The IT, media and telecommunications of the Republic of Kenya

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The Kenya Communications Bill, 1997
Press Release, 14 April 1997. Those with pecuniary interest in the pending Kenya Communications Bill welcome the government's liberalization of the telecommunications sector, although more slowly than agreed with the IMF. But it expresses regret that the Bill does not provide for corporate interest influence over telecommunications regulation.
Museums Lose Vital Computers
The Daily Nation, 17 February 2001. The National Museums of Kenya has lost vital information on the location of its fossils as well as data on protected sites countrywide. Also lost is information on the Museum's land matters as well as site registration, which were all contained in two computers stolen last Wednesday.

The press and journalists

African Journalist of the Year: Pamela Mulumby
By George Nyabuga, 9 April 1999. Mulumby is from East African Standard (Nairobi), and the award marks women's progress in Africa.
Readers Confused As Police Seize Newspapers
By Ogova Ondego, The Nation (Nairobi), 20 May 2001. Daily newspapers were impounded by police and City Council askaris. Business licenses issued by the City Council were being torn up by the officers. Vendors would be charged with obstruction of the pavements.

Internet

Kenya and Low Cost Email
From Jeff Cochrane, USAID, 24 November 1997. In US perspective, governments often impose taxes that inhibit the development of private sector digital communications, so tax relief welcome.
Kenyans Flock Cyber-Cafes To Make International Calls
The Nation 6 February 2001, Most Kenyans are flocking mushrooming cyber-cafe to make cheap long-distance calls through the Internet (netphones). The liberalisation of the telecommunications sector has pushed the industry's growth fast, far beyond the capacity and ability of the regulatory authority. Telkom Kenya, the successor of the defunct Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporation, still enjoys a monopoly in the provision of satellite link for Internet connectivity.
ISPs seek licence for exchange
By Washington Akumu, Daily Nation, Tuesday 27 March 2001. Kenya's main Internet service providers last week changed tack in their fight for a controversial local Internet exchange when they applied to the Communications Commission of Kenya for a licence, but the real struggle for the ISPs may just be beginning, as Telkom Kenya is likely to mount a strong opposition to the application.

Radio and TV

Ethnic FM? Kenya Needs a Tribal House of Lords
By Mungai Kihanya, The East African (Nairobi), 21 September 2000. President Moi will outlaw private vernacular radio stations because they were perpetuating tribal chauvinism in Kenya. This is not the first time that the government has attempted to remove vernacular languages from the airwaves; in the mid 1980s, the state-owned Kenya Broadcasting Corporation had been ordered to stop playing vernacular music on its Kiswahili national service.
Kenyans in Dilemma Over TV's Bad Influence Over Youth
By Tervil Okoko, Panafrican News Agency, 14 October 2000. The TV is a fairly recent phenomenon in Kenya, and until the 1970s only a few very well-to-do Kenyans owned a set. Now, thanks to western influence and despite poverty, one in every 1,000 Kenyans owns a set. But the tragic consequences of watching a US program is causing people to review their relations with the television set. Concern about the effects of western civilisation on the moral fabric on the youth.

Telephone

Advert in the Daily Nation of Nairobi: 90% of Kencell users talk about their bathrooms.
Jeff Cochrane, USAID, 24 August 2000. Kencell is the second cellular operator in Kenya, owned by Vivendi and a local holding company for branches of Firestone, Everready, several banks, an auto retailer, a tea processor, and others. The term mwananchi (MWA-na-N-chi) is Kiswahili for ordinary citizen. Kencell seems to say that their cellular service is available to the lower income groups.