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.

Revisioning Kenya

Revisioning Kenya, the highlight of Kwani Litfest 2008 hosted by RaMoMA gallery on Friday afternoon, was a climax of highs and lows. We arrived to find organizers Dipesh Pabari and Shalini Gidoomal scuttling around with a hunted look in their eyes, as though this were January 2008 all over again and we were in Kibera, not Parklands. But they sorted out the electrical snafus that threatened to nix the whole show at the last minute, and about seventy of us crammed into the presenting room to listen to fifteen ‘visionaries’ from every field of endeavor talk about the future. (The idea came from Bill Gates, who a while back invited the most innovative thinkers on earth to Arusha to give him an eight-minute presentation about their next big idea.)

Unlike the previous day’s event at the University of Nairobi, almost nobody stuck to their time limit. Sometimes we didn’t notice, like with Judy Kibinge’s movie Coming of Age, which took us on a moody romp through post-independence Kenya – starting with the early Kenyatta days, “when a carjack was a thing you used to change a tire”; through post-coup Moi, when Kenyans learned what it was like to live under a dictatorship: “at night, people drew the curtains shut and whispered rumors about rumors in the dark”; following the euphoric “second liberation” of Kibaki’s election in 2002, and finishing with his stolen victory last year, when “Kenya began to burn, and we wondered, what is democracy? Do we even want it anymore?”

Same kind of roller coaster that characterized our little event. I hate to hate, but in the spirit of constructive criticism I can’t help wondering why Alfred Omenya, who actually is a visionary architect, felt it necessary to talk about himself for eight minutes before getting round to the subject at hand. By then, moderator Wambui Mwangi had no choice but to yank the mic on him. And John Kiarie, the former Redyculass comedian who these days is trying to prove Beth Mugo rigged him out of victory in the race for Dagoretti’s parliamentary seat – great speech, John, we laughed and cried, but where were the new ideas?

Rob Barnett, Kwani?’s first sponsor back in the day (thanks Rob) gave an interesting talk about Diffusion Theory, basically, how do bright ideas take root in society and become widespread? I’m all for spreading the love, but can’t help wondering about the NGO-esque philosophy underpinning the concept: ‘we know what’s good for you, now LISTEN.’

But that’s what Revisioning Kenya was all about after all – if more of us listened to the good ideas stored in the minds inside that room, maybe Kenya and the world would be a better place. For instance why is it, as former Olympian Ole Munyai asked us, that Kenya’s pyrethrum farmers are only earning $16 million in a world market that is making $600 million off their harvest? Why don’t we set up a distribution company in the US, where most of the global trading takes place, and channel Kenyan pyrethrum through that? As Ole said, “we could pay our farmers five times what they currently earn and still make a profit.”

Now that’s what we came to hear. More good stuff came from Kevit Desai, who talked about the potential for ICT to improve just about everything, and Dr. Moses Musaazi, who broke down the alternative technologies we have at our fingertips (ranging from solar water heaters, which everyone’s heard of, to papyrus sanitary pads, which I bet you haven’t). Tony Mochama represented the poetic outlook, and though I’m not sure exactly what it was he said, I know it wasn’t bad.

The best came last. Ishmael Beah, the child soldier from Sierra Leone, stirred us up with some of the lessons learned by his country’s civil war. He finished by describing a village tree where he and his fellow soldiers used to kill prisoners. Back then, its bark had been hacked up by overzealous machetes and blackened by the blood of so many victims; but when Beah recently revisited the spot, he found “the tree had healed completely and now bloomed a bright, clean green.”

Tough act to follow, but Ambassador Bethuel Kiplagat did so tremendously. Looking like a 70-year-old version of Ishmael Beah, Kiplagat is the kind of fellow whose dignity fills the whole room. So does his deep bass of a voice. He described for us the battles he’s fought not just for Kenya, but all of Africa over the course of his illustrious career. “I realized one day that all these problems this continent suffers are not just political, they are my own personal problems,” he said, leading up to an admonishment against reliance on foreign aid. “Don’t ever let anyone take your problems away from you, because then you will not devote every last minute and mobilize every resource you have to solving it.”

