Re: [kictanet] Election fiasco reveals Technological dinosaurs
Robert, Maybe we should start campaigning for all vernacular stations to be shut. I don't think they add so much value, in any case we have a fairly literal community in Kenya and I'm almost sure there are very few in Kenya who cannot understand Kiswahili and English. In any case the cost of teaching Basic English and Swahili languages to those who do not know is cheaper than what we have lost in one week. What happened last week has never happened since independence and probably the main cause is the vernacular radio stations which have drastically increased in the last 3-5 years with their inciting messages and statements. Best Regards, James Kagwe ********************************************************************* Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis Bishops Garden Towers Bishops Road P.O. Box 56445 Nairobi, Kenya Tel: (254) 20 2719933, 2719934, 2714714, 2714715 Fax: (254) 20 2719951 Confidentiality Warning ======================= The contents of this e-mail and any accompanying documentation are confidential and any use thereof, in what ever form, by anyone other than the addressee is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify admin@kippra.or.ke <mailto:admin@kippra.or.ke> and delete it immediately from your system. Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis accepts no responsibility for losses or damage as a result of any viruses and it is your responsibility to check attachments (if any) for viruses. ________________________________ From: robert yawe [mailto:robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk] Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 10:17 AM To: James Kagwe Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: Re: [kictanet] Election fiasco reveals Technological dinosaurs Hi Kagwe, Why is it that tribal issues are most violent outcome among poor? I believe because they suffer from more than economic poverty but also associative poverty. When the Luo's call their shanty villages Kisumu Ndogo and the Kikuyu's Kwanjenga we refuse to create diversity of association and thus loose the opportunity for cultural wealth. The creation of vernacular radio stations has not helped the issue either. We have become worse had implementing ethnic segregation than God or the colonizers, the Boars cannot hold up a candle to us. What this does is it makes it uncomfortable for me and my neighbour to listen to radio together because he is Luo and I am what I am. With a literacy level of 60% why are we cowering into our tribal cocoons instead of becoming more cohesive. I believe that Kiswahili and English programing should take up 80% of all radio station content otherwise we might as well have the parliamentarians take a vernacular proficiency test to be allowed to participate in elections and also have our national exams done in vernacular. Who funds this radio channels that propagate ethnicity, its the Breweries, Safaricoms, Bidcos and Coca Colas as their only objective is a profit. They then walk around flounting their CSR (or should it be CPR - corporate profit responsibility) programs, if they refused to support all this ethnic stations their CSR programs might be more effective. After supporting KASS FM and others they will now be running to Eldoret to give blankets to people who where, as of 27th December, self reliant before the radio station broadcast inflammatory contents soon after the commercial message. The lawyers have got us to this impasse when they arm-twisted the Moi government to issue all with radio frequencies, similarly to what they did for Rwanda. As history teaches us we never learn from it, we are moving full steam towards ethnic cleansing. Let us us make use of technology to broadcast information that will bring us together, lets run completions that test our knowledge of other ethnic groups. Lets install computers in our rural schools and have the children send e-mails to each other across the country, not those misguided projects that get Kenyan children to communicate with kids in Europe & the US. We have the technology that allows us to implement solutions that do not require parliamentary approval or a government license. Awake and stop this lip service on the issue of ethnicity we are all responsible for getting this country to where it is today. Do we have what it takes to change course. Yes, I do know the causes and like a typical Kenyan I know the solutions but only discuss them on forums instead of taking action. Like a serial killer I am looking to be stopped, can someone push me to act on my theories? Regards Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 KEnya Tel: +254722511225 ----- Original Message ---- From: James Kagwe <jkagwe@KIPPRA.OR.KE> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tuesday, 8 January, 2008 3:09:19 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Election fiasco reveals Technological dinosaurs Please let us know that the problem we are having in the country now is more in the mind than anywhere else. Technology could help but even with technology it is possible for people who have the same tribal convictions that their tribal chief has to be the president to conspire to inflate the polls and actually go ahead and mark the ballot papers in favor of their candidate. Tribalism is the main problem and this has to be fought by all means. Most of the problems were experienced in the strongholds of the main candidates and this confirms the greatest worry. ________________________________ From: kictanet-bounces+jkagwe=kippra.or.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+jkagwe=kippra.or.