AO: This excerpt from Mnjama (2003) highlights how the Kenya National Archive in the late 1970s uniquely innovated on how to position the institution to be relevant for Kenyans. However, the author notes that such extending past the official mandate of the archives was not well received at the time and the Chief Archivist under whose watch this "golden age of the Archives" occurred was relieved of his duties in 1981.
Dr. Kagombe must… be credited for initiating the collection of oral traditions country-wide, an elaborate recruitment programme of new graduates, an excellent training programme… the construction of a permanent stand at the Agricultura Society’s Show Ground in Nairobi, establishing a documentation centre and facilitating the organization of the Round Table Conference of the International Council on Archives in Nairobi in 1978. … There is no doubt that the National Archives had embarked on a programme aimed at transforming itself from an insignificant government department to a key player in the collection and preservation of the national cultural heritage. What were then considered as non-essential functions of the department would be seen today as major areas of interest for archivists and records managers. For instance, the department was criticized for its oral tradition programme, but how do we give the voiceless a voice in our history if their activities, which were not documented in official records, are not collected? Another criticism levelled against the department was in the construction of a public gallery at Jamhuri Park, Nairobi, where annual International Agricultural Shows are held. Today, the world over, archival institutions are striving very hard to take the archives to the people, yet the efforts of the department at that time were interpreted narrowly as empire building by the then Chief Archivist.” (page 93).
AO: Mnjama (2003) seems to suggest that archival sites are important for accountability of the government and civil servants. He views public record keeping and archives as a mechanism for greater transparency and sees the National Archives as playing a key role in training and oversight of smaller archives within the government. He sees this as the real value that KNA could offer (so that it doesn't just become a "purely cultural institution" or dumping ground for documents).
In his conclusion, he mentions: "Poor record keeping has been cited as one of the major areas through which corruption has been thriving." He provocatively asks: "Is this an indication of the National Archives' failure to play its supervisory role effectively, arguing that "perhaps the time has come for them to assume a leading role in auditing records management practices throughout the entire Civil Service, comparable with what the Auditor-General's office is presently doing." He cautions: "Failure to do so many result in the National Archives remaining a purely cultural institution, with no meaningful role to play in assisting the government to achieve its objective of being transparent and accountable to the public through effective management of its vast quantities of information holdings." (100)
AO: Mnjama (2003) points to an incorrect assumption that automation is the only way of providing quick and accurate information for decision making. More than fifteen years later, I see similar echoes in contemporary public narratives about the capacity of big data/machine learning to do pattern recognition and automated analysis that goes beyond the capacity of humans. Mnjama also points here to a key issue which is the lack of integration of the computer systems with the manual filing systems (in fact leading to more disjuncture between what the online records show and what can be found in physical copy as pointed out by Carotenuto and Luongo (2005).
Although the introduction of information and communication technologies in government ministries and departments might have been hailed as a major step towards improved information-processing provision, it has had negative effects on the development of an efficient records management programme. First, the introduction of ICTs has led to an increase in the generation of paper records, especially accounting records. Second, the introduction of computers and the incorrect assumption that automation is the only way of providing quick and accurate information for decision making, leading to a neglect of the management of paper-based records, which still constitute the vast majority of recorded information in the country. Finally, no efforts have been made to link the use of computers with an efficient records management programme. As a result, while many departments have embraced the use of computers, registries have been left to struggle with unqualified registry clerks, thus contributing to many of the problems discussed above.
AO: Mnjama (2003) points out that ... "increasingly, government institutions are creating records in electronic formats. As the introduction of modern information and communication technologies is a welcome development, the underlying issues relating to the management of electronic records remain yet to be addressed" (98). He calls for a country-wide records survey to understand how records created electronically are being managed. Ten years later, Wangutusi (2013) writes her master's thesis on assessing the "e-readiness" of KNA. However, she focuses less on the underlying partnerships and division of labor between KNA and other government ministries and more on the technical systems and accessibility of computer technologies. The question of the management of electronic records seems particularly important to address given that the majority of the microfilm collection for the Kenya National Archives continue to be hosted and managed by Syracuse University Libraries, something that seems particularly ironic given KNA's successful migration of archives from the colonial government.
AO: This quote outlines three reasons why Kenya embarked upon retrieving its archives, which were held overseas.
Perhaps among all African countries, Kenya is the only country which embarked upon and executed a migrated archives retrieval programme successfully. The need to locate and retrieve Kenyan records held overseas stems from several factors. First, until the eve of independence, the country lacked a strong archival institution. During the colonial period, the collection and preservation of public records were accorded very low priority and thus many would-be public archives were lost. Second, in 1939, the then colonial secretariat in Nairobi was gutted by fire, destroying virtually all the records held by the government. Third, Kenya was among the few African countries which gained independence after a long armed struggle involving a group commonly referred to as the Mau Mau. On the eve of independence the imperial government opted to remove certain records from the country, arguing that it was not common practice for one government to hand over its records to a new government. Obviously, this was a direct attempt to hide the atrocities committed by the imperial government to a newly independent state." (2003, page 97)