GOD HAS BEEN GOOD TO ME

For 20 years, I watched him fight cancer of the face. First just a small speck that begin to grow larger. Year after year I watch him go to hospital to have a bit cut out each time. As the years went by, more and more of his face was cut away. When he returned with what is left of his face, he tried to smile. He never complained or was downhearted.
He was a skilful mechanic and carpenter. In fact, he was one of the best. Whenever he did a job, he stood back to see if there was anything left out that could be added to make it perfect. Then he would see some little place that the average person would pass up. He would then touch up this or that.
I suspect he said this to himself “My work will be my face and my life” I doubt if he often looked in the mirror at that damaged face where the cancer ate into everyday. No matter how humble the pace he worked in, how small the job was or how crude the other workers seemed, it never bothered him at all. This was his work and it has to be done right. He never glanced at the work of others; a shoddy work done by others was not his concern. Nevertheless, I suspect when the job was done, he had a sense of inner pride and joy when he saw how outstanding it was. But he never boasted about it.
As the years went by, he became weaker and weaker. His hands did not move with confidence and speed that so characterized him. He was unable to do many things. However no matter what the work or pay, he always had the insatiable desire to do a good job.
The help he got was not able to catch his vision. They thought he was cranky to try so hard to complete each and every detail. So he worked alone. He did not complain or bitterly rail at the others. He would just appear the next morning by himself with no explanation of the absence of his helpers.
During the latter day, he had only the shambles of a face. He would wrap it up in a red bandana handkerchief, leaving only his eyes showing.
When you met him on the streets, he would always give a cheery greeting. As time went on, it was more and more difficult to sayt he words. Often he would move his walking stick. This stick, too, was a thing of beauty, carved out by his skilful hands.
His life seemed to be filled with contentment and peace. I suspect that he thanked God for those hands and the fact that it was not marred in any way.
He would often be missed about his usual haunts for weeks or months. He would make his journey to the hospital for the surgeon to cut away more of his face. Then you would see him again, a bit more gruesome. There would be no complaints, o telling of his operation and pain. He would just quietly go to work that was waiting for him.
In all his time, I never knew him to come back with any complaints about the pain. You would think there was nothing the matter if you did not see his face. When the days of his labors seem to be coming to an end, his chief concern was that his tools might be in good hands. He sent for me one day and told me he wished someone would appreciate the tools and use them properly.
When I took a young man to see him about the tools, there came a look of contentment and satisfaction. His work was finished and he was ready to cash in.
A few days before he died he was walking in the yard. His face was nearly completely covered with bandages. Only his eyes were uncovered. As he hobbled about the yard, he said “I am going to keep young just as long as I can”
The day he died, I went to see him again. The odor was so offensive you could hardly stay there. What was left of his face was a mass of scars and there was really nothing to cut away. You could tell he was in great pain and had many sleepless nights. But still there were no words of complaints.
I shall never forget his last words.
Even afterwards they have made me ashamed whenever I feel inclined to complain. Still day after day, they are vivid in my mind.
The words are “God has been good to me. I had never had any reason to complain”
How many times do we complain of things that really do not matter? So what if you do not have money, so what if you are not beautiful, so what if you lack that killer smile, so what if your nose is bigger? Does it matter that you never went to a good school or you do not have friends? Does it matter that you do not have the latest shoes, or that dress or the phone?
You are alive, you are healthy…… God has been good to you.
I have no reason to complain of my wants. I would have wished for so many things in life but I have what I have!
God has been good to me...

YOUTH ESSAY 2010

More Chances For Youths To Be In Lithuania 2011 :)

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Raise Your Voice, Share Your Ideas, and Get Involved in Democracy!
Come on you people! :D let’s do this..just submit your essay on democracy, and win an opportunity to attend one of the largest global gatherings of democracy leaders! ;) I said it, and its real…why not ? :D

The World Youth Movement for Democracy (www.wymdonline.org), a youth network of the World Movement for Democracy (www.wmd.org), is pleased to announce the launch of its Global Essay Contest. Fifteen semi-finalists (3 in each region: Asia, Central/Eastern Europe & Eurasia, Middle East & North Africa, Latin America & Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa) will be announced in January 2011, and will have their essays published on the WYMD Web site. Two global winners will be invited to participate in the upcoming Community of Democracies Ministerial Meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, in June 2011. (www.community-democracies.org)

Questions
Democracy has been practiced in different ways and in different contexts. We believe there are core universal democratic values and aspirations that we all share, which transcend our differences, even though we live in different cultures, speak different languages, and eat different food. The purpose of this essay contest is to highlight personal engagement in democracy by promoting critical thinking about the role of young people in democracy and to connect youth with broader democracy movements. The questions posed below for this essay contest aim to challenge youth to write about their perspectives on democracy and their understanding of democracy activism, particularly their own.;)

Essays are required to address one or more of the following questions:
1) In what ways have young people contributed to democratic participation in your community? Highlighting some of the strategies and tools they have used, what difference have their efforts made?
2) New media and social networking are increasingly becoming popular tools for community organizing. In what ways have you and/or your organization been using new media for democracy promotion? How effective has it been and what challenges have you faced in using these tools?
3) What practices, do you think exemplify human rights activist protection or violation in your country that is not openly recognized? What do you think are the justifications for this and how can it be either replicated, in the case of a good example or stopped, in the case of a bad example?
3) What new factors can youth activists bring to longstanding human rights issues in your country? How have these issues been addressed in the past?

Submissions
Please submit your essay by 30 November 2010, via email attachment as a Word document. The format must have 1’’ margins, double spaced, Times New Roman font, and size 12 font. Please make sure to clearly designate, in the body of your email, your full name, age, gender, physical address, and phone number, to the relevant regional email address listed below. Do not enter your name or other details on your actual essay. Essays can be submitted in Arabic, English, French, Russian, or Spanish, and the essay must be no more than 2,000 words. Authors must be no younger than 18 and no older than 30 years old before November 30.

Asia: WYMD.ASIA@GMAIL.COM
Central and Eastern Europe & Eurasia: WYMD.EURASIA@GMAIL.COM
Middle East & North Africa: WYMD.MENA@GMAIL.COM
Latin America & Caribbean: WYMD.LAC@GMAIL.COM
Sub-Saharan Africa: WYMD.AFRICA@GMAIL.COM
To submit essays via fax, please fax: +;1.202.378.9889. Provide your details on the cover sheet.
Timeline
August 12, 2010 – Launch of the Essay Contest
November 30, 2010 – EXTENDED DEADLINE!
January/February 2011 – Announcement of 15 Semi-finalists
March 2011 – Announcement of 2 Global Winners
June 2011 – Global winners attend Community of Democracy Ministerial Meeting

Review Process
The submitted essays will be reviewed by regional committees each of which will determine three regional semi-finalists. The semi-finalists will be announced in January 2011. If needed the each of the regional committees will also translate 3 semi-finalist essays into English to post on the World Youth Movement for Democracy Website. Essays will be evaluated based on: Composition; Clarity; Creativity; and Practicality.
* Essays must be based on your own personal experiences and must be your own original work. Please do not use outside sources without citing properly.
Prizes
The Two Global winners will be announced and provided with a sponsorship to cover travel and other expenses related to their participation in the Community of Democracies Ministerial Meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, in June 2011. (www.community-democracies.org)
The 15 Semi-Finalists (3 from each region) will be announced and their essays will be posted on the World Youth Movement for Democracy Web site.
For further information on the Global Youth Essay Contest, please visit: www.wymdonline.org. If you have any specific questions, please contact Cecilia Andersen at: ceciliah@ned.org.

