Re: Smoky neighbourhoods...

I just hope that the matter of burning garbage in my cousin's neighbourhood will be as expeditiously dealt with as a similar one that I had been experiencing last year in my own, in Mombasa, by NEMA.

This burning usually takes place under cover of darkness so that the miscreants will not be seen and known and identified. These people never give a thought to what their smoke does to the people living and/or working around. They are also highly ignorant and moronic people who practice this method of dealing with overflowing garbage with little regard for the environment, either. Of course, our various local authorities are equally to blame as they do not collect garbage efficiently and regularly for this NOT to happen. Why?

In Mombasa, our Council has a novel method of dealing with overflowing garbage and uncut grass. They let loose a few herds of livestock in the form of cows and goats who 'efficiently' go about toppling garbage cans and unmown grass all free of charge. Yes, these animals cause traffic jams, etc., but Mombasa residents have to deal with narrow roads, tuk tuks, matatus, mkokotenis, etc., anyway, so a few herds of livestock who are in the 'employ' of our local government can also be 'tolerated' since they are helping our Council try and keep the place 'clean'!!! It hardly ever works and we have informed our Council of this many times, but, who listens in that 'headquarters' of 'change'?

Best wishes with prayers,
Raziya

On 6/4/2011 12:11 AM, Dr Juzar Hooker wrote:

I write to you in desperation as my neighbours burn rubbish in their plots with impunity, often at night, resulting in severe distress to us, a veritable health hazard, a public nuisance, and environmental pollution. This is occurring off Eldama Ravine Road on an almost daily basis, in spite of requests to stop. I am sure NEMA would be interested in taking some long awaited action.

Dr Juzar Hooker
Consulting Neurologist

Rooms 401/2, Doctors Plaza, Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi
Phone   +254 20 3744256/7, 3662769
Telefax +254 20 3744257
E-mail: juzar.hooker@aku.edu, jhooker@africaonline.co.ke

P O Box 19396 – 00202 KNH, Nairobi, Kenya

Our pathetic road network....

When it rains anywhere in our country, one of the first 'infrastructure' to suffer the consequences are our limited and questionable road network. While up-country roads are getting some attention from the various 'fixers', Coast Province and especially Mombasa (city?!), has not had a singe new road built to accommodate the rapid increase in traffic. In fact, nobody pays much attention to even maintaining what already exists!

Only when the damage to the road reaches a disastrous level will some short fix be applied. One of these short fixes is that a gang of Municipal workers arrive to supposedly 'clean' and 'unblock' the drains and then, sometimes a truck load of stones and other debris is brought to the scene of a huge pothole and emptied there. Of course, this just makes the problem worse because promptly that the next time we get a deluge in the form of rain, all that will quickly flow away and literally go down the same drain that had recently been 'unblocked' and the whole process will repeat itself and continue ad infinitum!!!

Everyday, since the rains started, I watch with sympathy all the road users outside our estate gate and the problems that the broken road and huge potholes create for everybody. The poor pedestrians, young and old, able and disabled have a truly hard time wading through all that water of various depth. Then, come the small saloon cars which are so low that at times the water goes into the cars through the doors and/or the engines. The 'owners' of our estate then compound problems by dumping huge stones into the potholes without thinking about the effect these will have on cars and the tyres. They are very big and sharp.

Then, despite this being a residential area, a shipping company has been allowed to open their offices next to our estate (Sea Bulk), which attracts all kinds of heavy vehicles which our already damaged road network cannot stand and they further damage the road.

Add to this, the countless water tankers that come and go along this road including entering our estate to deliver much needed water. Why? Because, our Water Board and Company are not providing the residents with much needed piped water. In fact, there is a huge commercial well/borehole at the turn-off from the main Nyali Road to our estate where lots of tankers are constantly filling up and the people to whom the borehole belongs do a booming business everyday supplying countless Mombasa residents with water. These, of course, due to the constant watery condition at that part of the road, is very damaged and nothing is done about it.

