Archive | September, 2009

Feature: Wahu Kagwi (5 Music Videos)

Wahu Kenyan Artiste

Wahu Kenyan Artiste

Wahu is a former model and University of Nairobi student, graduating in mathematics. She started her musical career in 2000. Her first three singles were “Niangalie”, “Esha” and “Liar”. Wahu released her first major hit, “Sitishiki” around 2005 . Her music has been produced by the Ogopa DJ’s . She is married to Nameless, another award-winning Kenyan musician. They have a daughter,Tumiso Nyakwea, to whom she dedicated her biggest hit to date “Sweet Love”.

You can vote for Wahu at the Mama Africa Awards follow this link www.mama.mtvbase.com – go to BEST VIDEO – and vote for WAHU. or text BV-WAHU to 6556

Running Low

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Mambo Bado

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Sweet Love

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The little things you do

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Posted in Music, News, Videos0 Comments

Oxford University Social media conference

Social media marketing (SMM) gets a lot of press these days
– and companies are feeling pressure to jump on the bandwagon.
But if you’re like many marketers, you may be unclear
about the benefits of SMM and how, exactly, you should
use it to your best advantage. Without a clear strategy and
specific goals and objectives, SMM can be a low-ROI time
sink and it may undermine your other marketing efforts – even
email. While email marketing and SMM can be a dynamic
duo, you need to ensure these two powerhouse marketing
tactics are working together in order to achieve results that are
greater than the sum of their parts.
Oxford Internet Institute

Oxford Internet Institute

Social media marketing (SMM) gets a lot of press these days – and companies are feeling pressure to jump on the bandwagon.But if you’re like many marketers, you may be unclear about the benefits of SMM and how, exactly, you should use it to your best advantage. Without a clear strategy and specific goals and objectives, SMM can be a low-ROI time sink and it may undermine your other marketing efforts – even email. While email marketing and SMM can be a dynamic duo, you need to ensure these two powerhouse marketing tactics are working together in order to achieve results that are greater than the sum of their parts.

What Is Social Media?

There are a lot of new terms being thrown around about social media. But what is social media exactly? According to Wikipedia.org, social media is “online content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies … It’s a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologues (one-to-many) into dialogues (many-to-many) and is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers.” Because the power of mass communication is being put into the hands of the individual (democratization), the adoption of SMM is skyrocketing – virally permeating our personal and professional interactions. Individuals and businesses are creating, sharing and receiving content in exponentially increasing amounts over highly interactive mediums. These mediums are fundamentally transforming the landscape of how consumers interact with each other and, ultimately, with your company. This interaction can be leveraged in very powerful, yet simple, ways to extend the visibility of your email campaigns. Here are some of the conversations we had during the Oxford Social Media conference on 18th September 2009 at the Said Business School.

Twitter Stream:  http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23oxsmc09

Some musings from the participants.

I got back last night from a conference on social media sponsored by the Oxford Internet Institute. Why would anyone pay to hear me talk about blogging, Twitter and Facebook? They wouldn’t. The conference was free. I certainly tried to give people their money’s worth.

Conferences like this are hard to pull off. You can’t really be sure of your audience. Are they people who don’t know Twitter from Flickr fromFlicka? Or are they hardcore power-users who Tweet constantly? The answer was probably, “Yes,” which means you’re likely to disappoint people on both sides, occasionally by being too obvious, occasionally by being too obtuse.

READ MORE

Guardian article: What we learned?

RESOURCES

The OxIS 2009 Report: The Internet in Britain (PDF, 1.9mb)

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Posted in News, Technology1 Comment

Electronic Money Wars: Zain vs Safaricom

Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph

Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph

Zain has recently launched international transfers (Zap Money) similar to western union that allows individuals to sent money from international accounts to local mobile phones in Kenya. Though this technology is a prospective game changer for e-commerce in East Africa, it remains to be seen whether mobile phone users will be ready to switch to Zap from the more popular MPESA.

However this is also bad news for money exchange websites such as mamamikes which been for years been acting as intermediaries for Zain/Celtel airtime as they are like to loss significant amounts to the ZAP service.

However local ecommerce sites such as BabaWatoto should be able to leverage their epayments using this system and increase the number of exports.

Safaricom which succesfully introduced Mobile money in Africa will have to step up their game and allow access to the API for development of similar intermediary tools or alternatively start the international money transfer service.

