You’ll find me on Facebook
Peterson (in yellow) has just begun setting up the beachfront corner he and his colleagues maintain during the high season at Kilifi, next door to the Baobab beach resort. A few curio shacks, some local art, a massage and salon comprise their services to the expected influx of tourists taking a break from the winter […]
VoIP centers in Old Mombasa
We saw this shopfront while following our friend Ahmed through the narrow gallis of Old Town. Wouldn’t you think it might be a cybercafe offering you a chance to go online? We did so too, but no, its a small room with a table top full of boxes and switches. He offers only VoIP based […]
Socially networked mystery shopfront
We spotted this closed shopfront just before entering Mtwapa – a midsize town about 10km from Mombasa, when returning from a day trip north to Kilifi today. There was no signage to tell us whether it was a cyber cafe or internet center of some sort. But we’re sure they are extremely networked socially.
21st century Kenyan
Lies, damned lies and statistics: how mythinformation can go viral for mobile data
Mark Kaigwa‘s comment on my previous post exploring the future of cyber cafes in Kenya made me take a deeper look at the data around mobile phones, internet access and of course, extremely affordable Android based smartphones. Perhaps it was not just in the urban areas that cyber cafes were facing a challenge to their […]
Going solar as mainstream consumer choice
This shelf of alternate power supply equipment displayed in a Nairobi department store caught my eye. It was in the consumer product section along with fridges, washing machines, TVs and a host of small appliances. It was the first time I’d seen such a wide variety – batteries, solar panels, lamps – so casually displayed […]
The mobile, the media and the money: empowering Kenyans for Kenya
If I were to go by the majority of the mainstream global media articles on the subject of the drought in East Africa, I would think that only citizens in the USA and across Europe were contributing assistance for food aid. Yet my twitter feed is full of stories of how much Kenyans have raised […]
Kenya’s Kadogo Economy
Charcoal seller Margaret Nyambura, a widowed mother of four, used Sh100 we had given her to shop for food and household goods that would last her family three days. Her priority was cooking oil and maize flour, which cost her Sh20 and Sh10 respectively. Each was measured in portions to fit her money. She bought […]
