Police doing good job, but they can do much better

Kenya is once again bruised and bleeding. Monday’s explosion at Assanands House in Nairobi has left Kenyans  wondering whether the Government indeed has  the ability to protect them from Al Shabaab. Of course, that’s good news for the terrorists for that’s exactly what they would like to hear.

To give the devil his due, police have done a good job and, as Commissioner Mathew Iteere has said, have arrested most of the suspects involved in recent terrorist attacks.

However, closing the stable door after the horse has bolted has never been good enough. Police must actively strive to prevent attacks from being executed. Of course Internal Security minister George Saitoti has told us that a lot of that has been done in the recent past. PointBlank, however, isn’t convinced.

Today you can carry a lorry on your back and no policeman will stop you. Unlike before, rarely do police officers frisk pedestrians or check their luggage. In any case, police seem to have become fewer and far apart in our streets today.

Safaricom’s endless love for mama

While he does love his mother, Safaricom customer  G  Wanyoike (0722286852) is accusing the firm of stretching the love a bit too far.

On Mother’s Day, Wanyoike’s friend advised him to show his mother some love by  requesting a “lovely message” for only Sh10 via 5004. And as he has never been apt at crafting love messages, he  bought the idea and made the request and immediately received  a love poem. His mother, he claims, proudly boasted to her peers that her son was a poetry genius. 

What Wanyoike didn’t know however was that Mother’s Day was a daily event for Safaricom. He claims every time he tops up, Sh10 is deducted immediately without his consent. His mother, tired of his lovely messages, told him to do other things besides “penning poems”.

He recently stopped crediting his line for days hoping that this would deter the poems people. But, when he later topped up with Sh50, he instantly received five messages and, well,  lost all his credit.

He now says he is confused, Mr Bob Collymore, and the only thing that’s on his mind is “to ship out to a network that doesn’t have 5004”.

Long wait for Trans National card

Trans National Bank customer David Ombasa now says he is contemplating his next move because the bank is taking eons to process his new ATM card. Mr Ombasa applied for replacement of the card in early March after it expired in February. 

He says he has made more than ten fruitless trips to the bank’s City Hall Way branch. “I have been attended to by seven different people all giving various excuses.

The only remaining option now is to close the account and move on,” he says. If the bank is keen on forestalling his defection, he can be reached on 0711909157.

Meanwhile, Mr Emojong Osere has some good news for Barclays Bank of Kenya, Kenya Power and a Mr Okongo Otieno. Osere has in his hands a lost and found cheque written to Barclays and an electricity bill.

Documents

The cheque, dated May 25, 2012 is written by Mr Eliazar Okongo Otieno and is intended to clear an electricity bill. The  power bill also belongs to Mr  Otieno.

Osere warns that anyone out to collect the documents must be ready to identify him/herself. He can  be contacted on 0710261819.

Kapenguria’s unperused books

A few weeks ago, Mr Githuku Mungai claims to have read a tender invitation in the press by Kapenguria Municipal Council. The council, he says, was inviting eligible firms to tender for preparation of its books of accounts for the past 27 years. “When I read that, I could see that there was a bad joke there. How could the council go for 27 years without preparing its books of accounts? Why was the Controller and Auditor General silent all along?”

 He adds: “This is the stuff that risk exposure is made of and it is likely that a lot has gone wrong at the council during this period”.

Did Kericho council stop cemetery trespassers? 

Kericho resident Christopher Kamaina wrote to PointBlank on October 20, 2011 complaining that the Kericho Municipal Council cemetery had been turned into a ‘haven of immorality’.

 Kamaina claimed that there is adequate evidence that ‘immorality’ was going on in the cemetery. Used condoms, he claimed, were scattered all over the cemetery.

And that isn’t all. Drug users have a perfect hideout in the cemetery and robbers lurk in the shadows at night waiting for their prey.

Herders also find the unfenced graveyard a perfect grazing field and some Kericho residents “jump from grave to grave on their way home”. Did the council end this insult of the dead?

Right of Reply

Why it isn’t unjust for people to bow in court 

I also feel compelled to contribute to the interesting debate about by the tradition of bowing in court that was initiated by Mr Mwangi Munga.

As my fellow learned friend, Gachiengo Gitau, correctly put it yesterday, the tradition of bowing in court was borrowed from the Commonwealth and when people bow, they bow not to the judge or magistrate but to the court of arms.

The coat of arms was first introduced into the courts in England in 1399 under King Henry IV whose idea was to ensure that the people understood that justice came from the monarch and the only way to be assured of his presence in the courts (law courts were also viewed as being part of the royal court) was through the symbol of the royal coat of arms.

The bowing was to show respect for the queen’s justice.

In Kenya, the coat of arms represents the institution of Government. A government in most instances is elected by the people and is expected  to administer justice.

My interpretation would be that by bowing, people show the respect that they have for the institution put in place by the people to protect the people. And don’t they say that the voice of the people is the voice of God? Anything symbolising God should be held in the highest esteem. As to the direction one should face when bowing, you face the coat of arms.
Eric Kivuva,
Lawyer
Helb waiting for Atak’s claim to process refund  

The Higher Education Loans Board has noted the sentiments expressed by Atak Omondi Jared  in The Standard’s PointBlank of May 24, 2012 regarding his loan account with the Board.

Mr Atak serviced his loan partly up to June 2011. Thereafter he was re-billed on the balance of  Sh9,000 in October 2011 which he repaid in full and the Board issued Stop Order instructions to his employer TSC to take effect in March 2012. He did not thereafter lodge a refund claim – which is procedural – and has not done so to date.

However, the Board has now confirmed that TSC has stopped the deductions and we have contacted Atak to request him to submit his refund claim and also  submit to us his bank details to enable us remit his refund.

Otieno Agiro,

Assistant Manager,
Corporate