(2 of 2)
> Member of Parliament Joseph Anthony Zuzarte Murumbi, 57, served as Kenya's Vice President for seven months in 1966 before stepping down to enter business. "I felt that in commerce," he explains, "I could make a real contribution to national development." Owner of one of the finest libraries on Africana in Kenya, Murumbi is chairman of a large sugar refinery, a Nairobi-based export-import firm, and an advertising agency that promotes, among other things, African trade abroad.
To help more natives prepare for business, Kenya Shell Ltd. and the country's Ministry of Education have put together an illustrated book in Swahili, with English translations, on rudimentary business practices. Featured are Mr. Shida, a bumbling, unsuccessful shopkeeper, and Mr. Ali, a progressive, flourishing entrepreneur. Mr. Shida, for example; is in serious trouble because his debtors are slow to pay him. Mr. Ali, by contrast, avoids that kind of bind by shrewdly refusing to give credit. A typical lesson deals with the display of merchandise in shop windows: "One of these cakes has flies on it. The other cake is safe under glass. Which would you buy, A or B?" There are even a few words on how to knock the competition. If other shopkeepers find that Mr. Shida is selling potatoes at a lower price, Kenya's budding businessmen are advised, they can simply explain that "the potatoes have been in Mr. Shida's shop for a long time."
Mr. Ali is fast becoming a more representative figure in Kenya than Mr. Shida. In its eagerness to develop a native cadre of businessmen, however, Kenya must use restraint. Pressed by the government to aid in the effort, many non-African businessmen note that effective training takes time. And a group of University of Nairobi economists, African and white alike, has warned that Africanization, essential as it is, could impair Kenya's continued economic growth if pushed too fast.