Asaf, this fee is a legal fee. In fact other photo journalists pay for this and an official receipt from the City Council of Nairobi is issued.

The KES 2600 caters for a permit to take photos within the council's municipality for a day.

When we went there (with Oscar) we were told to pay the fee. We were hesitant to just pay and we explained the uniqueness and non-commercial nature of our undertaking. Since the boss who could give us a waiver was out on a meeting. The receptionist adviced that we write an official letter explaining the purpose of our photo walk and request for a waiver thereof.

The results of our request shall be out on Monday or Tuesday.

If we get a total waiver well and good and that's what we are hoping for.

//Stephen

  

On Feb 18, 2012 11:47 AM, "Asaf Bartov" <abartov@wikimedia.org> wrote:

Is this 2600 fee something official?  Will you be getting a receipt?  If so, it's fine to pay it.  If it really is a bribe, we cannot cooperate with it; supporting corruption is not a legitimate use of our donor funds.

   A.

On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 12:52 PM, stephen wanjau <wanjaustev@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello Nice people,

Asaf, I sought some advice from a local lawyer and he adviced me it would be wise to notify the authorites of our undertaking considering the security status of our country courtesy of the invasion into Somalia. The Alshabab have been threatening to bomb the city and since we are a group of youths who shall be taking photos we might be mistaken to be counterparts of the Alshabab looking for the best buildings to attack.

We sought advice from the OCPD Central police station today and the Urban Development Department at the city council of Nairobi.

At the city Council of Nairobi, they advised that we are supposed to pay a fee of KES2,600. We talked to them and they told us to write a letter to request for a partial or full waiver since ours was not a commercial undertaking.

As for the OCPD, he turned us down and he told us that he was too busy to handle our case ;( Planning to go and see him sometime this week or early next week.

The project is still on as scheduled for 25th February, am just working to ensure everyone is safe and not harassed by the City Council Askaris [1]  and the Regular police as well.


//Stephen

1. City council, a den of corruption.

On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 12:47 AM, Asaf Bartov <abartov@wikimedia.org> wrote:

What exactly did this photographer say you need a press card for?  I.e. what are you not allowed to photograph without a press card?

(In general, my experience shows that most people, including government officials and professional photographers, have a fairly hazy knowledge of copyright law, and often repeat "conventional wisdom" statements without scrutiny.  One of the things Wikimedians have been consistently good at, around the world, is finding out what the actual facts are, and making sure the public interest is served best, by not submitting to limitations that aren't actually there. -- so yes, it would behoove us to look at the written law.  I'm sorry I don't have time to look into this myself.  Do we have access to a friendly Kenyan lawyer who might be able to help us find out what the law says?)

   Asaf

On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 7:39 AM, stephen wanjau <wanjaustev@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello Nice people,

I do hope that you are doing well. At the meet-up, we resolved to undertake the photo-walk on the Saturday of 25^th February 2012 and not on the 18^th as it had earlier been indicated. During our meet-up I networked with a photographer/ blogger who was in attendance and we dialogued about how we could make this photo walk a success in terms of the logistics involved.

He informed me that he had been using images from commons as yet he never knew of the existence of a local community of Wikim(p)edians! From what he said, we are required by law to get Press cards from the affected ministry that deals with Journalism in Kenya, i.e. Ministry of Information and Communication.

Another alternative that we had been given earlier by Kaburo as we were planning for Wikis takes Nairobi was to request for written permission from the City Council of Nairobi. I am kind of muddled by these two opinions because in Kenya there is freedom of panorama, one is allowed to take photos except at such places that are marked explicitly that you are not supposed to take photographs.

Freedom of Panorama in Kenya as highlighted on Commons.

Anyone on this list who is conversant with this, I beg to be educated/ rectified so that I can go ahead with the planning for the photo-walk.

Regards

Stephen.

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    Wikimedia Foundation

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