[kictanet] Digital migration and local manufacturing

Tue Dec 25 11:27:54 EAT 2012

Kivuva,
This time let us not stop here.  Somehow let us make this a campaign
issue.  We need someone to start talking about educational reforms.  I do
not mean changing the system but trying inclusiveness and find a solution
to the majority who do not get admission to college.

For a start, we must have a polytechnic in every county to offer hands on
training in many thematic areas.  It is absurd that we have unemployed
Kenyans when we hire technicians to repair an X-ray machine.  We have only
four trained per-fusionists in a country of 40 million.  Even in nursing
we only focus in very few areas.  In Engineering the situation is pathetic
forty nine years after independence.  Numerical Machining Complex lies
virtually idle as we keep on importing every item the machine can make.

Our greatest dilemma is in dealing with the supply-side of labour, without
thinking about the the demand-side of it.  This is the only thing we want
our politicians to remember to avoid past mistakes.  Let me elaborate. 
After Independence Kenya had the best educational system which absorbed
many high school graduates into middle level colleges such as the Kenya
Science Teachers College, Egerton and all other agricultural institutes,
Medical training institutions, water engineering in South C, Utalii
College etc.  We never had issues to do with food security as agricultural
extension officers dotted the country.  The surplus of our labour went to
neighbouring countries.

Botswana's beef industry was built by Kenyans.  The road networks in
Swaziland was done by Kenyans.  Our Utalii college graduates are in every
hotel in Dubai today.  All these countries have done well.  Take for
example, Dubai.  By comparison, Dubai receives seven million visitors a
month.  Why? because they have balanced demand and supply for labour by
building a world class transport hub, building world class hotels and
ensured security.  To do this they had to free their mind from a
minimalist approach to broad thinking.  In Kenya we build a four lane
Highway we call it a super highway and almost want to take a break to
admire it.  There is no drive replicate the same throughout the country.

In Tourism we failed and that is why our labour is glob trotting in search
of greener pastures and maintain a competitive advantage for their adopted
countries.  Kenya needs more than 200 new hotels and superior airports in
order to scale up our tourism to levels where we can become a major
player.  I mean like receiving 2 million visitors a month.  We cannot
attain this with our selfish approach to development.  Where individuals
build hopeless structures they call hotels instead of aggregating
resources with others to build proper and aesthetically built hotels that
can attract better returns (in other words we have the resources but
because we have not been schooled to embrace aesthetics, we keep on
wasting our resources and getting poorer even those who should not be). 
If you want to know more visit our peri urban centers like (Ngong,
Kiserian, Kiambu, Kitengela, Ruiru, Thika) and see the amount waste that
has gone into these structures.  We have done the same since independence
building shops in market center that are never put into any economic use. 
In my earlier studies, we have put in excess of $15 billion into such
waste and people ask why Africans get poorer as they get older.

In the proposed education reforms we must cover such courses such as
investments formats, resource mobilization, entrepreneurship, patriotism
etc.  This is what Kivuva referred to in Mahatma Gandhi.  Indians did not
revere Gandhi for his non violence call but because he successfully
managed to decolonize the minds of Indians by asking them to burn any
imported clothes and embracing their own; in leaning his people to salt
mines to make their own salt.  In Kenya only Ngugi wa Thiongo tried but
failed because he was too academic in approach.  We needed simpler methods
of decolonizing the mind.  To date we continue to create a rift among our
people by allowing two educational systems, that is, the Kenyan and the
British.  When shall we begin to build a harmonious Nation?  Tell your
preferred candidate to make this a priority.

Ndemo.

