If you want to the best definition of this Swahili phrase, the best people to ask are the 10 candidates who were interviewed for the Chief Justice (CJ) position by the Judicial Service Commission last week.
If I was betting man I would place a generous wager that given a chance to go back 10 to 30 years, some would have made sure they got that A which would have given them  First-Class Honors and not a pass.Some would have awarded modest damages in cases that came before them while some would have given better judgments and others probably wished they had kept less their unsavory comments about others to themselves.

The last time that I saw such qualified candidates face such an acid test was on Donald Trump’s Apprentice show. A thought slowly began to itch that I would, one day,  have to face a similar interview.
Not that I want to run for CJ  or a related post in future, but in one way or another I will have to defend the curriculum vitae of my life before my peers, children or grandchildren and that got me really thinking. Before a bench, my children and grandchildren, who will juxtapose my achievements or lack of against someone my peers. Similar qualifications, opportunities, starting salary are some of the criteria which will be used and like last week’s interviewees for the CJ post I will have to account for all my acts of commission and omission.

And what will I say?

While it is impossible to predict what investment opportunities of today will be a boon in 30 years time, I can look back at some investments which if had been made 30 years ago would have made many a man a millionaire today. How much was an acre in Ruaka, Athi River, Mlolongo and Kiambu Road? If someone had bought 1,000 shares in East Africa Breweries, EA Cables and BAT Kenya, after their dividends and share splits how much would those investment be in 2011?

The figure whets my investment appetite but since I cannot go back in time or zoom to the future the only option left is to make the best investment today in hope that it will be a blank canvas to paint a most profitable future. At the worst, it will allow me to, at least, have something I can call my own. This may be an arduous task, but not an insurmountable one.

Two weeks ago graduates of the Equity Bank/Master Card program gave inspiring stories on their success against all odds and if rate of their financial success goes uninhibited, they will probably be my bosses in future.  This is real, this is life.

I have a friend whose father was a classmate with industrialist Chris Kirubi and Jimnah Mbaru, Kenya’s edition of Warren Buffet, and other pioneer and indigenous post colonial business moguls.
While my father’s friend is certainly not poor, if his balance sheet was printed it would be more environmentally and economically friendly compared with the aforementioned businessmen.
And a question that my friend (after being inspired by a few lagers) wants to ask when his father reminds him of his former classmates:
“So if these were your classmates…what happened?”

By John Gachiri
John is business writer with a focus in investment and personal finance who contributes to the Money Academy and other business publications