Why isn't there some kind of restriction regarding the traffic that is allowed onto certain roads leading to residential areas? Since, indiscriminate vehicles use this road, it is like living in an industrial area rather than a residential one. These buses, trucks, trailers, etc., are also allowed to hoot at all kinds of hours and rev to their hearts content.

About one and a half weeks ago, I called Eng. Munene who is in-charge of Urban Roads in Mombasa and he was good enough to come and see me and he experienced first hand the pathetic condition of the road outside our estate gate. It seems that while the Ministry of Works is supposed to build our roads, they still have to rely on our questionable and incompetent Council for the drainage along the roads. This, of course, creates a lot of problems since they have nothing planned which they can give to the various engineers who will fix our roads, in the way of drainage. Whatever was there in the first place built by the British, has already been made useless when making town roads was under our Council. They just resurfaced our roads without fixing the drainage and hence, we continue to suffer from awful roads everytime the rainy season starts and the 'drains' get blocked which in turn makes water collect which in turn damages our limited roads!!!

They (the Council), have been so incompetent and unprofessional when 'resurfacing' roads that they don't even raise the drainage covers to the same level as the roads so that people and cars don't lend in them.

Since we pay an arm and a leg every time we buy petrol in the form of road levy, etc., why are Mombasa roads not maintained and upgraded and more built to deal with the increasing traffic? Our government is literally collecting millions EVERY SINGLE DAY from just Coast Province residents in this manner so why isn't this money put back into fixing, maintaining and making new roads here? There is not a single new road built in Mombasa since independence.

And who is responsible for the damage and inconvenience these roads cause to people and vehicles? In any other 'civilized' countries the government and/or the Council is sued for damages. But, in our country where there is no accountability and justice, this is an unheard of thing, unfortunately.  This is very disgusting.

Re: Our inhuman POSTA!

'Evening!

I can tell from your response that you have not read my email properly. Didn't you read that whole paragraph below (I'm highlighting it for your benefit), where I've also explained how it would not be at all practical for me to keep changing box numbers everytime I move. And appreciated the fact that for a whole year, my mail had been forwarded to Mkomani at no extra cost?

While you (POSTA), is not responsible for traffic jams, it is expected that it would be more sensitive to people's problems - both financial and otherwise. And regarding postal services, you might listen, but, you do very little about solving those problems. If you remember, I was sitting right in your office on the day that my much awaited registered letter is stamped to have arrived at the GPO, but, when on leaving your office, I checked my mailbox, there was no notification there nor did your Head Postmaster, Mr. Ahmed, inform me of this while he too, was in your office. Instead, neither you nor I could even follow on the Internet what happened to this mail after it was put in the mailbag on the 27th of April 2011. In fact, when I finally asked you about the anomaly of the date of arrival, 4th May 2011 and the time it took for the notification to enter my box (10th May 2011), you found it quite difficult to explain. You told me, finally, that somebody in Nairobi had forgotten to swipe this number into the machine and hence, we could not follow it after the 27th of April 2011. When I asked you what you do to negligent people like these, you told me that you sacked them! I wonder if that actually happened.....?

So, with such postal 'services' what do you expect a user of your 'services' to do?

And please, after re-reading all of my email below, please think about what I've requested, again. Oh, btw, you make me sound like I consider myself a saint, but, again, if you re-read that email below, you'll find that I have admitted that I was really angry, frustrated and tired yesterday by the time I finally managed to see the supervisor.

Why does the mention and comparison of other postal services worldwide and that despite them delivering mail at your doorstep, they don't charge for that service, bother you so much since that is the first point you have made in your reply?

In fact, I am not asking for a free service, but, a considerate and understanding one since I already pay a very high rental on my box at the GPO and I don't even get so much mail in comparison which is why it shouldn't be such a bother for POSTA to redirect my mail to Mkomani. Please, re-read that highlighted bit, also. about why I cannot get a box at Mkomani, too.

