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?

Re: FW: Parking nightmare in Mombasa

I was forwarded the following by a good friend and asked to comment on it. I've written about the road and traffic of Mombasa many times as well as about parking issues and the questionable charge that our Council has come up with.

There truly is a shortage of parking in this cramped little island of ours and having unruly drivers, especially of tuk tuks and matatus, makes things worse. These, abide by no traffic law and their only aim is to get to wherever they are going in the shortest possible time and route. To hell with other road users.

Regarding the parking, or lack of it, is the responsibility of our redoubtable Council. They have nothing like town planning up their sleeves and don't even think about the welfare of the citizens of this town when allowing structures to come up on road reserves, facilitating PSVs while inconveniencing other private vehicles to take very roundabout routes to get somewhere which is also in a pathetic condition, letting noisy religious buildings like mosques and halls turned into churches all over the place, letting mkokotenis park all over the place thereby decreasing the already few parking spaces. The only thing our Council is interested in is collecting money and since the mkokoteni guys pay 'parking' fees or whatever to the Council, they promptly wash their collective hands regarding the thought that they are supposed to give to facilitate business in the CBD.

To them it matters little nor do they care, if the business community which pays for their salaries, that they are supposed to encourage the smooth running of the town and the citizens who are running businesses and also the ones who shop and/or go about for whatever purpose to town.

Heavy trucks, trailers and other heavy vehicles are also allowed within the CBD which adds to the chaos, jams and frustration. These have no business being there. Why are these allowed into the CBD? Our town roads are not made for such heavy traffic. Should not the traffic police be doing something about this?

The resultant chaos and mess will require the rearranging of attitudes and brains. I wonder if our Council is at all capable of this.....

About the water, power, garbage, etc., is concerned, I've written many emails about these, too, which can be read at my blog whose address is in the signature line at the bottom of this email.

------ Forwarded Message
From: "Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, MSA" <info@kenyachamber.co.ke>
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2011 11:57:26 +0300
To: <"Undisclosed-Recipient:;"@alfakenya.com>
Subject: Parking nightmare in Mombasa

Dear sir/Madam,

Vehicle parking in Mombasa is a nightmare to many who have made an attempt to drive around town for business. The problems range from irregular allocation of parking slots, inhuman treatment of motorist by the KAPS staff, clamping of vehicles unnecessarily, vandalism of vehicle parts in full view of KAPS staff and many more.

Our initial efforts to get some of the issues addressed were fruitless because it is currently not clear who is managing parking in the town because the council and KAPS are fighting through the courts for control of the service. As a result there is no harmony in the management of traffic and more so parking in Mombasa. This has left the business community members operating in the CBD to lose business because no one want to come for shopping in the town with his or her car.

In view of the above, the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mombasa Branch plans to hold a brain storming session with the business owners and stake holders on the way forward that can minimise the losses in business. We therefore wish to invite you to send your comments in advance as we prepare for this important meeting to be incorporated in chamber's position paper on traffic and Parking problems in Mombasa. The date and venue of the meeting will be communicated to you soon. Views on any other issue affecting you in your business such as oil prices, Electricity supply, water etc are also welcome.

The Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry is also giving you a golden opportunity to establish new contacts, network and market your products and services by partnering with her in implementing the schedule activities and projects herein attached. To partner with Chamber on any of the scheduled programmes and projects feel free to contact us by email, phone or pay us a visit at our office which is situated at Kizingo, Mombasa.

We also appeal to those who are not members yet or have not renewed their membership to do so by filling the attached form and returning it to us with the amount due depending on your category.

Thanking you in anticipation of your support in creating a business friendly environment to do business in Kenya.

Yours faithfully,



James N.Mureu
Chairman, Mombasa Branch
National Director, Exports and Tourism Committee
Email: chairman.msa@kenyachamber.co.ke








------ End of Forwarded Message

Striking KPLC workers...

It is very interesting to note that since the junior KPLC workers have been on strike since the beginning of last week, we have not had as many outages.

Also, the ones we have had have been of shorter duration than usual. The phones are also surprisingly being answered quite promptly, too. And our complaints addressed pronto!

So, one wonders what these striking KPLC workers are all about. They seem to be making things worse and highly inefficient! They also irritate and frustrate the public with their attitude on the phones......., by not answering them or being downright horrible on them.

