I can imagine what will happen when the fiber lands and we can all afford live streaming and real broadband.....
Thursday, January 29, 2009
The gadgets came in very handy....
I can imagine what will happen when the fiber lands and we can all afford live streaming and real broadband.....
The new face of journalism.....
If you have ever wondered where journalism id headed, its going citizen way. People are capturing images and sounds on their phones, they are no longer depending on mainstream media for information and images.
People are able to share these images via bluetooth or any other technology with their friends.
Soon, you will have people reporting for their own "citizen media", afterall, bloggers have shown the way.
It is a win for journalism and a challenge to mainstream journalists.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
....and the smoke got thicker
The smoke showed that it was serious, after all, there were gas cylinders at the supermarket.
Still....the fire brigade had not marshaled its troops.....
The smoke showed no signs of subsiding....
The fire started just like a joke.....
The busy Kenyatta avenue was swamped with hundreds of people, what started as a "small fire" threatened to get out of control.
The smoke could be seen from the windows at Woolworths house and Nakumatt workers seemingly trying to control it.
It took the Fire Brigade half an hour to cross from Tom Mboya and attend to the fire. Maybe they though it was minor and that the workers could deal with it.....so much for the taxes paid to the City Council of Nairobi.
Monday, January 19, 2009
The day Mutua was booed....
Love him, hate him, Ezekiel Mutua is a tough guy. He stands up to people as they boo him and make him feel belittled.
As the Director of Public Information at the Ministry of Information and Communication, Mutua had a tough task of defending the government in the debate over the Kenya Communications Act, which has now been overshadowed by controversial media clauses.
After serious arguments between the panelists, who included deputy speaker Farah Maalim and lawyer Mbugua Mureithi, Mutua stood to speak to an already charged crowd, seemingly not ready to listen.
"It is assumed that when you join government you become stupid; what happened to all the wisdom of private sector?" Mutua asked, rhetorically I guess, though the participants answered to the affirmative.
Perhaps the crowd was hostile and intolerant because Mutua was revealing facts that no one was willing to embrace.
For instance, he said that the controversial section Section 88 has been there for 11 years and that is why it is not part of the amendments. He asked; what has changed? and people booed and heckled.
He further went on to say that the recent efforts in the name of freedom is calculated to give the big boys and media owners freedom to make money and take home between 1.8 to 2.4 million per month while the foot soldiers languish with rubbish wages.
For that comment, the participants sought to know how much he earns as director, which reminded me of Maina Kiai. He never answered so we did not get to know.
Next, Mutua cjallenged media owners to publish their editorial policies, so that the public can know for instance, if a media house is pro government or pro opposition, then is will be easier to tell.
For that, the booing grew louder......
Then there is the issue of the media council and its alleged lack of teeth to bite, ostensibly because of lack of funding.
At the end, Mutua took a few minutes to ask for people to tell both sides of the story and to always give the other side a chance to be heard.
But he told his message anyway......
As the Director of Public Information at the Ministry of Information and Communication, Mutua had a tough task of defending the government in the debate over the Kenya Communications Act, which has now been overshadowed by controversial media clauses.
After serious arguments between the panelists, who included deputy speaker Farah Maalim and lawyer Mbugua Mureithi, Mutua stood to speak to an already charged crowd, seemingly not ready to listen.
"It is assumed that when you join government you become stupid; what happened to all the wisdom of private sector?" Mutua asked, rhetorically I guess, though the participants answered to the affirmative.
Perhaps the crowd was hostile and intolerant because Mutua was revealing facts that no one was willing to embrace.
For instance, he said that the controversial section Section 88 has been there for 11 years and that is why it is not part of the amendments. He asked; what has changed? and people booed and heckled.
He further went on to say that the recent efforts in the name of freedom is calculated to give the big boys and media owners freedom to make money and take home between 1.8 to 2.4 million per month while the foot soldiers languish with rubbish wages.
For that comment, the participants sought to know how much he earns as director, which reminded me of Maina Kiai. He never answered so we did not get to know.
Next, Mutua cjallenged media owners to publish their editorial policies, so that the public can know for instance, if a media house is pro government or pro opposition, then is will be easier to tell.
For that, the booing grew louder......
Then there is the issue of the media council and its alleged lack of teeth to bite, ostensibly because of lack of funding.
At the end, Mutua took a few minutes to ask for people to tell both sides of the story and to always give the other side a chance to be heard.
But he told his message anyway......
Saturday, January 17, 2009
The women got to shake....
So there was this party last month in my shags and I was supposed to post some photos.
Here, the women in my shags got a chance to dance.
We love parties!!
Monday, January 05, 2009
The police: We can see you.....
If you thought you can get away with it...sorry. The police are silent but you dare commit an offence and they will puounce on you. They even have an official camera person to record all the incidences.
At least theyu will not clobber you senseless...
The most interesting partcipant...
These guys were interesting, he was in a suit and tie holding a placard, and the others were praying, in the middle of the chaos. Shows commitment.