……………….Wishing you and myself success………:)
Eddie Ombagi

AFRICA EMERGING LEADERS CONFERENCE

1
STRONG MEN OR STRONG INSTITUTIONS: WHICH WAY AFRICA?
By
Prof. Gitile Naituli, PhD
Multimedia University, Kenya
Director, Center for transformational Leadership
PAPER TO BE PRESENTED AT THE AFRICA EMERGING LEADERS
CONFERENCE HELD ON 11TH TO 13TH AUGUST 2010, AT KENYA HIGH
SCHOOL, KILELESHWA, NAIROBI, KENYA
It is a great honor for me to address all of you on such an
important topic. I would like to first of all express my sincere
thanks and gratitude to the organizers for both organizing this
workshop and for inviting me.
Most of us may be familiar with the concept of strong men and
strong institutions, but do we know what the term “strong man”
really means in leadership terms? Assuming that we do know
what the term strongman means; do we know what a strong
institution is or how one may go about building one? Are all strong
institutions good? An even more difficult question would be, can
strong institutions be built without strongmen and strong women?
Let me deal with the question of ‘strongmen’ first.
Our leaders cannot be isolated from society and the social reality
that created them. If so then, can we claim to have had genuine
leaders or strong men in Africa? The challenge of genuine
leadership according to Kouzes a Posner is about how to mobilize
others to want to get extraordinary things done in organisations.
Any nation state is indeed an organisation. Strong leadership is
therefore, about the practices leaders use to transform values
into actions, visions into realities, obstacles into innovations,
separateness into solidarity, and risks into rewards.
2
Ladies and gentlemen, a strongman or a strong woman is the
person who provides leadership that creates the climate in which
challenging opportunities are transformed into remarkable
successes.
Have we seen this type of leader in the African strongman?
On Saturday, July 11th 2009, the US President Barack Obama,
addressed Africa from Accra, Ghana.
He said, ‘make no mistake: history is on the side of these brave
Africans, and not with those who use coups or change
constitutions to stay in power. Africa doesn’t need strong men, it
needs strong institutions.’
On the surface, it is difficult to disagree with the American
President. On careful reflection; however, it raises a troubling
question:
Has Africa ever had strong men?
Just think of some of the so called strong men for a minute – Idi
Amin Dada of Uganda, Mobutu Seseseko of Zaire, Eyadema of
Togo, Moi of Kenya, Kamuzu Banda of Malawi, Emperor Bokassa
of Central Africa Republic, Generals Babangida and Sani Abacha
of Nigeria, President Omar Bongo of Gabon, P.W. Botha of South
Africa, Mengistu Hale Mariam of Ethiopia and Samuel Doe of
Liberia.
Can we justify any description of these men as truly strong?
These men are the very expression of weakness. They were
weak to the core. They were immature. They depended on the
social surrounding, the tribe, for a sense of identity, values, and
direction. They never truly lead. They did not even lead
3
themselves. Lacking in strength of character, fear and intimidation
became their primary tool of control.
A strong leader, experiences personal evolution to a level where
he or she becomes relatively autonomous, a self-actualized
individual. He/she begins to understand that the whole is greater
than the sum of its parts. Their personalities grow in an integrated
way around a well-developed sense of their own distinctive inner
self. At the same time their horizon expands to broader
perspectives and responsibilities. Their intrinsic identity and
values give self-initiative to their own lives.
A strong leader is one who models the way. First, such a leader is
clear about his/her own guiding principles. Has a clear value
system and clarifies them to his/her followers.
What values did Idi Amini Dada, Mobutu Seseseko, Eyadema,
Arap Moi, Kamuzu Banda, Emperor Bokassa, Generals
Babangida and Sani Abacha, Omar Bongo, P. W. Botha,
Mengistu Hale Mariam and Samuel Doe promote?
A strong leader must inspire a shared vision. The dream or vision
is the force that invents the future. Strong leaders gaze across the
horizon of time, imagining the attractive opportunities that are in
store for the time when they and their constituents arrive at a
distant destination. They envision the future, the exciting and
ennobling possibilities ahead.
They have a desire to make something happen, to change the
way things are, to create something that no one else had ever
created before. Does any of this describe the African strongman?
These men were basically preoccupied with maintaining their
power and keeping the status quo as it were.
4
Leadership is about challenging the process. It is about change,
not about maintaining the status quo. Strong leaders are always
on the lookout for ways that things could be better than they are.
They do not sit idly waiting for fate or fortune to smile on them.
“Luck” or “being in the right place at the right time” may play a role
in the specific opportunities leaders embrace, but those who lead
others to greatness always seek and accept challenge. They
search for opportunities to innovate, grow and improve. Can you
say these behaviors describe the African Strongman?
Grand dreams which are the hallmark of great leaders do not
become significant realities through the actions of a single person.
It requires a team effort. It requires solid trust and strong
relationships. It requires deep competence and cool confidence. It
requires group collaboration and individual accountability. To get
extraordinary things done, great leaders have to enable others to
act. Can anyone say this is a description of the African
strongman?
What we had and still do have, with a few beautiful exceptions, in
Africa is weak leaders creating weak institutions. In order to take
part in and oversee multiple processes such as communication,
team building, group decision making, and production or service
delivery, leaders must apply diverse skills to integrate people with
different perceptions and points of view, and to navigate through
complex social waters. He/she must have the ability to enrich
feelings, one’s own as well as those of other people and to spread
enjoyment, motivate, and create shared meaning.
Because of lack of leadership, African managers of national
institutions viewed these organizations as structures outside
themselves instead of as a network of people of which they are a
part. They started being afraid of themselves. They began to see
problems and perils in outside objects and structures instead of in
their own weaknesses.
5
If a manager of a public organization failed to deliver, it was
because this or that tribe was undermining him or her. Pleasing
the appointing agency became the primary reason for being the
manager.
This denied these managers the opportunity to be pathfinders’
who formulated new goals and had the ability to realize these
visions. They ceased practicing their trade and lost selfconfidence.
As a result these institutions have either collapsed or
are collapsing.
In this kind of institutional climate, many top managers struggle to
agree on outcomes, or even common ground for moving forward.
Skilled individual leaders with impressive track records fail to
collaborate. They don’t know how to work together to understand
difficult challenges, much less how to resolve them. Instead, they
continue to be constrained, operating in separate silos. The ability
to integrate systems, collaborate with colleagues, and coordinate
across other institutions remains elusive. Innovation remains
haphazard or thwarted. National-wide programmes are
uncoordinated and implementation is uneven.
Ladies and gentlemen, here is my thesis: Africa needs both
strong individuals and strong institutions. Allow me to explain:
America is hailed for the strength of its institutions and its
democracy but little attention is paid to the men and women who
built those institutions. It took strongmen and women who risked
their lives and fortunes to make America what it is today. Men like
Martin Luther King, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and
Abraham Lincoln. Women like Mary Eliza Terrell: one of the first
African-American woman to earn a college degree, she founded
what is now known as the National Association of University
Women and was a founding member of the NAACP.
6
Harriet Tubman: born into slavery in Maryland, Tubman became
the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad,
personally leading dozens of slaves to freedom. Eleanor
Roosevelt: an active champion of civil rights, she supported the
United Nations and was directly involved in the drafting of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Helen Keller, Sourjaner Truth, Scot Coretta King and Rosa
Parks: called the “mother of the modern-day civil rights
movement,” her refusal to give up her seat sparked the
Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955.
It took Justice Marshall and some ground breaking supreme court
rulings like ‘Marbury vs. Madison’ to set America’s judiciary on its
way to the strong and independent institution it has become. In
‘Marbury vs. Madison’, the US supreme court ruled that the
judiciary had the power to determine whether an action by the
executive branch and by implication the legislature was
constitutional.
It took a strong president Abraham Lincoln to end slavery with the
‘Emancipation Proclamation’ which sparked the civil war that he
proceeded to win.
It took the strong Presidency of Franklin Roosevelt to defeat Nazi
Germany.
It took Clara Barton: called “the angel of the battlefield” to found
the American Red Cross.
From America’s own history, strong men and Women have
always been indispensable to strong institutions.
A French Philosopher Monet put it clearly, ‘Nothing is possible
without men (read: human beings) but nothing can be lasting
without institutions’.
7
Here in Africa, apart from men of dubious background, who
plundered their countries and destroyed thriving economies, there
were the real strong men and strong women.
Dedan Kimathi was a strong man who stood up against British
colonialism and died fighting so we in Kenya could be free.
Wangari Mathai is a strong woman who stood up against the
oppressive Moi regime and saved Karura forest for the future
generations.
And all the strong women of Africa who have suffered quietly
holding families together while building society under unbearable
conditions. These women will never appear in any history book.
But their strength has inspired sons and daughters to stretch their
dreams and become something great to make their mothers
proud.
Jaramogi Oginga Odinga was a strong man who stood up to the
dictatorships of both Kenyatta and Moi so that Kenya could be
free.
Nelson Mandela is a strong man who stood up against apartheid
and spent 27 years in prison so that his country would have racial
equality.
Ken Sarawiwa was a strong man who stood for a free and
democratic Nigeria and paid with his life.
While there have been good strong men and good strong women
throughout history, there have also been bad strong institutions.
8
When Patrick Henry said “give me liberty or give me death”, he
was confronting one of the most powerful institutions on earth, the
British Empire. It was not a good institution, to colonies like
America and Kenya.
The oppression of the people of Kenya under both Mzee Jomo
Kenyatta and Daniel Arap Moi was done with the help of some of
the most powerful institutions in history: The KANU machine, the
Special Branch and the Judiciary.
Perhaps, the strongest and the most enduring institution in
Nigeria is that country’s Armed Forces. Until the election of
Olesuguni Obasanjo, that institution had had a hammer-lock on
Nigerian politics for decades.
Even though they are now kinder and gentler, in the last 50 years,
no other institutions have shaped Africa more than the World
Bank and the international Monetary Fund (IMF). They have
prescribed bitter economic medicine to government after
government that led to suffering and political coups. They were
and are very powerful institutions. But were they helpful?
As Africa moves into the 21st century, we need strong men and
women who will assist in the process of building the strong
institutions that we need.
We need a strong and independent and transparent judiciary that
can stand up to our governments and bring justice to people of
Africa.
We need a strong and independent parliament that will do real
executive oversight.
9
All across this great continent that we call home, we need strong
institutions of accountability that will call political leaders to
account when they commit crimes against their own people.
Only strong men and women can build and maintain these
institutions. I thank you!

