Benefits of Technology In Current Affairs

 Since my childhood, I have loved being on the know. I am just into what is going on and in specific, the political side of current affairs. I used to get to know the names of ministers in my country’s cabinet when I was young and name them one by one to my dad.

What motivated me the more was the excitement it brought to my family. They enjoyed seeing me love news. Every time it hit 7 pm or 9 pm, I would hardly miss the news on Television. That has grown in me and up to now, I just cannot live without knowing what is going on in the news locally and internationally as well.

When I grew up there were no smartphones, hence I had to rely on the traditional media. For me, it was mostly Television and newspapers. My dad was a lover of newspapers and I would peruse through them in the evening when he got home.

This love for current affairs and more so, Kenyan politics heightened when I got into campus. Well, surprisingly I studied mass communication. Since my first year in college pursuing a Certificate in Mass Communication, I started drafting commentaries on current affairs and sending them to the Kenyan newspapers.

This I learned from the Journalism club which I joined at the Multimedia University of Kenya, then was Multimedia University College of Kenya. The excitement of seeing my byline after my commentaries were published made me fall in love with writing.

I remember while in college watching the 9 pm news with two or three people in our dining hall. Well, not so many people loved watching the news. I vividly remember Victor Kenani, who now works with British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). That was once in a while but I always was in the dining hall come 9 pm and I seriously listened to the news.

Something else that motivated me was that people started to see that I am an avid writer, I remember competing or seeing how many times each of our commentaries were published with Rushdie Oudie, now a Daily Nation, Kisumu county writer. I was so amazed at the many times Daily Nation and The Standard published my commentaries.

Now, I had to start cutting out my commentaries and came up with a scrapbook. You know that age when you are almost done with school and need to find a job. My commentaries were my portfolio. They had my name on them, I owned them. I schooled until my degree level with a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Communication and graduated in 2015.

Then I joined Daystar University for my master’s degree in communication and my writing zeal In communication. This time around, I had already come up with my blog – terryruthwanjiku.blogspot.com. I unfortunately never landed a formal job but interned in a Kenyan parastatal for a year under the Communication department.

This opportunity builds up my writing profession. I also remotely interned with Ananke Magazine based in Dubai for six months in my first year of my Master’s program. There my article got featured and I added it to my portfolio - https://anankemag.com/2016/06/23/wife-inheritance-in-africa/.

I then bumped into the Ajira Digital program and got one writing gig. After that one article, I got absorbed by the person I worked with and he started sending articles for me and paid me weekly. This was such a great venture for me because through writing I could make a living. I just cannot look back.

I do what I love and get paid. Then this year I applied for writing and translation training on the Ajira Digital platform. I got trained for two days and now in my third week of the mentorship program. I have my own Upwork account which I have started bidding for work personally and still get other writing gigs on the side. Thanks to technology, I now go by the motto of the Ajira Digital platform tagline – “Online Work Is Work”.