Imekataa

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....