Hi Robert, I agree with you to a greater extent on the power of the Social media. This power has not been realized in Kenya since the use of this platform has not been issue oriented as such. Most popular tools like Google Groups, yahoo groups, Facebook and twitter have not been used effectively. Most of the time people just share gossip, trade tribal propaganda - basically these fora are used for personal issues like settling vendetta and spreading malicious propaganda. Take an example of any popular online group be it on Facebook or Google, the pages which have the greatest hits or posts are purely gossip and some scandalous photo. Until the day we will use these tools to unite us no meaningful progress will be made to use them to change things we don't like or things we wish to improve. On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 12:39 PM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hi,
Many of us have commented on how social media was used in Tunisia and Egypt to pressure the incumbent and we suggested that Kenya might be at the precipice of the same.
From the actions over the past two weeks namely the demolition by unknown people with undated court orders and blank title deeds of a Church off Juja Road in Eastleigh and a council clinic in high-ridge is an indication that social media in Kenya is basically that, social.
If social media was going to drive change in this country Christians should have been mobilised 2 weeks ago to prevent the demolition of the church and the rest of us over the past weekend to stop the demolition of the public clinic.
Kisia got notified so late that by the time he got to site of the clinic the bulldozer had pulled down one side of the building and had already exited the location. No one was even able to get through to the tsar if corruption Dr. P Lumumba, he never appeared on site and neither had the Minister of Public Health.
The minister of medical services is away in the US, as per article on the press, but should have gotten a posting on his wall about what was transpiring or even an earlier alert of what was being planned.
If social media will create a change then the intention to demolition either of the 2 facilities should have started chatter ignited by a single posting by the typist at NCC who typed the order, or the driver of the bulldozer or anyone else who was privy to such information and when this posting was done it should have a viral effect not only in the spread by also in the reaction. We should have descended on the sites like white blood cells to the site of an infection in the body.
For social media in Kenya to have the effect it had in Tunisia or the British student demonstrations aka riots we need to regularly use the media for advocative action such as avoiding a particular matatu because the driver is known to be reckless or the makanga never washes. When there is an accident on the highway causing a major jam we should be able to update other drivers so that they can take action even though it might mean beginning the Mututho hour closer to the office.
We need to use it regularly so that we internalise the usage, we should not expect that it will just happen suddenly when a message is posted on a wall and we experience a revolution. President Obama did not just wake up on the eve of the election to make a posting on facebook or twiter no, he used the medium to mobilise people to town hall meetings in nondescript locations many years before he even become senator.
Then and only then will the new order manifest itself in Kenya, Mapambano.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200e Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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