You really don't sound like a person who is capable of understanding or sympathizing with another's problems and you, like many of your colleagues keep demanding that rules are rules without giving thought to anything else.

I would, again suggest, that you re-read what I have actually written without being in haste with your reply, next time.

Raziya

PS: Btw, my name is Raziya NOT Riya!



On 5/19/2011 6:45 PM, rpmcoast@posta.co.ke wrote:

Thanks Riya for your letter of complaint. I want to inform you that PCK does not offer free service. Am also wondering why you not mentioning that despite this fact we have been redirecting your mails at no extra cost for one whole year! Yesterday i informed you that there was mail for you in your box after you had made an inquiry and the next thing I heard from you telling me is that you were stuck in the jum and you were cursing posta! Does posta controll the flow of traffic? Then you came to the post office and made alot of noise at the counters. That type of behavior is not good. If you have a problem we have always listened. We advised you to transfer your box to mkomani where you stay and you have refused that your box has to remain at the mombasa gpo.This refusal implies that you want to be coming to gpo. Also note that there is nothing in record that you made any requests a part from writing so may e-mails coplaining about posta.   Please I would like to advise you that if you have any comlaints about the postal services we offer then direct them to us in writing and in a civil manner rather than coming to posta and screaming all over. We are ready to serve you better but these services must be within the reguations.                 

'Afternoon! 

Our postal 'services' are not only thoroughly inefficient and highly expensive, but, I've just discovered, they are completely inhuman, too.  The only thing that dictates their shoddy services is MONEY!!!! Nothing else besides for they can't even understand a person's many problems and not only refuse to help, but, the only thing they want one to do in these expensive, difficult and trying times is just pay them extra for any little request that one might ask of them.  As mentioned previously, POSTA has lost at least two of my letters since the beginning of the year and they have no explanation for this other than the reason that they were forwarding my mail to the Mkomani post office. Since I've moved in that area last year, the then, head post master, Mr. Khator, had been good enough to grant me this facility at no cost because getting a box in Mkomani would be a needless expense. For one, I would have to inform countless people of my change of address and since I'm retired/unemployed, disabled and hardly go into town, a needless and extra expense. Also, he knows about the disease that I suffer from and it's not always convenient for me to make my way all the way into town just for a couple of mail. Anyway, GPO is the one that sorts the mail and then delivers the relevant mail to the various post offices even all the way to Malindi.  Therefore, just including my couple of mails once in a while, one would understand, is not such a big issue. Also, I'm already paying an exorbitant rental for my small box at the GPO which one would think would cover any expense, if there was any, in forwarding my less than 10 mails a month to the Mkomani branch.  Well, since I made 'noise' about my missing mail (and this was not necessarily because the mail was being sent to Mkomani as my missing mail issues go back many years even when l lived in town), this year, suddenly everybody has started blaming the fact that I get my mail at Mkomani, as one of the reasons. This is NOT true! Also, when I went to see the Regional Manager two weeks ago regarding my current registered mail (from India), on the 4th of May 2011 and the attitude of his Head post master, Mr. Ahmed, I was told that it was 'illegal' for my mail to be forwarded in this manner to Mkomani and that it should be stopped forthwith! He was not ready to listen to any argument on WHY it was going to be totally inconvenient, expensive and frustrating to go all the way into the town centre to get my mail. The only thing they have done is allowed me to park in their 'yard'.  Yesterday, I crossed the Nyali bridge and if it wasn't for having to go all the way to the GPO, I would have saved myself countless amount of time and money if I hadn't had to go there. In fact, I wasted a lot of time getting through our horrible Mombasa traffic and then accessing the GPO's 'yard' was another time consuming exercise since the lane between Bima Towers and GPO has been closed off (one can only get up to the GPO 'yard'). There were already 3 vehicles there going in opposite directions! It took nearly half an hour before this snarl up was sorted out and I managed to park in the 'yard'.  When I tried to open my box, it wouldn't do so, so I had to walk some more from one counter to another trying to get the supervisor. Of course, by this time I was thoroughly frustrated and very angry for it was the 2nd time in two weeks that this post box key would not open my box.  By the time the Supervisor showed up, I was getting late and was quite tired of all this mess and inconveniences that our POSTA is the cause of and he was good enough to get my mail for me (had to wait some more....), and told me that the lock would need to be changed and that I should give them my two keys and they would do the needful and also apologized for this, thank God.  I tried calling Mr. Khator this morning but they have been in meetings since yesterday, it seems and one wonders what they discuss at these forums - probably how to fleece the renters as much as possible - for when I finally managed to talk to him over the lunch hour, this previously kind and understanding head post master has become like his superior and only talks about changing my box and/or charging me a whole rent of a box for me to be able to get my mail at Mkomani!  Why should I pay the equivalent of two mailboxes when I don't get enough mail in the one box to justify that rental? I cannot understand this needless expense as it's not as if POSTA was going to be making a special trip to Mkomani to deliver my mail IF any. My mail would be coming with the rest of the Mkomani mail. And even if I was to cancel the town mailbox and get one at Mkomani, what will happen if I again move back into town?  Btw, I have just been asking people who come from other countries where they get their mail delivered at home about how much they pay for that service. I was told that they don't pay anything! How strange that the majority of the countries of the world deliver mail to the addresses instead of shoving them into postal boxes where the renters have to pick it up, and yet, this service is free. Very interesting, indeed. And even if they are paying for this, it would be thoroughly worth it, I think.  So, isn't POSTA out to make a fast buck at the expense of their users? And they even consider it illegal to just forward a couple of mail to a branch neighbourhood post office? I wonder what would happen if a person got totally incapacitated and could not to go to pick up their mail from any of our questionable post offices? Oh, and if they are thinking of the answer that we should send somebody to do this for us, then, I have a further question - what if they were alone (like I am), and didn't have somebody to do this for them? Do our various 'service' providers ever think along these lines? In the current scenario, there is the needless expense and inconveniencing somebody to the point of irritation and frustration.  Raziya  

