Kenya's Anti-IEBC Protests.

My 2 cents opinion on the IEBC

Kenya currently is facing the future with much trepidation. Although a lot of hopes and expectations have been invested in the current processes of democratic change and its capacity to engineer good governance, however, the possible outcome of the processes still remain uncertain and open to conjecture. What is clear though from the historical experiences of Kenya and other countries and regions of the world is that democracy and good governance are not given, rather they are products of the concrete political struggles waged by the dominated groups in the society.

Contrary to what other people might want the nation to think. Those thousands of people constantly showing-up for the teargas Monday, despite knowing the imminent danger that they are exposing themselves to and their families are communicating something about the current regime and electoral process in Kenya. Either there is something inherently wrong with the Kenyan IEBC, current regime or there is something wrong with the masses. Let's cut some slack here most of those people attending the demonstrations are educated people with sound mind so don't give me the nusu mkate thing or because of the so called tribal kingpin.

Secondly, I believe the Kenyan police institution has learned individuals managing it and are very conversant with international human rights laws and the mandate of the Kenya police which are: To maintain law and order, preserve peace, protect life and property, prevent and detect crime, apprehend offenders and enforce all laws and regulations with which it is charged. Aren't there non-violent ways the police can contain the demonstrations? or killing the citizenry is the only way to contain the demonstrations, if I may ask?

Fig 1: Ben Ngare and IEBC protestor being beaten by the police

The central purpose of government in a democracy is to be the role model for, and protector of, equality and freedom and our associated human rights. I believe it's the democratic right of every Kenyan to protest on certain issues they deem not right, these does not mean they have to be killed for that, if there are miscreant within the demonstrations they should be singled out and arrested but these is not what we are seeing. As much as the government is blaming the opposition on the deaths of demonstrators we are seeing, the government is also equally responsible for those deaths because they have the mandate and opportunity to prevent them. The sad thing though is that we didn't learn any lessons in the 2007/2008 post election violence and it pains me to the bone when people bring in bigoted tribal nonsense of the Kikuyu, Kalenjin and Luos in this IEBC protest". Peace to Kenya from a frustrated Kenyan.

Africa is rising – don't be left behind

A few weeks ago a friend sends me a link to the Tony Elumelu Foundation asking me if I knew anything about the foundation. As a young African social scientist who is interested on the Anti-Foreign Aid debate and with a special interest on social entrepreneurship in this continent, I quickly opened my laptop to look into anything I would find on Tony Elumelu Foundation and to my utter surprise the foundation was just announcing its first 1,000 African entrepreneurs for their Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP)

I was so shocked to see another African taking his skills, resources and opportunity to build a new Africa as I like to call it, following the foot-steps of well known African philanthropist such as the likes of Mo-Ibrahim of Mo Ibrahim Foundation. Over and above I was happy to add to my list of Africans who are creating ripples to the continents issues. As the list is growing day by day with the increase in new shift of Africans trying to empower the continent and build an entrepreneurial spirit and a new Africa.

Reading through the Tony Elumelu Foundation's activities, It made me start question the possibility of a new Africa. An Africa that is moving away from the dependency syndrome of the western countries to an Africa that is coming up with homegrown solutions to solve it current economic and leadership challenges and the emergence of new African role models such as Richard Turere, Lupita Nyongo, Joshua Siaw, Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie, Ashish Thakkar and the likes of William kamkwamba. I must mention that although Africa is the origin of all life, its styles, cultures, economies, nature, and people have long been underestimated and overlooked. However, Africa is gradually overcoming its challenges and, today, is ripe with opportunity and promise. Africa is on the rise.

Let’s take a closer look at the entrepreneurial Africa as a whole for instance. With the likes of institutions such as Tony Elumelu Foundation in Nigeria, Unreasonable Eastafrica in Uganda, African Entrepreneur Collective in Rwanda, Anzisha Prize in South Africa and the Growth Hub in Kenya etc, We are starting to see young Africans such as Mr. Mupuya Andrew of Yeli Paper Bags in Uganda not only creating a source of lively-hood to his fellow youths and Africans but also in a small way help create employment to the over 200 million people aged 15 to 24 years in Africa who about 60% of them are unemployed youths.

I also totally concur with what Alan Kasujja says: "....... I'm aware that Africa's had big dreams before. Nearly 60 years ago our leaders promised that independence would bring wealth and stability. It didn't. But a new African generation is working from the premise that it's the grassroots that matter most". an extract from BBC: My Africa: The competing visions of Africa's future.

Lastly, do you agree that "the young people in Africa are taking more control of their futures, and that they all believe that the new Africa requires a completely different mind-set to that of their parents' generation? that a new Africa is rising?". I would love to hear you thoughts on this.

Image from http://teenentrepreneur.co.za/teen-entrepreneurship-olympiad-2014/

War is never a solution

The situation in South Sudan today scares the hell out of me. For so many years of war, the nation (by then Sudan) was torn apart, it lost so many innocent beings, children at very young age were taught how to shoot and kill while their age mates around the world were learning how to read and write and destruction was the only word left to describe it. The stories of Jals’, Achaks’ and Dengs’ of those times made some of us know the value of peace and hope and at the same time question our moral integrity as human beings. -For how long can we as humans inflict pain and suffering to our own kind? To what gain and to what extend? Is war really the option and the only option? And what can we learn from history of the countless un-necessary wars and conflicts? These were some of the countless questions that run through my mind.

