Kenyan Blog Awards – 2006

Here are the winners of the Kaybee Awards 2006.

Along with the thirteen categories, we would like to take this opportunity to announce two special awards. The Founder’s Award which is aimed at the Kenyan Blog Webring (KBW) member the founder recognizes as having given outstanding service to the KBW and KenyaUnlimited (KuL) project and The KBW/KuL Admin Award for Outstanding Member aimed at the KBW member the KBW/KuL admin team recognizes as deserving special mention.

We would like to this opportunity to thank everyone who submitted their nominations and sent in their votes and to congratulate all our winners and nominees.

KENYAN BLOG OF THE YEAR (2006) – THE BEST KENYAN BLOG

Winner: tHiNkEr’S rOoM
Author:M. Just M.
Tagline: Unique – Just Like Everyone Else
Nominees: (In alphabetical order)

• Gukira
• Kenyan Pundit
• Mentalacrobatics
• Mshairi

TRAILBLAZER AWARD – FOR THE MOST INNOVATIVE, CREATIVE BLOGGER AND ONE WHO IS AN INSPIRATION TO OTHER BLOGGERS.

Winner: Mentalacrobatics
Author:Mentalacrobatics
Tagline: The deepest pothole in the information superhighway
Nominees: (In alaphabetical order)

• Guessaurus
• Gukira
• Kenyan Pundit
• Mama JunkYard’s
• Thinker’s Room

MOST HUMOROUS BLOG


Winner: Me I LOve NAirobi REgardless
Author:MILONARE
Tagline: What’s Life If It’s Not Worth A Laugh?
Nominees: (In alphabetical order)

• Haidhuru
• Kenyan Musings
• Nicholas Gichu
• Thinker’s Room

BEST POLITICAL BLOG

Winner:Kenyan Pundit
Author:Ory Okolloh
Tagline: Opinions, commentary, na kadhalika
Nominees: (In alphabetical order)

• African Bullets & Honey
• Bankelele
• Diary of A Mad Kenyan Woman
• Mentalacrobatics
• Thinker’s Room
• You Missed This

BEST NEW BLOG – RESTRICTED TO BLOGS STARTED IN 2005 OR 2006

Winner: Guessaurus
Author:Guess
Tagline: What would the child I once was think of the adult I have become?
Nominees: (In alphabetical order)

• Haidhuru
• Kenyan Musings
• Me I Love Nairobi Regardless
• Whispering Inn

BEST BLOG NOT WRITTEN IN ENGLISH

Winner: Mawazo na mawaidha
Author:Mr Maitha
Tagline: Mawazo Na Mawaidha
Nominees: (In alphabetical order)

• Bloki Ya Osporne
• Jikomboe
• KikuyuMoja’s Realm
• Maitu Ni Ma Itu
• Mhujumu
• Tafsiri

BEST POETRY BLOG

Winner: Mshairi
Author:Mshairi
Tagline: Life, Love, Poetry, Africa, Gender Activism
Nominees: (In alphabetical order)

• Gukira
• I Believe in God
• My Life In Simple Words
• Need Compass

BEST ENTERTAINMENT BLOG

Winner: Msanii_XL
Author:Msanii
Tagline: Hip Hop blog with a Kenyan Twist
Nominees: (In alphabetical order)

• Acolyte
• Couch Potato
• Kenyan Musings
• Me I Love Nairobi Regardless
• Mocha!
• Nicholas Gichu

BEST DESIGN – RESTRICTED TO BLOGS WITH ORIGINAL OR MODIFIED TEMPLATES ONLY

Winner: Mama JunkYard’s
Author:Kui Kihoro
Tagline: Not Just Junk!
Nominees: (In alphabetical order)

• Guessaurus
• KenyaUnlimited
• Mshairi
• Nyakehu

THE MOST INTERACTIVE BLOGGER (ONE MOST LIKELY TO LEAVE A COMMENT/EMAIL/PARTICIPATE)

Winner: Guessaurus
Author:Guess
Tagline: What would the child I once was think of the adult I have become?
Nominees: (In alphabetical order)

• Acolyte
• Me I Love Nairobi Regardless
• Nicholas Gichu
• Shiroh

BLOGGER ONE WOULD MOST LIKE TO MEET

Winner: Au Lait
Author:Ms. K
Tagline: I reserve the right to be imperfect! I reserve the right to laugh and be happy!
Nominees: (In alphabetical order)