MY CONFERENCE PAPER ON AFRICA MEDIA CONFERENCE

Africa Media & Democracy Conference

Theme: Mediating Democracy in Africa

Sub Theme: New Media and Democracy

Title: Digital Media and Democracy: How the Internet is changing the Face of African Politics


Authors names and institutional affiliation

Eddie Cavines Ombagi
4th Year Student
Kabianga University College
(A Constituent College of Moi University)
P.O Box 1 - 20201
KABIANGA



Abstract

In a continent of democracy on hold, where there are still countries without free press and media, and where articles about anything that involves politics gets censorship, every news, whether from mainstream or new media, is more than welcome. The crisis surrounding the disputed 2007 presidential elections in Kenya served as a stark reminder of how fragile and delicate young democracies are. It also put into sharp focus the power new media technologies give citizens to report news and organize responses to crisis situations. A number of Kenyans- bloggers, ‘facebookers’, ‘twitterers’- demonstrated how technically sophisticated and globally connected the country is at precisely the moment when leaders demonstrated a shocking willingness to sacrifice the nation for continued power. At the time when the government shut down mainstream media, citizen journalists assumed a vital role by filling the government-imposed information gap and shedding light on the ensuing chaos. This paper contends that new media and citizen journalists have, no doubt, emerged as a credible and potent source of political activism, clamour for democracy and gents of social change in the cruel face of governments’ inefficiencies in African democracies.
















Introduction

“Africa’s future is up to Africans,” President Obama told an audience in Accra Ghana, on July 11. “You have the power to hold your leaders accountable, and to build institutions that serve the people,” Obama said. In Africa as in elsewhere, social networks are providing an opportunity for people to work together to do just that- hold their leaders and representatives accountable to good governance and democracy.

During Obama’s and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s separate trips to sub- Saharan Africa, and at the president’s meeting with African leaders at the United Nations in New York, the message about the importance of good governance, and the conviction that Africa’s future is up to Africans, were central. In August, Clinton made her way across sub-Saharan Africa, meeting with leaders of seven African nations, and telling audiences in Kenya, “The U.S cannot solve Kenya’s problems… We cannot dictate how you run your governments; it is up to us… The answers to Kenya’s challenges lie with Kenyans. Fast forward to May 2010, U.S Vice President Joe Biden, made the same remarks in Kenya.

Internet users from across the continent followed the progress of Clinton’s tour through social networking sites such as facebook, twitter and several blogs. The participants of the cyber dialogue said that most important challenge Africans face is establishing good governance, curbing corruption and promoting greater transparency. They also discussed the economic and social implications of more open governments, free and fair elections and stable regimes.

The sincere and candid conversation taking place through the new forms of technology signal a silent but brewing revolution in as far as governance and democracy is concerned.
This digital technology is changing our politics (Meier, 2008). The World Wide Web is already a powerful influence on the public access to government documents, the tactics and content of political campaigns, the behavior of voters, the efforts of activists to circulate their message, and the ways in which topics enter our public discourse.

In the context of globalization, millions have remained powerless to get information or publish information’s worth giving them a death penalty. According to Beckett (2007), these forms of media reporting- aptly called the underground reporting has made this possible and escape censorships, where the new group of journalists has forcefully emerged in many parts of the world. This new breed of journalists, most of them are not trained neither have they any form of qualifications in relation to journalistic professionalism.

Anyone with a mobile phone can call a radio station and question a government minister, a voter in a polling station can relay the results of the outcome to live television with his mobile phone long before the presiding officer has even signed the certificate. Shapiro (2009) says that one can capture and post pictures of police brutalities or acts of corruption to the internet before the alleged crime is even registered as even crime.

This communication revolution has broken through the earlier world in which official information was offered through government-controlled or regulated forms of media. This has no doubt brought greater transparency and accountability in the governance process.

These forms of new media offer the best possible avenue for participatory democracy and a culture of democratic institutions and good governance. The whole intent of citizens participating in news collection and transmission is, says Rosen (2006) to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires.


New Media Demystified

Citizen journalism, also called “guerilla” or “street” journalism is, according to Witschge (2009), the concept where members of the public play an active role in collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information. New media tools like the internet have therefore contributed to this mission of news dissemination. These new media technologies include social networking sites like facebook, twitter, hi5, Myspace, bebo etc. They also include blogging sites. The idea behind citizen journalism is that people without professional journalism training can use tools of modern technology and the global distribution of the internet to create, augment or fact-check media on their own or in collaboration with others.

With today’s technology the citizen journalist movement has found new life, especially in Africa, as the average person can capture news and distribute it globally (Beckett, 2007). The events surrounding the 2007 Kenyan Presidential Elections and the chaos that ensued later can be linked directly or indirectly to the power and influence of new media technologies.
In Egypt as in Kenya, new media technologies have played a bigger role in political mobilization and activism (Rosen, 2006). Several protest rallies have been organized through the new media technologies.

Case study

Kenya’s Election Crisis

In 2007, Kenya was at the threshold of a new dawn. The general election was much touted here and beyond to be revolution of sorts.
Kenyans, as opinion polls showed, were clamoring for change and the elections provided the best way to do just that- change! In the cyber space Kenyans were discussing the implications of the two leading contenders in the race: Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga.
Kenyans in the cyber space demonstrated their ability to discuss pertinent issues that mattered to their lives. Supporters of the incumbent would attempt to sell his policies while those of Raila Odinga would attempt to portray him as the ideal candidate.
Kenyans utilized the social networking sites like “facebook”, “twitter” and the country saw an upsurge of blogs all related to the issue at hand- the General Elections.
While, admittedly, passions were high in the cyber rooms, Kenyans displayed a mature and responsible outlook by discussing the pertinent issues. Will democracy prevail in the coming regime? Would institutional governance be entrenched in the country? These were some of the questions that were trending topics in the cyber environment.

Kenyan bloggers took pains to document the 2007 Elections, but there was little indication from their posts that any anticipated the unusual events that would follow the election. During the elections day, ordinary Kenyans took to the polling stations with renewed sense of hope that democracy is amidst them. In the polling queues, no one was wearing any political party merchandise and the conversation were distinctly non political. What stood out however was that most Kenyans had their mobile phones at arms length. It was evident that they were “facebooking” and blogging on their experience in the voting process.

Later, even after having voted most Kenyans remained in the polling stations to await the results. It was clear that they were not about to miss the dawn of a new beginning. While around the voting halls, you could see the men and women with their phones busy. You could hear conversations like, “Hey, I have voted and I am waiting for the results” or “Imagine I have seen the Member of Parliament, he is losing I know”. In the evening most people would be aware that most incumbents had lost in parliamentary elections long before the results were announced.

Eager Kenyans would call radio and TV stations and inform the nation of the outcome of the elections. The joy in smooth functioning democratic process extended to the 28th of December. The tone and focus of coverage changed sharply on December 30th, as it became clear that the disputed election would be in favor of the incumbent. This was a shock to many as it was in direct contrast to the report of the “election observers”-the citizen journalists (Abdi, 2008).

In the wake of live media ban, some Kenyan bloggers responded by redoubling their efforts as citizen reporters. Reeling from the ensuing violence, bloggers posted bulletins on refugee movements, fuel shortages, and road and airport closures. Some were posted via SMS using Twitter to disseminate messages to a wider audience; others featured photos and were uploaded to Flickr using GPRS modem (Zuckerman, 2008)

As it became clear that Kenya would be in crisis for more than a few days, bloggers began to search for ways to share their workload. Ory Okolloh, a regular blogger suggested a way of documenting the violence with exact locations. Within three days of her January blog post, a prototype version of the system she proposed had been built. By January 9th, it was live at Ushahidi.com. The authors of ushahidi.com were people who were involved in the Kenyan citizen journalism. The lead author David Kobia administers mashada.com, by far the most popular site in Kenya. Others included David Were, Juliana Rotich and Ory Okolloh herself.

Ushahidi is best understood as a form of collaborative citizen journalism. Individuals submitted reports of violent incidents as well as peace making efforts via a web form or SMS, including details of the incident, its geographic location and supporting information, including photos or video. This system greatly assisted in crisis mapping and organizing help to the victims of the violence.
The elections in Kenya saw a proliferation of blogs more so during the crisis. The outcome of the elections incensed so many people that they all raised their voices. The result was an upsurge in the use of new media technologies.

As we are speaking now, Ushahidi.com has won an international award for its role in crisis management. The award’s jury was won over by Ushahidi’s role in crises besides its open-source platform available to websites and users who want to create interactive maps generated by crowd sourcing (The Standard, June 28, 2010).

Up to date, the result of this development can never be quantified. The proliferation of weblogs currently is having an interesting impact on other media. Their interaction with the rapidly expanding mobile telephone networks, for instance, enables bloggers to reach those people still without access to the internet; the coupling of SMS messages with blogs plays an important role in what has come to be seen as a ‘bottom-up’ process of collecting information that can subsequently be used in internet and radio broadcasts (Hattotuwa, 2006).

Egypt’s activism

Egyptians civil protest against their government has been a subject of many discourses in the recent past. Shapiro (2009) says, Young Egyptians have, albeit recently, mobilized and vented their anger on the government on what would, until recently, have seemed an unlikely venue: Facebook, the social networking site. In the country, Facebook is ranked third, after Google and Yahoo. Freedom of speech and the right to assemble are limited in Egypt, which since 1981 has been ruled by Mubarak’s National Democratic Party under a permanent state-of-emergency law. An estimated 18,000 Egyptians are imprisoned under the law, which allows the police to arrest people without charges, allows government to ban political organizations and make it illegal for more than five people to gather without a license from the government. Newspapers are monitored by the Ministry of Information and generally refrain from directly criticizing Mubarak. And so for young people in Egypt, Facebook, which allows users to speak freely to one another and encourages them to form groups, is irresistible as a platform not only for social interaction but also for political activism and dissent.

