Why is there no petrol in Nairobi?

I experienced first hand the fuel shortage in Nairobi today. I was forced to work from home with an empty fuel tank. I heard via the grapevine that the Shell down the road had received fuel around lunch time and like many Nairobians joined the queues to get a full tank!

I queued for just under an hour for a full tank of fuel and a Jerry can - as a buffer for any further shortages.

So the BIG question is why is there a fuel shortage in Nairobi?

The government assures us that there is no shortage of petrol in Kenya, In fact according to Patrick Nyoike, Energy Permanent Secretary, there are approximately 17.3 million liters of fuel products at the Kenya Pipeline Company depots.

So the petrol is in the tanks, but not in the fuel stations. Finding an answer to this question is where the blame-storming begins. Here are some of the popular ideas/reasons/excuses:

There's no space to land it:
"the result of intense pricing battles over consignments that were to be shipped in mid March, but could not land at the port for lack of storage space"

It's corruption again: 
"dealers have refused to buy the petroleum because the importer, with the help of the Ministry of Energy officials, has pushed the prices up by up to $10 above the price quoted for the tender"

No money for guarantees:
"Some of these importers are very small and find it difficult to raise the guarantees"

They forgot to pay their accounts:
"the shortage is linked to delayed payments by the marketers"

Blame the logistics department:
"logistical delays resulting from the public holiday for the supply shortage"

It's KRA's fault*:
"the taxation and clearing paperwork required was not done on time"

It's KPLC's fault**:
 "A shutdown at the refinery caused by a power failure late last week has also been linked to the supply shortage"

It's the price's fault:
"the price regulation [is the cause] for the crisis"

It's on it's way, it's stuck on the high seas:
"attempts to ease the situation by getting approval from authorities for the discharge of a cargo ship in the high seas has not borne fruit"

It's the public's fault:
"said the situation was being made worse by panicking motorists who dash to the nearest stations where they see a re-filling truck"

Of possible excuses the only ones missing are: The dog ate it, and the aliens abducted it!

Let's hope that while the industry players are arguing and blame-shifting that someone is actually working to resolve the problem!

* KRA = Kenya Revenue Authority

** KPLC = Kenya Power and Lighting Corporation

Sources:

Capital FM

Business Daily

Made in England

Made in England, a photo by jdkvirus on Flickr.

This is a component on a railway wagon parked at the Nairobi Railway Museum. The museum houses rolling stock, locomotives and other memorabilia from the old East African Railways.

This railway line was referred to as the "lunatic line" by the British tabloids of the time when it was built between 1896 and 1901. At the time is cost 5 million pounds to complete, but it's cost in human life was enormous, with an average of 4 workers dying for every mile of track! The original line was built from the port of Mombasa on the Indian ocean coast of what is now Kenya to Kisumu on the shores of Lake Victoria. By 1931 the line had been extended to Kampala the capital of Uganda.

Two things attracted me to this rusting component on the railway wagon. Firstly, it is embossed with the words "Made in England", the second thing that caught my eye was the acronym E.A.R, implying that these components were manufactured especially for East African Railways.

We are all too familiar with the "Made in China" label. Take a look at your desk where your computer stands, or your kitchen. A fair chunk of what's before you was made in China.

In 2010, the US was the world's leading manufacturer contributing 19.9% of the world's manufactured goods. Its projected that the US will lose its long standing number 1 position to China in 2011. The US have held the top spot for 110 years, quite a record! Coincidentally, it was about the time that the lunatic line was commissioned that the US surpassed Britain as the leading global manufacturer.

At present England relies on manufacturing for 26% of it's GDP. This manufacturing is concentrated in aerospace, defense, pharmaceuticals and chemicals although the UK has 10 operational railway manufacturers.

Despite it's manufacture site listed as England, the pictured component was probably designed in the US. Timken is an American company founded in 1899 by Henry Timken and his sons. Henry Timken was a German born carriage builder who patented a tapered rolling bearing for freight wagons, which improved their handling during cornering. This patent was the start of then Timken business which still operate's today.The companies slogan "Wherever wheels and shafts turn", describes the widespread use for bearings. Timken bearings have been fitted to trains, aircraft engines and even the space shuttle's landing gear!

This component (probably a bearing of some sort) was manufactured under license in England following a licensing agreement in 1909 which gave the Timken company access to the global markets. I suppose in some respects this is similar to today's manufacturing being outsourced to China?

