Government agencies have in the past been accused of poor communication where they fail to communicate in time, especially service providers. Gone are the days when government parastatals were in the habit of not being accountable to the public but only to the appointing authority. However, the police take the crown for being prolific communicators who are always keeping the public abreast with what is going on, advising and cautioning of imminent dangers when necessary. The police saved many lives during the Christmas rains by warning people of the roads to avoid and what to do in cases of being trapped by floods. And the City of Kigali is finally coming out, maybe because of the recent slap on the wrist for mismanaging the demolitions saga, but at the end of the day, they were vindicated on Christmas Day and maybe further relocations will not create a lot of unnecessary buzz. REG has also taken the communication wagon with vigour giving updates and apologies when their system collapses, and at least the response time has improved. However, very few government agencies still have a long way to go as far as communication is concerned. Many do not even have social media accounts, and those that do, hardly use them. The Ministry of ICT and Innovation needs to begin the New Year by whipping them into shape. It is frustrating to consult an institution’s website seeking information only to find a home page that leads to nowhere apart from a message from the head of the orgnisation. The coming year should begin with a communication revolution keeping in mind that the theme of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting slated for next year is; ‘Delivering A Common Future: Connecting, Innovating, Transforming’. So what do our ministries and state agencies have in store for our visitors? Out-dated websites should be the least of them.