Shouldn't somebody up there (senior), be making a note of these things?

National Geographic Magazine Your Shot

National Geographic Magazine Your Shot: "Add National Geographic Your Shot site content onto your Web space."

How do you say "OH S**T" in Chinese ?

While the following looks disgusting and laughable (only because the block is not occupied), and not so laughable and worse is happening in this country.

Our Town Planners, if they are planning anything responsible and livable, pass highly dangerous plans whose product is questionable and quite unlivable at best.

The buildings that they allow to be put up are substandard and never a thought is given as to the kind of surroundings where they are going to be put up. No thought is given to recreation or play areas for children, yet we have the majority of our population which is very young. Every available space, even the required 7 feet or more between buildings is taken over. In the process we will soon be having no greenery and shady areas in our towns and suburbs - just a questionable and unplanned ugly concrete jungle.

While the rest of the world is trying to be eco-friendly our Town Planners give little thought to such things other than their capacious and corrupt pockets. If all the recipients of this email will cast a glance around their respective neighbourhoods, they will be able to see what I mean.

In fact, I have countless such structures coming up all around mine and despite reporting this matter to NEMA and our Physical Planners, it has made not a jot of difference and the structures continue to be built with total disregard for other neighbours and the environment and nobody raising a voice or a finger to correct this.

We do have the most corrupt and selfish lot out there.....

Unfortunately, the pictures below don't show in the blog but, when you read the comments, you'll probably understand what happened to that building......, I hope.

How do you say "OH S**T" in Chinese? Anyone who bought an apartment here sure has a problem. Talk about a collapsed market! YES, IT'S An ENTIRE 13-STORY BUILDING IN CHINA LYING ON THE GROUND. (1) An underground garage was being dug on the south side of the building, to a depth of 4.6 meters (15 ft). (2) The excavated dirt was being piled up on the north side of the building, to a height of 10 meters (32 ft). (3) They dug right up to the base of the building. Then the rains came. (4) The building experienced uneven lateral pressure from north to south. (5) This resulted in a lateral pressure of 3,000 tonnes, which was greater than what the un-reinforced pilings could tolerate. Thus, the building toppled completely over in a southerly direction. *First, the apartment building was constructed.* Then the plan called for an underground garage to be dug out. The excavated soil was piled up on the other side of the building. *Heavy rains resulted in water seeping into the ground.* The building began to tilt. Then it began to shift, and the "hollow" concrete pilings were snapped due to the uneven lateral pressures. And thus was born the eighth wonder of the world. If these buildings were closer together, it would have resulted in a domino effect. Notice that there's NO rebar in the pilings! Just some wire mesh. They built 13 stories on grade, with no basement, and tied it all down to hollow pilings with no rebar. Brought to you by the same folks that make your kids' toys and want to build your next car. Now that, folks, is a true snafu. Don't you feel better now that these are the folks that manufacture nearly EVERYTHING we buy and use today? One more product "MADE IN CHINA"...!

Re: Fw: Noise in the name of religion...

It is so interesting to note that the religious racket is quite disciplined up-country compared to here, at Coast Province. Possibly because there are fewer mosques and the people who have to listen to the noise both Christian and Muslim, also don't tolerate the nonsense for too long.

The NEMA and various other law enforcers including the cops, for some reason are also more prone to listening and acting on such issues.

Unfortunately, for us here at Coast Province, as soon as one enters Mombasa, one is overwhelmed by noise, lawlessness of many kind, stench from various sources and one gets the impression that one has entered a place where there's little regard for the rights of others - extreme selfishness!

Though, I've mentioned this observation umpteen numbers of times in my numerous emails in the past, I will continue mentioning this logic ad infinitum, till NEMA and other officialdom will act on it.

First, why are mosques, churches, etc., allowed to be built indiscriminately everywhere?

Second, and if they are for the convenience of the residents, then, why is there the need for public address systems to call the faithful to prayer and even have the whole prayer and/or sermon be heard on the PA system for all the world to hear whether they want to or not?

Third, since there are so many of these houses of worship within close proximity to each other and all of them start making their religious racket around the same time everyday, the result is utter chaos and noise pollution at it's worst.

