[kictanet] Who is ICT Board? - Capacity Building

Tue Apr 6 22:05:01 EAT 2010

Thanks Paul, for this comprehensive and insightful feedback

This would really be good - casting the net wider to have a wider
representation as much as possible, and for views 
to be incorporated.

The efforts being made out there and the gains made are very much in the
open for all to see - Looking at the various 
accomplishments by different Govt agencies.
.
However, I suppose from most of the feedback on the list, all the well
meaning efforts should be harnessed at some kind of 
a centralized point - That has a mandate for oversight & Audit - which would
hold the implementing agencies accountable.

Again, it might call for some piece of legislation to give such an oversight
the requisite teeth and a clear mandate to govern,
and bring order across the entire ICT landscape - on the Govt front. How do
we approach it..? Will it meet resistance..?

Lastly, how do we make sure, all possible participants & stakeholders can be
reached to attend the townhall meeting...?

Regards,
Harry

  _____  

From: kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke
[mailto:kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On
Behalf Of Paul Kukubo
Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2010 8:09 PM
To: harry at comtelsys.co.ke
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Who is ICT Board? - Capacity Building

A perspective that might enrich the forthcoming meeting. At the onset, I
will suggest we cast our net wider to include anyone who might not be on
this list for that meeting.

1.	The public sector is busy transforming in a way that matters to the
common citizen, and in a way that will long term impact. 

*	As an example, Public sector leaders presented 5 interesting case
studies in government automation at the just ended connected government
workshop (all slides on www.ict.go.ke/connectedgov) 

*	Kenya Revenue Authority on their progress since inception on
automation, By their IT Head Mr Saina 

*	The automation of the Company registry including the initial
reorganization of the registry, the on-going digitization and future service
targets for citizens benefit. Presentation by Mr Wanjuki Muchemi, Solicitor
General 

*	The Integrated Population Registry System, presented by both the PS
Immigrations Mr Emmanuel Kisombe and his team. Of note here is the role this
would play in giving the government a 'single point of truth' of the
citizen. 

*	The on-going automation of the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency
(KEMSA). Presented by the Director KEMSA 

*	The Government Data Centre, presented by John Sergon Ag Director E
Government.

*	Private sector was surprised by how committed and well thought and
these projects are. These are just examples and they illustrate a government
committed to laying the foundation for better citizen services.  

*	Those projects, when combined with the Government's role in TEAMs,
the just commenced shared services project, the project to digitize the
judiciary and the Ministry of Lands point to clear priorities. Private
sector should align themselves around the opportunities presented by
government. ( I cannot stop preaching this).    

*	Vision 2030 Director General provided an update on the work to
develop a national value proposition proposed to anchored around Kenya's
core strength as a hub and a centre of entrepreneurship and innovation
within Africa. 

*	Indeed in his wrap up, PS Dr Ndemo re-iterated the level of
opportunity this all represented, but also stressed that there was still
work to be done to get to where we want to get to.

2.	While there can be no shortage of ideas on how the government can
and should be structured the debate could be enriched by discussion around
where greater co-operation could break down silos and the role private
sector might play. Indeed PS Ndemo pointed this issue out during the Prime
Minister's Round Table recently. Private Sector, Civil Society and Academia
add value by providing case studies of successes and failures locally with
IT deployments, how the common citizen may be better served, even within the
current reality. Good examples of successes include Safaricom's roll out 3G
services even in very remote parts of Kenya to enable citizens have better
broadband experience, Cisco is rolling out training in their Net Academies
to enrich the digital villages concept by enabling training in rural
communities and Oracle is investing in the capacity of IT leaders both
government and private sector, to understand how to deploy complex
technologies that are necessary, in order that we have simplified IT access.
(as you know there is always complex systems behind simplified access. If
you doubt that, try rolling out a WIMAX network, or running a BPO firm.). 

3.	Some private sector participant observed to me that there might be a
trend perhaps among a few on always putting forward suggestions without
knowledge on what is on the ground, always proposing alternatives and not
building on ideas and listening without internalization. While there is no
harm in this, I would suggest a greater role for private sector, civil
society and academia. These sectors could use their constituencies (if these
are professional bodies, or associations, or working groups) to create
forums for discourse on the issues and provide leadership and guidance, that
is seen to be drawn from the constituencies themselves. The ICT Board
interacts with many stakeholders and indeed many of them are also themselves
looking for a suitable professional home. (be it the CIO Forum, KIFF,
TESPOK, Kictanet, Skunkworks, Mobile Monday, Mobile Value Added Service
Providers, the BPO sector, the systems intergrators, the Multinationals
Forum, Pasha Trainees. They have diverse needs. Before the town hall
meeting, my team could provide a brief summary of our observation in
interacting with all them. Indeed in doing the rounds, we have not covered
many of them. They are many.. 

