Author: Njeri Wangari

Kenya, and specifically Nairobi, has in recent months become the technology heartbeat of Africa with conferences, launches, meet ups, summits and unconferences all running in quick succession.

The beginning of the year saw the announcement of a new technology hub for all techies, hackers, investors and tech companies. The announcement was made by Erik Hersman (Hash) who runs the blog Whiteafrican, which focuses a lot more on technological advancements in IT though he terms it as a white African's view of the world.

This is what brought about the idea of the iHub,
A number of us in the Nairobi tech community have been discussing the need for a physical nexus for the tech community here for a couple years, so it’s great to finally be so close to uncorking the bottles and celebrating a big step forward for all of us.

That announcement was made on January 25th via his post, iHub: Nairobi’s Tech Innovation Hub is Here!

February 3rd marked day one of the Mobile East Africa Conference (MWEA10) held at the KICC in Nairobi. The 2 day event was aimed at harnessing the potential of the internet and applications on mobile devices. It was attended by various mobile developers,mobile company CEOs as well as other stakeholders in mobile telephony.

Bankelele one of the bloggers who was in attendance gave this detailed recap of the 2 days here .

Kahenya Kamunyu had this to say about the event

“The best conference I’ve attended so far. Very well organised.”
Kahenya Kamunyru, CEO, ViRN Instruments

Hash did a stream post of the conference while attending.

Wilfred Mworia of Afrinnovator blog also attended the conference and was one of the speakers

“Very enlightening”
Will Mworia, Founder, African Pixel & Afrinnovator

Kachwanya also covered the the conference in his Ten Conclusions blog post.

The iHub – Nairobi's technology hub – was launched on 3rd March bringing together over 200 tech lovers from Nairobi.Ndesanjo has given a review of the even with views from the various bloggers who attended.

Tandaa an initiative by the Kenya ICT Board with the sponsorship of Google Kenya office held a one day symposium on 8th March, the first in a bid to spur the interest in generation of local digital content.

ICANN, the body that governs the assignment of domain names is currently in Nairobi for a 6 day annual meeting – ICANN no.37.

The meetings which started on 8th will end on the 12th March. The choice of Nairobi over other African cities has largely been due to the high speed internet fiber links that are now available to Kenyans. This is a factor that many other IT event organizers have considered in their choice of venue.

However, the presence of too many heads of state has caused concern with the organising committee with the fear that it was causing major disruptions to the community members

Rebecca Wanjiku a technology journalist and blogger based in Kenya atended the annual ICANN meeting. Her posts on the 2 days can be read here and here

White African and Mworia have also written posts on this ongoing event.

Just 2 days after the ICANN 37 meeting is the AfriCamp – a forum that allows the participating youth to showcase their work in their respective regions. In addition, the camp includes training segments that will allow youth to acquire skills in creative social messaging techniques that they can apply to their work. The Youth Initiative sees added value in convening the AfriCamp to not only act as facilitator and sponsor, but most importantly, to raise the profile of the work young people are doing under challenging conditions.

The AfriCamp will bring young activists together so that they can learn from one another while we learn from them. It is integral for the YI to identify these local actors and collect this information to inform the OSI network. It will allow young activists to gain hands-on training in new media that could be translated to their advocacy efforts in their given fields. The participants will be recruited across the sub-Sahara Africa with ages ranging from 18-29 years.

The camp will take place at Lukenya, a camping site in the outskirts of Nairobi from the 14th to the 20th of March.
The camp is based in the barcamp principle of Unconference and will have the input of various youth from all over Africa

Some of Kenya’s well known bloggers like Mental Acrobatics and Mark Kaigwa will among participants

Pan Africa Media Conference 2010 an event being organized by one of Kenya’s biggest media houses, the Nation Media Group is set to take place in Nairobi on the 18th and 19th of March.

The aim of the event is to reflect on the past, present as well as look for any future prospects for Media in Africa. New Media is one of the things that will be discussed.

Ory Okolloh, a blogger and one of the forces behind Ushahidi – a crisis crowd sourcing project, will be the moderator.

