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.