Digitising Kiswahili for Translation Economy

Translation currently is one of the biggest currency earners globally whose net worth stands in billions of US Dollars. Perhaps, when compared to teaching, translation becomes the second richest single entity in a pool of Language Service Providers. Kiswahili language, in its quest to be among the top languages globally, has embraced translation and increasingly expanding its horizon. This paper therefore purposed to find out the state and quality of online translation tools like Google Translate as used by Kiswahili clients in translation services. The research methodology used was qualitative. A random sampling technique was used to get sample words, phrases, and sentences. The results show that Google Translate has demonstrated excellent translation results when it comes to individual lexemes as compared to phrases and sentences. In some cases, the phrases, especially when used figuratively, have the potential to mislead and give birth to spurious translation. The results of this research will go a long way in helping improve online translation from and into Kiswahili hence not only improving Kiswahili but also opening potentialities of other African languages.