Still Proud to be Kenyan.

I am here today because I needed to email somebody, but I feel I have to say more about the predicament that led me to send that email in the first place.

I am an honest man. I do lie to people. I have lied to people before, but decided that telling the truth was better for all parties involved, and I have been clean since. But the virtue of telling the truth especially in Kenya is becoming virtually nonexistant.

When I was in campus, less than a year ago, we were told in AIESEC that , “if its not on paper, it does not exist.” That meant that for all the marketing calls we did, it was imperative that those we talked to signed whatever we had agreed on. People no longer trusted the word of mouth. A gentleman’s agreement no longer has a place in Kenya because there are few gentlemen here today.

I had more trust in people until I got burned in a crucial transaction for a project that I ran then.Important to mention that it was a lady on the other end of the transaction, meaning the ladies are in on it too.

If you have been visiting this blog for a while, you probably know that I am learning, albeit slowly, how to be a gentleman. And Kaasa is cheering me on. I have already mastered opening doors for ladies, pulling their chairs, sorting the bills, mutual respect, courtesy etc. And my biggest achievement to date has been keeping my word.

I will agree that I have heard problems with the timing, but thats all. Even if I might be late, or the timing may not be right, I will keep my word in the end. It means a lot to me that I do that.

But the problem comes in when I expect others to do the same, as was the case today. I have been through hell trying to buy the HP12C calculator for my CFA exams. Eventually, though late in the game, I got two possible ways of buying the calc. I chose the bird at hand.

A lecturer at one of the Universities here said that he could get me the HP12C calculator since they imported them in bulk. I was elated. I sent my brother to go pick it up for me and the guy had a calc, but that was not what I had ordered. They actually never stock it  to begin with.

And to make matters worse, he says that “HP12C is too difficult to use and that the one he had was better.” Difficult for who? Was that his choice to make or mine? He eventually claimed that I had not specifically said which calc I wanted. Mind you, I never asked for a calc, I asked for the HP12C Platinum calculator. Isn’t that clear enough?

He took my KES 8500 because I had no choice for its too late to import one.

If only I had made this guy sign something, I would sue his ass – if we were in a different country to begin with.

Honesty. Was it so difficult for this man to say from the onset that they did not stock what I wanted but had another one that I might be interested in?

Is it too much to ask for the simple truth? I can handle it.