Swahili for "it has refused". Something that is
commonly heard on building sites in Kenya. Basically the person who says this
is trying to tell you that an inanimate object (brick, cement, basin, pipe
whatever) is responsible for the situation you are facing. Now I'm all for free
will, but when it comes to inanimate objects making choices, well....
Admission of responsibility seems in many cases to be a
fairly alien concept in Kenya. I have found that there is often a sad habit of pushing blame onto just
about anyone or anything; more so than anywhere else I have lived. This is quite against my personal belief that
responsibility for problems is normally a shared thing. No one person is fully
responsible for a problem, and if you find yourself stuck in a mess you should
probably acknowledge a bit of responsibility for it - even if it's only a small
part.
Last week has been spent dealing with various issues of
responsibility. While the majority of my guys (most notably my main contractor)
have been good, I had also previously encountered a couple of cases of responsibility dodging.
One of the more amusing ones was where the guys came to lay the kitchen granite
but only brought one grinding piece with them to smooth about 20 linear meters
of very dense rock. Unsurprisingly enough it broke halfway through, and so they
came to inform me that "this piece has let us down" so they would
have to come back the next day with a new one. That was pretty minor though
compared to the responsibility dodging of the last week.
Last Wednesday the guy buying the trees came to me to inform
me that he's making a loss and he won't be able to make the final payment of
the last installment. Now given this was a flat sales agreement with no
performance related clause, and he proposed the sales figure of his own free
will, I told him he would have to pay. Thankfully the sale is backed up by a
signed agreement that reads like a short European Union legal document
(implementing regulation!), and the threat of legal action should take care of
that one. While he's enumerated all his problems at length in an attempt to get
me to let him off the hook, there has been very little admission of
responsibility from his side for his poor result, and yet a wish for someone
else (me) to pay for it.
Then on Thursday it seemed like the nightmare of the solar
installation was coming to an end. They had delivered the tank and solar tubes
on Monday. How many tubes out of 24 do you think made it in one piece? Whatever
number you have in mind, divide it by two and you might be close. Seven arrived
in one piece. Out of twenty four. The solar installers were meant to come on
Thursday to do the installation along with a replacement 17 tubes. So came the
call, and the inevitable price negotiation which it is fair to say did not go
particularly well. The guy I've been dealing with is a weasel of a man, and
halfway through our negotiation, hung up and turned off his phone. Only when I
called him back on the other line five minutes later did I discover he'd sent
the installation guys out for delivery only as he deemed that him hanging up
meant that we could not agree a price. And claimed he didn't hang up but that
the battery died (yet didn't bother to call me back). Plus added that I should
be charged for delivery as they are making so many trips. To which I politely
told him where to place his delivery charge.
Then throughout the last three weeks I've been fighting with
minor finishing issues. Leaking basins, inadequate water pressure to take a
shower, gaps around windows etc. Mistakes happen, yet there is a lack of will
to correct them in many cases, as if the mistake was not the person's fault.
The plumber has been back about ten times to fix those basins, is complaining
these trips are expensive, yet we still have four leaks. The window gaps are
being dealt with, albiet grudgingly.
So where does my responsibility lie in all of this? I have
to shoulder some of it. For the trees, I effectively performed a closed auction
and took the highest bid. All bidders knew this was what was happening. So
there was always a fair chance that the winner would end up with winner's curse. And in view of that, I
should have been stricter on the timing of payments to avoid this situation.
For the solar, I should have walked away and dealt with someone else. Though
that is easier said than done given there are only three companies in Kenya
doing reasonable quality solar water heaters; the others are hard to get to; and
having already made a small payment for the survey I wanted to get it back
(good money after bad). For the finishing, it's a harsh reminder that you have
to be checking all the time. Both issues I had identified and talked to the
contractors in question about. But talking once or twice is not enough in every
case. You have to keep checking and checking, and if it's not being done right,
keep reminding.
On the bright side, at least I'll learn some lessons for
the case I ever do this again....