Our inhuman POSTA!

Our postal 'services' are not only thoroughly inefficient and highly expensive, but, I've just discovered, they are completely inhuman, too.

The only thing that dictates their shoddy services is MONEY!!!! Nothing else besides for they can't even understand a person's many problems and not only refuse to help, but, the only thing they want one to do in these expensive, difficult and trying times is just pay them extra for any little request that one might ask of them.

As mentioned previously, POSTA has lost at least two of my letters since the beginning of the year and they have no explanation for this other than the reason that they were forwarding my mail to the Mkomani post office. Since I've moved in that area last year, the then, head post master, Mr. Khator, had been good enough to grant me this facility at no cost because getting a box in Mkomani would be a needless expense. For one, I would have to inform countless people of my change of address and since I'm retired/unemployed, disabled and hardly go into town, a needless and extra expense. Also, he knows about the disease that I suffer from and it's not always convenient for me to make my way all the way into town just for a couple of mail. Anyway, GPO is the one that sorts the mail and then delivers the relevant mail to the various post offices even all the way to Malindi.

Therefore, just including my couple of mails once in a while, one would understand, is not such a big issue. Also, I'm already paying an exorbitant rental for my small box at the GPO which one would think would cover any expense, if there was any, in forwarding my less than 10 mails a month to the Mkomani branch.

Well, since I made 'noise' about my missing mail (and this was not necessarily because the mail was being sent to Mkomani as my missing mail issues go back many years even when l lived in town), this year, suddenly everybody has started blaming the fact that I get my mail at Mkomani, as one of the reasons. This is NOT true! Also, when I went to see the Regional Manager two weeks ago regarding my current registered mail (from India), on the 4th of May 2011 and the attitude of his Head post master, Mr. Ahmed, I was told that it was 'illegal' for my mail to be forwarded in this manner to Mkomani and that it should be stopped forthwith! He was not ready to listen to any argument on WHY it was going to be totally inconvenient, expensive and frustrating to go all the way into the town centre to get my mail. The only thing they have done is allowed me to park in their 'yard'.