By restricting access of their API to public developers they blocked young and geeky Kenyan programmers from rolling out a myriad of applications that can increase competition and therefore create more jobs and a new mobile economy.

This policy may in the end make the difference in the competitive war between Zap and Safaricom.

Let the games begin…

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Posted in News8 Comments

Nation Media Group launches nsoko.com

Nsoko.com Homepage

Nsoko.com Homepage

Nation Media Group, East Africa’s largest Media group has launched Nsoko.com a classifieds websites that will allow users to post classified Advertisements selling motor, home rentals and business services. This move will ensure that the group continues to have leverage on Kenya’s growing internet market. The service joins other Kenyan classified services like Whive.com Classified and jobs site BPOKenya.com which have the current market share.

The service is like to be somewhat popular because of the relatively powerful campaign resources the group has. The group is listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange and has a large capital base.

It will be interesting to see how the privately owned with this initiative because of the entry of the new big competitor.

Watch Video of Launch

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Posted in News, Ventures2 Comments

Malawi’s food revolution.

Corn Revolution

Corn Revolution

Malawi under the Presidency of Bingu Wa Mutharika has been able to transform itself from a country in dire need of food aid in 2003 to a country that is now feeding its neighbours Zimbabwe and Mozambique. It also gives food donations to the World Food Program which sends food aid to countries like Kenya.

This was possible because the President took full control of the Ministry of Agriculture as was therefore able to supervise and coordinate the food security program. They also got rid of corruption through getting rid of the hawkish middlemen and provided agricultural subsidies to the farmers at the local level. Drip irrigation was used to supplement rainfall.

Watch an interview with President Bingu Wa Mutharika

PART 1

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PART 2

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Posted in Africa, News4 Comments

Breaking News: Equity Bank Phising Site & scammers exposed

Equity Bank C.E.O James Mwangi

Equity Bank C.E.O James Mwangi

Equity Bank has become the latest victim of what is termed as Nigerean Fraud. Scammers are attempting to redivert Equity’s internet banking customers to the fraudulent website(which is an exact clone of the original EquityBank.co.ke albeit with a lower resolution) in order to grab clients banking details.

This suggests that the scammers have identified the Bank as a lucrative victim which suggests that Equity has been having considerable traffic to its online resource.

See the fake site here http://equitybanknig-plc.com/

The fake website has been registered by a person going by the ALIAS Equity Bank Plc Powell Maria who is based in Arizona and the fake website is being hosted by a company Known as SPRIT in Vienna Austria.

Follow the details of the Registrant Below.

Registrant:
Equity Bank Plc Powell Maria
3525 S. Nantucket Dr
Arizona, United States  US-85249
United States

Registrar: NAMESDIRECT
Domain Name: EQUITYBANKNIG-PLC.COM
Created on: 09-MAR-09
Expires on: 10-MAR-10
Last Updated on: 09-MAR-09

Administrative Contact:
Powell Maria, Equity Bank Plc  Email Masking Image@yahoo.com
3525 S. Nantucket Dr
Arizona, United States  US-85249
United States
419.6182911

Technical Contact:
, MELON IT GmbH. [SPRIT.ORG]  Email Masking Image@sprit.org
Weyringergasse 13
Vienna, Austria  A-1040
Austria
431.5056610
431.505661024

Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.SPRITNAMES.COM
NS2.SPRITNAMES.COM

STEPS TO TAKE TO SECURE YOUR ACCOUNT.

1. Change your password

2. Open a support ticket with Equity Bank

3.If you suspect your card details have been compromised, freeze your card.

4. If you suspect your Account details have been compromised, freeze your account.

5. Submit any incident for follow up at http://www.afrineurs.com/reports/submit

Equity Bank should immediately run a diagnostics on all their server equipment and check for trojans. They should also secure BackDoor Ports on their firewalls and web server systems as well as redo their web platform as it has been severely compromised.

Diagnostics and Analysis provided by SpaceKenya.co.ke Server Technicians

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Posted in News1 Comment

Africa’s Cultural Renaissance

Kikuyu Kiondo - African Hand Bags

Kikuyu Kiondo - African Hand Bags

African governments finally agree to Protect Africas Cultural heritage. This is critical in empowering African communities to trade in cultural commodities as well as to protect cultural assets on an international scale. This is important because African artifacts have been stolen,pileaged and taken from the continent without a single penny reverting to the creators or inventors of these artificats. In Kenya the Kiondo a  Kikuyu cultural artefact is patented and owned by a Japanese company while the Kikoy is owned by a British firm. This means the original creators of these commodities cannot manufacture or sell these commodities on an internal scale. This consitutes one of the most destabilizing effects of colonial rule and the subsequent misuse of the African cultural heritage.

