[kictanet] Fw: Re: [NewVisionKenya] Voiceless 'Knowledge Workers'

Sun Jun 8 19:34:33 EAT 2008

Sorry for cross-posts.

--- On Sun, 6/8/08, Shem Ochuodho <shemochuodho at yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Shem Ochuodho <shemochuodho at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [NewVisionKenya] Voiceless 'Knowledge Workers'
To: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Date: Sunday, June 8, 2008, 5:04 AM

Lucy,

That's precisely the problem: we are not distinguishing 'Professionals' from 'Stakeholders'. We are all 'Medical Stakeholders', but we are certainly not all 'Medical Professionals'. ... I am reactivating my Kictanet account, just in case.

Bw PS, glad to see you active online. But we need not be defensive on this. I am up to date with the sites you mention. I think our main problem at present is neither a policy nor strategy; they may require updating, but those you/the Govt already has. What is needed most urgently is a comprehensive implementation plan/blueprint/master plan. There are a whole lot of good projects being implemented, but they appear haphazard. They are not part of a 'coherent bigger whole'. A senior official of one of the major ICT associations who might for whatever reason prefer anonymity contends: 'we are busy marketing ICT''.

It would be unfortunate to sweep some of these issues under the carpet.

Back to my original posting: I think there are fundamental issues raised, that would be nice to address (just to mention a few):-

1. Has Vision 2030 been sufficiently debated by Kenyans for it to be launched?
2. Was 51% sale of Telkom Kenya justified under the circumstances?
3. Does Kenya consider its unique 'human capital' a competitive advantage, and if so, are we considering developing a 'Human Capacity Development & Utilization Plan'?
4. Are we working towards 'Professionalizing' ICT?

Best rgrds,Shem 

--- On Sat, 6/7/08, Lucy Kimani <LKIMANI at YAHOO.COM> wrote:

From: Lucy Kimani <LKIMANI at YAHOO.COM>
Subject: [NewVisionKenya] Re: [shemochuodhoforparliament2007] Voiceless 'Knowledge Workers'
To: shemochuodhoforparliament2007 at yahoogroups.com, "New Vision List" <newvisionkenya at yahoogroups.com>
Date: Saturday, June 7, 2008, 11:28 AM

Shem,

The ICT community is very active and far from being "voiceless" I was sure I had seen your contribution on kictanet mailing list
kictanet at lists. kictanet. or.ke
http://lists. kictanet. or.ke/mailman/ listinfo/ kictanet
if not, I suggest you get onto the list because thats where all the ICT Professionals/ Stakeholders discuss everything ICT
Sample discussion,, ,,
------------ --------- ------- Original Message ------------ --------- -------
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Fibre Optic
From:    bitange at jambo. co.ke
Date:    Wed, November 28, 2007 9:28 am
Cc:      "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet at lists. kictanet. or.ke>
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------
Dear Yawe,
I am sorry for assuming that you were aware of the National Optic Fibre
Broadband network that is being built by Sagem, Huaweii and ZTE.  The
project will be finished by August next year.  The Digital Village project
will benefit from this network that is to link all District HQs.  The
netwotk shall be run by the operators and hopefully take control of it if
they see a business case in it.  Otherwise this was basically the
Government wide area network.  We are now hoping that operators would come up with the last mile solutions.
Phase two of our plans is to partner with the private sector to build data centers and disaster recovery centers.  This will ensure cheaper local hosting capability.  The biggest challenge is going to be local content. 
On the Government side, by June next year we should have tons of content online.  We need to pass the Freedom of Information Bill for the public to benefit from most of GoK data.
We shall still need the international Fibre optic for research to both ends, that is, the rest of the world and our own research.  We cannot develop on a cocoon.
I hope I have responded to your questions.  If you are not satisfied,
please let me know.
Asante sana.
Bitange Ndemo.

