Kiswahili speakers now have access to a broader range of software programmes available in their language, following news that Microsoft has made the Windows 7 Kiswahili Interface Pack downloadable for free. The official launch of the Windows 7 Kiswahili interface pack took place ahead of the eLearning Africa 2011 Conference at a cocktail event presided over by His Excellency the President of the Republic of Tanzania, Hon. Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete.
The announcement, which comes at a time when the Tanzania government has intensified efforts to spread ICT services to rural communities, is expected to contribute to the uptake of computer usage among Kiswahili speakers.
“With over 5 million native speakers and more than 150 million Africans speaking Kiswahili on a daily basis, it is the most widely understood language in Africa after Arabic. The availability of Microsoft Windows 7 in Kiswahili is a remarkable step towards eliminating language as a barrier to technology access,” said Louis Otieno, Microsoft’s General Manager for East and Southern Africa, speaking from the conference centre.
Mpasua Msonobari, the Chief Executive Officer Language Africa at Microsoft was the project leader who helped to develop the Kiswahili version of Windows 7. The project involved the translation of over 300,000 technical words in the Microsoft Windows 7 glossary into Kiswahili and took a record of two months to complete.

"We had over 3,000 words in Microsoft’s glossary to translate into Kiswahili over a very short time," he says.
Over the last five years, Microsoft has worked with partners across the continent to make Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office available in the first and/or second language of the majority of Africa’s one billion people.Currently they are available in 15 written and spoken languages in Africa: Afrikaans, Amharic, Arabic, English, French, Hausa, Igbo, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Kiswahili, Portuguese, Sesotho SA Leboa, Setswana (Tswana), Spanish and Yoruba.

Fundamental to learning in the information age is exposure to and comfort with technology. Offering children access to software in their own language empowers them to learn at a faster pace, and to quickly develop the necessary skills to thrive in the modern workplace. It also empowers the language community as a whole by creating the conditions for greater collaboration and communication between schools, businesses, and governments in the region.

Microsoft’s Citizenship and Education Leader for East and Southern Africa, Mark Matunga says, “We believe technology will play an increasingly important role in the maintenance of linguistic diversity, not only to promote mutual understanding and dialogue, but also to strengthen local economies. All too often communities are excluded from IT skills fluency, and the accompanying job opportunities, for lack of technology in their local language”.

Over the years, Microsoft has worked in cooperation with local governments, universities, language experts, and others to standardize technical terminology for local languages. The process starts with creating a glossary of terminology, which acts as the basis for the development of an application called a Language Interface Pack (LIP). This LIP enables customers to install a local language version as a "skin" on top of an existing installation of the Windows operating system and standard Microsoft Office system applications. Microsoft also supports the local IT ecosystem by helping developers build solutions on top of the LIPs, such as spell checkers, translation dictionaries, screen savers, collaboration tools, and online services.

Microsoft’s windows local language program is just one of several language offerings that are focused on getting more people to benefit from technology, while preserving local languages. Others include Microsoft translator, wikibhasha, and search terminology.

To download the Kiswahili Windows 7 language pack, visit: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a1a48de1-e264-48d6-8439-ab7139c9c14d&displaylang=sw. Users simply have to be running a genuine (non-pirated, non-counterfeit) version of Windows 7.