In 1984, Kiplagat became Kenya’s Permanent Secretary to the department of Foreign Affairs. “I looked around the region and the continent, and I decided then that I would do what I could to bring peace to our neighbors.” There’s a long ways yet to go, but as Kiplagat pointed out, some signs of hope have bloomed amidst the rubble. Take, for instance, the fact that only two African nations are left in the hands of a military regime, quite an improvement from the time Kiplagat entered Foreign Affairs. “That was 1984,” he said, and although he’s held various positions in government since, he’s still working at the same goal of peace. Twenty four long years, good people, “and do you think I’m going to give up?”

Revisioning Kenya: A Narrative for the Nation

A selection of Kenya’s brightest brains and skills will gather at Nairobi’s Ramoma Art Gallery to impart their ideas on forging a future that addresses and repairs the issues thrown up in the post election violence. Speakers such as peacemaker Dekha Ibrahim Abdi; DJ Caroline Mutoko; former child soldier Ishmael Beah; molecular biologist Onesmo ole Moi-Yoi; visionary city mapper, Alfred Omenya; Ugandan inventor Dr Moses Musaazi; youth leader, George Gachara; comedian turned politician John Kiare; scholar Joyce Nyairo and Rob Burnet will put forward their ideas for effecting change in Kenya.

Kicking off with filmaker Judy Kibinge’s award winning film looking at democracy in Kenya, this one-day symposium organised by the Kwani Litfest (KLF 2008) will provide a platform for a series of stimulating talks given by visionaries drawn from Kenya, around the continent, and abroad. Mixing young and old, radical and innovative ideas will be expressed and married to capital. A cross section of Kenyan society both socially, culturally and geographically will be called upon to provide opinion and expertise in their particular field.

Radio Queen Caroline Mutoko, who’s command of the airwaves and cool thinking helped keep people stay calm in the hectic and shocking violence of January, will give us the inside story of what it was like to be live, on radio, taking calls, soothing speaking and helping.

Dekha Ibrahim Abdi, winner of the alternative Nobel Peace prize and Convenor for the civil society group Concerned Citizens for Peace, said; “we need to look beyond what we have and seek positive on-the-ground change and initiative, especially for our younger people. She points to George Gachara, another Revisioning Kenya speaker as an example of the proactive approach required in this country. He set up an sms distress line in the first few days of the violence and within a few days received thousands of text messages and was able to help those in need with supplies, map problem areas and complement police efforts.

Other contributors are more prosaic, but nonetheless practical. Ugandan inventor Professor Moses Musaazi has used his skills to great effect in dreaming up integrated systems to be put into use in a test case scenario at Marsabit Girls Secondary school. In a bid to maximise utlisiation of scarce resources he has cleverly designed simple brickmaking machines, invented DIY biodegradable sanitary pads and developed a compact portable waste incinerator that burns rubbish - and heats water at the same time.

Fighting for political rights is Revisioning Kenya speaker John Kiarie’s goal. When he began a comic routine in university, he had no idea that he would be the nucleus for one of the most important political movements in Kenyas history. In 2007 KJ and the Reddyculass turned their sights on a different prize: empowering the youth to vote. They criss-crossed the country holding huge musical concerts headlined by Kenya’s biggest musical names under the rallying cry of “Vijana Tugutuke!” or “Youth, Arise!”
And arise they did. Kenya’s electoral commission has publically attributed the phenomenal rise in youth registration to the movement. To understand how phenomenal the impact of the concerts was, its important to note that in 2002, of a total of 17M eligible voters, only 11.2 M registered. And of those, just 7% were the youth. But in 2007, 70% of all registered voters were the youth.

In the 2007 elections KJ chose to run, surviving a savage beating from rivals after being nominated as the ODM candidate to run against veteran Beth Mugo. He is currently in court with what he believes is damning evidence proving that he and not Beth Mugo won the Dagoretti seat. He believes his presence in parliament will go a long way to providing Kenya with desperately needed fresh, young dynamic it so desperately needs.

