Huge explosion flattens exhibition stalls on Nairobi's Moi Avenue

A large explosion has hit the centre of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

Several people are believed to have been wounded, reports say. TV pictures showed a fire raging in a badly damaged building. The blast's cause is unknown.
A Red Cross disaster response team has been sent to the scene of the explosion at one of the shops on Moi Avenue.
There have been several blasts in Kenya since it sent troops into Somalia last year to tackle the al-Shabab Islamist militant group.
Al-Shabab has repeatedly threatened to stage revenge attacks against Kenya.
The BBC's Kevin Mwachiro says glass and clothes from the small shops inside the building have been scattered across the street.
TV pictures are showing people pouring into the streets from nearby buildings to get away from the scene of the fire, the AP news agency reports.
Moi Avenue is a major road which would have been busy during the lunch hour, AP says.
According to an eyewitness, there was a huge blast and debris flew in different directions injuring people in the vicinity, the Nation newspaper reports.
The powerful explosion shook buildings in the surrounding area and the evacuation process began, the Nation says.

Bob Collymore

Mr BOB COLLYMORE, 52, the new CEO of Safaricom, the region’s greatest runaway corporate success story.
Mr Collymore, the successor to Safaricom founding CEO Michael Joseph, spoke to DEA Editorial Director KWENDO OPANGA at the Nairobi headquarters of East Africa’s biggest company by market value, with photojournalist GAZELLE KEMUMA filming the encounnter. Excerpts of a great conversation…
DIPLOMAT EAST AFRICA: Has Safaricom peaked or are there milestones still to be attained?
BOB COLLYMORE: Beyond a shadow of a doubt, Safaricom has not peaked. It is like saying that technology has peaked or that human needs have peaked. We have met some of those needs, some of which are very basic needs, and that to me means we need to speak with each with a degree of ease and without — with a degree of inexpense, if you like. However, there is much more that we need to do to contribute to Kenya’s society.
Q: You might want to explain, without, of course, letting out your secrets, what these things you wish to do for the Kenyan society are?
A: The technologies that we have and will continue to have over the course of the next five or 10 years will allow us to make a big impact and I will focus on two examples. One of the impacts we will have will be with regard to children’s access, people’s access, to information.
If I could use an example that is overused — if you ask a child sitting in London or Boston about any information in the world, with a quick click of the mouse that child will be able to give you that information immediately. That child has free access to huge amounts of information and a huge bandwidth. It will not matter how complex the question is, that child in the developed world will give you the answer.
If you take any child in Kisumu or in Kitale, and ask him any question in the world, you could come back in 10 years’ time and he may be able to give you the answer.
Now what can Safaricom do? Safaricom can get that child connected; we can bring them the device, we can bring them the connection, we can bring them the low cost connection to information that will then bring Kenya to that position from where that child can compete on a global platform.
The other example regards malaria. Since you sat down [for the interview] about three minutes ago, about six babies have died of malaria in Africa. This is a curable disease; it is not like HIV/Aids. But the reason these children die is because they do not have access to medication. It is not because of lack of diagnosis; we can all spot malaria a mile away.
It is about access to medication and we can use the technologies that we have to aid and assist government in achieving what they want. Let me give you an example. In Tanzania, Vodacom, Vodafone, Norvatis and IBM have worked in partnership on a programme called SMS-for-Life to ensure that drugs are distributed across rural Tanzania and for the people to have optimal access to drugs.
In its pilot phase, more than 300,000 people had optimal access to drugs. The factor of these people having to walk long distances to pharmacies only to find there were no drugs was eliminated. It is a simple template Norvatis and the partners have developed into which the rural pharmacies fill in their stock needs on a given day and then these drugs are distributed to them.
There are other solutions I could mention from Latin America, Asia and other parts of Africa, which only Safaricom can do simply because we are the only telecommunications network which has greater reach than any other, more access to technology than any other; we have the only 3G network, we have a 2G network which covers 85 per cent of the Kenyan population and therefore the network for making a difference in people’s lives.
Of course we will make profits and of course we will drive revenues, which is what the shareholders expect me to do.
But your question was whether Safaricom has peaked. Safaricom does not measure whether it has peaked or not by how much money or profits we have made or how much revenues we have derived; we measure our achievement by how much we have contributed to the community in which we operate and that society includes our shareholders as well as our 17 million customers.
Q: You just talked about profits and your reach and recently there has come a new competitor in the market who has come up with new products — and excited the market quite a bit.
A: Products?You think so?

Q: Yes. You don’t think so?
A: They have dropped the price; that is not a product. If you are talking about products, I would expect something like M-pesa; that is a product. I would assume something like mobile data; that’s a product. We haven’t seen any product; we have seen a price drop.
As my predecessor would say, any fool can drop a price and that is not a smart thing to do. The smart thing to do is we continue to invest in this market; we continue to take the lead in terms of technology ownership. We continue to deliver the value that we talked about for our customers. Maybe at some point they will do these things, but all we see now is a price drop.
Q: You mention M-pesa. You have been doing an upgrade lately. Is there more Kenyans should look forward to from M-pesa, or is that it?

A: With technology, you cannot say the end of the world is nigh! We are just starting. The reason why we are upgrading the network is because we want to put M-pesa on a platform that will handle an increased number of transactions from the current 70 per second to more than 200 per second. And the reason we are doing this is that there is much more that can be done with M-pesa. The simple answer to your question is that anything you can do with cash you can do with M-pesa and more. When people travel for the festivities of Christmas and New Year many of them will abandon cash or actually they will put their money into their M-pesa accounts and travel and retrieve the money when they reach their destinations. So now we have something you can do with M-pesa which you can’t do with cash. Kenyans can expect a lot more with respect to M-pesa.
Q: Is M-pesa the best product Safaricom has or is there a rival?
A: M-pesa is certainly Safaricom’s best product. M-pesa is far ahead of anything else in this market, in this world. There is no other country that has as successful a money transfer as Kenya. But basically we have four products including M-pesa; the other is Voice, which we all use, then there is SMS, which most people use and then the broadband data access. But none of these three has the life-changing effect of M-pesa.
Q: You must be aware that when M-pesa was being introduced, the banks ganged up to fight it. Now what will they do? They embrace it, yeah?
A: The reason banks initially fought M-pesa is that people tend to fear change and they also saw M-pesa as a competitor. In fact, it is not a competitor and you are right—the banks are now on our side.
In fact, when the banks were building a lobby against M-pesa, they were not fighting M-pesa; they were building a lobby against wananchi, yet they had ignored these people for decades, saying they were poor.
Many banks had closed their branches—and I am not talking only about Kenya, but many countries in the world—and they now were fighting a product which the people had accepted and taken to their heart. Now we have banks as our partners.
Q: It has been argued that M-pesa does not encourage saving or does not promote a saving culture. Do you agree? Is there a way M-pesa could be used to encourage saving?
A: There are a number of dimensions to that question. The first one is that is that the criticism is not justified. It is a bit like saying to me, ‘Bob you do not look good in dresses’. I wasn’t designed to look good in dresses. M-pesa was designed to be a money transfer service.
The second dimension is that M-pesa actually encourages saving because, instead of having cash on you, you put it into your account and there it is safe. There is a sizeable chunk of money which sits in M-pesa accounts. People take their money out of their pockets and keep it in their M-pesa accounts and decide whether to keep it there or use it. That criticism of M-pesa is unjustified and irrelevant.
Q: M-pesa wins awards, and, as we at DEA say, it seems to have formed a template for other countries. Are these countries doing exactly what M-pesa is doing or are they doing something different?
A: I was working in South Africa and have worked in Tanzania and all they have to do is to come to us and ask to share our experience. Michael’s [former Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph] team was always ready to share the experience and I will be more than happy to do so. Even recently Michael was in Tanzania trying to help. They are doing something so fundamentally wrong and they are not listening to us.
There are a few things that make M-pesa a success. One of them — and which is not easy to replicate — is that in Kenya it is a trusted brand. It is the most trusted brand in Kenya. Which other brand is more trusted? Maybe East Africa Breweries — maybe—but there is no other brand. The Church could be a trusted brand. So if people trust you they will give you their money.
The second thing is we have a wide distribution network. We currently have 21,000 M-pesa agents. And we set out not wanting to make a profit. People struggle with that because, as soon as they launch it [a  money transfer service], they want to  make a profit. So, they don’t want to invest in agents because they don’t  want to lose money, and so it fails.
You want an agent to be a supermarket? An agent should be a duka [shop]. You don’t want people to get into a matatu to get to an agent to get their money. Understand your customers and we understand our customers. We understood what people wanted and we designed a product for them. There are more than 150 M-pesa equivalents around the world, but none of them has succeeded.
Even in Tanzania, with which country you speak the same language, it is not the success it is here. Any of the 3,000 people in this company can replicate M-pesa anywhere else, but you have to have the trust and you have to understand this is not about making money.
For a long time, I used to say to Michael ‘you keep showing us figures, but when is this thing going to make money?’ And he used to say, ‘in good time’, and we kept investing money. Now it is profitable and will get more profitable.
Q: Are Kenyans overseas making use of M-pesa?