Fourth, why is it necessary for a prayer service to be heard outside the mosque or church when it is invalid for a Muslim (from the Muslim point of view and according to our prayer rules), to follow the imam at the mosque when one is even in a house next door? Therefore, what is the need of this prayer to be heard on the outside?

With regards to mosques and the imams who lead the prayers - are they so very illiterate that they cannot understand this simple logic? Can they not take up my challenge when I have asked them to come forward with any valid argument which is based on the Qur'an and practice of the Holy Prophet of Islam (pbuh), which would justify their ignorant and abhorrent behaviour? By keeping silent, they are just advertising their ignorance regarding their faith.


On 2/14/2011 4:01 PM, Shaileen Shah wrote:

Hi Raziya,

You R NOT the ONLY ONE2feel soooo frustrated!

NO ONE wants2DELIVER what they R paid a salary for!

BUT

NEVER,

never,

GIVE-UP!

Good Luck

Mr.Shaileen NPN Shah,MRPharmS,
Box 80197,Mombasa 80100,KENYA.
ph:+254 202326282(O)
+254 41 2224954(R)
Mobi:0722 858303/0733777856

----- Original Message -----

From: Raziya Mohamedali

To: Shaileen Shah

Sent: Monday, February 14, 2011 2:12 PM

Subject: Re: Fw: Noise in the name of religion...

Hi, Shaileen!

I'm sorry but I've been offline for over a week since returning to this lawless and noisy town! Of course there was the matter of power (still is...), then neither my orange modem nor the livebox were working due to a signal problem and the modem is still not thanks to their useless signal at my place. Even after having reactivated the livebox, it didn't work till Friday, but, then we had another day long outage from KPLC and over the weekend I was very busy.

So, today after over a week of not having dealt with any emails, I'm trying to catch up with a huge backlog of over 150 emails and have finally come to yours..... I am going to deal with it in due course, so please have some patience as I still have nearly a hundred emails still waiting to be read, etc.

I haven't even had my breakfast, forget about lunch, yet and it's already past 2.00 pm!!!

So, ciao for now,
Raziya

On Tue, Feb 8, 2011 at 4:11 PM, Shaileen Shah <shylyn@hecl.co.ke> wrote:

Hello Raziya!

Please do NOT relent in this exercise!

IMPUNITY in KENYA has to STOP,

PERIOD!

GOODLUCK!

Mr.Shaileen NPN Shah,MRPharmS,
Box 80197,Mombasa 80100,KENYA.
ph:+254 202326282(O)
+254 41 2224954(R)
Mobi:0722 858303/0733777856

----- Original Message -----

From: Raziya

To: Mr. Odero - OCPD Urban, Msa

Cc: Director General, National Environment Management Authority ; Director General, National Environment Management Authority ; Wemali ; Bakari Mangale, District Environment Officer, Msa

Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2010 10:48 AM

Subject: Fwd: Noise in the name of religion...

Dear Mr. Odero,

I was given your email address by a friend who prefers to remain anonymous but, is getting disturbed by the noise made by various religious institutions in this town. Because, this person knows about my writing since years regarding this very contentious issue, I was requested to forward my latest write-up about it to you.

NEMA has a law nowadays regarding this, but, they seem to have been intimidated by some of the Muslims from taking action.

Since, I am a Muslim too, I have great objection to my fellow Muslims disturbing others while worshiping as there is no justification for what they practice. Below, are the points and I challenge any Muslim to dispute these. In fact, I have in my previous emails asked these people to justify their noisy prayers, etc., but, have not had any response, yet. Therefore, it means that they have no reply to what they practice and it is not a part of our faith to disturb others, including fellow Muslims.

We would all, as residents of Mombasa, really appreciate it, if you could take some action, as NEMA can't or won't.

