Online Content in Kenya

Since the evolution of technology, the internet has taken over the way everything is done and Kenya, as a country, has not been left behind. The internet has made it very easy to access information about pretty much anything. All you need is either a swipe on your phone or hitting the buttons on your computer and you have all the information you are looking for.

But have you ever thought about where the information you get from the internet comes from? All that content, whose work was it? Who or what is the source of online information? Who created all the website content that you get from different websites and social media networks?

In Kenya, almost all of the online information that we consume is from the West and Europe; even information about our country mostly comes from other people’s perspective whenever it is online. Our online presence ranking is not so bad compared to that of other African countries but we can do a lot better.

Social media networks have made communication as well as sharing of information like videos and photos very easy. As a matter of fact, Kenya is ranked as the fourth most tweeting country in Africa after Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa respectively. This shows that a lot of internet consumers in Kenya spend most of their time on social media. What we need to work on to make our online presence more commanding as a country is the content.

Apart from social media, the online content in Kenya can be described as scanty. That is why you can search for a product, a place or a service on Google and the first results will be some mambo jumbo from another country which is none of your concern. Trust me, this is not Google’s fault, it is Kenyan businesses, organizations and individuals who have not taken initiative to post relevant information online.

Social media management companies can help in the generation of content, be it business content, website content, blog content, all these will increase our internet usage as a country and even make the content more relevant and applicable to our situation.

According to the Web Index 2013 Report conducted by the World Wide Web Foundation, Kenya ranks second among the developing economies with rich local content online and it is second only to Morocco in Africa.

The survey had four categories namely universal access, freedom and openness, relevant content and empowerment with regard to web use, to encourage increased internet uptake by people for development.

This survey was done in 2013 and since then with the massive investment in technology the country has made other greater strides as far as web content is concerned. Social media has especially taken the use of internet in many areas to another level. For Kenyans nowadays searching for information online is more of part of life. Business daily newspaper Nov 27 2013

The government also re-launched the Kenya Open Data Initiative (KODI) that was initially founded in 2011 to increase the access to government datasets. KODI enables Kenyans to access information from the government and it is also a platform where government ministries can give their data for members of the public to view. Counties are also eager to share their data through the same platform.

The information shared by the government on this site is mostly about development, demographic, statistical and expenditure data. This information is especially useful for companies looking for business content, policymakers, researchers and even ICT developers. KODI has a portal where anyone looking for such kind of information can link in and get it there. Since it was re-launched, the viewer ship has increased tremendously and even the number of ministries giving out their data to be availed on the site has also increased. From ICT authority website.

Another area where the online content in Kenya is getting a huge attention from is the Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE). One of the channels that BAKE is using to create online content is through Kenya Monitor. They call it citizen journalism website, whose aim is to report on important stories from all the counties in Kenya either through blogs or other online platforms available.

What the Kenya Monitor does is accepting images, footages, stories and audios from the public which are then verified and edited and later on published. This contributes to the online content of what Kenya has on its websites. General stories from the public also help to create online content that is currently trending boosting our countries online presence. This is a really encouraging path for web content writing in Kenya.

It is a big and bold step for Kenya monitor to allow freelance writers have their content published in different websites to where they can be accessed by the whole population. This simple act by BAKE will encourage more writers to produce content be it business content, health culture, arts, education environment, philanthropy or any other area, any information that is interestingly written is a step by step way of building our online presence and let the world look at our country from a different perspective.

Even though the country has made great strides especially in terms of the people who have access to the internet, the quality of information about Kenya found online is still very minimal. For instance, a lot of businesses still rely on traditional means to reach out to their customers. Most businesses have websites with outdated information that is never updated. In other parts of the world, you can find all the information about a commodity or a service online before deciding to visit the business premises, or better still, make an online order. The internet is here to stay and access to the internet is going to increase, therefore, businesses that are left behind will find it hard to compete in the near future.

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