Why we teach requests, not shortcuts.

Lurentis began in a newsroom in Kakamega, where a reporter spent three months chasing a county tender file through phone calls that went nowhere. The file existed. Nobody had simply asked for it the right way, in writing, with a clear description and a clear deadline attached.

What started as one colleague showing another how to draft a proper request grew into a standing programme. We kept the format deliberately plain — a counter, a form, a reference number — because the method itself is not complicated. It only needs to be done carefully and followed through.

Today we work with reporters across Kenya's counties, from a single first request to a multi-month investigation built entirely on formally obtained records.