Lugha inaweza kutumiwa kwa njia ya ubunifu wenye ufasaha ufaao ili kuwasiliana au pia ikatumiwa visivyo na kwa njia potovu. Ni nini hasa maana ya kutumia lugha kwa njia potovu? Pengine ni rahisi kueleza kinyume chake. Mtumiaji wa lugha mwenye ubunifu huzingatia rasimali zote za lugha. Mwandishi maarufu wa fasihi barani Afrika, Chinua Achebe, huitumia lugha kama kituo kilicho hai na pia kuendelea. Katika juhudi za kuifanya lugha kumwezesha kutoa maoni, maelekezo, habari na hisia, mtumiaji kama huyu hutambua kuwa lugha ikitumiwa ipasavyo huleta uhai katika taaluma ya mawasiliano. (Luvai, 1991: 60) Hata hivyo, katika Kenya, kiwango che ubora wa uandishi kwa jumla kimeshuka sana katika miaka ishirini iliyopita. Makala hii itachunguza kwa muhtasari ushahidi wa matumizi yasiyofaa ya lugha ya Kiswahili katika vyombo vya habari km. redio, televisheni na magazeti.

Nyimbo, kama tanzu ya fasihi yeyote ile zina majukumu mbalimbali ambayo hutekeleza katika jamii. Lengo kuu la fasihi ni lile la kuielimisha na hata kuiburudisha jamii. Ndivyo ilivyo katika nyimbo kwa sababu kupitia kwazo wanajamii huburudika na kuelimishwa. Ni kwa sababu hiyo ndipo makala hii inalenga kuangalia nafasi ya nyimbo zinazopendwa katika fasihi ya Kiswahili. Huu ni utanzu ambao huwafikia watu wengi katika jamii. Kutokana na kutumia lugha ya Kiswahili, utanzu huu unaweza kueleweka na Wakenya wengi. Nchini Kenya, vyombo vya habari vimeipa fasihi hii nafasi kubwa sana na hivyo basi kuipanua hadhira yake. Hii ni kutokana na sababu kuwa fasihi hii inathaminiwa sana na wengi na ipewe nafasi kubwa katika vyombo vya habari hasa katika redio kwa muda mrefu. Ni kutokana na sababu hii ndipo tunajaribu kuonyesha nafasi yake katika fasihi ya Kiswahili.

Makala haya yanatathmini iwapo ukuzaji na uendelezaji wa Kiswahili nchini Kenya unategemea shughuli za kuiendeleza lugha hii zinazofanywa na Tanzania ama unatokana na kutegemeana baina ya mataifa haya katika kukikuza na kukiendeleza Kiswahili. Baadhi ya njia za kuiendeleza lugha zinajumuisha: kuisanifisha, kuifanyia utafiti na kuiimarisha kwa kuitungia kamusi, vitabu vya sarufi, kazi za kisanaa na kuitumia serikalini, mahakamani, katika elimu n.k. Makala haya yanaonyesha kuwa ingawa kuna utegemeano kati ya Kenya na Tanzania katika ukuzaji na uendelezaji wa Kiswahili, Tanzania inategemewa zaidi. Hususan inadhahirishwa kuwa Kenya imeitegemea Tanzania kwa kuagizia machapisho, wataalamu wa Kiswahili mbali na kutumia istilahi na hata kuchuma nafuu mifano ya Tanzania katika utumishi wa umma. Fauka ya hayo, inaonyeshwa kuwa pale ambapo Kenya haijafaidi kutokana na ufanisi wa Tanzania, ikiiga mfano wa Tanzania, upo uwezekano wa kufaulu.

Thesis (MDram (Drama))--Stellenbosch University, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Kenyan culture is deeply rooted in tradition. Many problems arise from the traditional role and conceptions of the Kenyan woman. These include female genital mutilation, polygamy and lack of scholastic education. A definite correlation can be found between the problem of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections and certain social traditions as well as the unscripted prohibition of open conversations about sex and death. Kenya does not have an indigenous tradition of puppetry, and Community Health and Awareness Puppeteers (CHAPS) have committed themselves to developing interactive puppetry to address these tradition- orientated social problems. Puppetry makes use of three sign systems, namely sound, design and movement. This sign systems, together with the imagination of the audience, brings life to a lifeless object and serves as a meaningful vehicle of communication. CHAPS use the inherent qualities of the puppet. The puppet’s symbolic and double nature demeanor gives this art form exceptional freedom of speech, which makes it possible discuss sensitive issues. The visual nature of puppetry and general principals such as exaggeration and simplification make it possible to convey a message to people irrespective of their literacy level. The absence of television in rural and impoverished areas in Kenya ensures that people from any age group relate to puppetry as a visual art form. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Kenia is ‘n baie tradisievaste land. Uit veral die tradisionele posisie van die vrou spruit ‘n aantal sosiale probleme, onder andere vroulike geslagsskending, poligamie en gebrekkige skolastiese opvoeding. Die problematiek rondom MIV/VIGS en oordraaglke geslagssiektes hou verband met sekere tradisionele sosiale gebruike en die ongeskrewe verbod om oor seks en dood te praat. Kenia het nie ‘n inheemse poppeteatertradisie nie en Community Health and Awareness Puppeteers (CHAPS) beywer hulle daarvoor om poppeteater in Kenia te bevorder en bogenoemde tradisie-verwante sosiale probleme deur middel van interaktiewe poppeteater aan te spreek. Poppeteater maak van drie tekensisteme gebruik, naamlik klank, ontwerp en beweging. Hierdie tekens, tesame met die gehoor se verbeelding, gee ‘n verbeelde lewe aan die toneelpop as ‘n lewelose voorwerp en dien as betekenisdraende kommunikasiemiddele. CHAPS benut die inherente eienskappe van die toneelpop. Die toneelpop se simboliese en dubbele aard gee aan die kunsvorm ‘n uitsonderlike vryheid van spraak wat dit moontlik maak om oor sensitiewe kwessies te praat. Die visuele aard van die poppeteater en spelbeginsels soos oordrywing en vereenvoudiging maak die kunsvorm toeganklik vir mense van enige geletterdheidsvlak. In die afwesigheid van televisie in die landelike en armoedige stedelike gebiede in Kenia, vind poppeteater as nuwigheid en visueelgerigte kunsvorm aanklank by enige ouderdomsgroep.

