[kictanet] the budget and ICT

[ikua at lpakenya.org]

Listers,
The Government will spend 1.3B to buy 300 computers in each of the 210  
constituencies. That means that each of the 63,000 computers will cost  
the taxpayer KSh 20,634/=. This is a very good initiative.

Now, they say that these computers will be assembled by institutions.  
I just hope this does not mean they will go for clones. They would do  
much better with branded, refurbished computers. As far as I know, the  
minister did not mention anything touching on used computers in the  
budget.

Now then, at this price, there is absolutely no allowance for software  
purchases. Which is all well as these computers can be loaded with  
open source software that will give much more value to the investment  
anyway. So we will be watching keenly to see what kind of deals  
Microsoft will try to push at the government to include their software  
in these computers, probably at a ¨small price¨.

The open source community is available and willing to advise the  
Government on the best way of ensuring that tax payer money is used  
prudently for the benefit of this country.

Ikua
LPA-Kenya