4.	It is entrepreneurs who will build a true ICT sector, one business
at a time. Fortunately we have plenty of them in Kenya. Many who seek
guidance and counsel on where to direct their energies. There are some who
believe IT is fibre optic and others still in the 'buy ICT equipment and
sell mode". We are always encouraging them at forums such as the Tandaa
Conferences and the Mobile Boot camp to widen their view into applications,
solutions, project management, consultancy, new media development
(animation, web marketing, mobile marketing) etc. This requires concerted
effort. During the Connected Gov workshop, we showcased animations developed
by Home Boys Studios in Kenya using local talent (who had no prior animation
training). These animations are being shown on UK TV. Local companies like
Symbiotic, Cellulant gave case studies of the challenges and opportunities
entrepreuners face, and Seven Seas a large Kenyan system integrator
demonstrated how the government could deploy a digital dashboard and how
partnering with Safaricom, they have developed  capacity building program to
train for IT. 

5.	One last observation is that as ICT becomes more sophisticated,
perhaps we can look at the role of the CIO and the CTO within both private
sector and public sector structures. On this score, a few private sector
firms in Kenya provide examples of ideal IT governance structure and we all
could welcome them to share their experiences.  

Paul Kukubo
Chief Executive Officer, Kenya ICT Board
PO Box 27150 - 00100
Nairobi, Kenya

12th Floor, Teleposta Towers Koinange Street

Tel +254 20 2089061, +254 20 2211960 
Fax: +254 20 2211962
website: www.ict.go.ke
local content project: www.tandaa.co.ke, www.facebook.com/tandaakenya
twitter:@tandaaKENYA
BPO Project: www. doitinkenya.co.ke
Digital Villages Project: www.pasha.co.ke

personal contacts
_______________

Cell: + 254 717 180001

skype: kukubopaul
googletalk: pkukubo
personal blog: www.paulkukubo.co.ke
personal twitter: @pkukubo

____________________
Vision: Kenya becomes a top ten global ICT hub

Mission: To champion and actively enable Kenya to adopt and exploit ICT,
through promotion of partnerships, investments and infrastructure growth for
socio economic enrichment 

On Tue, Apr 6, 2010 at 6:21 PM, Harry Delano <harry at comtelsys.co.ke> wrote:

Lilian,

This is so comprehensive.. Hope, notes are being taken from these
resourceful discussions coming in.

Mine, is just a proposal. Clearly, the different agencies existing, happen
to work within some form of 
mandate in their own areas of jurisdiction or so, whether the mandates are
competing mandates or
a duplication, it may be quite difficult to just "merge" them.. 

Clearly, Listers - one thing that is now clear, is that ICT is a huge
phenomenon, that cuts' out across
the entire spectrum of Govt and ministries - beyond INFOCOM.  This means,
stakeholders from other
Govt. sectors need to be brought into the fold to harmonize strategy..

I suppose therefore, this may call for an oversight body - to which, each of
the Govt agencies can have a
representation. This oversight, could encompass reps, from all sectors,
private , and govt. All interests
should be declared as a pre-requisite to serving on this panel for purposes
of accountability and 
transparency..

If in order, I could float some names for such a body, such as:-

*	

	National ICT Task Force - (NICTAF)
*	National ICT Agency of Kenya - (NICTAK) 

*	

	National ICT Oversight Board -(NICTOB)

Other names are welcome..

Harry

  _____  

From: kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke
[mailto:kictanet-bounces+harry <mailto:kictanet-bounces%2Bharry>
=comtelsys.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Lilian Karanja
Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2010 11:43 AM
To: harry at comtelsys.co.ke 

Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions

Subject: Re: [kictanet] Who is ICT Board? - Capacity Building

Yes, Robert.......I see. 

Certainly, what GoK needs is ICT Governance. "Without governance you do not
produce good decisions consistently. 'Governance' in the context of the
management of ICT crafts a clear framework in which decisions are made, who
makes the decisions about business and technology developments, who has
input into the decision-making process and how the decisions are formed". 

In my opinion, the ICT Board (under Min. Of Info Comm), the Directorate of
e-Government (under OP), the GITS Department (under Min. Of Finance), and
both the CCK and NCS (both under Min. Of Info Comm) seem to have related ICT
goals and objectives. They (unfortunately) don't seem to oftenly collaborate
in their decision-making. I personally like the idea of a KITA like
SITA/RITA. Sometime ago, the Directorate of e-Government seemed to come-up
into a KITA (in the way we think of SITA/RITA), but did not 'mature' into
the institution envisioned. 