Kenia erlangt Anfang der 1960er seine Unabhängigkeit und wird in der Folge von den Präsidenten Kenyatta und später Moi autoritär regiert. Als Konsequenz des internationalen und nationalen Druckes werden 1991 wieder Mehrparteienwahlen zugelassen. Die Hoffnungen auf einen Trendwechsel werden zunächst aber nicht erfüllt. Präsident Moi bleibt bei den Wahlen 1992 und 1997 siegreich und versucht jeden möglichen Reformprozess aufzuhalten bzw. zu verlangsamen. Mit dem neu gewählten Präsidenten Kibaki entsteht 2002 die Hoffnung auf Veränderung. Aber als alter Wegbegleiter Mois erfüllt Kibaki nicht die internationalen und nationalen Erwartungen. Moi und Kibaki organisieren jeweils kontra-demokratische Eliten hinter sich und nutzen das mächtige Präsidentenamt, die stärkste Institution im politischen System Kenias, um den Status quo so lange wie möglich zu erhalten. Die Parteien werden weder durch die Regierung noch durch die Opposition zu starken Institutionen transformiert und das unstete Verhalten der Geberländer vermag den Einfluss der autoritären Führung nicht dauerhaft einzuschränken.

Governments at central and sub-national levels are increasingly pursuing participatory mechanisms in a bid to improve governance and service delivery. This has been largely in the context of decentralization reforms in which central governments transfer (share) political, administrative, fiscal and economic powers and functions to sub-national units. Despite the great international support and advocacy for participatory governance where citizen’s voice plays a key role in decision making of decentralized service delivery, there is a notable dearth of empirical evidence as to the effect of such participation. This is the question this study sought to answer based on a case study of direct citizen participation in Local Authorities (LAs) in Kenya. This is as formally provided for by the Local Authority Service Delivery Action Plan (LASDAP) framework that was established to ensure citizens play a central role in planning and budgeting, implementation and monitoring of locally identified services towards improving livelihoods and reducing poverty. Influence of participation was assessed in terms of how it affected five key determinants of effective service delivery namely: efficient allocation of resources; equity in service delivery; accountability and reduction of corruption; quality of services; and, cost recovery. It finds that the participation of citizens is minimal and the resulting influence on the decentralized service delivery negligible. It concludes that despite the dismal performance of citizen participation, LASDAP has played a key role towards institutionalizing citizen participation that future structures will build on. It recommends that an effective framework of citizen participation should be one that is not directly linked to politicians; one that is founded on a legal framework and where citizens have a legal recourse opportunity; and, one that obliges LA officials both to implement what citizen’s proposals which meet the set criteria as well as to account for their actions in the management of public resources.

Social identity between interlocutors s is an indispensable factor in the formation of a community (i e. a social unit whose members are held together by an international network and who share certain interests, beliefs, views and attitudes) In this regard, language is known to be an influential symbol of identity, an important clue to social group membership. As Einer Haugen states, language is at once `a social institution, like the laws, the religion, or the economy of a community, and a social instrument which accompanies and makes possible all other institutions. As an institution it may become a symbol of the community` (1956:8 7).

Kenyan Swahili creative writing has been in the shadow of Tanzanian creative works for a long time. Infact some critics even end up claiming that one cannot really talk of Kenyan Swahili prose creative writing. This is notwithstanding a number of commendable works some of which belong to the very first generation of Swahili literature.

The Department of Linguistics and African Languages, in which Kiswahili is a central subject, was established in the Faculty of Arts at the University College of Nairobi in 1969. Since then, at least five more departments which are devoted to the teaching and study of the Kiswahili language and literature have been established in various Kenyan universities (see below). Most of these departments run post-graduate programmes leading to MA. and PhD - degrees. As a result, considerable research activity related to both the Kiswahili language and literature has been going on. This is evident from the dissertations that have been written and that continue to be written every year.

Thesis (doctoral)--Köln, University, 2001.