A: We are creating more opportunities for them to do that. Today you can send money from England, but there are only a few outlets because we have this problem with inter-country transfers. We are, however, working on a new product in collaboration with Western Union. Currently Kenyans can send money from London and Uganda and now that we have a new platform we are going to introduce more transnational services. We will soon introduce the service in the US with Western Union.
Q: Safaricom does quite abit of CSR. Do you intend to continue?

A: Yes. I think this is very important for a corporate. My predecessor said to me ‘one reason why I support you is that you know what Safaricom has built’. And, as I said earlier, I do not just think of Safaricom in terms of profits and revenues, but I take a more holistic approach. I think about it in terms of people who are our customers, in terms of people who will be our customers and in terms of people who will never be our customers. One of the things we try to do is to meet the need where it exists and not where we have a base station.
Q: You have mentioned your predecessor. He was well-known to Kenyans, the media liked him and he could be quite outspoken if there was an issue. Do you find his shoes too big?

A: Not really.

Q: Not really?

A: Michael and I are two different people. Michael built the Company from 16,000 customers to 16 million customers. He’s led a fantastic team and I am very privileged to be picking up such a strong team. Despite the personality cult which follows him, it was not of his making. I know how it came about and I do not know whether it was the right thing or wrong thing but that is just the way it was. I am frankly surprised at the cult status of this role.
As far I am concerned, I am just doing a job and I am surprised that this week this is Day Three and yet again I am on TV tonight. I do not know that there is any crisis for me to be on TV for three days running. I do not know what is going to happen when there is a crisis.
Q: You have not come across this in your career?

A: I am not used to this in any other country in any other job, unless you are the president. I don’t see this happen anywhere else. It happens in Kenya; it is unique to Kenya and I am surprised at how much interest there is in the job.
All I am doing is managing a phone company and I am proud to be part of a large family of a phone company. I was in the company of 27 other CEOs at a conference recently and none of them gets this kind of attention. But I do not think it is Michael Joseph — I think it is the Kenyan media.
I have known Michael for 10 years. We wear different shoes and have different tactics. He brought the company where it is and we have to take it through the information age, where it is about those two children I talked about. It will be about what we do for rural health. So, the question of shoes is kind of irrelevant.
Q: Kindly tells us about Safaricom and the environment.
A: We won an award with the Total Eco Challenge because we have planted more than 1 million trees.
One of the priorities of our Foundation is the conservation of the environment, which is why we are involved in a lot of tree planting.
Secondly, we are a big consumer of electricity and most of our base stations are off the grid, so we continue to experiment with various ways of providing electricity — such as wind and sun — and we are confident we will find that which is more cost-effective.
I am going to drive the sustainability agenda during my tenure because Safaricom is one of East Africa’s more important companies and therefore it has the responsibility to set the tone and set the agenda. We will not wait for the general mood to swing before we respond; we will set the benchmarks.
Q: You have not been around for a long time, but you must have tried to find out what the people are saying about Safaricom. DEA can tell you that we have heard that as Safaricom has grown so also has the Customer Care department grown, but as the two have grown they have left the customer behind them. When you call that number you will wait for an eternity as you listen to that recorded voice. Have you come across this complaint?
A: I have been here [in office] for five weeks, but I have been in Kenya for three months and most of this time I have spent talking to people, whether it is online or face to face. It is clear we have challenges and this is one of my top priorities right now. I have three or four priorities for the remainder of this financial year. The first one is to fix this network because we are very painfully aware it is a very big issue for us. We have to fix the network and we have to fix the Customer Care issue.
Let me qualify that. We have some of the best people working in our Customer Care. They are all very bright young graduates; some have two degrees, some have three degrees and some are working on their masters degrees. These people are not silly.
The challenge that I have is that of the volume of calls. If I benchmark that relative to other networks, the volume is disproportionate and that is because we are doing something else wrong. Once you get through to Customer Care it is great. So what is it we are doing wrong?
M-pesa alone accounts for about 20 per cent of our calls. We need to find a solution to M-pesa reversals —that is the call you make when you have sent money to the wrong number. Right now you can go into your phone book and send money from it. The other is Skiza. To call Skiza you have to know the code, but many call and then ask for the code. But when a customer makes that Skiza call it costs you Sh5 and it will cost me Sh40 to take that call. So my top priority is to fix the network and to fix the customer care.
Q: Lastly, can subscribers across the region expect further tariff reductions or has die market hit rock bottom?

A: Today Kenyan customers pay less than half the price per minute European customers pay.
Q: Is that so?

A: That surprises you, does it not? Today the European customer pays 8 euro cents. Today Kenyans pay about Sh3, which is about 4 euro cents. Contrast that with the price of the network. In Europe you build the base station. In Africa you build the base station and you have to aircool it because it is hot. You have to put generators in it because there is no power and when you put generators in it you have to put in diesel. When you put diesel in it you have to put a watchman and when you put a watchman and you have to put a second watchman to watch the first one.
Our costs are considerably higher than our European colleagues

