KP boss never grew tired of listening to customers

If he hasn’t done so yet, Engineer Joseph Njoroge, should be moving to his new office in the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum soon. The Kenya Power Managing Director was appointed recently as the ministry’s Principal Secretary. PointBlank congratulates him. But why him?

For those familiar with this page, Njoroge is no stranger. He has been buffeted, boxed and kicked right on this page by you, readers, who accused him, rightly or wrongly, of “disempowering” them.

But while PointBlank would not like to comment about the successes and failures of Kenya Power now, we feel Njoroge deserves plaudits for the way he responded to complaints, which were raised by customers. He followed and personally answered all queries raised on this forum, and never found any too trivial to respond to.

That, if you ask PointBlank, is the hallmark of great leadership. Truth is, it not unusual for customers to complain but it’s highly unusual for their concerns to be ignored. Njoroge should be emulated by all managers. PointBlank is waiting for the next boss at KP to dare “deny” Kenyans their power.

Road user worked up by  roadworks

Mr Anthony Mugo works near Processional Way, a relatively new road connecting Uhuru Park to State House Avenue in Nairobi. The road has had some potholes but, encouragingly, someone has moved in to fill them. The workers are using spades, rakes and a small hand-held compactor, among other manual equipment. As a result, Mugo claims the “fixed” section is rougher to drive on than the original road.

“With a new “digital” way of doing things in Kenya, is it not about time that we established standards for roads and enforced them? Why not get suitable equipment to scrap the whole road and lay a fresh uniformly thick layer of tarmac, again using proper equipment,” asks Mugo.

And the road-building novice has some further advice for the road engineers: “After that, a ‘white-liner’ should be used to mark the road borders with proper quality paint before the road is declared fit for use.”

Mugo concludes, and PointBlanks agrees with him, that it is better to rehabilitate a few roads to international standards rather than build many substandard roads. Is the work on this road up to standard, KURA?

Long wait for Jubilee customer

Jubilee Insurance customer Janette Mutimbia is growing impatient and disappointed.

A year ago, she requested that her policy be ‘reconciled’ and an updated statement given to her after realising that some months that she had paid for were not reflected in the records. 

Mutimbia claims to have  forwarded Jubilee her Bank statement in June 2012 but the  reconciliation had not been done.

“In May this year,  I contacted them but I still did not get any positive feedback,” says Mutimbia.

She can be contacted on 0722763318.

Meanwhile, Caesar Moscow would like to complain to the   The  Director  of  Pensions on  behalf  of  his  mother, Esther Mwelu Maweu. Moscow says her mother started receiving pension payment for his late father, Ezekiel M Moscow (APN/PC: 194367) from June 2009. Then the amount was a tidy Sh13,000.

However, from October 2009, the amount was reduced, without warning, to  Sh7,000.

“My mother would like to know why the amount was reduced,  without any notification being given to her,” says Moscow who can be reached at [email protected].

Did IEBC finally listen to Nyanza officials petition?

In the recent past, several people, who claim to have worked for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) during the recent elections have alleged here that they were yet to be paid their dues.

They include some ‘officials’ from South Nyanza region who complained on April 11 that they were yet to be paid by the electoral body.

They alleged that when they were recruited before the poll, they were promised they would be paid their dues a week after the March 4 elections. They claimed that in South Nyanza region, no IEBC official have been paid their wages.

“Some of us who have reached the regional co-ordinator have been told  that as far as he is concerned, all people have been paid.” What’s the true position on this matter IEBC Chairman Issack Hassan ? 

StarTimes sends wrong signal

Makokha John is among the lucky few who have embraced the digital age, courtesy of Startimes. He bought their decoder in December 2012 and has been enjoying watching crystal clear images on local and international channels. But things to took a turn for the worse in May this year when the quality of the signal started deteriorating. 

“Their signal is no longer as good as it was in Lang’ata. There are static, scratchy images. There are no local channels too,” he laments. John wonders whether StarTimes can sort this problem out. His contact is [email protected].

Right of Reply
 

Kabendera Road users still waiting for Kerra
Allow me PointBlank to, once again, communicate to the Kenya Rural Roads Authority over the same issue I have written about here before.

On May 3, I wrote to complain about the bad state of the Kamariki-Kabendera Road in Kieni West District, Nyeri County.

The road, which was partially graded and a section of about 2km left undone, has fast deteriorated and is almost  impassable.

When I first complained to Kerra through this forum on February 26, they admitted that following the prioritisation for grading of the 4.5km road by the Kieni Constituency Roads Committee last financial year, only part of the road was graded, gravelled and drainage works done.

Kerra also admitted that the remaining section of the road, a 1.2km stretch leading to the Nyeri-Nyahururu Road junction remains in extremely poor condition.

Kerra said it had placed a request with the Kieni Constituency Roads Committee to consider including the remaining section under their allocation of the Roads Maintenance Levy Funds.

The people of Kamariki Village are still suffering over the poor condition of this road, which is currently not motorable. The condition of the road has been worsened by rains.

On May 3, I asked whether the Kieni Constituency Roads Committee had included this section in their current work plan. The committee is yet to respond to me.

If perchance, they have included the remaining section of the road under their allocation of the Roads Maintenance Levy Funds, when will work start?

Now that the 2013/2014 budget has been presented to Parliament, we hope that these bodies will prioritise this important road.

As the committee will appreciate, this is an important road and that is why it was prioritised in the first place.

Water drained from the completed section has destroyed the incomplete section since its drainage work is not done.

Kerra had said, and thanks for that, that it intended to alleviate the challenges experienced by pupils of Kabendera Primary School in accessing school during wet weather.

However, this objective was not fully achieved since students from Kamariki who also go to the same school, feel discriminated as their part of the road was not done.

C Ndung’u,

Nyeri