Thursday, September 29, 2005

HERE'S TO WANJIKU'S REFERENDUM COMMON SENSE STRATEGY 101

Very bad!!! very very bad. Honorable Mwenje and Ndolo, that was uncalled for. You guys just gave your team a D minus. You were looking so good.Until the water was thrown through the window with the baby.

Strategy. Do you have one? Do you also have a strategist? If you do, where was he/she? I know you can't keep tabs on all your members but where was he/she?

Waheshimiwas, Kenyans love peace. If you are inclined to or even associated with any violence you will lose this vote. For sheezy, for real. No one is going to even think about it. When Mheshimiwa Uhuru alleges that people were sent to disrupt their rally, its all good. Not the disrupting No.Just the alleging part. But when the Mheshimiwas themselves go out and actually disrupt a meeting and cause damage to a city hotel's property, you have just sunk deeper than the worst sewers of Nairobi.

Wanjiku has four basic but common sense strategies for you politicians if you want to win this referendum. You can add the complex ones, Wanjiku just has four basic ones:-

Common sense Strategy 1 - you look better alleging than throwing stones and shooting in the air.
Common sense strategy 2 - you look clever when you are quiet than opening your mouth and issuing horrendous threats.Kenyans are keenly watching and listening.
Common sense strategy 3 - You look credible when you focus on what the Draft Constitution actually says than what you think it says.Believe me.
Common sense strategy 4 - Don't malign your opponents otherwise you will begin to lose ground and gaining that trust again will take a lot of damage control.Simply, no name calling.

Wanjiku rests her case.

11TH COMMANDMENT - THOU SHALT NOT IGNORE CREATIVE IDEAS

Awe! Shock! and then an overwhelming feeling of horifficness.!!! Is there a word like that? I know it might be missing from your dictionary, but mine has it. I am horrified. I can't believe it. You know, human beings are funny. They wait for the knight in shinning armor.I read something on the Kenyan Pundit's blog and was just beside myself.She wants to help mentor kenyan girls from this school and yet can't even get audience with the Principal.Why? Because it is obvious she is not a international NGO. When will we learn that great ideas should be grabbed and worked on? When shall we learn as Kenyans, to respect the small person with great ideas?

It has just brought so much memory laced with pain. I get dismissed simply because l have ideas that seem strange.The other day l actually felt it.Dismissed.

Ideas run the world.But in Kenya and in some offices, creativity is trashed.The other day l prayed and asked God to help me get to a place where my ideas are not only appreciated but also funded.When people are not interested in the process they get shocked when the results are not what they were looking for.

Being interested in the process doesn't mean micro managing people.It means you need to get interested in not only the bottom line but also how they get there. No wonder people get fleeced and then you later hear the question... oh my God when and how did this happen?

We need not only to be result oriented but also process-oriented. If you are a boss you need to know what is going on in the organization you lead and l mean know!!It will also help the employees know that you are interested in their ideas. But when you dismiss them with the result orientedness in focus, you are helping dig a grave where your fleeced stuff will be buried.

Funny thing is if an expatriate showed up with the same idea in Kenya, they would get some red carpet welcome and a party would not be a second guess. Yet, you leave out someone amongst you who had an even better idea and who you could pay less than the expat.

Fat irony- same Kenyans keep chanting - buy kenya build Kenya - which Kenya?