First, I am a woman.
i.e. Ms. Ory Okolloh.
Kevin Kelley’s original article that was submitted to the Nation editors was gender-neutral, but the editors, in their wisdom, (wrongly) assumed that I was a man and stuck the Mr. label (perhaps influenced by gender stereotypes and the idea that the average Kenyan woman cannot be this interested in politics).
Second, welcome…poke around and please return (you can subscribe to receive updates by email, see the sidebar). Frequent blogging will resume next week, beginning with coverage of Africa’s first blogging conference.
If you are looking for the Mzalendo link, click here.
EDIT: My beef with being labeled a man, doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate the publicity…as someone told me yesterday, there’s no such thing as bad publicity
Ory wacha zako i have seen you. i think the mistake was due to more than gender stereo types lol just playing keep it up and as usual i am here to also get millage from ur sucess
Also, what the Nation article left out is a link to KenyaUnlimited – “the permanent home of the Kenyan Blogs Webring”.
@Ory & M: it took the country’s leading newspaper over half a year to publish a story on Mzalendo while other he/she said-stories are published on a daily basis? Oh my…good luck with Mzalendo.com!
Congrats! I’ve followed u’r site for some time but I also assumed u’r male – your tone is neutral; which is remarkable, it’s a testimony to your objectivity and analytical mind.
I love politics too that’s why I visit u’r site, hope you resume the writing soon.
It’s great to see Mzalendo get some coverage but to be honest I dont think the name gaff had anything to do with stereotypes because in english Ory is a man’s name and when I heard it too I came to that conclusion sometime back before being set straight.
Even though the story had some few holes some coverage is better than no coverage!
I get your rant about being called a He.
It just shows they never take their time to follow up or do their research before publishing the story.
All the best.
Congratulations on the noise and on the good work you are doing. As for The Nation and their editors … oh well.
Congrats for publicity!
I saw the article and was like, i knew it!!! Ory has been masquerading as a girl all along, but that disguise is fantastic!!!
kudos to you and i hope you wrote a protest note to the nation,or perhaps you could pay them a courtesy call next time you are in town and have the last laff.:oops: