[kictanet] Kenya Communications ( Amendment ) Bill 2007 online discussion - Clause 1 - 14 -

[Muriuki Mureithi]

Please colleagues  let's give some few days to reflect on the Kenya
Communications ( Amendment ) Bill 2007 

This section changes the name of  the Act,   introduces new definitions,
ICT policy development and promulgation , governance of the sector and
constitution of the regulator ,  fines  for contravention of  the act 

Some areas  that warrant attention are 
- policy formulation  in the ICT sector .  ICT stakeholders participated  in
the ICT formulation process for the first time in 2006 and now  have a sense
of ownership to that policy.  This is as should be  because the government
strategy is to use the private sector to drive growth .  The proposed
clause  5 fails to take into account the lessons learned from the policy
formulation process  and locks out all other stakeholders in policy
formulation 
- governance  - Minister can appoint unlimited number of the board members
to the CCK board  because  the operative language for all appointments in
clause 6 is .. at least one --- . No advantage can be demonstrated. All
other regulators have  an upper limit  on the board members who  range from
5 to 9  members. Secondly ,  almost all others have no government officers
to avoid conflict of interest where government has shareholding in operators
and in any case the regulator implements policy promulgated by the
government thirdly all the board appointments  are heavily tilted to the
supply side and only one appointee will represent the consumer side 
 These concerns  were pointed out by KICTANET but  have not  taken on board 
Muriuki Mureithi 
  

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