It’s a beautiful masterpiece of the highest coffee-table book production values, well-written and edited, lavishly illustrated in high resolution, full-colour photographs, maps and graphics. Vision 2030, Kenya’s roadmap to prosperity, has never been so vividly brought to life for the lay readerThere are two views of coffee table books, both of them communicated by American reviewers, which pretty much define the best and the worst of the genre. The first one was expressed in Vinography, a wine blog based in San Francisco, by a blogger known only as “Alder”:

“I think the very nature of coffee table books encourage them to be over the top. What else do we want, lounging around in the living room, than to be transported to someplace wonderful? A good coffee table book is better than TV in my opinion, if only because you want to experience it multiple times, which is more than I can say for pretty much any given TV show episode”.

The second one was voiced by the American book reviewer E.A. Solinas, who once declared that most coffee table books are “just giant books that sit and collect dust on people’s coffee tables”. This reviewer is happy to report without hesitation that it is impossible to categorize Best of Kenya Volume II, the Vision 2030 Edition in Solinas’s manner.

Just place the book in the hands of any literate Kenyan, ages 10-90, whether in Kenya or in the Diaspora, and watch them flip (very slowly, as if to miss nothing) through it, occasionally engrossed by an image or a passage. It is eminently readable and a visual feast. The dynamics of Vision 2030 come alive in the words of the individuals charged with actualizing it, in both the public and private sectors, and who have communicated their own perspectives in Best of Kenya Volume II.

Nation branding does not come much better than the Best of Kenya formula of a superior and interactive communications, marketing and advertising platform. Volume II comes in the better-than-TV tradition of something “you want to experience it multiple times” as described by the blogger Alder.

Best of Kenya Volume II, the Vision 2030 Edition speaks volumes about what happens when government ministries and State corporations get together with media, advertising and marketing professionals based in the private sector. It looks, reads and feels like a phenomenal public/private partnership (PPP) effort – a superlative effort. This is no accident; as Minister of State for Planning, National Development and Vision 2030 Wycliffe Ambetsa Oparanya says in his foreword to this volume, “Vision 2030 is not predicated on donor funding. The Vision is independent of donor funding and, indeed, has 97 flagship projects, many of which are all detailed to be public-private partnerships. The role of the private sector in realization of Vision 2030 is therefore critical”.

In other words, although this volume is not itself a species of PPP, it treats of the PPP phenomenon in a way that it has not been treated before in print in this country. It is a beautiful masterpiece of the highest coffee-table book production values, well-written and edited, lavishly illustrated in high resolution, full-colour photographs, maps and graphics.

Vision 2030, Kenya’s roadmap to prosperity, has never been so vividly brought to life for the lay reader.

The Vision has never been given such interesting sector-by-sector, ministry-by-ministry, State-corporation-by-corporation, private-sector-corporation-by-corporation treatment as it has in Best of Kenya Volume II, the Vision 2030 Edition.   Kenya’s public, education, health, banking, cooperatives, communications and ICT sectors have rarely if ever been given such showcase treatment under one roof as they are here.

Global Village Publishers EA Ltd., holders of the Global Village Encyclopedia franchise in East Africa (GVPedia.com), launched the Best of Kenya concept in 2008. As they report concerning Best of Kenya Vol I in Vol II (page 26): “Over the last one year Best of Kenya Volume I has earned for itself the reputation of the best public relations and marketing book for country, people, government and businesses this [nation] has yet seen”.

Volume II goes on about Volume I: “Whenever Prime Minister Raila Odinga has travelled overseas on official duty, he has always taken with him copies of Best of Kenya Volume I, which he has gifted his hosts as a prime promotional and marketing instrument for Kenya”.

Both the PM and other Kenyan dignitaries and boosters of our national brand will want to help disseminate Best of Kenya Vol II right around the world. Sixty-four entities have participated in this volume, ranging from government ministries and corporations to private companies and institutions, from the Ministry of Regional Development Authorities to the Jacaranda Hotel, from Nakumatt Supermarkets to Coca Cola, from Grain Bulk Handlers Ltd to Equity Bank, from the Ministry of Information and Communications to Safaricom, Knight Frank and Kenyatta University and from Makini Schools to World Trade Centre.

Helping market Kenya, its businesses, entrepreneurs, government and people to the world at a time of clamouring and competing worldviews and nation brands is no mean task. But the Best of Kenya books do it stylishly, creatively, artistically and, above all, persuasively. We highly recommend this latest volume as a perfect Festive Season gift for many a Kenyan, ages 10 to 90, who wants to dip into some of the most superlative and forward-looking feel-good factors about a great country, nation and people

www.gvpedia.com

By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT