Statistics released in Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) 3^RD Quarter Sector Statistics revealed that during the period between January 2012 to March 2012, the total number of local letters sent declined by 14.3 per cent to record 16.8 million letters. In comparison with the January 2011 to March 2011, the number of letters sent dropped by 28.6 per cent.

As stated in the 3^rd Quarter Report, the decline could be attributed to the increasing preference in the use of Internet compared to letters and stiff competition from telecom operators.

The number of courier items sent increased by 11.0 per cent during the period to reach 421,552 items from 385,914 items sent during the previous quarter.

The number of international incoming letters increased significantly by 68.6 per cent from 80,217 recorded in the previous quarter to 135,212 letters during the quarter under review. However, the international outgoing letters declined by 20.5 per cent, from 2.2 million letters posted the previous quarter to 1.7 million during the quarter.

I am unprivileged to have lived in an era when sending letters through the post office isn’t a common thing. Hand written letters used to bear that personal touch that is missing in the electronically sent mail. Seems that Kenyans prefer email after all.