Second Stage of Revisioning Kenya launched

ENTREPRENEURS GATHER TO SUPPORT AND FORMULATE SECOND STAGE FOR REVISIONING KENYA
A selection of Kenya’s most successful financiers and businessmen will mingle with the country’s newest thinkers at Nairobi National Museum on Wednesday 19th November to gather information and pledge support for the radical new project Revisioning Kenya.

Conceived this year, an amount of Ksh 3 million - together with workspace, mentoring and development facilities - has already been promised by a number of prominent corporates in a bid to help bright new brains to develop their imaginative concepts into solid activities that are good for Kenya

“We don’t want to wait for handouts to crank into action - this is our way to take responsibility for building new hope and energy into our battered nation,” explained Patron Bethuel Kiplagat. “We will help those who can help others, and create a revolving centre of excellence and innovation in which Kenyans take the initiative in producing the sort of structures and integrity that will sustain us in the long term.”

The evening, which is part of the Asian African SAMOSA Festival 2008, will introduce new investors to the value of adopting and developing visionary thinking that would benefit the nation. Among speakers illustrating the ideas behind Revisioning Kenya are Patron Ambassador Bethuel Kiplagat; businesswoman Jyoti Mukherjee; Richard Muteti, head of the Jua Kali association and Professor Moses Musaazi, inventor.

A veteran of the first symposium. Professor Musaazi, who wowed the audience with his work? on low cost cement-less houses, portable incinerators, and DIY papyrus sanitary pads will present new information on rainwater harvesting and accessible lighting. Jyoti Mukjerjee, a newcomer to the concept will discuss business development particularly in relation to IT, while Richard Muteti will introduce the power and strength of harnessing the millions of jua kali artisans and workers who make crucial contributions to the Kenyan economy.

With the support of industrialist Ashok Chandaria, the fund created for Revisioning Kenya has raised enough support through the business community to support the development of 10 projects for a year.

“We aim to provide all the necessary skills, infrastructure and mentoring to make sure that in a year, these ideas are self sustaining,” explained Mr Chandaria. “Too often, visionary concepts never come to fruition because these crucial elements are missing. We can provide the incubator to develop them into real projects. The benefit of an organised and supportive business sector is that we can act quickly and efficiently in response to market forces and social changes without being hampered by waiting for government or donor funds. It is time we took greater responsibility for more than profit and encouraged other forms of improvement in our society.”

While job creation and development of sound business ideas are a focus of Revisoning Kenya, the topics of human rights, gender, social entrepreneurship, environment, citizens activity and good governance are criteria that are just as critical within submitted proposals.

“We will attempt to actively assess and create new strands for Kenyans to work with in revising and reworking those elements of society that clearly have failed,” said Revisioning Kenya director Shalini Gidoomal. “We are looking for people who want to see the sort of change that would take us away from nepotism, corruption and ineptitude and, in particular, allow young fresh voices to have a platform to air their views and ideas for change.”

The first Revisioning Kenya symposium took place in August this year and a carefully selected group of speakers began development of these concepts. Among them were Dekha Ibrahim Abdi, winner of the alternative Nobel Peace prize; Rafique Keshavjee, who is charged with creating an entrepreneurial an inventive spirit in the Aga Khan university; youth leader George Gachara, who set up an sms distress line during the post election violence, that helped thousands of people in need of supplies; comedian turned politician John Kiarie who’s Vijana Tugutuke or “Youth Arise” campaign was key to encouraging youth to vote, and Rob Burnet who discussed diffusion theory in relation to mass media and dissemination of ideas.

KLF Director at Ubud Writers And Readers Festival, Bali




Shalini Gidoomal - Ubud Writers And Readers Festival
Date:2008-10-22	Duration: 00:07:07 Size: 2.83 MB
Synopsis: Shalini Gidoomal is a freelance journalist, writer, businesswoman and inveterate traveller, born, and currently living in Nairobi. She has worked extesively on various UK and international magazines and newspapers.

Click HERE to visit the Ubud Writers Festival website

Kwani Litfest Featured on Africa Journal

This year’s litfest is certainly not about to fade into our distant memories. Reuters have just released a feature for the Africa Journal entitled, “Is anyone reading in Kenya” which takes its story from this year’s Kwani Litfest.

