The Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE) has today launched the 2016 Kenyan Blog Awards.

Now in its fifth year, the awards will see bloggers and their fans submit blogs on the Kenyan Blog Awards website (www.blogawards.co.ke/submit/) between January 8th, 2016 to February 10th, 2016 in 18 different categories. Judges will then select the best 5 blogs from each category to proceed to the voting phase.
The categories are:

*Best Technology blog

*Best Photography blog

*Best Creative Writing blog

*Best Business blog

*Best Food blog

*Best Environmental/Agriculture blog

*Best Fashion/Beauty/Hair/Style blog

*Best Political blog

*Best New Blog

*Best Corporate blog

*Best Topical blog

*Best Sports blog

*Best Lifestyle\Entertainment blog

*Best Education blog

*Best Travel blog

*Best Health blog

*Best County blog

*Best Religious or Spirituality blog and Kenyan Blog of the Year.
The awards are a mechanism that award exceptional Kenyan bloggers that publish great and useful content online.
“We are very glad indeed to be introducing this edition of the awards this year. Through this competition we look forward to receiving more than double of the blog entries we received last year. This is a significant milestone not only for the association but also for the growth and development of the blog space in the country,” noted Kennedy Kachwanya, Chairperson, Bloggers Association of Kenya.
He added: “This year, we have also introduced one other category – Best Religious or Spirituality blog. We hope to see more young and upcoming bloggers and organizations participating in the competition.”
The timeline for this year’s awards is as follows:

• Submission phase – January 8th, 2016 – February 10th, 2016

• Judging phase – February 11th, 2016 – February 28th, 2016

• Voting phase – March 2nd, 2016 – April 30th, 2016

• Winners announcement – May 7th, 2016
In 2015, the awards attracted over 1800 blog entries and over 150,000 votes were recorded. Past winners of the Kenyan Blog Awards include:

Mutua Matheka (mutuamatheka.co.ke), Silvia Njoki (silvianjoki.com), Wambui Waithaka (wambuiwaithaka.com), Sharon Mundia (thisisess.com), Jackson Biko (bikozulu.co.ke), Sam Wakoba (techmoran.com), Dennis Machio (michezoafrica.com) and Limo Taboi (bankelele.co.ke).

According to a 2015 report on The State of Blogging and Social Media in Kenya 2015, there are over 15,000 registered blogs in the country with 3000 being active and registered blogs that run on WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr platforms.