An opposition MP has been killed in the Rift Valley, local media reported today, as negotiators for opposing sides in Kenya’s election dispute met for the first time.

David Kimutai Too was shot dead in the Rift Valley town of Eldoret, the second MP from the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) to be killed this week, the party said.

“He has been shot dead, by a traffic policeman in Eldoret, we think. The circumstances are very unclear. This crisis is just getting deeper every day,” an ODM spokesman, Tony Gachoka, told Reuters.

Kenyan police said the shooting was a “crime of passion” and had already led to one arrest.

But the head of the ODM, Raila Odinga, called the death a politically motivated “execution”.

Earlier this week, Mugabe Were was shot outside his house in a suburb of the capital, Nairobi. More than 800 people have died in violence that erupted after the disputed re-election of Mwai Kibaki as president a month ago.

In Nairobi, six negotiators - three representing Kibaki and three representing the opposition leader, Raila Odinga - are meeting under the mediation of the former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan.

“The mood is serious. They can feel the weight of the nation on their shoulders,” said a spokesman for Annan, Nasser Ega-Musa.

Odinga has said he wants a new election, while Kibaki has made clear he will not negotiate his position as president. Annan has said it could take a month to resolve the immediate dispute, and a year to deal with long-standing ethnic animosities and land disputes that have fed the violence.

On the sidelines of the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, the US envoy Jenday Frazer said neither Kibaki nor Odinga was doing enough to restore calm and the US was reviewing possible cuts to its hundreds of millions of dollars in aid.

Much of the violence has pitted other tribes, including Odinga’s Luo, against Kibaki’s Kikuyu people. Kikuyus, Kenya’s largest ethnic group, have long been resented for their dominance of Kenya’s economy and politics.

Frazer said the violence she saw during a visit this month to the western Rift Valley pitted the Kalenjin, who support Odinga, against Kikuyus.

The Rift Valley was the traditional home of the Kalenjin and Masai people, when British colonialists seized large tracts of land for farming. When the land was redistributed after independence in 1963, then-president Jomo Kenyatta gave out most of it to his Kikuyu people, instead of returning it to the Kalenjin and Masai.

It didn’t surprise me to find «investing.businessweek.com» on BusinessWeek’s «bwnt.businessweek.com» (BusinessWeek.com, 2/21/08). When I was researching inspiring leaders, I spent time with Ritz-Carlton President Simon Cooper, who discussed how his company strives to engage its staff to increase employee satisfaction and improve customer service. I saw his strategies in practice when I attended staff meetings run by managers at the San Francisco Ritz-Carlton and described a few of them in a «www.businessweek.com» (BusinessWeek.com, 2/13/07). Now, I’ve returned to my notes to expand on ways you can incorporate techniques from the upscale hotelier in your own company.

Share “wow stories.” Every day, employees of every department in every Ritz-Carlton hotel around the world gather for a 15-minute staff meeting where they share “wow stories.” These are true stories of employee heroics that go above and beyond conventional customer service expectations. In one, a hotel chef in Bali found special eggs and milk for a guest with food allergies in a small grocery store in another country and had them flown to the hotel. In another, a hotel’s laundry service failed to remove a stain on a guest’s suit before the guest left. The hotel manager flew to the guest’s house and personally delivered a reimbursement check for the cost of the suit.

Telling stories in these pep talks accomplishes two goals. It reinforces a customer service skill the hotel is trying to encourage. Most important, it gives an employee “local fame.” Employees want to be recognized in front of their peers. Giving them public recognition is a powerful motivator.

Demonstrate passion. Moods are contagious. Managers who walk around with a smile on their face and demonstrate passion for their jobs have an uplifting effect on others. I attended a staff meeting for housekeepers at the San Francisco Ritz-Carlton one morning and discovered a group of employees whose happiness rivaled higher-paid employees in other professions. I quickly learned the enthusiasm started at the top. The supervisor was dressed impeccably in a three-button blue suit, white shirt, purple tie, and shined black shoes. His wardrobe communicated respect. “Good morning, everyone,” he said enthusiastically. The housekeepers returned an energetic greeting. This manager was all smiles and showed respect for his team. He said they returned his commitment through their hard work.

Sell the benefit. In every daily staff meeting, Ritz-Carlton managers reinforce one of 12 service values all employees are expected to embody on the job. On the day I attended a meeting in San Francisco, the theme was service value No.2: “I am always responsive to the expressed and unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.” The housekeepers were encouraged to discuss how this value applied to their daily tasks.

