One was a night out in Nairobi when, after a rather taxing official day when she spoke at the AGOA Forum, she hit the dance floor prompting her husband to remark in a TV interview that he wondered how he could get her to come home to New York and do that. The second was during a town hall with Congolese students when she went all New York on a student who asked her what President Clinton thought of something.
Few news sources, however, bothered to cover a university town hall in Nairobi the day after our dancing queen demonstrated her ability to get down. On stage with Fareed Zakaria and Dr. Sally Kosgey, Kenyan minister for education, science, and technology, at the University of Nairobi, Secretary Clinton said this.
I said in my speech yesterday before the AGOA Forum, quoting one of our famous judges, that sunlight is the best disinfectant. And I think there’s an opportunity for young people and for civil society to use modern technology to run corruption watches and reporting. There are some examples of this beginning around the world where you basically surface what is going on.
And it goes on at all levels of society, and frankly, look, it goes on in our society. We have to go after it all the time ourselves. You have seen people get arrested in America, whether they’re governors or they’re Congress members, if there is a belief that they have committed an act of corruption
And I think there ought to be a way to use interactive media, especially the internet, obviously, and some of the new vehicles like Twitter, et cetera, to report in real time allegations of corruption.Although this message was not widely seen here, the Kenyan students heard her loud and clear and took her words very seriously as The Daily Nation Reports.
Corruption? Don’t try it at my university please
By EVERLINE OKEWO eokewo@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Monday, April 22 2013 at 01:00
A group of 15 graduates have localised a global whistleblowing website to report indecent activities by university lecturers and administrative personnel.Notinmycountry.org, an Internet site developed by concerned individuals, among them professionals and students who prefer to remain anonymous, is now in Kenya and university students are using it to expose malpractices in their institutions, including corruption.
SNIP
The founders say that the creation of the local chapter of notinmycountry.org was inspired by a statement made by former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton when she visited Kenya in 2009.
So while we Hillary followers were somewhat frustrated at the time with the paltry coverage this trip received, it is heartening to see young people turn her words into actions that address problems they have identified in their environment. We hope she is aware of the difference she has made in the lives of these students.
