Hay Festival Kenya: Some of the things you might have missed enjoying the Festival

The first thing to note is that the venue of this year’s Storymoja festival was superb. This is the first time this festival was held at the National Museum. The first Storymoja festival was held at Impala grounds then it was transferred to Uhuru Park gardens for two subsequent years.

What is so great about National Museum?

a.       Louis Leakey Auditorium

The Louis Leakey auditorium served as the US Embassy stage in the festival. I have attended some events at the auditorium such as TEDx and movie festival screening of the Brazil Embassy and in my opinion it is one of the best spaces to stage an event. It has a state of the art sound system, good lighting and the place is in mint condition. It has a sitting capacity of around 300 people.

This auditorium was renovated with the help of Safaricom Foundation and was named in honor of Louis Leakey a great Kenyan who has put Kenya in the world map with his archeological work.

b.      Main Museum

The main museum served as the Screening location [Ford Hall] and also as a venue where most of the master classes took place [Discovery Room]. Thus, the festival ticket gave you access to the museum.

Inside the museum there we’re a number of exhibitions currently running. One of this was by Michael Soi. Michael is one of my favourite visual artists because he paints like he sees it in Nairobi. In our society which considers it’s self to be religious. There are some things that occur when darkness sets in. Also, in this exhibition was a tongue in cheek reference to Miguna Miguna in his in famous clarion come baby come.

c.       Snake Park

The festival ticket also allowed one to enter the snake park. I am NOT a big fan of snakes but I had a shot at it and in there lies some big snakes and reptiles. Let’s hope the Museum staff don’t Strike soon!

d.      Amphitheatre

The Storymoja amphitheatre was next to savanna restaurant. This being an open space was fantastic if you have outdoor sensibilities.

e.      Grounds

The Museum grounds provided perfect picnic spots for families and for nature lovers they we’re treated to bird walks by the Nature Kenya staff who were at hand.

f.        Junk art! 

Lastly, the festival was brought to live with art made from previously Junk material.  This exhibition featured computer monitor with had been recreated to resemble the face of a person, there were also good coffee tables and my favourite the monkeys which I aptly named the see, hear, talk & f@#k no evil monkeys. 

Hay Festival Kenya: The Google Platform

The Google Platform picture by KenyaBuzz

My Storymoja Hay Festival officially kicked off with the above session which saw Ory Okolloh [@KenyanPundit], Dr Christian Turner [@HCCTurner] and John Kampfner [@JohnKampfner] share a platform.

This session was of interest to me because it had Google’s head of government relations in Africa, Ory sharing a platform with a diplomat HE Dr. Turner. Turner is the current British High Commissioner to Kenya who was previously the director for the Middle East and North Africa in the British Foreign Office. Moderating this session was John Kampfner who is a freedom of expression advocate and a cultural advisor to Google. If you know me, then you would know I followed the Arab Spring and being a techie based at iHub Ory can do NO wrong! So this session was heaven sent.

So what did they discuss?

From the Foreign Office with Insights

The ambassador shared with us why he is on social media, which is to connect with people like Ory and to follow trends. However, after the pleasantry’s one was able to see why governments and policy makers like he was in his previous life appreciate social media. Social media has given people power according to Dr. Turner. The international community now is able to know what is happening in repressive/closed states.

Dr. Turner gave the example of Syria which under Assad’s father a Massacre occurred in Homes However, the international community got wind of this atrocity three months afterwards. This is because repressive states tend to have closed borders and by the time the international community got to know this it was too late for them to act as the uprising had been crashed.

Google’s Platform

Ory was of the opinion that technology has made our life much easier. Take the instance of M-Pesa which a lot has been written about. Try imagining a life without M-Pesa today certainly we would be spending plenty of time doing chores such as paying bills which took much of our time.

According to Ory technology has resulted to more instances of Africa led solutions from Ushahidi which she helped to put up and served as its first executive director to Mzalendo which she co founded with Conrad to bring accountability to our Members of Parliament.

Technology platforms according to Ory have made it easier for citizens to engage with government. She talked of how these days our MP’s are all over Social Media.

‘Almost all presidential candidates are now on Facebook and twitter ‘– Ory Okolloh

Freedom of Speech Online

John Kampfner who is an advocate of free speech raised some pertinent question to Ory and Turner. He wanted to know their take on freedom of speech online. This was pertinent given the riots that have been occurring in the Middle East and North Africa in response to a film made in America. 

Dr. Turner gave a diplomatic answer, which is to have people upload content which is pursuant to their countries rules and regulations. However, Ory was of the opinion that anyone can upload any content online provided it’s within their limits of expression. 

Some of the things I missed

Generally this was a very informative session. However, there were some questions which cropped in my mind after sitting through this session. This relates to Google. Although, I am an online person I have reservations with Google which has been taking over almost every aspect of my life.  These questions are;

For Google

1.       How do African governments perceive Google?

2.       Do the African Governments know the ‘power’ and clout of this tech companies?

3.       Does Google as a company inform governments? Especially in cases where they have data on terrorist cells online

4.       Is Google planning on taking over the world? [If it has not already taken it over already]

For the High Commissioner

1.       I would have been interested in hearing more about the British policy on Middle East [Israel & Palestine]

2.       The position and Policy of the British government on ‘international community’ interfering in another state involved in civil strive

3.       What his older peer’s think of him adopting social media and how he goes about explaining and converting them [if he does so!]