36 LOCAL THE STAR Monday, March 18, 2013

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BY WESONGA OCHIENG

Stakeholders in the tourism sector are up in arms over the planned sale of the Sh1.4 billion Kisite Mpunguti Marine Park, a prime tourist destination in South Coast.

The area, gazetted as a na-tional park in 1973 under legal notice No. 216, had been put up for grabs by Swiss investor Ales-sandro Torriani who has claimed legal ownership.

Mombasa and Coast Tourist Association chairman Mohamed Hersi told the Star on Friday that the stakeholders will not allow the park to be sold.

Hersi said that the title in pos-session by Torriani might have been acquired way back during the corrupt President Moi regime.

“It’s only a fool who has money to waste that will go to buy Kisite. I think it is beyond belief that an individual can move to sell the park,” said Hersi.

Hersi added that the park is the only place in Kenya where tour-ists could dance and swim with dolphins and leaving it to private investors will deal a blow to the tourists that !ock to the area.

The 21.5-acre park annually at-tracts thousands of overseas and local tourists per year who come to enjoy the world class "shing, snorkelling and diving.

Kenya Wildlife Service has al-ready disowned titles in the hands of Torriani. KWS assistant Di-rector in charge of Coast region Arthur Tuda said that the area has never been de-gazetted.

Torriani on Thursday said he

had dropped the plan to have the park sold, paving way for further consultations with KWS.

“The problem is not actually me but the then government and KWS of"cials who leased the land to the people I bought from. I have since decided to drop the advert to pave way for consultation,” said Torriani on the phone.

Torriani is a proxy owner of the park through four companies, all of which he said he has substan-tial stakes in.

The companies are Bamtus Investment Limited-494, Pwani Holdings with plot number 493, Serious Holdings with plot number 495 and Kisite Pangos Limited plot number 496.

He is also owns another island where Funzi Keys resort is built in South Coast.

BY SOLOMON KIRIMI

TELECOMMUNICATIONS service provider Orange has launched a reverse call service for its customers branded ‘NiSort’.

The service enables reverse charge calls within its network. The reverse charge calls are similar to the now defunct "xed line operator-assisted calls, where a caller would request that the

receiver agrees to pay.The introduction of computer-

based telephone dialing equip-ment now makes it possible to initiate a reverse charge call without having to go through an operator.

“NiSort will enable customers make calls when their credit bal-ance is zero and the service will request the call recipient to ac-cept the charges, before complet-

ing the call,” said the company chief corporate communications of"cer Maureen Sande.

To access NiSort, subscribers will be required to dial 128 fol-lowed by the intended recipient’s mobile number or dial #123# to access the USSD menu and select the service.

To follow a voice prompt, a subscriber will dial 127 and listen to the instructions.

Orange starts reverse charge call service

Tour groups oppose sale of Sh1.4bn park

Can YOU outsmart the expert?

ALY KHAN’S STAR

PORTFOLIO

THE VIX is a ticker symbol for the Chicago Board Options Exchange Market Volatility Index and is a measure of the implied volatility of S&P 500 index options. It is often referred to as the fear index or the fear gauge, it represents one measure of the market’s expectation of stock market volatility over the next 30 day period. High VIX readings mean investors see significant risk that the market will move sharply, whether downward or upward. The highest VIX readings occur when investors anticipate that huge moves in either direction are likely.

In the United States, this last week, The VIX Index hit a 6 year low. The more than a century old Benchmark Dow Jones Index recorded its longest winning streak since 1996, The index rose for the tenth straight day Thursday before snapping its winning streak Friday. The last time the Dow knocked out 10 straight days of gains was November 1996. Back then, internet companies were still lining up to go public and President Bill Clinton had just won his 2nd term in the White House. The Dow is up 11% this year, the S&P 500 is up 9.6%. European markets are at a 4 and half Year high. The Japanese Nikkei 225 Index-closed at its highest level since September 8, 2008.

Now if we were to have a similar VIX Index here it would be sky high because last week we experienced the wildest of wild rides. The Nairobi All Share roller coaster rallied 6.78% over the first 2 ses-sions of last week in what was the sharpest 2 Day rally I can recall for over 5 Years. That sharp spike higher was on the back of a perceived ‘Peace’ dividend. Subsequently, The Nairobi All Share retreated 5.143% Wednesday through today. The All Share ended the week +1.288% over the week. The Nairobi NSE20 Index closed at a July 2008 High on Tuesday and less than 15 points away from the 5,000 number.

The NSE20 retreated 221 points Wednesday through Friday but still posted a +2.492% rally over the week. The Equity Market in Kenya is +19.365% in 2012 and has posted a return 1.76045x that of the Dow Jones so far in 2013.

The heightened volatility that we are witnessing is all around the pricing of political risk. If you are trading stocks in the US and Europe, you are not typically having to consider a spillover into the streets [though according to my analysis, the structural adjustment program and severe austerity that Europe is undergoing has sharpened that very risk], and an economic crash and burn like we saw in 2007/2008 which then rippled right through until this election. The economy grew above 5% for only 1 year out of 5 since 2007. The extreme and hyper sensitivity the Equity Markets are displaying to political events are therefore an entirely logical correlation. Therefore, an economist or an investor in Kenya needs to be an astute political scientist in a way you might not have to be elsewhere in the world.

Therefore, how do I read the challenge in the courts because it will surely influence the Stock Market’s trajectory. Firstly, I appreciate the court process is a vital safety valve and it is infinitely better for us to see this dispute in the courts than in the streets. That’s a given. And in my view, The Prime Minister has an absolute right to launch his challenge. Now, the Prime Minister’s lawyer Mr Burck [who accord-ing to the Financial Times was also George Bush’s Lawyer during the ‘Hanging Chad’ Controversy] said the following; “It’s a bigger ask than a run-off but I think [a rerun] is what’s required – an inevitable result of a catastrophic failure of the election system,”

I can tell you for free, that such an outcome is the one the markets and the economy would like least. It would put us back into a holding pattern and a GroundHog Day. I think its clear to all of us, that Mr.

Kenyatta won a plurality of votes and played a vastly superior ground Game and the outcome V.2 might look exactly like V.1 Therefore, it behoves the Supreme Court to conduct an audit but it also behoves the Supreme Court to then make a judgement based on the size of the plurality of votes. There was an 800,000 gap. The Supreme Court needs to make a scientific calculation around the scale of erosion or not of that gap, in my humble opinion.

Shares go up and down and readers are advised that this column rep-resents Mr Satchu’s personal opinions.

THE VIX: THE FEAR GAUGE

LUCRATIVE: Tourists along a beach at the South Coast, Mombasa.