Michael Joseph Legacy of Success at Safaricom

After a decade at the helm of East Africa’s most profitable company, Safaricom CEO Mr Michael Joseph finally calls it a day, with a strong advice to CEOs to plan for their succession. Zachary Ochieng reports.
Few people expected that the indefatigable Michael Joseph would hand over the reins at Safaricom any time soon, after steering it to a multi-million dollar company within a span often years. So, when a statement announcing his exit was sent to the newsrooms, both friend and foe were caught unawares. But to Mr Joseph, the announcement did not come as a surprise, given his age and long tenure at Safaricom.
Right time to hand over
“I have been running this company for 10 yrs. It has reached a certain stage of maturity; it’s doing well and the direction is clearly set. I have been working for many years and I am beyond retirement. I just thought it is the right time to hand over to somebody else for the prosperity of the company”, Mr Joseph told CIO East Africa in an exclusive interview.
But unlike other companies where succession of the Chief Executive is only discussed in hushed tones, Mr Joseph has been planning for his succession for some time. However, the process took longer than expected as the right person for the job had to be found.
“From an intellectual point of view, I felt I have done much and I would rather hand over to somebody else who would continue with the company and strive to make it grow even further. Though I have been planning for this for long, the right time hadn’t come because I needed an appropriate successor in place. That is very important and it took a long time”, Mr Joseph says.
Long and painstaking journey
But as Mr Joseph admits, the journey to find his successor was a long and painstaking one. The process began two years ago and while Mr Joseph admits that one may not be willing to relinquish his position voluntarily, he jokingly adds that a succession has to be planned for since in Kenya it is very easy for anyone to be run over by a matatu.
“You may not want to go voluntarily but you have to take consideration of things like being run over by a matatu. So in the end there has to be a successor.”
In looking for Mr Joseph’s successor, Safaricom engaged two international headhunters to search for the kind of person the Board believed would run the company effectively. After going through a long list, a shortlist and eventually an interview list, the Board settled on Mr Bob Collymore.
But as Mr Joseph says, it was not an easy task and ended up taking a lot of time.
“It is very easy to hire a CEO because lots of people want this job. But in hiring the right person for a company of Safaricom’s size and dynamism, you need to look for the person who understands the Kenyan situation, including the country’s politics. That took a long time. We were prepared for any eventuality in case we didn’t get the right person.”
Advice to CEOs
Mr Joseph has a word of advice to fellow CEOs on succession: “You have to be prepared and be brave. It’s easy for one to say I have a good team here that we can promote within or let’s look around in Kenya . For us, we wanted to have the right person to take this company to the next level and we knew that there might be criticism but you need to be prepared for this and you need to do it professionally.”
Mr Joseph says that with a selection criteria that is above board, no questions will arise to the effect that you appointed your uncles or cousins.
“We did the right thing. The Board formed a committee to which I was only an adviser. This worked out well”, says Joseph.
High moments
Though his illustrious tenure at Safaricom was marked with ups and downs, Mr Joseph finds it difficult to enumerate his high moments as many positive developments took place under his watch. But he hastens to add that the launch of M-Pesa, the innovative mobile money transfer service and M-Kesho, which revolutionised banking especially for the hitherto unbanked population, stood as out as high moment as that is something he had wanted to do personally.
On the other hand, his low moments came in 2001when there was a network congestion due to high demand, a fault he admits was his. Come 2004 and there were fights over who would take over from him.
“But genuinely, the tenure at Safaricom has been a high for me”, he says as a matter of fact. Being the strategist that he is, Mr Joseph has wasted no time in showing his successor the strategic direction he wants the company to take. Unlike in other companies where the arrival of a new CEO sees a change of guard in key positions, this will not be the case at Safaricom.
Need to maintain the momentum
“Clearly what I have said to my successor is that we need to maintain the momentum now. As little disruption of the company as possible should happen. We don’t want to see a clean sweep when the new CEO comes in.”
Mr Joseph believes that Safaricom has a strong team and the most important thing is to maintain the company’s strategic objective of becoming a big player in the data field and leverage to the maximum on the 3G advantage.
“I believe with our nationwide 3G network which we are expanding rapidly this year with the WiMAX business and our network rollout, we are in a great position to maximise that and we shouldn’t lose that position.”
In the 10 years he headed Safaricom, Mr Joseph bestrode the East African corporate landscape like a colossus. Little wonder then that his competitors as well as other industry players often misunderstood him, with some equating him to a slave driver. But who is Michael Joseph?
“You must have read articles in the press insinuating that I am a driver and an aggressive person. But to tell you the truth, my character is very much suited to building things”, he says with a chuckle.
Larger than life image
Even so, his larger than life image makes it difficult to differentiate between Michael Joseph and the company he built almost from scratch when it was still part of the monolithic, inefficiency and corruption-riddled Telkom Kenya.
When CIO East Africa suggested to him that due to his ever visible nature, Safaricom would not remain the same without him at the helm, Mr Joseph was very candid.
“I understand that and I think it is my fault because I chose I would be the spokesperson and face of the company. It becomes hard to change that. I know it will take some time even for the new CEO. But I am not leaving Safaricom immediately. I will still remain a member of the Board but I won’t be visible. Eventually the company will rise above that and be Safaricom without Michael Joseph.”
Carefully planned succession
With a carefully planned succession and a clear business strategy in place, not even the sky can be the limit for Safaricom. When the changing of the guard finally takes place at the end of October, Safaricom’s customers should brace for even more innovative products and services.
The incoming CEO Mr Collymore, 52, has been a director of Safaricom for the last four years and sits on the boards of a number of Vodafone’s subsidiary companies in Africa. He has worked in the telecommunications industry for more than 30 years in a variety of roles including that of Global Purchasing Director in Vodafone and as its Consumer Marketing Director for Asia based in Japan. With this kind of experience, he definitely has his job cut out.
Mr Collymore commented upon his appointment: “It’s been a privilege for me to have sat on the board of Safaricom and watch its unfolding success. Under Michael’s leadership, the company has seen tremendous growth. He has been a truly exceptional CEO and whilst I am delighted to have been appointed as his successor, I fully appreciate that Michael’s will be a hard act to follow.” Confidence in his successor
But while Mr Collymore feels that Mr Joseph’s shoes will be too big for him to fit into, his predecessor has a lot of confidence in him.
“The most important thing for me about Bob is that I know him. I know his strengths and weaknesses and I know that him and I will work very closely together and very well. It won’t be a situation where he gets rid of evertything that was associated with Michael Joseph. He understands the company and the reasons for our success and he is not the kind of man that is going to act in a destructive way”, says an upbeat Mr Joseph.
And so as Mr Joseph walks tall into retirement, he is happy to note that the uptake of data services in which Safaricom has invested heavily has been very good. However, the cost of the device-whether a mobile phone or a modem has been a major challenge. Mr Joseph says that while Safaricom has been trying to make the cost of data as affordable as possible, real data use can only be experienced when one uses a smartphone, which is very expensive. However, Mr Joseph says he is working on bringing down the cost of the device.
“If I can get the costs down, we will even be more successful. But I am happy about the uptake and I think we could do more”.
So optimistic is Mr Joseph that in the next five years, he sees Safaricom having 22 or 23 million subscribers and being the number one player in data services offering mobile data, fixed data, TV to your home and Internet to your home.
Telecommunications company of kenya
“We will be the telecomunications company of Kenya in the next five years. We are already there but we will have more international connections datawise”, enthuses Mr Joseph.
His parting shot to CIOs is that a CIO is not the person responsible for the maintenance of deskstop systems or making sure that stytems are working. “The CIO has a much bigger responsibility. A company of our size, for instance, has massive IT systems that require maintenance but they require some strategic thinking as well. A CIO has to think for the future. You have to understand what the future is going to be and what kind of people are going to be available to hire to implement these systems”, Mr Joseph advises.
According to him, CIOs have a much bigger responsibility in seeing whether the right systems are in place.
At this juncture, we end our interview but Mr Joseph is perplexed that we have not asked any controversial question.
So I grab the opportunity and ask him why Mobicom, the leading mobile dealer recently divorced Safaricom after a
10-year marriage and whether it was a case of sour grapes.
“To be quite honest, I don’t know. I don’t know the ttuth. Despite what has been written in the media, I really don’t know what happened. All I know is that one day I got three letters on my desk saying the company had terminated the contract with Safaricom. And that’s all I know. To me it was an enormous disappointment not because of the business as it was quite easy to fill in the gap. The issue was from a personal point of view. I was quite hurt”, Joseph says adding: “Mibocom was very special to me and we helped them a lot particularly during the post-election violence. There was no breach of contract and there was no reason for that to happen. They simply decided there were greener pastures somewhere and they went for it.”
Mobicom ditched Safaricom forTelkom Kenya.
A glimpse into Safaricom chiefs
Who is Bob Collymore?
The incoming Safaricom CEO Mr Collymore has worked for Vodafone Group in various capacities in a period spanning over 12 years. He is currently the Governance Director, Africa, a position he has held for the last four years. From 2003 to 2006, he was the Marketing Director, Asia. He was the company’s Global Handset Purchasing Director from 2000 to 2003.
Before joining the Vodafone Group he was the Purchasing Director at Dixons Group Pic between 1994 and 1998. He has also held various management roles in the telecommunications industry with his longest stint being at the British Telecoms (BT) where he served fora total of 16 years.
Outgoing Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph has steered the company to greater heights with the help of a top management team of 12. We take you through the profiles of some of them.
Michael Joseph – Chief Executive Officer
Michael Joseph is directly contracted by Vodafone for secondment to Safaricom as the CEO of Safaricom, a position held since Vodafone’s original investment in mid-2000. He has extensive international experience in the implementation and operation of large wireless and wireline networks, including operations in Hungary, Spain, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Korea, United States, Australia and the Middle East.
Mr Joseph has specialised in licence acquisition, construction of new networks, turnaround management and start-up of newoperations during his careerthat spans over40years starting asa pupil telecommunications technician to his current position. He has guided the company from a subscriber base of fewer than 20,000 to over 10 million today.
Mr. Joseph has been the recipient of many awards, including CEO of the Year. Mr Joseph is a US citizen and obtained a BSc. (cum laude) in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cape Town and is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and the Institute of Electronic Engineers (IEE), UK.
Chris Tiffin – Chief Financial Officer
Mr Chris Tiffin has been Chief Financial Officer with effect from 25th August 2008.
MrTiffin joined Safaricom from Celtel Nigeria where he held the position of Chief Financial Officer, having served in that position since 2004.
Prior to taking up his current position he held the position of Financial Analyst and Financial Manager with Tracker Network (PTY) Ltd South Africa and prior to that he held various financial positions with Vodacom (PTY) Ltd in South Africa.
He is a Chartered Accountant.