Palestinian match in London
The match was highly attended, with posters saying all manner and sorts of things, I am imagining Israel would have come out with e huge poster saying; WE HAVE A THICK SKIN.
I was just impressed by the amount of money that had benn put in place and the energy shown by the demonstrators.
Surely it made a point to the PM
I was just impressed by the amount of money that had benn put in place and the energy shown by the demonstrators.
Surely it made a point to the PM
Artificial sun....
Ever wondered why many premier league encounters dont get cancelled coz of frozen pitches? Apart from underground heating, they have artificial sun...every day...
Why it s hard to sympathize with the media
As a journalist, it is very easy to be swallowed into the bandwagon calling for actions to amend the Kenya Communications Act, which the media hoped it would not be signed.
But most of us shouting from the top of our heads do not even know much about the history of the process. It has been a long process since 1998 when the Kenya Communications Act came into force. The ICT policy was published in 2006 and since then the amendment
We do not even know that the media owners did not consider it as priority then, to send high level officials from the media houses to the multi-stakeholder forums.
I recall at one time we were laughing that the only media official, apart from those who were covering the event, was from DSTv.
Of course my stint at the Kenya ICT Action Network allowed me to engage with the ICT industry in regard to the ICT policy and the subsequent law.
What would have happened, if Linus Gitahi, Nation Media Group CEO and other media heavy weights were there from the first day of the multi-stakeholder deliberations? What if all those concerns were tackled at another level, maybe the wording would be different.
Since December, the media owners have met more times than they have probably met in the last three years. Too bad the result did not go their way.
This should be a lesson to the media owners, to be more engaged not only in covering the functions but in the deliberations. Yes, the process can be tough and involving, and to some extent full of gibberish but it saves a lot of last minute troubles.
In my opinion, this was a fight more for the media owners than ordinary journalists. The open sides that radio stations took during last elections was more of an issue of editorial policy than individual journalists. I mean the policy that the owners come out and say we support certain parties, not the story done because the journalist received a handout. The debate has been going on for sometime.
For us journalists, we can not even champion our own cause. How do you walk out to protest against a bill that affects telecommunications equipment when you can't protest against rubbish wages and crappy working environments.
What would happen if we wanted to protest against a media house that fires 60 journalists without notice, you go to work one day and you find a letter and a cheque and instructions to the security team that they should not let you in. Just because the media house has enough money to pay off three months salary, there is nothing you can do.
If the journalists wanted to take to the streets, would the media houses even cover the event?
That is why Gitahi and his team needed to take to the streets and protest if they felt aggrieved. It is true that if the equipment is confiscated, then journalists will be out of a job media houses don't need such drastic measures to kick journalists out.
I see this as a battle for the media owners because if they perceived it as important, they would have allocated a team from all the media houses to deal with the issues.
It is also easy to be led to believe that these rules do not exist elsewhere, I was reading the Tanzanian Act and it is far more stringent than what we are complaining about.
UK, Australia and majority of the EU have these rules, and that is why you see there is no much of convincing cries from the international community. This is because there is need for some level of regulation.
But most of us shouting from the top of our heads do not even know much about the history of the process. It has been a long process since 1998 when the Kenya Communications Act came into force. The ICT policy was published in 2006 and since then the amendment
We do not even know that the media owners did not consider it as priority then, to send high level officials from the media houses to the multi-stakeholder forums.
I recall at one time we were laughing that the only media official, apart from those who were covering the event, was from DSTv.
Of course my stint at the Kenya ICT Action Network allowed me to engage with the ICT industry in regard to the ICT policy and the subsequent law.
What would have happened, if Linus Gitahi, Nation Media Group CEO and other media heavy weights were there from the first day of the multi-stakeholder deliberations? What if all those concerns were tackled at another level, maybe the wording would be different.
Since December, the media owners have met more times than they have probably met in the last three years. Too bad the result did not go their way.
This should be a lesson to the media owners, to be more engaged not only in covering the functions but in the deliberations. Yes, the process can be tough and involving, and to some extent full of gibberish but it saves a lot of last minute troubles.
In my opinion, this was a fight more for the media owners than ordinary journalists. The open sides that radio stations took during last elections was more of an issue of editorial policy than individual journalists. I mean the policy that the owners come out and say we support certain parties, not the story done because the journalist received a handout. The debate has been going on for sometime.
For us journalists, we can not even champion our own cause. How do you walk out to protest against a bill that affects telecommunications equipment when you can't protest against rubbish wages and crappy working environments.
What would happen if we wanted to protest against a media house that fires 60 journalists without notice, you go to work one day and you find a letter and a cheque and instructions to the security team that they should not let you in. Just because the media house has enough money to pay off three months salary, there is nothing you can do.
If the journalists wanted to take to the streets, would the media houses even cover the event?
That is why Gitahi and his team needed to take to the streets and protest if they felt aggrieved. It is true that if the equipment is confiscated, then journalists will be out of a job media houses don't need such drastic measures to kick journalists out.
I see this as a battle for the media owners because if they perceived it as important, they would have allocated a team from all the media houses to deal with the issues.
