BY NJOROGE KINUTHIA
It’s only fair that the State pays for this mobile mess
September 30 is approaching fast. Come that date, the Communication Commission of Kenya says it will have no option but to make some people go mteja. In simple language, all counterfeit mobile phones will be switched off. Which is a good thing as we have repeatedly been told that criminals, including Al Shabaab use fake handsets to avoid being detected.
But the move will be painful, very painful for owners of fakes handsets, majority of them people. Any sane person knows that these people are blameless over the fakes they cling to like their second lives. The Government is to blame—100 per cent.
genuine
It is the Government that regulates importation of goods. It is the Government that has the power to tell between genuine and fake through bodies such as the Anti-Counterfeit Agency, Kenya Bureau of Standards, Kenya Revenue Authority and CCK. That’s why PointBlank believes the State owes 3 million Kenyans with fake handsets, new genuine ones before September 30th. And pray, why are thousands of fake handsets still in shops across the country?
CCN sidesteps smelly heaps of garbage
Mr Patrick Thuita is very disgusted by the mounting heaps of garbage, along Juja Road. The garbage, he says, is being dumped with reckless abandon by mikokoteni pushers, sometimes in broad daylight, and the City Council of Nairobi “pretends neither to have seen or heard about the evil”. “The murk has attracted hordes of street men who pretend to be scavenging but are more keen on mugging passers-by”.
At one dumping point near Mamba petrol station, the garbage has blocked part of the road exposing pedestrians to the danger of being hit by speeding matatus. “Given that the council askaris have not arrested the offenders so far, do we assume that dumping of garbage by the roadside is legal? If not let the Town Clerk state when the offenders will be arrested and prosecuted for their despicable deeds,” he says.
The Municipal Council of Nakuru is also on snooze mode, according to Benson Gachuhi. Shop owners along Gusii Road have put slippery floor tiles on their verandahs. This, he notes, is very dangerous and can cause serious falls and injuries. But the council appears mesmerised by the glitter of the tiles.
