Last week, through his official twitter account,Prime Minister Raila Odinga,(all protocol observed), expressed his intention to dine with tweeps,and asked Kenyans on Twitter to nominate those among them who would make good representatives at the round table forums that he occasionally has with various interest groups.
It was all the buzz last Wednesday,with many a tweep nominating themselves,and others. I recall the #dinnerwithPM hash tag making its way to my timeline when my friend Adelle nominated me,setting into motion the reason behind this post.
Well, I happen to be one among those that ‘won’ the dinner. I must issue a disclaimer at this point. I dislike the notion/insinuation that it was a competition. I am not sure if that was the PMs intent. I don’t think it a matter of being a winner as it is/should be about bearing the responsibility of representation. Thank you to all who deemed me a suitable candidate to rep #KenyansOnTwitter, the youth,and any other interest group I may represent. It’s been one thing writing posts and tweeting about matters Kenyan, matters that commonly affect (most of)us all, this is a whole other platform! (A bit scary too…)
Well,the date has/will be set and communicated. To the best of my knowledge,the round table forum will be aired live on Ustream,and it would be absolutely awesome if you all could tune in and follow the conversations.
To that end, I,and the other 9 representatives, have been asked to come up with 10 questions each for the PM to address. I believe the underlying theme is ‘Issues Affecting The (Kenyan) Youth.’ This isn’t a new discussion and it isn’t one that’s about to be satisfactorily concluded,in my opinion.
This forum is for each of you reading this post,and mine is but a humbling role of representative. (Sounds like politician talk? :-/) I’d like to believe there’s a reason why the PM chose twitter as the forum to select said individuals. Social media promotes transparency as a virtue,and politicians have no choice but to respect and adhere to that pre-set agenda. I want to believe that the bottom line is that we shall not allow euphoric interest in who/what we represent to deduct from the powerful force we are proving to be!
So send in your questions over the next 24 hours.I will do a post on the final 10 questions that I’ll take to the dinner table. I believe that the other representatives would like to hear from you,after all,it is you who set this platform for us :). I urge for objectivity in the questions. As unsettled,discontent and angry as we may be,let’s realize this for the opportunity to put our leaders on the spotlight, and to hold them accountable to their words and promises.
Looking forward to hearing from you 🙂
Follow @ahmedsalims, @AKenyanGirl, @CynthiaNyamai, @ramah_abubakar, @lkatho, @CrystaLCurrency, @noduwo, @positiveactionK and @dan_obura as well.
