Focus on Kenya: October 2015

Thursday, 15 October 2015

COUNTIES FROM THE COAST TO BENEFIT FROM GOOD GOVERNANCE PROJECT

Mombasa, Kilifi and Tana River are amongst the beneficiary counties to
a 116 million project that seeks to raise the capacity of the County
Governance Systems in Kenya.

The European Union and German Embassy backed project at the same time
aims at raising public awareness on how to participate in governance.

During the launch that happened in Nairobi Mombasa Senator Hassan
Omar called for leaders to involve citizens on issues affecting them
directly.

‘It is unconstitutional to ignore citizens in development projects as
this goes against the spirit of devolution.The people could be the
ones offering solutions to their challenges since they understand
their problems better. Good governance ensures participatory measures
on the leader’s side to ensure all voices are heard,’ continues Omar.

Mombasa Women Representative Mishi Said has scolded those in
leadership positions who overlook citizen’s input saying that some
proposals made by the people are altered before they reach the floor
of Parliament.

‘We have the Community Land Bill and there was a taskforce formed to
work on this Bill. There was a lot of stakeholder meetings and people
their voices on this document.It is unfortunate that the Bill does not
reflect the people’s opinions in terms of land issues. There is need
to offer capacity building to the citizens,’ says Mishi.

The German Deputy Ambassador Friedo Sielemann noted that devolution
should be used to strengthen democracy and development as citizens are
provided with platforms to influence the quality of development at the
county level.

‘There is need to go beyond Civic Education to a more citizen
inclusive approach. The use of scorecards will make county governments
more accountable and make the projects more locally acceptable,’ Mr.
Sielemann said.

Head of Development for EU Eric Haber has said the union has aligned
its development agenda to the goals set by Kenya in its development
blueprint, Vision 2030 and is keen to see the implementation of the
Public Financial Financial Management Reforms and Devolution, which
are identified as priority areas in the second Medium Term Plan
2013-2018.

‘The EU delegation to Kenya is working with both National and County
governments in strengthening institutions of devolution to be more
responsive to the needs of the citizens, while at the same time
enabling citizens to actively participate in identifying and
implementing developmental projects,’ he adds.

Monday, 12 October 2015

KENYAN CULTURE GETS DIGITIZED

The Google Cultural Institute, in collaboration with the Kenya
National Archives, has launched the digitised National Archives - an
initiative that celebrates and promotes Kenyan history, Africa’s
heroes and cultural heritage.

With the digitised national archives, artefacts and historical
documents will now be accessible at the click of the button.

This means that anyone interacting with the artifacts online will not
only come face to face with the history of Kenya and other African
countries such as; Ethiopia, Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of
Congo and Nigeria, but also celebrate African heroes, art and culture.

'It is very ironic how culture is an ancient and traditional aspect of
human life then technology is something that is modern and both are
fused together to ensure the conservation of African
history.Technology plays a great role in promoting culture in the
world we live in today. Not only does it help to conserve art and
culture in digital forms that can be accessed from any part of the
world, it creates new, interactive and educational ways of
storytelling and brings local heritage and history to the fingertips
of a global audience. This will go a long way in promoting Kenya as a
favourable destination,” said Dr. Hassan Wario - Cabinet Secretary,
Ministry of Sports, Culture and the Arts.

Communications Manager for Google East Africa and Francophone
countries Dorothy Ooko has said this is a way of telling the African
narrative without fear of distortion.

'Many times our stories are told by people from the West however
finding these items online will help Africans in telling their own
story.When we talk about Dedan Kimathi the globe will get to know that
this is the person who struggled to fight for Kenya's
independence,'says Ms Ooko.

Critics have questioned whether the presence of Kenyan artefacts being
displayed online will dampen the interests of those seeking to visit
Kenya National Archives.

'You can see something online however the full experience is only felt
when you physically visit the place,'Ms. Ooko tells critics.

“The Kenya National Archives owns important material that tells a
story about a period of time or event that is rarely put on display.
The online exhibitions, therefore, provide a way through which
cultural institutions can tell a story around historical material and
bring to life a particular event, theme or topic relevant to our
history and culture,” said Google Country Manager, Charles Murito.

The partnership, which is part of Google’s efforts to preserve
Africa’s cultural heritage, will also serve to boost the tourism
sector by availing novel ways to showcase the country’s culture and
history to visitors.

The Google Cultural Institute - a high-profile world culture project
that hosts the world’s cultural treasures online through partnerships
with major museums and institutions - will now host more than 1,000
archives and artworks as well as 15 curated exhibits that curators,
historians and everyone anywhere can now virtually access the cultural
treasures housed by the Kenya National Archives .

The Google Cultural Institute currently supports over 850 cultural
institutions from over 60 countries and hosting the digitised Kenya
National Archives, biggest digitization effort in Africa so far on The
Google Cultural Institute will not only enable users to discover
Kenya’s historical treasures in new ways but will help the cultural
sector to make the most of digital opportunities.

“Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it
universally accessible and useful. There is so much rich and important
material in the cultural sector to do with art, history and heritage
which can only be seen by those lucky enough to visit these
institutions. The Cultural Institute is an effort to make important
cultural material available and accessible to everyone and to
digitally preserve it to educate and inspire future generations.,”
concludes Pierre Caessa, Google Cultural Institute's Program Manager.

Friday, 2 October 2015

Teachers’ strike Dominates September Google Search Trends

Google Search Trends reveals that the just suspended teachers’ strike was highly searched in the month of September in Kenya.

The five week strike show many Kenyans surfing online to seek information on its status.
Actress, blogger and Kenya Airways stewardess, Nana Gichuru – also known as Kanana Gichuru – was the second Google trending search.

Nana, died in a tragic car accident on the Eastern bypass after her BMW convertible saloon car had a head-on collision with an oncoming lorry.

A week prior to her death, she had posted a quote on social media that was viewed by many as a premonition of her death.

Dr Mugo wa Wairimu, also known as James Mugo Ndichu, is accused of allegedly sedating and raping women in his clinic, and was the third most trending search in the month of September.

This was after an investigative series that exposed the alleged happenings in Wairimu’s clinic.

The Capital One Cup, commonly known as the League Cup, came in fourth on the top 10 trending searches.
The league, which is a football competition played by teams in England and Wales, drove football fans online as they wanted to keep up with the league’s match fixtures and results.

The Rugby World Cup, which is men’s rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, was the fifth most trending search.

Google Logo History, after Google launched a new logo on September 1, 2015 and Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar following the release of hit television series Narcos.

The “What is” question category seems to be pushed more by searches by students for meaning. Most of the questions are classroom-driven . What is weed captured the first position under the trending ‘What is’ searches category followed by: What is liberalism - as they sought to understand the meaning of this political philosophy; What is humanitarian - as they went online to find out more about the moral concept; What is climate - as users went online to gather more information on climate change; What is mitosis - as they wanted to find out more about the biological process through which cells separate into two identical sets of chromosomes and What is poetry - which points to the need for internet users to understand the form of literature. Other queries under this category included: What is composition, What is voltage, What is tumblr, What is dope and what is refugee.

In the ‘How to’ category, the trending searches , ‘How to focus’ featured as the number one search while How to photoshop was number two. Kenyans also searched for How to write, How to trust, How to print, How to incorporate, How to trade, How to apologise, How to save and How to lie.