KQ troubles should worry us all

Sorry, the Amavubi lost. But getting to the finals was good enough so well done boys. With that, you can be major contenders for CHAN, especially as hosts. The Twitter hash-tag ‘#WhatWouldMagufuliDo’ has refused to go away, it has spent another week trending, to the possible annoyance of anti-climate change campaigners in Paris with hopes of drawing world attention to the alarming levels of global warming. Talking about twitter trend setters, I gather Siyanda-Panda, the twenty year old lady who created the ‘WhatIfAfricaWasABar’ hash-tag, is in our own Kigali city. What was Rwanda’s role in the hypothetical bar, again? Anyway, Siyanda, I gather, is here to attend the Continental Youth Consultation happening as part of this week’s 4th high level dialogue on democracy, human rights and governance in Africa.” The Dialogue is organized by the African Union in collaboration with the government of Rwanda which earlier this week was ranked the continent’s most efficient administration by Africa on the rise magazine. In the race for excellence, there is no finish line so I expect the top rank to only spur Rwandan leaders to achieve even greater things in the years to come. Regarding our Tanzanian neigbours, I think they are in safe hands and we should let them enjoy the political honeymoon with their new leader. The region has far more pressing issues to worry about such as the ongoing crisis in Burundi which seems to be getting worse by the day with no solution on the horizon. Also, there’s Uganda’s upcoming general election: Early this week, a two-time presidential candidate who is also a leader of a major political party was barred from being nominated to stand for a parliamentary seat because he didn’t have a national identity card. But the gentleman has a national voter’s card. The incident will certainly be brought back when the loser in the polls slated for February next year, petitions the courts alleging that the exercise wasn’t free or fair. Away from the region’s political brouhaha, we should all be worried by the seemingly worsening financial crisis bedeviling Kenya Airways. The news this week that the troubled national carrier was unable to pay salaries of its employees left me worried as I rushed to the airport Sunday morning for a flight to Mombasa where I had a meeting the next day. It’s depressing to know that the guy flying you fifty thousand feet in the skies is troubled. The last time I ranted about KQ, I suggested a merger of the region’s various national carriers to create a more robust firm. The feedback I got from some of you suggested this would never work as it would be akin to consolidating weaknesses rather than strengths. True, apart from Rwanda and Kenya, the other EAC countries have no national carriers to talk about. So what can save Kenya Airways? It’s important that the firm doesn’t fail. Yet at the moment, it is struggling with capacity issues. Terminal One, which handles domestic flights at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, was a scene of chaos Sunday afternoon when Flight KQ-610, which should have left for Mombasa at 4:15pm, it was announced, would instead leave after 7pm, due to capacity issues. Several other flights were delayed. It was my first experience in Kenya’s domestic flights terminal and shortly after the announcement was made, I witnessed fury as angry Kenyans surrounded the young airline official, almost lynching him. Of course it wasn’t his fault. I was on the same flight. And thinking about the delay and inconvenience, I wished I had traveled to Mombasa by donkey! The last thing Kenya wants is to cultivate the impression that its national carrier is stressed, unreliable and its staff unmotivated. The idea that KQ is cash strapped casts the safety of its flights in doubt. Fortunately, I was relieved to notice that some of KQ’s flight crew members are still capable of humour in spite of their woes and the air hostesses on the flight from Mombasa to Nairobi, Tuesday morning could still serve with a smile. As we landed at Jomo Kenyatta from Mombasa, the flight announcer treated us to gentle humour when he remarked; ‘Ladies and gentlemen, we have just landed on the same run-way President Obama and Pope Francis landed and we shall probably park in the same spot.’ “However, I regret to announce that there are no dancers to receive us,” he signed out, leaving his passengers in laughter. I tweeted about the incident and the KQ handle attendant responded, assuring me that ‘the comfort of our guests is top priority.’ That’s a good thing to know. But we should also pray that the welfare of the KQ employees is quickly addressed to ensure their own comfort and motivation to entertain passengers.

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KQ troubles should worry us all