Various other Kenyan bloggers like Rafiki Kenya , Rebecca Wanjiku, Intelligensia, Cold Tusker, Paula Kahumbu, Bankelele, Hash and myself(KenyanPoet) have been invited to participate in this conference.

I have written a post on this significant step for Kenyan bloggers in giving the future of media in Africa.

Plans for Barcamp Nairobi 2010 are in top gear with tentative dates of either 26th March or 12th – 13th June being voted for on the PBworks page.

Having been gone on a 1 year hiatus, there are suggestions to make the event a proper 2 day camp outside of Nairobi. Some of the topics that attendees would like to hear are: using GPS enabled cell phones to avoid traffic, cloud computing applications in Kenya, hardware hacking among others.

Lastly, Maker Faire Africa is coming to Kenya on the 6th & 7th of August this year.

The event is a celebration of African ingenuity, innovation and invention. It was first held in Accra Ghana, as a brain child of Emeka Okafor of Timbuktu Chronicles Blog.

All these technology events happening and only 3 months into the year is an indication that there will be an immense growth of the ICT space not just in Kenya but across many countries in Africa. We can only say ‘Watch this Space – the cyber space’

14th February, better known as Valentine’s day , the love mood was not only felt on the streets of Nairobi by the many red flowers, ladies dressed in all manner of red clothes, and offers in

every shop; The Sunday dailies were awash with stories of lovers with advertisements taking most of the space with the aim of giving one ideas on how to spoil their lover on that day.

The story was no different online.

Njeri who also calls herself La Femme reveals how she got flowers from her man, a surprise which she didn’t expect.

Valentine's Day is today. Happy Valentine's Day. It was a good day. I got flowers yesterday from Mr. Man. They were gorgeous and the message on the card was sweet. I absolutely loved them. Funny (or not so funny) thing is that Mr. Man had convinced me that he wasn't going to get me anything for Valentne's Day. I was straight up bummed. But later he said that he had to tell me that so that I wouldn't ruin the surprise. Yesterday was a happy day, I was animatedly excited. Thanks babe for the flowers:)
I got him a book. I hope he'll like it. I think he will, and a Valentine's Day card.

Reading her post, one can clearly tell that she is the reason why the day has never failed to disappoint.

P.K.W– Proud Kikuyu Woman’s valentine day was not such a joyful one, the man that sent her a card, wine and chocolate and who wants to marry her is not the man that she sees herself spending the rest of her life with.

The thing is that I’m already thinking of how to end it with the Man, because I don’t see his clan bringing goats and cows (actually these days it’s their equivalent in Kenya Shillings) to mine in exchange of me. We had agreed that the walk down the aisle can be done several years down the line, or even never, as long as the legal thing had been done so he’s not left free to ‘buy’ as many wives as he can afford. We had even set dates for the initial unofficial Meet the Family visits last December, before I suggested that we postpone for a later, unspecified date.

The day leaves her wondering if she will ever get married, turning 32 this August and the chances getting slimmer.

Inari Media chose the day to encourage the single ladies not to rush to ‘put a ring on it’.

Her article that lists all the privileges that a woman will lose if/when she agrees to a man’s proposal can easily make one change their mind. But as she warns at the beginning of the article, she herself might just be tripping up the isle of a registry office at some point in future.

No matter how much lip service either party pays to equality between the sexes, studies have shown that women will still do the bulk of the housework amongst co-habitating heterosexual couples. Not only that, but where health and earnings are concerned, marriage will actually be of greater benefit to a husband than to a wife. Should a woman have the temerity to breed, she will be the parent expected to manage the bulk of the childcare too. Even if they return to work after maternity leave, they will find themselves on the “Mummy Track,” possibly demoted, but definitely sidelined from greater career progression. Some unfortunate women even find themselves dismissed, and consequently find it difficult to find an employer willing to take on a woman with responsibilities outside the office.

