I am strongly opposed to top-down opinion quashing by any quarters. We do not have to agree on every issue to paint a rosy state of ICT affairs in Kenya. Who would we be fooling ? I believe this list is mature enough for online democracy as long as conversations are founded and guided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (attached pdf proudly brought to you by OpenOffice.org;) Article 19 Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Since others have called me consumer lobbyist, consumer rights advocate, etc, in this context you could also refer to me as Internet Freedom fighter;) --- On Sun, 7/13/08, Bill Kagai <billkagai@gmail.com> wrote:
As a conclusion, I must admit that I have never received an email (and I read all my email, including spam) calling me for an AGM/election of any of these organisations...KIF, KICTANET, Consumer Organisation (Alex) and CSK. I have attended sessions in all and some have not held elections in more than ten years. Apparently election fever does not only eat our politicians. Last time I checked, Alice was coordinating Kictanet and yesterday I learnt that there is also a chairman. Some expert also came to my office last year to discuss these structures in Kictanet and nothing ever materialised.
In the final analysis, this means that anyone can take advantage of a society that is crippled by bad governance. ICT industry reeks of it. It begins by electing officials acceptable to the players. Who is ready to offer the much needed leadership???
There was a time in Kenya when leadership was an automatic genetic quality. One had to have certain family DNAs, for example, for (s)he to be eligible parliament. Unless one was the son, daughter, nephew, niece, cousin etc of so-or-so from a who-is-whos, (full?) secret database guarded like a warship. That political culture led to deplorable public sector governance and the private sector was justified in uniting in the fight against resultant corruption. Note: It takes two for a corrupt transaction to be completed thus an impeccable private sector governance is a prerequisite. Furthermore, suppose the "private sector" infiltrated government? This would mean privatization of public interest, a government that pursued private profit-driven NOT universal public-interest agenda, example being universal access, services, security etc... Governance questions-ICT Consumers Association of Kenya: This (4-year) old like of attack (not from you Bill) first surfaced in 2005. See attached article. Our lawyers paid registration fees twice after the first set of application documents "got lost" at Sheria house. Next, delayed issuance of certificate of registration, without which it would be illegal to collect membership fees from the public or hold grand public meetings such as the AGM.("Scheduling Next AGM" < http://www.bdix.net/pipermail/ke-internetusers/2008-March/date.html>. The Societies Act, (Cap 108) requires that within 120 days the government either issues applicants with a certificate or a memorandum stating reasons applied association cannot be registered. We were last told to check from the post office since the Act requires certificates be issued through registered post. <http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/414/78/17690.html> and <http://www.usig.org/countryinfo/laws/Kenya/Kenya%20The%20Societies%20Act%20s.%2011,%20Cap%20108.pdf> At some point last year, someone requested these details suggesting their lawyers could also engage on our behalf. To sort out the root causes of deliberate Consumer Protection frustrations after our diplomatic requests fell on many deaf ears, and others who turned out only interested in updating themselves on our status we go into stealth mode -we do not post *everything* on ke-users list... Justified after after twice paying registration fees. Pingamizi tele za upande na upande ili watumizi wa vyombo vya mawasiliano waendelee kunyanyaswa zinastahili mbinu mwafaka na za kuwatoka na juu.... (The "Politics" i referred to earlier) Consumers, like all other rights, are fought for not served on a silver platter by Telcos and Internet service providers, their partners and collaborators in and out of corridors of power and influence. Our understanding of surrounding policy, legal, regulatory and how government functions has helped find very good support from several government quarters which is only making The ICT Consumers Association even stronger. In view of my Founder Chairman title on our application documents, I hope I have cleared all suggestive authenticity doubts raised, proven our resolute agenda reinforced by our assertive engagement strategy. However, if this is inadequate on own governance let me know and I'll be glad to share more onlist being a believer in online democracy. Furthermore Consumer protection is in and of public interest and we are expected to demand it by the ICT policy .