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Evelyn Rono Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2008 12:29 PM To: James Kagwe Cc: 'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions' Subject: Re: [kictanet] Election fiasco reveals Technological dinosaurs Hi Bobby, Several ICT companies and individuals approached the ECK with the intention of supporting and a managing the process with ICT. I quote " ECK in 2004 was provided with IT hardware & software and GIS electoral database created with each individual polling station positions' mapped using GIS technology that integrated with the electoral database through a unique ID for polling station. The constituency boundaries provided the domain universe within which each polling station could be located for administrative purposes. Training was also conducted for ECK". The same company tried to do the same 2007 This did not happen - Only ECK knows. Evelyn Rono From: kictanet-bounces+evelyn.rono=kdn.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+evelyn.rono=kdn.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of robert yawe Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2008 11:51 AM To: evelyn.rono@kdn.co.ke Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: [kictanet] Election fiasco reveals Technological dinosaurs Happy new year to you all and I pray that you are all well. It is shocking that in this day and age we can actually have the kind of electoral fiasco that has been visited on us by the ECK and Co as well as the political parties. This draconian problem reared its head when the Orange house was broken into and the computers stolen. Hon.Nyongo's statement indicated that the objective was to steal the member register. If I needed to steal the register which from his comments was in electronic form what was the need of taking off with the computer. Has he ever heard of flash disks, external hard dis drives and CD/DVD writers. Technology allows me to steal his data without him every knowing. After this issue Kivuiti dismissed the SMS service that had been made available by Telkom to enable voters confirm their details. He even went to the extent of saying he does not know how to send an SMS. As the IT fraternity in the country can we really escape blame for this fiasco? The next time was when I saw Hon. Ruto standing at KICC and screaming himself hoarse over the forms 16 & 16A that had not been received. It seems he might be using a Nokia 1018 mobile phone (he actually uses a Nokia N series). Was it so difficult for the opposition to provide each of their agents with a camera equipped mobile phone that they would have used to to take pictures of the form and also record the returning officer announcing the results. This would then have been easily sent to party head quarters. There are 210 or so constituencies in the country and the mobile phones I am talking about cost about 10,000/- each do the math. I ask am I the only Kenyan who is aware of such technology or is this entire fiasco a stage managed process. Even the EU observer teams came equipped as if it was the 12th Century after which they proceeded to make unsupported statements about the result that further inflamed bloodshed. Maybe its a techie thing to keep in our glass houses and refuse to add value to a process and only send around message (this one included) after the fact. It is re-assuring when we remember the Florida fiasco but this not withstanding do we really have a moral standing to point fingers about the election results? What will be our contribution to stopping this from being repeated in future? Regards Remember Matiba and his video cameras during the good old days of mulolongo voting? Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi , 00200 KEnya Tel: +254722511225 ________________________________ Sent from Yahoo! <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mailuk/taglines/isp/control/*http:/us.rd.yahoo.c om/evt=51949/*http:/uk.docs.yahoo.com/mail/winter07.html> - a smarter inbox. -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner <http://www.mailscanner.info/> , and is believed to be clean. -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner <http://www.mailscanner.info/> , and is believed to be clean. -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/robertyawe%40yahoo. co.uk ________________________________ Sent from Yahoo! <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mailuk/taglines/isp/control/*http:/us.rd.yahoo.c om/evt=51949/*http:/uk.docs.yahoo.com/mail/winter07.html> - a smarter inbox.
Robert and James, I don't think we need to throw the baby out with the bath water. The problem is not that there are vernacular stations, but that these stations have been used irresponsibly by their promoters. Vernacular stations if responsibly managed can play the important function of positively promoting culture and traditions; which add to our national heritage. What we need is a code of ethics and regulation that impose stiff penalties on those who use vernacular radio stations for purposes of incitement. Regards, Harry Karanja SoftLaw Limited www.softlaw.co.ke James Kagwe wrote:
Robert,
Maybe we should start campaigning for all vernacular stations to be shut. I don't think they add so much value, in any case we have a fairly literal community in Kenya and I'm almost sure there are very few in Kenya who cannot understand Kiswahili and English. In any case the cost of teaching Basic English and Swahili languages to those who do not know is cheaper than what we have lost in one week. What happened last week has never happened since independence and probably the main cause is the vernacular radio stations which have drastically increased in the last 3-5 years with their inciting messages and statements.
