@ Kanyambu,you have got to start somewhere in which regard,let me give you my personal experience.
The industry,like in our politics,has its old boy network. To become a member,you have to be invited by an old boy. I started out as a ghost writer by writing articles and sending them to recognized columnists and advised them to use my contributions for a small fee and keeping the credits and copyrights. Columnists usually give their electronic mail addresses at the end of thier articles.
Secondly,these old boys have a penchant for the Queen's English,therefore,forget Swahili-English,eh,Sheng. Get hold of a series of books called 'Brighter Grammar' and sturdy them. Really sturdy them. Also,make it a habit of writing every electronic mail message,short text message,blogging posts and so forth in full english and avoid such stuff as 'BTW'.
They will ignore you and will not respond but take it from me,they will save your labour somewhere. Eventually,they do all suffer from what we call in the trade 'writer's block' and will use your work either in part or in entirelity. Then you will have arrived. Soon they will invite you to contribute when they,themselves,put up publications and need good writers in which case you will have arrived.
I remember getting the shock of my life when I opened a Saturday Magazine and finding out that sixty two percent of the featured articles was my work,three entire articles and several paragraphs of some articles.
What ever happens,do not give up. Welcome to the trade of writers.
Live hard,die hard.