GoK ICT Governance Decisions would ideally focus on: 

.         Determining the strategic approach to e-government and ICT within
GoK 

.         How the e-government initiatives should be used in GoK, to improve
services, reduce costs, develop the community, etc 

.         How fundamental e-government and ICT is to GoK and the country at
large 

.         The way e-government and ICT is to be managed (e.g. by what
mechanism and how resources are to be managed) 

.          The way investments are to be made and policies on realising and
sharing benefits 

.          How the required skills are to be procured (through strategic
partnerships, in-house, through consortium, etc) 

.          The principles that underlie the ICT architecture 

.          Setting priorities and determining e-government and ICT
investment programmes 

.          Managing the foundations and regulations regarding the core
elements of the infrastructure: 

o   Personnel - who will be responsible for their professional development
and where certain skills should reside 

o    Methods and techniques - what project/programme management, development
and operations management standards should be used 

o    Charging mechanisms and services standards (performance management) 

o   Information - standards to enable the effective sharing of information 

o    Core applications - intranet, finance systems, payroll, registries and
personnel standards, etc 

o   Technical - network, consolidated service desk, data standards 

o    Security 

o    Legal 

This has conspicuously missed within GoK, in the past years. We look to GoK
greatly to spur 'mwananchi' by keenly committing to 'add value' to broadband
so that their attitude, confidence and appreciation towards the use ICTs and
the Internet increases (especially in the rural areas, as they access
Government e-Services), thus creating an Internet Community and an IT
culture. Am not sure we necessarily need support from outside to do this,
even donor funds (we don't need). We can do it on our own, as we (Kenya)
are, now, known to be an emerging knowledge economy. GoK can lead the way to
create a Kenyan way 'working with'and using ICT. We have so many Youth (any
way), who are jobless! Lets purposefully develop capacity of these young and
use them sufficiently. 

I rest my case, and I apologise for any misunderstandings. 

LILIAN

--- On Tue, 4/6/10, robert yawe <robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

From: robert yawe <robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Who is ICT Board? - Capacity Building
To: "Lilian Karanja" <l_wkaranja at yahoo.com>
Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Date: Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 12:32 AM

Hi Lilian,

Just wanted to clarify an issue, government has some of the best trained ICT
fellows and I know because I have regularly interacted with them for over 10
years.  Do not be deceived by the fact that they are no fancy websites or
iphone applications the men and women who keep the government systems
running are basically miracle workers.

How they do it is beyond my comprehension and the last thin they need is a
capacity building what they need like all with the other areas of government
is a co-ordinator or a Deputy Prime Minister IS.  Hon Raila has definitely
moved government efficiency a notch higher and without a "dream team" or
expatriate consultants all he did was dust off the diamonds within. 

Government has a beautiful retention strategy which is we pay you for 2
hours a day and we expect you to only deliver the paid for work, if you are
unable to find something profitable to do with the balance 6 hours then that
is your problem.

What we need is a deputy prime minister information systems or ICT or BPO
whatever the name of which KICTB has proven not to be to "desilo" (term
coined by Dr. Ndemo during the PM Round table meeting) the government
activities.

Can you government ICT gurus stick your heads out and defend your selves, I
know many of you are on this listing, so be warned that next time I need to
put the record strait on your behalf I will actually name names.

Robert Yawe
KAY System Technologies Ltd
Phoenix House, 6th Floor
P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
Kenya

Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 

  _____  

From: Lilian Karanja <l_wkaranja at yahoo.com>
To: robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Sent: Mon, 5 April, 2010 16:58:41
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Who is ICT Board? Hijacked

Dear PS:

It is a little discouraging to hear you say that the issues discussed in
this topic are 'kuchongoana tu'. We look up to you, and others in Government
and also in the private sector who are so passionate about the use of ICTs
and the Internet to create opportunities for all, in Kenya, and see that ICT
remains a reliable vehicle for economic growth and development. So, please
don't stop listening to us, patiently and we beseech you to continue in your
wisdom in dealing with these matters.

This topic, 'Who is ICT Board?' as well as that of 'eGovernment is it a myth
or reality?' have raised important questions that should be addressed with
'a big heart' and an open mind. As you have noted, a town hall meeting is
good and always welcome. However, moving forward, it needs to be clear how
ICT Board interacts with Government and how it promotes the existence of an
Institutional Framework for ICT management in Government. Clearly, the ICT
Board manages of a huge chunk of donor funds for ICT growth in Kenya,
eGovernment and the likes (through the KTCIP), but still the Government lags
behind in their ICT technical know-how and skills.