As a young child growing up, those stories of the Lost Boys of Sudan was also a motivation to have faith, to believe in something that one day everything will be alright, that peace was not an abstract idea/concept but something that can be attained. When the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed many of the Kenyan like me, we were happy that at least our neighbor Sudan can start to rebuild his home. It was during the same year that someone gave me a beautiful present a book called “What is the what” by Dave Eggers about a young Sudanese boy called Achak Deng. His story and those of Emmanuel Jal continued to pose the same questions to me about war and the integrity of us humans.

But this was not only specific to the Sudanese, Africa to be specific and the world in general has gone through decades and decades of war and conflict one after the other and many at times these wars have been given religious, political and economic justifications. “The difference between us and them” has always been the hidden words between the dotted lines but as William J. Clinton once said “The real differences around the world today are not between Jews and Arabs; Protestants and Catholics; Muslims, Croats, and Serbs. The real differences are between those who embrace peace and those who would destroy it; between those who look to the future and those who cling to the past; between those who open their arms and those who are determined to clench their fists”.

To my dear South Sudan brethren’s, please let us not destroy what so many has sacrificed for PEACE. As Bertrand Russell once said, “War does not determine who is right it only determine who is left”.

May peace prevail in South Sudan.

INUKA-KENYA: What entrepreneurs in Kenya need

Given 54 hours to change your many business ideas into reality what can you do? Well that is what Startup Weekend Nairobi was all about. A 54 hour event that was organized by the Nailab an incubator and accelerator next to the Nairobi iHub, and Growth Africa. Taking lead was Linet Kwamboka, a tech event organizer.

Generally, startup Weekends are weekend-long, hands-on experiences where entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs can find out if startup ideas are viable. Beginning with open mic pitches on Friday, attendees bring their best ideas and inspire others to join their team. Over Saturday and Sunday teams focus on customer development, validating their ideas, practicing LEAN Startup Methodologies and building a minimal viable product. On Sunday evening teams demo their prototypes and receive valuable feedback from a panel of experts and also win prices for the overall best ideas.

Startup Weekend Nairobi started on the 24th February to 26th February at Nailab Nairobi Kenya. As an enthusiast of social enterprise and an aspiring entrepreneur, I had to leave my job on Thursday evening and travel about 380km over night from Kisumu to Nairobi with my friend in-order to be among the many participants who would pitch their ideas. Six participants and volunteers from Copenhagen, Denmark were also present and working together with the teams in Nairobi to see their ideas come to fruition. Among them was Alex Farcet of Startup Bootcamp who was the event facilitator.

The weekend began with open mic pitches on Friday evening where 56 participants who were mainly programmers, developers, marketers, designers, business mangers and startup enthusiasts pitched their ideas that evening. My friend Jayne Du whom we traveled with from Kisumu was the 11th participant and the first lady to pitch our idea of having a platform where people in informal settlement areas especially in Kisumu can interact with the NGO’s working in their areas through an online forum, both the community members and the NGO staff can interact giving feedback on the Impacts of the NGO’s activities in their area as well as the forum acting a hub where events happening in the area are communicated.

From these pitches 14 ideas were selected and teams were formed, unfortunately our ideas was number 15 only lacking 2 votes to make it to the top 14. These were the ideas the wannabe entrepreneurs worked on:

1. Cloud Matatu – A mobile application to rate matatu’s (public transport) and report bad drivers.
2. Inuka – Entrepreneurship platform to connect Kenyans entrepreneurs.
3. Pesa Rahisi – An online /mobile payment money transfer system that is cross platform and international.
4. Tusemezane – A two-way SMS platform for election communication by politicians and their electorate.
5. PayRent – A mobile system based on Mpesa to pay rent.
6. MVerify – A platform to verify documents that include certificates, references, land title deeds.
7. Christian Dating site with a difference - Dating site for Christians.
8. Masomo Moja - Making education affordable and available for teachers, students and parents.
9. Jiamulie – Traffic prevention solution with features of crime reporting and information sourcing.
10. Patahao – Easy way to build/buy/rent houses according to your needs.
11. Success solutions – Advertisement space on idle computer screens.
12. iMedic – Patient status data capture and sharing tool.
13. iBambe – Facebook/mobile web for sharing playlists.
14. Darasani – Tutor support system.

Our team Inuka Kenya being the largest team with about 22 participants immediately started working on our idea, dividing ourselves into smaller groups. The programmers creating the website, the marketers seeing on how they will promote the idea, the designers like I working on the logo and the rest of the business practitioners’ working on the site content. Over Saturday and Sunday, teams focus on customer development, validating their ideas, practicing LEAN Startup Methodologies and building a minimal viable product.

On Sunday evening teams demo their prototypes and services receiving valuable feedback from a panel of experts/Juries that included Nancy Wong from Innovation for Africa, Mbugua Njihia, Kamal Budabhati CEO of Craft Silicon, Eddy Verbeek of Florensis Kenya and Johnni Kjelsgaard of Growth Africa.

Inuka Kenya ‘inuka’ meaning ‘arising’ in Swahili was the winning idea after a long vigorous search and thanks for everyone in our team for the tireless efforts that they all put into. According to judge Kamal Budabhati there is a big need in Kenya to connect entrepreneurs and share knowledge amongst them and that is exactly what Inuka wants to achieve. “We want to offer entrepreneurs a networking platform where they can find mentors. We want to see them grow and get out of poverty”, said Jayne Du from Inuka. “Also, most platforms are really tech-focussed, but for instance agriculture is a much bigger sector here in Kenya”, she said. Her colleague Geoffrey Gitonga Wanjoi said that they will use the €500 prize to expand their operations.