Friday, May 18, 2007

THE DEBATE OF THE YEAR

It was going to be the debate of the year, it was eagerly waited for, and at last Kenyan politicians were expected to address issues.

“I was going to be extremely impressed if they turned up. It would have been the debate of the year,” said Michuki Mwangi.

Probably Michuki’s argument epitomizes the feeling of over 80 people who gathered for the debate. It was going to be a good day.

It has been argued that some of the expected guests may not have been aware of the ICT issues expected to be discussed. Whilst this may be true, the leaders- Balala, Raila, Ruto, Kalonzo, Mudavadi, Nyagah, and Umar were sent a background note outlining the state of ICT in the country.

There was every indication that they would turn up, Ruto and Mudavadi even claimed to be on the way. At the end of it, the wait was too long and we had to proceed with the program.

The function was facilitated by Eng. James Rege and Muriuki Mureithi and all networks within KICTANet were represented.

Joseph Mucheru, Kanja Waruru, Edith Adera and Brian Logwe took turns leading the debate and the participation was equally good.

Though the live stream was hampered by poor PA system, people managed to tune in. it was a first step towards creating local content. Next time KDN and Intersat Africa will provide video streaming.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lesson number one for ICT

Less hype please
more action

Anonymous said...

Alexcia, do not tell this to Rebecca, nor to nice ICT geeks. Tell it to pompous buffoonish dunces like daktari Juma Okech, the ICT secretary in the Office of the President (and responsible or rather culpable for the "e-government" of Kenya, bwahahaha). Or like Bitange Ndemo.

It's these self-inflated people who need a constant kick in the backside, not some idealists who maybe had underestimated technical problems, and had hoped that politicians would keep a promise.

Alexander