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<DIV>Shim et al,</DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV>To me, a ban on tribal FM stations is long overdue.</DIV>
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<DIV>Leonard</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif">----- Original Message ----<BR>From: Geoffrey Shimanyula <gshimanyula@ke.uu.net><BR>To: mleonardo@yahoo.com<BR>Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke><BR>Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2008 3:18:14 PM<BR>Subject: [kictanet] Election fiasco reveals Technological dinosaurs<BR><BR>Dr. Ndemo et al,<BR><BR>I wish to attempt to my one cent worth of contribution this mailing list by<BR>giving a story of my early schooling. Having started my schooling in a rural<BR>setting, vernacular was one of the lessons that we had to learn. The<BR>unfortunate thing was that the dialect we were learning was quite different<BR>from that which we spoke back at home. I now understand the reason for that<BR>being that no one had ever published a book in our dialect. To this date, I<BR>see no value in having learnt that dialect for it does not help me in
my<BR>every day life today.<BR><BR>Fast forward to December 30th 2008 and for the first time, my children ask<BR>me what tribe they are. This is because they are descendants of a mixed<BR>marriage. For them, the language to use is English or Kiswahili depending on<BR>the audience. And the only reason why they asked me this is because they<BR>heard of the tribal fighting's that were going on around the country. <BR><BR>I am saying all this because as one of the contributors to this forum stated<BR>recently, over 60% of KENYANS are literate and when I say literate here I<BR>mean those who can utter a word or two in English because Kiswahili is<BR>by-and-large used all over the country with the flavor varying from one<BR>region to another.<BR><BR>I believe that we need to be confident enough to let "other" people<BR>understand that which is being spoken and by this I am referring to the FM<BR>radio stations that use proprietary languages/dialects. I am not
in any way<BR>against radio stations having a niche in terms of captive audience but I<BR>believe that they can still achieve their objective in a transparent<BR>language in this case - Kiswahili. This way, we shall eliminate all sorts of<BR>mistrusts that we are seeing today in this beautiful country. <BR><BR>We don't need these vernacular radio stations in a country that is striving<BR>to move from the LDC quadrant. <BR><BR>Regards,<BR><BR>Shim...<BR><BR>-----Original Message-----<BR>From: kictanet-bounces+gshimanyula=<A href="mailto:ke.uu.net@lists.kictanet.or.ke" ymailto="mailto:ke.uu.net@lists.kictanet.or.ke">ke.uu.net@lists.kictanet.or.ke</A><BR>[mailto:kictanet-bounces+gshimanyula=<A href="mailto:ke.uu.net@lists.kictanet.or.ke" ymailto="mailto:ke.uu.net@lists.kictanet.or.ke">ke.uu.net@lists.kictanet.or.ke</A>] On<BR>Behalf Of <A href="mailto:bitange@jambo.co.ke" ymailto="mailto:bitange@jambo.co.ke">bitange@jambo.co.ke</A><BR>Sent: Wednesday,
January 09, 2008 7:47 PM<BR>To: <A href="mailto:gshimanyula@ke.uu.net" ymailto="mailto:gshimanyula@ke.uu.net">gshimanyula@ke.uu.net</A><BR>Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<BR>Subject: [kictanet] Election fiasco reveals Technological dinosaurs<BR><BR>Dear Yawe,<BR>Asante sana. You have said it all. We need your participation in<BR>reaching all our villages and shanties with the hope of creating wealth<BR>there. If we manage to create wealth for our people and they use that<BR>wealth to acquire properties, there will be less conflict because they<BR>have something to lose. Where I live, I know two politicians from both<BR>sides but what is striking is that they are good neighbours. They<BR>jealously guard their properties but their supporters in Kibera and<BR>Mathare fight and even kill one another.<BR><BR>The ICT Bill is coming up and we need your views on Venacular FM stations.<BR>Perhaps we all need to revist Nyerere's
philosopy of undugu. There is<BR>much to learn from our neighbours in TZ.<BR><BR><BR>Bitange Ndemo.<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>kictanet mailing list<BR><A href="mailto:kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke" ymailto="mailto:kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke">kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke</A><BR><A href="http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet" target=_blank>http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet</A><BR><BR>This message was sent to: <A href="mailto:gshimanyula@ke.uu.net" ymailto="mailto:gshimanyula@ke.uu.net">gshimanyula@ke.uu.net</A><BR>Unsubscribe or change your options at<BR><A href="http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/gshimanyula%40ke.uu.net" target=_blank>http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/gshimanyula%40ke.uu.net</A><BR><BR><BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>kictanet mailing list<BR><A
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