[Kictanet] Kenya ICT Action Network Condemns Overnight Raid on STANDARD AND KTN Offices

[Waudo Siganga]

At 03:25 AM 3/4/2006, Wainaina Mungai wrote:
>I was under the impression that a "KICTANET statement" is a joint 
>statement that needs wider consultation so as to legitimise the words 
>below....because KICTANet does not exist without its membership. I may 
>have been wrong.


Dear All,
My sense here is that Colleague Wainaina is questioning the PROCESS 
(earlier he also questioned the outcome). Firstly, I respect his views even 
though I may disagree. My experience is that almost all organizations do 
not exist in a policy vacuum. Every organization and institution represents 
certain principles, positions, norms and expectations that could be either 
formally documented or even just tacit. If we talk of the boy scouts or the 
Red Cross for example everyone has some idea what those institutions stand 
for, even if they have never read the relevant mandate. This situation has 
two implications: firstly, that those who join these institutions are 
SUBSCRIBING to the general positions of those institutions; secondly, it 
means that a spokesperson for the institution can actually make a 
pronouncement on an issue reflecting the position of the institution as 
long as that position is based on existing general positions, expectations 
or principles of that organization. This further means that in many cases 
individual members do not necessarily have to be consulted. Sometimes 
contacting every member would indeed prove impractical, difficult and time 
consuming (imagine if a Catholic priest had to check with every Catholic 
before issuing a statement against an abortion incident).

I am therefore disagreeing with colleague Wainaina that unless HE (or every 
KICTANET member) is consulted, a resulted position is not a valid KICTANET 
position. In this particular instance he has to prove to me that the 
statement is against what KICTNET generally believes in or stands for, not 
that he was not consulted.

Kind Regards,
Waudo Siganga