Shem, you have a lot of catching up to do my friend, so here are some good starting point:

http://www.informat ion.go.ke/

For Kenya's National Policy please see:
http://www.informat ion.go.ke/ docs/ICT% 20Policy. pdf

Hey we even have a strategy:
http://www.informat ion.go.ke/ docs/Kenya% 20ICT%20Strategy .pdf

Actually, there were a couple of ICT bills already tabled last year, and what was in fact missing was the Ministry of Finance to complete the picture by amending the "Banking" Act which is way out dated and doesnt recognize electronic transactions hence the lack of a "Payment" Gateway -- Great opportunity for anyone ready to go as soon as they amend the Banking Act!  So I dont understand why the Accountant Bill when the Banking act is the one that needs immediate attention!  Until there is E-Commerce in full swing in Kenya, Kenyans will still look at the internet as a luxury and not a necessity limiting the subscriber base to just a few while it should be for everybody!

There is also the Kenya ICT Board actively involved in selling Kenya as the next Call Center/BPO Outsourcing Centre

http://www.ict. go.ke/inner. php?cat=news

Also, David Otwuoma is now in Kenya and actively involved in the ICT arena

Shem Ochuodho <shemochuodho@ yahoo.com> wrote:

An edited version of the article below appeared in today's edition of the Standard.

Rgrds,
Shem

------ Where is the Voice of the Kenyan ICT Professional? -----

WHERE IS THE VOICE OF THE KENYAN ICT PROFESSIONAL?

I am a worried man; worried for my country!

That the world has become a global village is no longer a myth; it is a reality. The once alluded to ‘knowledge economy’ is at last here with us. It is not any wonder that Google is today one of the world’s most sought after company; neither is it that in Kenya, the ‘communications’ sector is one of the fastest growing, even in the midst of a global recession. That information and communications technology (ICT) will from henceforth drive world economies is already abundantly clear. Kenya – and Africa, generally - is not being left behind either. Yet I am very concerned with the conspicuous muteness of the Kenyan ICT expert.

I was delighted to read that the Finance Minister, himself a Professional Accountant, was presenting before Parliament an “Accountants’ Bill”. Lucky them! But who will stand up for the ‘Informaticians’ ? That the Government of Kenya has identified the Knowledge Economy and ICTs in particular as a pillar for our strategic socio-economic growth could not be more evident than it is in the Draft Vision 2030. ICT has been identified therein as one of the six priority focus sectors for Kenya’s transition to mid-income status. Yet without a clear strategy to develop, harness and utilize the ICT human capital, this prioritization remains a mere fallacy.

If nobody in Government is going to stick their necks out for the profession, then where are the professionals themselves? Is it any wonder that this is perhaps the only profession where anyone and everyone can be ‘an expert’ overnight? In a local Internet discussion group recently someone queried whether it was possible for anyone to be ‘a professional accountant’ without being ‘qualified’. The discussion emerged from an earlier posting calling upon ‘a qualified, professional accountant’. The query was understandably raised by a Medical Practitioner, coming from a profession where one cannot be ‘an expert’ without being ‘qualified and professional’ . Why is it that in ICT, one can be an expert without being ‘qualified’? And what constitutes qualification? If this is the sector to drive our future and competitiveness, is it not time we did something about it?

That Safaricom, only an eight-year old company, has become the most profitable company in East Africa should not surprise anyone. The sale of Government’s shares in the company is now behind us, the controversies with it notwithstanding. But then again why did the Government have to do it? And for me, Mobitelea wasn’t even the greatest problem with the IPO. There was an equally, if not more fundamental concern. As the Americans would say, ‘why fix it if it ain’t broken?’. I happen to be a firm believer in competition, liberalization and commercialization – only cautiously so for privatization. Privatization in the telecom sector in Africa has not presented a glossy picture. One only needs to look at the cases of the botched initial privatization of incumbents in Zambia, Tanzania, Ghana and the Gambia – just to mention a few. Yet during the Safaricom IPO saga, I only heard the voices of the politicians. Where were the voices of the
 professionals?