Although there are countless political Facebook groups in Egypt, many of which flare up and fall into disuse in a matter of days, the one with the most dynamic debates is that of the April 6 Youth Movement, a group of 70,000 mostly young and educated Egyptians, most of whom had never been involved in politics before joining the group. Members coalesce around a few issues- free speech, economic stagnation and government stagnation- and they share their ideas for improving Egypt. But they do more than just chat: they organize street protests for jailed journalists (Shapiro, 2009).
As with any other group on Facebook, members can post comments or share articles, videos or notes on the group’s communal “wall.” The wall of the April 6 group is constantly being updated and talk is often heated and intense.

The fact that tens of thousands of disaffected young Egyptians unhappy with their government meet online to debate and plans is remarkable, given the context of political repression in which it is occurring. Organized groups opposed to the Mubarak’s National Democratic Party have long lived under constant surveillance by the government; their leaders are regularly jailed.

The April 6 movement has its roots in Egypt’s brief burst of political freedom in 2005 and 2006, which came after the Bush administration put pressure on the Mubarak regime to hold its first multiparty election. Although the election were far from free and fair, it created new opportunities for activists to organize and demonstrate, and out of the campaign came a loose coalition called Kefaya (“enough” in Arabic). This flare-up of political activity coincided with the moment Egyptians were starting to gain access to the internet in large numbers. Home computers and internet Cafes were becoming more popular, and the cost of getting online were dropping, thanks to a government initiative intended to encourage technological innovation. The new technologies and political movements grew symbiotically. Shortly before Kefaya started, bloggers started a web site called Egyptian Awareness, and it quickly became the main source of information on Kefaya’s activities.

Early adopters of blog technology worked simultaneously as political advocates and crusading journalists. In 2006, Wael Abbass, one of Egypt’s most influential bloggers, posted a cell phone-video footage of a police officer sodomizing a screaming minibus driver with an iron rod, which ultimately led to the conviction of the officer. Another prominent blogger and a friend to Abass’, Nora Younis, posted stories about sexual harassment of women who participated in the street demonstrations, which helped spur Egypt’s mainstream media to cover the issue. Political blogs became essential readings for the opposition parties (Shapiro 2009).

The Power of Africa’s Citizen Journalism

Africa’s blogger community is still in its infancy, but it has already demonstrated its importance in mobilizing opinion in Kenya and Egypt and promises to be a significant player in the fight for democracy and free expressions across the continent. Zuckerman (2008) says the contribution of political weblogs in shaping public opinion and mobilizing society is much discussed in discourses across Africa.

The African blogosphere is as colourful and diverse as anywhere else. Weblogs can be divided into three distinct types: personal online journals, corporate blogs and citizen journalism blogs. In the latter, the consumer becomes the producer of the content and a correspondent in his or her own right independent of traditional media structures (Meier, 2008). This form of non-professional journalism, and the network of like-minded writers it brings together, is a vital tool of political involvement and participatory, democratic activism.
In Africa, bloggers ply their trade in the name of freedom. Growing interconnectivity is increasingly being used to organize political resistance and protest actions; Facebook has become an important platform for political campaigns.

Following the arrest of Nigerian blogger Jonathan Elendu In 2008 in Abuja, word of his incarceration was spread via the “Nigeria Curiosity” blog. The Facebook group “Free Nigerian Blogger Jonathan Elendu” was used to keep people up to date on the case and to call for support. Elendu was released weeks later, in part due to public pressure created by the online campaigns.

Egypt is another example of the blogger community resisting authority, in this case constraints on press freedom and aggressive attempts to control the internet. Facebook, Twitter and particular blogs are monitored by the state; reports of repression against active bloggers are increasing. Shapiro, (2009) asserts the arrests of US blogger Jeff Buck in 2007 and Egyptian blogger Malek Mustafa in 2008 and the four-day detention of German-Egyptian blogger Philip Rizk in 2009 are all evidences of repressive actions. She concludes, in all three cases, online protest played an important role in the release of the bloggers. The micro-blogging service, twitter, was particularly useful as an information and protest medium. In the case of Philip Rizk, more than 6,500 supporters joined the Facebook group protesting against his arrest.

This campaigns bear witness to the growing importance and effectiveness of the blogger community in promoting democracy and freedom of expression and in creating a space for social debate and political mobilization in Africa (Beckett, 2007).

Kenya’s own Ory Okolloh’s Ushahidi.com, Congo’s Cedric Kalonje’s CongoBlog and Cote d’Ivoire’ Theophile Kouamouo’s IvoireBlog are examples of influential political blogs that aim at providing better access to the public sphere and in building better democratic societies.

Citizen journalism’s popularity, especially in Africa, is attributed to what Okolloh refers as, “lower barrier entries.” The digital arena provides wider entry spaces and offers an opportunity where young Africans can bypass the inefficiencies in the system that allow the oppressive regimes to thrive.

In the recent by-election in Kenya, Ushahidi.com (which is also a downloadable feature) was used to report vote tallies as they are compiled. In South Mugirango Constituency in Nyanza province, vote tallies were relayed from the grassroots to the headquarters of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in Nairobi live. Results from different polling stations were transmitted live simultaneously and this reduced the chances of electoral fraud. It therefore became possible for a person in Cairo or Cape Town to know the winner of the election while the polling agent of the candidate does not know.

Ushahidi.com illustrates how young Africans are using new technologies to enter the political arena. It has, as seen, functioned as a gateway for increased political participation. Using cell phones, ordinary citizens helped counter rumors and what they perceived to be official under-estimations. The idea of citizen journalism is, as Erik Hersman, one of Ushahidi’s founders says, “to democratize information in what was a very closed media.”

By allowing young Africans to contribute to ongoing discussions and events, new technologies provide them with unparalleled access to political debate which no doubt sanitizes the public approach on democracy and good governance (Abdi, 2008).

Leadbeater (2008) says, in the political arena, new media technologies have turned citizens from being ballot casters to collaborators. In Africa, this new media trend is irreversible and nations need to tap on its potential to enhance democracy and empower masses. In this case, more people in Africa have access to mobile phones and networked computers. With the mobile phones, the masses have been empowered to share information during campaigns and even monitor elections, leaving minimal chances for politician to rig elections. An example of this is the African-developed application encouraging political participation is the Nigerian Network of Mobile Election Monitors (NMEM, which was developed by the local NGO Help Foundation and the operators of FrontlineSMS (Hartley, 2010). This technology allows election monitoring with mobile phones and, as with Ushahidi, facilitates networking by providing up-to-date data and local information. During the Nigerian General elections, NNEM received over 10,000 messages from citizens via mobile phones reporting on situations at local polling stations.

Citizen journalists are the newest tool for democracy in developing worlds. It is the newest version of the old idea that there should be a different interaction between news producers and recipients. The principle behind it is that there should not be just freedom to express oneself per se but also freedom to participate (Leadbeater, 2008). Citizen journalism has emerged largely because of the need for mainstream journalism to revise its working practices in the face of recognition that it has become far removed fro people and their everyday lives. In Africa, political discourses that take place in the cyber world have enabled candid debates. The result is that the political space has become public- creating transparency and accountability not witnessed previously (Beckett, 2008). In Kenya, a cabinet minister would be surprised with a call in TV studio and asked about unfulfilled electoral promises. Political leaders nurse the fear that they will be embarrassed if their actions get publicized. The proliferation of radio stations alongside wide availability of mobile phones in many countries in Africa has widened the political space and accountability. It is no longer fashionable for a journalist to sit down and question politicians, because the citizens do it so well!

During the high profile Pan Africa Media Conference in Nairobi, the power of new media was discussed at length. The panelist who included Isis Nyon’go of Google, Daudi Were of MentalAcrobatics alluded to the immense power new media has in shaping good governance and democracy. The President of Kenya acknowledged this fact when he said, “the advent of citizen journalism has become possible because of tools such as SMS, blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Myspace.” In his speech, the president challenged the participants to examine how new media can be used to promote democracy, fight against corruption, nepotism, and environmental challenges.

According to the latest African Economic Outlook report of the industrialized countries’
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the increasing use of information and communication technologies in Africa is helping to sustain parts of the African economy during these times of economic turbulence (Beckett, 2007). The use of such technologies in the political field is taking place amidst revolutionary technological changes across the continent.

As a whole, bloggers see the new media technologies as a chance to create greater openness. Thanks to the simplicity of web 2.0 applications, “users” can become “produsers” much more easily. In countries lacking a pluralistic media or political environment, or for marginalized sectors of the population who are usually under-represented or absent in national and international media, the creation of these new and instant channels of communication is particularly important (Strodden, 2008).

Bad people use the internet too!

It is an oversimplification to view the new media technologies as only good. Bad people also use the cyber space!

