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BAKE Training in Nakuru attended by over 150 participants

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The BAKE training on Blogging & Social Media in Nakuru took place on Friday 24th April at the American Corner of the Kenya National Library Services (KNLS) Nakuru branch. The one day workshop which was supported by Hivos, Jukumu Letu Initiative and American Embassy in Kenya was attended by more than 150 participants from within Nakuru county with some coming from as far as Naivasha to learn how to blog.

Our trainers Kennedy Kachwanya, Shitemi Khamadi and Njeri Wangari travelled to Nakuru town on Thursday just in time for a radio interview at Radio Amani, a community radio station that commands the highest listenership in Nakuru. During their interview with Gladys the evening show presenter, Shitemi and Njeri spoke on blogging, definition of a blogger, requirements for one to become one, the importance of responsible blogging. They also spoke about the Free training that would take place at the Library urging all to turn up.

On Friday morning, the training which was in four sessions; beginners, advanced, jukumuletu initiative and use of social media in public participation on county governance. Njeri took the beginners session by introducing the participants on the importance of blogs, why Social Media has become part of our everyday life in one way or another and providing a guide into becoming a blogger and joining twitter.

Njeri engaged the participants in a discussion on the importance of having a passion for something. She also used the case study of Chief Kariuki who hails from Nakuru county and uses twitter for community policing, crime reporting and neighborhood watch.

Kachwanya took the advanced session and his group was taken through what it requires for one to become a better blogger. He spoke on ways in which bloggers can increase traffic to their blogs, better use of other social media platforms as well as various revenue models that bloggers use to earn a living from their craft. After the separate sessions, the participants were all gathered in one room for 2 more sessions. The first session was by the Joshua Changwony, the Deputy Executive Secretary/Programmes Coordinator at Constitution and Reform Education Consortium (CRECO) to speak on the Jukumu Letu initiative and the Nakuru Launch which was taking place the following day at the Nyayo Gardens in Nakuru town.

— Njeri Wangari (@NjeriWangari) April 24, 2015

Shitemi held the last session for the day, with a focus on ‘Use of Social Media in Public Participation on Governance’ with case studies on how the local government is using social media to disseminate information and how the Nakuru residents can use the same platforms to engage the county government. The training workshop ended at 2pm with participants being invited to the Jukumu Letu Launch and another BAKE training that will be taking place on 30th of May during the Story Moja Festival at the same Nakuru branch of KNLS.

The well attended workshop was captured in Camera and in form of online updates on Social media with the hashtag #BAKETraining