Just today a
Tanzanian Member of Parliament representing Ubungo constituency Mr. John Mnyika held an online meeting with Tanzanians via his blog
mnyika.blogspot.com speaking about the ongoing constitutional amendments of the Government
of the United Republic of Tanzania. The
event was held online, actually the P.M was discussing with his people by
receiving comments and replying to them as a means of information gathering
from the people who are the main stake holders of the constitutional amendments.
What a way to go, few years back
something like this could be next to impossible.
When he was
asked if he is the one actually tweeting from his account he said “Yes, it is me who tweets!” that was the answer of the Rwandan's President his Excellency
Jean Paul Kagame.
 |
| Hon. Paul Kagame |
Paul Kagame
@PaulKagame
President of the Republic of Rwanda, write
to:paulkagame@gov.rw
Yeah why
Africa is tweeting why not him, that is the power of the social media, it enhances
communication between people. In politics this communication always leads to
transparency and hence encourages open governance. Currently there are five presidents in Africa who are using twitter including The
of Tanzania, his Excellency Jakaya Kikwete and the late President of Ghana, his
Excellency John Atta Mill.
 |
| Hon. Jakaya Kikwete |
Jakaya
Kikwete
@jmkikwete
The President of The United Republic of Tanzania (Rais wa
Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania)
The number
of African leaders who are using technology to influence people and to get
acceptance from their local communities increased day after day what does this mean?
They have realized the power of technology in reaching people especially youth
or these are inevitable changes they have to accept. “If you can’t even have an
email address then you are too old to be my President” some youth were joking
when the topic was brought some local tech discussions.
There have
been several political groups in Facebook most of them in our regions are
speaking about the situation in the great lakes, the corruption scandals,
leaders running to power and other hot topics. In these groups youth have been
free to speak they mind and share their hunger and hatred toward corrupt
political officials in their countries. The groups has been used has system
reformation tools.
An example
in the local political group of Tanzania in Facebook called “TANURU LA FIKRA” unofficial
meaning burning thoughts or thoughts in frame has been used to target corrupt
leaders and to encourage young politicians who are members of the group to stay
away from the abuse of power and serve the people in patriotic way. Sometimes members of the group have been accusing directly some
politicians including the son of the President of The United Republic of
Tanzania Mr. Jakaya Kiwete, Ridhwani Kikwete on some serious allegations on
corruption issues and the best thing is that leaders has the opportunity to
come and deny those allegations if prompted. Although is not our purpose to
brought those issues here but you can have the proof on the way social media is promoting open governance in our
communities.
While East
Africa is going mobile, with expected 36 million mobile subscribers to be
reached in Tanzania by 2015 you can see the power of technology and handheld
devices. I bet by 2015 people would use USSD SMS app for presidential campaigns
in Tanzania since is the only way you can reach the largest number of
Tanzanians in a short period of Time.
 |
| Hon. Raila Hodinga |
Raila Odinga
@RailaOdinga
The Official page of Raila Amolo Odinga, Prime Minister of the
Republic of Kenya.
It has been
the same thing with Kenyan politicians Prime Minister Mr. Raila Odinga has been
active on his twitter post and just five hour ago he posted to congrats Jeptoo
and Keitany members of Kenyan team in London Olympics through #TeamKenya on twitter.
Raila Odinga @RailaOdinga
Congratulations Jeptoo &
Keitany for representing Kenya well in the marathon #TeamKenya
No doubts he
is good he actually knows how to use the #tags lol. It is so nice to see this
considering the conservative culture of our African leaders of disbelief in
technological changes. There is a lot to
come in tech political games let’s wait and see.
Posted By:
Posted By:
GreenTech360
@GTech360
Jumanne Mtambalike (gTech360) is a Software Engineer,IT consultant and Web designer based in Africa, currently living in Dar es Salaam Tanzania
East Africa · http://www.tech360magazine.com