I have no way of knowing exactly how old this component is but I am sure it contributed to the economies of England and the US at it's manufacture. It contributed to the British East African economy in it's use, even now is contributing in a very small way to the Kenyan economy as part of the museum display!

Nakuru Photo Blog

I have visited Lake Nakuru National Park three times since we moved to Kenya in 2008. As a whole it is one of my least favorite parks, perhaps because it is so small. I much prefer the wide open spaces of the Masaai Mara or Tsavo, however for a day visit it allows one to see a large number of animals and birds. I visited the park again on Tuesday 19th April with my family.

The park's focus is Lake Nakuru, one of the Rift valley soda lakes. There are 2 great vantage points to see the lake - one is Baboon Cliff look-out which is to the north of the lake (from the main gate travel to the right). The more spectacular of the two is Lion Hill Lookout. This is a bit "off the beaten track" but well worth the drive. The access road is just before the Lanet gate.

Lake Nakuru National Park's claim to fame has always been the hundreds of thousands (even millions on some occasions) of Flamingos that feed on algae on the shores. Unfortunately this is no longer the case, with the bulk of the Flamingos having moved to Lake Bogoria and Lake Simbi Nyaima. We did see small groups of Lesser Flamingo and even fewer Greater Flamingo as well as large numbers of Pelicans. We saw about 25 species of bird in total as well as Lion, White Rhino, Buffalo and assorted antelope.

Hope you enjoy the photos below (you can click on them to see larger versions on flickr):

Coming and Going

It's been thirteen days since my last blog post! For those of you who have read my first post introducing this blog, you might have thought that it had faded to black like my previous diaries! The truth is that I have started work again, and no, researching interesting, but useless information is not my job!

For the greater part of the two weeks I have been absent, I was in South Africa. South Africa is my homeland, but not currently my home (I currently reside in Kenya). Within minutes of heading out onto South Africa's highway's I find myself marveling at the great road infrastructure that South Africa has. According to the CIA Factbook, about 73,500 km's of South Africa 362,000 km's of road are paved. In comparison Kenya only has just over 11,000 km's of paved road, and a total of 160,000km. Despite the difference Kenya is in the top 3 for roads in Africa (Nigeria holds 2nd place). The CIA Factbook doesn't have a measure for road quality, or the number of potholes, but I am sure if they did, Kenya would be vying for the top spot.

Although my blog is still in its infancy, one of my most popular posts is How to make a Pothole - a tongue-in-cheek look at state of pothole repair in my neighborhood.  To be fair, Kenya is investing to improve and upgrade the road infrastructure. According to a leaked US Embassy cable on Wikileaks - "China is heavily involved in various infrastructure projects across Kenya primarily with roads". One such project is the Ksh 27 Billion (US$330 Million) Thika Road upgrade. This is a 50km 8-lane super highway to join Nairobi to Thika town. This development, like most road infrastructure projects, is adding to the notorious Nairobi traffic, but it's hoped to increase access to and from Thika. This development is one of many that will occur over the next 20 years as part of Kenya's Vision 2030.

Another glaring contrast between South Africa and Kenya are the number of beggars on street corners. It seems to me that South Africa has many more beggars than Kenya! This may seem counter-intuitive, especially if you consider some statistics - while South Africa has a larger population than Kenya - 49 Million vs 40 Million, it has a much lower unemployment rate 23.3% vs 40%. In absolute terms this means that Kenya has about 5 Million more unemployed! The number of people living below the poverty line is equal - 50% for both nations.

Searching on Google for "why are there so few beggars in Kenya" gives about a quarter of a million hits - none of the top 10 hits (mostly blogs) answered my question. My observation is not based on any quantitative research, and may therefore be questioned, however I generally find Kenyan's to be more entrepreneurial than South Africans - perhaps this is a reason?

One final difference I will discuss was the state-of-the-art vending machines now available in South Africa. At OR Tambo International Airport I found a Pizza Vending Machine! It provides you with your favorite slice in under 3 minutes. What's more is that it doesn't just heat-up a pre-made pizza, it actually bakes it fresh from scratch! I didn't have a chance to try it (or even photograph it) as I was rushing for my flight, but an internet search has revealed that its been around (in Europe) since 2009.

