[kictanet] Foreign Software Houses of Babel..in kenya.

[Bill Kagai]

Bwana Ndemo,
I have not been a fan of committees and inquiries but I hope its appropriate
to suggest that you set up one under your ministry to investigate, recommend
and enlighten us (read) those in the software industry.

Kenyans can script the missing code to link the two databases. I mean...the
software...it must be just two databases requiring relational code. But I
can't say that with finality.

Bill Kagai


On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 10:21 PM, Brian Munyao Longwe <brian at caret.net>wrote:

> Actually Bill I think that this is just a clear and perfect example (or
> expression) of the dire need for standards in Govt implementation of ICT
> projects as well as coordination across departments.
> Since both of us are techies - we know that integration between system no
> matter the origin or the language/database/message formats is simply a
> matter of a deliberate integration process. Clearly that is missing in this
> picture - and rather than deal with the real problem, the actors have
> resorted to finger pointing/blame game and all the other forms of unhelpful
> and time-wasting bureacracy that plague large institutions like governments
> (as well as many corporates). I can assure that if there was commitment to
> process and deliverables from the top down to the bottom, these issues could
> have/would have been sorted ages ago.
>
> Our "Waafrika" problem is that when faced with challenges we'd rather tear
> each other down than face the problems head on and (together) tear them
> down.
>
> Brian
>
>
> On Aug 25, 2008, at 10:04 PM, Bill Kagai wrote:
>
>
> I am watching news in awe where they are reporting that Kenya Ports
> Authority has deployed a Korean piece of software (Kwatos) to ease
> turn-around at the Port but now its not working well with the Kenya Revenue
> Authority software from Chile (Simba). Ofcourse both cost billions.
>
> As the spanish-speaking chileans 'haga el informe con los otros
> extranjeros' with the Koreans to '소프트웨어를 저희를 위해 일한' , sisi wakenya tunangoja
> kusaidiwa. Mwafrika anajimaliza mwenyewe...as Baba Gideon would say. <
> http://uk.babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_txt>
>
> The result according to one Mureithi of Kenya Shipping Associations is that
> port has now become a 'store' rather than a 'door' taking ages (14 days
> instead of 3 days) to clear goods because of the software conflict. Here be
> dragons...is this a kictanet sized problem...or do we just watch and comment
> later in another study on this discussion forum????
>
> Time for an ICT Commission of Inquiry ???
>
> Bill Kagai
>
>
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