One of the most dramatic lessons of the crisis surrounding the 2007 General Elections in Kenya is that the tools can also used for rumor mongering and incitement to violence (Goldstein, 2008). As the crisis unfolded, many cell phone owners received SMS messages that fanned ethnic hatred and fuelled hate speech. Messages included expressions of ethnic hatred, warnings that one community would attack another, and rumors that Kenyan companies were promoting violence.
The Nation Media Group (NMG), a leading media company had to issue a press release to deny the allegation that its vehicles were being used to transport arms to fan the violence in the country.

Ethnic incitement was not limited to SMS messages. Zuckerman (2008) says Bloggers discovered that their comment threads were becoming increasingly hostile and featured many hateful sentiments, sometimes expressed in tribal languages so as not to be understood. Moderation problems became so intense on Mashada.com, Kenya’s leading bulletin site that David Kobia had to take necessary steps. He shut down the site for a cooling-off period, and a few days later had launched a new site, I Have No Tribe.

On the positive note, tracking and identifying individuals who promote hate speech is relatively easy for governments and companies to do. In the aftermath of the violence in Kenya, contact information for over one thousand seven hundred individuals who allegedly promoted violence was forwarded to the government. While then there was no law to prosecute hate speech, now the country passed the law and is effective.

It is evident that bad people can use the internet. However, we should resist the urge to shut down new media technologies, like Google earth as is the case with China, just because they might one day be used by the wrong people.

If Zimbabwe bans the use of the internet, hate mongers will no be able to use it spread hatred and cause stability; nor will anybody else including the Law professor or the Masters student.

The post-election violence in Kenya is a perfect epitome of how during one episode of violence, individuals can simultaneously use the internet for positive change (read: Ushahidi) while others employ it for nefarious ends. The government’s impulse plan of shutting down the phone network was more catastrophic, instead of shutting down the primary means of Kenya’s communication; they decided to allow the cell carrier to remain in service while also sending messages encouraging peace and calm to all subscribers.

Criminals have used the telephone and mobile phones since they were invented. Drug smugglers use airplanes and boats, radios and satellites. Bank robbers have long used cars and motorcycles as getaway vehicles, and horses before then. All inventions have a down side but society survives all of this because the good use of the infrastructure far outweigh the bad uses, even though the good uses are-by and large- small and pedestrian and the bad uses are rare and spectacular. And while bad acts turn society’s very technologies against itself, we only harm ourselves y dismantling that technology in response- just as we would if we banned cars because bank robbers used them too.

New media and processes of activism both online and in the real world are shaping the democracies we live in today and the socio-economic and political processes therein (Price, 2008). Effective moderation, therefore, is a cornerstone of powerful online fora. Moderation sets out clear and transparent rules for participants, for example maximum length of messages; maximum frequency of messages; attitudes of offensive language and defamation. It regulates the discussions, both by implementing agreed rules and adhering to ethical principles, such as data privacy, political neutrality and non-coercion.
By moderating discussion messages, moderators ensure that any participant with a point to make receives a fair hearing and the discussion is conducted in a friendly and fair way. Further, it helps participants reach conclusions (not necessarily shared ones) rather than incessantly rehashing old arguments.

The emphasis of new media is on information produced by the citizens for the benefit of the commons. With appropriate moderation, and with the introduction of vernacular and local languages enabled new media technologies, it will become increasingly easy for a larger population to engage in public discourse that touches on governance and democracy (Beckett, 2007).

Conclusion

Freedom of expression-the struggle, battles and bloodshed-is finally here. The war has been won. Facebook, Myspace, twitter and weblogs have arrived. It is evident that these new technologies avail to the young and restless Africans access to political debate and virtual activism. In the coming years, digital tools will play major role in the struggle between failed states and functioning democracies. Mainstream media would be in good position to drive course of Africa’s future, if it embraces the surge of new media technologies (Flew, 2008).

Lasica (2003) asserts the claims that traditional media is made for authority, objectivity and quality will be challenged. The political case for journalism is best made when it embraces these changes. To retain value, Beckett (2008) says, journalism must engage with the public. It must shift power from the newsroom to the connected online and digital world.

This upsurge of citizen journalism is not obsolete, as claimed by most professional journalists questioning the sources of the stories and credibility of the citizen journalists. Most have claimed most blogs lack in quality and content. What they forget to note is that citizen journalism is not about good editorial content bur about articulating issues, fears and concerns of the majority in a manner and way that the recipients -themselves- would understand.
The mutual cooperation between both worlds will help bridge the gap between professional journalists, the government and the African society.

Finally, new media technologies in Africa will continue to flourish in dizzying speed. The political participation of its users will be wider and more profound. The effects will be felt deeper and swifter. While many have asserted that measuring political impact of new media technologies is a complex matter (Leadbeater, 2008). That project involving information transparency, as in Zimbabwe, has little effect upon government behavior, or those online policy discussions, as in Kenya and Nigeria, are an empty exercise. But the same could be said for most acts of political participation from voting to demonstrating to attending party meetings. This is a misleading and grossly erroneous assertion. It would be a mistake, therefore, to judge the success of cyber space activities in Africa in terms of measurable and unambiguous direct outcomes.
Instead, it makes sense to consider the effects of online discussions across Africa upon policy-makers and governments (Do they listen? Do they respond? Do they learn?); participants (Do they become more informed? Do they feel they are being heard?); and policy itself (Does it reflect public experience more than it would have done? Does it contain new ideas that did not come from politicians?) These are complex multi-dimensional questions which go beyond simple, instrumental accounts.

Regimes have no choice but to join the bandwagon. In Africa, the evidence of these is widely seen. Governments have started using new media technologies and politicians have embraced social networking sites for interaction with the constituents. In Kenya, Prime Minister Raila Odinga is the most visible politician online. On 29th June 2010 he posted a comment on his facebook wall, “I am undergoing head surgery at Nairobi Hospital.” Within ten minutes, 800 comments had been posted to wish him well.

It is just a matter of time before the tide changes on the governments that crack down on new media users who agitate for political transparency and good governance. It is comforting to note that however repressive regimes have been in Africa and however successful they might have been in defeating popular attempts at wider democratic participation through the new media technologies as seen in Kenya and Egypt, the people’s impulse to struggle for freedom and social justice, in the best ways known to them, can never completely die.






























Reference

Abdi, J., & Deane, J. (2008). The Kenyan 2007 Elections and Their Aftermath: The Role of Media and Communication. London: BBC World Service Trust.
Beckett, C. (2007). The Media and Africa: Doing Bad by Doing ‘Good?’ Africa’s Networked Technology Journal, 1, pp. 12-21.
Beckett, C. (2008). Super Media: Saving Journalism So It Can Save the World. London: Wiley-Blackwell.
Flew, T. (2008). New Media: An Introduction. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Hartley, S. (2008). Mobile Subscriber Growth in Africa. Africa’s Networked Technology Journal, 1, pp. 30-41
Lasica, J. D. (2003). What Is Participatory Journalism? [Electronic Version] Online Journalism Review, 8, pp. 80-82.
Hattotuwa, S. (2006, March). New Democracies; new Media; what’s new: project update. A study of e-participation projects in third-wave democracies, (1). Retrieved May 3, 2010, from http://www.bit.ly/coYtd#newmedia/whatsnew#1k.
Leadbeater, C. (2008). Democracy in the Network Age: Time to WeThink. Open democracy.net, 4. Retrieved May 12, 2010, from http://www.opendemocracy.net/timetowethink.
Meier, P. & Brodock, K. (2008). Crisis mapping Kenya’s Election Violence: Comparing Mainstream News, Citizen Journalism and Ushahidi. Boston: Harvard University.
Price, T. (2008). The Blind Newsmaker. Governance in the Digital World, 12, pp. 4-8.
Rosen, J. (2006, June 27). “The People Formerly Known as the Audience” Press Think, pp. 8-9.
Shapiro, M. (2009, May 12). Citizen Journalism in Egypt. The Star, 98, pp.30-32.
Strodden, V. (2008). Connectivity and Democratic Ideals. Africa’s networked Technology Journal, 1, pp. 42-48.
Witschge, T. (2009)”Street Journalism vs. Ailing Journalists”. The Evening Star, p. 12.
Zuckerman, E. (2008). Citizen Media and the 2007 Kenyan Election Crisis. Unpublished doctoral thesis, Harvard University, Boston, BN.
















Acknowledgements

Writing this paper required an enormous amount of help from friends and colleagues. To them goes gratitude. I will take the credit. To my enemies (real or perceived), I say thank you. You always inspire me to strive and prove you wrong.

Wisdom, enlightenment, and inside candor were provided by Mr. Geoffrey Rono, a man who has achieved so much in little time. Mr. Geoffrey Kibet, the man who single handedly formatted this paper. I cannot thank him enough.

To all those who assisted in one way or another, directly or indirectly thank you.

I have made every effort to trace the copyright holders of the reference materials I used, but if I have inadvertently overlooked any, it is not by design. However, I will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first available opportunity.

Contact details

Eddie Cavines Ombagi
P.O Box 41- 40109
SONDU
Tel: +254723900954
Email: ombagimatwere@rocketmail.com
KENYA.

