This past weekend marked two years since I wrote my first blog entry! Quite an achievement, considering the fact that one month in blogosphere is equivalent to kedo 6 months.

Lately I’ve been giving a lot of thought into why I blog and who I blog for. When I first started out in mid 2006, I used to blog for myself. Blogging was therapeutic, an avenue for me to vent, to write about mundane stuff that occurred in my life, my thoughts about this and that, knowing there’s always be someone out there who could read my post and relate with what I was going through or thinking at the time. Blogging was far simpler when I’d get only 50 hits and 5 comments per post coz back then, there wasn’t much pressure to blog.

Two blogs, 124 posts, 69,102 hits in the last 13 months alone, 5000+ hits monthly, I should be content, right? Not really. Nowadays I don’t feel as if I own my blog. My readers, who have their own expectations of what kind of posts I should write about, own it. I’m merely employed to churn out a post every week. I can no longer write about deep or personal stuff like I could two years ago. It’s good to be popular, but at what cost, losing myself in the process? My life isn’t as exciting as it was a year or two ago, now that I’m back in school and trying hard to keep my head down and keep a low profile. Besides, I’ve matured kiasi since then. It’s not every week that I can write posts like this one and this one and that one.

Speaking of maturing, is it just me or has the Kenyan blogosphere become a lot less exciting than it was a couple of years back? I miss the days of Aco’s e-pub back in late 2006, the days when we’d all wait with baited breath for Guessaurus’ next post, Nick’s hilarious tales, KM’s crazy adventures? What happened to all our favourite old school bloggers, the ones whose latest posts we’d bookmark and read over and over again, usually just having a ball in the comments section? The guys we couldn’t wait to get home after a hectic day and unwind to their un-seriousness? What happened to Devious (ex wife), Milo, Kenyanchick, Couch ‘Tato, Kipepeo, Stunuh Jay, The Hanyee, Princess, Udi, Kabinti, Ms K, Jadekitten and Stackofstiffys? More recently, what happened to Angry Somali Man, Bantu, JM, Pilato, Tweety, Aegeus, Sis Big Bones, Unyc, Bryjoe and Kayliz? Even now, Ichiena, Betty, Chatterly and Mama Shady are slowly making a much overdue comeback.

I’ve even had to create a new link category on my sidebar for those missing in action. (If you spot any of them anywhere, kindly drag them to the nearest keyboard)

Only a few old schoolers are still holding fort. M, Mocha! Gishungwa, Movie buff aka Ciiku, Kelitu, Nakeel among others but it’s just not the same! Even Aco has gradually mellowed out from his controversial hard-hitting, feminist hating, bitch slapping days.

It seems that every day the Kenyan blogosphere loses some of its juice. When was the last time you clicked onto the KBW Aggregator and read almost every single post from #1 through to #50 and still refreshed the site every hour on the hour for updates? Try that right now and you’re almost guaranteed to fall asleep before you come across a single post worth reading. Go on, give it a try!! Click here.

I know many of the above bloggers personally and what I know is that they’ve become more engaged in their professional commitments whether it’s career or school, their priorities have changed since then, they’ve matured as well and in the process blogging has taken a back seat. But the void that they left behind is HUGE!! There’s just no more excitement, not much motivation to blog other than the fact that my readers expect, no, DEMAND a post every week!

I’m not saying the other bloggers are not worth reading, they are! In fact, great new blogs are born every so often e.g. Crystal Balls, The Intelligensia, Sultry Nutter, Zax and A Son of his Mother (I directed his class play when he was in Form 1, then he went on to make his first million bob by the time he was 21 and never even bought me a beer!) but these days I more often than not find myself reading through old school bloggers archives or checking out Ugandan blogs.

While I’m at it, Aco had complained a while back that we’ve all slowly turned into a bunch of “yes-men” and sycophants (what he referred to as “seal clapping”) We try so hard to be in everyone’s good books to the extent of avoiding disagreement at any cost with what a blogger has written about. In turn, whenever someone puts up a post, all we see in the comments page is a bunch of voices echoing exactly what the blogger has written about, however inaccurate or controversial as it may have been. What’s up with that?

There are times I’ve put up posts hoping they’d inspire some sort of debate, but I got very disappointed when all I got was a series of “I agree with you” or those who were not of the same viewpoint either stayed away from commenting or started out by “sio kwa ubaya, but…” come on guys! We cannot always agree on everything! And even when we fail to agree, you’ve got every right to express your divergent views. It’s not as if I (or any other blogger) would banish you from my blog. Unlike some loose-cannon war mongers who showed their true colours during the post election crisis some months ago, not everyone will unleash personal insults at you for not agreeing with what they’ve written. Take for example the one and only Joe who would regularly clash with M and Aco, get hammered, and still come back to malreason some more and get hammered yet again! Kaggz was another one. Come to think of it, I actually do miss Kaggz. We need more guys like Mo Ma who don’t kiss ass (Dude, just coz I shot you down the other day doesn’t mean you vanish for good. I read your blog quite often, where d’you think I got the ammo to shoot you down?)

I don’t know where I’m going with this. I’ve got a lot of weighty issues going on in my life that are obviously my priority right now, along with school, so blogging is slowly losing it’s importance to me and it may only be a matter of time before I hang up my keyboard for good.

Seriousness aside, over the last one year, I’ve come to meet a lot of bloggers and form close personal relationships with many of them. They’ve become good friends who I can count on any day, any time and they’d come through for me. And they have, severally! Asanteni sana and I hope that I can be half the friend to you that you’ve all been to me. Mnajijua.

To everyone who reads this blog, asanteni sana, and I hope you’ll keep reading even though I fully intend to take back the ownership of this blog, by force!

What’s on my Playlist?

Submerge: Till we become the sun – Maxwell