Imagine a nurse shouting your name and announcing your disease to everyone. #FichaUchi

Hello, Substack. I'm here. Having blogged since 2006, I'm now on Substack also to keep the engagement flowing.

I have blogged since 2006. My blog has evolved to a place of deep thought and long reads, rather than regular enjoyment. I'm really happy you nudged me to getting on substack and I am starting to sharing some thoughtful Fridays with you. Please subscribe.
akags.substack.com/p/hello-subs...

AI could free Africans from the grind—giving us time to play, create, dance, pray, build. The real danger isn’t lost jobs, it’s lost wealth. If AI’s gains drain like our minerals & data, we lose. If we keep them here, we win a chance to truly live.

Yesterday in Malindi, I welcomed Mr Qimiao Fan, World Bank Division Director. We spoke on farming value-addition, extension services, and how CBOs drive change & hold govts to account with data. The future of governance is local, data-driven, citizen-powered.

Does Brand Kenya still exist?

𝗧𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆’𝘀 “𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿” 𝗶𝘀 𝗬𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆’𝘀 “𝗖𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗲”

In my latest blog, 𝗜 draw a line from the Berlin Conference in 1884 to today’s boardrooms and donor agencies. 𝗜 𝘂𝗻𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀, 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗹𝗲𝗱𝗴𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗱.

alkags.me/empower/

In Leonard Mambo Mbotela, Kenya has lost a legend. As a journalist during defining moments in Kenyan history, as a national teacher of values, as a mentor of literally hundreds. This man deserves a state funeral of sincere gratitude from the nation for his service till the end.

So Tiktok took the ban that the Biden admin said they would not enforce and raise Americans a “Poof!” before the date.

There’s no two words more loaded than when a man says, “i’m okay.”

Silencing Justice: The Misstep of Criminalising Protests in Kenya #EndFemicideKe We must decry strongly the silencing of justice and criminalising protests! What we saw at the #EndFemicideKe protest was deplorable.

We cannot criminalise protests, nor can the police respond to all protests with the same blanket violence. This disregard for human rights is unacceptable. Kenyans demand better. Read my full thoughts here: alkags.me/silencing-ju...

#EndFemicideKE #StopPoliceBrutality #HumanRights

“Science is growing faster than our community gathers wisdom.”

#LeapfrogSDGs

Kenyan Farmers are really getting character development. I’m told in Laikipia onions are going for 7-10 shillings per acre. That cabbages are selling for 1-2 kshs each!!!!

What if the data we already have could solve our biggest challenges—climate, resilience, sustainability—but the real gap isn’t in the numbers, it’s in our action?

How do we close the divide between insight and impact? Let’s build solutions that don’t just analyze the world but change it.

The less obvious assumption is that local efforts are inherently incomplete or secondary, mere appendages to the broader national agenda. I’ve come to see this thinking as a fundamental flaw in how we conceptualise development. Sustainable change, I have learned, is intensely local. #Localisation

This seemingly simple question carries weighty assumptions. The most obvious is that sustainable change happens at scale only when organized and executed through national frameworks. #Localisation

Localisation: "How does this initiative tie up to national policy?" Everytime I describe a subnational project, I am asked this question by well meaning large organisations and funders. It's an unfair question.

I have worked on subnational #development projects for the past 12 years, and every time I describe our work, I am asked this question – usually by #donors and international organisations.

Equiry.
(Noun)
Inquiry via private or direct message online.

New word? Love it.

@wambuijl.bsky.social

There’s something we need to reframe.

We keep talking about involving the youth or improving the country for the youth. They are 70% of the country. It is them who need to accommodate us, the 30%.

They are the country because they are the majority.

One of the reasons I love Mariah Carey is how sing-along-able her earlier songs are.

AI: Are We Witnessing the Final Frontier of Cultural Homogenisation? Al considers how AI might play a role in language erosion, I cannot help but ask: is this the final chapter of a digital completion of the cultural erasure begun centuries ago?

“Is AI the next frontier of cultural erasure? As it favours global languages, African tongues like Gikuyu & Shona risk extinction. But through education, tech, & resistance, we can preserve identity & heritage. Let’s fight for inclusive AI. 🌍 #AI #IndigenousLanguages

alkags.me/ai-and-langu...

a woman walking down a hallway with yellow lockers and a sign on the wall that says ' e ' ALT: a woman walking down a hallway with yellow lockers and a sign on the wall that says ' e '

My other hot take is, instead of spending 10 billion to terraform Mars they could undo the damage from deforestation and clean the oceans here on Earth

Audiobooks count as reading.
Audiobooks count as reading.
Audiobooks count as reading.
Audiobooks count as reading.
Audiobooks count as reading.
Audiobooks count as reading.
Audiobooks count as reading.

In Kenya there are words that now we expect to be used together (always). For example Pending Bill.

What should it be used for?

I’ve officially started subconsciously opening blue sky instead of Twitter

How high living costs and unemployment have pushed many Kenyans into poverty Turkana County had the highest proportion of its population living in absolute poverty

How high living costs and unemployment have pushed many Kenyans into poverty nation.africa/kenya/busine...

Such understandable.
weirdness

Guy sitting next to me raised himself off the seat when the plane was touching down, gasping at the armrests to raise himself.

I don’t know the thinking.

Something tragic is happening to me. Every so often, ai take pictures of tiny words so that I can read them.