The agreement also covers Lingual aspects. Here are some excerpts from the agreement.

Session in Khartoum, the Republic of The Sudan, from 23rd to 24th January 2006;
Inspired by the Cultural Charter for Africa adopted by the Heads of State and
Government of the Organization of African Unity meeting in its Thirteenth Ordinary
Session, in Port Louis, Mauritius, from 2 to 5 July, 1976;
GUIDED BY
The Constitutive Act of the African Union;
The Universal Declaration of Principles of International Cultural Co-operation adopted by
the General Conference of UNESCO at its Fourteenth Session in 1966;
The Pan-African Cultural Manifesto of Algiers (1969), and by the Inter-Governmental
Conference on Cultural Policies in Africa organized by UNESCO in Accra, in 1975, in
cooperation with the Organization of African Unity;
The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (1981);
The Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict
(1954) and its additional Protocols;
The Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import,
Export and Transfer of Cultural Property (1970);
Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972);
The UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (2001);
The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003);
The Convention on the Protection and Promotion of Diversity of Cultural Expressions,
(2005);
The Decision of OAU Summit on the establishment of the African Academy of
Languages;

Session in Khartoum, the Republic of The Sudan, from 23rd to 24th January 2006;

Inspired by the Cultural Charter for Africa adopted by the Heads of State and

Government of the Organization of African Unity meeting in its Thirteenth Ordinary

Session, in Port Louis, Mauritius, from 2 to 5 July, 1976;

GUIDED BY

The Constitutive Act of the African Union;

The Universal Declaration of Principles of International Cultural Co-operation adopted by

the General Conference of UNESCO at its Fourteenth Session in 1966;

The Pan-African Cultural Manifesto of Algiers (1969), and by the Inter-Governmental

Conference on Cultural Policies in Africa organized by UNESCO in Accra, in 1975, in

cooperation with the Organization of African Unity;

The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (1981);

The Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict

(1954) and its additional Protocols;

The Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import,

Export and Transfer of Cultural Property (1970);

Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972);

The UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (2001);

The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003);

The Convention on the Protection and Promotion of Diversity of Cultural Expressions,

(2005);

The Decision of OAU Summit on the establishment of the African Academy of

Languages;  Read the rest, Download the Agreement [click here]

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Posted in Africa5 Comments

Nigereans building a city on the sea

Lagos Atlantic System

Lagos Atlantic System

The Nigereans are building a new city on the sea adjacent to Lagos in order in create more office blocks as well as free up the thoroughly congested Central Business District. This is a positive step in one of the worlds most chaotic cities which is projected to be the 3rd largest city outside China by 2020 with a population of 24 million inhabitants.

This development is largely driven by oil revenues which have for decades been poorly utilized mostly stolen or siphoned by Nigerias corrupt leaders.

Watch the video of this development and follow the discussion here

LAGO’S SEA WALL

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LAGO’S ATLANTIC CITY ENGINEERING
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Posted in Africa, News0 Comments

When i die

When I Die…
When I die and life shall be no more
I’ll be standing at heaven’s portal door.
When I take my final breath.
When I close my eyes to death.
On the white pillow, they lay my head
Don’t feel sorry, pain or dread
For I’m no longer hurting now, as before
The timing of my death was in store
For it’s appointed unto man once to die
It’s my time to go…please please…do not cry
Only remember the good times that we had
Rejoice and be happy for I am no longer sad.
I’ve ran my course and finished the race
Now I’m able to look upon my Savior’s face
So rejoice with me as I lay in rest
For me to go…it’s really for the best
For to some, I brought only pain
A faithful friend I was to others and brought gain
I lived my life, the best I knew
I loved everyone from my heart so true
So please please don’t grieve for me
For it’s the best choice God made you see
For now I’m gone from earth’s shore
I’m now standing in heaven’s door.
Please hold those you love so close and dear
For you never know when their time is near
Never be angry with those you love
For you never know when they are called home
To heaven above.
When I die … my breath is gone
Please rejoice and sing only a happy song.
As I lay my head to rest.
God called me home. Beloved…it’s for the best.
Never forget that I love you.
My love to you…was always true.
Please forgive me for wrong I may have done.
I don’t want to die this way and us not be one.
I shall go now and lay my head to rest
Into His bosom I find … peace and no more stress.
Goodbye my loved one and keep holding on
I will love you for eternity … for now…I am gone.
Live on my loved one and forever see
That I loved you honestly and unconditionally.
PS…I Love U!!!!

