[kictanet] Freedom of Information laws and records management/More questions raised by Dr Ndemo and Harry Delano

[Grace Githaiga]

Bwana PS and Harry
 
Thanks for those well articulated positions. Just to capture some issues you have raised:
 
·         That FoI has not built demand for information into the kind of model under discussion on the list.
·         There is need for a complete cultural re-orientation to make Kenyans use information. As it is, Kenyans are not utilizing a lot of information available.
·         Kenyans need to move from an oral culture, and start documenting information, and make it available (I am actually curious of those 15 Ugali recipes:)).
·         And very important is that data being released by the government needs conversion into meaningful and usable information.
·         There is need for ethnic language institutions to facilitate better communication.
·         That we need home bred solutions and must confront key challenges as well as define what works for us. 
·         And that the Platform on Access to Information Declaration needs a review in order to capture the digital information age realities.  
 
Some key questions arise from your contributions:
 
1.     That Data in its stored form can never be information, until the same is conveyed to the target audience. What of knowledge? Where on the value chain do we build up data into knowledge, so that we can build ours into a "knowledge-based economy"?
 
2.     And if we go up the data/information tree, what about data that has yet to find its way into the data bank, possibly some which remains in institutional memory form. How do we ensure we capture this for future generations?
 
3.     What formats are we to get the information? 
 
4.     Who will set the standards for information? 
 
5.     How will the poor benefit from the information? 
 
6.     How will the information be disseminated?
 
Listers, please feel free to respond to any of the questions and lets keep this debate going. 
 
Rgds
Grace


 
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If you have the strength to survive, you have the power to succeed. Life is all about choices we make depending upon the situation we are in. Go forth and rule the World!

 

> Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2011 04:17:22 +0300
> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Freedom of Information laws and records management/ e- discussion continued
> From: bitange at jambo.co.ke
> To: ggithaiga at hotmail.com
> CC: bitange at jambo.co.ke; kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
> 
> 
> 
> Grace,
> I am sort of disappointed with the discussion on FOI. We are delving much
> into theoretical assumptions. The whole issue of FOI has not built demand
> for the information into the kind of model we are discussing. Let us not
> allow foreigners dictate why we need information to be available to our
> citizens.
> 
> What needs to be done is more of cultural reorientation to make our people
> use information. We rarely make informed decisions. I mean use of
> science to make decisions. Poverty keeps on going up yet science tells us
> our productivity has dropped to the extent those we call farmers cannot
> make ends meet. Whereas we need qualified people in work place we do not
> require qualification for farmers. We now have novice farmers as wen
> grapple with food insecurity. If we cannot use available information on
> how we can be food secure, what more information you need that would
> change our lives?
> 
> For as long as we have lived on earth no Kenyan community has information
> on their own recipes. The assumptions is that if you want Ugali you just
> get to know how to cook it. There are more than fifteen Ugali recipes and
> none is documented. There are more than 100 Githeri recipes and none is
> documented to create rich information that application developers can
> proudly create apps. Until we move from our oral culture, information
> will be confined to storage places where it will occasionally be used.
> 
> We are also confusing information and data. The Government can release
> data and unless someone converts it into information, it will never
> translate to your theoretical assumptions. We generally want to listen to
> someone tells us what information is available. You recall some
> communities did not read the constitution since the leaders had read it. 
> I had difficulty explaining some sections of the constitution even though
> we all had the document.
> 
> FOI will pass as has been many legislations that were key. We have fought
> for these legislations but after they are passed nothing happens. We
> wanted the ICT policy but many of it's advocates have not gone out there
> to tell Kenyans how to benefit from it. This certainly will happen the
> same way to FOI. We are rebels without a cause. I have met dozens of
> women groups and taken them through our census report highlighting the
> glaring disparities between men and women but in spite the fact that they
> promise to do something, none has ever done anything even bringing the
> issue up for debate.
> 
> We must aim to change our culture. We must make our people to demand to
> know what information they require in order to change from where they are
> to a desired future. We must build institutional frameworks to move date
> into information. As we debate, let us put a side theories from textbooks
> and begin from the end. Ask questions such as what formats are we to get
> the information? Who will set the standards for information? How will the
> poor benefit from the information? How will the information be
> disseminated?
> 
> Picture our problems and create the vision on how information can be used
> to bring better life for our people. Work the food security issue I
> mentioned backwards. We have mapped our soils in the country and the
> result is available on the open data yet you see farmers growing crops
> that will never give them the desired productivity. For example, in
> Ukambani, farmers can grow cassava or water Mellon which will give them
> more money to buy maize from the north rift instead of them growing the
> maize that would impoverish them. How can we effectively communicate
> this.
> 
> We must create language institutes for every ethnic group in Kenya. 
> Language is dynamic yet we have not kept pace with technological
> advancement with our languages. This is why we fail to communicate. 
> There is no African language that has a translation of break-even point or
> productivity yet these two words determine whether you will be poor or
> not. Information is information if the medium of communication is
> understood by all. We all need FOI but we have a lot to do if it is to
> making meaning in our lives.
> 
> 
> 		 	   		  
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