[kictanet] Election fiasco reveals Technological dinosaurs

Fri Jan 11 16:00:00 EAT 2008

We cannot and should not deny that we are different people. We are
Luhya, Luo, Kikuyu and Kalenjin, Kamba, Kisii, MijiKenda etc. That is
the reality and it is a Good Thing. I am a Kikuyu by descent yet I
enjoy some Luo tunes and some lyrics. There are however cultural
differences that have been played-up in a way that divides us. That's
where the problem lies; not in language.

Programming in vernacular "connects" better with majority of Kenyans
in rural areas and many in urban areas. The need for the such identity
can be seen in Kenyans when they are stuck in the Diaspora....where
they crave for anything Kenyans (be it in Swahili, Sheng' or
vernacular). So ethnic identity is not necessarily a bad thing. It has
simply been abused.

So what is the way forward? All media houses in Kenya should be
"tamed" in some way or other. because we have seen misconduct among
our English-based FM stations and Newspapers.

- One way would have been the Media Council. We need to strengthen the
Media Act and related laws to protect Kenyans.

- I would support the retention of vernacular FM stations because they
can be turned into tools for enhancing an appreciation for our
diversity as one nation.

Regards,
Wainaina

On 1/11/08, Dan Njiriri <njiris2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Dear Leonard and all,
>
> We in Kenya ignored to be one Nation one people by
> paying too much attention to our tribal affiliations.
> The vernacular stations have either been positive or
> negative depending on the subject matter.However, if
> we all used Swahili/English in all communications, we
> would be moving closer to being one nation, one
> people!
>
> The vernacular stations would do more service to this
> country if they converted to swahili.
>
> Dan Njiriri
>
>
> --- Leonard Mware <mleonardo at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > Shim et al,
> > For the first time I feel compelled to contribute to
> > this discussions. I am basically in the same boat as
> > Shim and trying to answer the same questions.
> > Recently in Tanzania, I had a debate about Kenya and
> > Tanzania and the question of tribalism came up. the
> > first thing they say is Kenya is so tribal that each
> > tribe has an FM radio station! Something Tanzanians
> > can not allow and find strange.
> > To me, a ban on tribal FM stations is long overdue.
> >
> > Leonard
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message ----
> > From: Geoffrey Shimanyula <gshimanyula at ke.uu.net>
> > To: mleonardo at yahoo.com
> > Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
> > <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> > Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2008 3:18:14 PM
> > Subject: [kictanet] Election fiasco reveals
> > Technological dinosaurs
> >
> > Dr. Ndemo et al,
> >
> > I wish to attempt to my one cent worth of
> > contribution this mailing list by
> > giving a story of my early schooling. Having started
> > my schooling in a rural
> > setting, vernacular was one of the lessons that we
> > had to learn. The
> > unfortunate thing was that the dialect we were
> > learning was quite different
> > from that which we spoke back at home. I now
> > understand the reason for that
> > being that no one had ever published a book in our
> > dialect. To this date, I
> > see no value in having learnt that dialect for it
> > does not help me in my
> > every day life today.
> >
> > Fast forward to December 30th 2008 and for the first
> > time, my children ask
> > me what tribe they are. This is because they are
> > descendants of a mixed
> > marriage. For them, the language to use is English
> > or Kiswahili depending on
> > the audience. And the only reason why they asked me
> > this is because they
> > heard of the tribal fighting's that were going on
> > around the country.
> >
> > I am saying all this because as one of the
> > contributors to this forum stated
> > recently, over 60% of KENYANS are literate and when
> > I say literate here I
> > mean those who can utter a word or two in English
> > because Kiswahili is
> > by-and-large used all over the country with the
> > flavor varying from one
> > region to another.
> >
> > I believe that we need to be confident enough to let
> > "other" people
> > understand that which is being spoken and by this I
> > am referring to the FM
> > radio stations that use proprietary
> > languages/dialects. I am not in any way
> > against radio stations having a niche in terms of
> > captive audience but I
> > believe that they can still achieve their objective
> > in a transparent
> > language in this case - Kiswahili. This way, we
> > shall eliminate all sorts of
> > mistrusts that we are seeing today in this beautiful
> > country.
> >
> > We don't need these vernacular radio stations in a
> > country that is striving
> > to move from the LDC quadrant.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Shim...
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From:
> >
> kictanet-bounces+gshimanyula=ke.uu.net at lists.kictanet.or.ke
> >
> [mailto:kictanet-bounces+gshimanyula=ke.uu.net at lists.kictanet.or.ke]
> > On
> > Behalf Of bitange at jambo.co.ke
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 7:47 PM
> > To: gshimanyula at ke.uu.net
> > Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
> > Subject: [kictanet] Election fiasco reveals
> > Technological dinosaurs
> >
> > Dear Yawe,
> > Asante sana.  You have said it all.  We need your
> > participation in
> > reaching all our villages and shanties with the hope
> > of creating wealth
> > there.  If we manage to create wealth for our people
> > and they use that
> > wealth to acquire properties, there will be less
> > conflict because they
> > have something to lose.  Where I live, I know two
> > politicians from both
> > sides but what is striking is that they are good
> > neighbours.  They
> > jealously guard their properties but their
> > supporters in Kibera and
> > Mathare fight and even kill one another.
> >
> > The ICT Bill is coming up and we need your views on
> > Venacular FM stations.
> > Perhaps we all need to revist Nyerere's philosopy of
> > undugu.  There is
> > much to learn from our neighbours in TZ.
> >
> >
> > Bitange Ndemo.
> >
> >
> >
> >
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