LADIES, THIS IS FOR YOU

Why David Austin roses rule the wedding world

By Collins Ogola

A wedding is every woman’s dream. When your man proposes to you and you say yes, your mind quickly shifts to how you will walk down the aisle your parents holding your hands as you approach the man of your dreams but less do the bride and bridegroom focus on the flower they will hold during the wedding.

According to Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), Kenya horticulture industry (vegetables, fruits and flowers) exports 136 tonnes to Europe bringing the country a total of Kshs. 108 billion annually in foreign exchange. Of this, flowers account for Kshs. 54.8 billion. Kenya is among the three countries in the world that export flowers together with Ecuador and

David Austin is a type of a rose flower renowned for wedding. It is named after the breeder – David Austin from United States of America. This scented rose is appreciated as a wedding rose worldwide and is associated with royal weddings. Take for instance the royal wedding between the Queen and King of Sweden and in Kenya the wedding of Nakumatt owner.

“David Austin takes 14 weeks from the time of planting to harvest. Subsequent harvests take 10 weeks. The flower is then stored in cold rooms with temperatures ranging between 5 and 8 degrees. The flower then takes at most five days from the day of harvest to reach the customer,” Rebecca Muthiani who is a roses manager at Tambuzi Limited says.

David Austin is unique in its own way. It opens like a cabbage and thus is referred to as a garden rose. They have soft colours that make them work harmoniously with each other and with other seasonal cut flowers, to capture the essence of an English country garden.

David Austin collection of garden roses has some favourites from the beginning and six new varieties that capture the beauty and charm of David Austin’s famous garden shrubs.

David Austin is only grown in Africa. Tambuzi Limited in Kieni East, Nyeri County is such a farm in Kenya. Sitting in a land of 67 hectares with 23 hectares dedicated to flower planting, Tambuzi Limited is a pioneer in Kenya flower farming. The farm started with roses and oriental lilies in small capacity but then decided to concentrate on roses.

The land is 1800 metres above the sea level and this provides a suitable condition for flower growth. The business in November, 1996 but established itself fully in 1997. The business has been certified gold by Kenya Flower Corporations. This means it has attained golden standards in labour, environment, procedures and practices that conserve the environment.

“We sell these roses to the outside market especially. This is because they are very expensive. One stem goes for 1 Euro which translates into between Kshs. 110 and 115 depending on exchange rates. If you are not rich or from royal family then it is unlikely you will buy the roses,” says Jackson Waweru who is the Sales and Export Manager at Tambuzi Limited.

Mr. Waweru says that the market for David Austin is mainly in Europe and the Middle East but some countries in Africa like Zimbabwe and South Africa are starting to recognize the beauty of the flower.

“Wedding organizers and florists are enamored by the rose. They prefer it for its scent, designer style and vase life. In peak season which is from May to October in Europe which is in summer presents the best sales of David Austin as it is the time preferred for weddings by couples. Off season is in winter (November to April) sees little of the rose being sold,” Mr. Waweru quips.

EMBRACE SUCCESSFUL COMMERCIAL MODELS

FOOTBALL

Gor Mahia has to dominate commercially in order to challenge continentally

By Collins Ogola

Gor Mahia is waiting for its coronation on Saturday after winning this season’s Sportpesa Premier League at a canter. K’Ogalo as the club is popularly known has dominated the league winning the trophy three times in a row. Amid this celebratory mood, let us not forget the precarious state that the club is operating in.

There is no denying that Gor Mahia has been a cut above its competitors in football terms locally. The club has shown an itch to return to the echelons of football it had occupied in the late 1980’s culminating in winning Mandela Cup in 1987, but for this to happen it has to tap into the commercial potential it carries.

Gor Mahia should be mentioned in the same breath as great football clubs in Africa such Al Ahly, Zamalek, TP Mazembe, Esperance among others who have dominated the continental club football scene and also boast massive following. These clubs are stable commercially and this is what Gor lacks.

