[kictanet] MPS SUPPORT E-GOVERNMENT LEGISLATION IN KENYA

[Alex Gakuru]

[Daily Nation]
‘Digital villages’ to be set up all over Kenya to speed up access to data 
Story by NATION correspondent
Publication Date: 2007/04/30

The Government plans to set up ‘digital villages’ throughout the country, 
to ease access to information for its citizens.

Information assistant minister Mr Koigi Wamwere said during the weekend 
that the villages to be set up in all the 210 constituencies, will facilitate easy 
access to information that would trigger economic development in those areas.

Commissioning

The minister was speaking in Kisumu during the commissioning of the Od 
Mikayi satellite information centre, where the project by the Government also 
received a major boost with the approval of a Sh8 billion grant by the World Bank.

This will see local communities exposed to new technologies such as the internet 
and SMS banking. 

“We intend to roll out the first of these projects in August,” said Mr Wamwere. 

He added, “The laying of fibre optic cables throughout the country is on course 
and when completed, Kenyans are going to enjoy the benefits of high speed 
internet connectivity.”

This initiative is intended to double the number of people having access to 
such services from 2.7 to 6 million, he said. 

Also targeted will be telephone subscribers, whose numbers are expected 
to rise significantly from the current 8.5 million to 15 million before the year 
ends.

Learning centres

“We also intend to set up E- learning centres in all schools in addition to 
computerising all Government departments in the country.

"This will enhance transparency in the running of Government affairs,” said 
the minister. 

http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?premiumid=0&category_id=3&newsid=97056>

------
Alex Gakuru <alex.gakuru at yahoo.com> wrote: Alice, 

Thanks for this wonderful  news. Please send me the link.

Alex

alice <alice at apc.org> wrote: 
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 From Balancing Act


MPS SUPPORT E-GOVERNMENT LEGISLATION IN KENYA

Kenya's legislators have surprisingly added their voice in support of 
the transformation to electronic governance in their operations, both 
within parliament and in at the constituency level. During a two-day 
meeting held in Nairobi recently, the members of parliament (MPs) 
discussed various issues related to Kenya Information Society including 
e-government and ICT strategies in the country and what should be the 
role of parliamentarians in the process of implementation and monitoring.

The meeting with theme:  "Empowering Kenya's MPs and National Assembly 
staff on Building the country's Knowledge Economy," was organised by the 
UN's Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the Canadian e-Policy 
Resource Network (ePolNet). e-PolNet aims at supporting the 
implementation of the African Information Society through the provision 
of various kinds of expertise.

The participants, who included 15 MPs, discussed how ICTs can accelerate 
the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and various 
applications like e-health, e-learning, e-commerce and open platform.

This is in response to the eighth goal of MDGs, declared during the UN's 
Millennium Declaration in 2000, which aims to develop a global 
partnership for development (including a target to make available the 
benefits of ICTs to all the world's inhabitants).
The participants resolved that there is need to take advantage of the 
on-going restructuring of all  parliamentary committees in order to have 
ICT either accommodated in one of the committees or set up an 
independent committee on the subject.

In his opening address, Mathioya MP, Joseph Kamotho, said that through 
the use of ICT, governments become less bureaucratic, and more 
efficient. "With deployment of ICTs, several opportunities that corrupt 
public officials normally use for their private gain are eliminated or 
greatly reduced therefore increasing transparency and accountability in 
the management of public resources," said Kamotho.

Kamotho said that governments in Africa must, therefore, invest in ICT 
so that the public is able to monitor the performance of their 
representatives through the establishment of websites where citizens can 
get information about their institution, leaders and the laws made.

On electoral processes, participants gave the example of Zambia where 
the voters register bears the  holder's photo to stem vote rigging.
(SOURCE: East African Business Week)



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