Member Spotlight: Made in Kenya Network

This month Sokari talks to Wainaina Mungai of the Made in Kenya Network.

SE: Your mission statement states you aim to profile the "development activities of the youth, their products and destinations".  Could you explain how you put this into practice on a day to day basis?

WM: That is a timely question because we have had mixed successes in this area and would be happy to explore ways in which Kabissa can form a platform for profiling youth-led initiatives in Kenya. So far, we have been successful in youth participation and recognition in the ICT policy processes. We have however spent last two years developing ICT platforms that should enable youth to profile their work rather than specific youth-led initiatives. For instance, we have made BungeSMS available to youth organisations and youth-led campaigns.

With our involvement in Kabissa, it should be possible to increase awareness among youth-led organisations on how to take advantage of the features available on Kabissa.org as a platform for networking and building partnerships for their work.

SE:  One of your successful projects is the WSIS Youth Kenya Caucus and WSIS/ICT campaign.  Could you tell us about the project and why you think it has been successful?

WM: Our involvement in the WSIS process since 2002 led to the formation of the Kenya chapter of the WSIS Youth Caucus. We brought together youth and youth-serving organisations interested in the WSIS process and ICT for Development issues. It all started as a mailing list on YahooGroups and later progressed to a meeting at a Nairobi cafeteria and advanced to a point where we took part in both the preparatory and summit stages of WSIS. Members attended regional, global and national events. This was successful due to strong partnerships with other organisations within the framework of WSIS Youth Africa and WSIS Youth Global.

At the summit in Geneva and Tunis, we raised the visibility of Kenyan youth and presented their issues through advocacy and involvement in research and publication on information society issues.

Back in Kenya, we conducted the Rural Youth National Information Society campaign, resulting in the Kenya Youth Declaration on Implementation of the National ICT Policy in August 2005. This was after hosting the first ever Kenya National Convention on Youth and ICT. We brought in rural youth, some of whom did not have an email address to an event where they learnt a lot from ICT industry leaders and advocacy experts.

WSIS Youth Kenya was also the platform through which we youth were represented in deliberations of forums on ICT Policy reforms in Kenya. We used every possible advocacy media including radio, newspaper, mailinglists, SMS and websites. In the final analysis, our strength lay in formation of dependable partnerships.

SE: The Kenyan government has taken the progressive step to support the establishment of a Digital Village through "Community Access Points" (CAP) in each constituency.  How viable do you think this policy is and what infrastructure / training needs to take place for it to be implemented?

WM: There is an attempt to guarantee the viability of the project by requiring that each access point be established around a dependable business model. Under the Worldbank funded Transparency Connectivity Infrastructure Project (TCIP). Each digital village will receive subsidized connectivity through the national and international fiber-optic networks as well as business training for the entrepreneurs who venture to support the programme. There have been concerns expressed by some players that the project has taken a long time in the conceptual stage before implementation.

In Kenya, the adoption and exploitation of ICTs in rural areas has been hampered by several challenges. These range from the lack of reliable energy sources to power the equipment, lack of connectivity to the Internet to the absence of appropriate skills and a much needed critical mass of users to make the access points financially viable.

These are the challenges the Kenyan government and the private sector to address the challenges by improving connectivity in rural areas that are home to majority of Kenya's population. It involves the establishment of access points similar to telecentres in every parliamentary constituency. The government is working with the private sector in a public private partnership supported by the Worldbank.

In the long run, Made in Kenya Network hopes to be part of either the government process of the private sector run ICT Village project or the government programme. We are convinced that there

is value in increasing access in rural areas and improving government service delivery using all available ICT solutions.

SE: Made in Kenya has recently launched the BungeSMS mobile telephony project to make it easier for Kenyans to influence local government in their constituencies.  Can you give us some background to how the project started and what your hopes are for uptake.  

WM: "Bunge" is the Kiswahili word for "parliament" and therefore, BungeSMS is the SMS service that enables citizens to easily influence the decisions made by their Members of Parliament. BungeSMS is an idea that existed before the elections held in 2007 but was actualized in April 2008 after we were involved in the development and testing of the Mobile Advocacy Toolkit alongside other organisations in Africa.

Incidentally, it is only recently that we conducted a BungeSMS poll on the taxation of salaries and allowances of Members of Parliament in Kenya by running advertisement on a local TV station, K24. 100% of the respondents demanded that MPs must pay taxes on their allowances.

That is one of the ways in which we hope BungeSMS will empower citizens to demand accountability from their political leaders and shift the power base back to the governed. We have also received views on citizens demands for very specific development projects within constituencies.

Consider this. Kenya has 210 parliamentary constituencies that are diverse in their needs but the people have remained somewhat powerless in decision making except through the General elections, every five years. Attempts to improve participation of citizens are curtailed by lack of appropriate media through which to collect and collate a critical level of the views of citizens within a particular constituency. That is where BungeSMS comes in. We want to shift mGovernance communications path from citizens-to-government (C2G) rather than the prevailing government-to-citizen (G2C) channels. We also had to take advantage of the pervasive spread of mobile phones in Kenya, as is the case in many other African countries.

We hope more media houses and development organisations will partner with us in holding our leaders to account. We also expect more MPs to see value in an information system that enables them to fulfill the demands of their constituents.

SE: We in Africa cannot afford to reinvent the wheel therefore sharing and networking nationally and on a Pan African basis is very important.  What role do you see for MIK to act as an innovative catalyst and support to other civil society organisations across the continent?

WM: As the leader of my organisation, I have always relied on a leadership lesson imparted on the shores of Lake Michigan in my teenage years. The theme that resonates in my mind is that of the native Indian term "Okiju". Okiju stands for unity or "to be united" and it is this principle that has been at the core of our project implementation philosophy.

We believe in partnerships and it remains our approach in adding value to national and regional initiatives. We have learnt from the WSIS Youth Caucus and the BungeSMS service that partnerships hold the key to successful development projects. Our strength in the use of technology in development process will continue to be shared widely with our partners.

SE: Are their any technologies you think you could use to help achieve the above?

WM: It is evident in the case of Kabissa.org that the Internet remains a potent tool for partnership and networking in the region. Mobile technologies however, present an opportunity that will significantly complement the power of the Internet. Mobiles and other wireless solutions are solving the "access" and "content" challenges that development and advocacy practitioners have faced for a while now.

Mobile technologies are being used for social networking, Internet access, in health, governance and other development sectors. We hope to exploit this potential in achieving our organizational goals.

SE: You recently joined Kabissa's online community - what do you think Kabissa can do for you and what can you do for Kabissa?

WM: First, I would consider this interview as an example of the potential of Kabissa in increasing awareness on our projects, as a means of networking and forging partnerships globally. We expect feedback after this interview and would be happy to point out that Kabissa contributed to increased awareness for us.

With the features and tools available on Kabissa, I look forward to increasing our interaction with others in the region and keeping other members posted through the mailinglists and blog features availed. I had earlier mentioned the possibility of youth organisations associated with us to use the same features to profile their work.

In return, we hope to share our expertise and experiences with others and possibly contribute to the mobile component of Kabissa. I foresee a mutually beneficial relationship.