Les Baillie – Chief Investor Relations Officer
Mr Les Baillie was appointed to his current position of Chief investor Relations Officer soon after the company was listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange in June 2008.
Prior to this he served as the Chief Finance Officer, of Safaricom, a position he held since Vodafone’s original investment in mid-2000.
He has extensive experience in the mobile telecommunications industry having joined Vodafone Group in the UK in 1986.
During his time before joining Safaricom, he held several senior financial positions at director level in Vodafone companies covering networks, service provider, value added services, data and radio paging.
He has been involved in two start-up operations, in radio paging and in Safaricom.
Mr. Baillie is a UK citizen, a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and holds a B.A (Honours) degree from Reading University in the UK
Peter Arina – Chief Commercial Officer
Mr Peter Arina joined Safaricom in November 2004 as Chief Commercial Officer responsible for the Commercial Division which comprises the Marketing, Sales, Customer Management and Commercial Planning departments.
Mr Arina previously worked in Unilever Kenya for 15 years having started his marketing and sales management career there in 1989. He gained extensive experience in Marketing and Sales through holding various positions in those functions. He became the Customer Development Director (Sales Director) reporting to the Chief Executive Officer (East Africa) in May 2001, a position he held until October 2004.
Mr Arina is a Kenyan citizen and holder of a Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing) degree from the University of Nairobi.
John Barorot – Chief Technical Officer
Mr John Barorot joined Safaricom in 2000 as Senior Manager in Operations and Maintenance department (NMC Manager). He has risen through the ranks to become HOD Operations & Maintenance department in 2003 and later in 2005 to this current position of CTO.
Mr Barorot has had extensive training and industrial attachments in many countries including UK, Belgium, Hungary and South Africa amongst others. He is responsible for the cellular network planning, network rollout, network maintenance and network quality.
Mr Barorot is a Kenyan citizen who has over 16 years experience in the telecommunications industry. He holds an upper second class Bachelor of Technology degree in electrical engineering and communications, from Moi University.
Robert Mugo – Chief Information Officer (CIO)
Mr Robert Mugo joined Safaricom as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) in June 2008. He is responsible for the IT systems and infrastructure at Safaricom with a key focus on ensuring that they support business needs. He is also responsible for development and implementation of IT strategy and related budgets as well as providing executive level input for the company’s strategic planning and execution.
Mr Mugo has over 13 years of industry experience and has carried out IT projects in a number of African countries. Prior to joining Safaricom he was the Chief Executive Officer of Flashcom Limited, a CDMA based wireless telecommunications operator. He has been General Manager and Technical Director at UUNET as well as Corporate Head of Technical Operations at Africa Online.
He has also been Vice Chairman and CTO of the Telecommunications Service Providers of Kenya as well as a board member of the Telecommunications Network Operators Forum (TNOF) and Africa CDMA Forum (ACF).
Mr Mugo is a Kenyan citizen and holds B.Sc. Electrical & Electronics Engineering and MBA Strategic Management degrees from the University of Nairobi. He also holds certifications from Cisco, Microsoft and Checkpoint.
Safaricom’s key milestones
1997 – Established as a department of Telkom Kenya to offer mobile phone services.
2000 – Vodacom group Pic of the United Kingdom, the world’s largest telecommunication company, acquires a 40 per cent stake and management responsibility for the company and re-launches the operator.
2001 – Launches ATM top up service in September, 2001 as a venture between Safaricom and Standard Chartered Bank. The service enables pre-paid subscribers who operate accounts with the bank to top-up their credit through any of the teller machines available countrywide.
2002 – Made the first profit, a net profit of Ksh 753 million (US$ 10m) on revenues of Ksh 9.2 billion (US$ 120m).
2003 – Launches Safaricom online in partnership with Wananchi Online. This was the first mobile internet and email service for both business and individuals
2004 – Becomes the first operator in the country to launch General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) services in July 2004
2005 – In May 2005 launches Sambaza, an airtime sharing service that enables our prepaid subscribers to share airtime with their family and friends.
2006 – Launches Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) services in 2006
2007 -   In March 2007 launched M-PESA, which is a mobile payment solution that enables users to complete financial transactions by mobile phone. This killer application became the global standard for mobile money transfer. M-PESA goes international August 2007.
Formally granted licence to operate a 3G network by the Communication Commission of Kenya in October 2007. The company paid US$ 25 million for the licence.
2008 – Commercial launch of the 3G services giving its subscribers access tc high-speed mobile data at superior speeds of up to 7.2Mb per second. Acquire; 51 per cent of One Communications Ltd is a Kenyan holding company anc through its subsidiaries provides various data communication services including fixed WiMAX access services. Launches IPO in 2008. Safaricom Share-price to cost Sh5; Shares attract thousand! ; IPO floods Rwanda; Safaricom IPO oversubscribed; Safaricom IPO draws global investors attention to Africa.
2009 – Enters corporate data market with the acquisition of Packet Stream Dats Networks Limited. Incorporated in 2003, Packet Stream Data Networks wa: licensed by CCK to provide various data communication services including fixec WiMAX access services.
2070 – Announces intention to acquire the ownership of two informatior communications technology (ICT) companies namely IGO Wireless Limited ane Instaconnect Limited. IGO is a fixed wireless data services operator whik Instaconnect is licensed as an Application Service Provider engaged primarily ir the integration of data solutions.
Partnerships: M-Kesho launches May 2010. M-PESA/EQUITY partnership. Phon« banking service targets 10 million M-PESA subscribers. Subscriber base rises.
Awards: Safaricom awarded Best Telecom Company of the year at the Business Africa Awards 2010 in London.
Michael Joseph Retirement-June 2010. Robert Collymore appointed CEC as from November 1 2010. Robert has been on the Safaricom Board since 2006

Sue Muraya on running Suraya Property Group

Fashion designer Sue Muraya joined her husband’s dream to create homes and as Carol Odero found out, they have built one of Kenya’s most prominent real estate firms
It started ordinarily enough; a conversation was held between a fashion designer with an artistic flair, and her architect husband who visualises homes out of the solid earth. For some reason it happened across the continent in South Africa, where she would show her collection. He would accompany her. Once they were done on the fashion runways of Cape Town and Jo’burg, they would walk around the gated city communities.
It was here that a similar project for Kenya was inspired and houses for the middle and upper middle classes dreamt of. Why, the pair wondered, could this not be done back home? Seduced by this idea, they came home and both went to their respective drawing boards. Although Sue Muraya read fashion magazines while her husband picked up those on building, they knew as much about each other’s world as it had been possible to learn over the years.
“At one point we would always turn to each other and ask the same question, what do you think?’” Her knowledge about site visits could only be rivaled by his on fashion trends. “We developed a habit of always having lunch together. We synchronized our hours and throughout our discussions it was something related to one or the other. Of course we also talked about the kids.”
Moments like these prompted Pete Muraya to see his wife in a different light because he eventually asked her to join ranks with him. “She had done well with her fashion business but she was not making that much money so I asked her to work with me.” It is a measure of how dedicated to her craft Sue was that she took her time to make up her mind.
“I remember him telling me that if I worked with him I would have to move offices. I liked my office!” And with good reason. Her fashion label, New Attitude, has been around for about two decades and she invested a great deal in it. The Kenya Fashion Week was her brainchild,and so she struck upon an even more brilliant idea. She would cross over to real estate so that she could afford to sponsor the fashion event. She dubbed it her corporate social responsibility project.
Suraya Property Group may only be four years old but at the moment they are working on seven sites simultaneously.
Pete has a knack for discovering land and negotiating with landowners. Sue likes to describe herself as a “behind the scenes personality” eager for the deal to get sealed because all she sees is “potential, potential, potential.”
One day Pete woke up with a burning need to see the right side of Kiambu Road after years of gazing at the left, which was only natural as it was peppered with beautifully kept coffee plantations that immediately caught the eye. This day though, for some reason, a dream prompted him to take a fresh look. There, as plain as day was a huge tract of land they had consistently missed. “It looked like someone had been stealing the soil,” recalls Sue. Still, they met with the owner and before you could say ‘fence,’ they had it.