As if that was not enough, we one day wake up in 2008 to learn that a whooping 51% (controlling majority) of Telkom Kenya has been sold! And an estimated 18,000-strong workforce has been reduced to 3,000. Why did we have to do this? If it was to raise capital, why do we read in the papers that Treasury is still being asked to plough more resources into Telkom? Often, one reason given for staff retrenchment is better reward for those who remain behind. One would have thought that by reducing the workforce from 18,000 to 3,000, at the very least those who survive would get a minimum of a 200% pay increase. We are now told the Union had to struggle just to get a 20% increment. Did we first analyze the likely impacts of some of these actions, and mitigate sufficiently against them? What an innovative way to stem unemployment and reduce poverty! If the Americans or Chinese owned anything close to 51% stake in France Telecom, I would not be half as worried.

Some countries love their subjects – not so much Kenya. Yet if there is anything Kenya beats most other African countries, it is her enviable human capital. It is not surprising that our own Prof. Calestous Juma is today a pillar for Science & Technology Policy in the developing world. Neither was I surprised while in the US mid last year that one Prof. Wilson Endege was reputed to ‘have cracked the DNA code’, whatever that means! And while on a visit to Brussels as part of a Parliamentary Committee touring nuclear reactor plants, at one stage the tour was suspended to allow a UN Inspector – one David Otwoma (based in Vienna, Austria) to inspect the facility! Equally, one would have been forgiven for marvelling on realization that once when a major national microwave backbone system broke down, and after several experts from some developed countries had failed to fix it, one Engr. John Kamau was brought in from the US to fix it. Similarly, it
 is not unusual to work into Doha Airport, Qatar, and find that the string of a dozen or so ‘black’ people serving on the check-in counters for a leading global airline (not KQ, in this case) are all Kenyan! The list is endless.

In spite of this competitive advantage, I am stunned that we do not have a Human Capacity Development Plan. Human capital should be considered Kenya’s gold and oil, since we do not have either! Some African countries long recognized the importance of human capital, and have fairly comprehensive national human capacity development plans. One even has a whole, unique Ministry of Capacity Building. Unless we can nurture, harness and harvest to the best abilities of all our professionals and actors in the knowledge economy – accountants, doctors, lawyers, engineers, scientists, informaticians, agriculturalists, economists, interpreters, etc – our competitiveness is doomed. Microsoft calls it ‘Unlimited Potential’: we must ask ourselves to what extent are we using and getting the most out of our ‘knowledge workers’? From experiences from other emerging economies, they alone can be the propeller for Kenya’s accession to mid-income economy
 status.

However, to give credit where it is due, am delighted that Kenya which since independence has ridden like a rudderless ship, is at last launching a ‘National Vision – Vision 2030’.  Vision, more than anything else, spells out the virtues we espouse, and points to the horizon where we would want to be in the years to come. If you asked me, I would rate the Vision evenly with the Constitution; some may even argue that it is more important than the Constitution. I now gather we are about to launch the Vision – yet I don’t believe Kenyans have adequately debated it. A Vision needs to be owned by the people. Walking along the down-streets of some of the smaller Rwandan towns, it is not unusual to see a small kiosk labelled ‘Vision 2020’. What it means is that the Vision is engraved in the hearts and souls of the people. Why are we rushing to launch a Vision that Kenyans do not own?

In the hope that I would find at least something going right with the ‘king sector’, I picked a newspaper the other day, and noticed an advert for a major Government ICT/automation project. I enquired with a friend whose company I thought quite fitted the bill if they had applied. What struck me most – and still bothers me a lot – was his stark reply: ‘I no longer bid for government tenders. From day one, it is already known who the tender is meant for.’ That worries me a lot – especially for the sector in whose our future and the future of our children will so heavily depend. For a moment I asked: ‘you mean as a society we have decayed so much?’. When ‘professionals’ lose so much faith in a system, then something is terribly wrong! Yet like almost everywhere else, the single most major consumer of ICT services and products is Government. How then do we expect our nascent ICT companies and professionals to thrive – and drive the
 sector that we expect to deliver us to Jerusalem?

I must say that there are a few interesting and laudable things that the Government is doing on the ICT scene. However, they are few and far between. Besides, even in those, the voice of the ICT professional is drowned. Pray, tell me! When did the rain start beating the ICT profession?

Dr Shem Ochuodho, Advisor on ICT Private Sector Development, Ethiopia, and Former Member of Parliament

--- end article ---

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