Best Regards,
James Kagwe
*********************************************************************
Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis
Bishops Garden Towers
Bishops Road
P.O. Box 56445
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: (254) 20 2719933, 2719934, 2714714, 2714715
Fax: (254) 20 2719951
Confidentiality Warning ======================= The contents of this e-mail and any accompanying documentation are confidential and any use thereof, in what ever form, by anyone other than the addressee is strictly prohibited.
If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify admin@kippra.or.ke <mailto:admin@kippra.or.ke> and delete it immediately from your system.
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*From:* robert yawe [mailto:robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk] *Sent:* Wednesday, January 09, 2008 10:17 AM *To:* James Kagwe *Cc:* KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions *Subject:* Re: [kictanet] Election fiasco reveals Technological dinosaurs
Hi Kagwe,
Why is it that tribal issues are most violent outcome among poor? I believe because they suffer from more than economic poverty but also associative poverty.
When the Luo's call their shanty villages Kisumu Ndogo and the Kikuyu's Kwanjenga we refuse to create diversity of association and thus loose the opportunity for cultural wealth. The creation of vernacular radio stations has not helped the issue either. We have become worse had implementing ethnic segregation than God or the colonizers, the Boars cannot hold up a candle to us. What this does is it makes it uncomfortable for me and my neighbour to listen to radio together because he is Luo and I am what I am.
With a literacy level of 60% why are we cowering into our tribal cocoons instead of becoming more cohesive. I believe that Kiswahili and English programing should take up 80% of all radio station content otherwise we might as well have the parliamentarians take a vernacular proficiency test to be allowed to participate in elections and also have our national exams done in vernacular.
Who funds this radio channels that propagate ethnicity, its the Breweries, Safaricoms, Bidcos and Coca Colas as their only objective is a profit. They then walk around flounting their CSR (or should it be CPR - corporate profit responsibility) programs, if they refused to support all this ethnic stations their CSR programs might be more effective. After supporting KASS FM and others they will now be running to Eldoret to give blankets to people who where, as of 27th December, self reliant before the radio station broadcast inflammatory contents soon after the commercial message.
The lawyers have got us to this impasse when they arm-twisted the Moi government to issue all with radio frequencies, similarly to what they did for Rwanda. As history teaches us we never learn from it, we are moving full steam towards ethnic cleansing.
Let us us make use of technology to broadcast information that will bring us together, lets run completions that test our knowledge of other ethnic groups. Lets install computers in our rural schools and have the children send e-mails to each other across the country, not those misguided projects that get Kenyan children to communicate with kids in Europe & the US. We have the technology that allows us to implement solutions that do not require parliamentary approval or a government license. Awake and stop this lip service on the issue of ethnicity we are all responsible for getting this country to where it is today. Do we have what it takes to change course.
Yes, I do know the causes and like a typical Kenyan I know the solutions but only discuss them on forums instead of taking action. Like a serial killer I am looking to be stopped, can someone push me to act on my theories?
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 KEnya
Tel: +254722511225
----- Original Message ---- From: James Kagwe <jkagwe@KIPPRA.OR.KE> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tuesday, 8 January, 2008 3:09:19 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Election fiasco reveals Technological dinosaurs
Please let us know that the problem we are having in the country now is more in the mind than anywhere else. Technology could help but even with technology it is possible for people who have the same tribal convictions that their tribal chief has to be the president to conspire to inflate the polls and actually go ahead and mark the ballot papers in favor of their candidate.
Tribalism is the main problem and this has to be fought by all means. Most of the problems were experienced in the strongholds of the main candidates and this confirms the greatest worry.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* kictanet-bounces+jkagwe=kippra.or.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+jkagwe=kippra.or.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] *On Behalf Of *Evelyn Rono *Sent:* Tuesday, January 08, 2008 12:29 PM *To:* James Kagwe *Cc:* 'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions' *Subject:* Re: [kictanet] Election fiasco reveals Technological dinosaurs
Hi Bobby,
Several ICT companies and individuals approached the ECK with the intention of supporting and a managing the process with ICT. I quote " ECK in 2004 was provided with IT hardware & software and GIS electoral database created with each individual polling station positions' mapped using GIS technology that integrated with the electoral database through a unique ID for polling station. The constituency boundaries provided the domain universe within which each polling station could be located for administrative purposes. Training was also conducted for ECK". The same company tried to do the same 2007
This did not happen -- Only ECK knows.
