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• April 04, 2007
• 22:25

  Poverty and AIDS

   » ‎ Kenya Imagine
  
  

  Bosibori Ndemo's article of the 19^th of February got me thinking about the reality of HIV-AIDS and the power of the media in shaping our perceptions on disease.
  
  The dominant view is that the high prevalence rates in Africa are caused by the nature of sexual behaviour there. This view excludes other important factors such as poverty and biological factors. However only the most prejudiced would choose to ignore the fact that HIV has only a 1% prevalence rate in permissive American society, but reach 25% in Africa. Partner exchange rates and unprotected sex have no reason to be higher in Africa than anywhere else. The charge that it is sexual behaviour that sets African infection rates apart has not been made, but it is implicit in an HIV combat strategy that has the ABC doctrine at its core.

  
  Stephen Wanyama links the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa with poverty advocating for improved health care and nutrition across Africa.
• 18:44

  Guantanamo Military Prison - and right to a fair trial

   » ‎ Kenya Imagine
  
  Darfur, Rwanda, the Israel-Palestine skirmishes and Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba capturing international attention with little response are evidence that the 21st Century is not a better place to live in after all.
  
  The 21st Century has seen an increase in situations where executive arms of various governments have embraced a systematic denigration of judicial systems and processes established over centuries-- systems which were meant to curtail the inefficiencies, abuses and shortfalls of imperfect humans.
  
  Collins Mbalo discusses the war on terror and the lack thereof of individual's right to a fair trial.

• 13:36

  Kencall….Is Kenya The Next African Tiger?

   » ‎ Kenyanentrepreneur.com
  Here is an interesting article on Kenya’s outsourcing industry from the globalization obsessed journalist, Thomas Friedman (writing for the New York Times).  How many call centers are there in Kenya today? April 4, 2007 Op-Ed Columnist The African Connection By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN NAIROBI, Kenya Was anybody out there checking out jobs with the U.S. post office in 2005? Do you [...]

• 11:42

  He's Not Heavy, He's My B...

   » ‎ The Benin Epilogue Part I: Africa-Ready for Business
  I am not sure if you are familiar with the phrase, "he's not heavy, he's my brother". It connotes the idea of using one's own growth within a community to help other up and coming members of the community. This was a phrase that became very common at my Alma Mater, Morehouse College.
  
  Anyhow, my aim was to take that phrase and use it as an analogy in introducing a new entrant to the Africa blogger scene. However, judging from the writing this blogger is already capable of carrying a big load, i.e. giving back to the community. He definitely doesn't need much or any assistance in the writing department!
  
  This blogger goes by the name "Branded" and hails from Kenya. Perhaps to date you have not heard much from Branded, but mark my words-you soon will. A business person extraordinaire, Branded blogs at Business in Focus and will also be blogging here on The Benin Epilogue, topics will range from African business media to market branding. So, please show this blogger some love!
  
  Branded, welcome to The Benin Epilogue and thank you for accepting the invitation. Sorry I didn't do this earlier, but soon you'll know how it is when...well, we'll leave i at that. Once again It's good to have your input here-Thanks again!
  
  Of course, I love your comments. But, if you can't comment at this particular time- but would like to let us know that you were here; please sign and View my guestbook
  
  

• 11:13

  Kenya’s Illiteracy Rate

   » ‎ Kenyanentrepreneur.com
  I was reading the Nation yesterday and saw that the illiteracy rate in Kenya now stands at 40%! I should not have been shocked by that number, but I was. Kenya used to have one of the highest literacy rates in all of Africa. I believe at one point, it was around 80%. [...]

• 9:16

  GPS Enabled Taxis in East Africa

   » ‎ White African

  A film by Ruud Elmendorp is being featured on Rocketboom. For those who don’t know him, Ruud is a videographer and journalist that works out of Kenya. Below is the video file that has his coverage in it.

  Ruud titles this piece, “Big Brother in Kenya”.

