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Picture this: over 100 Star Wars fans breaking into an epic light saber fight (apparently the largest in History) in Bristol’s Cabot Circus, a shopping mall in Bristol, England. The ‘flashmob’, as it was reported in a February edition of U.K.’s “The Guardian”, was organized online through Facebook in a matter of hours.
Apart from the cool video you can watch on the Guardian website featuring a horde of marauding geeks, it got us really thinking about the power of the Internet and the impact it will have here once we ‘wananchi’ embrace the Internet’s ability to incite ‘flashmob’ resistance to Kenya’s corruption machinery.
Imagine if all those hearty souls who recently marched against corrupt ministers in downtown Nairobi were operating a blog; or organized themselves through an email campaign; or ran a politically scathing website that burned the feet of those who pilfer public coffers. Imagine the impact of ‘flashmobbing’ in Nairobi (good and bad).
Think about what’s going on in Iran and how a nation of youths are changing the course of their country through mobile phone pictures and rogue ‘twittering’. Look how Obama changed history through the email.
Well, it’s happening here, now. The ‘flashmobs’ are gaining strength online, and their voice is growing. With the Internet traffic predicted to double this year (from 3 to 6 million users), those guys already parading to run for 2012 are in real trouble.
Nairobi is witnessing the rise of its ‘technology class’ . They are the new generation, creating a new voice against the establishment. We say, raise hell independent media!
The young guns at Kuweni Serious, Kenyan Pundit, Kenya Imagine, Skunkworks and a host of other upstart media operations are throwing down their gauntlet and finding a growing audience of disgruntled Kenyans. The techies and media peeps behind these new voices are intelligent, calculated and good. Armed to the teeth, they are taking on a dysfunctional political system with new rules.
“So, what’s the ‘Urban Positive’ twist?” you ask. We say the rise of a bunch of guys who want to make Nairobi the hub of technology in Africa. Cool, uh? It’s a great time to be here in the thick of the latest global Internet explosion, and you can read all about it in our ‘Urban Presence’ feature by Steve Bloomfield.
Technology isn’t the only thing rising in Nairobi these days; just about everything that makes Nairobi cool is rising right now: media, art, music, literature, fine dining…well, everything we proselytize in this issue, for a start.
What’s really rising these days is the local film and television industry. Ken Teyie does a ‘Q&A’ with Simiyu Barasa to capture the secrets of his success in local television production, while Riva Jalipa profiles the boss at Citizen TV—who might just be single-handedly reshaping the landscape of local content. Then, Mike Pflanz asks the question, “Who does Riverwood want to be when it grows up?”
Perhaps the biggest rising star in Nairobi is love. Yes, love—in all its flowery glory. The UP editors visited the Urban Mirror headquarters recently and learned how they are out to conquer the evil demon, ‘Nai-robbery’ with their superhuman invention, ‘Upendo Hero’.
And who do we love most? The artist, photographer, model, writer, actor, singer, dancer, and so on. Why? Because they make us feel cool, that’s why. To capture this love vibe, we sent local shutterbug Boniface Mwangi across the heaving lands of Nairobi to capture 24-hours in the ‘artist lifestyle’.
Finally, Oyunga Pala would like you to believe ‘Generation P’ has fully risen to claim their rightful glory. Read ‘Word Up’ to see if you agree. This and more is why, of course, “It’s Always Sunny in Nairobi.”
Editors note: UP magazine is available at all Silverbird stores (Westgate, Junction, JKIA Airport etc), All Times (Village Market, Westgate), All Chandarana Supermarkets, Book Stop Yaya Centre, Monty’s Sarit Centre, Leading Newsstands in the CBD and Nakumatt supermarkets.
