KTN’s Betty Kyalo has come out guns blazing over Saturday Nation’s controversial columnist Njoki Chege’s continued jabs on Subaru car owners. Here’s the response she put up on her Facebook wall:

“There are some people … hahaha… who am I kidding, just one person who has decided to use their space to misinform and insult people based on what I can only imagine as their own insecurities. Usually I don’t care, but there has been a constant vilification (that’s criticism for you) of Subaru owners and especially BLUE SUBARUS … which is utterly juvenile… so indulge me for a second.

Motoring aficionados like myself appreciate a good vehicle, more so a championship winning one like Subaru. As a young child many years ago, my bedroom wall was cluttered with newspaper cuttings of Patrick Njiru’s BAT sponsored Subaru literally jumping off a deep rut at full throttle.

This image is still vivid today some 20 years later. As a child I asked myself what made a Subaru A Subaru: is it the loud ear splitting exhaust note or the deep engine warble of the EJ20TT flat four with 16 valves? These questions became my focus for many years until I became well aware of what makes the Subaru brand achieve such love and (undeserved, infantile and always ignorant) hatred at the same time.

The founding fathers at Subaru wanted to be different from the Toyotas and Nissan’s that had already made a name for themselves in Japan and beyond. With extensive knowledge from the aviation industry, Fuji Heavy industries (Subaru’s parent company) decided to power their vehicles with the aircraft derived ‘boxer’ engine coupled with its symmetrical drive train layout.

Get it? … Good! Three world championships later and Subaru became a success story. The 555 Impreza with the blue and yellow livery, massive rear spoiler, ear deafening exhaust with gold Enkei rims became synonymous with every 12 year old in the 1990’s.

Back to reality all the boys and girls (oh yes… we love them too) who loved Subaru are grown now, with the ability to buy that Subaru that made them feel like super heroes. So when you see a fast and loud Subaru zoom past you (if you are able to), remember that that’s a man or a woman living a childhood dream. Yes sometimes these ‘boys’ get carried away with these fast machines but always remember when you are in your tiny hatchback, don’t hate but appreciate.

The thrill derived from driving a turbo-charged Subaru is second to none, that handling precision of its dual inverted struts, 300 Horse Power + 2000cc EJ20TT engine and symmetrical all wheel drive with driver controlled central differential unit all in one package is a heavenly feeling that your hatchback will never at any time achieve.

Word to the ignorant, you cannot judge a person by the car he/she drives… but seeing as you already have, you have inaccurately labeled the Subaru driver a ‘boy’. But you know or maybe you don’t… Boys don’t handle heavy machinery like the Subie and only boys care for such ludicrous opinions. Peace!”

The Standard: There are very few media accounts of the glitzy ensemble that was singer Gloria Muliro and Eric Omba’s wedding on that sunny day at the PCEA Guest House in Nairobi West. Hardly a year had lapsed on that day in April, 2010, since the two had met and started dating, yet here they were, happily making their wedding vows before a crowd of witnesses; family members and close friends. At the time no one would imagine that the glamour, song and dance of the happily-married-thereafter scenario would shrivel away into the sunset and usher in a nightmare that has been the pair’s five-year affair, which culminated with them going their separate ways on November 29, last year.
That morning, after the two had lived together under one roof, but slept in different rooms and eaten from different pots, Eric gathered a few belongings among them their matrimonial mattress, utensils and a television set and, without bidding goodbye, drove off never to come back again.

Motionless, Gloria watched him walk out of her life. Ironically, this was something he had dared her to do from the first year of their marriage.
A few days later, Gloria left the residence, fearing for the worst after what she describes as a marriage marked with death threats. She had lived a double life; ever smiling singer by day, troubled spouse by night. “I was trying to hide it all to protect my husband as a servant of God till I could stand it no more,” she explains. It is a story webbed around claims of marital infidelity and mistrust, abuse and violence. Its tentacles net individuals within Spotlight, the couple’s recording stable, their church Omba Ministries based in Kayole and a chain of small enterprises and alliances.

True to form, the protagonists of this betrayal and backstabbing are young girls and women who always referred to the couple as ‘mum and dad’. Wedding night Fury and untold anguish is painted on Gloria’s face as she narrates how a man she loved betrayed her trust. Her calm demeanour belies a union that was rocked by the issue of child birth, probably painting a clear picture as to what could have been the core issue in this break up.

Half-heartedly, Gloria Muliro laughs about it. “Let me say that my first shock was on our wedding night. After the wedding ceremony was over and we were left at PCEA Guest House where we were to spend the night, I went to the bathroom to shower only to come back and find Eric opening the gift envelopes, removing the cash and throwing the envelopes in the bin then stashing the money in his pockets. I wondered if this is what one does on the night of their wedding,” Gloria recollects, tears dripping from her eyes as her friend Shenel calms her down.

