Like father like daughter

Guest post by Samuel G. Njenga

It’s been a long break for Mwalimu. Well, he could not help it; he had to deliver this massive project. He only hopes that his students are all well and have indeed practiced a lot of his teachings. That lot must have graduated by now so Mwalimu is hoping to find another set of students and together we shall learn. Going forward, Mwalimu will cover a myriad of topics in no specific order.

During my break, I had so many encounters and will share a few with you. Mwalimu is a proud father of 2 kids, a daughter and a son. One evening after a long and busy day, I happen to find my 5 year old daughter neatly cutting and placing some small pieces of papers in a file. She looked at me and smiled, as if expecting me to reprimand her. When I asked her what she was doing, she quickly answered; “Baba, can’t you see am arranging my plots so that I sell them to my classmates?” Then she continued even before I answered; “Hata mimi niko na ploti zangu kama zile zako” It caught me by surprise but you can imagine how proud I was. This daughter of mine is very observant. She has seen me neatly file documents and she is well aware what daddy does for a living. Soon I will be going with her to the field and hopefully she will understand the ropes of real estate and take care of the small empire am attempting to build.

One things us Africans never do is teach our kids business. Take and keen look at Wahindis and how they are keen to integrate their kids into the running of their businesses. To them succession planning starts in the early developmental years of their kids. We ought to borrow a leaf from them.

This reminds me of a real life story I was given by some broker based in Kiganjo. And by the way they were bringing down buildings in Kiganjo yesterday. Interestingly, those of us who had an interest in Kiganjo were well aware that one side of Kiganjo always had issues; woe unto those who never carry out proper due diligence. Back to the story by the broker. This fellow in his mid-fifties is not that straight, you see he preys on absentee land owners. He even claims to be from the lineage of Cain (remember the fellow who killed his brother in the Bible). On one particular plot in a prime location near Thika he was interested in grabbing, he dropped a twenty feet container on the site and waited for a few days to see if anyone raised an eyebrow. After two months no one did, so he set up a shop inside the container and thereafter embarked on a mission to manufacture documents for the plot. And now he illegally owns the plot. While smiling from ear to ear, he proclaimed that the owner of the said plot is most likely six feet under and his next of kin are not aware that he ever owned the plot. So sad that you may own properties and the people who matter to you are not aware that you even own them. Once you become past tense trust Njuguna to be your heir in waiting.

In the next post, I will tell you about the master welder who could not run a welding workshop.