Ebola Outbreak - Handshake Scare !

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni on Friday advised Ugandans to desist from handshakes,embraces,long greetings and other methods of close contact through which the virulent Ebola strain virus could be spread.

The death of 23 suspected ebola cases including four medics and infection of over 104 individuals according to Ugandan Health Ministry spokesman Mr. Paul Kabwa has certainly sent the East African countries in a panic -scare mode.The Democratic Republic of Congo has closed its borders with Uganda due to the high reported ebola incidences in Bundibugyo district which borders the country.On the other hand Kenya and Rwanda are screening all visitors entering their countries from Uganda(there is a high probbilty that even those screening the people are ill equiped and trained thereby exposing themselves to the risk of infection).Kenya is especially apprehensive since 2 fishermen died in Masaka ,another two people in Kampala and one in Mbale,area's which closely border the country.Futhermore there are individuals under observation in nearby Kasese in Uganda.

The question however which still crops up is are our medical personnel in Busia District border point sufficiently trained and endowed to detect ,prevent the spread,quarantine and control the spread of the disease ? The Atlanta Based Centre for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) has setup a lab in conjunction with the Ugandan Government inorder to moniter and control the spread of the disease in Uganda and it is highly expected that any person infected in Kenya will be transfered to Kenyatta National Hospital which is one of the few hospitals in the region that can efectively handle Ebola cases.

Being an election year Kenya definitely does not need a Health crisis adding up to the Mount Elgon and Kuresoi skirmishes which are giving the incumbent President a campaign scare.More so coming hot on the heals after the former Health Minister Hon.Charity Ngilu defected to the Raila led ODM opposition camp.The Incumbent Health minister Hon.Paul Sang is hardly over a month in the seat and must be primarily concerned about his re-election bid especially coming from a predominantly opposition zone.

On the other hand due to the tenacity,ferrociousness and virulent nature of the Ebola virus,the disease normally kills its victims fast enough such as to prevent further spread;what can possibly be called the "burn out effect ! ".We in the region hope that the disease subsides soon and does not turn out to be an epidemic.Otherwise we might just end up with handshakes ,kisses,embraces outlawed!

Tuskys-Business Without Ethics?

This morning i take a swipe at Kenya's second largest multi-million shillings(dollar) supermarket chain (and all those businesses in Africa exemplified by this organization)Tuskys Supermarket(formelly Tusker Mattresses).They simply lack the ethics ,custom, appreciation... etc to prize and value the most important aspect of their business-their human resource!

I was irritated and visibly angered as i listened to Caroline Mutoko on Kiss 100 relate the experience of one of the supermarkets married female employees called "x" in Kisumu who has to work from 8 a.m to 10.p.m ,7 days a week,28 days a month as a shop steward that she hardly has time for her family.She is only eligible for 2 days off in a month and I'm certain the pay must be meagre! Fellow bloggers please take this challenge to expose practices that are not only harmful but exploitative!The onus is upon you.I'm very certain that Tusky's supermarket has a HR department that simply needs to be changed as it is a non starter and non performer!
Accor Hotels 3-Day Super Sale Asia Pacific There has to be a limit to the number of hours an employee should work and i believe though I'm not an HR Guru that retail businesses in Africa should especially introduce flexible working hours and shift system so as to cater for its employees!They should further put a ceiling on overtime hours. For a certain how a business treats its employees tells us of how much you value us as customers.Honestly i also believe that the other supermarket chains such as Ukwala similarly, do not have any due regard for their employees.It stands to reason that an employee who has no time for family and works long hours with little pay and scant motivation will 99% of the time vent his frustration on customers thereby affecting their perfomance.That is contrary to the marketing mix which stipulates "the customer is king" .

I as a customer would rather spend my hard earned coin to shop at an institution that values its employees and strategically motivates them rather than at a venture where the Directors shamelessly turn all profit to expansion and their own personal benefit and disregard the human element.Such kinds of attitude are replicated through many Businesses in Kenya ,Uganda, Tanzania and Africa in General and with no discrimination intended especially in Indian owned or managed firms.The classic case of Kenya's retail giant Uchumi Supermarkets seems not to educate the management of various African establishments that despite massive capital if you do not motivate your employees in various ways the net result is pilferage among other ills and the business faults.

A close scrutiny of various companies in Africa reveals that the HR departments are merely administrative units, put there as a fashion statement to indicate that the business is modernized! but having no real output in terms of efficiently managing, motivating and enhancing the productivity of employees in a professional manner.

There seems to be a large lacunae in our employment and labor laws ,first and foremost to necessitate that businesses plough back a portion of their profits to employee benefits(many governments provide tax incentives for businesses that adopt this approach),to provide clear guideliness on staff dismisal,benefits and redundancies,to legislate against discriminative tendencies(both on account of race and sex) in businesses and to compel businesses to abide by established laws.The absence of such policy frameworks has largely contributed to the dismal performance of African economies and the huge disparities in wealth income and poverty levels.
No Government can do well without sufficiently addressing the labor issues and this narrows down to business entities also.

At the same time in Kenya the Institute of Personnel Management which is the professional body for HR practitioners is so weak in formulating policies that can translate into laws to cater for employees and or to ensure that HR administrators by and large stick to the professional ethics and persuade business to operate by certain ethics.There is need for public sensitization on this issue.I am yet to see them advertise of a seminar or a luncheon in that regard and their website is not useful(trust me i subscribed to their newsletter two years ago and have not received a single issue to date)Businesses that give lip service to catering for personnel interests are not worth any investors interest!Kudos to Nakumatt at least they exhibit some sense of direction just that for a big establishment like that i would expect Mr .M.Omondi their HR manager to be sitting on the board of Directors(at least as the 1st African-Nakumatt we are watching!).HR department is crucial and key for any business and its strategic goals!



pss I'm Happy to note that after this post there has been a lot of change on how some of this chain stores treat their employees.Its the wise course to honor your employees and truth be told employers stand to benefit more!(this post was done in 2007 , i believe much has changed and consequently i will do a second post on the supermarket and not its hr policy, i foy would love to share some facts leave a comment!)