Daniel Ngari choose to focus on polygamy by using King Solomon, South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma and our individual goals as his reference points.
His is an interesting exploration of our faults in marrying and sticking to our goals to the end yet we are all quick to judge those in polygamous marriages.

Tamaku who runs the Diary of a Gay Kenyan chose to celebrate his on 13th with his love George preferring not to risk being admonished on Sunday 14th.

A South African Blogger, pessimist Incarnate observed that there was a lot of vibrations on Valentines day according to Seismologists all around the world.

“I definitely felt the Earth move last night,” said Dawn Jarvis of The American Seismological Institute. “The mattress was bouncing and the springs were squeaking and it rocked my world……..”

While none of the affected could offer any explanation for the increased seismic activity, it should be noted that there was a definite correlation in the intensity of movement to the amount of chocolates, flowers, and Lacey red lingerie which were found in each home of those interviewed,

It is still on this lovers day that the Malawian president Bingu Wa Mutharika engaged his newly found love, former Minister of Tourism and Wildlife, Callista Chapola Chimombo at a colourful ceremony in the country's Capital City, Lilongwe.

As on Thursday 21st Jan, the government of Kenya was at its nerves end trying to raise over US$,400,000 in a bid to deport Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal to his home country, Jamaica using a hired plane. This was one of the many failed attempts to get al-Faisal out of the country due to his terrorist nature which was deemed a risk to the East African Country, Kenya.

Just who is Sheikh al –Faisal and why has his stay in Kenya caused the death of a police officer, a protester with several others nursing injuries and countless losses to business owners in a recent protest in Kenya's capital, Nairobi?

Born Trevor William Forest to a evangelical family in 1964, al-Faisal left Jaimaica for the UK in the 1980s.
According to Wikipedia, he is a radical Muslim cleric who preached in the United Kingdom until he was convicted of stirring up racial hatred and urging his followers to murder Jews, Hindus, Christians, and Americans.

El-Faisal was sentenced to nine years in prison while in Britain, of which he served four years before being deported to Jamaica in 2007.

On the New Years Eve to the year 2010 al-Faisal was arrested by the Kenya Police at a mosque in the Kenyan coastal town of Mombasa for preaching contrary to his tourist visa.

It is due to his “unjustified’ arrest that Muslims in Nairobi held violent demonstrations last week, Friday 15th January just outside the Jamia Mosque at the heart of the capital city. The demonstrations led to a bloody confrontation between the Muslims, the police and civilians who were opposed to al-Faisal’s presence in Kenya. A policeman and a protester were both shot. They both later succumbed to injuries while in hospital.

The news of the bloody protest first appeared online via twitter with many twitters in the Central Business District(CBD) giving updates and warnings on the chaos that had taken over the CBD as well as the amount of tear gas that had covered the city like a cloud of smoke.

A screenshot of tweets by http://twitter.com/Mwanikih. The tweets start from the bottom up giving a chronology of how the protests unfolded.

RT @robertalai: Checking out “Its Kenyans against Terror and fundamentalists” on Bidii Afrika: http://ning.it/5hIsIB ~ nice n truthful read!
10:24 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu

RT @hilum: AL Shabaab is in control of Nairobi now ama? ~ not for long i can assure u!
6:18 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu

RT @robertalai: @mwanikih a policeman was shot from the mosque. We were there. Its religious bigotry helped by akina Al Amin Kimathi #fb
6:16 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu

@soleaddict1 Trust me. And they are not a day older than 18 from what i can see. Radicalisation at its worst my friend!
5:55 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu in reply to soleaddict1

Guys chanting ”Kenya yetu”.
5:53 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu

Police are just standing by watching with their guns n dogs as 10 kids bring city to a standstill! Shameful!
5:47 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu

I see a start of Somali intolerance by Kenyans. Kimathi Street looks like Mogadishu!
5:30 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu

This is getting serious, a hooded guy just stabbed some guy n ran into the mosque. This madness needs to stop!
5:16 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu

Methinks the muslims protesting are Al Shabab. Teargas is doing nothing for them! Looks like they've been thru some training…#scary!
4:15 PM Jan 15th from web
4

