@VVS, agreed. Your comment on value reminds me of when Sunny Bindra recently wrote about a CEO who used the fact that a competitor had come into the country to scare the living daylights out of his team.

Only he knew competitor was weak, but he used the 'crisis' to shake up status quo and pull them up by their bootstraps. International companies do the same when local companies expect blind patriotism.

@Muganda

I agree in part to Prof. Porter's assertions. The biashara's you are referring to involve players from the 10 millionaires club; Porter's model applies to the 10 million beggars.



90% of us MME's (Micro & Miniscule Enterprises) are left to fight over the scraps from the big boys' table! The only government interference we encounter is the budget (consequences of which are duly passed on to the hapless consumer) or local government.

Any OTHER government interference is duly decimated by price wars, something we River Road types are experts at (remember Posta Corporations pathetic attempt at the Cyber Cafe market? Boy, was that a cropper!).

@Muganda.

Hapo umenena mzee. I agree...in part.

Kenya's Jua Kali should be a discipline in itself. In the face of Nyayo-nomics/Kibaki-nomics, this sector thrived initially with zero regulation/ assistance during Nyargei's nightmarish regime...and with enough red tape/ taxation during Kibaki's sleepy reign.

South Africans, Nigerians and other foreigners have come, set up shop and left in shock as mama mbogas, exhibitions and 2-bit print shops continue to mushroom in downtown Nairobi to this day.

Bottom line? This one-man-show outfits respond more to market forces than government regulation, and, often times, do not mature beyond sole proprietorship. One should note too that tertiary education in this sector is worth crap - street smarts, dexterity and creativity rule; I should know...I learned this the hard way!

When all's said and done, I DO agree with you (in general) that the six-forces law applies because the informal sector experienced its sweetest years during Kibaki's first term, thanks to policies that boosted micro-finance AND goodies that trickled down from the big kahunas.