Click on image above to watch the full documentary.

It is night (19:44 hrs) in Nairobi now and it looks like this:

The 24 Nairobi project is intended as a showcase of a modern African city through the eyes of its own photographers. A lot of times cities in Africa are viewed through the narrow lenses and stories of missionaries, career war photographers and aid workers.

24 Nairobi brings together local, regional and international creative professionals to evolve powerful and realistic images and narratives that would reflect the working-life diversity, cultures, energy and dimensions of cities in Africa.

This is an alternative, innovative, realistic and professional African perspective. All the photographers reside in Nairobi and grew up or now call Nairobi “home”. This aesthetic has now been captured.

Click HERE to visit the website

Education OR books: which is the façade?

By Joan Mwihaki

I am a third generation Kenyan commonly known as the ‘Y’ generation. With no experience of war in my short life, you can imagine my shock when Kenya’s ugly side was unveiled in form of the post-election violence. We have always thought ourselves better than the rest of East Africa, but panga’s, then thousands of IDPS and over a thousand deaths brought home a different reality. Presidential elections were the trigger for the slew of destruction. The unspoken truths about poverty, corruption, land issues and tribalism demanded redress in the crudest way.

For a generation that is an icon of education in Kenya we ought to have exercised diplomacy instead of hooliganism. Unfortunately the youths formed the largest part of the troublemakers on the loose. The politically instigated violence was just as the name suggests instigated by the so-called politicians of our land. Though most of them are highly educated yet they did nothing to help our country evade these anarchy.

In light of world literacy on 8th September Prof. Sam Ongeri says Kenya’s literacy level is among the highest in the world. He added that he expected an increase from 68% to 90 % by 2012, following free primary and secondary education. We are definitely educated! But does education make us equal? Does education cover for what we lack in ethnical supremacy? Is education what a man amounts to, or a façade man can live without.

Straight after the post-election violence, School Strikes follow suit and students burn each other. In all the confusion tuition is banned, Mock Exams are banned. Are these solutions? Personally I think the government’s measures are not pro-active - they do not bring about futuristic solutions. I too do not have all the answers but now more than ever I feel like burying myself in a book that will explain this state of affairs.

One thing is for sure we have to reinvent the reading culture, found in the literature of the 1st and 2nd generation of African writers (and readers). Literature about wars and woes of life; about character and integrity - ingredients that need to be reinforced in our lives. Maybe through reading books that focus on African struggles and troubles of days gone by, we can evade making similar mistakes. If we do not learn from them what is the point of the mistakes being made in the first place? Kenyans need to visit more bookshops and more libraries, if not only to read for leisure but also for us with this hidden talent to get inspired to write. Yes, the post-election crises needs to go down in writing. I remember getting one alarmist comment “God forbid someone writes a book” in my head, I replied, “God forbid no one does”. It is such memoirs that will serve to prevent anything like this happening again.

I finished 8-4-4 two months ago, I feel accomplishment all right! As a beneficiary of the system I can’t dismiss the feeling that we Kenyans students have been short changed. Education fails to produce savvy, learned intelligent individuals. Why? It’s theoretical, irrelevant and flaccid. All through primary high school and college I have accumulated heaps of theories that I will never put to use. Not all of us can afford the GCSE system. A reintroduction of 7-4-3-2 would be a place to start.

Buried alive

What have we done! We have forcibly buried the reading culture underground. A fluttering heartbeat remains thumping softly. If no one intervenes, the culture like many other in Africa will not see daybreak. The story telling culture is so dead and waiting for a rebirth, while the theatre going culture dies small deaths and like a spirit it reinvents itself once a while. We are killing priceless yet valuable resources.

