[kictanet] New DG

Wed Jul 23 23:15:53 EAT 2008

Shem:
Consider me an idiot - like someone recently said - but what is
"informatician". I have been in this industry for a very long time - when
you were still a student in the US before ARCC - and this is the first time
I have heard of this word.

Lets elevate this discussion beyond personalities and let me say this: the
job of the DG of CCK, as well as all the major parastatal and government
appointments are political and by such simple discription is controversial.
Even if the GOK had appointed you or other higher "qualified"
"informatician" there would have been other people like you who would have
complained about "your" appointment. Therefore dwelling on who holds that
position - as long as they are Kenyans - is not doing us any good.

What all of us need to do is get out of government dole - stop depending on
the GOK to provide you a job - and go out and create work for you and other
Kenyans who have likewise been disposessed. Otherwise we will be second
guessing what the govt is doing till the cows come home. First time to agree
with Donald Rumsfeld - but in this case we have to work with the DG the GOK
has given us.

Give the new CCK DG a chance to fail and then I will join you in screaming
my head off to have him removed. But for now it does really sound like "sour
grapes" - ahha that is the correct terminology this time.

Your argument notwithstanding you "can not cast the first stone". Many of us
will say "rotten mangoes"

Joe

On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 3:58 PM, Shem Ochuodho <shemochuodho at yahoo.com>
wrote:

> Joe,
>
>
>
> I have heard this argument many times before from non-ICT professionals.
> Granted, there are exceptional cases where a non-sector-professional can
> manage well a sector; but such cases are very rare and far between. How come
> it is only in ICT where we feel anyone and everyone can be 'an expert'? How
> come Kenyatta Hospital - or any other major hospital for that matter - is
> more often than not headed by a medical doctor? How come the head of the
> Medical Registration Board is always(?) a Doctor? And that's a 'regulatory'
> function! That it happens in the US doesn't necessarily sanctify it.
> Besides, I wonder how often the FCC has been led by an economist - or 'any
> other person' for that matter. Or are we saying there are no competent
> informaticians who can manage well?
>
>
>
> More than anything else, it is vital that criteria are spelt out, are clear
> and selections are transparently processed. Joe, the Kenyan professional ICT
> scene is fairly thin; almost everyone knows everyone. I don't know if it is
> true, but someone once told me that he heard one of the major Grand
> Opposition crusaders remark: 'if Chris Okemo was appointed Minister and I
> was left out, I would understand'. Yet that is politics, where rules take a
> back banner! How I wish we would say the same for all government
> appointments, including the CCK one! From the Kenyan ICT professionals I
> interact with, a lot of work will need to be done to restore confidence in
> the sector. That it is not said loudly enough does not mean things are fine.
>
>
>
> Now, you try to take me back to the KPC matter: for the n'th time, I am the
> one who took the State to court. Would you care to imagine vested interests
> could have been reasons for my removal? Anyhow, once again let me elevate
> this discussion beyond personification. I know of several other competent
> and qualified informaticians who applied for the position. My point is,
> fairness can only be seen when one can say with a straight face: 'yes, there
> were these good candidates, but XYZ beat them in a, b, c, d". Btw, I was
> talking recently to a UoN Law Student. He reckoned he was tongue-tied when a
> new CEO of another state corporation was being introduced in the media. It
> started like "s/he was a class prefect  ...". Unless we take it that
> "whatever govt does must be right", then we are deceiving ourselves. Short
> of upholding professionalism and merit, we are done. If you asked me what
> Kenya needs most today, I would say 'inspirational leadership'. Without
> professionalism, merit, good governance aka integrity, transparency,
> confidence, etc, we cannot inspire or prosper; or rather we cannot prosper
> as fast we should.
>
>
>
> Rgrds,
>
> Shem
>
>
> --- On *Wed, 7/23/08, Joseph Manthi <jmanthi at gmail.com>* wrote:
>
> From: Joseph Manthi <jmanthi at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [kictanet] New DG
> To: shemochuodho at yahoo.com
> Cc: "New Vision List" <newvisionkenya at yahoogroups.com>, "Robert
> Onyango-Alai" <alai.robert at gmail.com>, "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> Date: Wednesday, July 23, 2008, 11:22 AM
>
>  Shem:
> This is the one in which you must declare your interest. This sounds to me
> as a question of "rotten eggs". From where I am standing it sounds like you
> are bitter because you were never considered. But let me remind you that in
> the very short past you were senior official of a government parastatal. The
> minister in charge - or whoever - considered it a National Duty to fire you
> and proceed to prosecute you for mismanagement. The case - as you are likely
> to say - has not been settled.
>
> It would really be a case of bad governance for anyone to consider you for
> a senior position when you "failed" in the last one the government trusted
> you with. The days of Kenyatta and Moi moving their people from one position
> to another - raping these parastatals as they go - are dying if not dead.
>
> It is good to see that the Government has appointed someone with a clean -
> unless I am mistaken - record to this most important jobs. I personally do
> not care who you are as long as you can do your job. The Dir of CCK does not
> have to be an engineer he can be whoever he wants to be as long as he
> manages CCK as it should managed - to the benefit of the mwananchi. In the
> US, the FCC in most times has been headed by lawyers not by communication
> engineers. If he can manage the process of moving this industry forward, I
> say, more power to him.
>
> JOe
>
> On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 9:14 AM, Shem Ochuodho <shemochuodho at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
>>   Dougi,
>>
>>
>>
>> Of course Google (and its variants!) has never been the only method to
>> gauge qualification! Sadly, it is/they are the only measure we have these
>> days, especially for ICT!
>>
>>
>>
>> Brian, I have never known in any profession what you say to be a parameter
>> for qualification or eligibility. Otherwise if it were, wouldn't people like
>> Atieno Ochola (gender notwithstanding), Matano Ndaro, Michael Katundu, John
>> Omo, and many more at CCK be as much deserving?
>>
>>
>>
>> Lest am asked: 'declare your interest', let me do so. The other day I
>> noticed an MP (who is either a present or past CCK director) contribute to a
>> motion on CCK without 'declaring interest'; he was lucky to get away with
>> it. I too applied for this job, not because I expected to be considered, but
>> to find out if Kenya had changed; if we had moved on to a New Kenya where it
>> didn't matter where [in Kenya] you came from, who you knew, whose
>> son/daughter you had married, etc. We do not seem to have learnt from the
>> events of the turn of the [last] year! Kenya appears to be sitting on a time
>> bomb. Formation of the coalition does not seem to have detonated it.
>>
>>
>>
>> I have previously contended that Kenyan informaticians are endangered. How
>> right I am/was. The words 'mediocricity, political expediency, ethnic
>> bigotry' keep ringing on my ears. So, it now appears we cannot find an
>> eligible informatician to lead CCK and we have to get an economist! I wait
>> for the day, for instance, when the IMF shall be headed by an informatician,
>> or one James Rege shall be Finance Minister! Short of the ICT professionals
>> organizing themselves and regaining their space, we have a long wait.
>>
>>
>>
>> Best rgrds,
>>
>> Shem
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>

-- 
Joseph Manthi
CEO
MEO Ltd
http://www.meoltd.com
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