While the technology is brilliant, perhaps South African Businesses should invest in more real life Pizzeria's to help reduce unemployment?

How to make a pothole

Its not surprising that when I searched on Google for instructions on how to make a pothole that I didn't get many hits, and that the hits I did received focused more on the problem of potholes, or how to repair them, or even how to claim from your insurance for vehicle damage caused by potholes!

Since no one is describing how to do it, I thought I would share the Kenyan way:

1. Find a road in fair condition (i.e. it might have some cracks, but no actual potholes yet).
2. Mark the areas you'd like your potholes created using chalk. I call these the preferred pothole zones (PPZs).
3. Cut along the lines with power road cutter (its like a big angle grinder).
4. Divert traffic while your laborers use picks to loosen the tar sections inside your PPZs
5. Leave the remains of the tar in place.
6. Wait 3 to 5 days for your potholes to form.

As ridiculous as this sounds, this is the very thing that happened near our house today! I am sure that the intention was not to deliberately create potholes, but rather to remove the areas of cracked tar and immediately replace them with new sections, however its been my experience that the repair crew will not arrive on site for days, weeks or even months meaning that us road users must skirt numerous potholes, or better yet drive on the sidewalk for the time it takes for the road to be repaired, when there wasn't really much wrong with the road to start with!

I've heard the argument from several people here in Kenya that improving the road surfaces will lead to more road deaths because smoother roads allow faster travel. Perhaps the pothole creators are trying to reverse the traffic death toll by making roads rougher and speeds slower?

While smoother roads do allow faster travel, it doesn't compute that this is the sole cause of more road accidents. A blog entry on the Wall Street Journal site indicated that in India they have correlated an increase in road fatalities to investment in the road infrastructure, however when unpacked the increases are linked to more roads, wider roads, and the poor design of roads, e.g. the lack of pedestrian walkways.

In 1985, Rumar¹ published a study on the causes of traffic collisions using data from the US and the UK. He found that 57% of collisions were solely caused by driver factors. In contrast, only 3% of collisions were solely related to roadway factors. A further 27% combined roadway and driver factors. While we should be cautious to use developed world data in the developing context, I think this analysis debunks the myth that better road surfaces will lead to more accidents!

In November of 2009 the UN held a landmark conference of Road Safety. Road safety is moving from being tackled as a local or national problem to an International one, and rightly so - annually 1,300,000 people die in road accidents. A further 50 million are injured. This can cost a country between 1 and 3% of GDP. Later this year the UN will declare a Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011-2020) with the aim of halving the increase in global road deaths by 2020.

Here in Kenya, both the President - Mwai Kibaki and the Transport Minister - Amos Kimunya have recognized the need to reduce the carnage on Kenyan roads. At a Road Safety stakeholder meeting in October last year², the President has suggested stronger regulations and enforcement of traffic rules, while Minister Kimunya called for attitudinal change amongst road users and indicated that government would introduce strong legislation and better road designs.

As always (and especially where politicians are concerned), actions speak louder than words. The Kenyan government is introducing legislation that will eventually phase out the 14-seater minibus taxis (called Matatu's in Kenya). This is a good start as many of these vehicles have questionable road-worthy status, and are driven with little cognizance of the road rules. Let's hope that the promise of better road designs includes better repair mechanisms for potholes!

In the interim, I suppose we'll have to continue to shake our heads in disbelief at the approaches taken for road repair in and around Nairobi, enjoy the use of our off-road vehicles for on road use, and replace our worn shock absorbers regularly!

References:

1. Rumar, K. 1985. “The Role of Perceptual and Cognitive Filters in Observed Behaviour.” In Human Behaviour and Traffic Safety, L. Evans and R.C. Schwing, eds. New York: Plenum Press.

2. Stakeholders decry high carnage on Kenyan roads.  Article on www.allvoices.com.

Making the most of what you have.

We just returned from a 4 day safari in Samburu National Reserve in northern Kenya. Usually when we go on safari we choose the "self-drive" option. On this trip we decided to treat ourselves to a fly-in package - we flew from Wilson airport in Naiorbi to a small airstrip in Buffalo Springs National Reserve (adjacent to Samburu) and were collected by our lodge (Elephant Bedroom Camp). We were then treated to 2 game drives a day in an open sided (and open roofed) safari vehicle, and all meals (3 course lunch and 4 course dinner).

