[Kictanet] eCommerce Legislation, so near and yet so far.

[John Walubengo]

Oops!

Now that my 'cover' has been blown by Gakiria, I might as
well add that when we arrived at the mombasa workshop, we
were as 'fatigued' as Rebecca about the wide, wide wait for
eLegislation...

However, we were briefed right from the SG's mouth (SG -
Solicitor General, is the 'learned' term for the PS in AG
Office) about the steps towards enacting law and why it may
or may not happen in a snap.

Generally here are the steps (if i remember correctly).

1. (Relevant) Policy is discussed, agreed and formulated.
2.  (Relevant) Draft Bill is formulated, discussed and
endorsed through a Cabinet Memorandum
3. The sponsoring (Info&Comm) Ministry then forwards the
above to the AG's Office for action.
4. AG's Office would  review the Draft Bill -basically
generating a final draft that can be presented in
Parliarment.  Specifically, the implimentation implications
(Legal, Financial, Institutional, Human Resource, etc) will
be highlighted and forwarded back to the sponsoring
Ministry for further consultation.
5. The sponsoring Ministry would then review the revised
Draft - particulary with Min of Finance and after
consensus, another Cabinent Paper will be made for Cabinet
discussion.
6. If Cabinent discusses and reaches consensus, then the
sponsoring Ministry would forward the second Cabinent
Memorandum to the AG for final review and Publication.
7. And then the Parliamentary Process is ready to
begin...(and that you probably agree is a story for another
day)

Ofcourse, the whole process needs sustained pressure for
quick(er) results.  But sometimes, when one lacks the
inside story, the pressure often comes out as endless
negative criticism.  This potentially leads to
(Governments? other stakeholders?) adopting a
non-progressive 'hardline' attitude...

walu.



--- Gakiria <gakiria at gmail.com> wrote:

> Rebecca/Walu,
> 
> Am tempted to agree with Walu's comments about the
> percieved lack of
> commitment by Government. As some of you might be only
> too aware,  good
> intentions and will by Government sometimes get bogged
> down by circumstances
> beyond anybodys immediate control..Archaic legal
> environment, cumbersome
> procurement procedures, electoral calendar etc...However,
> i would like to
> bring to your attention recent initiatives, hoping these
> will give an
> indication of Government's commitment to legislative
> reform vis a vis
> e-Commerce and e-Government.
> 
> 
>    1. Between 13th - 15th November 2006, a stakeholders
> workshop on
>    electronic transactions was held in Mombasa, in which
> key groups discussed
>    on the way forward on this matter. KICTANET was ably
> represented by Walu,
>    among others. This workshop was a national follow up
> of a regional workshop
>    on cyber-laws and cyber-security for e-Government,
> held in Kampala in April
>    under the auspices of the EAC, GOK, UNECA and CePRC.
> The regional workshop
>    resolved to set up two Regional expert working groups
> on cyber-laws and
>    cyber-security, to develop policy and technical
> proposals on how we can
>    actualise a supportive legal environment in East
> Africa.The working
>    groups are presently being constituted.
>    2. On 11th - 15th December 2006, a technical training
> workshop is
>    being conducted here in Nairobi on the legal aspects
> of e-Commerce. The
>    target participants are technical and management staff
> in various sectors,
>    with heavy representation from Government. The
> training is being conducted
>    by UNCTAD, GOK and EAC. The aim is to build critical
> capacity in
>    understanding the policy and technical issues involved
> in developing a
>    supportive legal environment for e-Commerce.
> 
> Andrew
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