KENYA: AMECEA Conducts Second ICT Training to KCCB Dioceses

Catholic Diocese of Malindi is one of the many Dioceses in AMECEA Region that are yet to develop a website even though the Diocese has a successful monthly newsletter Sauti ya Jimbo (Voice of the Diocese) which is over 20 years old.

Moses Mpuria, Sauti ya Jimbo editor who is also the current acting Communications Coordinator for the Diocese was among the eleven participants of AMECEA ICT training for Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) on web design and content generation.

“We have already obtained a C-Panel for web development and therefore this training has been timely; within one week we will be able to have our Malindi Diocese Website running,” Mpuria said.

Participants of this second ICT training for KCCB were drawn from the Archdiocese of Nairobi, the Dioceses of Malindi, Meru, Nakuru, Lodwar and Ngong. In addition to the dioceses, a local community radio in Nairobi, Mtaani Radio, also participated in the three-day workshop which was held at JJ McCarthy Centre in Nairobi from 13^th to 15^th November, 2018.

The Catholic Diocese of Ngong, unlike Malindi has a website, however, it is being administered by the host who is an external party.

“The workshop has been an eye opener and, in fact, we are going to get the password for our website so that we can start doing the administration by ourselves. The training has indeed been beneficial,” Fr. Dominic Waweru, Communications Coordinator for Ngong Diocese said.

He recommended more time for the training in order to enable participants to fully grasp some of the technicalities and concepts involved in the website management, owing to the fact that some participants may not be having any prior knowledge about website development and management.

“Monday, November 12 was the arrival date, the training was therefore slated for 13^th, 14^th and 15^th, while 16^th was departure. I would suggest that next time, AMECEA should consider the arrival to be on a Sunday and departure on Saturday to give at least five days, Monday to Friday for the training,” Fr. Waweru recommended.

AMECEA ICT Officer, Bernard Mberere, who organized the trainings said that all the two workshops the office had planned for KCCB under this phase have now been accomplished. However, not all dioceses in Kenya have benefited.

“We extended our invitation to all the Dioceses in Kenya but unfortunately the turn up was not 100%. We are now going to sit back and review the progress as well as the impacts and try to identify gaps and needs both at the Conferences and at the Dioceses level, after which we will come up with a way forward,” Mberere explained.

∽End∽

By Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Online News