How many Jacobs do we have in Parliament now?

There is a young man by the name Jacob Macharia. He is the Member of Parliament for Molo constituency. Unlike other honourable members, he has a modicum of honour for ordinary Kenyans. He — thanks to Francis Atwoli for this gem — doesn’t believe that Kenyans’ heads are full of cow dung.

Mr Macharia has said that he will oppose the bid to remove the Salaries and Remuneration Commission ( SRC) for slashing MPs pay. He is also opposed to the increasing of MPs’ pay. Here, fellow Kenyans, finally is a sheep among wolves.

Macharia seems to reason from Wanjiku’s perspective and actually wants her pay increased as well. Is it because the MP is yet to discover the real, irresistible sweetness of parliamentary pay, like Linturi et al?

Encouragingly, Macharia said recently that there were 50 other MPs, ready to stand by  Wanjiku and who were busy reaching out to others to do the same. 

We congratulate Macharia and like-minded MPs for standing on the right side. We hope Wanjiku’s side has by now got the “numbers”. Can all MPs who are against pay raise say Aye?

One to One Net’s restless customer

As a Christmas treat to himself, Mr Stefan Delno bought a G-TIDE E9 mobile handset at the One Two One Net shop in Kisumu on December 26, 2012.

To his surprise his dream  gadget already had hundreds of contacts in the phonebook.

He complained about it and was informed that a customer might have inserted his/her Sim card and “played” with it.

The numbers were deleted.

However, not long afterwards, the handset developed a charging defect.

 The phone was sent to Nairobi for repair and he was told to wait for 14 days. Fourteen days turned to three weeks but thankfully he got his phone.

Unfortunately, after two days, the handset malfunctioned and it was again sent to Nairobi for repair of the charging system.

Since then, Delno says he has not seen his handset again.

If his handset cannot be repaired, and as he still holds a warranty, Delno wants One Two One Net to refund him his Sh6,999 so that he can buy another one. What became of Delno’s handset, One Two One?

Delno can be contacted on 0725082465.

Machakos’ ‘doomed’ highway

Most likely, says Peter Mutua from Machakos, Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) knows something that locals don’t.

Mr Mutua, who has “consistently” been asking that something been about Kaseve-Masii Road, suspects that KeNHA doesn’t know very well whatever it knows about this road.

And here is the reason. During the last financial year, KeNHA issued a  tender worth millions of shillings for  “maintenance and spot improvement” of the road.

Although he is not an engineer, when he looked at the quality of the work being done,  Mutua betted that the road would not last for a year. He was right. Then in its wisdom, KeNHA tendered for reconstruction of the same road last December again for “spot improvement and maintenance’ at a cost of Sh60,237,535.60.

 “My reservation is the quality of work. The road will last less than a year,” warns Mutua who wonders how much more cash should “go to waste” before the section is fixed. Considering this village “engineer” predicted the end of the road previously, what is the assurance this road will last, KeNHA?

 

DON’T YOU FORGET

Did Kenya Railways probe plunder at Leseru?  

On April 18, some concerned residents of Leseru, about 20km north-west of Eldoret town wrote to PointBlank complaining about the theft that was going on at the local railway sub-station. The residents lamented that Lesuru had become a magnet for thieves who stole rail parts and other properties.

“It started with some pieces of rail lines in a nearby swampy area... anybody who dared ask questions was warned to keep off and even told that the local railway OCS was aware,” they alleged.

The brazen thieves, according to the residents, have also felled trees for timber at the sub-station to satiate their appetite for money. The residents asked Kenya Railways to investigate the matter and arrest the culprits. Did you investigate the allegations, Mr Nduva Muli, Kenya Railways Corporation Managing Director?

Orange Kenya’s pending pledge

Nancy Laura of Langata, Nairobi paid for her Internet on her Telkom Orange ASDL line in early April. However, on April 14, her line went dead. She then reported to Orange and received complaint reference numbers for both landline and data service that was disrupted.

Since then, however, Orange is yet to sort out the problem and her visits to the company’s offices near Wilson Airport have yielded only promises. The reference numbers are 853901 (landline) and 853902 (Internet). Nancy says the line goes off every month yet she has never received any refund from Orange for the lost data service.