I will be writing a full "travel blog" about the safari itself over the next few days. For this posting I'd like to reflect on some curious behaviors and habits I observed amongst the wildlife over the last few days.

One of the biggest advantages of one of these "all-inclusive" safari packages is that you are provided with a vehicle AND a driver. In the self-drive version I am usually the driver which can really cramp my photography style, so having a large vehicle with open sides and top was a great aid to getting some good shots. In Samburu (as with most parks in Kenya) the proportion of people on "self-drive" safari's is very low, with most vehicles we encountered driven by professional safari guides. Many of these tourists were on photographic safari's - game viewing with the primary purpose of photographing the animals.

Elephant Bedroom Camp Landrover

On the morning of our third day we encountered a Southern Lesser Kudu doe with her calf. We also encountered 2 photo safari vehicles. The two safari vehicles each had 3 photographers, each person sporting a long lens of between 400 and 800mm of zoom. As we sat watching the buck (and as I tried to line up the best shot) amongst the sounds of nature I heard the click-click-click of shutters firing at 4 to 6 frames per second. I realized in that moment that we were Wildlife Paparazzi candidly capturing every movement the buck made.

Lens envy is defined (by me :-) as "a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another's photographic lenses", and I for a few brief moments felt it! Many of the people were using the same lens that I have - Canon 100 - 400mm, but there were a few with even longer lenses - I saw 2 people with Canon 800mm lenses (they cost about USD 11,000). I could just imagine the images I could snap with a nice long lens like that in my camera bag (although a lens that long usually has its own bag :-)

Some of the lenses in question

Later in the day, when we encountered a small pride of lions and still later when I had a very close (photographic) encounter with a leopard I realized that the secret to good wildlife photography is not dreaming about the shots you could take with a better lens, but actually taking the best photo that you can when the opportunity presents itself. You might have the longest zoom and the best camera set-up, but you could be parked with a tree or bush in front of you!  

For all of the big cats, we had the best photographic spots - no obscuring trees or bushes and with the cats either looking at us or facing us! We were in the right place at the right time - something that money can't buy you.  

Happy Lionesses

Cheetah cub

Lounging Leopard

Points for school fees

The largest supermarket chain in Kenya is a company called Nakumatt. They have styled themselves on the US's Wallmart supplying everything from fresh produce to DIY. They have numerous stores across Nairobi, and are opening additional stores all over Kenya, and have also recently expanded into Uganda and Rwanda.

While we often complain about their service (and by South African or US standards their service is shocking), they are one of the few supermarkets available to us here in Kenya, and so I suppose we bite the bullet and spend our money there.

Like many supermarkets, they have a loyalty program. Nakumatt gives us 1 point for every Ksh 100 spent in store. Ksh 100 is worth about USD 1.23 or ZAR 8.27. These points can be redeemed on further purchases in store at a rate of 1 point equals 1.2 Ksh. So in essence they are giving a 1.2% discount. On occasion Nakumatt runs special promotions to earn double points, or to increase the redemption value. I am not sure how this compares with other supermarket incentive schemes around the world, but 1.2% seems like a pitiful incentive to shop there. Perhaps its the fact that Nakumatt has a functional monopoly in Kenya that leads them to believe that their customers will be loyal with such a small incentive. I use the term functional as there are 2 other supermarket chains in Kenya - Uchumi and Tusky's, however neither of these are effective competition for Nakumatt. Until recently Uchumi was under receivership, while both Tusky's and Uchumi don't have the number of stores and reach that Nakumatt has.

Considering my generally negative feelings about the loyalty program I was pleasantly surprised this week when I spotted a poster at one of the Nakumatt branches that read "Redeem your points at 2 Ksh per point to pay your school fees, or buy school supplies." I had to know more - I asked a manager and he explained that I could fill in some forms and Nakumatt would convert my points into cash to pay my school fees!

I don't have any school fees to pay, however this is a really great idea. The conversion rate isn't much improved, but the mere fact that they will actually pay cash out (albeit a check issued to the school) in lieu of points is a brilliant idea and a great service to the community. Since we have been in Kenya we have been asked at least 5 times for loans to pay school fees. These fees are usually payable up front at the start of the term/year and can be a serious financial burden on many Kenyan's.

So, kudos to Nakumatt for this initiative. Perhaps Nakumatt could extend this offer to enable people to trade points for donations to registered charities?