Another family friend Humphrey looks on. The otherwise comfortable Java Coffee house couch feels a bit uncomfortable as emotions start to overwhelm her in the rather busy spot.

“In the first month, cracks had already developed in our marriage as he kept on accusing me of all manner of things and never gave me time to talk. He even wrote down a set of rules that I must follow. In that first month, he sent me over to a friend’s place saying she would teach me how to cook and keep good hygiene only to discover that I was being turned into a house girl. He went back to our house and expressed delight at how he was happy at home without me. In the first year, he packed my clothes and asked to escort me away. He had gotten violent over time and he offered no space for communication and dialogue,” the ‘Sitolia’ hit maker claims. This was no longer the cool and collected, loving and protective man Gloria had met at the New Hope Church on August 9, 2009 just after a bad breakup that had come after a courtship of four years. He said he was in love and was ready to settle. She wanted time to heal.
“Don’t let your bad past hold back your good future,” insisted the Congolese national who has lived here for about ten years.

Gloria Muliro agreed with him and soon the two became an item. Quickly, they moved to a new church in Kayole whose original name was Logos Assembly, a ministry associated with Gloria Clay, an international gospel minister said to have a personal relationship with Eric Omba, now the key minister at Omba Ministries. According to Gloria, Eric then started managing Gloria’s music career and consequently started dictating how it would be handled, after the two opened a joint account where all the performance and music sales cash would go.
Extra-marital affairs

Even as her fans celebrated her achievements, which were supposed to turn her into a young millionaire, silence, sorrow and loneliness rocked her heart, not to mention financial constraints as she had little, if any, access to the cash realized from her hard work. In our possession are copies of bank receipts amounting to over one million shillings drawn from the couple’s bank account, for the purchase of land in Rongai. We also have in our possession, copies of documents issued by the Kajiado County Physical Planning Department that have Omba Miko Eric and Rachael Ongama, a senior member in Omba Ministries, as the joint applicants.

This is the same piece of land Gloria Muliro and Eric have been visiting, and instructing an architect to draw up a maisonette plan for. We have also obtained copies of the plan. According to Gloria, the money to buy the land came from the Sh4 million (or thereabouts) she made during the nationwide Safaricom tour, last year. “I discovered that there were issues between Eric and Gloria in November 2013 when I joined Spotlight as a video producer but I also noticed that he was a good pretender. Mum (Gloria Muliro) would sometimes come to the studio crying and we knew he was harassing her or something. In front of everyone, he would order her around like a small baby.

Clearly, this was not a happy marriage,” claims Cobby Joe, a Spotlight Productions staff members who left the stable on November 24 last year, following numerous disagreements with Eric. “He would bring young girls to the studio in the name of clients but for days they would not record a song as they were not given studio time. You could see that they were there on a different agenda and constantly I would rebuke him, warning him that the girls would soon spoil his name. But this just got me into trouble,” Joe, who has since started his own stable told Pulse on Tuesday, a week into our probe.

“One of them was an upcoming artiste called Esther Maina, one was called Sly and the other, Trizzah. I knew Eric was having a thing with them behind Gloria’s back,” Joe remarks, confirming Gloria’s fears. African culture “I always knew he was cheating on me and friends would always come around with reports but I always shut them out. I did not want outsiders, but God, to show me the truth. In fact, besides my family and one bishop, no one else knew the hell I was going through,” says Gloria.

“I always knew he was cheating on me and friends would always come around with reports but I always shut them out. I did not want outsiders, but God, to show me the truth. In fact, besides my family and one bishop, no one else knew the hell I was going through,” says Gloria.

But Eric denies ever cheating on Gloria Muliro, least of all with Sly and Esther whom he termed as girls who regarded the couple as their parents. “We have had issues just like any couple has but that has to be kept within family boundaries. I have never left our matrimonial home and you can come over and find out for yourself. In African culture, a man is never allowed to leave his home. If she is really my wife she can’t afford to say that,” Pastor Eric defends himself.

“All the misunderstandings in the family should be solved through dialogue and not violence and that is what I would insist on. If there is a separation issue here, I can’t really talk about that as that is not me. I love her and she is the only woman I know so how can I talk of separation,” he says. But when asked if Gloria Muliro was still living in the same house with him and if the two are on talking terms, Eric remains cagey, noting that he can’t speak on her behalf. “I moved out of the house three weeks after he left as I was feeling strange there and feared anything could happen to me, and he even came over when I was moving out. It is not strange that he went back so as to make it look like I am the one who had moved out,” Gloria answers.

According to Eric, Gloria Muliro is the one wrote the cheque for the land they were buying. “That is true. The land is supposed to be in my name and hers but that did not happen for some reason and she is aware of that. But still, all our property belongs to her and I,” Eric maintains as he goes ahead to deny that he mismanaged Gloria’s music career and remained secretive on the amount he was raising from the shows as her manager, a position he also denies he occupied.