  

• 7:09

  Poetry Night at Daas Restaurant, Westlands

   » ‎ Kenyanpoet
  Poetry Night at Daas Restaurant, Westlands

• 1:51

  Barcamp .... Wow!

   » ‎ Startups in Kenya

  I know, I know its way past Saturday and I promised to write this by 6pm Saturday, but the iBurst link we were using at Barcamp misbehaved and afterwards I have been either offline or otherwise occupied :).
  
  If I had to sum up Barcamp, I'd say WOW! Although not that often, I have attended forums with great ideas and great personalities. What made Barcamp different though was the passion behind these ideas and personalities. Each presenter who came on stage was intense in his (sadly there were no 'her' presentations) presentation. Kiania, the MC, had to work hard to make sure there was enough time for everyone to speak.
  
  Starting off Barcamp was Josiah Mugambi with a Bugatti Veyron presentation. This is one presentation I was really looking forward too but sadly I never made it on time. Apart from some LMS preparation of GEC brochures I spent almost 15 minutes looking for parking (I'm going to be a green from now on - walking is good :-) )
  
  I did make it on time for AFRICADOTNET.net by Edgar Okioga. Apart from myself Edgar must have been the most Microsoftian barcamper in attendance. He did surprise us though by giving out free copies of MSDN Community Distribution CDs marked "Please copy and distribute". Who'd have ever thought?
  
  Kamau Gichigi Ph.D was next with Equal Opportunity Manufacturing and this was one presentation I wish had been allowed more time. He's an engineer so there was a lot of techno-jargon which flew by me, but a business incubator for manufacturers did stick and I'm keenly looking forward to seeing how it develops. The idea is called .... IDEA. Kamau mentioned that a website is in the works but I no URL was given, I will track him down and see if I can get it.
  
  JKUAT seems to be really serious about their IT programs. There were two great presentations that showed ingenuity of the students. The first was from Nick titled "Software Defined Radio". Nick is a self confessed techie and although I grasped the general idea, TLAs were in plenty.
  
  We then had Ashok who talked about Bungeni, an open-source parliamentary system. I really was intrigued by his project since it mirrored a lot of the work I had done on LawsofKenya.com. What really impressed me though was the fact that it is open-source and designed to bring the common mwananchi into the parliamentary process.
  
  Felix Kiptum of Mama Mikes was next with a talk on the Long Tail Economics of Abundance. a really interesting theory on how technology has made it possible to produce products in few numbers and still have a sustainable business.
  
  At this point I was called to attend to some pressing business outside the barcamp and I missed David's and Riyaz presentations on Residential Networks and Skunkworks, but I'll be attending the Skunkworks meetings so I'll be giving you the low down on these two.
  
  I made it back to hear Ted Muganda's presentation on Stocks Kenya. Amazing story and really made me think about how Stephen and I started SoftLaw. We didn't really have any idea how big it would become when we started, but as it went on it got a life of its own. Stocks Kenya from Ted sounded like it had a similar genesis.
  
  Next was a really inspiring presentation from another JKUAT student. This time it was about
  a LAN/WAN that students had built for themselves between their residential halls. Totally financed by the students the network has encouraged content development e.g. a dating service for the students, and is financially self-sustainable. From the presentation it sounded also like a "wiki" network where any person could add a node or a subnet. Internet service is provided over the network through a prepaid billing system accessed on the intranet. Lots of potential exists and I'll definitely be researching more into this. Credit also to Moi University who have implemented a similar setup. Great challenge to University of Nairobi, although they have access to probably the best resources, their counterparts around the country are leaps and bounds ahead in terms of innovation.

