Dennis Itumbi writes for journalism.co.za:

As a result of the change of governance and devolution embodied in Kenya's 2010 constitution, a number of county papers have sprung up. With titles such as The Eye, The Broom, The Anchor, The Umbrella, The Nyanza Star, The Western Spectator, Rift Valley Times, and The County, the papers are telling local stories, promoting small-scale businesses and creating a new brand of newsmakers.

Mukalo Kwayera, who heads the editorial team at Western Times, a rural paper focusing on seven electoral constituencies, says: “The only way to make sure Kenya is covered and the stories of its citizens told is through creating new newsmakers and storytellers.

“For instance in Western, when we started, we noticed many people were not sure about our agenda, but by seeing stories about their cooperative societies, their shoe shiners, electronic shops, they have begun embracing the publication as their own.”

These views are shared by Wanjohi Githae who is the co-owner of a group of rural papers under the brand name The County that is now in five counties.

Githae says: “There are many stories from the village that compete for space in the mainstream paper every day (and) don’t make it. Our role is to give it space and allow new people a voice in a newspaper about their local issues.”

Jimmy Adara, who runs The Nyanza Spectator says: “In many ways a newspaper is the only way to allow people to dream and put it in writing. If the people own it, they make the pages of a newspaper their personal and collective voice; there is no larger force of change than that.”

David Nzioka, an information technology, communication and digital analyst, said: “With devolution assured in the constitution, the only way to survive in publishing is to have a focus on the county and those running these papers have started out well.”

However, he said many of the papers lacked a “crucial” online presence.

The county papers face many challenges, including financial constraints, credibility issues and management capacity.

Githae said: “Distributing the County papers is the greatest challenges, because vendors are already in contract with mainstream newspapers and getting them to hand you space on the display is a game of big money.

“Creating a network of reporters is an expensive business, so you end up using interns or existing reporters for extra pay and since they already have a job they do not take your assignment seriously,” Adara said.

Shortages of cash make the papers vulnerable. Githae said: “In our November 2011 issue we highlighted a scandal involving municipal council revenue in one of the counties and all they did is buy all the papers and that was it, they used money to ensure a story was not told.

“We also don’t own printing press and have to rely on Nairobi for our production and given the number of orders the outlets are getting and the kind of money they are making as profit from us we take second priority,” Mukalo added.

But even with the challenges, counties and their residents have started taking up advertising in the local papers.

Gregory Bosire, a Kisii trader selling fruits at a local market who also doubles as a newspaper vendor observed, “Gusii Times is our paper, last month my photo as I sold ripe bananas was in the paper and they also had a story about Mama Kemunto, the one who is rearing silkworms, I love the paper.”

Winnie Gatwiri, a  resident of Embu, said: “I find it interesting because it has stories about local people and normal Embu people and issues not the big politician and musicians we keep reading about.”

Mainstream papers have reacted to the trend by entering the county market. The Standard Media Group has started a weekly publication dubbed “The Standard County”, which tells stories about different counties.

The Nation has a weekly pullout focusing on different counties every week and has also started a regional approach with its daily.

“Other than the Coast Edition, we now have a Western Edition and a Meru edition is on the way,” a senior sub-editor with the Nation said.

These new titles, whether independent or published by the big groups, represents a great opportunity for journalists and for the growth of the media in Kenya.