By Njoroge Kinuthia

Ms Dorcas N has a major issue with oil marketers Total and Shell and their regulator Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

Last Saturday, she went to buy cooking gas at Acacia Supermarket in Tala but, unfortunately, returned home with her empty Total gas cylinder. Reason? A supermarket attendant informed her that the management of Afrigas, the only gas available then, had given instructions that their cylinders should not be exchanged with those of Total.

“This surprised me because sometime back, we were all forced to buy universal regulators so that we could use any cylinder, something that was also touted as the best way to bring the prices of cooking gas down,” she recalls.

COSTLY

This is not the first time PointBlank has come across such a complaint. Apparently   Liquefied Petroleum Gas marketers are still engaging in turf wars, which make gas costly and even ‘unavailable’. What is saddening is that ERC appears to be in a deep slumber and unaware of this state of affairs.

 

Firms that  give KP a bad name

When power went off on  May 19 during the finals of the UEFA league in the CBD and at Westlands, says Mr Migwi Theuri, Corporate Communications, Kenya Power, many must have cursed KP for the interruption. Indeed, the KP switchboard was inundated with outraged callers protesting the outage during this all important football contest.

In this particular case, Mr Theuri says a firm installing fibre optic cables at Westlands, Lower Kabete Road, adjacent to Sarit Centre had dug (and is still digging) trenches next to a high voltage power line.

In the process of digging, he explains, the workers exposed the base of a number of power poles, and when it rained that evening one of them collapsed and caused a short-circuit. This caused the power outage in Westlands and CBD.

“As we have often said, third party activities that interfere with continuous flow of power are quite often responsible for that inconvenience that so annoys our customers.”

He adds: “This is a typical case of careless third party activities that usually lead to  power failures, which are more often than not blamed on KP”.

Naked truth about Kiambu Prison

A recent visit to Kiambu Prison has been giving Ms Damaris Mwangi sleepless nights. The sorry state of the prisoners and more so their tattered attire has  left her greatly perturbed.

Apparently, the ‘zebra-striped’ suits that former Vice President and Home Affairs Minister Moody Awori bequeathed the prisoners have become threadbare and no one is bothered about it, perhaps besides the half-naked inmates.

“As a woman, I was embarrassed to see exposed men’s bodies. Can’t prison authorities afford thread and needle to patch up torn uniforms,” she reveals. Damaris fears for the lives of the prisoners especially as the cold months of July and August approach.

compassion

“Surely, prisoners are human beings and should be treated with compassion. If this is the situation at Kiambu, which is a stone’s throw away from Nairobi Prison’s headquarters, what is the condition prisons in far-flung counties?”

We know we know your budget may be a bit tight, Mr Isaiah Osugo, Commissioner of Prisons, but are things so bad that you can’t afford threads and needles to help prisoners cover their nakedness?

Reject politicians’ dirty cash offers

The Anglican Church has done a good thing to ban politicians from the pulpits, says Justin Osey Peter. Osey wants other religious groups to emulate the Anglicans and keep politicians where they belong — the pews. The Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, he notes, has also set precedence by declaring that his church is not interested in ill-gotten monies from politicians.

“I support the move and it should apply to all religious groups, especially at this time when we are nearing General Elections.” During this period, Osey says, politicians are bound to become more generous, some of them with dirty cash.

DON’T YOU FORGET

Orange broadband still missing in Dam II estate 

On May 15, Nancy Laura of Dam II Estate in Langata wrote to PointBlank complaining that she was among 2000 customers of Orange who had not had voice and data services in the area for days. “This is not the first time. There have been several cases in the past when I’ve lost data service for days. Their (Orange’s) technicians seem to be from another planet. They take too long to address genuine customer complaints yet pre-paid users are their bread and butter,” lamented Nancy.

Orange, she said, had promised that the matter would be resolved immediately but this never happened. Well, Nancy has written to PointBlank again, complaining that Orange services are yet to resume. Exactly what is happening, Mr Mickael Ghossein, Telkom Kenya chief executive?