The Case of Mutahi Ngunyi Kenyan Election Polls — Pythia, the high priestess at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi answered questions about the future to people all over Greece and beyond. Themistocles, an Athenian general, received a prediction of doom on the impending invasion by King Xerxes of Persia. …

Everyone Loses Talent to a Higher Bidder — Why Do We Work? There’s an old adage among Generation X university graduates in Kenya that you planned your career around Kenya Airways, Barclays Bank and East African Breweries (EABL). A first job at the brewer would lead to a mid-management role at the bank, and senior retirement job at the airline — or…

There’s overwhelming debate on the interwebs on why colonels lead coups, especially in Africa — Lieutenant Colonel Mamady Doumbouya's seizure of power in Guinea by dethroning President Alpha Conde brought to fore the conversation. Notable examples are Colonel Salou Djibo of Niger, Colonel Assimi Goita of Mali, and Colonel Muammar…

Tanzania is a country of music lovers as well as the home of the cheapest mobile data bundles in Africa. These two facts have been attributed as the main reason for the popularity of Tanzanian music on YouTube. To understand the correlation between the cost of mobile data bundles and…

Originally published in October 2017 The City of Nairobi has 1,695 restaurants — compared to major cities in the world, Nairobi is underserved by restaurants (see chart below). Disparities in per capita income which stands at $1,081 in Nairobi and $54,373 in New York City explain the difference in the…

Originally published in April 2017 Let’s play a game — the game goes, where would you place the location pin for the next Java outlet in Nairobi? The restaurant chain has been on a rapid expansion in the past two years and there are no signs of stopping the momentum…

Error Detecting Code on Safaricom Scratch Cards — Exactly 10 years ago, I wrote an article on “Breaking Safaricom Scratch Card Code”. In the article, subtracting the sixth digit from the third always yielded one. This meant you derive the sixth digit by simply subtracting one from the third digit. Breaking Safaricom Scratch Card Code In 2011, Safaricom Ltd extended the scratch card code from 12 digits to 16 to increase the computational time…blackorwa.medium.com

Update 1: Popotepay reached out and promised to resolve the payment in three days. Update 2: Popotepay has completed the transactions and I received my money in full on Thursday 15th May at 12:49 pm — one day ahead of the promised resolution date. Today marks two weeks since I…

The hidden risk of investments — The Stage is Set On 14th March 2018, a Financial Advisor from Cytonn Investments reached out to me on LinkedIn and pitched a high-yield investment product known as Cytonn Project Notes (CPN). The product offered 20 per cent interest per annum for a minimum of KES 1 million investment locked in for 3 years…