Yesterday, I crossed the Nyali bridge and if it wasn't for having to go all the way to the GPO, I would have saved myself countless amount of time and money if I hadn't had to go there. In fact, I wasted a lot of time getting through our horrible Mombasa traffic and then accessing the GPO's 'yard' was another time consuming exercise since the lane between Bima Towers and GPO has been closed off (one can only get up to the GPO 'yard'). There were already 3 vehicles there going in opposite directions! It took nearly half an hour before this snarl up was sorted out and I managed to park in the 'yard'.

When I tried to open my box, it wouldn't do so, so I had to walk some more from one counter to another trying to get the supervisor. Of course, by this time I was thoroughly frustrated and very angry for it was the 2nd time in two weeks that this post box key would not open my box.

By the time the Supervisor showed up, I was getting late and was quite tired of all this mess and inconveniences that our POSTA is the cause of and he was good enough to get my mail for me (had to wait some more....), and told me that the lock would need to be changed and that I should give them my two keys and they would do the needful and also apologized for this, thank God.

I tried calling Mr. Khator this morning but they have been in meetings since yesterday, it seems and one wonders what they discuss at these forums - probably how to fleece the renters as much as possible - for when I finally managed to talk to him over the lunch hour, this previously kind and understanding head post master has become like his superior and only talks about changing my box and/or charging me a whole rent of a box for me to be able to get my mail at Mkomani!

Why should I pay the equivalent of two mailboxes when I don't get enough mail in the one box to justify that rental? I cannot understand this needless expense as it's not as if POSTA was going to be making a special trip to Mkomani to deliver my mail IF any. My mail would be coming with the rest of the Mkomani mail. And even if I was to cancel the town mailbox and get one at Mkomani, what will happen if I again move back into town?

Btw, I have just been asking people who come from other countries where they get their mail delivered at home about how much they pay for that service. I was told that they don't pay anything! How strange that the majority of the countries of the world deliver mail to the addresses instead of shoving them into postal boxes where the renters have to pick it up, and yet, this service is free. Very interesting, indeed. And even if they are paying for this, it would be thoroughly worth it, I think.

So, isn't POSTA out of make a fast buck at the expense of their users? And they even consider it illegal to just forward a couple of mail to a branch neighbourhood post office? I wonder what would happen if a person got totally incapacitated and could not to go to pick up their mail from any of our questionable post offices? Oh, and if they are thinking of the answer that we should send somebody to do this for us, then, I have a further question - what if they were alone (like I am), and didn't have somebody to do this for them? Do our various 'service' providers ever think along these lines? In the current scenario, there is the needless expense and inconveniencing somebody to the point of irritation and frustration.

96th, 97th, 98th, 99th, 100th, 101st,...... outages

Since the rains started, the number of outages in Nyali have increased. One wonders why...

In fact, when KPLC's 3 staff members attended our NCRRA meeting early this year, they promised that these outages would soon be a thing of the past and we even believed them, because for a while they did reduce.

But, now that the rains have started, and like everything else in this banana republic, all infrastructure somehow collapses, including an uninterrupted power supply. In fact, KPLC blames everything but it's questionable work.

For some reason, these excuses of a tree falling on their lines, a signboard touching their lines and short circuiting their lines, etc., have become a very common excuse and we are tired of hearing these recycled excuses. The reason being that it's strange that these same things don't happen so often during the dry spell. How come?

Btw, we the public are equally to blame, for we cut trees left, right and centre with complete abandon (especially in Coast province), put up buildings all over the place with no plan or thought about the neighbourhood and the various services it will require. In face, a while ago, a reporter friend of mine made a very interesting comment about Kenyans having a 'fear' of any green open space. As soon as they see one, they are out to buy and build on it and to hell with playing and recreational areas for the public. And that's where the tree cutting also comes in. Most of these people can't seem to stand a tree which is minding it's own business and giving cool shade to boot!