According to Joe, Esther who had a Kikuyu song produced at the Gloria-Eric owned Spotlight production house, became very close to Eric and even ended up working at Spotlight Cyber Café, a Rongai cyber and M-Pesa agency that had previously been run by Trizzah, the girl Joe argues, Eric had a one-month affair with. Sly (also known as Sly Rochelle William on Facebook) used to be in a dance group called Alter Queens, who used to minister with Gloria at her concerts before she was signed up by Eric under Spotlight. “The closeness between Sly and Eric knew no boundaries. Whenever they were together, he never used to behave like a married man. She went ahead to tell other girls that she had never seen a man as handsome as Eric and that she knew he did not love me.

I came to find out that they were having an affair, just like he was with other girls. He would tell me that openly through provoking messages that he would post on Facebook and Twitter,” Gloria Muliro recounts, something that Eric claims was just him being ‘social’.
“When I noticed that my wife was not happy with Sly, I went ahead to terminate her contract at Spotlight,” he claims. More love, more problems Even then, Gloria Muliro claims that this was only meant to keep the affair out of the studio. She claims that Tumi of Ghetto Radio, who is also a former Alter Queens dancer, has all the details.

“I love passi (Pastor Eric) as a dad. He is an honest guy,” Sly told Pulse narrating how she got recruited into Spotlight Production. But a few minutes into the interview, she pulls back and gets cold after she notices the direction the story is taking.

“Did you know that Eric and Gloria were not on good terms?” I ask. “I know they have issues, that I have heard,” she responds. And we go on: “Is it true Gloria asked a friend to speak to your dad, Mr Edward, on your alleged relationship with her husband?” “Yes, it is true. But even then, I tried to reach out to Gloria but she would not listen. The story that reached my dad was that Eric was in love with me and had already paid dowry and that hurt me,” she confirms, adding that since then, Eric has terminated her recording contract at Spotlight.

She and her parents left his church. Sly goes ahead to admit that she and Eric met in Machakos sometime last year, the alleged getaway spot where the man of the cloth is said to have hosted some of his unamed girls. “Yes, we met there but it’s not something that had been planned as I did not know he would be there. I had gone to check out a school there when we met,” she says. Gloria claims that she is aware that Eric was the one who had proposed to take Sly to Machakos Medical Teachers Collage (MMTC) at the time.

I found this story from Napoleon Hill’s ‘Think And Grow Rich’ so compelling, I just had to share! Even if you’ve heard it before, it bears repeating – powerful lessons packed therein!

One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat. Every person is guilty of this mistake at one time or another. An uncle of R. U. Darby was caught by the “gold fever” in the gold-rush days, and went west to dig and grow rich. He had never heard that more gold has been mined from the brains of men than has ever been taken from the earth. He staked a claim and went to work with pick and shovel.

After weeks of labor, he was rewarded by the discovery of the shining ore. He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. Quietly, he covered up the mine, retraced his footsteps to his home in Williamsburg, Maryland, told his relatives and a few neighbors of the “strike.” They got together money for the needed machinery, and had it shipped. The uncle and Darby went back to work the mine.

The first car of ore was mined, and shipped to a smelter. The returns proved they had one of the richest mines in Colorado! A few more cars of that ore would clear the debts. Then would come the big killing in profits.

Down went the drills! Up went the hopes of Darby and Uncle! Then something happened. The vein of gold ore disappeared! They had come to the end of the rainbow, and the pot of gold was no longer there. They drilled on, desperately trying to pick up the vein again-all to no avail.

Finally, they decided to quit.

They sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars, and took the train back home. The junk man called in a mining engineer to look at the mine and do a little calculating. The engineer advised that the project had failed, because the owners were not familiar with “fault lines.” His calculations showed that the vein would be found just three feet from where the Darbys had stopped drilling! That is exactly where it was found!

The junk man took millions of dollars in ore from the mine, because he knew enough to seek expert counsel before giving up.

Long afterward, Mr. Darby recouped his loss many times over, when he made the discovery that desire can be transmuted into gold. The discovery came after he went into the business of selling life insurance.

Remembering that he lost a huge fortune because he stopped three feet from gold, Darby profited by the experience in his chosen work, by the simple method of saying to himself, “I stopped three feet from gold, but I never stop because men say `no’ when I ask them to buy insurance.”

Darby became one of a small group of men who sell over a million dollars in life insurance annually. He owed his “stickability” to the lesson he learned from his “quitability” in the gold mining business.

Before success comes in any man’s life, he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat, and, perhaps, some failure. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to quit. That is exactly what the majority of men do.