The same thing happened with land in Gachie. This was when it was considered one of those incredibly unsafe areas where nobody walked around after 5pm and for a good reason; there was a robber allegedly living in the area. This
was hardly a deterrent. They took it up and are now in the third phase of their project. “People who did not buy houses because they did not like the area are now kicking themselves. Within three years, the property prices have doubled.”
There is another coming along Mombasa Road and a handful of others.
Selling a lifestyle by allowing people to own homes is their vision, and what they do is fashioned out of nothing but faith. Real estate insiders know they owe a great deal to this couple. They were the first to think of partnering with land owners rather than buying large chunks that are near impossible to afford. The profits share is agreed before construction begins.
They also conceptualized a financing model that makes loans more accessible to ordinary Kenyans. They should, in appreciation of their efforts, have a law named after them.
The measure of their dedication lies in the fact that they put up their house as collateral. It was just about the only thing they owned. That money was used to start up. The payback would come after 18 months when all their newly constructed property would be sold and every debt covered. That year and a half was nothing if not a cliff hanger.
“I never told anyone about that decision. I wondered if I was crazy. Normally it is the woman who wants to keep the house but in this case I agreed with the man!” Their three children, now 16, 14 and 12, noticed their parent’s financial challenges. “Pete had a problem with his car. It would not start in the mornings and the boys wondered why he was building all these new houses and could not afford to buy a new car!” They used Sue’s in the meantime but eventually the nail biting suspense paid off.
“We had confidence in each other,” says Sue. In a very short time, they have accomplished the stuff real estate dreams are made of. Pete puts it very well; “Sue is a very good marketer. We ended up being the perfect team.
I would find the land and create the project but without her we would not have achieved what we have in such a short time. She has a visual eye. She understands what the finished product will look like. If she says she does not like a house, the concept is dropped. By the time we get to the market her input is all over it.”
Fascinatingly, he makes her out to be their secret weapon. “Sometimes it really annoys us as architects. We draw what we think is a really good house and she says she will not sell it. We have now learnt not to go far without her. She is very important. A lot of property companies do not understand how we have managed to do what we have in so short a time. We could not have done it without her touch and rapport despite all my good ideas.” And to think that in the beginning she had turned the idea of this partnership down. “I knew her strengths!” points out Pete.
Working with a spouse can be especially challenging. But when you have children, work in the same office and live in the same house, does it not get to be a bit too much? Does Sue never have a moment when she declares ‘enough already!’ and flounce off for her own space? Apparently not, and she finds the idea so funny that she giggles like a teenager. “We never get tired of each other.
Before the children got used to our style they always wondered if we were arguing and we would always say that no, we were having a discussion. And now, this is how they talk to us and we wonder if we set ourselves up.” She manages to disengage from work and swears she has no formula for it. It simply works out. Both of them are incredibly busy from a staff that included them and a handful of employees to the current full time establishment of 30.
“Once it got so crazy my husband called me to make an appointment to see me!” She is clear on one thing though; “when we are at work there is no such thing as ‘sweetie’. In the evening when I go home, I am completely ‘wife.’ It might have been a hard day but I have to remember to cook and iron his shirts. It also helps that I am God fearing. I don’t want to step on toes. You have to know how to be submissive. I don’t forget that.”
That might be true but they have known each other for two decades, long before any of their careers took off. “We have been married 18 years. What is healthy, especially as a woman, is when he is confident and he respects you. Then it is easier to work together. I really give him the credit because he is the one who gets asked why he ended up working with his wife.” She jokes that the only person in the world who understands how she truly feels is Tabitha Karanja, the Keroche Industries managing director.
“People think I am mad, especially men, to work with my wife, but I am quite happy with it. It is about the choices that you make. When I met her I knew she was the one. I have no regrets. It has been a good four years that have exceeded our wildest dreams. This is just the beginning,” says Pete. It is not all idyllic though. They do have fights but they do not take these to the bedroom but square it out in the boardroom. No work gets carried home although it used to be the case.
Sue has the most amazing energy. It is positive and glows, and she has a natural sweetness about her that makes it almost impossible not to like her. She radiates an inner beauty on the surface that makes her younger than her 45 years. Laughter spills easily out of her but then again, she says, so does honesty. “I speak my mind and it does
not mean that I do not get upset. What you see is what you get.” Her husband once found her having a no-holds barred conversation with her mother and nearly fled at the candid nature of their dialogue. After this, he told others that he had learnt the value of ironing out issues and confronting them head on.
At work she is particular about her femininity. “Maintaining that is very important for me. I am around my husband all day. My nails have to be done and I think about what I am wearing. There is an office look, weekend look and home or going out look. I am very particular about how I dress up. I don’t take him for granted. I really work on it. He notices my hair and I am a proper lady. It also gives me that confidence. I am modern but I have to be obedient. The things he likes and I know he likes, I do.”
Lest you flinch at her unreserved opinion, she says, “as a woman do not worry that other people say you spend too much time with your husband and that this is not the thing to do. If you are happy, you are happy.” She should know.
She started her fashion label after her mother made a deal with her. he would finish her ‘A’ levels, and if she still felt the need to pursue it, she would. They both kept their word.
She traveled to the US and spent 3 years working from 9am to 5pm, attending classes from 6.30pm till 11pm, and getting home at midnight. She was exhausted half the time but lived on a dream. “I was a size six. There was no gym needed. My only free time was on Sunday which I spent doing laundry and cooking enough food to last me through the week. When I got a break I would simply sleep.”
She returned to Kenya and her business grew enough to accommodate 15 tailors. The area her studio stands in now was bought by her mother, a woman Sue praises as having possessed extraordinary foresight and vision, she was a single mother who raised her six children and was incredibly close to her daughter. “I never thought that I would grow up normal not having a dad the way we did. When she died in 1993 I wondered how I would go on. When good things happen I miss her, having someone to share them with.” It was her mother who unwittingly taught her to invest in property. When she could not buy land by herself, she enrolled her own father and several male relatives.
It might seem Suraya was born a full fledged adult, but the couple bought their first home for Ksh1.8 million over 20 years ago. They upgraded to another at Ksh3million, before getting their present one. “People always made fun of us, asking why we did not design our own house yet my husband is an architect. The truth is we got what we could afford.”
Their partnership, merging two creatives each with their own strengths, extends home where Sue trades the suits for an apron. Three times a week, they leave the office together and take an hour and a half long walks. “I call them our boardroom meetings,” says Pete. The other two days of the week, she picks up her children from school.
When school is out, the children are taken to the office where they get to see their parents at work. They attend meetings, negotiations, go to sites and can discuss and recite details about the sites. “They are better off learning than going to the Village Market. I tell them they need to see where their school fees comes from and how hard we have worked so they better not blow this money. It is a succession plan.” They do get reprieves on Sundays. If they ask kindly enough they go for pizza or movies.
This as their mother potters around the house, tending her small collection of flowers in a corner, while their father withdraws to sketch to loud music in his study. “We don’t go out dancing enough. I love my gardening, clean my house and my husband leaves so that he is not asked to move things around! I hang out with my girlfriends, I like to travel and we go for dinner and spend time away from home when we can as a couple. I love to entertain and when we have guests I don’t cater, I cook. Sometimes I just draw on my notebook.”
If there ever was the quintessential superwoman, Sue is clearly it! She however adds that “I don’t think there is one home that is the same as the other. And I got lucky with my man. He understands me.” The pair concedes what they do is pretty much steeped in faith and Sue is certainly proof that good things do happen to good people.
SUE’S REAL ESTATE TIPS:

• Start where you are and pace yourself. The first house you buy is not necessarily the one you will live in so do not worry about location.
• You do not have to do it alone. Ask your chama members or family to help you get started and make it a group investment. Do not think that just because you are a woman you are already handicapped or limited in any way. Always ask for help.
• Investigate who the architect of a property is and only buy if they are registered. If there is no architect, run the other way. Get an engineer to give your potential buy a once over to be safe.
• It is smarter to buy a home in the beginning before construction rather than upon completion when the price will have possibly doubled.

Kambua Manundu

With 19,000 friends on Facebook, Kambua Manundu is going places. The gospel artist and TV talk show host tells Enid Mukiri about her love for family, music and God, and why the darkest days in her life just made her stronger.
It’s no coincidence that Kambua Manundu works for Rauka, a gospel music show on Citizen TV. Rauka is Kiswahili for “wake up” – and Kambua has been waking up audiences wherever she goes with her drop-dead gorgeous looks and beautiful, soaring voice.
And this is no recent phenomenon; she was opening eyes back in high school, when her hymn singing in the shower
instantly stopped the chattering of fellow pupils.
“I had just joined Lukenya High School,” she laughingly recalls. “I was in the shower one morning and, forgetting that there were other people in the surrounding stalls, began singing loudly. In the middle of the song, I realised that the bathroom had suddenly gone quiet. So I stopped singing and wondered what was wrong. That’s when everyone who had heard me told me I should carry on, ‘sing again’.”
Singing is clearly in Kambua’s blood. “I was very young when I started singing in my local church and in school,” she says. “Whenever there was something I could get involved in, like music and drama festivals or Christmas plays, I was always there. I went to Kianda for primary school and sang a lot during mass, but it was in high school that I really stepped up and began to sing alone.”
But it’s not just singing that Kambua loves. She has a keen eye for fashion. For this interview, she arrives dressed in a flowing dress and her trademark flower in the hair. The dress and the flower are both a bright lime green, the perfect colour on her delicious caramel skin. The TRUE LOVE photo shoot for this story is also an enjoyable affair for Kambua, and in typical girly mode, she is excited about all the clothes the fashion editor has picked out for her.
“I love to wear dresses and that is what I wear most,” she says between trying on one of the outfits and explaining that fashion design is one of the “to do’s” on her bucket list. “People tend to think I am trying to make a statement, but really, I just love dresses.”
And her audience seems to feel the same way. “I catch flak from my viewers whenever I deviate from dresses to trousers,” she laughs.
Kambua, 26, has been making her mark on the gospel music circuit for several years. She writes and sings her own material – a mellow mix of R&B, kwaito and pop she calls Afro-fusion – and Kenyans love it. She has 19,000 fans on Facebook, no mean feat for any musician, let alone a gospel artist. Posts on her Facebook page are overwhelmingly positive, with fans describing her singing as an “inspiration” and a “blessing”.
So what’s she like, up close and personal? Sweet, relaxed, down-to-earth, sunny – very likeable, in fact. “I am an easygoing girl passionate about God, life and music,” she states confidently. “I have set out to pursue my dreams and make them happen.” Her easygoing nature is certainly apparent in all that she does, from the way she communicates to the way she interacts with those around her.
Her background gives some insight into the woman she is today. “I grew up in Nairobi and have two brothers. Babu is five years older than me and Ndzomo is five years younger than me,” she says. Her sense of humour kicks in as she cracks a joke about not being sure if her parents planned this perfect spacing between the siblings. “Because I grew up with boys, I was very much a tomboy in my earlier years. I did not like girly things and chose to climb trees with my brothers instead, much to my mum’s frustration. I still have scars on my knees to show for it!”
But, she continues, “Something happened when I got to my teens. The super girl in me came out … even more so when I went to high school and met girls who really took care of themselves. My mom was definitely relieved.”
But as Kambua’s femininity and singing started to take off, a dark cloud arrived and hovered over her family. “In high school, my dad began to get sick, and was unable to work. Because he was unable to pay for my school fees, I was in and out of school. Thankfully, my headmistress at Lukenya was very gracious and allowed me to finish school with the understanding that my dad would settle the bill when he got back on his feet.”
Thanks to an understanding teacher, Kambua was able to finish her secondary education, but as her dad’s health continued to deteriorate, she was faced with yet more challenges in terms of a higher education.
“That was a tough period of my life,” she says. “All of my friends were leaving the country to pursue higher education overseas, and there I was with all these dreams and no way of realising them.” The family’s financial challenges were so strenuous that she was unable to attend even a local college.
“A friend of mine encouraged me to audition for a theatre role with Heartstrings Ensemble and although I had never thought of acting, I went out and auditioned. I got the role and was able to do a few shows (Family Business and Something’s Burning). I had not told my parents that I was involved in theatre; they only found out after reading a newspaper article I was featured in.”
In addition to theatre, Kambua was also able to keep busy through singing in church and getting involved in the youth ministry at her local church, Parklands Baptist Church. She also ventured into the gospel music industry by recording background vocals for various artists, including Mbuvi, Bahati and Kavutha (4 Winds).
“Whenever I got the opportunity to sing I would be there. Although most were not paying jobs, they were a lot of fun and also kept me busy and prevented me from feeling sorry for myself that things were not working out the way I had thought they would.” These opportunities also helped her build her music portfolio and overcome her shyness about performing in public.
About two years after completing high school, the dark cloud that was hovering over her family lifted. Her father got well. This enabled Kambua to pursue her dream of embarking on a university degree overseas, and when an opportunity presented itself, she opted to study music.
“Having been an economist, my dad wasn’t completely sold on my choice to study music, and rightfully so,” she says.
“At the time,  music was not a good source of income.”
But despite their misgivings, her parents graciously encouraged her to follow her dream.
In 2005, Kambua applied to several universities, and was accepted by Ambrose University College, a Christian university in Calgary in Canada. “I had never heard of Calgary, and did not know anyone there. I went to school in the winter, which was a rude shock. If you have never experienced winter, especially a Canadian one, you don’t know what cold really means.”
Her first semester was difficult as, in addition to the harsh climate, she had to contend with culture shock. “It was hard being in a foreign country where I knew no one; it was also hard because I had opted to study classical music which was new to me and made very little sense.” But she didn’t remain gloomy for long. “My dad had taught us to never be afraid to ask for help. I learnt to ask my professors, fellow students and the friends that I made for assistance whenever I couldn’t figure things out.”
By her second year, she had figured things out just fine and really started enjoying her university experience. “I joined the school and church choirs. I also joined the school band and participated in school marketing and recruitment.” One of the highlights of her time in Canada was being selected to sing with Angelique Kidjo in concert.
After graduation, she returned home temporarily – and ended up staying for good. “I intended to stay for one month, but the month turned into two months, then three. It has now been two years.” She laughs as she talks about the disruption this caused. “I had paid rent for the month and left all my belongings in Canada, thinking I was going back. I had to go back to sort things out and officially ‘move’.”
So what brought on this change of heart?
Before Kambua had left for Canada, she had recorded an album, ‘Nishikilie’. “I had taken it around to radio stations, but when I moved to Canada, I never quite followed up on it.” When she got back in 2008, she discovered that the title track of her album had been getting lots of airplay. People knew the song, but had no clue as to who was behind it.
Kambua decided she needed to launch the song properly, do a few live performances for her growing fan base, get her name out … all of which meant she couldn’t return to Canada.
“I received such a fantastic response to my first album that I figured there was something for me here, so I decided to pursue it and have some fun in the process.” She not only had fun with her music; she won awards. In 2008, she won a Kisima for female artist of the year in the Afro-fusion category, and in 2009 she was crowned female artist of the year at the Groove Awards. She also launched her second album, Nyumbani, which propelled her into the A-list of gospel artists. Last year, she curtain-raised for Cece Winans, one of her favourite musicians, during her Nairobi concert. “It was an honour participating in her concert.”
Kambua is currently working on a third album she hopes to release sometime this year. She is also honing her songwriting abilities – and wrote almost all of the songs on this yet untitled album.
Her success has not come without its challenges. Getting a foot in the industry was the hardest part. “I’d take my music to stations and they wouldn’t play it because they had no clue who I was. I also did many press interviews that were never published, and would get allotted last in concerts just when people were walking out. It was very frustrating, but my parents kept affirming me that things would work out in God’s perfect time.”
Winning two music awards changed everything. Suddenly, radio stations were clamouring to play her music, and Kambua had a real future. “What my success means to me is that I am on the right path, and I will keep at it.”
As someone who’s been there, done that, she encourages music enthusiasts to not give up hope easily. “Music doesn’t pay off immediately,” she says. “I have definitely had my broke days, but persistence and hard work do pay off.” It was the most natural thing to choose gospel over any other genre of music.
“I grew up in a Christian home. Also, my mother, Lois, is a pastor.” Like most young people, she experienced a time of questioning during her high school and college years. “This was a period of really searching myself and learning His word, and it made me a stronger Christian,” she says.
Last year, Kambua ventured into television. She, along with co-host Njugush, presents Citizen TV’s Sunday morning show, Rauka. The highly rated programme features gospel music that gets viewers up and ready for church. “I love my role in the show as I am able to share both my passion for Christ and for music with our viewers.”
Landing the TV job came as a surprise to Kambua as she had auditioned for many TV shows, without success. She says the audition was intimidating, especially as “there were a ton of other contenders”, some of whom are well known. But, as always, she “set out to have fun” during her audition. “I was surprised when they called me and offered me the job. I am really thankful for this role in media, especially when I get feedback that I have been able to positively impact someone’s life.”
Kambua gets thoughtful. “We easily forget where we have come from,” she says. “I am thankful for my struggles and challenges as they have made me a very tough person who can hopefully have a positive impact on the lives of others.”
But being a popular face on TV isn’t always easy. “I have to be open to criticism both negative and positive. By nature I like to be on the right side of the road, so I have had to develop some tough skin for the negative feedback.”
The notoriety that comes with TV also means that she now can’t walk around incognito, which has been difficult as she is naturally introverted. “I now consciously have to ‘extrovert’ myself,” she laughs.
As for balance between her work and personal life, she says: “I purposefully plan for and always take some ‘me time’ which I spend alone at home. I am also again very thankful for my family who are at the core of my support system.”
Surely it’s not all work, work and more work for Kambua? “I love to sit in coffee shops and read.” She does, indeed, seem to be in her element on this afternoon at the Art Cafe in Westlands, armed with a magazine, her iPod and a cup of coffee.
She says she also likes to travel, watch movies and hang out with family and friends, but “regular quality alone time” tops her list.
We point out that this story will appear in TRUE LOVE’s February issue, and as February is known as the month of love … what’s the gist on her love life? Last we heard, Kambua had split up with her fiance, gospel musician Mbuvi.
What happened?
Kambua is reluctant to talk about her ex, or even mention his name. However, she is prepared to talk about the things she learned from the relationship.
“I met him when I was very young, right out of high school, and we dated on and off for about six years. It was one of those relationships that we knew sooner or later would lead to marriage, and we got engaged when I came back home from Canada. But it was very hard for me when I got back because I was barely in my teens when I left for college, and here I was coming back as an adult. I had definitely changed and so had he – and comprehending the changes was difficult and a strain on our relationship.”
Having matured, Kambua was more vocal about many things in the relationship, she says. Things got “very rocky”.
What’s more, her parents had some reservations about the relationship.
“Eventually, the strife between us became too much. It did not help that people pressured us to get married. Everyone would ask when the big day was. It was hard to let people know that we needed some time to figure things out.”
Kambua finally reached a point when she knew that things could not go on. “This was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make. I knew it would be the unpopular decision and wondered what people would say. I dragged my feet, but finally realised that what was important for me and him was the state of our relationship, not what people thought.”
Understanding that it was natural for people to change and that they had both drifted apart gave her the strength to end things when she did. Still, it was hard. Very hard.
“We had been dating for a long time. After we broke up, I was very lonely and suffered the stigma of a broken engagement. There was lots of speculation as to why I had ended things. I lost a lot of acquaintances, and many people talked.
“But I learnt to hold my tongue rather than defend myself while I weathered the storm. I have been able to get over this with the support of my family, and today my ex and I have a cordial relationship.”
This broken engagement has taught the songstress a lot about love. Today, her ideal man is one who will complement her in many ways. “He should be fun loving, funny, and easygoing in nature. He should also share the same values that I have as far as God, family and music are concerned. He should accept Kambua as a whole package.”
She says she is currently dating someone, but prefers to keep his identity a secret. But she does let this slip: “He’s not in the industry!”
As for the future, Kambua’s looks bright. She will soon release a new single, ‘Again’. This song was birthed during the low moments of her broken engagement, and with it she hopes to inspire everyone who has loved and lost to dream and believe again.
Another cause dear to her heart is philanthropic work. She has been involved in a lot of charity work through various church youth ministries, such as Passports Incorporated, a US-based Christian organisation where she volunteered with youth for four years. She also does mission work locally with K-Crew, the outfit behind the Rauka show.
“My passion is to work with young women,” she says. “Participating in a prison mission at Langata Women’s Prison taught me that you can never exhaust the possibilities with young women, especially if you remind them of their self-worth and their potential.”
As for the words she lives by, this is what she told one reporter last year: “There are no limits to what you can do when you are set free. Many times we are held back not by our limitations, but mostly for fear of daring to be the best that we can. Marianne Williamson best said it, that ‘our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure’. I’ve learned to not limit myself because I serve a God who knows no bounds.”
Kambua is fulfilling her mission to wake up the world in word, song and deed.
Kambua – Nishikilie