Biographical notes

My name is Eddie Ombagi, a 4th year student of Kabianga University College, a constituent college of Moi University in Kenya. I am in the Department of Arts studying Literature. I am a poet, a critic, a motivational speaker, a volunteer a youth activist, a blogger and an entrepreneur. I wear all my hats with pride and enthusiasm for I know enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great will ever be achieved.

I have received several accolades on my poetry works, some of which were presented in the just concluded national drama festivals. Their appeal, I believe, stem from the contemporary messages they convey.

As a critic, we have a group in campus that religiously read new works by authors and discuss while publishing the same in the school magazine where I am in the editorial team.

Motivational speaking is an activity dear to my heart. I believe that one try to impact humanity in whatever way. My friends and I routinely visit schools and colleges and offer our advice on life and its challenges. Mahatma Gandhi taught me to volunteer when he said, “I shall pass through his world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being let me do it now. Let me not defer it, for I shall not pass this way again.” I am a member of the Kenya Voluntary Development Association (KVDA).

I have attended several conferences, the latest of which was the highly successful Pan Africa Media Conference in Nairobi. I am excited to meet Prof Kwame Karikari, a guest speaker, whom I met in the conference. I am also a participant of the annual Moi University and Indiana University Peace Conference held in Eldoret, Kenya.

As a blogger, I maintain a heavy presence online writing on issues that affect my country and continent. Coupled with my role as a youth activist, the online community provides the best fertile ground to highlight on issues that touch the youth and also connect with them.

MY CONFERENCE PAPER

MOI UNIVERSITY

6TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE


CONFERENCE THEME:

“KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND APPLIED TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT”


SYMPOSIUM V: CROSS CUTTING.

THEME: “INTERDISCIPLINARITY FOR SUSTAINABLE INTEGRAL DEVELOPMENT

SUB THEME: “POLITICAL LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE”

TITLE: “INTERDISCIPLINARITY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: THE ROLE OF THE POLITICAL CLASS.”

DATE: 7TH- 11TH, SEPTEMBER 2010.


AUTHORS NAMES AND INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATION

Eddie Cavines Ombagi
4th Year Student
Kabianga University College
(A Constituent College of Moi University)
TEL: +254723900954
EMAIL: ombagimatwere@rocketmail.com
P.O BOX 1- 20201
KABIANGA
KENYA




ABSTRACT
To solve human problems, traditional boundaries between academic disciplines or schools of thought have to be surmounted. Often, creativity involves linkages of previously unrelated ideas. Kepler combined mathematical and astronomical concepts to describe the relationship between the planet and sun, Leonardo da Vinci secretly dissected human cadavers and this anatomical knowledge informed his work as a painter. The novelist Ernest Hemingway borrowed his greatest novel title (For Whom the Bell Tolls) from the poet John Donne. Set in Spain, this novel owes much to Hemingway’s thorough familiarity with Spanish culture, language, politics and geography. The world’s challenges must be addressed in the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs and address their own challenges. Thus, there is a growing consensus that an interdisciplinary approach is crucial for undertaking sustainable development. To do so involves crossing existing discipline lines. However, an interdisciplinary approach to sustainable development cannot be executed and maintained without able political leadership and good governance. This paper contends that an interdisciplinary approach to sustainable development requires a neatly woven mosaic of strong institutions, well thought out policies and values that strengthen the resolve to sustainable development. Further, good governance is required to create a political eco-system that is adequate for interdisciplinary approach to sustainable development.
Keywords: academic disciplines, interdisciplinary, interdisciplinarity,
Sustainable development, political leadership, governance








“We are not students of some subject matter, but students of problems. And problems may cut right across the borders of any subject matter or discipline.” - Karl Popper

Introduction: The History
As the interlinkages between our society and its environment become more apparent, so the notion of integration (across multiple social perspectives and fields of knowledge) becomes more important (Allen, 2010). Creativity often involves linkages of previously unrelated data, ideas and concepts. It is recorded in ancient history that Kepler combined astronomical and mathematical concepts, and was thus able to show that planets describe elliptical orbits about the sun. Leonardo da Vinci secretly dissected human cadavers and carefully studied them. This was strangely imperative as it informed his work as a painter. No doubt he became a famous painter. The novelist Ernest Hemingway borrowed his greatest novel’s title (For Whom the bell Tolls) from the poet John Donne, literature and poetry married. Moreover, set in Spain, this novel borrows heavily from the Spanish culture, language, politics and geography.

It is generally agreed that many problems require holistic approaches. The economist Herman Daly put it thus, “probably the major disservice that experts provide in confronting the problems of mankind is dividing the problems in little pieces and parceling them out to specialists. He put up a case for interdisciplinarity studies asserting that it fosters wholesome development. Although it is undeniable that each specialty has much to offer, Harris (2002) argues, it is very much doubtful that the sum of all these specialized utterances will ever add to a coherent solution, because the problems are not independent and sequential but highly interrelated and simultaneous. Interdiciplinarity contends that the sum of the various academic disciplines is not equal to the whole. Someone has to look at the whole, even if it means foregoing full and apparent knowledge of all the parts (Henry, 2005).


The intellectual, social, and personal price of narrow compartmentalization has been often remarked upon. Indeed, Klein (1996), argues that history might have been different if the experts who developed the aerosol sprays examined their impact before setting them loose on the ozone layer and thereby possibly harming, throughout the next century, the health of as many as one- quarter billion people; if the developers of the Kenyan Education system had been trained to look at the whole being of the student. These and many more are the questions being asked by the interdisciplinarians.

A 17th century poem by John Godfrey Saxe, titled “Six Blind men and the Elephant”which is based on an Indian fable humorously captures the same idea:
It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined
Who went to see an Elephant
(Though all of them were blind)
That each by observation,
Might satisfy his mind.

The first approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl;
“God bless me! But the Elephant
Is very much like a wall!”

The second blind man touches the tusk and concludes that an elephant is “very like a spear”, the fourth blind man goes on to touch the trunk and concludes the elephant is like a snake and so on to the sixth blind man who touches the tail and concludes that the elephant is like a rope. The poet then goes on to say:
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,

Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

Thus, many complex or practical problems can only be understood by pulling together insights and methodologies from a variety of disciplines (Augsburg, 2005). From this perspective many social, political, economic and cultural problems can be solved. Policy leaders and politicians need to harness and employ this strategy to successfully plan for the future.
Definitions: Terms Demystified

Interdisciplinary: what it means.
Interdisciplinarity involves several unrelated academic disciplines in a way that forces them to cross subject boundaries to create new knowledge and theory and solve a common research goal (Allen, 2010). By unrelated, we mean that they have contrasting research paradigms. We might consider the differences between qualitative and quantitative approaches or between analytical and interpretative approaches that bring together disciplines from the humanities and the natural sciences. It includes, as Frodeman (2007) says, projects that both integrate academic researchers from different unrelated disciplines and non-academic participants, such as land managers and the public, to research a common goal and create new knowledge and theory.
Interdisciplinary programs sometimes arise from a shared conviction that the traditional disciplines are unable or unwilling to address an important problem. For example, social science disciplines such as anthropology and sociology paid little attention to the social analysis of technology. As a result, many social scientists with interests in technology have joined science and technology studies programs, which are typically staffed by scholars drawn from numerous disciplines (Gunn, 1992). They may also arise from new research developments, such as nanotechnology, which cannot be addressed without combining the approaches of two or more disciplines. Examples include quantum


information processing an amalgamation of quantum physics and computer science, and bioinformatics, combining molecular biology with computer science.
At another level, however, Klein (1996) says, interdisciplinarity is seen as a remedy to the harmful effects of excessive specialization. On some views, however, interdisciplinarity is entirely indebted to those who specialize in one field of study—that is, without specialists, interdisciplinarians would have no information and no leading experts to consult. Others place the focus of interdisciplinarity on the need to transcend disciplines, viewing excessive specialization as problematic both epistemologically and politically (Augsburg, 2005). When interdisciplinary collaboration or research results in new solutions to problems, much information is given back to the various disciplines involved. Therefore, both disciplinarians and interdisciplinarians may be seen in complementary relation to one another.
Interdisciplinarity arose as a result of the shift from the approach of focusing on "specialized segments of attention" (adopting one particular perspective), to the idea of "instant sensory awareness of the whole", an attention to the "total field", a "sense of the whole pattern, of form and function as a unity", an "integral idea of structure and configuration". This has happened in painting (with cubism), physics, poetry, communication and educational theory (Gunn, 1992).

Sustainable development: Understanding the term
Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for future generations. The term was used by the Brundtland Commission (1987) which coined what has become the most often-quoted definition of sustainable development as ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’
Sustainable development is an approach to decision making largely driven by policy makers and government operatives that takes a long-term focus, incorporates social, economic and environmental factors, and recognizes the interdependence of domestic and

global activities. Dowdswell (2002) says, it is an ethical principle that incorporates a commitment to equity between the current generation and those that will follow; and between the poor and the more affluent. It means working to ensure a fair distribution of the costs and benefits of development between the nations of the developed and developing worlds. Sustainable development is also about ensuring that choices we make as citizens, consumers, producers, and investors are compatible with an excellent quality of life for all members of the global community, now and in the future (Ott, 2003).
Sustainable development ties together concern for the carrying capacity of natural systems with the social challenges facing humanity. As early as the 1970s "sustainability" was employed to describe an economy "in equilibrium with basic ecological support systems. There is a need to foster the interdisciplinarity that sustainable development demands
and to challenge both individuals and institutions to attitudinal and behavioral change.
Sustainability is a process which tells of a development of all aspects of human life affecting sustenance. It means resolving the conflict between the various competing goals, and involves the simultaneous pursuit of economic prosperity, environmental quality and social equity.

