“Hi. My name is Wanjiru and I’m a blogger.”
As soon as I said those words he scampered and hid behind a friend. He is the ICT Director of a certain county.
“Why are you running away? I don’t bite” I said.
“Well, bloggers rarely say good things about people, especially people in government. I don’t want you to write about me.” He said laughing.
This conversation happened in Diani at Connected Kenya summit last week. We were having a great time networking and chatting during dinner on the last day of the summit. Suddenly the conversation took a serious note and he said, “There is so much bad press about my county. We had done some really good work but you guys always report the bad.”
“Tell me the good things going on there.” Then he proceeded to tell me all the amazing things they were doing and I was genuinely impressed.
Now, that discussion left me very challenged. I have never really thought the Kenyan government is doing much on anything, let alone ICT. I have always had things to say about the incompetence of the government and I have been those people who spread the doom and gloom on social media. This conversation and the summit in general changed my mind, my eyes were opened and I began to see how even the Government (National and County) are doing great work.
I was seriously drawn by the report given by Rukia Ahmed (Executive Committee member for ICT & E-Governemnt, Wajir County). She spoke about the broadband infrastructure they have put up in Wajir and even went ahead to welcome investors to be part of the amazing work that is going on in Wajir County. When she spoke of the plans they have for the future, they did not seem far-fetched; they looked achievable.
I listened with interest to Dr. Fred Matiang’I (Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of ICT, Kenya) and Hon Nsengimana (Minister, Ministry of Youth and ICT, Rwanda) as they spoke on the plans they have for ICT in the region and even in Africa and I was amazed. It reminded me there is hope for Kenya, for East Africa and for Africa.
Now, I know there is still a lot to be done. I am not oblivious of how far we are yet to go. However, there is something being done. It may take a while to see its effects but eventually we will. So, where can we come in as bloggers and social media enthusiasts?Here is how.
On the first day of the Summit, I attended the SMAC (Social Media, Analytics and Cloud) session. It was dubbed “The Connected Citizen” and in my opinion was the overriding take-away from the Summit. The overarching message of the session was that Social Media is something the government and even the citizens cannot afford to ignore. People have embraced social media so much so that it is now a way of life. Because of this, it serves as a platform where people engage each other and speak their mind.
Social media has changed even the way brands do business. You have always heard that bad news travel faster than good news. Well, social media takes that to a whole new level. If you think I’m wrong, here is a statistic to mule over:
25% of Facebook users post negative feedback on bad service. Only 19 % of the users who complained post positive feedback once they encounter improved service.
This applies to companies as well as governments. Now that we know how serious Social Media influences life, we as bloggers should take our work a little more seriously. We are to put the government to task, keeping them accountable using our writing. We are also to report on the good work being done because we are also agents of hope. It’s hard to wake up in the morning and face the day with optimism when everyone is speaking bad news.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying we report the good only. All I am asking is that we be balanced. Let criticize when things are going wrong but let us also give credit where it’s due. Let us give hope to Kenyans. Because, hope is a good thing.
This post was written by Wanjiru Kihusa. She is a writer and speaker; I write and speak on things that affect Family. She blogs at www.wanjirukihusa.com