Walter Mong'are

LINDA MUTHAMA needs little introduction as far as music is concerned. She has a passion for music and wastes no time to make it clear that music runs in her blood.
For starters, Linda was a finalist in the first edition of Tusker Project Fame, and is also the face of Jitambue Leo, an HIV and Aids awareness campaign which featured other artistes. The campaign has been running since 2009.
“I was born in a family of musicians. My father is a music teacher and a choirmaster while my mother is an active member of the church choir,” says Linda, who emerged third during the first edition of Tusker Project Fame. She says her father inspired her most and this is why when she joined Kahuhia Primary School in Kiambu, she was already set on what she wanted to do in life. She started shaping her career immediately by singing in the choir and representing her school in different competitions.
“When I joined Kahuhia Girls, many of my friends did not believe this. They laughed me off saying that music was not a serious career. After studying music and being in the industry for some time, I believe this is a career like any other.”
Because of her love for music, Linda chose music in addition to Education, which was her parents’ and friends’ wish. Linda is a Music and Performance graduate from Kenyatta University, currently pursuing her Masters in Music Education and Performance.
“Entertainment, specifically music is very fulfilling. I feel elated whenever I take to the stage to entertain my audience,” says the versatile musician who launched her second album, the 11 -track Imaji-nation, in March. Unlike Ne Muciare (He is born), her first album which comprises gospel songs, the latest album has both gospel and inspiring songs blended with love lyrics.
“The album is full of all of my dreams, some of I which have come true. In fact, a number of the hits are dedicated to my manager and long time mentor, Walter Mong’are,” Linda says.
“To create the unique sound of Imajination, my team at Altimate worked across continents with the support of able producers, family, friends, media and above all, God,” she says, and adds that the tracks in this album is a “collection of my personal emotions from joy, anxiety, courage, determination, pride, honour and hope.”
According to her, any loving man should stand by his woman in times of trials. “Walter has done exactly that and he has been my mentor since my college days and I cannot forget what he has done for my career. I would not be where I am today had I not met him. He has been an important pillar in my growth as a musician.” When she is not with Altimate Band which is one of the most expensive entertainment groups to hire, Linda is also a music tutor at Nairobi International School. She also performs in corporate and private functions including weddings but selectively.
“Compared to the entertainment value and package we offer, I believe our rates are fair and competitive. We are a professional outfit with singers and instrumentalists who keep the crowd entertained,” she says about her Altimate Band, which charges anything from Sh 100,000 as appearance and performance fees.
Apart from public performances, she is also part of a team that early in the year established the Kenya Musicians Association, KEMUSA, and she is the Assistant Secretary General.
“We wish to bring professionalism and sanity to this industry which for very long has been associated with indiscipline. The association’s aim is to ensure that the welfare of all musicians is taken into account,” she says of KEMUSA.
For the past one year, Linda has been busy performing with the Altimate Band in the Safaricom Kenya Live concerts across the country. Other than staging her performances, she is also the instructor, trainer and director of the other performing artistes who more often than are not backed up with a live band. The artistes on Safaricom Kenya Live include Nameless, Wahu, Redsan, Eko Dyda, Wyre, STL, Juliani, MOG, Juacali and other upcoming local and regional artistes.
Unlike many musicians, Linda is capable of singing and performing different genres of music including ohangra, and has shared the stage with some of the most respected musicians like Atif Aslam, Eric Wainaina and Jabali Afrika with whom she performed both in Kenya and in Washington DC while on tour with the Reddykyulass trio.
Linda advises the youth, especially girls, to follow their dreams. “Girls, especially those who are yet to join college and/or university should opt for courses they have passion for, with guidance from their parents.”
By Antony Ongalo
Photographs by Harry Olang
Styling by Namnyak Odupoy
Hair and Make up by Simon Gitau, Kevin Chege and Talia of Lace Salon, Burstwood Court, Chaka Road, Kilimani. Ph +254 702 768 771
Extensions provided by www.tressfreedom.com +254712083 411
All clothes provided by Jorge’s Wardrobe, +254 727 354 531, Wood Avenue, Kilimani
The rise and rise of Nyambane
Story and photographs by Antony Ongalo
People fail to understand that I have been in management for more than 15 years
He has established himself as a refined thespian, a radio station manager and a musician. By day, Walter Mong’are, who is also known as Nyambane, is in the office managing the affairs of Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, where he is in charge of all radio stations. In the evening he changes hats and becomes an entertainer. He says entertainment is his hobby.
Walter can be described as one of the masters of comedy in the country because of his acts when he mimicked the retired President Moi, a role he played very well in the popular television comedy Reddykyulass. Walter says his alter ego Nyambane, who was a radio comedian on KISS! 100 and later at QFM, is totally different from Mr President who was in Reddykyulass and later Red Korna on the then Nation TV.
“You are now talking to Walter Mong’are, the Head of Radio at KBC. People have always confused these three people, yet they are completely different from one another,” insists Walter, whose appointment as KBC’s Head of Radio caught many by surprise and he was dismissed as a nonstarter as concerns management of the media.
“What people fail to understand is that I have been in management for more than 15 years. To make Reddykyulass, Altimate Music Band and Nyambane successful, it required management skills of the highest order. I am out to prove wrong those who doubted my managerial skills,” he says, adding that he answered to a job advert and he was interviewed by a panel comprising KBC board naembers and was eventually picked on merit.
“According to the latest Synovate Research media survey, Idhaa ya Taifa is the second most-listened to radio station behind Milele FM. I don’t want to brag, but those in the know agree it is as a result of the re-branding I did immediately I assumed this position.” Walter says he is now planning to launch a number of vernacular stations.
“KBC’s radio stations are the most professional stations because of the type of staff they have. But since KBC was a monopoly for so long, people grew tired and started having negative perceptions, but now, I am happy the attitude is changing and listenership has gone up,” he reveals.
Walter, who was hawking chapati and groundnuts at Lenana High School to supplement his pocket money, says his life has not been a bed of roses but he has struggled to be where he is today. “I don’t come from a rich family and my teenage years were challenging. While studying at Lenana High School, I had to look for ways of making an extra coin and this is when I ventured into the chapati business.The chapatis were made at a relative’s house and my role was to look for a quick market within the school.”
He recalls how because of strict student leaders and teachers, he conducted the business late in the evening and sold each chapati for a shilling more than the relative expected from him. “I did this upon realising that I was taking all the money back to my relative.”
He quit the business when he joined Fourth Form and wanted to be a student leader. “My enemies capitalised on the fact that I was involved in the ‘underworld’ business and I had to quit,” states Walter, who joined Kenyatta University in 1996.
It was at KU where he honed his skills as an actor when he joined hands with Kiarie John (KJ) and Tony Njuguna to come up with Reddykyulass, which exposed the talents of other comedians like Churchill, Kajairo, Eric Omondi, Mudomo Baggy and Linda Muthama.
“I don’t want to mention people’s names for the sake of giving myself or Reddykyulass credit, but I am sure we have contributed towards the growth of many people who were associated with us, either through acting or singing,”asserted Walter, who is a father of a 13-year old Tracy Mong’are and three year-old Walter Junior. “Junior is the ‘acting’ last born; another one is on the way.”
Rumour has it that your relationship with the musician Linda Muthama has taken a different turn?
“What do you mean by that? Linda is actually my wife. It is just that we are still in talks to legalise the marriage. I married my first wife in 1996 when I was still at Kenyatta University.”
Walter believes that he started entertaining even before he was born.” I am told by my mum that at the age of three, I would sit on the table and tell very entertaining stories. I believe I was born an entertainer.”
It is reported that Walter is ‘stubborn’ and difficult to hire because of his demands. “Is it a crime to demand my rights or to fully understand that, as an employee, am protected (by the Constitution)? It has taken me time to build my name and career, thus, it is my right to demand what I feel belongs to me,” he asserts. Although he is happy with the support he has received from local fans, he is yet to understand why Kenyans don’t fully support local artistes. “In Kenya, it’s easy to be a thief and survive than to be an entertainer because people want to be entertained but they don’t want to pay.”