“What is an expressed wish?” the supervisor asked the group.

“If a guest asks for extra pillows,” a woman said.

“That’s exactly right,” he said. “But it’s the unexpressed wishes that create The Ritz-Carlton mystique,” he continued, offering the example of a housekeeper who notices a champagne bottle sitting in melted ice and replaces the ice before being asked to do so. The question was then asked: “Why do we do it? Why do we go the extra mile?”

One housekeeper volunteered: “It offers a personal touch that shows we care.”

“That’s exactly right,” another added. “It reflects our commitment to five-star service.”

Employees need to understand how their daily actions have an impact the customer. Use staff meetings to make the connection.

Ask for feedback. Employees are encouraged to speak up during staff meetings. During a housekeeping meeting, the employees were debating the benefit of one cleaner over another. It seemed as they preferred the old product over a new one. At first glance, it was a rather mundane discussion. But I noticed something about their supervisor. He was listening intently, as if the discussion were the most important thing in his life at the moment: nodding, maintaining eye contact, and asking questions. He showed genuine interest in the topic. If it is important to his staff, it is important to him. “Why do you think you have earned so much respect from your staff?” I later asked. “Because I listen to their concerns,” the supervisor said. “And they know I will follow up.”

Praise effectively. Ritz-Carlton managers don’t focus on what employees have done wrong but instead seek to help them improve on a given task. Supervisors use staff meetings to publicly praise employees. Criticism is done in private. One supervisor suggested sandwiching constructive criticism among the praise. “You did a great job this week cleaning the coffee pot,” he would say, “but you’re still struggling here. Let’s work together on improving it.” By offering the criticism in the middle of praise, he inspires his employees to exceed the expectations of the hotel’s guests.

I chose to attend housekeeping meetings to make a key point: Motivation can and should take place everywhere within an organization. Simon Cooper cannot personally motivate each of his 35,000 employees worldwide, so it’s up to his department managers to reinforce the brand and its values through daily interactions with their teams. Are your employees engaged? Are they inspired to follow your vision? Five-star service does not begin with them. It begins with you.

(03-01) 07:44 PST , (AP) —

A look at Texas’ demographics and how its numbers compare with those of the United States:

_ Percentage of population change, 2000-2007: Texas, 14.6; U.S., 7.2

_ Median age: Texas 33.1; U.S. 36.4

_ Percentage of women: Texas, 50.2; U.S., 50.7

_ Percentage of whites: Texas, 48.3; U.S., 66.4

_ Percentage of blacks: Texas, 11.9; U.S., 12.8

_ Percentage of Hispanics or Latinos: Texas, 35.7; U.S., 14.8

_ Median household income: Texas, $44,922; U.S., $48,451

_ Percentage of foreign born: Texas, 15.9; U.S., 12.5

_ Percentage of population below poverty: Texas, 16.9; U.S., 13.3

_ Percentage of population with a Bachelor’s degree or higher (age 25+): Texas, 24.7; U.S., 27

_ Median home value: Texas, $114,000; U.S., $185,200

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A look at the state’s trade statistics:

_ Texas’ export shipments in 2006 totaled $150.9 billion, the largest among the 50 states.

_ Texas’ exports rose $55.5 billion from 2002 to 2006, the largest dollar gain in the U.S. and a 58 percent increase over the 2002 level of $95.4 billion.

_ Texas exported to 220 foreign destinations in 2006. The state’s largest market was Mexico, which received $54.9 billion (36 percent) of Texas’ total merchandise export total. Mexico was followed by fellow NAFTA trading partner Canada ($15.6 billion) and China ($6.6 billion). Other top markets included South Korea, the Netherlands, Taiwan, Singapore, Brazil, the United Kingdom and Japan.

_ From 2002 to 2006, Texas’ export shipments to Mexico increased by $13.2 billion. Other countries where Texas recorded large gains in the value of exports over this period were Canada (up $5.7 billion), China (up $4.6 billion), South Korea (up $3.3 billion) and the Netherlands (up $2.7 billion.)

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Net jobs lost because of changes in trade related to NAFTA, 1993-2004:

_ Texas: 72,257

_ U.S.: 1,015,290

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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau; U.S. International Trade Administration; Economic Policy Institute paper, “Revisiting NAFTA,” Sept. 28, 2006.