I am assuming that you don’t need to be told that this is the best tech blog in Kenya currently. Having closed that discussion, it’s imperative that I discuss other players in the field with you my readers. Blogging is coming of age in this part of the world with a lot of real-time influence being channeled through blogs by the minute. In no order of arrival or priority, I am going to list eight blogs I think you should have in your RSS reader or other subscription mode. Some have been there for the longest time, others you will discover today. And here goes:
Emannuelchenze
Emmanuel Chenze is a Moi University student who also happens to be very geeky. This is the guy who started rooting handsets before it was cool. He can even root a Nokia 3310 and install gestures on the phone. Emmanuel will give you loads of tips on how to get going on your Android device if you are a newbie, he also does tutorials on how to root devices and many other things the guy at customer care will warn you against implementing.
Mulikamwizi (nolonger exists)
This one doesn’t work for Kenya Power and Lighting Company, a company that derives motivation from keeping Kileleshwa residents in the dark at night. He does though have a fetish for phones with torches, hence the name of the blog. Robert Kunga has been branded the Nokia guy by many for the insight he has about Nokia phones and Nokia as a brand. He is well read and tweeted by many and is the guy Miss Babes tries to impress with her mitumba high heels. Mulikamwizi came from the end of E63club.wordpress.com and the need to write across the board. This happened when he used the first Android device and stopped peddling that quote of my mum is the best cook. He does give handy tips and opinions in the mobile field.
Hapakenya
Led by James Wamathai, this “former” poet finally saw the light of the day and realized that man cannot live on poetry alone. He now does mobile phones news, reviews and opinions with his team. HapaKenya tries to be the blog that writes for the Kenyan consumer. They go from lifestyle, tech to business.
Savvykenya
One of the oldest youngest bloggers (see what I did there?) , Harriet Ocharo has been on the blogging scene from her days in college. It started out as fun, and she does write about virtually everything on the blog. Ranging from using it to meet presidents and telco CEOs, Harriet does have a following, her reviews are not in-depth and techie, but she does a good job of informing while at it.
Kachwanya
Beyond being the Chairman of the Bloggers’ Association in Kenya, Kennedy Kachwanya has maintained his stance as the blogger who disrupts the tech industry in Kenya. From writing very incisive articles that trigger conversations. Don’t be fooled by the bad design of the blog, believe me, it’s an improvement from the ugliest blog by a techie. Kachwanya is usually too busy to get site design done right, I recommend you pay someone to finally get the job completed. Kachwanya does product news and reviews once in a while when he is not arguing with Linet about feature phones, dumb phones and smartphones. At-least he kinda won, she now uses a smartphone, a Galaxy Nexus.
Techarena
New entrant into the field, Kaluka Wanjala from the Republic of Rongai, doesn’t necessarily fit in among bloggers from Kenya by virtue of his nationality, but since the Rongai Republic doesn’t have stringent VISA acquirement measures, he will feature in my list. Kaluka does a good job of writing on time about product announcements in the mobile sector. His writing is good and informed.
MosesKemibaro
Moses Kemibaro is actually the oldest in this list. A person who has made his place in the Kenya and East Africa tech scene. Been there done that, Moses is a very insightful writer who was once criticized for being a press-release blogger who won an award. I guess he did’t take that lightly and went back to writing more opinion posts, he is indeed a good writer and you will see him in most tech events when he is not engaged with running big products like INMobi, Dealfish and Pivot East. He was reviewing phones when I was still copying and pasting stories from Mashable and passing them as my own. We have come from far.
Androidkenya
This is one lazy blogger, but for what he is worth, he needs to go through some electrocution to be reminded why he started blogging in the first place. Apart from writing a blog post once two years, he does write very informative posts when he chooses to. Going under a pseudonym Wiselar, he started the blog with an aim to inform Kenyans. But due to his frequency in writing, this doesn’t come close.
