Africa - Al Kags

25 September 2023

Part Two: Citizen-Generated Data must be kept true to its essence – and be kept in its definition.

The Nuance of "Citizen-Generated Data": Why It's More Than Just "Citizen Contributions to Data" and "Citizen Data" In my last post, I argued that Citizen-Generated Data should be kept true to its essence that it is by Citizens and for Citizens. I have read some discussions ...

02 September 2023

My 100-acre forest: progress report

A few months ago, I mentioned in this blogpost that I resolved to plant a 100-acre forest. The reasoning is that I heard that a 100-acre forest would contribute greatly to changing the climate of a place. The place where I have bought the land ...

17 August 2023

Michael Joseph Leaves Safaricom after 23 years

Kenyans have much to thank him for Michael Joseph, the legendary corporate leader who led Safaricom to be the most successful company in East Africa, has left Safaricom's board. I first met Michael Joseph in 2010 when I was running the Elimisha US initiative, which was ...

15 August 2023

The Worldcoin deception in Kenya

Crypto aside, this was extraction of Kenyans biometric data for profit Over the past few weeks, I have had a bee in the bonnet. As were many Kenyans, I was intrigued that there were queues of people in Nairobi who were having their irises scanned in ...

19 July 2023

It’s hard to be a progressive (or optimistic) lately

This is likely to turn out to be one of the worse written blog posts. I am writing it while having experienced many highs and lows in the last couple of days, and I have yet to process them fully. Being progressive or optimistic today ...

10 March 2023

Podcasts: The boy who tried to kill Queen Elizabeth II and other stories

Did I ever tell you that I have a podcast? One of my passions is to speak to our grandparents, who were young people in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. I wrote some of the stories that were read to me and these were narrated ...

28 February 2023

Administrative Data and the end of Government Statistics as we know it?

On the sidelines of the UN Statistical Commission meeting in New York, at the Collaborative on Administrative Data for Statistics, I saw the government of the future coming ever closer and faster. Here is my prediction. Yesterday, I attended a lunch meeting on the Collaborative on ...

06 February 2023

Reframe the conversation: tree cover is the issue

The solution to the challenges posed by climate change lies not only in reforestation efforts but also in increasing tree cover everywhere Listen to the Blogpost here, voiced by an AI reader Trees are vital to combating climate change because they play a significant role in ...

10 December 2022

Reflections from IGF2022: The opportunity for Africa

See #IGF2022 reflections on Digital Reflections Last week, I attended the Internet Governance Forum (IGF2022). By the end of it, I have had several reflections about what the opportunities there are for Africa. These are the conversations that I am really hoping to have and hear ...

28 November 2022

Reflections from IGF2022: Digital Inclusion

Listen to the blogpost The Internet Governance Forum was one of my first global conferences to speak back in 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan, and I have attended the conference almost every year since. I am happy that my first conference since the COVID-19 pandemic is The ...

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