Having been without a sponsor since the contract with TUZO elapsed has not helped the club in its continental operations. Signing players late cost the club progressing farther in CAF Champions League. The executive has to tap into the massive following the club enjoys while working on the image the club has that has been scaring away potential sponsors.

What happened to the drive to register fans? Does the club know that Bayern Munich is owned to a percentage by its fans and this stability has made the club successful? What happened to the medical insurance contract signed last year?

K’Ogalo has been surviving on goodwill from the fans, passion among the players and loyalty of the technical bench. This state is precarious and if left to fester it will turn Kenya’s most successful club into a mediocre team that cannot challenge locally let alone in the continent.

Gor Mahia has a name and a following that any company will salivate at. The club has had a successful season so far in all sectors. There has not been any incident of hooliganism to reported, players staging go slows or walk outs have also been heard in whispers. The executive need to build on this newfound clean reputation to woe companies to come on board for the coming season and beyond, dangling the carrot of selling them continentally next season and also offering a massive market for their products through its massive fan base.

The club has to look at models of commercially successful clubs like Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester United who have made billions of revenue from their commercial potentials. These clubs have branded their training kits, match day jerseys, watches and all the ‘brandable’ aspects of the club taking advantage of their standing in the game.

Gor can also follow suit by having a sponsor for its training kits, match day jerseys and carry their sponsors name on its jersey. Manchester United has DHL a carrier company branding its training kits, Adidas as their shirt/jersey manufacturer and Chevrolet as the shirt sponsor.

Lawyer Ambrose Rachier has done well at the helm of the club but K’Ogalo with its current squad can challenge in the continent and that should be the vision envisaged by the executive. For this to be a reality, the clubs needs stability in all aspects of its operations by exhausting all the commercial avenues the club possesses.

END

WHO WILL BAIL OUT KENYAN FOOTBALL?

WHO WILL BAIL OUT KENYAN FOOTBALL?

By Collins Ogolla

@gentlenique

Gor Mahia are the Dstv Super Cup champions, the curtain raiser to the league. That is what is up.

There has been a struggle as to who is mandated to run football in Kenya which culminated into FIFA consultants visiting Kenya and holding a meeting with both KPL and FKF officials to solve the impasse. Among the recommendations of the consultative meeting was that the league in Kenya be comprised of 16 teams and that FIFA will support its affiliate federation only if it is doing the right thing(s).

Despite all these both FKF and KPL have stood their ground and have gone as far as releasing their separate fixtures with FKF factoring in 18 clubs while KPL maintaining 16 clubs. FIFA president has called for a quick solution to this stand off or else Kenya face international ban. This makes me and the entire football community fret. It has been a steady rise for football in Kenya in the recent years that the news of a ban is not what most fans and genuine football stakeholders will not want to hear.

Football in Kenya was for a very long time in comatose until KPL emerged. They managed to rope in Supersport to televise the games and local radio stations followed suit in popularizing the local game to football fans who had fallen out of love with the local game preferring European football instead. Together they managed to bring back the fervor once witnessed in the heydays of Kenyan football domination with fans trooping back to the stadia in numbers.

It has been a herculean task which has taken the sweat out of most football stakeholders to bring back Kenya into the football map. The hitherto popular Tusker Premier League has managed to export its products every year with the exposure occasioned by live transmission of matches as a major factor. David Owino, Teddy Akumu, Francis Kahata, Paul Were, Allan Wanga, Peter Opiyo, Clifton Miheso have been some of the most notable beneficiaries of the professionalization of football in Kenya of late. We have also managed to attract footballers from far and wide countries with Uganda being the outright beneficiary.

We have come a long way to throw our hard earned efforts into oblivion and start all over again. Sobriety, voice of reason and love for the game should take precedence to solve this stalemate. Many souls depend on football in Kenya and if we attract a ban then thousands of people ploughing their livelihood through football are going to suffer.