Evelyn Rono
*From:* kictanet-bounces+evelyn.rono=kdn.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+evelyn.rono=kdn.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] *On Behalf Of *robert yawe *Sent:* Tuesday, January 08, 2008 11:51 AM *To:* evelyn.rono@kdn.co.ke *Cc:* KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions *Subject:* [kictanet] Election fiasco reveals Technological dinosaurs
Happy new year to you all and I pray that you are all well.
It is shocking that in this day and age we can actually have the kind of electoral fiasco that has been visited on us by the ECK and Co as well as the political parties.
This draconian problem reared its head when the Orange house was broken into and the computers stolen. Hon.Nyongo's statement indicated that the objective was to steal the member register. If I needed to steal the register which from his comments was in electronic form what was the need of taking off with the computer. Has he ever heard of flash disks, external hard dis drives and CD/DVD writers. Technology allows me to steal his data without him every knowing.
After this issue Kivuiti dismissed the SMS service that had been made available by Telkom to enable voters confirm their details. He even went to the extent of saying he does not know how to send an SMS. As the IT fraternity in the country can we really escape blame for this fiasco?
The next time was when I saw Hon. Ruto standing at KICC and screaming himself hoarse over the forms 16 & 16A that had not been received. It seems he might be using a Nokia 1018 mobile phone (he actually uses a Nokia N series).
Was it so difficult for the opposition to provide each of their agents with a camera equipped mobile phone that they would have used to to take pictures of the form and also record the returning officer announcing the results. This would then have been easily sent to party head quarters.
There are 210 or so constituencies in the country and the mobile phones I am talking about cost about 10,000/- each do the math.
I ask am I the only Kenyan who is aware of such technology or is this entire fiasco a stage managed process. Even the EU observer teams came equipped as if it was the 12th Century after which they proceeded to make unsupported statements about the result that further inflamed bloodshed.
Maybe its a techie thing to keep in our glass houses and refuse to add value to a process and only send around message (this one included) after the fact.
It is re-assuring when we remember the Florida fiasco but this not withstanding do we really have a moral standing to point fingers about the election results?
What will be our contribution to stopping this from being repeated in future?
Regards
Remember Matiba and his video cameras during the good old days of mulolongo voting?
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi , 00200 KEnya
Tel: +254722511225
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Harrison, Agreed! Media's responsible self-regulation is paying off see have a look; --snip-- COMMENTARY Media council should set rules for covering conflicts Story by PETER MWAURA | Fair Play Publication Date: 1/5/2008 After viewing a K24 Eyewitness News video tape by Jeff Koinange (of CNN fame) on the riots in Kibera, Nairobi, and several newspaper pictures of the post-election violence that began on Sunday, I was struck by one fact: The rioters understood that they must feed the cameras. In those pictures, the rioters were acting out for the cameras. They seemed to know that to further their side of the dispute they had to get the media to become part of them. They understood perfectly that they had to feed the media to keep their cause in the headlines. So when the cameras arrived, the rioters stepped up their war dance, held up their stones and machetes and burning tyres menacingly for the world to see. They were seeking to influence public perceptions of the riots. And the media empowered them. I was also struck by the symbiotic relationship between journalists and rioters. I was reminded of the famous CNN video tape of Nigeria's Niger Delta rebels repeatedly aired on February 7, 2007. Wielding guns, the rebels in black outfits and black ski masks put up a war dance for the benefit of Jeff Koinange and his TV crew. BY COVERING A CONFLICT, JOURNALISTS play out the conflict. They frame, and sometimes inflame, the conflict. They create the reality on which we base our understanding of the conflict. <http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=25&newsid=113974> --snip-- Thus Media Council should be more active in stepping forward to be more all-round visible? Best, Alex On Jan 9, 2008 11:04 AM, Harrison K Kairo <kairo@softlaw.co.ke> wrote:
I don't think we need to throw the baby out with the bath water. The problem is not that there are vernacular stations, but that these stations have been used irresponsibly by their promoters. Vernacular stations if responsibly managed can play the important function of positively promoting culture and traditions; which add to our national heritage.
What we need is a code of ethics and regulation that impose stiff penalties on those who use vernacular radio stations for purposes of incitement.
Regards, Harry Karanja SoftLaw Limited www.softlaw.co.ke
participants (3)
-
Alex Gakuru -
Harrison K Kairo -
James Kagwe