[kictanet] SILENT DEMO

[Mike Theuri]

Press freedom is often a measure of a society's openness and
suitability of practising business in a free society. The government's
willingness to uphold constitutional freedoms and rights is another
measure by which investors can gauge whether the government supports
an open society and whether that government is able to respect and
follow the laid down laws. Unfortunately the law making process failed
to follow ordinary norms when the clause was passed by a small
minority not representative of tthe majority represented in parliament
and were it not for freedom of expression the law would likely have
made it into the books.

Would we as a country rather receive negative press like Zimbabwe
which recently passed a law to conduct wide spread surveillance or
receive recognition as being a law abiding country which has room for
differing opinions and a thriving media?
Can anyone expect any cautious investor to invest in Zimbabwe with
enthusiasm given such negative publicity:

"HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has signed into
law an act enabling state security agents to monitor phone lines, mail
and the Internet, a government notice published on Friday said."
http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN436752.html

compare this to the following international media reports which
recognise that we have come a long way from a time when freedoms were
often suppressed and attacked but which are also cognisant that we're
not perfect:

"The media has had greater freedom under Kibaki than during the
24-year rule of his predecessor Daniel arap Moi, when reporters were
routinely harassed and sometimes tortured."
http://africa.reuters.com/country/KE/news/usnL15846976.html

According to an insider Member of Parliament and former VP, it is
apparent the government has possibly breached its ability to be
trusted, though his opinions will likely be attacked as the opinions
of yet another politician, the opinion piece is worth reading. The 5
Ds strategy of government was rather intriguing:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200708150788.html

Peaceful demonstrations are recognised the world over for achieving
positive results the world over. Countries which have had open
societies for many decades or centuries support the right to
peacefully and lawfully demonstrate, to attack this fundamental and
constitutionally protected right sends the wrong message about the
country we live in.

Just to illustrate a recent parallel, a few weeks back, legal high
skilled immigrants in the US engaged in various forms of peaceful
demos from sending flowers to peaceful marches. The result was that a
mere minority of the US work population 0.07% managed to reverse a
terrible government decision by making the impact of the government's
actions known and understood:

The actions:
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jul2007/db20070713_687551.htm
The results:
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jul2007/db20070717_923080.htm

In both cases, the legislative bodies failed to perform, in one case
failing to pass a bill and in the other "sneaking" in a
constitutionally debatable clause into a bill and passing it by a less
than a 50% quorum. Had those affected in both countries kept quiet, it
is likely they would have gone on to become the victims of legislative
bodies that did seem keen on listening without them being vocal. This
is what democracy is about, a thriving democracy is key to the country
to being seen positively as an investment and business destination.


On 8/16/07, Alex Gakuru <alex.gakuru at yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- Benjamin Makai <benmakai at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > as we strive towards being an
> > outsourcing destinations, demos dont reflect very
> > well. We should try to minimize or totally avoid
> > them and enter into meaningful dialog where
> > possible.
> >
>
> You would not be suggesting that as we strive to
> achieve outsourcing destination all else totally
> stops? As for dialog - to me this demo was about
> journalists raising the conscience of our hard-working
> nation to reform and chance the ways of the political
> culture of  breaking long dialog and hard-earned
> promises. That's all really.
>
>