How can my nose be running faster than my legs?
2:49 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu

With all due respect, u dont migrate from Somalia to come n start messing with my life. Just saying!
2:23 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu

Kwani where's the GSU?
2:16 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu

All this for the illegal Jamaican cleric? Surely!
2:11 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu

City Market traders have now joined the cops and fighting the demonstrating muslims!
2:05 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu

Stay away from CBD, muslims n police in runnin battles. Tear gas in plenty
1:51 PM Jan 15th from Snaptu

The BBC website first broke the story of al-Faisal deportation from Kenya on the 7th of January with information that he(al-Faisal) was being deported to Gambia upon request after his arrest.

Since then, it has been a diplomatic charade that has left the Kenyan Immigration Minister, Otieno Kajwang’ between a rock and a hard surface.

Abu Nihla who runs a Muslim blog, Muslims In Kenya posted the news of al-Faisal’s arrest on 6th January under the headline Sh Abdullah el-Feisal is being held by the Kenyan police. He has since written 4 other posts giving updates on the story with the latest being a video calling out to all Muslims to join together in defending the rights of al-Faisal.

Some of the responses that he received regarding the Kenyan Muslims protest for al-Faisal’s release were:-

Munir on January 9, 2010 at 7:19 pm | ReplyMunir
50Rate This
Sheikh Abdullah Al-Fasal is a convicted terrorist. Why would peace loving Muslims protest his expulsion from Kenya?

on January 21, 2010 at 12:58 pm | ReplyAlmanurar
00Rate This
That proves that Muslims are not peace loving. They need to change their mindsets so that we can have a peaceful world

on January 11, 2010 at 12:24 am | ReplyTruth Detector
40Rate This
A person who incites others to murder should be locked up. Deportation is too good of punishment for a murderer.

Potash, a Kenyan writer and blogger wrote an open letter to Kenyan Muslims on Monday 18th January in his blog ‘A Kenyan Urban Narrative’

On Friday last, a section of you took to the streets of Nairobi to protest against the deportation of a fellow Muslim, the Jamaican born cleric Abdullah al-Faisal. The Kenyan media, which many of you have accused of fuelling Islamophobia and I am with you on that one, informs me that six police men were wounded in that protest. One of them has since succumbed to his injuries. That policeman was shot, isn’t that strange?
Read the rest of his letter here.

The TERROR FREE SOMALIA FOUNDATION in its blog, revealed
that Somalia released a song whose lyrics said it would march to Nairobi to make the calculation for what cops do to the Muslims in Kenya there.

“We will cross the border and into Kenya, Insha Allah we are able to be in Nairobi,” said the six-minute duration of the song backed by a gunshot weapons. “When we've got there, we will kill, we have the guns, just guns. Army of God was in the street, slowly but surely, Insha Allah we will soon be there,” the lyrics go.

This is on their latest post Al-Shabaab Terrorist Threatens Attack on Nairobi.

Alex Thurston in his blog Sahelblog gave a rundown of the personalities that shaped the week with the story of al-Faisal and the Kenyan Muslim protest being among them.

A nairobian’s perspective gave his personal take on the protest in his post Muslims Protest the detention of Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal in Kenya on 16th January

Other blogs that broke the story were, Musoma Tanzania, BrandKemistry and Tea and politics

Onyango Oloo gives a personal account of the his experience during the protests, in the blog San Oo Aung’s Blog
As at 6pm yesterday (21st) a Kenyan tweeter broke the news that al-Faisal had just been deported out of the country.

http://twitter.com/TerryanneC

Ok..Abdulah Al Faizal has finally been deported
about 1 hour ago from web

apparently he left abroad a gulf stream jet according to govt reports..council of Imams have called off planned demo's for tomorrow
about 1 hour ago from web

Kenyan newspapers confirmed that today(Friday 22nd ) in their various headlines although details of his flight ticket, as well as plane he took, are yet to be revealed.

It is also yet to be confirmed that he did indeed, leave the country.