Interdisciplinarity for sustainable development: Finding the link.
Since time immemorial, evidence shows the power of cross-cutting discipline studies to aid and promote development. To ensure sustainable development, interdisciplinarity research and studies have to be pursued (Frodeman, 2007). This mode of research have to be undertaken by teams or individuals that integrate information, data, techniques, tools, perspectives, concepts, and/or theories from, as Henry (2005) asserts, two or more disciplines or bodies of specialized knowledge to advance fundamental understanding or to solve problems whose solutions are beyond the scope of a single discipline.
Interdisciplinarity for sustainable development can be one of the most productive and inspiring of human pursuits. Allen (2010) says that it provides a format for conversations that lead to new knowledge. As a mode of discovery and education, it has delivered much already and promises more- a sustainable environment, healthier and more prosperous

lives, new discoveries and technologies to inspire young minds, and a deeper understanding of our place in space and time. All these are the building blocks for a sustainable foundation in development.
The history of science, for example, from the time of the earliest scholarship abounds with examples of the integration of knowledge for sustainable development. The pre-Socratic philosopher Anaximander brought together his knowledge of geology, paleontology, and biology to discern that living things develop from simpler to more complex forms. This laid the foundation for future discoveries on the nature and composition of the living things.
In the age of the great scientific revolutions of the 17th century Europe, its towering geniuses – Isaac Newton, Robert Hooke and others brought brilliant discoveries that revolutionized the world. Louis Pasteur became a model interdisciplinarian, responding to practical questions about diseases and wine spoilage with surprising answers that laid the foundations of microbiology and immunology. Today, the proliferation of new understanding about the molecular and genetic underpinnings of life demonstrates the power of interdisciplinarity for sustainable development (Augsburg, 2005).
In recent decades, the growth of scientific and technical knowledge has prompted scientists, engineers, social scientists and humanists to join hands in addressing complex problems that must be tackled simultaneously with deep knowledge from all perspectives. Increasing enthusiasm has to be shown about problems of global importance such as HIV/AIDS, global warming and climate change, disease prevention, economic development, social inequality and global climate change that have practical solutions - whose solutions are components of sustainable development.
The field of sustainable development can be conceptually divided into four general dimensions: social, economic, environmental and institutional. The first three dimensions address key principles of sustainability, while the final dimension addresses key institutional policy, governance and capacity issues. This final dimension is governance and is a vital and important organ in ensuring sustainability.
Social sustainability encompasses human rights, labor rights and corporate governance. Social sustainability is the idea that future generations should have the same or greater

access to social resources as the current generation. Social resources include ideas as broad as other cultures and basic human rights. In order to achieve this, interdisciplinary measures have to be undertaken in developmental matters.

Economic sustainability is the notion that future generations should have access to economic resources that we enjoy in the present. In order for these to be achieved, we have to be careful and frugal in their use and ensuring its sustainability is ensured. Economic sustainability is closely merged with environmental sustainability. Ott (2003) contends that no economic system is sustainable unless it accommodates the ecosystem on which it depends. The current system, based on the notion of perpetual economic expansion on a finite planet, is deeply flawed. We need to urgently apply human ingenuity to the goal of using far less from nature to meet our economic needs while consciously striving to preserve the same for the future generations.

Environmental sustainability is the process of making sure current processes of interaction with the environment are pursued with the idea of keeping the environment as pristine as naturally possible based on ideal-seeking behavior.
The Millennium Goals recognize that environmental sustainability is part of global economic and social well-being. The goal of reducing poverty by 2015 and attained sustainable development must be done in conjunction with a healthy and vibrant planet. An unsustainable situation occurs when natural capital (the sum total of nature's resources) is used up faster than it can be replenished (Boulanger, 2008). Sustainability requires that human activity only uses nature's resources at a rate at which they can be replenished naturally. Inherently the concept of sustainable development is intertwined with the concept of carrying capacity. Theoretically, the long-term result of environmental degradation is the inability to sustain human life. Such degradation on a global scale could imply extinction for humanity.
The sustainable development debate is based on the assumption that societies need to manage, through interdisciplinary, the three types of capital (economic, social, and environmental), which may be non-substitutable and whose consumption might be

irreversible. Daly (1991), for example, points to the fact that natural capital can not necessarily be substituted by economic capital. While it is possible that we can find ways to replace some natural resources, it is much more unlikely that they will ever be able to replace eco-system services, such as the protection provided by the ozone layer, or the climate stabilizing function of the Mau forest in Kenya. In fact natural capital, social capital and economic capital are often complementarities. A further obstacle to substitutability lies also in the multi-functionality of many natural resources. Kakamega forest, for example, not only provide the raw material for paper (which can be substituted quite easily), but they also maintain biodiversity, regulate water flow, and absorb carbon dioxide.
Another problem of natural and social capital deterioration lies in their partial irreversibility. The loss in biodiversity, for example, is often definite. The same can be true for cultural diversity. For example with globalization advancing quickly the number of indigenous languages is dropping at alarming rates. Moreover, the depletion of natural and social capital may have non-linear consequences. Consumption of natural and social capital may have no observable impact until a certain threshold is reached. Lake Naivasha can, for example, absorb nutrients for a long time while actually increasing its productivity. However, once a certain level of algae is reached lack of oxygen causes the lake’s ecosystem to break down suddenly with irreversible consequences.
The onus thus remains with disciplinarians to pool resources, knowledge and tools to solve life’s complex but devastating problems. We live in a complex world. We constantly draw on and integrate diverse information from our education and experiences to make decisions, interpret phenomena, and generally make sense of this world. This informal process represents a sort of interdisciplinary analysis. Interdisciplinary analysis involves drawing on the specialized knowledge, concepts, or tools of academic disciplines and integrating these pieces to create new knowledge or deeper understanding thereby enhancing sustainability in development.
Interdisciplinary analysis for sustainable development requires integration of knowledge from the disciplines being brought to bear on an issue. Disciplinary knowledge, concepts, tools, and rules of investigation are considered, contrasted, and combined in such a way

that the resulting understanding is greater than simply the sum of its disciplinary parts (Allen, 2010). However, the focus on integration for development should not imply that the outcome of interdisciplinary analysis will always be a neat, tidy solution in which all contradictions between the alternative disciplines are resolved. Interdisciplinary study for sustainable development may indeed be “messy”. However, contradictory conclusions and accompanying tensions between disciplines may not only provide a fuller understanding, but could be seen as a healthy symptom of interdisciplinarity. Analysis which works through these tensions and contradictions between disciplinary systems of knowledge with the goal of synthesis—the creation of new knowledge—often characterizes the richest interdisciplinary work that sustains development.
There are real-world issues and problems that are broader than any single discipline and can be fruitfully examined in an interdisciplinary framework. To succeed in addressing the challenges of the present, without disparaging the future, interdisciplinarity studies is crucial if not indispensable.
In a paper titled, “Interdisciplinarity: An Introduction” Michael Seipel gives an example, “understanding and addressing the problem of air pollution from waste incineration facilities might necessitate drawing on chemistry to analyze the pollutants being emitted and their effect in the atmosphere, biology to evaluate impact on affected natural systems, economic theory to weigh the costs and benefits of various regulatory approaches, and sociology to understand public risk perception and response to the facilities. An interdisciplinary analysis could be used to integrate this disciplinary knowledge in order to formulate and evaluate public policy options that in the end ensures sustainable development.”
The diagram below aptly explains the concept of sustainability in relation to the three inter related dimensions:



The social activities have to be in harmony with the environment in order to make it bearable. Social resources have to be utilized in a manner that not only sustains it for the future but also is kind to the environment in order to ensure sustainable development.
Interdisciplinarity studies have to be actively undertaken to ensure this. Collaboration between social scientists and environmental experts has to be forged in order to ensure man’s activities on the environment are bearable. A clear example is the Mau Forest reclamation programme. A close assemblage of geologists, psychologists, sociologists and meteorologists will ensure that whatever action they undertake, sustainable development would be realized.
The second confluence is between the social and economic dimension. Exploitation of natural resources for economic purposes has to be in an equitable and fair manner. Throughout the course of history, examples abound on the dangers of unfair and unjust resource allocation. Wars and conflicts, failed nations and soon-to-fail nations litter the continent. It is an undeniable truth that the xenophobic attacks in South Africa and the resulting violence after the 2007 Elections in Kenya had an economic twist.
Economic experts and social scientists have to forge close ties. Sustainable development is impossible to achieve if perceived notions of inequality are allowed to flourish for

conflicts and animosity would be present. If interdisciplinary research had been driven before the post-election violence, at least the signs of what would come would be seen.
Psychoanalysts, economists, historians and psychologists would unravel the nexus between the aggression witnessed and historical injustices and thereby predicting possible outcomes. It thus becomes imperative that an interdisciplinary approach is necessary and vital to achieve sustained and viable development.