So, with all these 'interesting' crackpots among us, the KPLC has ample excuses for their power failures.

In fact, since morning we have had 3 - first was early in the morning which lasted nearly an hour, then, there was a fluctuation around 9.30 am and just now at 6.30 pm we had another outage of over half an hour. We are getting very tired of our various electrical equipment packing up on us. I think it's high time we took KPLC to task for the damages, don't you?

Nobody available.....

Of course, I will not be able to send this till such a time that I can go online with the Orange 3G modem.

Since the rains started, the couple of weeks of relief, regarding the signal on the modem where I stay which had improved, has gone back to being the way it was previously. We truly live in a typical banana republic as officialdom is NEVER available even if and when they claim that they will be during the holidays.

All of the people whom I have been trying to call are either not answering the phones or they have switched them off! In the meantime, my emails are accumulating.

Despite having told the various employees of Orange about their SMS balance enquiry number that it does not work and getting an assurance that they will do something about that, too, NOTHING has been done and we use their modem (when it works), in a fog. We have absolutely no idea how much balance still remains after every session of going online.

Why are the various 'service' providers in this country so irresponsible regarding their work. Have they no work ethic? They are some of the most infuriating people on earth!

When will something be done about the above mentioned modem problems?

Re: constantly missing and lost mail

I am very disappointed with your response and disgusted, too. The people who write to me using your POSTA's horrible 'services', don't necessarily let me know in advance that they are sending me something by snail mail. It's when they have already sent something on it's way that they tell me by email to expect a post and what might be it's contents. Hence, I can't and wouldn't want them to go through a totally unnecessary expense of requesting them to send whatever it is that they send, using Registered mail.

This demand by you (POSTA), is totally unwarranted and uncalled for and just proves my point that POSTA in Mombasa is a completely 3rd class, or even lower, operation. Of course, if POSTA is going to reimburse me for the cost of the registered mail just so that they can fix responsibility for wayward mail, I'm quite willing to try and ask my various known and unknown correspondents to use the registered facility. Why is it so difficult to reign in your own incompetent workers? You should know them better since POSTA hires them.

Regarding your second point of picking my mail from my box at GPO. This is highly inconvenient for me as I do not come into town very often and not as far as the GPO (hardly). The traffic and the parking is insane. But, how may I ask is this inconveniencing me going to help you in monitoring your horrible and very inhumane staff, may I know?

Because, of this nonsense, I was told to pick up a registered mail from the GPO yesterday. So, let me relate my misadventures while trying to do this very simple exercise.

First, please keep in mind that I am middle aged and disabled with multiple disabilities which you and your various minions seem to prefer to ignore. Since there is no parking easily available at the front or side of the GPO, I am constantly told to use the parking at the Parcels office and then ask the various staff of GPO there to call the head postmaster (whoever that is), to come to my aid. This I did and fortunately for me, yesterday, there was accompanying me a young very pregnant lady with two small children, who is herself not feeling too well and has been told by her Dr. to keep movements to a minimum. Alas, for her it was not to be! Because, when I went into the parcels/EMS office I asked a man behind the EMS counter to please call a Mr. Ahmad (the postmistress at Mkomani had told me to get him), from the GPO. This man was not at all in a hurry to do anything and told us to have a seat and wait till he finds the time to do so. He seemed to be completely oblivious of the fact that we might also be in a hurry and didn't want to have a 'picnic' with small kids in the waiting area, either. Finally, after asking him a number of times to please hurry or use one of the phones to achieve his purpose, he left to go into the bowels of GPO and disappeared for a fairly long time.

So, I decided to call Mkomani post office and ask the post mistress to please do something about this and she in turn asked me to give my phone to the cashier of EMS. They had quite a lengthy conversation (at my expense), after which the illusive Mr. Ahmad finally materialized.