Rafique Keshavjee would be proud of this stance. As a visionary entrusted with developing the Aga Khan’s vision of a university, his approach is an abrupt deviation from the rote learning, and traditional positions taken currently in Kenya’s schools and Universities. “We want to build and encourage entrepreneurs - thinkers. Our goal is not to create employees, but to encourage students to create structures that will not only create jobs, but also provide inspiring design frameworks for value added services,”

Rob Burnet, too, is focused on education, through a different media. He will present information on diffusion theory and how new ideas catch on, particularly in the context of mass media, and with TV soap Makutano Junction, in which he is involved.

Other presenters will speak on the importance of ICT, on the scientist’s gentle approach to thinking differently, on scholarly necessity. Poetry will come from literary Tony Mochama and theatrical presentation from actor playwright John Sibi Okumu.

And Sierra Leonean writer and former child soldier Ishmael Beah, will give a first hand account of the horror of war and dysfunctionality in a country and the lessons that can be learned from Sierra Leone’s experience.

In a recent interview founder of the Kwani Trust, Binyavanga Wainaina, says, “Speakers come from varied backgrounds, and have 8 minutes to deliver their speech. During these conferences you meet people that produce great ideas in all fields.I think that in a post-violence situation it is a great service to provide such a platform, although it does not deal directly with literature. It serves to remind people that a territory of better ideas exist that is beyond politicians and their mediocre ideas. This new territory can be a source of inspiration for writers.”

The topics of human rights, gender, social entrepreneurship, citizens activity and good governance will be contained within these discourses in an 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.

Date: 8th August
Venue: Ramoma Art Gallery
Time:2:00pm-6:00pm
Price:Ksh 1,900/= OR 3,500/= (includes Authors in Conversation Dinner at Kifaaru Garden and Kwanini Booklet)
Concessions:900/=

Click HERE for more details

Click HERE to read the Sunday Nation Review on the Kwani Litfest by JOSEPH NGUNJIRI

Revisioning Kenya: 8th August

A symposium featuring 12 visionaries drawn from Kenya and abroad, these thinkers will impart their ideas on how to address and repair the issues thrown up by the post-election violence. We firmly believe that Kenyans have the ability to repair the recent damage and aim to feed into the groundswell of effort already growing nationwide. To this end Slum TV will film the speeches of the symposium, which will be available on internet and through established DVD distributors. A Kwanini short story book will also be produced and circulated countrywide. The symposium will close with a sumptuous event where speakers and attendees mingle and network.

Invited Speakers

Ambassador Bethuel Kiplagat (Kenya): of the Africa Peace Forum and a co-convenor of Concerned Citizens for Peace

Kevit Desai (Kenya):- Director of Engineering for Centurion Systems, Head of IEEE, member of Kepsa who organizes a large competion for university inventors each year and tries to find companies to produce the items commercially. His current focus is uses of ICT in rural areas

Farming Systems Kenya - They work with 20,000 farmers including the Kesses Farmers Marketing Federation, and have revolutionalized small-scale farming by harnessing the power of collective bargaining. By organizing farmers into marketing federations the federations have doubled produce prices for members while dropping input prices (esp. fertilizer and seed) considerably.

Irwin Chen - Expert on new media publishing

Reginald Ihejiahi (Nigeria) - Managing director and CEO of Fidelity Bank, and a serious financial operator, he will speak of the importance of merging and supporting art and literature and how words can affect a nation’s thinking.

Sarah Simons

Professor MK Musaazi (Uganda): An inventor with real practical solutions to African problems. Professor Musaazi was recently advisor to the TV programme Schools Shape Up, where a number of his workable solutions to homegrown issues are viewed in action. He will discuss inventions and their practical applications

Onesmo Ole Moi Yoi (Kenya): World famous bio geneticist and scientist with a simple, but radical way of thinking different

Rafique Keshavjee: Visionary entrusted with creating the Aga Khan University in Arusha and Nairobi on the creation of entrepreneurial spirit and the way to move Kenya towards self sufficient income generation.