@Fantony...where are u at. Have you really been in rwanda or its what you hv been hearing on the strts. I will be brief in my short investment in rwanda
Transport..The main guy is former army big boy who nobody points with a finger. Second is the govt bus company of which its managed by the same class of guys. Normal mwananchi cant think of putting his car there without the approval. One guy tried and brought a fleet of buses supposed to go kla-kgl-bj only for the buses to be in magerwa (RRA Warehouse) for 3 months. He comfortably closed the shop
Hotel.. Kenyans hv really been in this but to date I just cant think of the turnover and broken dreams....Ask carwash
Property.. This is one place kenyans have perfected the art. All architects i came across were from kenya doing brisk bsns and still most of them are there but i dont know why most of them are married to rwandese girls (Landing rights. Big investors here DN international an american company owned by some nyumba ya mumbi guys doing fine though i understand last here there had some shit but they came thro. Anyway 90% controlled by Real ontractors (Try find out who coughs out there and u will never set foot in the land of 1000 hills).
DIASPORA.. As said by one analyst before around 2M guys out there but am worried after they were given land to build since 2006 at a prime estate the land is still empty from wikimapia image of last month
Guys the list is endless and i have tried not to list the broken dreams of many guys who did alot to develop rwanda including some guys i hear produced the masterplan (Kenyans) only to be chased away when it was 95% complete and told they were unable to deliver. understandably this guy had invested 3.5m usd only to leave when he was owed over 3Billion Rw Francs ...do the calcs.
My biggest fear is when the Iron man will walk away, who will hold the center. am sure it will be revenge after revenge but my prayer is that they dont go ivory/liberia and the rest way

@fantony

1) Why should the West worry about Rwanda when Uganda, DRC/Zaire, Tanzania, Zambia did nothing?

2)The benevolent dictator is a Confucian concept. It may not be perfect but since 1945, many S.E. Asian countries have seen HUGE gains. The so-called Asian Tigers.

Fantomy, on point esp concerning the DEMOCRAZY 'winner takes it all' thing. I however disagree on Kenyans duplicating ideas....thats a pointer to the shrewdness, sharpness and alertness of kenyans, moving with cracking speed to exploit a "confirmed" opportunity. Mark you, thats why most western businesses n products are already here with us! KENYANS' "business-seeking radar" runs nonstop, enhancing a highly competitive entrepreneurship. Isnt that cool?

@ Fantomy et al,

Quite some interesting political discussion. I can read the passion in your statements. Now we need the action points.

@ Kingfisher,

I'm not too sure it's fair to rate Kibaki until we see what the next president can do. This is because Kibaki took over when we were at our lowest... so all you needed was to do nothing and things and would improve. Freedom of expression came with Multi-partyism and not with Kibaki. For those who were old enough to follow policics in 1991 Kibaki was still with Moi saying, "Those fighting for multi-partyism were like one trying to cut a mugumo tree with a razor."

Just thought to point out that misinformer...

On another note, Othaya and Gatanga which consituency is performing better? And who has more resources at his disposal, Baks or Peter Kenneth... I rest my case on Kibaki's development and political freedom record

TechSavvy Posted: Tuesday, April 26, 2011 12:01:02 PM

@ Fantomy et al,

Quite some interesting political discussion. I can read the passion in your statements. Now we need the action points.

@ Kingfisher,

I'm not too sure it's fair to rate Kibaki until we see what the next president can do. This is because Kibaki took over when we were at our lowest... so all you needed was to do nothing and things and would improve. Freedom of expression came with Multi-partyism and not with Kibaki. For those who were old enough to follow policics in 1991 Kibaki was still with Moi saying, "Those fighting for multi-partyism were like one trying to cut a mugumo tree with a razor."

Just thought to point out that misinformer...

On another note, Othaya and Gatanga which consituency is performing better? And who has more resources at his disposal, Baks or Peter Kenneth... I rest my case on Kibaki's development and political freedom record

@Techsavvy you are either grossly ignorant, of below average basic analytical skills, an egghead or you scored below D+ if you even made it to high school.

I am afraid you may be all of that.

Here's why:
1. Kenya is the 10th largest economy in Africa (GDP/ppp terms). The larger 9 are blessed with mineral resources and oil as the bedrock of their economies. Kenya is purely sweat economy. The current leadership has provided enabling environment particularly infrastructure, monetary policy, rule of law etc. Certainly not by 'doing nothing', stupid. We have problems such as corruption (driven by masses, not as state policy) unemployment (because many of us are generally lazy and want 'free' employment money; or our idea of 'quality', 'value addition', 'service' are still in neanderthal stages. Lets work to overcome such weaknesses, not shooting ignorance off the hip.

2. That mugumo tree and razor is a tired anecdote cited by eggheads. If you were old enough to know the horror that was one party system, you would have agreed with that comment. But whoever said it did not say that cutting whatever tree with whatever was impossible. We did not have the freedom that we have today, 10 years into multipartysm. It takes a leader. silly.

3. Gatanga and Othaya: Have you been to any of those areas? What measure of 'performing better' did you apply? Both constituencies are not any different from everywhere else in Kenya. There are rich people and poor people, good roads and bad roads. An MP does not make industrious people lazy, or vice versa. All we ask from them is proper enabling environment. Both of those places have about the same measure of such environment, but different in other natural factors such as topography, production factors and access to markets.

Having said that, Kenya with its warts and people like techsavy is 1000 times a better and upward mobile economy that all other EAC combined. I have done business in all of them - I know what am talking about.

fyi...

An entrepreneurship program empowering rwandese women run by the university of chicago

I thought defamation laws are present all over the world, in the states, uk, hapa kenya, tz and other countries if you insult the president you can get jail time.

Also, defamation includes insult but insult may or may not include defamation