What happened next, as far as I am concerned, was totally unwarranted and an exercise by POSTA to deliberately frustrate and annoy a client. Because this Mr. Ahmad first asked me to accompany him to the main GPO (as though we didn't know our way), then changed his mind when I told him why it was necessary to personally be there to pick up my registered mail since I can't walk for long distances at times and on uneven surfaces. At this point he asked me for my ID which I gave to him. Then he asked us to wait at the same EMS place for his return.

Well, he did return but after nearly 20 minutes, but, only with a blue card (I had not had time to pick up my registered mail card - pink - from Mkomani the day before or in the morning, either, but was told that as long as I gave my box number and name with ID, I would be given my registered mail), and no mail. He asked me to sign the thing, returned my ID and told me that I would HAVE to accompany him to the GPO myself to be handed over my registered mail. Since, I wasn't in a condition to walk all the way to the GPO registered mail office, he agreed to let the young lady accompanying me go with him instead to be given my mail.

Now, why and since when does the GPO have this rule of having to physically 'see' the person to whom the registered mail belongs? I thought that anybody whom I trust can go with my ID to collect my registered mail for me. I am now quite sure of what my brother told me - that somebody at POSTA is victimizing me deliberately.

I observed another revelation when I studied the envelope that carried my mail. I noticed that it had been posted from Bangalore, India on the 6th of April 2011 and reached Mombasa on the 13th of April 2011, yet, the registered mail card, though dated 13/4/2011, arrived at Mkomani post office on the 28th April 2011, a whole 2 weeks later. Despite it being a registered mail?!!!!

So, when POSTA tells me to ask my correspondents to register their mail to me, it does not justify it's reasoning for even Registered mail can get lost - especially mine. In fact, I was not even expecting this particular mail from India. It's just by good fortune that it was registered, but, since I was not expecting it I would not even have known about it if POSTA had, like quite a lot of my other mail, 'lost' it. At least, they seemed to be very averse to part with it even when I personally tried to go and pick it up at GPO.

About renting a box at Mkomani - even if one was available, it would be completely impractical for me to change box numbers after all these years. People whom I can't even remember know and keep in touch with me using the present one.

Please, do not try to pass the buck. I know that even if I had a box at Mkomani, it is still GPO which sorts mail for all the other post offices around. So the problem of lost, misplaced and other misadventures of our mail will still continue. The daft sorters are still the same old semi and illiterate, incompetent persons at your GPO! Do something about that instead on inconveniencing your renters to do this, that and the other, please.

Very disgusted with your 'services',
Raziya

On 4/28/2011 12:39 PM, hpmrmombasa@posta.co.ke wrote:

Dear Razia, We are sorry for the inconvinience occassioned to you. To help us serve you better, kindly assit as follows:- 1. Advice the people who send you correspondence to register them, this will enable us trace your correspondence and fix responsibility. 2.Pick your mail from your box at Mombasa GPO,this will enable us to monitor our staff closely. 3.Rent a box at Mkomani.  Striving to serve you better.  Mariam.I.Ali 

Constantly missing and lost mail....

There is a problem with our Mombasa GPO's sorting office. The people populating that office are either semi- or illiterate or half blind or under the influence of questionable substances! Due to them, I have lost at least 2 letters since the beginning of this year from the USA.

The latest one was posted from there on the 4th of April 2011 and it still has not reached Mombasa. Unfortunately, I am not the only person who pays a hefty rental every year to Posta, only to have my numerous mails either misplaced or disappearing altogether. There are countless others out there who have a similar problem with our POSTA.

Since my last missing mail from the USA, POSTA's officialdom asked me to tell my brother to send his mail by registered post so they could track it. But, to do this will cost my brother $15 which we can ill afford. So, is this some kind of blackmail that if we don't do POSTA's bidding, they will constantly lose our mail if it is sent by normal channels?