By Unknown

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Branding Kenya

Kikuyu Homestead

Kikuyu Homestead 19th Century

Well what is perceived by the word brand? Probably you are wondering where I am going with this. Well some months or years ago we had Tusker Supermarket a local self help store. The perception and reception by the public it was viewed as one of the underground local stores and unconfirmed sources said it was going down at some point. With a string of stores around capital city and towns, the resulted to rebranding and sure enough it catapulted its revenue and image of the store rose high to the standard of the main stores like Nakumatt and the then Uchumi. The store just renamed its name to Tuskys and put some more definitive colours for outright identification.

Back to our case Brand Kenya, well would argue Kenya has always been a brand on its own rather we needed rebranding. The whole strategy is amazing and yes under normal circumstances it would pass to be the best ideal way of selling Kenya to the Diaspora and attract tourist and investors. It’s viewed as an extension of progressing the main agenda of Vision 2030. Quoting the Information PS Mr. Ndemo he claimed politicians give guidelines they follow and if something fails its due to lack implementation by the likes of them the PS and so on. Is this really true to have such a claim when we do know that they are employed by the same politicians? May be sounding dumb but who is the boss and what if the boss grounds your plan? He was addressing attendees during the Brand Kenya launch claiming we should not blame politicians and that it was them to implement. Really tend to think he was wrong because for a fact it’s the politicians who have assumed the role of what goes and what does not. Look at the situation of the constitution review we haven’t begun and the already at it. Soon am guessing us going to be back to Orange and Bananas politics.

Anyway I think if the issue of Brand Kenya would lack the political goodwill we would be like playing musical beats without lyrics or having tuneless music but is still music. Look at it this way; yes we have Brand Kenya initiative but what about the underlining Kenyan issues that keep propping up? What are the strategies put forward to addressing them? Through this initiative we have TV programs and Lobbyist send out to sell Kenya in the positive light and uplift its image plus to ensure deviate from the bad publicity Kenya had received since last year. Looking at the programs well would look at them and agree that yes it would pull up some public information inspire others and so on but are the political class in together with us or are they to stick back and be the spoiled potatoes to spoil the rest. Think about it, w busy painting this beautiful picture of oneness, safety and beauty of the country few days later some politicians comes out accusing the other of political assassination. With these grounds lobbies a community against the other going all tribal. Another scenario is when public scandals and mismanagement is the order of the day of government what are the investors to think?

In my view Brand Kenya is supposed to have from inside outside rather than just trying to do patch up work on the extremely spoiling image of the great nation. This should be an initiative for a cross section of the whole country. Every persons to be involved I expected to see the president in the foreground of Brand Kenya the PM was supposed to be on the foreground too but what did we see at the launch PS and people from the department and yeah our very own image portrayer the media. The previous initiatives looked so empty and almost disappointing struggle for damage control. The likes of Vision 2030 and The Kenya We Want.

We should be Branding Kenya from within we put policies to run and sustain the country regardless of the situations. We should have good and practical food policies that guide the importations, exportation, supply, distribution and production of food. This would ensure we have food security. We should ensure safety and security of Kenyans and their properties is paramount to the governance of the country. We should ensure we have policies to ensure basic wants like water and housing have been addressed appropriately. Empty promises made by politicians make the issue of Brand Kenya as another attempt of PR waiting to fall since we see nothing to sustain its accomplishment.

Being optimistic as they say its our duty as the Kenyan citizen to speak well of the beautiful country. The initiative should be done on a serious note such that the given TV programs identified should address the issues rather than cover them and better yet bring the solutions but surely we need politicians to be answerable so am thinking there involvement in the discussion and forums would just help us identify which of these leaders are for real. We love this beautiful country Kenya God bless it as we try every way to stay above!!!

By Neville D. Nelson

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Posted in Society2 Comments

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