[Imc-africa] Update from Nairobi

[sphinx]

Hi John! Congratulation for the great work you are doing.

Do I correctly understand that we can operate the radio station from the Reed
International guesthouse if we manage to negotiate a deal with Ghetto FM or
Miss Koch FM to be some sort of extension of their station?
How much does the new place cost and do they have internet?
What is you take on the idea of we may be focusing on getting the radio built
instead at Kibera project Dung has been talking with??
Me and may be Jay will surely be having a skype meeting with qwerty
(international tech volunteer with the WSF), Vita Randazzo-media 
contact person
in the WSF2007 secretariat and some of their IT people.
The question to everyone in this list is what kind of help could we ask 
from the
WSF people.

I propose we ask:
1-for some press-card so that indymedia journalist who wish to attend press
meetings at the forum itself to report for our print, online and radio can get
enough access to the WSF.
2-Maybe we could ask for space in the WSF press room to set-up a little
indymedia hub to report from and upload material that could then be used to
feed information to our Center for programs.

I think the question is how much we want to work with the World Social Forum
(WSF) people. Basically the forum will be going on in a very big area. Do we
want to ask for a room to run our radio station from??
What do you think ?

Sphinx




Quoting John Bwakali <jonbwak at yahoo.com>:

> Dear Colleagues,
>  Visa letters: I am in touch with Oloo about this and intend to try 
> and see if you can receive the invitation letters this week so that 
> you can start making any relevant arrangements. I just talked with 
> him a while ago and we agreed to try and meet tomorrow to follow up 
> on the same.
>
>  Accomodation: The WSF will be held at Moi International Sports 
> Centre in Kasarani, about 10 kilometres from the city centre of 
> Nairobi. On friday last week, I visited the WSF secretariat here and 
> established that most activities will take place at Kasarani. As 
> such, the guest house that I had in mind at Lavington will be a bit 
> far from Kasarani and I have thus identified another one that is 
> about 10 minutes drive from Kasarani itself. The proprietor of this 
> guesthouse is a company known as Reed International whose Director is 
> Allan Busula. I have a meeting with them today (sunday) in the 
> evening and will send you a full update about the meeting tomorrow. 
> Given the fact that a lot of people will be looking for accomodation 
> near the WSF venue, I think that once I agree with Reed 
> International, we should proceed to secure the guesthouse soonest 
> possible. I will send you the full address and photos of the house 
> before the end of this week.
>
> Transport: If we secure the guesthouse that is near the WSF venue, 
> then people should be able to walk for about 20 - 30 mins to the 
> venue. Otherwise we can also arrange for a small vehicle to be on 
> standby at the guesthouse to transport people to the city centre, 
> Kibera and any other place within Nairobi.
>
>  Radio Frequency in Nairobi: Last week I was in a meeting with Riruta 
> Environment Group, an organisation here in Nairobi that sought for a 
> radio frequency to operate here in Nairobi but they were informed 
> that Nairobi is for now saturated, so they had to opt for Kitale, a 
> smaller town about 300 kilimeters west of Nairobi. I have however 
> established that there is a new community radio station in Kibera 
> known as Ghetto FM and another one in Korogocho (another ghetto about 
> 10 mins drive from WSF venue) known as Miss Koch FM. If we want to go 
> on air in Nairobi 'legally', then we might want to talk to these 
> radio stations and strike some sort of partnership. Reed 
> International has made it clear that they wouldn't want to get into 
> trouble with the government because an 'illegal' radio is being 
> operated in their premises (the guesthouse).
>
>  Permanent Radio Station in Maseno: Last friday, I had a meeting with 
> Felix (the tech radio person from Maseno) and he informed me that 
> things are on course in Maseno. They are even already putting up the 
> building that will house the radio station. I have requested him to 
> send a full update to all of you. We arranged for a group of ten 
> students and lecturers to stay with other Indymedia people in Nairobi 
> and partake in all our activities in Nairobi. The long term strategy 
> for the Maseno team to then assist in setting up other community 
> radio projects in other parts of Kenya.
>
>  Working groups: We are already setting up working groups and soon 
> you will have the names of the people who are coordinating different 
> things.
>
>  Cheers,
>  John