Excusing, not explaining, their failure to embrace ICTs considering that we are coming from crying foul from "lack of high level leadership" does not help any one of us much. [at least Hon. Raila sent a note]

Nobel Laureate Prof. Wangari Maathai said entered politics upon realising how much these political leaders determine our fate.

Leaders Absence Projections:
2007 No available >>  looking for votes
2008 No available >>  Homecoming and thanking rural voters
2009 No available >>  Very Busy "studying diverse aspects of ICTs"
2010 No available >>  Reviewing [possibly fault] all "previous" ICT projects
2011 No available >>  Countrywide campaign alliances, strategies formulation
2012 No available >>  Election Year! Looking for votes that matter...you know
...re-start sequence

To fix a stalled car, one mechanic may choose a spray job and take snaps shots of the nice looking repainted chassis, while the other starts by dismantling , re-assembling, overhauling, and then fine tunings the spark plugs fox max efficiency. ICTs drives industry, no excuse stand. Perhaps we invite Hon. Kamotho to further share his below vision?

["Kenya's legislators have surprisingly added their voice in support of the transformation to electronic governance in their operations, both within parliament and in at the constituency level."http://allafrica.com/stories/200704250544.html]

Odhiambo WASHINGTON <wash@wananchi.com> wrote:
Date: Thu, 24 May 2007 14:07:05 +0300
From: Odhiambo WASHINGTON <wash@wananchi.com>
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Holding our Leaders Accountable
To: Alex Gakuru <alex.gakuru@yahoo.com>

* On 24/05/07 13:42 +0300, Judy Okite wrote:
| Chelimo,
|
| The future is ICT and ICT is the future....its not something that you pray
| it goes away........Is it too difficult to be humble/open minded to say 'Am
| not all that knowledgeable,in this arena,but I would be more confortable
| with a discussion,since we are both going to be learning from each
| other,than an interview!!'
| In the next 7 months,one of these guys is gonig to be the President of
| Kenya....so as the ICT sector, what are we looking at in the next 5 years,if
| they do not want to mention it or as U said its not of importance?

From where I sit, I've always thought that politicians don't run the
country, but rather the advisors (the bureaucrats). The bureaucrats
work on the policy papers, and the implementation! Let's look at it this
way: Whenever the country's CEO reshuffles the cabinet, does s/he take
into consideration any qualifications the ministers posses, as to put
them in charge of some ministry? The answer is NO. It's all political
expediency. It's with this in mind that I still support Chelimo.
Politicians will only go for something that will yield political mileage
- aka votes.
I do take cognizance of the fact that the buck stops with the CEO, but I
also believe, as a matter of fact, that whatever speeches I hear from
CEO or his horde of lieutenants are normally not from their minds but
those of the bureaucrats. I recently heard that Kenya, Malaysia and
S.Korea were economic age-mates at some point. What I did not hear are
the finer details of what was being used in the comparison, and even if
there was any that I missed, I seriously doubt it would boil down to
ICT. It would be "general economy".

I may be losing course, but I still believe that it is not the country's
CEO who sits down to lay down the fine details of the ingredients that
will make the economy grow, if not jump.

There must be a different way of approaching this, which is different
than calling the aspirants of that office to a "small" (sic!) debate on
ICT:-)

I am tempted to ask Dr. Ndemo about the levels at which such decisions
as facilitating ICT growth are made in govt., and at what juncture. Is
the president the chief decision maker or just the person
whose "goodwill" makes things move?

Did we invite H.E. The President for the debate as well, given he's one
of the aspirants? Did he confirm attendance?
I'd yell at the top of my voice if he did, and failed to turn up,
because I know it is possible, within the next 6 months, for him to put
in place policies towards growing the ICT field, which we can then use
to gauge the performance of future leaders.


cheers
- wash
+----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
Odhiambo Washington . WANANCHI ONLINE LTD (Nairobi, KE) |
wash () WANANCHI ! com . 1ere Etage, Loita Hse, Loita St., |
GSM: (+254) 722 743 223 . # 10286, 00100 NAIROBI |
GSM: (+254) 733 744 121 . (+254) 020 313 985 - 9 |
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"Oh My God! They killed init! You Bastards!"
--from a /. post
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