Maina Kageni

Inspite of what people say about him, he walks with his head held high and he will not be cowed by the rumours swirling around his lifestyle. He gave PASSION Magazine the absolute final words about his life.
Julie Masiga
A few years ago, a rather hopeful editor put me on assignment to glean some answers from a list of questions he had put to Maina Kageni, the exuberant radio host who is increasingly becoming the ladies man, for his pro-women views.
Hiding my nervousness under a confident, but somewhat shaky exterior, I made first contact, immediately encountering a scheduling nightmare of ridiculous proportions. It took several phone calls and a similar amount of weeks to pin the man down. Finally, I got him at the other end of a table and quickly realised that getting him to sit down had not been my greatest challenge. Getting him to speak was.
Years later, the man has changed. It took exactly one phone call, and a subsequent meeting to organise this interview. I might mention that while he answered my calls, he was not as courteous to my editor, but then again, anyone who listens to Classic 105 knows he is partial to the ladies.
Because we had begun on such a cooperative note, once again I was hopeful that he would be forthcoming with all the intimate details. Let’s just say I remain hopeful. But luckily with Maina, it is more about what he does not say than what he says.
Take for example our arrangements for this interview. I was not in the least bit surprised when he offered to buy me lunch at Buffet Park. It is something one would expect because while Maina might have more money than God, his feet remain firmly on the earth, and they can usually be found under that famed guava tree.
He is endearingly modest about his wealth. “Who says I’m rich? I earn enough and I try to live a quality lifestyle. I’m just rich at heart.”
That said, he owns a couple of condos in Miami, Florida, which he is quick to say were bought on a mortgage, and a couple of homes here too. He also has various business interests in Kenya and on the continent.
From the little he reveals about his commercial ventures, one might conclude that he is building a conglomerate. His enterprises are diverse, ranging from endorsement contracts to real estate and many things in between. He even owns a modelling agency in Lagos with one of the P-Square brothers. Incidentally, Uti Nwachukwu from the Big Brother All Star House is one of his models.
He is certainly a man of contradictions. Dressing him for the shoot was a quite a production. Few people have a problem with looking too smart, but apparently he does. “I don’t do suits! That’s not me. Tuxedoes maybe, but suits? No.”
For him it is either ultra-casual or uber smart, nothing in between. But even in his wardrobe staple -jeans, sneakers and a tee shirt – he looks laid back, but not cheap, or shabby.
With Maina, you do find that the pendulum swings from one extreme to the other. He is such a regular at Buffet Park that he is on a first name basis with the waiting staff. If you found him pouring libations under that guava tree, you might conclude that he is a simple man with simple tastes. Not so.
He tells a story about what was formerly known as Thika Road but is now just a labyrinth of dusty diversions. “I was just reappointed Guinness brand ambassador and we had a meeting at East African Breweries in Ruaraka. At 1 pm the traffic was a mess. One night I had an activation at Jambo Grill which ended at 5am. I imagined trying to navigate that road at that time and decided to sleep at Safari Park Hotel.” It is not every man who will fork out tens of thousands of shillings on a whim, just to avoid driving home, less than 20 kilometres away.
In Maina, you find a curious meeting of bourgeoisie and working class values. He will not wear a suit, but he will wear a tuxedo. He will drink at Buffet, but sleep at Safari Park. He watches Nigerian movies, but vacations in Miami. Obviously money does not define who he is, for him, it is simply a means to a very happy end.
But I digress. We had agreed to meet at 1pm but it is almost 2 when he arrives in the black Hummer that is almost as well known as Maina himself. He holds court as we sit on simple wooden benches with the breeze for a blanket and the sky as our shelter.
A bottle of vodka in hand, he gives audience to a steady stream of friends and fans that came to call. “I have been drinking everyday for 12 years. I don’t know what I would do if I stopped drinking.”
When I suggest that he might have a drinking problem he is not having any of it. “I can stop if I want to. During Lent I cut down even though I am not a staunch Christian. I only drank wine which is well within Biblical parameters!
Drinking for me is a social activity. What else is there to do? Life would be so boring because you would feel like you are not part of the party.”
His interactions with the public are so seamless, it is almost as if he makes a considered effort to treat everyone as an equal – women especially. I put it to him that he is a feminist. He is not too comfortable with the title but nevertheless readily admits that he does stand up for women. “Don’t you see how badly Kenyan women are treated? That is why I am on their side. Women are stereo-typed and everything is their fault. I was brought up by a very successful, strong woman and my sister is also a very strong character. Women deserve more than they get from their men.”
We launch into an extended dialogue about the comments men make on the Classic 105 Breakfast Show with Maina and King’ang’i, ultimately concluding that as a nation, we have issues. “As a matter of fact, we spend about sh400,000 a month on counselling some of our callers. It is that bad.”
But he is not a bleeding heart gender activist. He just calls it as he sees it. As we speak, in a segue that seems slightly contrary to his on air persona, he alleges that women enjoy sex more than men. “It is a fact,” he asserts, looking me in the eye. Obviously, for Maina, hosting a radio show is much more than just a job. He takes it personal.
When we hear him speak with such conviction, it is not an act, it is straight from the heart. It comes so naturally that it has never dawned on him that by defending women, they would come to see him as a role model-a label he recoils from. “I am no role model. I drink alot!
But I know that I am here to fulfil a purpose. Everybody is, you just have to figure it out. Mine is to help a few people here and there, and so far everyone I have helped is doing OK.”
Ironically, the radio career that has opened so many doors for him, and many others by extension, was never part of the plan. “I got on radio by pure fluke. DJ Pinye and I had brought over some deejays from the United Kingdom and we went to Capital FM to book air time to advertise the gig. We were then asked for sh40,000 for the voiceover. We did not have any more cash so I offered to do it. John Wilkins liked it and offered me a job! Basically, if I had that money on me, I would not be on radio!”
Maina has no training in journalism or psychology but he gets by. “I guess my career comes down to not having 40 grand!”
But he is well-schooled having attended the prestigious Msingi Bora Kindergarten, before joining Westlands Primary School and later the Laiser Hill Academy. He then went on a working holiday of sorts to the UK and the US, where he started doing everything from washing dishes at McDonalds to driving delivery trucks and selling cars.
Before he settled at Classic 105, he worked for 96.4 Nation FM (now Easy FM) and for KISS 100.
Over the years, he has narrowed his on-air focus to relationship issues. “It is not about sex. It is about relationships, and they always touch on sex. There was an unfulfilled market and we went for it. We realised that whenever we did relationship stuff on Wednesdays and Fridays, the response was huge. So we thought, ‘…why not do this full time?’ I am glad we did.”
But now, with more than 10 years under his belt, he is ready to move on. “Hopefully, if my plans pan out, by next year I will be off the air. If not, you are going have to put up with me for a while longer!”
When he is not on the air, at the bar, on the golf course or in Miami, he spends his time nursing a very curious TV habit: Watching Nigerian movies. And cricket. He tried to explain to me something about wickets, innings and outings but I was not getting it, so we moved on.
“I would like to have kids, but a family? No. The institution of marriage has changed and I do not think I have changed with it. It is all good when you have a long-term sweetie you can marry, but I doubt I will find someone who will love me enough for me to say,’OK, lock me up in the jail that is marriage and throw away the key!’”
Marriage or no marriage his life is full. From the number of people who call him friend, he would probably make for a very popular politician for his adoring fans are legion, and they love him.
Despite that, there is still much speculation about his lifestyle choices. That niggling rumour about his sexual orientation refuses to go away. “I don’t know why people are so caught up about whether I am gay or not. Maybe we need more Nigerian movies on telly to occupy their time! I am not bothered about what they think because an opinion is like a bad tooth…most people have one.” I accept this nonchalant world view with a pinch of salt, because, with Maina, it is less about what he says, and more about what he does not.
Whether he is gay or not is neither here nor there, and certainly no one’s business but his own. But I cannot help but feel that he has grown weary of being a conversation piece, constantly discussed like an abstract painting on display.
Every so often, he gets a wary look about him, like an impala being circled by lions (which he saw for the first time in the flesh in Maasai Mara last month) not knowing when one among the ravenous pride will strike the fatal blow.
For me, he is the embodiment of loneliness, a man surrounded by people and yet very much alone. He gives some credence to my theory when he admits that he likes his own company. “If I have a bottle of whiskey, I can spend the whole weekend at home, watching Nigerian movies, cricket or golf. I can socialise with myself.”
Maina wa Wangui is a man of many characters but you would never tell for looking at his poker face.
Few of us will ever know the man behind the mask. His mum Wangui, is probably the only person who can reveal the secrets of his heart as she is the one woman that he loves the most.
His father died when he was very young. “My dad passed on when I was a toddler. It is sad but I never knew him. My biggest memory of him was one night when I was sick and he offered his palms for me to vomit in.”
Maina himself seems to live in the present, not seeming to have any definitive thoughts about the future. “If I get to 60, I will probably still be a Scotch guzzler. But if I do not, my epitaph might be something like, ‘…there goes the guy who could drink a bottle of Scotch in one sitting.’ Well if I am honest, maybe not. I hope I will be well spoken of.”
Time as they say, will tell. And as always, to quote him, his listeners might be the ones to have the absolute final word.