Nairobi, June 21 -- A quarter of a century ago, I was a rookie relationship manager at Citibank Kenya. Together with my colleauges, we successfully convinced the finance team of Kenya Ports Authority to outsource the weekly cash payment to thousands of labour casuals to the bank.

This would take the headache away from the finance department for sourcing and holding cash weekly, hiring cashiers in the "payment hall" as well as reconciling payments made to the labour roll.

On the very first day of the pilot, a riot ensued at the port. "Menejment wameleta ma-foreina, wameuzia wazungu porti yetu!" Chaos, anarchy and fear fanned the port.

Turns out, our new system would surface a number of "ghost workers" and it was their malevolent spirits...