Blogging in Kenya : The Inevitable Vehicle of Modern Writing

“Blogs are the insight of human experiences captured in words. There is an uncanny beauty in seeing life as an outsider and trying to piece up other people’s lives with the narrow scope of one’s own fickle of human understanding,” writes Michael Muyoma on his blog www.bantuh.co.ke, a Lawyer who ditched practicing Law to venture into blogging specifically, Creative Writing.

Almost more than a decade ago, blogging wasn’t much of a common phenomenon. As Jackson Biko “Bikozulu” notes in an archive post in his blog, when he began writing on WordPress most people were totally unaware of it. Readership was an all-time low and it was some sort of a monopolistic nature. Blogging was such a lonely affair.

The blogosphere was like an infinite diary mostly dominated by the white collar fellows who had office desktops where they would go on to publish their rants on how Kenya is such an unpleasant country or maybe how some ex-lover is itching to reinstate themselves in their lives and how pissed off they are about their boss.

Most people in Kenya and Africa as a whole held daily newspapers and monthly magazines in high regard around the years of the Facebook frenzy between 2005 and 2009. In Kenya for instance, within the same time, famous columns like Mwalimu Andrew and Man talk by Oyunga Pala were a darling to many. Most fans would never dare miss their works.. Blogging around this time was considered a western idea and most blogs were on health and well-being or entertainment and were probably written by white chaps who hold M.As in Writing from prestigious institutions.

First forward, blogs are sources of entertainment, learning and inspiration depending on what tickles your soul. Nonetheless, blogging has been taken a notch higher as its tentacles have spread into various niches such as: Parenting, Lifestyle, Politics, Cooking, Fashion, Entertainment and News. Moreover, the establishment of the Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE) which awards bloggers according to the popularity and impact of their great content has also promoted the blogging wheel further into the next stratosphere.

Albeit blogging being the norm in the current times, it is however slowly losing it’s authentic impact to some of its audiences. Why do I say so? A section of self proclaimed bloggers have gone a step further and peddled confounded lies which act as click baits such as “See what happened, Breaking news, You won’t believe this”. In this light, a number of people are developing a wrong perception towards blogging hence rendering anyone calling themselves a blogger a ‘Rumor mill.’

In line with the appreciation of great writers, the following notable and great content creators in the Kenyan space have developed their brands in a span of more than five years. They still continue blogging and provide consistent and rejuvenating content. They include: Oyunga Pala’s blog, Bikozulu (the Godfather of modern Writing), Magunga, Bantuh, Joy Kendi, Mister Left, Mwalimu Andrew, Kisauti, Kokota tales, Kinasisi, The little Pergola, The Wakamiti, Brian Mbanacho, Ndugu Abisai and Nyachwani. All hail WordPress and the bloggers, the foreseeable future is without a doubt in blogging.

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