[kictanet] Day 4: Consitutions and Appointment of Commissioners to the Commission

Thu Feb 17 15:25:31 EAT 2011

Hi Catherine,

My concern is why the chair should serve for a longer period that the other commissioners. They should have equal no. of years either it is 5yrs or four for all of them otherwise the chair carries baggage to the next commission.  The endorsement of the commissioners by Parliament also do not make much sense and we are loading too much on the parliament. It’s also critical that the gender balance or the 30% is still explicitly acknowledged in the  bill as much as this is a requirement in the new constitution. 

Jane Thuo

From: kictanet-bounces+jthuo=amwik.org at lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+jthuo=amwik.org at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Catherine Adeya
Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2011 1:45 PM
To: jthuo at amwik.org
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 4: Consitutions and Appointment of Commissioners to the Commission

Thanks Walu,

I will try and respond to what I can and hope others with more expertise can chip in.
Are you suggesting that WHO gets appointed is not as critical as the representative structure of the Commissioners? I do not want to deliberate more on that without taking sides as I also have an opinion and may understand where you are coming from. 

Yes this new Draft Bill does outline the representative structure of the persons to be appointed to the Commission in Section 5(3) b. ii Persons who...."possess suitable qualifications, expertise and experience in the fields of, amongst others, broadcasting, telecommunications, law, media and economics, or any other related expertise or qualifications" (I have ignored some of the obvious editorial errors which are mostly punctuation and an Editor can sweep through this).

We will discuss terms of Office tomorrow but suffice it to say that the Chairperson will hold Office for 5 years and a Commissioner for 2 terms. Lets revisit this kesho. 

[AN ASIDE: Walu, you are my friend...and I know you like reading....si you read this Bill please...it is in the Ministry website http://www.information.go.ke/index2.php?option=com_docman <http://www.information.go.ke/index2.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=19&Itemid=37> &task=doc_view&gid=19&Itemid=37 and it will answer a number of your queries. It is not very long:-)))].

Best Regards,
Nyaki

  _____  

From: Walubengo J <jwalu at yahoo.com>
To: Catherine Adeya <elizaslider at yahoo.com>
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Sent: Thu, February 17, 2011 11:08:57 AM
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 4: Consitutions and Appointment of Commissioners to the Commission

Nyaki,

plse update me. in the old act had defined a representative nature of the board/commissioners along the lines of someone from say Broadcast, Consumer, Technical, Legal, Govt Reps, etc.  Does this new bill take care of this?

I think more than WHO gets appointed, we need to redefine representative structure of the commissioners.  Otherwise you might get all the seven coming from a technical background (disaster ;-).

The other bit would be define limited terms for the commissioners (2terms), and possibly have parliament endorse the nominated Chairperson (even though the current stalement in parliament does not seem to support this view, but assume an american type of congress approval method here).

walu. 

--- On Thu, 2/17/11, Catherine Adeya <elizaslider at yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Catherine Adeya <elizaslider at yahoo.com>
Subject: [kictanet] Day 4: Consitutions and Appointment of Commissioners to the Commission
To: jwalu at yahoo.com
Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Date: Thursday, February 17, 2011, 4:30 AM

Listers,

As we continue our debate on the draft 'Independent Communications  Commission of Kenya Billl 2010'  we recall how yesterday, we opened the discussion on the functions of the Commission where the key issue is that the ICCK will have to perform duties imposed on it by the former Commission. We did not have many contributions and I should not give my viewpoint too much but in this case indulge me. I believe the word ‘imposed’ must go. 

The other contribution was by Waudo mainly concerned with whether the ICCK will continue in its policy formulation function or whether it will be clear that it is meant to implement policy. He argued that since ICCK will take over whatever CCK has been doing then how does one deal with the aspect of being “independent of control by government” when in essence CCK votes at the ITU based on instructions from the Government of Kenya. If you want to continue anything on the Day 3 discussions kindly do so under the relevant header…contributions are still welcome.

Today is Day 4 and  we move to:

 SECTION 5: CONSTITUTION AND APPOINTMENT OF COMMISSIONERS TO THE COMMISSION

SECTION 6: DISQUALIFICATION 

SECTION 5:

The Commission consists of 7 Commissioners appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Public Service Commission (PSC).

Process:

1. Minister consults with PSC within 7 days of commencement of the Act ad declares vacancies and request for applications.

2. Application to be forwarded to PSC within 14 days of notice (by a qualified person or person/organization/group proposing qualified person)

3. PSC interviews and shortlists 2 people qualified for Chairperson and 9 people for members

4. Within 7 days President appoints Chairperson and members.

Question: Is this process fluid enough?

Key issue I would also like you to consider:

pg. 5, Section 5 (No. 3) about the type of person to be appointed, in a nutshell:

- Committed to fairness, freedom of expression, etc.

- Represents a large cross-section of the population

I am particularly interested in No. 3 (ii) [which requires serious editing anyway, I have done a little of it below though still wordy]:

(ii) Possess suitable qualifications, expertise and experience in the fields of, amongst others, broadcasting, telecommunications, law, media and economics; and any other related expertise.

Question: What are your thoughts on the kind of Commissioners needed? Do you think there should be a little more here about the calibre of a Chairperson? Where do gender issues come in? Or rather gender balance as this is still a problem in many of these appointments in Kenya.

SECTION 6:

Disqualification: There is a whole list of reasons on pg. 6, Section 6 on people who cannot be appointed to the commission. It includes:

- is not a Citizen of the Republic (I think this should be simply Kenya)

- is a public servant or holder of any other remunerated position under the State

- is an employee or employee of any party, movement..etc.

- has been convicted of any criminal charges…

Question: Read through and see if they are satisfactory? One that is not clear and in my view needs serious editing is:

6. (1) f.  A person may not be appointed as a Commissioner if he or she or his or her  business partner or associate holds an office in or with, or is employed by, any person or body, whether corporate or unincorporated, which has an interest contemplated in paragraph (f):

HELP! I am supposed to be a moderator, but who understands this or can make it simpler but clearer. It definitely needs to change.

Best Regards,

Nyaki

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