In his book ‘What Black People Should Do Now’ deceased author/journalist Ralph Wiley includes a chapter entitled “Why Black People Don’t Buy Books”. Wiley’s chapter title, undoubtedly, is a reference to the often said phrase:“If you want to hide something from a black person put it in a book!” The anonymous wise man behind it was so on point. It seems Africans, particularly Kenyans abhor reading. Insulting as this adage may sound, there is a great deal of truth in it.
I recently attended the Kwani Litfest that hosted a series of writing workshops. Kwani previously came up with Concerned Kenyan Writers, who tried to make sense of the violence. A series of writers created stories, some of which were published in a kwanini – a little pocket size book called “After the Vote”. The festival which started in Nairobi and ended in Lamu was meant to breed new writers and also endorse this reading business in Kenya. It brought together acclaimed writers as tutors from all over Africa.

I remember our Ugandan tutor Serumaga Kalundi asking of our favorite books and most of us-young students were oblivious. It was from the more mature students that names such as Ngugi WA Thiongo and Wangari Maathai popped up. I too scratched my head for, “Return to Paradise” by Yusuf Dawood read sometime long long ago.

The reading culture is close to nonexistent in Kenyan circles, except for the set books read in high school. Such is “The River and the Source” which is forever my masterpiece from high school (a pity I never made any effort to find other books by Margaret A Ogolla). Those who read for leisure are few; others do so to be at par with societal issues are even fewer. Technology has become the scapegoat for this; not only to we prefer to watch TV, but apparently the media is said to have intensified the violence, while school strikes were caused by infiltration of cell phones! But is technology really to blame?

Resuscitated in Asia

The Japanese are apparently the most technology friendly people I know of. They are role models in reading, because they do all the time - when waiting for a ‘matatu’, standing in a queue to see the doctor or en route to wherever. I derive a lot from Japan because it’s a country in Asia - a continent in a similar position to ours in the 1960’s but which has risen to be known as a High Performing Asian Economy. The Japanese are well aware of their rich history which is elaborately recorded in books’ and have brought to life the cliché; reading is paramount for a bright future. They are an icon of development, from the depths of Hiroshima and Nagasaki catastrophe. Today they are endowed with high-tech infrastructure, cars, computers, cell phones - name it. Could this be related to their disciplined reading culture?

A Chinese philosophy says that “Through reading the poor can become rich, and also through reading, the rich can become elegant”. Books tend to challenge our thought processes. They empower us with ideas that translate to actions and changes that will improve our livelihoods.

Well! No one will probably ask how many books you have ever read but in this small life we should aspire to be progressive in all we do. The goal here is to amplify our readability, and you can gauge this by knowing whether your reading list is increasing or decreasing. Recently I read a review on a ‘kawaida’ Kenyan who is an avid reader. With accounting as a day job she can juggle with books amicably. Her goal being to read a hundred books every year the closest she has ever got was 70. Talk of achievement!

Just as Japanese are well read, they are well published they rank first position in Asia and third in the world, after United Kingdom and Germany. According to the International Publishers Association Canada, in the new millennium, United Kingdom published about 110,155 titles of books and placed the first rank. The second was Germany with 80,779 titles. Then, the third rank was Japan with 65,430 titles.

Time for a reincarnation

With so many great minds why are we lagging behind in publishing? Could it be related to the fact that we are also sluggards in reading? Africa has so many experiences that could be put in books that would become best sellers, that could sell a million copies, don’t you think? A time has come for us to use our experiences good and bad, for our sole benefit. We need to put them in books and prove to the world that we too can unveil our intellectualism and turn our lives into memoirs and essays that will rebuild our country.

By the end of this year I will be given the powers to read (literally). I know I have been down for a while but I am willing to rise up and take advantage of books in both reading and writing. Years ago I read a novel on the Biafra war by Elechi Amadi. I was so captivated that when my book ended unceremoniously since the last five pages were missing I looked for it everywhere. To date I have never found the book and the sad story still hangs precariously in my mind. I hope to read Ishmael’s Beah’s book ‘A Long Way Gone’ and Chimamanda Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun by. That is after Wangari Maathai’s Unbowed -which I started this week.

My tutor at the nonfiction writing workshop accentuated the importance of reading. In that class I rediscovered myself as someone shallow who has not read a single biography. Not Mohamed Amin’s, Mandela’s or even Malcolm X. Yet they are role models. I call to all scholars to join me in uncovering all those secrets hidden in books, hopefully deal with our demons and live better if not bearable lives.

(Joan Mwihaki is an intern with BirdLife International)

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