The third confluence is between the environment and economic dimension. According to the concept of sustainable development, the merge of the two should be viable. Economic activity should be viable and kind to the environment. Disciplinarians should ensure that interaction between man and environment should not result in wanton destruction of the environment as to cause alarming changes in our natural world. The current debate on climate change and global warming will have to be tackled by a sustained pressure from different disciplines. The experts in the field of history, geography, biology and environmental studies have to pool their knowledge together and find an amicable solution.

From the three dimensions, it is evident that their significance and worth lie in their shared responsibility. The interaction between the environment and the economy has to be viable. The relationship between the society and the environment should be bearable and finally the confluence between the society and the economy should be equitable. This is what constitutes sustainable development.

To achieve sustainable development, several disciplines have to merge and combine efforts. Disciplinary knowledge, concepts, tools, and rules of investigation are considered, contrasted, and combined in such a way that the resulting understanding is greater than simply the sum of its disciplinary parts. The whole, therefore, becomes an avenue to solving life’s complex problems which the sum of the specialized parts cannot.



Sustainable development can not be achieved independent of the convergence of several disciplines. The concept of sustainable development is premised on the idea that it can neither be tenable nor workable without the input of several disciplinarians whose sole aim is to ensure coherence unity of knowledge in problem-solving.

However, the three dimensions cannot achieve the desired sustainability if the fourth and most important dimension is not assured. Institutional dimension- good governance and political leadership- is necessary to ensure that the other dimensions are working in harmony.

Good governance and sustainable development: Does politics have a role?
Morita and Zaelke in their paper, “Rule of Law, Good Governance, and Sustainable Development” say, “It is widely recognized that good governance is essential to sustainable development. Well-functioning legal institutions and governments bound by the rule of law are, in turn, vital to good governance.” Weak legal and judicial systems – where laws are not enforced and non-compliance and corruption are the norm – undermine respect for the rule of law, engender environmental degradation, and undermine progress towards sustainable development.

There is a political consensus that the rule of law and good governance are a necessary foundation for efforts to achieve sustainable development (Ott, 2003). Many institutions identify a fair, impartial, and accessible justice system and a representative government as key elements of the rule of law. The term “rule of law” is used to mean independent, efficient, and accessible judicial and legal systems, with a government that applies fair and equitable laws equally, consistently, coherently, and prospectively to its entire people.

Good governance is generally characterized by accessibility, accountability, predictability and transparency. Good governance is therefore having openness, participation, accountability, and transparency as key elements.

Good political governance must be: coherent (with good communications between all parties); proportional; open (with access to information); effective; participatory (engaging communities); and accountable (challenging bias and corruption) (Carothers, 1998).

While many factors play an important role in development, good governance is now recognized as playing an essential role in the advancement of sustainable development. Good governance promotes accountability, transparency, efficiency, and rule of law in public institutions at all levels. In addition, it allows for sound and efficient management of human, natural, economic, and financial resources for equitable and sustainable development. Moreover, under good governance, there are clear decision making procedures at the level of public authorities, civil society participation in decision-making processes, and the ability to enforce rights and obligations through legal mechanisms.

These aspects of good governance do not in themselves ensure that society is run well nor do they guarantee sustainable development. However, their absence severely limits that possibility and can, at worst, impede it. Without proper functioning institutions of governance based on the rule of law that promote social stability and legal certainty, there cannot be investment and assumption of risk that form the basis of market economy development, let alone sustainable development.

The lack of sustainability characterizing much development is mainly a crisis in governance. Governance does not mean the same as government. The study of governance goes beyond the analysis of the formal institutions of nation-states and international regimes to encompass the relationship between the state and other important actors, including civil society and private business. It attempts to capture the relationship between government and the governed, encompassing issues of accountability, empowerment and participation. The delivery and implementation of sustainable development will require the commitment of governments, civil society and the private sector to new ways of shaping the development process. Only when resources are

managed in ways responsive to social and economic needs, and to the long term environmental sustainability will the goal of sustainable society be achieved. The creation of enabling environments by governments and participation by a whole range of actors in civil society and the private sector are thus seen as central elements of new governance for sustainable development.

Indeed, the strength of the rule of law is the best predictor of a country’s success in achieving sustainable development. Furthermore, deficiency in the rule of law encourages high rates of corruption, with further devastating consequences on development. This lack of investment, in turn, slows economic growth and consequently deprives the governments of resources to invest in education, social safety nets, and sound environmental management, all of which are critical for sustainable development.

Introduction of good governance and rule of law, however, cannot be done overnight. The process is often a gradual one, involving changes to long-standing practices, entrenched interests, cultural habits, and social and even religious norms.

The Aarhus Convention on Environmental Matters (1998) recognized that sustainable development can only be achieved through the involvement of all stakeholders and seeks to promote greater transparency and accountability among government bodies by guarantying three pillars for the public: 1) the rights of citizen access to information; 2) citizen participation in decision making, and 3) citizen access to justice in environmental matters. In other words, the Convention guarantees freedom of access to information on the environment, gives citizens a right to participate in environmental decision-making, and provides for recourse to judicial and administrative remedies when these rights are denied by state authorities.

Moreover, in 2000, 191 United Nations member States pledged to fulfill a set of key goals (the Millennium Development Goals) for poverty reduction and sustainable development by the year 2015. In the Millennium Declaration, the member States agreed

to spare no effort to promote democracy and strengthen the rule of law, as well as respect for all internationally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to development. In effect, the states recognized the futility of pushing for sustainable development without good governance and sound political leadership.
At a national level, good governance encompasses all aspects of the way a country is governed. Recognition of the role of sound political leadership and governments, affected parties and the broader communities is key to understanding good governance. Assuming that a fair legal system is in place as one of the cornerstones of good governance, then the following actors should be involved to ensure good governance at national and international level: – legislators (political class)and governments ( providing appropriate and enforceable legislative frameworks and laws); regulators (law enforcement agencies ensuring compliance and impartial enforcement); independent judiciary (objective and reliable) imposing proportionate penalties for non compliance, based on intent and impact; companies ( taking responsibility for and managing impacts); public (exercising
democratic control over institutions and providing context for outcomes); media (demanding accountability and exposing malpractice or corruption); non government organizations (influencing, lobbying and exerting pressure for change); investors (demanding financial returns that are balanced with company reputation); research institutes ( providing the science for policy development and implementation) (Boulanger, 2008).

The importance of good governance as a recipe for sustainable development is being promoted widely to excellent effect. It has long been identified as central to sustainable development, both economic and social.

Good governance ensures achievement of sustainable development which cannot be possible without interdisciplinary scholarship.

For compliance and enforcement to be useful in supporting good governance, it is essential that legislation by the political class is made in accordance with the principles

outlined above and that all these principles are applied to the whole regulatory cycle which includes policy development, legislation writing, permitting, enforcement and prosecution. This emphasis is described by many commentators as “better regulation.” Better regulation should be transparent (with access to information), accountable (avoiding bias and challenging corruption wherever it occurs), consistent (with improved communication between lawmakers and enforcers), proportionate, risk-based, and targeted on outcomes (e.g. local/national targets and international commitments). These principles, which overlap with the objectives of good governance, are seen as catalysts for sustainable development.

Summary
Almost all of the problems of our time are problems at new interfaces or that take place because of a lack of integration between related forces both environmental, and human. Yet we organize ourselves on a sectoral and hierarchical basis. The real search for solutions must be based on integrated, interdisciplinary science that reaches beyond into
the economic and social domains. It is of course impossible to become an expert in everything. But if we mistake disciplinary knowledge for wisdom; if we forget how much we do not know; if we forget how much we cannot know; if we do not set for ourselves, in principle at least, the ideal for the unity of knowledge; we lose something of great importance. We have to know what society wants, what risks we are prepared to accept and what collective measures we will commit to as global citizens.

Interdisciplinarity for sustainable development, therefore, clearly identifies information, integration, and participation as key building blocks to help countries achieve development. It emphasizes that in sustainable development everyone is a user and provider. It stresses the need to change from old sector-centered ways of doing things to new approaches that involve cross-sectoral, cross-disciplinary co-ordination and the integration of environmental, economic and social concerns into all development processes. Furthermore, governance ensures, as Agenda 21 asserted, that broad public participation in decision making, accountability of political leaders, compliance with the

rule of law and functioning, reliable institutions are a fundamental prerequisite for achieving sustainable development.

Conclusion
To achieve sustainable development, we must embrace interdisciplinarity as a means and a way to the end. Sustainable development cannot be achieved nor sustained without the integration of several unrelated academic disciplines in a way that forces them to cross subject boundaries to create new knowledge and theory and solve a common research goal or problem. Once that is done, sustainable development, in the true sense of the word, can be realized. However, the convergence of several academic disciplines to aid, promote and sustain sustainable development cannot be possible if we ignore, consciously or unconsciously, the necessary and indispensable input of political leadership and governance to enact favorable legislations, build capacities and ensure compliance to the rule of law. There is a general consensus that the rule of law and good governance are the foundation for achieving sustainable development goals. Thus, their role in achieving sustainable development is both pertinent and significant; those who forget this simple truth run the intellectual risk of tunnel vision and the social risk of irresponsible action.













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