Macro

Strachan Matranga, H., Bhattacharyya, B., & Baird, R. (2017). Breaking the Pattern: Getting Digital Financial Services Entrepreneurs to Scale in India and East Africa. Village Capital.

AO: This 2017 report has been particularly influential in the Kenyan technology space and continues to be cited in conversations regarding race, tech capital and privilege. The key finding that created a big buzz and is primarily what is referred to when people mention "The Village Capital...Read more

Learning from Nairobi

Something Kim said - about Nairobi being an important site to learn from given that many in the US may be forced to go into the more informal economy, etc. - reminded me of a twist of that point...Read more
Mwangi, E. (2010). Between imagination and delusion: Cosmopolitan postcolonial critique in Ken Walibora’s Ndoto ya Amerika [The American Dream]. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 46(2), 125–137.

AO: This article by Mwangi analyses the late Ken Walibora's "Ndoto ya Amerika", arguing that it promotes “rooted cosmopolitanism” as a framework for literary and political development.Read more

Zachary, G. P. (2008, July 20). Inside Nairobi, the Next Palo Alto? The New York Times.

This article written in July 2008 is particularly interesting to me because of when it was written. It predates the slew of international media coverage on tech development in Nairobi (most of which was written in 2010 - 2012) and the article also touches on some of the cultural orientations...Read more

AOk. African problems are "information" problems

AO: This quote (see copy-pasted below) states that IBM (Research) believed that "many of the hardest problems in our world today, particularly in Africa, are problems of information." The speaker...Read more

Government of the Republic of Kenya. (2008). Kenya Vision 2030 (The Popular Version). Government of the Republic of Kenya.

AO: This is the Kenya Vision 2030 document launched in 2008 (and republished as the "popular version") in 2018 on the Vision 2030 website (https://vision2030.go.ke/). The document outlines the long-term development blueprint for the country.Read more

2016 Kenya National ICT Policy

AO: This is the second publicly published national ICT policy which was a review of the 2006 policy. This document has been revised by the 2019 iteration.Read more

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