It is also easy to be led to believe that these rules do not exist elsewhere, I was reading the Tanzanian Act and it is far more stringent than what we are complaining about.
UK, Australia and majority of the EU have these rules, and that is why you see there is no much of convincing cries from the international community. This is because there is need for some level of regulation.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
The problem with the bill
The bill empowers the Minister, in the interest of public security or tranquility, to unilaterally determine and by order in writing to direct –
“(a) Any officer duly authorized in that behalf to take temporary possession of any telecommunication apparatus or any radio communication station or apparatus within Kenya, and – (b) In the case of a radio communication, that any communication or class of communication shall or shall not be emitted from any radio communication station or apparatus taken under this section; or
(c) In the case of telecommunication, that any communication within Kenya from any person or class of persons relating to any particular object shall be intercepted and disclosed to such person as may be specified in the order; or
(d) In the case of postal services, that any postal articles or class or description of postal articles in the course of transmission by post within Kenya shall be intercepted or detained or shall be delivered to any officer mentioned in the order or shall be disposed in such manner as the Minister may direct; or (e) In the case of broadcasting and any broadcasting apparatus or any radio, television, cable or satellite broadcasting or signal distribution or apparatus within Kenya-
(i) That no broadcasting shall be broadcast from any radio communication station or apparatus taken under this section; or (ii) That any signal within Kenya from any person or class of persons relating to any specified subject shall be intercepted and disclosed to such person as may be specified in the order.
“(a) Any officer duly authorized in that behalf to take temporary possession of any telecommunication apparatus or any radio communication station or apparatus within Kenya, and – (b) In the case of a radio communication, that any communication or class of communication shall or shall not be emitted from any radio communication station or apparatus taken under this section; or
(c) In the case of telecommunication, that any communication within Kenya from any person or class of persons relating to any particular object shall be intercepted and disclosed to such person as may be specified in the order; or
(d) In the case of postal services, that any postal articles or class or description of postal articles in the course of transmission by post within Kenya shall be intercepted or detained or shall be delivered to any officer mentioned in the order or shall be disposed in such manner as the Minister may direct; or (e) In the case of broadcasting and any broadcasting apparatus or any radio, television, cable or satellite broadcasting or signal distribution or apparatus within Kenya-
(i) That no broadcasting shall be broadcast from any radio communication station or apparatus taken under this section; or (ii) That any signal within Kenya from any person or class of persons relating to any specified subject shall be intercepted and disclosed to such person as may be specified in the order.
The media and the KCA bill fiasco
Media or press freedom is considered one of the fundamental tenets of democracy. Any government that wants to label itself as a dictatorship needs to do one thing: gag the press or show attempts of muzzling the media.
The media will make sure that the debate gathers international momentum. That every official government function that the president, vice president or the prime minister attends, there will be a question about press freedom.
Forget the fact that the media is also misleading, the bill is being referred to as the media bill, ICT bill among other titles that it has been given. Whatever the bill it is, no one seems to care much.
By the way, there is the media council bill (formerly the media bill) which is pending in parliament and the freedom of information bill, which is seeking to repeal the official secrets act.
That is why it seems that the current confrontation between the media and the government is only round one, there is more to come. One thing is clear; in this case, the government will not win.
If you doubt it, sample this; the activists/ protestors were released a few hours after arrest and I guess if it was any other protestor, they would have spent a night in jail.
But the ultimate protest by the media will be a whole day black out. A whole day without radio, TV or newspaper; it will be an odd day.
But again, the media is driven by capitalist interests and that dark day would mean immense loses for the media.
So, lets wait and see.........
The media will make sure that the debate gathers international momentum. That every official government function that the president, vice president or the prime minister attends, there will be a question about press freedom.
Forget the fact that the media is also misleading, the bill is being referred to as the media bill, ICT bill among other titles that it has been given. Whatever the bill it is, no one seems to care much.
By the way, there is the media council bill (formerly the media bill) which is pending in parliament and the freedom of information bill, which is seeking to repeal the official secrets act.
That is why it seems that the current confrontation between the media and the government is only round one, there is more to come. One thing is clear; in this case, the government will not win.
If you doubt it, sample this; the activists/ protestors were released a few hours after arrest and I guess if it was any other protestor, they would have spent a night in jail.
But the ultimate protest by the media will be a whole day black out. A whole day without radio, TV or newspaper; it will be an odd day.
But again, the media is driven by capitalist interests and that dark day would mean immense loses for the media.
So, lets wait and see.........
Thursday, November 27, 2008
A lesson in geography...
In my first year of high school, the first geography lesson was to examine why we think the earth is circular or not. When you get into a room overlooking the ocean, or when in the middle of the ocean in a wobbly small boat, that lesson comes back.
Then there are the mountains, ranges or whatever the hills bordering the ocean in Mauritius are made of. It could be out of volcanic activity, folding or faulting. My geography teacher would be very disappointed that I can not differentiate which is which.
Geography comes in hardy here, though it is not a matter of life and death...you do not have to know.....
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