AO: This quote to me highlights the importance of avoiding progress narratives because in the nearly 15 years since this article was written by two American graduate students, the Kenya National Archives that one encounters today contradicts this rosy picture of it as the "leading archives on the continent." Without discounting the good work that they continue to do, the one or two person team available to assist in retrieving materials using the one functioning computer now seems in stark contrast to the ninteen trained archivists described in 2005. This highlights to me the importance of government, funder, and community support for the un-sexy and "un-innovative" maintenance work over the long-term.
Since its move to Moi Avenue, the KNA has developed into one of the leading archives on the continent. Today the institution employs nineteen trained archivists and an overall staff of close to 100, responsible for maintaining over 1.5 million documents along with thousands of microfilms and photographs. (2005, page 447)