  
  Next up was .... (drum rolls) ... Harry Karanja. Just before I got up I was told to try and keep it within 10 minutes. That was going to be tough, I had to talk about LawsofKenya.com, Genius Executive Centre and this blog in 10 minutes! Luckily most of the stuff I would have talked about: website startups, Kenyan laws, and business incubators had been mentioned by previous speakers. I gave a summary of LawsofKenya and GEC with a Harry Karanja angle and saved sometime to talk about IdeaPool. IdeaPool was a forum that me and seven (Karis, Mibuari, Meg, Stacy, P.King, Andrew & Irene) of my pals/workmates (from Strathmore) started back in 2001. Mostly it was about meeting at Java House cafe on Muindi Mbingu on Saturday afternoons and stuffing ourselves with confectioneries. But we also had big ideas, like volunteering to teach secondary school students about IT and entrepreneurship. Sadly IdeaPool never really picked up steam, and I guess one major reason was the inability to bring more people on board. This is one reason I really loved the barcamp experience. Barcamp also demonstrated that with the internet especially wikis and blogs such forums have access to a much larger audience. I'm hoping that Barcamp will be all that IdeaPool aspired.
  

  
  

  As barcamp came to an end, I felt like we had only scratched the surface of the ideas and opportunities existent. Kiania, rightly said that it is a great time for technological innovation in Kenya with the current political leadership (Mutahi Kagwe and his PS Bitange Ndemo). I agree and you can be sure that I will be right in the thick of things!

• 1:19

  Is Africa really ready for business?

   » ‎ The Benin Epilogue Part I: Africa-Ready for Business
  Just a thought. But I believe that Africa is most ready for business. The world will only ignore Africa at its own peril. Sample this:
  China hosted all Africa Presidents this year to expand on the available business opportunities in Africa. The main intention of China was to position itself to take advantage of the existing business avenues and as using Africa as a source of inputs for its vast and fast growing industries. Other developed countries are now realising that Africa cannot be taken for granted.
  
  South Africa will host the world cup in 2010, and now more and more companies are lining up to set up businesses in the country to take advantage of the opportunities that have been created by this fact.
  
  Kenya recently (on 24th March) hosted the World Cross Country Championships very succesfully. Despite the international travel advissory issued by the USA speciffically targeting the international event, the Kenyans saw it as a business opportunity to improve their international reputation. The travel warnings did not stop the show that had such a high level of security.
  
  African leaders are travelling the world to take advantage of existing business opportunities. This not only says that Africa is more than ready for business but also shows that WE ARE IN BUSINESS. What do you think?
  You can read more on how Africa is taking on the world on: http://businessinfocus.blogspot.com

• 0:04

  ASDAQ is it the Kenyan NASDAQ

   » ‎ RIBA CAPITAL
  ASDAQ – ASSOCIATION OF SECURITIES DEALERS AUTOMATED QUOTATION SYSTEM
  
  Will this be the Kenyan version of NASDAQ??
  ASDAQ is meant to be an over the counter trading board, that will list companies that do not meet the rules of the Nairobi Stock Exchange to be listed and in particular in the AIMS – Alternative Investment Markets Segment where the requirements are less stringent.
  This will enable investors get access to more riskier alternatives but also get exposed to better returns and on the counter provide funding to companies that are coming up but are still too small to be listed in the NSE.
  
  The model has worked in other countries and is a real revelation in Kenya especially putting in mind that private equity companies are very few and can’t support the growing number of companies coming up. Banks have also let down the small businesses and this is a good alternative.
  
  Though a great idea, there are struggles surrounding this initiative on the ownership structure to be adopted and CMA approval. According to reports, 40 out of 100 shares in ASDAQ have been issued to registered stock brokers, each getting 2 shares while the rest remains in the balance. Rumour has it that Transcentury Group was interested but some board members of ASDAQ are refuting their involvement.
  The Capital Markets Authority responded to the reports by claiming that it had not received nor approved any application for an OTC market from ASDAQ as reported.
  But also acknowledged the need for access to capital markets by the small and venture enterprises though the Govt. has to developed a regulatory framework to govern an OTC market ensuring that its transparent and public’s interest is safeguarded.
  To this end CMA claims its studying a proposal for an OTC market.
  
  The NSE not should view ASDAQ as a direct competitor since companies that will be listed here, would not have otherwise made it to the stock exchange and are actually likely to graduate to the NSE after meeting the minimum requirements.
  Companies that can be listed here include Wananchi Online, Coast Cables, Kapa Oil, Actis etc.