More than five hundred of the most successful men (the USA) has ever known, told the author their greatest success came just one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken them. Failure is a trickster with a keen sense of irony and cunning. It takes great delight in tripping one when success is almost within reach.

Are you currently facing a temporary setback? Are you tempted to quit? Remember, you could be three feet – possibly even inches – away from your breakthrough. Before giving up, what expert counsel do you need to seek?

Article contributed by Joyce Kaduki an astute leadership coach/trainer and a John Maxwell Certified Coach, Trainer and Speaker.

View her profile here: http://directory.biznakenya.com/listing/john-maxwell-certified-coach-trainer-speaker/

Basco paints the most admired and preferred paint company in East Africa providing expert solutions and inspiration through innovative value added products and services, is looking to fill in the following positions.

Please email your CV with references and a cover letter indicating the position you are applying for to [email protected]  no later than 5 February, 2015.

Only short listed candidates will be contacted for an interview

Accountants

• Should be ACCA qualified
• Have a minimum of 3 years experience in the same field
• Should be a Kenyan citizen
• Be computer literate

Account Clerk

• Should be CPA or ACCA II qualified
• Have a minimum of 3 years experience
• Should be a Kenyan citizen

Customer Service Reps

• Aged 25-40 years old
• Be computer literate
• Possess good written and spoken English
• Should be a Kenyan citizen
• Preference to be given to female applicants

Sales Executive

• Dynamic ,self-motivated and market oriented
• Have a minimum of 3 years experience
• Posses good written and spoken English
• Be able to think out of the box
• Posses a clean , valid driving license
• Should be a Kenyan citizen

Administration Officers

• Be computer literate
• Posses good written and spoken English
• Should be a Kenyan citizen
• Have a minimum of 3 years experience

Store Supervisors

• Be computer literate
• Posses good English and Kiswahili skills
• Should be a Kenyan citizen

Rome wasn’t built in a day, but turning it into ashes, well, one day is plenty of time. So is the case for a start-up. Building one is not for the light hearted, it requires dedication from all stakeholders be it the founders, investors, employees and 3rd parties.

Destroying it on the other hand is mere child play. It’s as simple as breathing in oxygen.

Check out the fatal mistakes that can befall start-ups, as illustrated by an infographic provided by the entrepreneur.

Here are four key tips from Forbes that could get your start-up on the path to success.

1). Turn Fear into Power

We live in an intense and ever-changing era. Markets have crashed. Jobs have disappeared. Industries have been disrupted and are being remade.

But if you’re an entrepreneur, to a large extent your destiny is in your own hands.

And in the new economy you can achieve financial independence on your own terms. You have the power to be as successful, perhaps even wealthy, as you want to be. This is a key insight for any entrepreneur, and a driving force in my own life. Owning my destiny, particularly my financial destiny, is scary at times — but it’s also empowering.

2). Invest in your Brand and Reputation

If you’re a new startup or small business it can be difficult to see why you should invest in your brand and reputation. It’s expensive and time-consuming. You’re not trying to battle with the big brands — yet. But what about the future? You must keep your eye on that future because, ultimately, reputation is everything in business. Your brand is the shorthand way people think about you.

Yes, you’ll have to miss dance recitals and soccer games. Yes, you’ll lose out on a social life. But if you don’t pay attention to the details — customer service, how you are perceived by the outside world, how your company’s image is perceived — you won’t be successful. Why? Because business success comes from returning customers.

3). Don’t be a perfectionist.

We always teach our kids not to be afraid to fail and to pick themselves up and try again. They can’t know all the answers before they start learning, and neither can you. So listen to your own advice. Later on, once you’re established, indulge your perfectionism in your product and customer service. But in the beginning, it’s cheaper and better to try, then try again and again until you get the product right. Nailing your niche usually takes a few attempts.

4). Take a risk and just do it.

And also love it. The word “passion” is sometimes overused in business, but when it comes to entrepreneurship, it’s a necessity. You must be passionate about what you build because you will spend most of your time working. That’s the reality of starting and owning a business. It’s also the joy.

Millions of people have listened to Steve Jobs’ 2005 commencement speech at Stanford, and for good reason. He nailed the passion issue: “You’ve got to find what you love… Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” And that’s the most important advice to you: Do it. Love it. Don’t settle for less.

I came across an article while reading the Huffingtonpost that’s funny and yet so true. So I decided to repost it on Bizna and see if you all share the same sentiments.

There are two distinct types of men in this world: single men (team fisi) and those who are coupled up.

That’s how comedy site ScrollDroll sums up all of dude-kind, anyway, in a poster series illustrating the key differences between the two groups.

One major difference? The judgement calls they make on facial hair:

Another? The number of friend requests they accept from random women they only vaguely remember from college:

call summary is such a give away 

how you spend valentines day

when going out

the upside of being single

not sure about this