Nairobi City council website hosting service has expired. Follow the link and you find this message:
nairobicity.org expired on 02/25/2008 and is pending renewal or deletion.
The website had very inadequate information for someone seeking to find out which services are offered by the Council...it was just like any generic tourist information site for a city i.e. aimed at tourists and not the locals who live in the city. What the site really lacked was information on who does what and how to contact the relevant person / department.
Nyeri Town Council website is good but not perfect. At least the phone numbers and contacts of the various officials can be found there.
What Kenya really needs is transparency and accountability so that when things go wrong with something like the Muthurwa market transport fiasco we know who to ask and not some elected official who has held the job two months. Its the minions on the ground who we need to be looking at.
Reports are out that matatu operators are striking in town. Nothing new there...from my previous posts it was inevitable.
It is indeed tragic that most of our leading cities and towns are not moving with the times. The internet age provides the best tools for any town council to present its transparency and accountability on one side, improve immensely on the services for its residents, as well as get free feedback and suggestions from the same.
ReplyDeleteWith a decent website, its also possible to generate additional revenue while improving on the business prospects of local hotel and restaurant industry and any affiliated business undertakings by providing advertisement though the site. Indeed by corroborating with local businesses and industry, a mutually beneficial relationship can be established.
The ministry of local government does not help either. There should really be links to all local authorities websites and not just postal addresses. By co-ordinating this things, they can provide an umbrella that links all this sites.