AO: As the paragraph below describes, the process of signing up to become a reader of the archives is quite straightforward. The fee is 1,500 KES for foreign researchers for the year.
Unlike the national archives of its East African neighbors, the KNA is a truly public institution that does not require that users hold a research permit in order to read documents. KNA readers' cards are available in the search room for 50 Kenyan Shillings (about 65 US cents), renewable each year. A photo I.D. and a passport-size photo are required for issuing the card. The search room is located upstairs and is open from 8:30am- 4:30pm, Monday to Friday, and from 8:30am-1pm Saturdays. New read- ers should inform the receptionist at the main entrance that they would like to visit the search room.
AO: This quote from Carotenuto and Luongo (2005) continues to hold true today - perhaps even more so - and speaks to me of the requisite time and level of commitment that the archival researcher must have in order to develop the expertise and patience to search the archives.
... the authors experienced the researcher's chagrin of finding that "key source" in the bound or computer indexes, only to discover that it was improperly cataloged or missing altogether. New researchers should be warned that it is necessary to devote a considerable amount of time to learning how to locate and identify sources, and that they should be prepared for disappointments.
AO: This excerpt from Carotenuto and Luongo (2005) highlights the reuse of the physical infrastructure of the bank to store archival materials instead. How did existing infrastructure of the bank shape the design, perceptions and use of the archives?
During the late 1970s the KNA moved from its basement beginnings to its present location on Moi Avenue. The current facility first housed the Bank of India and later the Kenya Commercial Bank. Not surprisingly, the building's architecture suggests a depository of currency much more than a repository of information. Indeed, documents are currently stored in bank vaults throughout the building's eight repository rooms, and the most highly-sensitive documents in the KNA's collection are secreted away in the old bank's "strong room," which can be accessed only by the director of the KNA.
TM: Here we see as an insider looking out on the way in which researchers at KNA struggle to find the data they require at KNA. So we look at a sample of Maasai community archival users owing to an important to them, i.e., land. We see how this important aspect of their lives following land lease settlement with pre-colonial British at expiry is most dependant on the efficiency of the KNA infrastructure. The efficincy of KNA record managment system comes under the microscope as it demonstrates how important archival records are in the lives of the people they are supposed to be there for.
" ...with the recent expiration of the controversial Maasai Land treaty, an agreement through which the British colonial government acquired Maasai lands for settler development for a period of 99 years, elders from Maasai communities are searching the KNA collection for information to aid their campaigns to reclaim the leased lands.
According to the KNA staff, many of these elderly patrons are semi-literate or illiterate, and their lack of skills only exacerbates the difficulties which challenge the professional researcher and casual user. While search room staff is willing to help all patrons, KNA staff limitations prevent the search room archivists from providing specialized help to these patrons and require that the patrons bring their own reading assistants. In addition, colonial documents pertaining to these cases contain significant spelling discrepancies, and numerous place and proper names have been changed since the colonial era, making it difficult for the casual user to trace people, places, and events. In such circumstances, many of the KNA's users leave frustrated, and empty-handed."