Don't Forget Where You Come From......

Nothing like a good story to start the week...

There were these 3 ladies who met during a conference held by an international ngo. These 3 women were all living with AIDS. They got to talking and decided that they could play a role in fighting the affects and effects of the disease.

They were all from different walks of life and had different education levels, ranging from high school to advanced university.

They started an organisation and chose the most outgoing lady to be the head (the one with the high school education) while the rest chose to work from the background.

They started out with a very small office in Nairobi's CBD and two other sites, one in the slums where they feed orphans and the other office in Nyanza province where they would help women and orphans.

Their work was seen by potential donors who were impressed and as a result they were able to expand their organisation via the funding they got. With this funding they managed to move office to a larger premises on Ngong Road, start a small pharmacy and acquire vehicles for field work.

As a couple of years passed one of the ladies left for the U.S where she got married. By this time the number of staff had risen and each of the two remaining founders had brought in staff member who they thought would be loyal to them. With the increasing amount of partisanship the other lady who used to write alot of the grants to donors left the organisation to start her own but passed away from HIV related complications shortly.

The organisation was still in existance as the defacto head was still present but without the restraining influence of the other two ladies she began to run the organisation as she saw fit. She used donors' money to educate two of her children in the States, salaries for employees were reduced, abritrary sackings became the issue of the day, firing employees she saw as loyal to the other founders were sacked and replaced by those from her tribe (who were often inferior workers aka positive tribalism), she gave contracts for projects (ie getting food for orphans) to her friends at a exhorbitant price so she could get kickbacks and even brought in an accountant who would facilitate her embezzlement.

For sometime the organisation continued running just fine but over time employee morale began to dip and those who could leave did while the rest remained just doing enought to get along. As the donors began to ask for feedback from the money they had been giving they noticed that they were getting far less bang for their buck. It also didnt help that the individuals they had become used to corresponding with had been let go and their replacements were unable to establish the earlier rapport. So donations began to reduce drastically. From what I hear is that many employees are going to be let go at the end of their contracts, many projects have stalled and even the orphans they were supporting are running out of food.

This is the kind of thing that happens when people forget their vision and origin. This lady forgot what she was supposed to be doing, who she was suppossed to be helping and just decided to indulge her hunger for power and money instead and you can see the results. It will be only a matter of time before the organisation grinds to a halt.
And yes this is a true story.

Seems I'm not the only one who should stop using inappropriate language.

What's up with this whole Swaleh Mdoe drama? Is it a way of the government to punish KTN? Even if somehow Bwana Mdoe has broken immigration law, I do believe that the whole issue could be handled in a far more tasteful and covert manner then it is being handled now. For one, Swaleh is a public personality and is far less of a flight risk than a somali picked up in Eastleigh. Also why aren't charges being pressed? I think there is far more going on than is being let on.