• Gukira
• Kenyan Musings
• Mentalacrobatics
• Nicholas Gichu

COOLEST BLOGGER
Winner:Nicholas Gichu
Author:Nick
Tagline:
Nominees: (In alphabetical order)

• Afromusing
• Guessaurus
• Gukira
• Mentalacrobatics
• Me I Love Nairobi Regardless
• au lait

ACHIEVEMENT AWARD – RESTRICTED TO BLOGS STARTED BEFORE 2005


Winner: Mentalacrobatics
Author:Mentalacrobatics
Tagline: The deepest pothole in the information superhighway
Nominees: (In alphabetical order)

• Kenyan Pundit
• Mama JunkYard’s
• Mentalacrobatics
• Mshairi

OUTSTANDING MEMBER AWARD – CHOOSEN BY THE ADMIN TEAM


Winner: Jikomboe
Author:Ndesanjo
Tagline: Jikomboe
Why we choose him: Ndesanjo’s blog pushes boundaries and is an eclectic mix of excellent articles that range from music to politics. Ndesanjo has been exemplary in encouraging bloggers to blog in Kiswahili and other African languages and has actively promoted such blogs both on his blog and also through other avenues such as Global Voices He has recently set-up an excellent blogging step-by-step guide in Kiswahili (Mwongozo wa Jinsi ya Kuanza Kublogo) All in all, Ndesanjo has shown that non-Kenyans can join and actively participate in the KBW project.

FOUNDER’S AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING SERVICES TO KBW AND KUL

Winner: Mawazo na mawaidha
Author:Mr Maitha
Tagline: Mawazo Na Mawaidha
The Founder’s Award honours outstanding service and dedication to the Kenyan Blogs Webring and KenyaUnlimited projects. This year’s award goes to Maitha of Mawazo na mawaidha. Maitha has worked selflessly to make the Kenyan Blogs Webring a success. He took on the responsibility of translating the KenyaUnlimited website into Kiswahili making it one of the few truly bilingual English – Kiswahili websites online today. As well as this, Maitha serves as a member of the KBW admin team. Like the rest of the admin team he is a volunteer who has given up his time and lends his expertise to Kenyan Blog Webring selflessly. Mawazo na mawaidha, Maitha’s blog, is full of first-class content while retaining a warm and welcoming manner which encourages readers to start blogging. Often away from the limelight and behind the scenes, Maitha has shown outstanding service and dedication to the Kenyan Blog Webring and KenyaUnlimited projects.

Here are the final nominees for the Kaybee Awards 2006. Thank you to everyone who submitted a nomination form for the awards. We would like to extend a special thank you to all the non bloggers and non Kenyans who took time out to recognise Kenyan blogs by sending in a nomination form.

Voting is restricted to members of the Kenyan Blogs Webring. KBW members please visit our Kaybees page for information and instructions on how to vote. This information will also be emailed to all KBW members within the next 24 hours.

Change to voting timeline

We realise that due to the forthcoming long Easter weekend some of our members may not have sufficient time to submit their votes before the deadline of the 17th of April. To this end we have extended the voting deadline to Wednesday the 19th of April 2006. We will announce the results on Friday the 21st of April 2006.

Here are your nominees presented per category. Nominees are listed in alphabetical order.

Kenyan blog of the year (2006) – The best Kenyan blog

• Gukira
• Kenyan Pundit
• Mentalacrobatics
• Mshairi
• Thinker’s Room

Trailblazer award – Award for the most innovative, creative blogger and one who is an inspiration to otherbloggers.

• Guessaurus
• Gukira
• Kenyan Pundit
• Mama JunkYard’s
• Mentalacrobatics
• Thinker’s Room

Most humorous blog

• Haidhuru
• Kenyan Musings
• Me I Love Nairobi Regardless
• Nicholas Gichu
• Thinker’s Room

Best political blog

• African Bullets & Honey
• Bankelele
• Diary of A Mad Kenyan Woman
• Kenyan Pundit
• Mentalacrobatics
• Thinker’s Room
• You Missed This

Best new blog – Restricted to blogs started in 2005 or 2006

• Guessaurus
• Haidhuru
• Kenyan Musings
• Me I Love Nairobi Regardless
• Whispering Inn

Best blog not written in English

• Bloki Ya Osporne
• Jikomboe
• KikuyuMoja’s Realm
• Maitu Ni Ma Itu
• Mawazo na mawaidha
• Mhujumu
• Tafsiri

