Kenyan Pundit

EDIT: This post should have gone up last week but it got “eaten.”

Apologies for the lack of posts, I have been traveling for the last week and a half and more travel is coming up. This doesn’t seem to be a good year for me to travel, however, if my bags aren’t missing I’m dealing with the most ignorant immigration officials who make you thank God that you have a country to come home to. Travel has become such a pain in the ass (especially for African folk) and that’s when you’re documented from here to Mars…at this rate, I will be walking around with a binder of documents starting with my birth certificate to prove that I’m actually a person.

Anyway, enough whining.

I’m happy to be back in Nairobi. Wish I could stay longer. Here to do some background work for Ushahidi and Mzalendo.

Already checked off my list of to-dos including great braids courtesy of Kenyatta market, and sausages galore. The clincher was a lunch of matumbo, kunde, ugali, and a cold Coke from a glass bottle all for the princely sum of Kshs 200.

The mood in Nairobi is generally subdued. There’s been zero talk of politics from the usual suspects (OK from my cabbie friends who normally have a steady stream of stories). Instead, people are focused on what they feel is the Safaricom IPO rip-off (especially those who took loans), price of fuel (did I have a good day or are the roads less cong

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Should be a great event, I will be attending and possibly speaking and registering for the event gets you an Ushahidi t-shirt and lots of other “schwag”…and you get to hear about possible opportunities to help with the next version of Ushahidi (we are trying to put African developers on the map, no pun intended..heheh). All the details are available here. Please spread the word to the techies in Nairobi!

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So I came across this post by Kenyan Entrepreneur and I was just as perturbed as he was.

Why would Google East Africa sign a deal with Wunderman (and who are they…can’t even locate a website?) rather than promote adwords accounts in East Africa? Is it difficult to do online transactions in East Africa (but then surely how are Mama Mikes et. al. surviving)? Are Kenyan companies difficult to sell to when Google approaches them directly? This deal doesn’t make sense.

Another point made by KE a while back…is Google being a little cheap with their gadget competition for East Africa where you stand to win $600 as a first prize. How about maybe a $1,000 or a contribution towards the student’s tuition? The top prize for high schoolers who participate in the Summer of Code jam in the U.S. is $4,500… The attention being paid to young developers in Africa is appreciated but I’m wondering whether the nature of the prize is sending a subliminal message about the quality expectations that Google have of East Africa vis-a-vis other parts of the world. Or maybe I’m just being touchy.

And then the deal with Safaricom. Why would anyone sign up for a “free” Safaricom address if you already have a free gmail account? No wonder the uptake been slow. Has anyone tried this?

It’s not all bad though, I hear the local mapping is going well and they are making Google Apps available for free to local universities.

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To everyone who took the time to navigate the registration requirement and vote for us at NetSquared, thank you, thank you, thank you again.

We made it to the finals and the winners will be announced next week…keep your fingers crossed!

We have been busy working on growing Ushahidi (details to come soon) and I’m so excited about the possibilities…nothing more inspiring than demonstrating what talent we have in Africa.

One last thing, we have some uber-cool Ushahidi t-shirts on sale, if you want to show support in other ways.

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Thanks for the emails, sms’s, comments etc. Me and the fam are safe and sound.

Most of the targets of the attacks have been those who were already vulnerable and living in the townships/poorer parts of town. That’s no comfort to us though, because the violence seems to be spiraling out of control with no end in sight. In the news this afternoon there was a report of a businessman who was killed because he hired foreigners and parts of down Joburg are a no-go. In addition, many of us, including yours truly, have hired “foreigners” in our homes/businesses etc. and are worried about their fate and the fate of their families.

There have been all sorts of attempts to analyze what has led to the current outbreak of violence and link it to various things like the high cost of living, crime levels, lack of service delivery by the government, and a third force. Politicians are especially jumping on the “criminals taking advantage” line.

I beg to differ…while poverty, etc. may be contributing factors…what is going on is out and out xenophobia (and at the risk of generalization)….they is no way around it. The interviews I have seen on TV with mobs laughing as their victims are dying, and openly saying that foreigners will be killed if they don’t leave have no other explanation. A call-in radio show by a reputable host that I was listening to yesterday had quite a number of callers agreeing with the rampaging mobs…these foreigners need to go. A few days ago, when the violence started in Alexandria, the Democratic Alliance (an opposition party) saw it best to respond by carrying out an investigation into how many government houses have been allocated to foreigners in Alexandria. They came up with a grand total of three. This was breaking news on the radio. Never mind that the allocations were to foreigners who were permanent residents in South Africa and entitled to housing benefits. These kinds of reactions by politicians, he media, and a general lets pin the problem on everyone else especially Mugabe/Mbeki are making things worse.

This is not something that has just suddenly erupted, xenophobia in South Africa has long been documented (since immigrants started arriving post-1994)….and in my experience it is very difficult to find any African immigrant in my circle who feels integrated or genuinely welcome here….most people carve out their only little niches and circles and focus on what brought them here, because it is really difficult to become “local”…even with effort.

At the moment, there is no sense of when and how this will end…just a desperate hope that it will be soon.

EDIT: For a more comprehensive view of the situation, read this post.

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