Kenya: Why Microsoft Swahili Version Failed

Thu Mar 13 16:58:14 UTC 2008

Why Microsoft Swahili Version Failed

Business Daily (Nairobi)

OPINION
11 March 2008
Posted to the web 11 March 2008

By Beatrice Gachenge

When Microsoft announced in 2003 that it had launched a Kiswahili
version of their Microsoft Office applications, linguists saw it as a
big triumph for the language - and a chance to make its speakers have
a feel of the emerging technology and in their own language.

However, five years later, the roar has turned into a whimper.

Microsoft is not forthcoming with answers, but a debate is shaping up
on what may have gone wrong.

"It failed miserably on the roll out process because Microsoft never
pushed the product," says Mr Patrick Opiyo, managing director of
Rivotex Kenya, a consulting dealer for Microsoft Technologies, who was
then Microsoft's localisation manager.

Mr Isaiah Okoth, who was at the time the general manager of Microsoft
East Africa, said the new Kiswahili office application, if marketed
well, would have allowed many Kiswahili speakers to experience
personal computing in their home language.

It had taken close to two years to develop the programme at a cost of
Sh8 million, drawing linguistic experts from East and Central Africa.
The programme was headed by Prof Kulikoyela Kahigi of the University
of Dar- es- Salaam.

Kiswahili experts translated over 700,000 words in Windows and Office
software while close to 70,000 words were translated in the help
manuals.

The final product was targeted at about 150 million speakers of the
language in the world.

But three years down the line, analysts now deem the product a major letdown.

"Technology should find itself into the language. Microsoft invented
words that did not exist to fit the technology, and the problem with
this is that people don't understand the Kiswahili used in the
Microsoft Office applications," explains Mr Alex Gakuru, director of
ICT Consumer Association.

Mr Gakuru told the Business Daily that technology is all about the
people and not the gizmos or software; a concept Microsoft failed to
consider.

Another major issue was the methodology used to develop the
application. Peter Mugambi, Dean of Humanities at Kenyatta University,
says the project was more of a 'private affair' than an institutional
one.

In his view, the project did not integrate the wider community and
also failed to educate people on the usage of the product either
through seminars and workshops.

Although the process of changing to Kiswahili version is simple , the
software has not been utilised in Kiswahili departments in major
universities including Kenyatta University and the University of
Nairobi.

By simply downloading a Language Interface Pack ( LIP), from the
Internet, free of charge, users of genuine versions of Microsoft
Office 2003, can localize their interface by installing the LIP.

It then turns Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel, Outlook and
PowerPoint from English into Kiswahili. The beauty of the product is
that one can switch back to the language of choice with ease.

"With the Kiswahili LIP, computer users are able to instal a Kiswahili
desktop version as a 'skin' on top of existing installations of
Windows and standard Microsoft Office applications," said the
consulting dealer for Microsoft Technologies.

Currently, the Kiswahili LIP is also available to Windows XP.

Analysts say the biggest issue that made the hefty exercise a major
fiasco was the lack of promotion for the product.

University of Nairobi linguist and prolific author, Prof Kithaka wa
Mberia, doubts whether he would have known about the project had he
not been part of it; casting more doubt if the programme was marketed
well.

There was also a conflict of policy between open source and
proprietorship. Mr Gakuru says the approach Microsoft took was
academic instead of looking at the programme as a community based
issue, a move that would have resulted to community ownership of the
product.

"If the company considered making it a community project where the
East Africans who were the recipients of the product, then fund it,
the ownership aspect would automatically lead to identifying with the
product," said the IT analyst. "What is the essence of a good product
that people don't know about? At the end of the day, who will use it?"

The idea could have been a turning point not only for the East African
region but other parts of the world because several years back, it was
unthinkable that computer software products and solutions could be
made in local languages, of which some risk extinction due to
dominance of English and other European languages.

There are 100 million Kiswahili-speakers in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda
and parts of the Horn of Africa, Great Lakes, Malawi, Mozambique and
the Indian Ocean islands. Dr Clare Momanyi, a Kiswahili lecturer at
Kenyatta University, who was also part of the task force that created
the Kiswahili version, blames deep rooted problems and negative
attitude of Kenyans towards the language, which they consider inferior
to the English language.

"Language is developed through communication as well as through the
education system. The syllabus does not favour Kiswahili. Little has
been done since it was made an examinable subject in 1995 to help
Kenyans tie economic gains to Kiswahili," said Dr Momanyi.

English, she added was the preferred language to enhance economic
activities while Kiswahili on the other hand was viewed as a language
for the masses, or the poor.

"Kenyans need to wake up and smell the coffee. Kiswahili is gaining
international acceptance, with more than 70 universities teaching it
in the United States alone. If we do not change our attitude, we shall
not go far," says Dr Momanyi.

But still, one of the programmes that would have connected people
failed to gain foothold in its own turf.

She explained that the Kenyans historic background also played a major
part in degenerating the liking of the language among Kenyans. While
it is the national language, Dr. Momanyi said that there lacked any
functions, institutions or policies attached to the growth of
Kiswahili.

The localization programme is a project under the Microsoft's Local
language Program (LLP), which was formally launched by the company in
2004.

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