It was announced yesterday evening that the Kenya Media Owners Association (KMOA) and the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) are partnering to raise Kes. 1.8 Billion for the famine that is currently ravaging the country. The initiative is part of the Kes. 32 Billion famine appeal that President Mwai Kibaki launched approximately two weeks ago to the world at large. This is a really great initiative and the KMOA members will use their media channels to highlight the plight of approximately 10 million Kenyans suffering from hunger due to the famine, thereby prompting individuals and organizations to make donations.

However, I am a little concerned about the reach of this initiative if the Internet is NOT used as aggressively as it needs to be. The initiative needs to tap into the Kenyan Diaspora and other International supporters to leverage e-donations as a cornerstone for its success. In addition, borrowing from the Barack Obama 2008 election playbook, the initiative needs to leverage as much “word-of-mouse” as possible using  social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to bring in as much global support as possible. I am only making these remarks since the target of Kes. 1.8 Billion is nothing less than HUGE and traditional media may not be sufficient to reach this goal.