A COVID Christmas

Another flight during COVID - the usual situation except that this time, after changing in Frankfurt I arrived at the new Berlin Airport, opened several years late, but finally opened a couple of months ago. I had decided to take the COVID test there instead of Frankfurt, to see what it would be like and thus be able to better plan for my pre-departure test 2 weeks later.  We'll I certainly saw something... whilst spending almost 5 hours standing outside in the freezing cold in, basically, a car park in a very long, socially distanced queue. Not pleasant at all, but eventually having also missed the connecting flight due to delays (de-icing airplanes), I eventually got to see the family.

Germany still allows close family members to come out of quarantine with a negative test, but the lock down in place in Germany was tight, and so, for what it matters, this would be my first time living in a real lock-down, only allowed to see 1 other household or something like that (which would be Andrea's parents) though Kids don't count so they could still see a friend. The Christmas week involved regular lunches and dinners at Andrea's parents house, regular walks in the forest with the dogs, regular runs, and managing the kids' time indoors between TV, Computer games, Board Games, playing with toys and some exercise. There was also a couple of BBQs outside with a single other family (and a bonfire to keep warm) with sausages and mulled wine of course.

We found a nice new playground the other side of town and convinced the kids to cycle there and back a few times, which was good exercise. We also convinced them to do a fairly long walk in the forest once too, which they enjoyed - making it interesting looking at various trees, rocks or sticks; climbing up the little towers in the fields that are there for farmers to look out for animals and so on. Having a friend along helped.

All of the outdoors activity took place in the freezing cold with temperatures around zero all week. One day there was snow whilst we were walking; every day there was frost on cars and ice on lakes. Actually there were frequently blue skies, much to the disappointment of the kids who wanted more snow (they might get it in the second week of January). But nothing that lots of clothes, hats, scarves and gloves cannot deal with. Certainly a change from Nairobi, especially the morning run! Another big change has been the short hours. The last three winters I had spent in Africa and thus forgotten what it is like when it gets dark at 4pm and light at 8am. 

The days are short, the nights are long and there is not a lot to do during these days. Still, nothing wrong with getting a lot of sleep! I suppose without COVID there could be more trips to shops, or like in October, more trips to bigger cities that would have things happening (especially Christmas markets). Germans are quite keen on Christmas decorations outside houses, especially with a Santa Claus climbing out of a window or on a ladder alongside the decorative lights.

There was a fun experience for Christmas Eve as the kids were ordered out of the house whilst Santa delivered the presents. They came back to initially find a sack of coal, and then inside to find the presents which were mostly toys (boats, cars etc) and chocolate, though a second tablet now means each child has their own for games and TV. Parents watched on as kids screamed in joy. Surprisingly most of the Kids' chocolate still hasn't been eaten yet a few days later. I suppose we've done a good job drilling into them that they can't eat too much. Even if the adults' chocolate has disappeared quicker!

Essential shops remain open with limits on numbers inside, but everything else is closed, so this seems to be the first time in a very long time to spend so much time not doing anything! There are not even many work calls or emails as everyone in Kenya is also on vacation. Usually Christmas or other holidays have actually involved holidays somewhere in Africa or Asia, or occasionally in the UK. We'll we're managing with some school work, computer games (some educational), TV (some educational), board games, art and exercise. Certainly we are very fortunate: We still have jobs, warm homes and family to be with. Though as I write this several family members in the UK have tested positive. Fingers crossed, and we will see how things go in the next few days.

What Kenyan business leaders think

Huawei is a member of KEPSA, which is a business association in Kenya, and thus I sit in a WhatsApp group of many Kenyan business leaders discussing issues and working out if there is anything KEPSA can do about them.

One of the most frequent topics that get discussed is leadership, especially in Parastatals, which is the name of the state-owned (fully or partly) companies or regulators, that play a critical part in the economy, especially in energy and transport but also in agriculture and many other parts of the economy. These organisations are frequently criticised for doing badly or being corrupt, though some of them are quite profitable because they are monopolies in a particular part of the economy. So no matter what new laws are passed, and apart from various corruption investigations which could stop the negative aspects, the only way for them to be more productive components of the economy is through leadership that develops and implements appropriate strategies and culture throughout the organisation.

Many of the business leaders prefer to work in private companies, as those Parastatals may have a lot of challenges (especially their culture being more public sector than private sector), relatively low pay, and, the biggest issue, frequent intervention by the government (who will sit on the Board of these organisations) or parliament (who provide oversight to the organisations). The leadership may be as management or as independent Board members, and better quality, more committed, more passionate leadership is sorely needed according to those in KEPSA (some of which are trying to resolve these issues by joining those organisations as board members or in management). And more such people are needed; they will need to make sacrifices and they won't enjoy the job or have an easy job, but they may be fulfilled, and may be satisfied with their contributions to the country if they succeed. It seems, anecdotally, that there is an improvement taking place, slowly. It also seems there are some "shortcuts" taking place - such as bringing multiple entities together under one super organisation that has good leadership, or even using the military to run some particularly poor performing organisations (often smaller, more discreet ones).

Another frequent issue is corruption. This is always a recurring issue coming up, usually from government procurement to companies who don't qualify, don't deliver, or over charge, but somehow still got the projects; or they got some other favours from the government, such as land, licenses etc. There are a lot of investigations underway, and the new prosecution teams set-up a couple of years ago seem to be making progress, but it takes time, and may not make a big difference, with corruption perceived to be endemic across organisations. Many issues involve politicians (some of whom have been thrown out of power in the last year or two, though few have yet been found guilty whilst cases continue), who are legally allowed to continue to have their private business interests whilst being in power (though most also have interests through family members or friends).

One of the ironies is that in order to be fair, many procurement processes end up either  excluding bidders through setting high bars or are too complicated for many bidders to win; so "tenderpreneurs" who are well connected, and experienced in bidding/winning these tenders win. Sometimes they will deliver, by outsourcing to others and just taking a cut. Other times there are larger issues.

Aside from these two issues frequently discussed in the WhatsApp group, there are various committees (which also have sub-committees) which work on engaging government on various issues. In general it is quite an effective forum for dialogue, though it can take time to get results in certain areas. Never-the-less, it is interesting being a part of it and seeing how these kinds of institutions enable collaboration within indisutries, dialogue and engagement, which are crucial. Kenya is quite a small country economically and leaders in business and government are quite accessible, information can be obtained and so these forums can be of real use. I imagine this would be very difficult in larger countries, those with larger and more diverse economies and so on.