A Gor Mahia fan watches his favourite team. Photo/ Courtesy Facebook/ Kogalofansclub
NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 31 – Gor Mahia fans have clearly not ‘giniwasekao-ed’ Wikipedia after the online encyclopedia deleted the popular catch phrase from its website terming it the ‘self glorification of an ethnic term and thus the tribe’.
Efforts to ‘take’ Wikipedia and convince it to include the word among its humongous compilation of references did not yield any fruit, with the website maintaining that the word and the article accompanying it on the website were not neutral.
Through a statement on the Wikipedia website, officials insisted that the article lacked sufficient evidence to meet the criteria for its inclusion on the site.
“The result was ‘Delete’,” announced Wikipedia.
Loosely translated, ‘Giniwasekeo’ means this thing we have taken and it is used in reference to the Kenyan Premier League which Gor has captured this season.
But the decision by the website to pull out the word obviously didn’t go down well with a cross section of Kenyans among them Gor Mahia fans- the brains behind the Luo phrase.
Among those who took offense was a Wikipedia contributor identified as ‘Masta1981Rasta’ who categorically told Wikipedia officials that he did not see why they had pulled out the phrase which had even been adopted by various media houses.
“It is not a requirement that articles be neutral. This article is simply an explanation of the phenomenon of Giniwasekao, which has gained popularity in Kenyan football circles lately,” argued Masta1981Rasta in part.
“It is not a requirement that the article try to appear neutral by incorporating material that is of no relation to it.”
But the officials responded by saying Wikipedia was not a news agency.
“Wikipedia is not A NEWS website. It is a requirement by Wikipedia that all articles always remain neutral. In fact Wikipedia would not be what it is today if it was not a neutral source of information,” said the Wikipedia official.
About The Author
