Mr Davis Onsakia musings....

Ongata Town on Google Maps I start with a disclaimer : I'm not an expert on urban planning but I bet I can share my experience. Basic info As per the information on Wikipedia, Ongata Town had a population of 40,178 as at 2009 census. If you take a rough population growth rate of 30% per annum for this town, that will translate to a total of approximately 250,000 (0.25 million) as at 2016. But I think this population is much higher than this. Anybody with more accurate info on this? Experience Been staying in Ongata Rongai environs in the last couple of months and noted something queer, maybe it is so clear to me, as a visitor than the 'locals' who might not notice anything funny with this little 'diaspora town'; as 'Nairobians' would like to refer derogatively to this town in the larger former expansive Rift Valley Province! Roads are really in a poor state. There are no stages for matatus and hence these characters drop and pick passengers ...

The other day I visited Code d'Ivoire. The experience? What experience? But then they say that any experience is an experience. Based on this, then I learned. Disclaimer : no offense is meant by this post to my West African brothers, the Ivorians. Lunch is strictly served between 12.00 pm and 1.00 pm. You come later than that, and sorry buddy, they won't even look at you twice! I asked myself whether these folks have heard something called customer service. I saw a business opportunity for my business-minded Kenyan brothers there but then I was told that taxes are prohibitive in this part of the world. But still, I believe there's something there. Second surprise or is two in a package? I went shopping in a relatively good looking supermarket. Did the shopping and at the point of sale, was told to have the exact cost of whatever I'd picked! Really? Yah! Take it or leave it. They had to remove some items from my shopping basket so that they don't give me an...

Personal data has variously been described as the new currency. But what is the precise scenario in a country like Kenya? In this regard, I'm carrying out a 'personal data perception survey' to gauge the mood of individual Kenyan citizens on what they think when it comes to personal data management. The survey is available at the link: Personal Data Management Perception Survey . Your feedback from the survey will be treated with utmost confidence and will solely be used for this research purpose.

I attended the Computer Society of Kenya (CSK) organized Annual ICT Awards Ceremony for the year 2011 and was disappointed in most areas. Starting from getting information about the awards ceremony: information about the event even from the CSK website were scanty. Just check the CSK website at http://www.cskonline.org/ and you will be deeply disappointed at the usability level of the website! Honestly, I believe a college student who has done some website design and usability analysis requirements for websites can do so much better. The site is not navigable in the first place nor is it informative, it is cluttered with adverts on key areas right on the home page. Secondly, publicity for the event was not adequate. In this age where technology is driving what is happening in the world, such an event not being advertised even on social media (for heaven's sake this is free) is rather disappointing. I've not checked but I wonder whether CSK is on any social media platform; ...

 In the current Kenya setup, there are a number of companies that are aspiring to get coveted international certifications like ISO for quality management systems, environmental or security requirements compliance, etc. but how many are actually striving to improve their service offerings to their customers? Few. Many just want to flaunt them to their competitors and prospective customers but not on improvement of their service delivery. Take the example of some public universities (I think almost all of them). They have ISO 9001:2008 certification. But how many lecturers and administrators in these universities appreciate that students are their most important customers? Very few. This is precisely the reason why you will have an ISO certified university that does not have a clear policy (or is it direction?) of where admission forms should be ‘deposited’ or returned to! I had a nasty experience the other day where I had to shuttle between two university campuses trying to con...

Mr Davis Onsakia: The battle for dotAfrica; who will get the crown jewels?

This is an article which I penned in the Business Daily of 8th July 2011 concerning the battle for .africa domain name. The article can also be accessed at http://www.africareview.com/Special+Reports/Battle+on+for+dotAfrica/-/979182/1197116/-/87uo0s/-/index.htm l - on the African Review website. The same article can be found on the AllAfrica website at http://allafrica.com/stories/201107081489.html.