Thus Spaketh Idd Salim

Salim Hatupendi

Well, we have all seen it. Kenyans love that word. Beef. Greet someone on Twitter and the fail to respond and some loser will post something like ‘#tweef’ or ‘#tweefAlert’. Whistle-blowers for something with no need for an alarm. People so sad, they wish everyone was as sad as them so as to feel important.

I say something in 2009 about the way the OLD but, now beloved, Safaricom was treating developers and giving access [like USSD etc] to only a few and ‘Salim has Beef with Safaricom’. Beef, Beef, Beef.

Is this the case of people talking about things they cannot afford? Beef?

Wait, Now IddSalim is beefing about these people with beef with him. Beef. Right?

You begin to wonder. Don’t these losers have a life? No wonder some gutter-press blogs get so much traffic. People always focusing on the negative and seeing/making trouble where there should be none. It is a habit. An annoying habit.

The difference between this blog and the gutter-press we know of is that these are things I can PROVE. Not CLAIM to be able to prove. But actually be able to.

Step In CS

I blog about the problems I have seen at Banking Websites done by CS and try to ‘tell them to style up and secure these sites before the russians come in’. But NOOO! This is an attack to their manhood.

People start following me on twitter asking me to ‘Hack to prove’. As if I was born yesterday.

Setting the record straight, I have no issues with CS. Even the fact that ELMA seems to be 72-apps-in-one does not bother me. Of course, with their m/billions, they can afford to give all the local developers a big ‘F Y’. It is like our own little China in Kenya. Come up with an Idea, and it will be part of the humongous ELMA tomorrow. To me, it is a local Snaptu on steroids. This is something about whose negative effects on the local dev scene I could blog about for a week.

But I choose to address real issues. Real Financial Risks. Real Insecure websites. Risks to innocent Kenyans.

I am not envious about their awards and BBC articles. Everyone has their 13 seconds of fame. What I fear for is the example they are setting to the Kenyan Kids. Someone once asked me, “But CS websites are insecure. Does that not show that you don’t REALLY need security yet in Africa for your solutions to sell?”. I was saddened.

I will be very happy to blog about the security revamps on the affected sites if CS can fix this. Until then, it is only fair to talk about the pregnant elephant in the room. Or, like most of us, we can ignore it and act as if everything is OK.

What do you think?

Back to code…

Wazi.