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MAL /25/18 FIRST WORD Marketing Africa limited P. O. Box 36481- 00200 Nairobi, Kenya Cell: +254 - 717 - 529 052 Email: [email protected] TANZANIA Marketing Africa limited Cell: +254 - 717 - 529 052 Email: [email protected] UGANDA Marketing Africa limited Cell: +254 - 717 - 529 052 Email: [email protected] MARKETING AFRICA TEAM William Kalombo, Mutua Mutua, Riapius Magoma ,Stephen Waweru, Harliet Njenga. EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS DESIGN & LAYOUT Mutua Mutua Herman Githinji Evans Majeni Diana Obath Boniface Ngahu Carolyne Gathuru Thrity Engineer-Mbuthia Timothy Oriedo Wasilwa Miriongi Nyamasi Irene Janet Sudi Dr. Maureen Owiti Kepha Nyanumba George Mbithi Pauline Mwatu Andrew Human Caroline Mwazi Senorine Wasike Josiah Kimanzi Isaac Ngatia Richard Wanjohi Faith Alai Enock Wandera Riapius Moenga Joseph Kimotho Denis Mbau Michael Nzule Marion Wakahe Jennifer Mwangangi Paul Mwirigi EKAR 83 Place, Kabarnet Road P. O. Box 25288 - 00100 | Nairobi, Tel: +254 - 20 - 200 0583, +254 - 711 - 409 860 / 735 - 497 627 Email: [email protected] Web: www.ekarcommunications.com Marketing Africa Magazine is published by Marketing Africa Limited. Views expressed in the articles and contributions are not neccessarily those of the publisher. The Publisher reserves all rights. Material may only be reproduced with prior arrangement and due acknowledgement to Marketing Africa Magazine MAL /18/17 FEEDBACK/ COMMENTS E: [email protected]: www.marketingafrica.co.ke 02 @MarketingAfrica MAL25/18 ISSUE Marketing Africa On Inclusion There are many things in Kenya that remain discordant even when the intentions are good because we seem as a nation to find it difficult to include all stakeholders in decision making. This is what has created the cartel mentality of those who eat in secret. This year, we, as a nation, breathed a collective sigh of relief when the famous handshake took place after a harrowing full year of political turmoil and brinkmanship that had threatened to tear the whole country apart and consign us into an abyss of violence. In their wisdom the two opposing principles deemed it fit to talk to each other privately and surprised the nation with a public announcement that peace was now ours. What they forgot is that in most cases how something is done is more important than what is done. They had two options that they ignored. They could have privately briefed their teams on what the two had agreed and especially the rationale for excluding them in the talks before making the announcement public. Alternatively they could have indicated to their trusted lieutenants that a political overture was about to happen and the rationale therewith and this would have removed the element of surprise for an event that could only be described as good for us. So we ended up with a political breakthrough with a PR disaster which then made the rapprochement seem like a personal rather than a national agenda. What is worse is that the beneficiaries of the handshake, which is all Kenyans, feel somehow betrayed. There are those that had mortgaged their political careers on ideological ideals that were now looking foolish and orphaned. Worse were those that lost their loved ones in the skirmishes which they believed were for a better Kenya. We would also like to believe that there was a good strategic reason that made Kenya decide to import Cuban doctors apart from the unintended result of providing wives to lonely MCA’s in Bungoma. After all there had been talk for a long time of importing them from India. That we have a chronic shortage of doctors is a reality that we live with and that has spawned a lucrative side hustle for many clinicians who operate as quack doctors and daily endanger the lives of Kenyans across the nation. Since the doctors did not just get up in Cuba and using a random GPS location landed in Kenya it seems odd and bad PR that part of the activities planned by their reception committee was a court room red carpet to determine whether they were in the country legally. This is another blatant evidence of our penchant for ignoring