BY STAR REPORTER

PRESIDENT Kibaki has appointed his private sec-retary and long term ally Prof Nick Wanjohi as the chairman of the state run engineering !rm Numerical Machining Complex.

Through a Gazette Notice, Kibaki said Prof Wanjohi, who works from the President’s Harambee House, will serve as chair-man of the !rm for three years effective 16 Novem-ber.

Wanjohi is a former Vice Chancellor for Jomo Keny-

atta University of Agricul-ture and Technology and is taunted as a key Kibaki strategist even before the President ascended to his

of!ce in 2002.Numerical Machining

Complex, which took over the operations of the defunct Nyayo Motor Corporation,

was formed for the purposes of manufacturing motor vehicles, vehicle spare parts and metal-based engineering products.

Kibaki also appointed Joseph Kahindi to be chair-man of the Kenya Ferry Services for a period of 3 years. Other appointments include that of Emma Kiilu as chairperson of the En-ergy Regulatory Commis-sion for a 4 year term.

Kibaki also appointed Jamleck Japhet Miano Mutugi as chairman of the Kenya Animal Generic Resource Centre.

BY WINFRED KAGWE

KENYA Airways is in a fresh row with the Aviation and Allied Workers Union over accusations of trying to undermine its activities after the union issued a new strike threat.

The airline management has allegedly threatened dis-ciplinary action against indi-vidual employees and union of!cials for activities and statements made while they were serving in the union.

The company has written to the national chairperson, Perpetua Mponjiwa and two other of!cials, Jackson Akenga and Ruth Kioko accusing them of making false allegations against the management and company

directors, which it says were also in"ammatory, defama-tory and insulting .

The three received indi-vidual letters on November 25 from the in-"ight per-formance manager Nicholas Korir asking them “to show cause why disciplinary ac-tion should not be taken against them for failing to comply with their terms of service, staff rules and griev-ance handling procedures”.

The union says this is an underhand tactic being used by KQ to ignore the real grievances by the workers.

“This union is getting con-cerned in the manner you want to gag its activities,” said Bonne Barasa, AAWU general secretary in a No-vember 26 letter to KQ chief

executive of!cer that was copied to ministers of labour and transport, Central Or-ganisation of Trade Union secretary general and Fed-eration of Kenya Employers.

“If you are aggrieved by the activities of this union, you can seek redress through a court of law, rather than adopting underhand deals,” it read in part.

A panel hearing that was supposed to see the three of!cials defend themselves was scheduled on Friday but postponed at the last minute to Today noon.

“Consequently, we are urging you not to discipline of!cials of this union when they are discharging their lawful activities as provided under the law,” said the

AAWU letter.The workers union on No-

vember 18 issued a strike no-tice on grounds the company has disregarded a Collective Bargain Agreement made on working hours. It claimed employees were being made to work more than the 12 hours agreed and those who refused to put in the hours had been dismissed.

They also raised questions on the company’s decision to establish a low cost sub-sidiary, JamboJet Limited, to operate most African desti-nations which they fear will lead to job losses for the ex-isting KQ employees .

But the company said this allegation is untrue adding that expansion is not part of the recognition agreement.

36 LOCAL THE STAR Monday, December 5, 2011

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STARPORTFOLIO

ONCE upon a time, a listed company rolled out some banners, provided some tuck for the media and then pushed out its results. Investors might read the results in the daily paper and some commentary. In some instances, the commentary has pretty much stayed the same for every year I have been in Nairobi, which is 5 years. Many years ago, there was just one TV station, the Voice of Kenya. We were all recipients, we were not participants. So pushing the story was the only way.

Today, we have an entirely flat world. We have an entirely new information landscape. Its real time. We have an infinite number of voices out there.

For example, I put out an admittedly quirky daily podcast [Reuters kindly made their Reuters insider platform available to me and my podcast can reach 3 million Reuters subscribers] which you are welcome to sample via my site http://www.rich.co.ke. I have a supreme conviction that the world is now flat, flat as a pancake.

Five years ago, I had to wait for someone to take my opinion. As you can see, today I do not. My audience is all over the world. Twice this year, #Mindspeak [my business club] was the biggest trending topic Africawide, which was an extraordinary and thrilling outcome. The point I am making is that the world has changed and it has changed big time.

What I am noticing is that there has been an epiphany amongst our premier

league CEOs. Bob Collymore (Safaricom), Seni Adetu (East African Breweries) and Martin Oduor-Otieno (Kenya Commercial Bank) have a deep understanding of this new trajectory. You will find that they are all engaged in this new landscape.

They are engaged in trying to shape the perception of their brands. You should follow them on Twitter. They are seeking to assert ownership, to gain mindshare on a continuous basis. This is not the same as taking out a few adverts on CNN, which by the way probably has the poorest return on equity, I can think of.

The US military’s mantra is FSD. It means Full Spectrum Dominance. Now I do not think you can possibly achieve that as a corporate but you need to be aware of the nature of the new c21st spectrums and frequencies. You need to be continuously surveilling, you need to amplify your champions, you need to diminish the voices of your detractors. You need to be shaping the landscape around uou, on a continuous basis.

I have been speaking about the corporate scene but the same applies to Brand Kenya. What does our brand look like? Can it be re-invented? Or does it remain resolutely stuck in the c20th? Has the ICT mobile money revolution been branded? Does it afford an opportunity for us to re-brand ourselves? What mark would you give to those efforts? How much money has been spent?

Shares go up and down and readers are advised that this column represents Mr Satchu’s personal opinions.

MINDSHARE AND INVESTOR RELATIONS

GO-SLOW: A section of Kenya Airways cabin crew during one of the recent strikes.

LOYAL: Nick Wanjohi (bending) welcomes Kibaki at a past event.