Walu, the flaw in your question is establishing the validity of ICT Constituency based on the "no show" of the politicians. Politicians are known for "no shows"as a face saving mechanism so i would rather that we deal with the "no show" tool which is what others are suggestion than revisit this settled debate on legitimacy and validity. 

Please, lets stick to the principle of people honouring their word when the give it. If they cannot for whatever reason, there are acceptable norms of disengaging.

Eric here



On 18 May 2007, at 11:28, John Walubengo wrote:

Dear Listers,

Now that I missed the great debate that almost was, I have
had time to think 'brutal' by daring to ask the
question-Does the ICT constituency matter?

From a political point of view - narrow as it maybe - the
ICT constituency may not matter.  2 million urban,
middle-class  internet (ICT?)users, stuck  between the two
cities of Nairobi & Mombasa may not be worthy of national
political consideration...

So if I was a presidential candidate in .KE, you will
forgive me if I concentrated on issues that the common man
can identify with...land, tribalism, corruption,
insecurity....unless ofcourse u  get a way to give the
above an ICT twist...

walu.
--- Brian Longwe <brian@isisweb.nl> wrote:

I would like to strongly echo the sentiments of Lucy as
well as to  
add my own fury to the fire.

I was extremely upset that not only did *NONE* of the
presidential  
aspirants show up - but some of them even went as far as
responding  
to phone calls by saying "I am on the way, will be there
in 20  
minutes"...... then never turning up..... can you imagine
that?  
Treating the Kenyan ICT community like a spurned
girlfriend or  
boyfriend?

Anyway I think that the message that has been sent by the
absence of  
every single one of the aspiring presidents was very LOUD
and CLEAR -

" We don't care about ICT - it doesn't factor in our
vision - it is  
unimportant to us"

As very precisely put by someone I overheard at the
meeting - "these  
aspiring presidents probably don't even know how to spell
ICT"

We must make a loud and strong statement about his and
ensure that  
the wider Kenyan community realises the true colours of
their  
"wannabe" presidents.

Brian

On May 17, 2007, at 12:26 PM, John Walubengo wrote:

LK,

u sound a bit disappointed.  Unfortunately i didnt
attend
the function and would like to know who really turned
up
from the presidential aspirants and what they said...

Michuki, any hope for the text transcript?  Or Becky
could
give us a brief the old way in form of
minutes/updates/etc?
Then from there the absentees like me could contribute
more
intelligently on the way forward...

walu.

--- Lucy Kimani <lkimani@comnews.co.ke> wrote:

All,

I am just venting on the dismal performance of our
aspiring presidential
candidates, I have noticed a trend where those in
leadershipship positions
let alone those aspiring for the same confirm their
attendance to a
certain function and then not show up or best case
scenario show up 2-3
hours late.  I keep asking myself why do we as Kenyans
accept this
behavior, and I am at a loss!

Actually, my pesa nane is that we as the citizens need
to
start demanding
accountability in that when one says they will attend
a
function then they
should keep to their word, after all why are electing
people whose word
doesnt count for much?  Additionally, most of us also
have busy work lives
and the fact that we were willing to stop what we were
doing to sit down
to hear what these aspiring candidates have to say
about
ICT is a
testament to how important we feel ICT to be to the
country.

I am one for making strong statements, and a one page
ad
expressing our
displeasure and questioning why the candidates are
scared
of facing a
serious group of citizens wanting to know where each
of
them stands in ICT
would be in order!  I am sure if it was one of those
meetings where fans
are shouting at the top of their voices, and no one is
asking any serious
questions they probably would show up, we need to
start
demanding more
from our politicians!

Just my thoughts!

LK


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