[kictanet] The role of Media in political developement

Wed May 9 18:01:58 EAT 2012

Barrack,
In the front page of the New York Times is Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana bowing out after his defeat in the Republican primary.  Sen. Lugar has been in the Senate close to 40 years shaping the US policy.  His sins are that he is a moderate as fae as the divide between conservatives and democrats.

He was defeated by a far right candidate under the banner of Tea Party within the conservative party.  Although the Tea Party is popular, they did not split to form a new party.  They are simply re defining the conservative agenda.

Our politics has not changed much since we. have never looked beyond our ethnicity.  In defence of a single party Moi said multi party will divide the country.  And true to his word we are more divided today than we were at independence.  At independence we more ideological to the extent that Kaggia leaned more to Odinga than Mboya who was a Kenyatta protege. 

The younger generation must begin to change this a round issues.  This however is not happening.  Youth who should be our hope are being used to advance separatist movements such as MRC, Mungiki, Chinkororo etc.  These organisations are threatening the economic gains we have made under President Kibaki.  To hang on to this momentum, we must not allow self seekers to destroy the country, to misuse the youth and above all to create division among ourselves. 

We have the greatest opportunity today to create employment like never before but unfortunately politics is taking centre stage. We must refuse and take individual responsibility on that which is happening as we watch.   

I am challenging this Forum to take its rightful responsibility and seek for an issue based debate among all declared candidates.  Let us know what they plan to do with:
Youth
Unemployment
Food security
Education
Health and more.

In the US Media has a responsibility to organise town hall debates to allow every citizen to be heard.  We are the New Media.  We can generate the issues here then use the forum to enhance the political debates.  In the absence of anything politicians will always revert to siasa ya kumalizana.

Regards

Ndemo.

Sent from my BlackBerry®

-----Original Message-----
From: Barrack Otieno <otieno.barrack at gmail.com>
Sender: kictanet-bounces+bitange=jambo.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.keDate: Wed, 9 May 2012 14:09:04 
To: <bitange at jambo.co.ke>
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Subject: [kictanet] The role of Media in political developement

Listers,

Having watched a couple of programmes focusing on current political
happenings i am left wondering on the role of the media, are some of
this media houses engaged in political activism or are they educating
the masses?. Why cant media houses be more innovative and focus on
debates such as what we had on this list  (Ndemo for president). This
populist debates centered around opinions are a recipe for chaos. One
just needs to look at what happened in Sabatia to know what can happen
when this opinion contests are not handled well. We need to evaluate
the possible impact of some of this opinion based discussions, they
may shore up profits for media houses but divide the country.

-- 
Barrack O. Otieno
+254721325277
+254-20-2498789
Skype: barrack.otieno
http://www.otienobarrack.me.ke/

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