Ms Agnes Gaithaiya who was appointed the Google Director for East Africa last week has relaunched a stale product that failed a few years ago.
Near the end of September 2011, Google Kenya launched a program to Getting Kenyan Businesses Online aka KBO in an event titled‘The Next Iteration of Digital – G-Kenya 2011’.
Nine years ago, it was actually reported under the same headline the new product is being reported today.
Business Daily reports that, ‘Kenyan small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can now access free website and online profile creation services from IT giant Google in a move designed to increase their visibility to potential customers across the globe in the Sh325 million programme dubbed ‘Rising Together’”.
Google failed in the KBO attempt a few years later due to the rise of social media as a powerful tool for interactions and business.
In relaunching this program, Gathaiya proves the saying that has always followed her everywhere, ‘she does nothing new, but is good at stealing ideas (now recycling), just like most women in Tech at Safaricom where she first came from’.
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We cannot talk about awards, she was recently awarded, as awarding processes in Kenya are rigged to make someone look like they are perfomers, there are many cases in point.
A local blog (cnyakundi.com) exposed the Company of the Year Awards (COYA) in 2019.
Businesses on Facebook are flourishing, and with the rise of forums and Kenyan based social media – cum forums, the relaunched KBO product from Google is set to struggle.
The fallacy of the Google product is that the CEO says SMEs have a chance of being visible across the globe, yet all Kenyan businesses are looking for is, one, a conducive environment at home, and secondly, a respect for intellectual property rights by inventors.
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