Why don’t we borrow a leaf from other football associations who are doing well in the running of their games? Bundesliga stands out in this respect. They are in the top three leagues in Europe and have huge commercial revenue but still they have maintained a lean league of only 16 clubs. Our Southern counterparts, South Africa also boost a total of 16 teams despite their relatively huge commercial income. English premier league have just signed a humongous TV rights deal in the tune of 5 billion pounds but there is no talks of expanding the league because of this revenue windfall.

It begs the question, is money the only thing that determines successful management of football? Obviously not. There are very many factors that come in no matter how negligible they may be.

 If the visit of FIFA president Sepp Blatter comes to fruition, I sincerely hope that it comes with the blessing of sorting this mess we are staring at.

MULTIMEDIA UNIVERSITY ON THE BRINK

MULTIMEDIA UNIVERSITY: IS IT WORTH THE PAIN? A STUDENT’S VIEW

By Gentle Nique (0722 396028)

Multimedia University is on strike and students have been given fifteen minutes to clear from their premises is what hit me as I headed for school this morning.

De ja vu? Exactly. It is barely two years since I joined the school and I have already experienced two strikes.

The first strike happened in June and the news got me in the same way as this one. I was away minding a very important business in Kenyatta University when on my way back to school I heard touts and passengers talking about Multimedia University students having gone on strike.

The first strike was occasioned by a draconian policy borne from poor management. The policy of paying 100% fees on the first day in school did not pass the test of logic. Students wondered what the school was up to with most being self sponsored who pay fees to the tune of Kshs. 85, 000. Even in leading universities like University of Nairobi and Kenyatta University this is not the case. Students are given at least a month to clear their balance.

Students tried to reason with the management to reconsider their stance but all fell on deaf ears. The students staring into bleak future after exhausting dialogue were left with no option but to call on the use of force. This was the only way the dictatorial management was going to give reasoning a chance.

The management buckled at the pressure and introduced a new policy where students are not allowed to sit for examination without clearing their fees balance. Despite this policy, students were still hunted from lecture halls and sent home more often than not. You were left to wonder whether you made a mistake of enrolling in another secondary school after completing your four years in high school.

Fast forward, the state of management has not improved. In fact it has deteriorated to its nadir. Some administrators are arrogant while some have ‘I do not care’ attitude. Service delivery is at its lowest point. Lecturers are rarely in class, pavilion is pathetically run with students shoving every time to access meals, the state of ablutions in the hostels is terrible and internet connection is wanting despite students paying huge levies for the same.

In the first strike all students were forced to pay for the damages even when most of them were not in school then. This left many students bitter and parents disillusioned.  Despite the charges not any development happened in the school with only noticeable change being some administrators growing their ‘vitambis’.

This time round it was because of electricity which was being repaired by the school not being put back in place on time as promised. It was callous for the first year students to strike but this was because of stored up anger over incompetent and arrogant management and lastly because of inefficient service delivery.

I do not, in any way, support strikes but even if a saint was to school at this university, he will be left with no choice but to go on the rampage.

For how long do you expect students to stomach such inefficiency and apparent lack of interest in their welfare when only what the management is concerned with is money which is never invested in their welfare after being collected?

The Ministry of Education through the Cabinet Secretary needs to move swiftly and conduct an audit on this school before push turns into shove.

No wonder students have coined a name for the university from its acronym M.M.U: Money Minded University.

SMILE FOR ME AFRICA

SMILE FOR ME AFRICA

Born and bred in this land so expanse,
Through the hardships and bliss I grew,
But never have I thought so good another place,
So smile for me Africa; you are my motherland.

Those in the oblivion call you the dark continent,
Tell them how scorching sun we experience daily,
And do not forget about the fierce fireflies at night,

Just smile for me Africa; they are missing out.

All kinds of wildlife roaming everywhere,
Waterfalls and the magical wild beast migration.
And have I mentioned our culture of compassion?
Just smile for me Africa you are definitely divine.

Look at that towering monument from afar,
A symbol of peace and epitome of forgiveness
that is our son Nelson Mandela, an enigma of unity.
Just smile for me Africa; do we need to say more?