It is unsurprising that the pictures we have received from Kenya are on political subjects. The Kenyan elections took place on the 4th of March, and campaigners have thought up some innovative ways of reaching the more remote or secluded sections of Kenya's diverse population. We see a member of a Samburu tribe using a mobile phone; he is participating in the Interactive Voice Response campaign, which educated the nomadic tribes of the region about their rights and responsibilities as voters in the run-up to the election. Another photo shows a member of the Legio Maria movement, a religious sect whose practices oppose Western medicine and technology, talking politics with a friend on her mobile. People who might have had difficulty exercising their democratic rights are empowered through ICT.
It is in the farming sector that the benefits of mobile connectivity are most apparent this year. We have a vast number of pictures showing the penetration of mobile phone and tablet technology in agriculture, and the innovations in usage that go along with it. Singisi coffee farmers in Tanzania, for example, are given instant market quotes by iPad, so that they can sell at the right prices on an interactive system that also caters for the illiterate. A smallholder in eastern Uganda is provided with information on pests and diseases by mobile – information which could have been difficult to access without ICT is made instantly available. Solar panels allow the spread of technology into rural areas where farming can benefit from it, but where the lack of an electricity grid connection previously prevented its use.