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Two images that “went viral” in Kenya’s media this past week are at the center of this piece. Both images featured the founder and CEO of the social media behemoth Facebook Mark Zuckerberg and Kenya’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Cabinet Secretary Joseph Mucheru.
In one picture, the two men are standing side-by-side. Zuckerberg is dressed in his standard “uniform”: A charcoal hoodie over the customary grey round-neck tee shirt, blue jeans and Nike trainers. CS Mucheru for his part is attired in a rather staid dark suit, white shirt, a patterned pink tie and black slip-ons.
The contrast in the disposition of the two men is as stark as their bank accounts.
The second image, again featuring the two men but now joined by an unidentified man and woman, shows Mark and Joe at the popular eatery Mama Oliech’s in Nairobi. The quartet are each seen partaking in a plate of
ugali (corn meal + water then cooked to a firm dough), whole fried tilapia (ngege in local parlance), some collard greens (sukuma wiki) and a concoction that looks like kachumbari (think salsa but with some cilantro and lemon/lime juice).
Referring to the latter image, the billionaire fifty times over is quoted saying that he “ate at MAMA Oliech Restaurant -- a local place everyone recommended. One of my favorite parts of traveling to a new country is trying the food. I enjoyed ugali and a whole fried tilapia for the first time and loved them both.”
The Palo Alto, CA resident and co-chair of the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative also provided the Kenyan tourism sector with more publicity than they could ever muster when he toured Lake Naivasha and shared images of the beguiling locale and its inhabitants with his over 45million FB followers not to mention the ones on Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat.
Finally, in stopping by iHub, a self-described “open space for technologists, investors, tech companies and hackers in Nairobi”, Mark shone the spotlight on Kenya’s germinating “Silicon Savanna”.
Juxtaposing the life of the obscenely moneyed Mark Zuckerberg alongside the lives of the obscenely moneyed Kenyans only served to underscore the disservice the latter have done to a country with untold yet untapped potential.
In my book “WUODHA: My Journey from Kenya to these United States”, I write about the “unpretentious man in cargo shorts, a plain tee shirt and sandals….standing in line at the local Starbucks (who could be) a
millionaire or billionaire….” Incidentally, I later found out that the “man in cargo shorts” was in fact one of Silicon Valley’s pioneers; a man who is now one of the region’s blue chip angel investors.
I also write that Mark Zuckerberg and many other household names are famous “not because they fleeced the public coffers…..but because they had an idea, the discipline and singular-focus that led to the creation of products and services known and wanted throughout the world” including the now-on-life-support Yahoo, Google, LinkedIn, PayPal, Oracle etc.
In Zuckerberg’s comportment during his trip, most Kenyans saw first-hand, the simple and approachable mien of most successful Silicon Valley-type that I write about; that folks at Cool Café in Menlo Park and other popular
eateries downtown Palo Alto regularly bear witness to. I would offer that the Facebook CEO’s presentation speaks to a person who is comfortable and confident in himself in spite of his global luminance.
There IS something liberating and unencumbering knowing that what you have, no matter how spare or ostentatious, has been attained, not because of patronage, nepotism, corruption or the largesse of some secretive “supporter”, “blesser” or benefactor, but because of your personal vision and hard work.
I would also argue that it is the knowledge that they owe their success to no one that allows the likes of Zuckerberg, Jobs (RIP), Bill Gates, Sergy Brin, Larry Page, and many other successful, unknown and genuine entrepreneurs, moguls and industrialist to walk around comfortable in their hoodie, tee shirt, jeans and sneakers even as they chow down on kuon, sukuma and ngege – sans fork and knife - with an aplomb and dexterity that make the claim by some native born that “they don’t know how to eat tilapia” seem silly.
By Washington Osiro | marloow@yahoo.com