It is just as you might have suspected; Government decisions are never easy. And they are rarely straight forward too. They require a lot of consultation, discussion and planning. This we were informed by Marvin Tumbo when he took the stage for his session “Managing the Government Digital tools and its challenges” at the Digital Camp in Naivasha.
Marvin’s session was held on Saturday 7th after lunch, and we were eager to hear about the Government Digital tools, if only to quench our curiosity on how the Government works and the thought process when it makes decisions on various issue. True to form, we were not disappointed.
Marvin was to take us through what informs the Government decisions on various matters; how it functions and considerations before the final decision it makes. He reminded us of one simple fact that we always seem to forget: that on any single political issue, the president always has more information than the public.
How could he not when he has a strong presence on social media? With an average of 15,000 likes per day on his Facebook page and close to 60,000 mentions on Twitter on a daily basis, it is evident that the President’s social media pages have a lot of activity going on every single day.
Marvin however cautioned that being on Social media should not make people forget the humanity of others. Yes. Even the president’s. That we should always remember that he too has a family that is likely to be affected by whatever is said or done in the online space. He cautioned against bashing, encouraging instead that people learn to offer constructive criticism instead.
Marvin expressed his disappointment in one thing about Kenyan online consumers; that when commenting about national issues, they wrongly focus on personalities instead of institutions. Something he hopes will change in the future.
He asked that Kenyans seek to be informed on Government revenue, expenditure parliamentary bills and other Government projects by visiting the website www.mygov.go.ke where all the information is documented, and to always comment from a point of knowledge.
What can I say; this session left us with a lot to reflect upon.
You can connect with Marvin on Twitter: @MarvinTumbo