But with the rapid rise of the new social media in the past two or three years, the tables have suddenly turned in Kenya too. For the first time in their lives, Kenyans can connect with each other online and have the opportunity to do something with their connections. So when social media expert Sam Gichuru openly asked on Facebook what he could do to combat the famine and his friends suggested setting up a platform, that was exactly what he did. Gichuru, manager of Nailab , founded by the Dutch 1%CLUB and which guides young Kenyans in self-employment, opened a new action page on Facebook and within a few hours it had three thousand fans. “Since then, our social guatemala phone number list media team has been online 24 hours a day to have conversations with our followers about the famine,” says Gichuru via Facebook. “It is the talk of the day. We have never felt so connected to each other.” Initiator Safaricom also picked up the online campaign and asked Gichuru to join the Kenyans for Kenya campaign team.
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In the meantime, the campaign has also been taken to the streets. For example, last week, 144 tons of food were sent to the north with a large musical spectacle in the city park of Nairobi. There are also initial rumours to turn the one-off collection campaign into a serious project with long-term planning. The large multinationals such as Ernst & Young and Price Waterhouse Coopers have been appointed as managing organisations in the various affected provinces to buy sufficient food with the money and smart investments for the future are being considered. The Kenyan government has also made itself heard and announced that it will invest 200 million euros in long-term measures against the drought. But for many Kenyans, including Kangoingoi, that is really too late: “It is not serious. The government is ashamed. But we are fed up with it. We are so fed up with it!”