Just going away for our summer leave and as I pay out salaries a little early, have been hit with the usual last minute loan requests.
I got my max possible daily cash allowance from the bank over the last two days and its not even enough! The two ladies who work in our house want more than 350 pounds each! Hands are shaking!
The tragedy is that its for clothes, food etc. for extended family up-country - hardly just to blow on crazy expenditure, parties, shoes...la la la.
My husband says 'set a limit and stick to it.'
I said, 'I feel like a bank....except more like one of those struggling ones in the US or the UK.....'
As usual it's the nagging feeling - Time to downsize or get a job!
The diary of a British expat living in Kenya. News, views, debate and a healthy dose of trivia.
Yikes!!
ReplyDeleteYou've got a bad case of 'white woman's burden'!
ReplyDeleteIf you were in the UK... and your staff were white... would you even entertain a cash advance? i don't think so!
This is a tough one. I cant support or condemn as i am always stuck in the same situation and always end up giving.
ReplyDeleteI think the fact that the people asking for loans hardly ever ask for themselves makes it more of a "she is willing to share the little she has" issue.
Ohh well, so long as the consience stays clean. Maybe ask your husband to do the givign next time, see how easy he finds turning them down.
Also you mention 'loan' does that mean they pay them back (taken off salary)?
You are an enabler. You allow it happen, and they know that they will always get their way. Sorry, but you brought this on yourself and just accept it for the rest of your time there. Why do you think that those domestic workers that work for ordinary Kenyans ( even for the rich ones) do not have this kind of behavior? It's because they know better.
ReplyDeleteAs someone said, it's the colour of your skin and the white woman/man's burden.
I agree! You really can say no. My mum never gives her house staff cash advances. The fact that they asked once and you gave it to them is what emboldens them - they expect you to cave in, and....you do. If you really must give, set a limit and stick to it.
ReplyDeleteWewe, kwani nini unapeana pesa ovyo ovyo bila ya mpango? You let people take advantage of you and later complain about Africa and helping everyone.Stop feeling guilty.If MPs ,who are elected,never feel the guilt taking more cash from the people ,then who are you to give a damn about other people?.kama pesa hazitoshi,tell them to find a better paying job somewhere else)
ReplyDeleteKipsang
How much does it cost in U.S. dollars to live in Kenya with wife and three kids, 9-15 years old?
ReplyDeleteThere is a saying, lend someone a hand...and they will take your whole arm.
ReplyDelete"How much does it cost in U.S. dollars to live in Kenya with wife and three kids, 9-15 years old?"
ReplyDeleteIt can cost anything you want it to cost.
20 dollars a month will get you a tastefully decorated kibera shack with a flying toilet as standard.
middleclass kenya gets by with about 1000 - 1500 dollars a month.
this would allow you a car, house in a middleclass estate schoolfees for the kids and the usual weekend trips.
Mzungu rates (sorry if offended) is atleast 2000 dollars a month
So you're to fund complete strangers?
ReplyDeleteThis time, say no.
You may inspire rather more respect.
1. Have past loans been re-paid? If so, how? That is a relevant part of the equation that we as readers of your blog do not know and as a result at least I do not know what to make of your dilemna.
ReplyDelete2. Is it practicable to set up a 'loan fund' whereby you discuss with them the possibility of setting aside, say, 10% of their wages (this might result in a pay rise) and then loans would be given out of this (their) fund only - and only once everyone has contributed a certain set level. Everyone should then have a joint interest in making this work properly and within limits. And perhaps, staff do not get back their contributions [less loan amount] when they leave employment (or only get a proportion back) as a cost of having this facility, i.e. the price you pay to have the loan fund facility. It would also have to be agreed at the very outset that if they are owing monies to the fund on leaving employment, the amount due would be docked off their final pay (which, therfore, should be the maximum amount borrowable).
Any surplus funds left at the end of your time in Kenya (unlikely) would be repaid back to the staff in proportion to their length of service/contributions.
There is a risk, of course, that naughty staff owing monies to the fund might chose to leave employment immediately after being paid their regular wage, but I think at the heart of this suggestion is to get the staff to have ownership of the idea and to make them disciplined about policing it. Perhaps you also say at the outset that if anyone absconds owing monies to their fund, (a) the fund is wound down immediately and (b) you will then never give out any more loans or manage another fund for them.
Your thoughts, and anyone else's comments?
They are reaping you off (sorry that's the truth I'm kenyan I know) - give them what you promised and set the payment schedule as agreed - they are doing it because you let them :( sorry
ReplyDeletehi! somehow came across your blog. i'm a single mom living in nairobi with my five-year-old daughter (we're from canada). i'm here for a year, living in kilimani, as a VSO volunteer. i'm a writer, and am looking for other families with children to connect with. if i'm not freaking you out yet, give me a ping on my blog: jocameronandkenya.wordpress.com
ReplyDeletecheers! Joanna
Thanks for all your comments on this one. Sorry for not coming back with a response sooner.
ReplyDeleteOne of the comments (above) proposed we set up a staff savings scheme.
1. To answer the first question
- yes, the loans are paid back by docking salaries each month. I have two problems with it - one is our own cash flow. There are times when we feel we might not always have £400 or £800 in the bank to hand out.
I find it particularly hard at Christmas time when we pay a 13th month salary (continuing a tradition that was set by our predecessors who had their company pay domestic staff salaries), thus settling outstanding debts and a nice bonus besides and then in January we are asked for more large loans for school fees.
We also have exorbitant school fees to pay in January and are generally feeling a bit skint too after the festive season.
The second problem is that invariably, when staff members are already indebted, other crises arise where a supplimentary loan is needed. i.e. Medical expenses for an extended family member, in the case of one lady, paying off a loan to an ex-boyfriend who was harrassing her, or paying for medical treatment/surgery for her teenage daughter who developed an unsightly keliod lump behind her ear from wearing pierced earrings. It just goes on and on.
In these cases, where there are already debts outstanding, I tend to contribute myself and not ask for that to be paid back.
We have given loans to nightwatchmen who are in various scrapes, but since we don't manage their salaries (they are outsourced employees) we basically never get this money back. We bought a bike for one guy, helped another whose daughter was ill, another with school fees etc etc etc
2. Possible solution. The suggestion (above) of taking 10% off the monthly salary is good, but at the end of the day I don't really want the burden of managing other people's savings schemes. There are new small scale banking solutions such as Mpesa and Zap. Small scale banking has come along way.
In order to get to the point where saving is possible, We need to reach a point where each member of staff is not in debt. Since when one debt is paid, another is immediately taken I need to think of a way out.
What I would quite like to do, when we are feeling rich enough, is end our staff's current contracts thus paying each one a lump sum of terminal benefits due after what is now 5 to 7 years of service - for us this would add up to thousands of pounds. (however, my husband fears this will cause panic, our predecessors gardener was most put out when they paid him off and left employment in a huff saying they were 'getting rid' of him).
With this now sizeable lump of money, outstanding debts with us could be paid and remaining money (which would be substantial) could be paid into a Sacco or small/micro finance savings/personal account for each staff member to manage themselves - thus relieving ourselves of the burden of acting as a bank.
Your possible solution sounds interesting and I also get the impression that you do not feel you're being taken for a ride, as suggested by various comments posted. However, I wonder if you'd have a bit of a job ensuring that the lump sums would all be used for paying off debts/ensuring that all the debts are valid.
ReplyDeleteThanks for getting back and I like the new look of your blog. Also, relieved that old posts have not disappeared.
N.B. I used to follow other Kenya blogs, but when people change their blog addresses/platforms which require visitors to do something, I tend to stop following them: too much hassle...
;)