Its (already?) that time of year when you know that we are coming to the very end when you start seeing all sorts of lists and retrospectives about the year that was even before it has ended. Indeed, one of the most interesting lists out there has to be what people searched for on Google during the year, better known as the Google Zeitgeist which came out yesterday/today depending on which part of the world you live in. For me, as has been the case for the past couple of years, its always interesting to get a local perspective and in this respect to see what Kenya searched for the most on Google. The top ten searches this year in Kenya on the Google Zeitgeist are as follows:

1. IEBC
2. Facebook
3. Whitney Houston
4. Tubidy
5. Euro 2012
6. Daily Post
7. GHRIS
8. ICC
9. Njenga Karume
10. Miguna Miguna

It seems fitting that as Kenya is fast approaching next years elections, the IEBC (Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission)  topped the list of the most searches. This was followed by Facebook which is one of Kenya’s leading web sites in terms of user traffic, meaning that many are looking for it for some reason? (possibly to sign-up?). The late Whitney Houston clearly was popular in Kenya seeing that she was third most searched. Tubidy, which I had never heard of before and is a mobile video and music download service came in at a very high fourth – demonstrating the massive impact of numerous mobile internet users in Kenya. Euro 2012 was the fifth most searched phrase and it goes without saying that football is HUGE in Kenya. Daily Post which was an unexpected surprise for me seems to refer to The Kenyan Daily Post which is a Kenyan Online Newspaper of sorts that seems to have a pretty large following. On the other hand, GHRIS, which is an acronym for Government Human Resource Information System came in seventh and is essentially a web site for jobs with the Government (yes, people as always are looking for jobs!). Right now, one of the hottest issues in the ever changing political landscape in Kenya including the upcoming elections is the ICC (International Criminal Court) which made it to the eighth most searched on Google. In ninth position was the late Njenga Karume, the veteran politician and highly regarded businessman who passed away earlier this year. Finally, in tenth position was Miguna Miguna who gained notoriety in Kenya for writing a highly controversial and political book. To see the full list of other types of top searches including the above from the Google Zeitgeist in Kenya, you can go to www.google.com/zeitgeist/2012/#kenya