Yours Sincerely,
Raziya

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	Noise in the name of religion...
Date:	Tue, 13 Jul 2010 19:46:03 +0300
From:	Raziya <rmohamedali@gmail.com>
To:	pcontracts@kenya.go.ke, akariuki@nema.go.ke, Tubmun Otieno:MCM Town Clerk <tubmun@gmail.com>, amnestykenya@sections.amnesty.org, amwinzi@nema.go.ke, power_orgke@yahoo.com, wmathai@greenbeltmovement.org, Cecilia.Andersson@unhabitat.org, ps@psrpc.go.ke, president@statehousekenya.go.ke, raila@raila07.com, abuubakarm@yahoo.com, peoplesttlmntntwrk@yahoo.com, gbm@wananchi.com, ukweli@wananchi.com, haki@knchr.org, ilishe@wananchi.com, info@kara.or.ke, transparency@tikenya.org, railaaodinga@yahoo.com, kacc@integrity.go.ke, omondiosewe@yahoo.com, kmukiri@localgovernment.go.ke, kyengoi@nema.go.ke, ti@transparency.org, thegpr@swiftmombasa.com, miziziyahakipwani@yahoo.com, mkiai2001@yahoo.com, Teckla.Muhoro@unhabitat.org, modhiambos@yahoo.com, mohyder@africaonline.co.ke, Mombasa Human Rights Network <M_hurinet@yahoo.com>, muhuri@swiftmombasa.com, Mwalimu Mati <mmati@marsgroupkenya.org>, pcc@swiftkenya.com, Ngithagui@worldbank.org, nmutembei@integrity.go.ke, "Eng. Samuel Ogege" <ogegesamuel@yahoo.co.uk>, report@integrity.go.ke, National Assembly <bunge@swiftkenya.com>
CC:	Maria/Fakhru Kaderbhai <maria@civiconkenya.com>, 'Ann Wambua' <holwg@yahoo.com>, 'Barry Maeve Mitchell' <himazulu@web2.com>, 'Dan Abwao' <danabwao@hotmail.com>, "'David D. Smith'" <davbeasmith@yahoo.com>, 'Dhiru Shah' <jj@wananchi.com>, 'Donato Fonseca' <marajani@marajani.com>, "'Dr. Hemant Patel'" <hemantpatel@kioskafrica.com>, "'Dr. R S Marjan'" <drrsmarjan@yahoo.com>, "'Dr. S. S. Dhillon'" <dhillon@africaonline.co.ke>, 'Esther Ikiara' <admin@nyalihealthcare.com>, 'Faiyaz Anjarwalla' <faiyaz@africaonline.co.ke>, 'farid abdallah' <farid.abdallah@nyalibeach.co.ke>, 'Gurdeep Nayer' <pirates@africaonline.co.ke>, 'Heinz muller' <heinz.mueller@interfreight2000.com>, 'James Wild' <james.wild@ldcommodities.com>, 'Jenny Somji' <somco@africaonline.co.ke>, 'Kuldip Soar' <kuldip@africaonline.co.ke>, 'kuldipsoar' <kuldipsoar@africaonline.co.ke>, 'Lisa Nesbitt' <lawnes@africaonline.co.ke>, 'Mahesh Dhutia' <mahesh@dhutia.com>, 'Marwan Mishah' <info@solarteknowledge.com>, 'Ravi Bhagat' <urjadistributors@gmail.com>, 'Sadiq Ghalia' <law@ghalia.com>, 'Sarah Spacer' <coco@africaonline.co.ke>, 'Steven Ogwapit' <steven@architronic-ke.com>, 'Timothy Mugo' <t.mugo@mombasawater.co.ke>, 'Timothy Mugo' <timothymugoh@yahoo.com>, comms@comms.go.ke, editorial@eastandard.net, jacque@febaradiokenya.org, kamemenews@kamemefm.com, kendo@eastandard.net, kenyatimesonline@yahoo.com, mmwende@yahoo.com, Mulaa@yahoo.com, mwangiayub@gmail.com, vipslit@yahoo.ca, ntv@nation.co.ke, palaver@eastandard.net, pps@statehousekenya.go.ke, publicwatchdog@eastandard.net, sundaynation@nation.co.ke, ronklif@yahoo.com, COASTWEEK <coastwk@africaonline.co.ke>

'Evening!  Why do certain religions insist on  practicing their faith at ear  splitting levels even in residential areas where peace and quiet should  prevail? I have written about this many times over the years but,  despite there now being a law passed by NEMA regarding noise pollution,  very little enforcement of it is apparent. Why is this?  Why is it that when one complains about religious noise to officialdom,  and especially from the mosques, everybody is terrified of doing  anything about it? If there is a law regarding noise, it should be  enforced, since the law is not denying these institutions from  worshiping but, the people objecting have an objection to them doing so  loudly.  Since God is not deaf (Astaghfirullah), and He can hear the most silent  of prayers, one gets the impression from the loud worship that the  worshipers would like the whole world to know how holy they are. This  smacks of hypocrisy. One reaches the conclusion while suffering from  this noise that these people are more bothered about what the people on  the outside think than what their Maker does.  Take Islam and Muslims for instance - the numerous mosques have no need  to be heard beyond their immediate neighbourhoods and therefore do not  need to use public address systems even for the call to prayer, because  every neighbourhood has at least one mosque if not more, so whom exactly  are they calling for prayers? People on the other side of town? For  their information, those places too, have their own neighbourhood  mosques, so there is no need.  Then, when the Imam starts leading the prayers, there is no need for him  to be heard outside the mosque since he is not leading the ones outside  the confines of the mosque in prayer and it is not valid either, anyway,  for someone to follow the Imam while for example he/she is at home. So,  why should he add to the noise by being heard outside?  Also, in the entire history of Islam and the practices of the Holy  Prophet (pbuh), calls for prayers have never been given a whole hour  before the actual time in the early morning. In Mombasa, this happens at  4.00 am. Of course, if somebody wants to say supererogatory prayers it  is a very private affair and there is no need to give the call to prayer  for it. Also, in this day and age we have alarm clocks, etc., and those  of us who are interested in praying will get up of our own free will and  there is no need for mosques to disturb non-Muslims among us. Why should  they be disturbed? There's freedom of religion, remember?  Now that Ramadhan is just about a month away, most non-Muslims and even  some Muslims are dreading the continuous racket that we will have to  endure for a whole month in the name of freedom of religion. Because, of  the loud recitation of the Holy Qur'an after the mid-afternoon prayers  as well as the Tarawih prayers at night. It is really awful and disturbs  even the Muslims who are praying at home, the sick and the elderly.  Can the authorities please draw a line between freedom of faith and  noise making? And enforce their law about noise pollution, please?  This is also on behalf of the NCRRA, btw.  Salaams, Raziya  --  Raziya Mohamedali P.O. Box 80780 MOMBASA - 80100 Kenya  Fixed line Tel: 254-041-4470817  Tel: 254-020-2137033  Mobile: 0721-485444         0733-947676  <a alt="Click to show my current time" href="http://www.qlock.com/time/simple?city=Mombasa"> <img border=0 src="http://www.qlock.com/images/mytime-button3.png"></a> <br>I am located in<a href="http://www.qlock.com/time/simple?city=Mombasa">Mombasa, Kenya</a>  http://kenyanjustice.blogspot.com/  Email: rmohamedali@gmail.com  

'One learned man is harder on the devil than a thousand ignorant worshipers': Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)

KPLC's emergency numbers.....

Though, I'm not in Mombasa at present, I do get to hear of umpteen numbers of complaints and incidences regarding our redoubtable 'power' company from my various friends and acquaintances all over.

Last Thursday, 20th January 2011, (they had advertised earlier that the Nyali area in my neighbourhood, at least), they were going to do maintenance from morning till 5.00 pm when the power would be back.

But, this being a banana republic where few people including KPLC, have scant regard for keeping time, the residents continued suffering in the dark and extreme heat of Mombasa. At least one suffering resident decided to call KPLC's emergency numbers to no avail. Not one of them was being answered.

So, he called me and asked me what to do. This was at around 8.30 pm and the power still had not returned. I advised him to call Ms. Faith Njuguna's number and also to let me know asap the results of that call.

Fortunately, for everybody, as soon as he had hung up after talking to me, the lights came back (somewhere between 8.30 pm and 8.45 pm), and so he did not have to call Ms. Njuguna.

Now, this matter of KPLC and it's emergency numbers is a long standing grouch of the Kenyan public (this disease seems to pervade KPLC in other towns, too, including Nairobi).

If the latest complaint had not reached my ears, I would not have shared a recent experience of a friend, but, I think I will have to in the hope that KPLC and it's minions take their customers more seriously and treat them with some respect.

The following are the misadventures of some Tudor residents at night and while Ms. Njuguna promises in her email to my friend that KPLC will take the emergency crew to task, nothing seems to have changed. And therefore her email was of the cosmetic variety and a window dressing.

Please, read the whole email and then think about who would have been responsible if there had been loss of property and lives? Does KPLC sound like a responsible company?

