Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Bureaucratic Bureaucrats

If you thought that the government offices in Kenya got bureaucracy, then you probably haven’t tried our brothers in the pearl of Africa. These guys give bureaucracy and red-tape a whole new meaning. The true bureaucratic bureaucrats. Like one coasterian used to state, “Ham’toshi mboga”. I managed to make a trip over there past weekend to pick my certificate….was all excited. Had missed the place, some of my friends but had only a few days to go and come back since I now got obligations in the form of work.
The trip was lovely ‘d say. 12hrs by bus and loving every hour of it – well, apart from the Meru mama who was my seatmate. She had a million and one Qns that seemed never to come to an end. My mama taught me never to speak to strangers – I have no idea what her mama taught her. It was irritating since to begin with she was not allocated that sit. She just moved to that spot since it was empty and she had been allocated a sit at the back end…wish she had sat there and go all that journey being jotted up and down each time the bus runs over a pebble. Maybe, just maybe she’d get the wits to stop talking to strangers *mean* tihihi
I got to Uganda the next day, went over to a pals place for a shower and freshening up b4 hitting campus to begin the process. I got to my former Alma Marta
and went to the faculty to get my financial statement – it’s the 1st step towards getting ones certificate. So I approach this lady woman to ask for my financial statement and she tells me the system is down. Felt my plans coming down as a house of cards. On my way out, I decide not to go back to my pals but try the accounts office and see if that will bare any luck. I get there and they tell me to go back to my faculty and pick the document from there. I being the polite guy I am I tell him in the most calm and polite manner
“I’ve been there and I was Informed that the system is down.”
“The system is not down. Your faculty is the one that hosts the system and if I can access it, so can they.” He said
At that moment the picture of that woman’s fat face dressed in red outfit passed thru my mind like a slideshow. A smile escaped my lips. I set forth back to my faculty and decide to try a different person other than the woman. A guy was my pick and he tells me to go back to Senate building
to room 615 and tell them to upgrade the record 1st then get the financial statement. I obliged, but when I got to the office, they told me to go back to my faculty and pick it from there. I felt like screaming at some1, anyone. I wished I had a pillow to bite on and scream, but sadly I had none. Had no option but to go back. This office was now getting on my last nerve….felt like I was in an episode of Day Break – each time I think I’ve made a step forward am taken back to the start. The guy was busy typing something and told us to wait. It was taking a while so I decided to try lady #3. She exchanged words with the devil in red and smiled. I’ve been in that land for 5yrs so u bet I picked a few words here and there. From the little I could gather, the ‘Devil’ told her that she had told me the system is down but seems I don’t believe her…#3 laughed then told me to wait and see if she can access the system. I took a site Minutes later after she moved the mouse up and down without clicking anything, she turns to me and says
“The system is down.”
I could have gone all psycho on them, but that would have been a waste of a good reaction to stupidity. The chick is so blond that she could not actually note that from where I was sitting, I have a full view of her monitor and I could see that the only screen that was open was the Nero window. And people still wonder why my blood and that of our Uganda brethren is like water and oil. I stay put till the guy finished and he called me. Told him am from Senate and they’ve said I pick the document as it is. He prints it for me but not missing to complain bout how Senate thinks they have a lot of papers to waste. I picked my document, back to 615, it was signed and I was told to deliver it to room 501. It was almost lunch and the officers requested we go for lunch then come back later. I called a pal in who I was to hook up with, went for lunch then got back like at 2pm. I finally got my document

No comments:

Post a Comment