While one of their mandate (the ICT Board) is Capacity Building (Providing
GoK and other stakeholders with skills, capacity and funding for anchor
implementation of ICT projects for development) over time we have only seen
laxity in the management of ICT by Government i.e. poor websites,
unsatisfactory performance of legacy systems, inconsistent DNS & IP address
management, meagre IT Security (web, network, etc), little or no R&D and M&E
of ICT & eGovt, etc. But may be it is not deliberate laxity, it is that the
Government Officers who manage IT issues in Government are not continuously
trained in all pertinent areas to raise experts and skillful personnel.

I hope this is an area ICT Board can address, when they say that part of
their mandate is Capacity Building, otherwise we have Government Officers
who cannot do much to use broadband properly and strategically as well as
make eGovernment a reality. The cabilities of these Officers should be close
to, if not better than those in the private sector. And when GoK finally has
real experts and engineers in ICT, a retention strategy MUST be adopted to
keep them and recompense them accordingly. This is the future of Government
IT, 'people who are knowledgeable and focused on a bright future'.

LILIAN

--- On Sun, 4/4/10, bitange at jambo.co.ke <bitange at jambo.co.ke> wrote:

From: bitange at jambo.co.ke <bitange at jambo.co.ke>
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Who is ICT Board? Hijacked
To: "Lilian" <l_wkaranja at yahoo.com>
Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Date: Sunday, April 4, 2010, 9:42 AM

Barrack,
Several posts have come by on the role of ICT and I think it will be wise
if we sorted this in a town hall meeting similar to one we had on Malili. 
Honestly it feels as though some Neanderthal decided to create these
agencies without putting some thought to it.  Criticisms are good only
when you point out where there are gaps.

The other day I posted a policy proposal for comments but only one person
did respond.  What it means then is that this forum ni ya kuchongoana tu. 
Which really is unfortunate.  I have four other policy proposals that I
really think should push through then arouse sufficient interest from the
membership here.

Ndemo.

> This is truly "Jicho Pevu", i think some answers to this questions are
> very much in order as we celebrate Easter, can someone provide us with
> a list of all agencies involved in ICTs and ICT4D so that we can do
> some tooth comb analysis, i saw a  post from Paul on what the board
> has achieved early this year, that was very much in order we need
> something from NCS as well plus any other agencies.
>
> Regards
>
> On Sat, Apr 3, 2010 at 12:50 PM, Vitalis Olunga <volunga at yahoo.com
<http://us.mc452.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=volunga@yahoo.com> > wrote:
>> There is also another body , National Communications Secretarait. What
>> is
>> the diffrence between NCS and ICT Baord and how do the two bodies relate
>> with respect to  advisory services to the governement on ICT matters?
>>
>> Regards
>>
>>
>> Vitalis
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: robert yawe <robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk
<http://us.mc452.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> >
>> To: volunga at yahoo.com
<http://us.mc452.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=volunga@yahoo.com> 
>> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
<http://us.mc452.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
>
>> Sent: Sat, April 3, 2010 12:03:22 PM
>> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Who is ICT Board? Hijacked
>>
>> Hi,
>> I rest my case on this issue, the ICT Board is a monolith, Try
>> reading this... (pdf file), as I feared it is mandated to do anything
>> and
>> everything under the sun that could be called ICT which includes your
>> microwave oven and copier.
>> Functions of Kenya ICT Board
>> The core functions of Kenya ICT Board as documented in the Kenya Gazette
>> Legal Notice No 26 of the May 2007:
>> .  To advice the government on all relevant matters pertaining to
>> development, coordination  (remember the PM post) and promotion of ICT
>> industries in the country.
>> .  Promote both locally and internationally the opportunities for
>> investments in ICT technology
>> .  Facilitate and manage ICT industrial incubation parks and technology
>> parks together with associated facilities on sites, estates and land.
>> .  Partner with agents within and without the country to carry out such
>> functions as it may consider necessary.
>> .  To transform and empower society through deployment and use of ICTs.
>> .  Carry out any other activity to promote and develop ICT products and
>> services.
>> Have a restful Easter as we await the limited range 4G, yes you guessed
>> it I
>> still have a 3G issue and I am in Nairobi.
>> Regards
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>
>
>
> --
> Barrack O. Otieno
> Geneva
> Skype: barrack.otieno
>
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