a long period of moaning that will be best captured for posterity in nostalgic songs that at best will provide temporary comforts, but won't affect the price of table salt at home. Some of you may not like what we shall discuss here but it is even worse if we please you with soft options. Let us begin with the environmentalists. They are laughing all the way to the heavens. It's now plain for all to see that the environment's reset button got pressed by Covid-19. Both Mt. Kenya and Kilimanjaro are snow-capped and their scenic beauty is now visible from far away, thanks to clean air. Marine life is teeming with renewed excitement in many parts of the world now. But the machines won't be off forever. The planes will soon resume regular schedules and so will all our pollution aiding vehicles. So environmentalists will now vigorously lobby for a cleaner world. Prepare to pay a pollution tax that will in time, be worked out based on your vehicle's emissions as well as that produced by what we cook with. We shall for sure now have clear timelines on the changeover to clean energy. The real estate sector as we know it today is changing. The past two months have served to demonstrate that white-collar jobs can continue from living rooms fitted with the appropriate technologies. This, in turn, has enabled parents to better supervise their children. So those who rent office space, are now giving it up, and with that, the office tea, snack and newspaper costs thin out. So, this means that we are going to have plenty of empty office spaces around if nothing new to do with them comes up, or if the landlords don't significantly lower rent perhaps because they have bank loan obligations. We have those who are waiting for things to normalise again. For these group, the shock phase is yet to check-in. Be patient as it is coming. Get it now, things won't be the same. In the real estate sector, the false golden years are long gone. Property prices are going through a correction phase that started before Covid-19. The Corona virus is just an accelerant. When President Kibaki came into office, he brought more than hope, because, behind his back, a set of panicked officials who had been out in the cold for 24 years, quickly amassed wealth as the country was awash with rumours of a blood clot making its way from the injured president's leg towards his brain. Thank God, our beloved former president still lives on. The chain reaction to that bad rumour caused land prices in affluent neighbourhoods to sore high as the masterminds needed a place to hide their ill-gotten money very quickly. An acre of land in Karen, for example, was about 3 million shillings in 2003 and it rose astronomically in quick succession year-on-year to about the 55 million shillings levels today. Looted money is responsible for this climb in pricing that has been a boon for landowners. This pricing outpaced the country's economic growth even when nothing was happening on the land. In the same breath, the cost of houses in the top end has been quite high because of government suppliers deals that needed a quick solution and a place to readily tuck away the loot. With the demonetisation of the old currency notes and the stricter application of Central bank's guidelines on cash handling, the market for which most upper-end houses were built, has vanished and so are the hopes of builders now dashed by the reality before us all. The prices were never held by any economic fundamentals but by opportunistic vices nourished by a corruption-induced gravy train. So as the false-gold in the corruption element (false demand) in property pricing vanishes, many still keep holding on mentally to prices that at best, will eventually come down by a half or more of their false value today. If you are one of those in this category, please let go and allow the market forces to determine the levels. I was informed recently, that some rentals in Westlands that have fetched 150 thousand shillings monthly for long, went vacant and have attracted 30 thousand now. A figure five times less than before. When a new era begins, the slow adapters who sense loss, resort to crude methods. Threats sore high. This is happening in the much publicised private schools sector. For a long time, parents have sustained affluent lifestyles for the owners of 'group-of-schools' and the standalone institutions charging over-the-roof fees. The cost of primary education must never be allowed to exceed that of university education over a given period. Unfortunately, that is where we are now. These are the times when Ugali costs more than chapati and bottled water costs more than milk. But now, for the first time, learning is happening without the need for a classroom. Just as parents are working from home, so are children learning from home too. Some schools will adapt and survive but others will never recover. So prepare for conversions. Yes! Conversions. Let me prepare you first. I have come across decommissioned aeroplanes now converted into hotels and restaurants. I have also seen purpose-built hotels converted into hospitals as they are a close fit. So some schools will be forced to adapt to the recommended new starter kit ways by lowering fees or be ready for conversions into other uses. Let us not fall into the trap of providing temporary solutions as we wait for things to normalise. You will only have yourselves to blame. No one will ever monopolise education and especially now that classrooms are empty. Let us remember that there was a time when the saying: "If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride." Those were the times when horse breeders reigned supreme. when the first car was made, they all laughed at its many faults. But slowly and painfully, car makers corrected the problems and today, even the poor in society ride in cars. So never laugh off any technology-based initiatives. You could just be laughing yourself out of business. For the traders in our midst, the convenience in the delivery and pricing are key to continued success. We will only want to make real-world contact with you when we have agreed to buy your goods. So get yourself an online shop. Collaborate with the boda boda guy to get your deliveries out on time. We will want to see how others have rated you before we call you. If you are in formal employment, get ready to do more for your employer because output per employee is expected to go up with better tooling but with fewer staff. Those who must leave employment must focus themselves on mindset conversion. They must see themselves as self-employed and begin the lonely journey of finding dependable like-minded support groups. The fickle nature of employment-based friendships will obviously play out negatively when you are out of a job. The phone will stop ringing and those that you call, won't answer their phones fearing that you want to ask for money. So start thinking of actual business people as part of your support group. But they are only useful if you already have an idea of what to do. If you are entering the job market now, consider the gig economy. By 2027, 60% of all jobs shall be provided by one-off type assignments all over the world. It is prudent to search all freelancer sites for posted assignments and go after them like there will be none after that. Covid-19 was the perfect accelerant for the gig economy. Your parents are clueless about this new approach because they lack the requisite experience to anticipate how things will turn out here. So embrace it with courage. Things shall turn out well. Our starter pack manual has the first sentence written as: "always humbly seek to understand before you are understood." The rest of it is left to our intuition.