19 December, 2014

How Kenyans Misused Google in 2014

Friday, December 19, 2014


The report on how Kenyans faired on Google in 2014 is out and guess what, it’s the usual suspects who are topping google searches – Vera Sidika, English Premier League (EPL) and, “Panda Mbegu” mastermind, Pastor Kanyari.

Vera Sidika

Kenya News -- While Kenya has witnessed a tremendous growth in online activity, Kenyans haven’t figured out a better use of the World Wide Web other than for quenching and complementing their entertainment  wants—stalking local socialites to boost one’s gossip IQ; devouring all EPL content for the sole purpose of charming friends and strangers alike during debates on which team will do what, what changes should be made when and where, which player is the biggest letdown, how much they gained or lost by purchasing so and so, etc. etc.

EPL football evaluations, discussions and recommendations are held everywhere in Kenya – Barber shops, passenger pickup points, watchmen’s shade, in “chums” (narrow dangerous slum paths), Miraa (Khat) shades, and most importantly, while in the company of football-learned friends, probably imbibing a favorite drink at mama pima’s or sipping away Jebels and Moon Walkers in tiny Wines and Spirits shops in Nairobi West.

What did the report say?

The report was broken down in categories: in the “symptom search” category, terrified Kenyans gave first priority to Ebola, beating diabetes to the second spot and hypertension to third.

 In the “how to” category, Kenyans strangely searched for “how to survive” more than anything else (Will come back to this later in the article). “How to network” come in second, and “how to date” third.

in the “what is” category, top searches included what is transcoding and what is endometriosis, this seems to have been learning activities in some university, proving my point that the wider majority of Kenyans go online to look for opportunities to troll and to get entertained (you must have heard of the Twitter warfare wedged by KOT against Nigerians, South Africans, etc). Students basically use the free internet provided by universities to learn about EPL, celebrity gossip, download porn, Jicho pevu and watch Episodes of American and Mexican soaps.

 In the “trending people category”, Kenyans gave first priority to none other their very own light skin-toned and bootylicious Vera Sidika, followed by Otieno Kajwang, a former ODM senator who died recently and which dominated Kenya News. The third and fourth most searched people were Angel Di Maria (Manchester United Player) and Myles Munroe, respectively.
United "DAMU" = Manchester United Forever

Overall, the most searched was OLX at number one, English Premier League at second sport, followed by Higher Education Loans Board, the KRA. Pastor Kanyari was somewhere in top 10. 

How to survive?


It beats logic to think that the very Kenyans wasting time on gossip are at the same people looking for survival tricks. Or did they mean search for how to survive Al-Shabaab attack or Ebola attack? If it is “how to survive” hard economic realities then there is no better advice than asking my fellow Kenyans to dedicate a large proportion of their time to productive endeavors. 

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