Raziya


On 1/14/2011 3:30 PM, Amira wrote:

Dear Raziya

Aslamo aleikum

Just to keep you in the “loop” see below my correspondence with Faith. Thanks so much to have forwarded me her no – she seems to be an exception!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let’s see what the outcome will be

Take care & have a nice weekend

Amira

From: Faith Njuguna [mailto:FNjuguna@KPLC.co.ke]
Sent: Friday, January 14, 2011 12:26 PM
To: Amira
Cc: Joseph Mkomba
Subject: RE: Incident at Tudor

Dear Mrs Khan,

I wish to acknowledge receipt of your email below ,dated 13/1/2011,our telephone conversation on 13/1/2011 and my subsequent visit on 14/1/2011. On behalf of KPLC, Coast Region and on my own behalf, I wish to convey our sincere apologies for the distress that you and your neighbors’ underwent on the night of 12^th January 2011, following the fire incidence on our transformer.

We regret the service breakdown on our part and wish to thank you for taking your time to bring it to our attention. We assure you that the matter is being handled with the seriousness it deserves and corrective measures have been put in place to avert a similar occurrence in the future. We value you as our esteemed customer.

In our strive to improve and delight our customers, we have adopted ‘CUSTOMER FIRST’ as our key value in driving change towards focusing on delighting our customers. Despite the mishap on 12^th January 2011, we wish to assure you of our commitment to serve you diligently and to keep growing together with you as we all drive the economy.

KPLC mission is “POWERING PEOPLE FOR BETTER LIVES” of which we are dedicated to and shall keep correcting where we go wrong.

I have copied this email to our Regional Manager

Once again, we apologise

Yours Sincerely

Faith Njuguna

Principal Customer Relations Officer

KPLC,Coast Region

From: Amira
Sent: 13 January 2011 14:05
To: Faith Njuguna
Subject: Incident at Tudor

Dear Ms Njuguna,

Our telephone conversation of just now refers.

Kindly note the following statement:

10:23pm I noticed that the transformer outside our house is on fire

10:25pm made my first attempt to call KPLC emergency no: 2224533 - NO ANSWER

10.29pm I called 020-2074846 apparently another KPLC contact no but once again – NO ANSWER

10.30pm I pressed the 911 alarm button of our house

10.33pm I called the 4911 number to report the incident and to ask them to help us to get in touch with KPLC

In the meantime the fire was ranging and most of the neighbors were on the road worrying about their properties

10.43pm 911 security armed car arrived as well as Crest Security & Texas Alarm

Collected sand and tried to extinguish the fire – which resulted in a huge bang!

In the meantime neighbors were trying to get hold of KPLC too – BUT IN VAIN!

In the meantime 3 policemen from Central arrived who were called by one of the neighbors. Their attempt to get in touch with KPLC through their so called “hotline” was left un-answered too.

10.53pm called once again KPLC emergency no: 2224535 - NO ANSWER

Fire calmed down

Approx 11pm huge bang with big sparks! AND STILL NO FIREBRIGADE OR KPLC IN SIGHT!!

11.10pm Neighbor got hold of the KPLC call centre. Reply from the gentlemen on the phone:”I’ve just started the shift – don’t know anything about this! Please give me your account no!” instead of attending to the lady’s stressed call and acting appropriately

11.13pm I gave instructions to the 911 security team to go to Mbaraki to get KPLC maintenance team.

11:27pm I called 0717 – 703331 given by another neighbor but it was “mteja”

11:28pm than I was given the no. 0711-031680 (KPLC NBO) when we called we reported the incident once again and asked them to help us getting the maintenance team from MBA

11:30pm 911 security team arrived back. They’ve reported that they did not get anybody at Mbaraki but went to Electricity House where they reported the urgent need of help.

FIRE WENT OFF

We waited till 12am for KPLC to come BUT IN VAIN!! 911 Security team kindly offered to stick around to watch the transformer and to see if anybody from KPLC will report.

It is now 1.53pm the next day and we have not seen ANYBODY from Kenya Power & Lighting Company! We find this ridicules! Thank GOD Almighty the fire went off by itself and no sparks hit the nearby tree. GOD FORBID what could have happened! Please note, that I’ve addressed this on Facebook and will inform the media accordingly.

I will send you pictures in a separate mail – taken just now.

Regards

Amira

Tudor