There are also irresponsible members of the public who, when they get a letter in their boxes which does not belong to them, simply throw it away or carry it around for days before re-posting the thing (hence, the sometimes soiled condition of our mail), finally. From this point on, POSTA's sorting staff, start the whole process and IF we're lucky, we finally get our long lost mail or if they are under any one of the mental conditions mentioned in the first paragraph, the letter will be lost forever, never to be seen or heard of again!

I've had such things happen to my letters over the years and now it is even more easy to know the fate of them. I know that my brother posted the letter on the 4th of April 2011 because he emailed me about it. And since it takes 10 days for mail from the USA to get here (one gets the feeling that it either hitch-hikes or walks), this period is now over but, I still haven't got my mail.

Why do I constantly have these missing mail problems despite, as I've been told, that my box is under investigations? So, if this is the case, it can't be my box suddenly swallowing my mail, but, it has to be the sorters......, I think. Can POSTA please employ responsible and educated people there?

And how is POSTA going to deal with this latest missing mail issue short of demanding the we use their registered and expensive 'service'? The pain and headache that they cause has to be experienced to be believed.

Get your act together, POSTA!

Lots of frustration ......

As I write this, I'm holding on to my landline phone with Orange Nairobi, trying to get my Orange modem loaded. The reason I had to call their Nairobi offices was because NONE of their Mombasa employees whose numbers I have are answering their phones!

The sms confirmations, etc., that one has to go through to load a bundle and activate it is also not working - countrywide.

When Orange finally did something about the modem signal problem near my place and I can now use their modem, the smses for loading and confirming don't seem to work in a reliable fashion.

Why aren't the Mombasa employees of Orange Telkom picking up their phones? After all it is Saturday and when I first started calling them it was before lunchtime. It took two calls to their Nairobi offices and over an hour before a guy called Paul finally solved and activated my bundle.

Some of their employees, whenever I call them, tell me to call 100 or 121. These hardly ever get answered and when they do, it's an automated voice which tells you to press this, that and the other number to get various 'services'. Now, I'm a hearing impaired person and would like to deal with a human on the other end whom I can request to repeat what s/he, just said in case I didn't understand. How can I ask a machine to do this? Why isn't Orange Telkom a handicapped friendly company, especially since they are into communications?

They should be the first ones to take such a disability seriously. There are many people out there who have similar problems like mine. I am not the only one, though, I might be the only one who is the most vocal about it.

Please, get your act together, Orange Telkom.

Is Orange Telkom operating with justice?

Since the beginning of February, I've been having connecting issues with the Orange livebox and despite having been assured of the many days that I've been offline (not being able to connect to the Internet), since the beginning of the second week of February 2011, I still have not got my rebate from them. Why?

Also, I would have used their modem, if I had a signal where I live, but, despite having complained about that, nothing has been done about that, either. In the process, the over 270 Mb that I had on it expired. So, who is to blame for this? And will I get a rebate for this, too?

Orange Telkom does not consider such things important enough to address and their Regional Manager, Mr. Munene, just told me that it was just one of these things that we have to put up with where 'technology' is concerned! Is it really that, or the incompetence of Orange Telkom?

For now, I am having second thoughts about re-subscribing to my 'livebox' and am writing this using their modem at their Nyali Orange shop since I don't have a signal to be able to use this at home. So, I had to lug my laptop to their offices to be able to deal with a lot of emails at my own cost and had to pay a further 150/- to buy the minimum bundle of a 100 Megabytes. That is when I found out that my previous over 270 Mb had been 'swallowed'.

For this company's information, I would have used this modem when I could not go online with the livebox, but due to it's own incompetence and don't care attitude, I can and could not, yet, the customer has to pay for and suffer the consequences of this. Why?

Probably, Mr. Munene, thinks in terms of a few hundred shillings as 'nothing', but, that is not the case for the majority of Kenyans for his information. If they give a 'service' than it has to be an accountable and honest one.

And how long is Orange Telkom going to take in giving me a rebate for all the time that I've been unable to go online using the livebox? And when will and if ever, is the signal near my place, going to improve?