[kictanet] New DG

Fri Jul 25 15:22:49 EAT 2008

The late Dr Geoffrey William Griffin often said that one can say almost anything in this world to anybody, so long as they say it politely, respectfully and with no malicious intent.

Joe, I agree with every word you say - and the new DG most definitely does not fall in the category of a village idiot appointed by the political all-mighties for perceived loyalty rather than competence. Anybody who knows him, however fleetingly, will testify to his gentlemanly mien and obvious competence.

However Joe, when you use value-loaded words like "whining", to quote just one, it distracts from the deep essence of your well-reasoned argument. People then focus on the negative emotions created by the use of such terms, rather than the very sensible point you are making.

All said and done, I think we have the right person in the right job - let us welcome him, and add value to his onerous task by engaging positively with him.

And let us maintain courteous, respectful and constructive dialogue.

That is my two cents worth!

Fredrick Okono            
Deputy Director                           

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  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Joseph Manthi 
  To: fredokono at cfsk.org 
  Cc: New Vision List ; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions ; Robert Onyango-Alai 
  Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 5:25 PM
  Subject: Re: [kictanet] New DG

  Washington:
  I am not being personal, everything I have stated here is either what Shem has said himself and what is in public record. One thing about democracy is that the person in power appoints his people. When that person is off power, all his people are replace with those of the new "presidents" political persuasion. I do not see what you guys are whining about.

  Under the circumstances, the current leadership would have appointed a village idiot to run CCK because according to them the idiot was qualified and there would have been nothing wrong with that. You are listening way too much to the WB/IFC to be of any good to the country. This guy has worked in CCK - as someone else has stated. He probably knows more about deregulation and ICT than 90% of the subscribers to this list - me and Shem included - because deregulation is an economic concept. I expect him to lead the CCK into the right direction.

  Having some ICT knowledge does not make you a good Regulator Manager. The problem with people complaining too much is that their audience stops listening.

  Give the guy a chance and stop whining about who should and who should not have been appointed.

  And thats my last 2 cents

  JOe 

  On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 10:11 AM, Odhiambo Washington <odhiambo at gmail.com> wrote:

    On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 4:29 PM, Joseph Manthi <jmanthi at gmail.com> wrote:
    > Washington:
    > The appointment of a DG, as I said, is political. This we have to live with.
    > Instead of Shem giving the guy a chance to fail, he automatically starts
    > complaining about what criteria was used to appoint him after failing to be
    > considered. What does that tell you about Shem?

    He did not whine about having failed to be considered. I'd still like
    to stand by the
    summary I gave of how I understood him.

    > All I am saying is that anyone in his right mind would not hire someone who
    > has been accused of gross mismanagement of a very high profile parastatal.

    Accused. That's the point. He's not convicted as yet, though in your mind you've
    done just that - convicted him!

    > And therefore complaining of the DG's appointment using such flimsy reasons
    > as that he is not an "informatician" - whatever that means - lends itself to
    > questions about impropriety.

    "informatician" - I did not look it up from any dictionary, but the
    way I saw it,
    anyone on this list would easily know what he meant from the context. How
    comes you don't?
    Anway, I personally do agree with his "flimsy" reasons, since I'd have loved to
    see someone with the "relevant industry" qualifications (as opposed to
    "relevant political"
    qualifications) being appointed to such a position. Political
    considerations for appointments
    should have been shelved looong time. IIRC, there was strong
    proposition sometimes back
    for such appointments to be vetted by parliament. How this became a
    cropper is so clear
    in my mind, but is OT for this list so I will not delve into it.

    > The DG is a manager, he is not a technician. Now if he was appointed to
    > discuss original thoughts about technical issues then we would have a
    > problem.

    You miss the point once again! The manager, without having clear and
    better understanding
    of what the "technician" is talking about, will always swing towards
    the whims of his/her
    political masters, the technicians best-interests notwithstanding.
    I'd hate to try to make an economist officiate on ICT-related issues
    which have no bias towards
    economics (and that would be shallow anyway). If you were appointed to
    be the CEO of a
    Kenyatta national Hospital and you aren't a doctor by profession,
    guess where the hospital would
    be headed?
    In summary, Dr. Ochuodho strong proposition was to have
    industry-related qualifications considered
    for such appointments, not political.

    > In every country I know Spectrum allocation is an economic issue and not a technical one.

    A very simple case that I know of: Sometimes back, FM stations in
    Nairobi were ordered by CCK to
    have their transmitters moved from where they were installed initially
    to Limuru, because there were
    so much frequency interference. Some stations even jammed their
    competitors. I don't want to indulge
    further into this, but I think the initial decision to let the
    transmitters be installed was approved by the "manager".

    > In this case the DG - if that is the criteria under contention - is more qualified in my book than Shem.

    What Dr. Shem (let me be fair to his rightly earned titles as well)
    inferred was simply "to have doctors run hospitals".
    I did not see (or maybe I was selective in my reading) anywhere where
    he cast aspersions on the person of the DG.

    > Further there is no cloud hunging over his head.

    I maintain that such cloud is none of our business in this forum. Why
    don't you stay focused on the issues
    relevant to the subject, than getting personal?

    --

    Best regards,
    Odhiambo WASHINGTON,
    Nairobi,KE
    +254733744121/+254722743223
    _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

    "Oh My God! They killed init! You Bastards!"
     --from a /. post

  -- 
  Joseph Manthi
  CEO
  MEO Ltd
  http://www.meoltd.com 
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