Best poetry blog

• Gukira
• I Believe in God
• Mshairi
• My Life In Simple Words
• Need Compass

Best entertainment blog

• Acolyte
• Couch Potato
• Kenyan Musings
• Me I Love Nairobi Regardless
• Mocha!
• Msanii_XL
• Nicholas Gichu

Best design – Restricted to blogs with original or modified templates only

• Guessaurus
• KenyaUnlimited
• Mama JunkYard’s
• Mshairi
• Nyakehu

The most interactive blogger (i.e. one most likely to leave a comment / email/ participate)

• Acolyte
• Guessaurus
• Me I Love Nairobi Regardless
• Nicholas Gichu
• Shiroh

The blogger one would most like to meet

• Gukira
• Kenyan Musings
• Mentalacrobatics
• Ms. K
• Nicholas Gichu

The coolest blogger

• Afromusing
• Guessaurus
• Gukira
• Mentalacrobatics
• Me I Love Nairobi Regardless
• Ms. K
• Nicholas Gichu

Achievement award – Restricted to blogs started before 2005

• Kenyan Pundit
• Mama JunkYard’s
• Mentalacrobatics
• Mshairi
• Thinker’s Room

Karibu and welcome to the 1st Annual Kaybees – the Kenyan Blog Awards.

The Kenyan Blogosphere is full of vibrant, dynamic, cutting edge blogs and now is time for us to recognise the best in Kenyan Blogging.

The Buttons (Updated: 6th April 2006)

Please spread the word about The KayBees by placing one of these buttons on your site. Click on the button of your choice to find out how to let your readers know about The KayBees.

Button 1

Button 2

Button 3

The procedure

Time line

• 27 March: Nominations open
• 9 April: Nominations close
• 10 April: Nominated blogs announced – Final voting opens
• 19 April: Voting closes (revised)
• 21 April: Winners announced (revised)

Nomination

• Nomination is open to everyone.
• Nominations shall be conducted by email.
• Only one nomination email can be submitted per person.
• You can nominate up to three blogs for each category.
• The five blogs/bloggers with the most number of nominations in each category go forward to the final voting round.
• You may nominate your own weblog however, the maximum nominations you can submit for your own weblog is 6.
• There is no limit to the number of categories a weblog may be nominated for.
• Nominees have to fit the category they are placed in.
• You must nominate at least 5 different blogs in the 13 categories.
• Blogs that are not part of KBW can be nominated so long as they are Kenyan.
• send your nominations to vote@kenyaunlimited.com

Voting

• Voting is restricted to active members of the Kenyan Blogs Webring.
• E-mail addresses are required to vote.
• Voting will be conducted by email to ensure transparency.
• Each member is allowed one vote in each category.

Voting will be conducted as follows:

• Once the finalists have been announced voting will be open.
• Send an email to vote@kenyaunlimited.com
• On the first line of the email state your blog name and blog url – this is to ensure that you are a active member of the Kenyan Blogs Webring.
• Each KBW member is entitled to one vote in each category

These blog awards are about a fair honest democratic process. They are intended to highlight and recognise the best in Kenyan blogging. If we feel that the system is being manipulated or loaded to make the competition unfair we reserve the right to discard those nominations and votes.

The categories

1. Kenyan blog of the year (2006) – The best Kenyan blog
2. Trailblazer award – Award for the most innovative, creative blogger and one who is an inspiration to other bloggers.
3. Most humorous blog
4. Best political blog
5. Best new blog – Restricted to blogs started in 2005 or 2006
6. Best blog not written in English
7. Best poetry blog
8. Best entertainment blog
9. Best design – Restricted to blogs with original or modified templates only
10. The most interactive blogger (i.e. one most likely to leave a comment / email/ participate)
11. The blogger one would most like to meet
12. The coolest blogger
13. Achievement award – Restricted to blogs started before 2005

The prizes

As is tradition in blog awards our two main awards, The Kenyan Blog of the Year and the Trailblazer Award, will each receive a cash prize of KSH 20.06 (twenty shillings and six cents – well probably 10 cents).
Other prizes may be announced during the award period.

All winners will receive a KBW winners button which they may place on their blog if they so wish.

RSS Feed

Update 1: Clarification

Please note:

1. Anyone can nominate blogs for awards. Nomination is NOT restricted to KBW members.
2. You can nominate up to three blogs in each category.
3. Blogs that are not part of KBW can be nominated so long as they are Kenyan.
4. Voting will be restricted to KBW members.