Readers comment on coverage of events

A banquet for auctioneers

It is quite in bad taste for the Nation to hold a banquet for auctioneers. The group may have brought business to NMG, but many Kenyans who have lost their property, I can imagine, were not amused. Perhaps, the event could have gone muted. We shouldn’t celebrate death (of business).

— 0711****04

Clifford Machoka, NMG Head of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs, responds: “Auctioneers perform an important public function and are legitimate businesses.

The Auctioneers Act allows them to attach property in execution of a court order and sell such property by auction, seize someone’s property to obtain payment of money owed such as rent, carry out evictions and repossess goods pursuant to the provisions of any written law or contract.

Auctioneers are licensed and supervised by the Auctioneers Licensing Board, which is chaired by a person qualified to be a judge and appointed by the Chief Justice.

Licensed auctioneers — about 400 of them — are officers of the court. They facilitate the running and administration of justice.

PARTNERSHIPS

The NMG has rolled out an elaborate solution to address the needs of different enterprises through its newly launched service unit, Enterprise Business Centre (EBC).

Part of the key goals of EBC is to engage with various partners and advertisers while we seek to appreciate their challenges and support areas.

The NMG is keen to appreciate challenges of every SME and seek to offer competitive solutions to all partners, [and] auctioneers belong to this category.

It’s in this context that the cocktail for auctioneers was held. The Nation has hosted various sectors of advertisers in different capacities and will continue to host clients as we seek to listen to our advertisers for better services and strengthened partnership in the future.”

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NTV, give us the other ‘Sidebar’

I’m writing in connection with NTV’s “Sidebar” aired on May 7, featuring Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko. I deliberately waited this long to write as I hoped for a reaction from the persons Sonko incriminated.

Sonko accused several people in connection with the alleged bribing by a county finance officer to obtain a good audit report by the Auditor-General.

He named a Mr Musau, a finance officer, a Mr Oyoo and a Ms Janet in the county accounts department as the people responsible for orchestrating the alleged bribery scheme.

But to date these people have not come forward to confirm or deny the allegations.

Sonko even claimed to have video evidence recorded at Re-insurance Plaza, where a part of the bribe exchanged hands. He promised to leave a copy of clip with NTV. “Sidebar”/NTV has not disclosed if it has the video.

NTV is responsible for doing a follow-up and getting the other side of the story from the implicated persons. It’s a matter of national interest. Kenyans are dying to know if, indeed, Sonko was telling the truth.

— Allan Kipchirchir, Eldoret

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Which story do we believe?

Reading the lead story, “Education: Pupils face tutor crisis” (Daily Nation, May 30, 2019), one gets the impression that the education system has collapsed.

But in the advertising feature in the same paper (“TVET & The Big 4 Agenda”, pages 54-57), the professionals in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) talk of a well-structured programme where it’s all systems go.

I don’t understand why your correspondents never talked to the officers. Which story do we believe? The lead story on page one or the feature?

— Githaiga Kairu

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Chinese in Gikomba

I watched the cringey introduction to the discussion on “Chinese in Gikomba” by Debarl Inea in “AM Live” show on June 10. The introduction was tasteless and racist. He should have done it in a better way.

— Dr Bashir Ahmed

Public Editor: let the reader be the judge.

This is what host Debarl Inea said in his introduction: “Do you know the Chinese are here? And they may also be hired as nannies for you, right? Soon you will be having a Ching-Chong teaching your children Mandarin in your houses as well; because, look, they are here and they have the bales of clothes, you know, the imported clothes.

“This is mitumba, and you can see this is — they don’t give his name, but maybe we can give him a moniker, Chinwa-Hu. Chinwa-Hu is seen here and, of course, you can see the bales of clothes as well.

So, these people will soon be selling also mahindi choma (roasted maize). They might also be in butcheries, yeah, around you, to sell also your meat as well.

This is the Chinese invasion. The Chinese in Gikomba, where traders selling imported clothes and imported kitchenware feel the heat as Chinese traders open shop.

So, since we have these foreigners here and threatening also our small traders as well, what is the remit of the legislators as well, because now it seems the Chinese are everywhere importing fish, importing toothpicks and now also they might be coming to our houses to take care of our children?”

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