> Thank you Dr. Ndemo for spotting the elephant in the room.
>
> Mahatma Gandhi did his country good for preaching self sustainability.
> With proper implementation of brand Kenya initiative, we might use
> more local products and follow India's footsteps. Just remember, "the
> cowards never started, the weak died in the way, only the strong
> arrived. They were the pioneers."
>
> Francois-Marie Arouet de Voltaire Said, "No problem can withstand the
> assault of sustained thinking." I think Daktari you are thinking in
> the right direction.
>
> On 24/12/2012, bitange at jambo.co.ke <bitange at jambo.co.ke> wrote:
>> Kivuva,
>> I am really having a terrible time with internet connectivity here in
>> India.  It cost more than Ksh. 2,000 per an hour for a 512K link.  By
>> the
>> time I read a two page attachment, the time is over with no warning.
>>
>> I want to thank you for reviving the local manufacturing issue.  As
>> Mwale
>> states, this where I started anticipating migration by 2012.  We could
>> not
>> get support in spite of Dr. Gachigi's effort to develop a prototype.  I
>> personally went round talking to our industrialists.  They wanted
>> numbers.
>>  I could not provide attractive numbers since this is a stop gap
>> measure.
>> Instead I went round talking how we can leverage 3D printing to start
>> elevating Jua Kali Industries into local manufacturing without
>> necessarily
>> getting into the economies of scale trap.
>>
>> The good news is that Dr. Gachigi is still determined.  Just recently I
>> wrote that he needed Ksh. 15 million to start local manufacturing of
>> hand
>> sets.  I went further and talked to two chip makers who have gracefully
>> accepted to give us their mobile handset platform.  We have no investors
>> (risk takers) yet but it is going to work and we propel our country into
>> light electronic manufacturing.  It needs the commitment of Kenyans to
>> buy
>> local.  Every 10 vehicles I count here in India, seven are local.
>> Actually even the foreign brands are manufactured locally.  This not a
>> government problem but a serious cultural dilemma.
>>
>> Ndemo.
>>
>>
>>
>>> Dear Dr. Ndemo, wishing you a safe flight back home, and a quick
>>> recovery to your loved one.
>>>
>>> Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you too
>>>
>>> On 21/12/2012, bitange at jambo.co.ke <bitange at jambo.co.ke> wrote:
>>>> Stephen,
>>>> I wanted to stay out of this till the ruling in court but I cannot
>>>> keep
>>>> quiet when you tell the whole world lies on mobile penetration in
>>>> Kenya.
>>>> Virtually every adult Kenyan has access to mobile in 2G.  The fastest
>>>> growing market is broadband because of the growing needs by the poor
>>>> to
>>>> get their produce to market or get the best pricing.  This is what the
>>>> many applications that are being developed in Kenya will do.  Rural
>>>> schools need the broadband most since education too is going e. While
>>>> mobile coverage in Kenya is at 90% (mostly 2G coverage), land mass
>>>> coverage stands at 40% with 80% mobile penetration.  Mpesa is not for
>>>> the
>>>> rich like Mutoro but the poor and is accessible to 90% of the poor.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The need to migrate to 4G is critical in planning our broadband needs
>>>> in
>>>> the next one year.  For us to meet the projected demand we must get to
>>>> the
>>>> last mile.  This means that getting to the poor since mot of the rich
>>>> have
>>>> fibre connevtivity to their homes.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I take great exception with your statements.  My Key Performance Index
>>>> (KPI)is how many people in Kenya rich and poor have access to
>>>> internet.
>>>> This is significantly different from your KPI of counting how many
>>>> cases
>>>> you have taken to court over the perceived infringement of consumer
>>>> rights. While you can criticise me as a public servant, I am not able
>>>> to
>>>> even know your funding sources and the motives for funding.  I do not
>>>> question but this is what Kenyans are talking in low tones.
>>>>
>>>> What we can do for now is to rephrase John F. Kennedy's quote to read
>>>> "ask
>>>> not what the poor may be wanting; ask what you have done to remove
>>>> poverty".  Going to court purpoting to represent the poor is a
>>>> bouguasie
>>>> cover up.  Let us stand up for the poor and help eliminate poverty by
>>>> teaching them to navigate the high seas of technology and fish for
>>>> their
>>>> sustainable living.
>>>>
>>>> I am in India for some family medical case but I must report that
>>>> Delhi
>>>> whose per capita income is lower than Nairobi, has fully migrated to
>>>> Digital.  The poor are now enjoying watching TV in the languages they
>>>> understand (this is a requirement in our constitution).  Three hundred
>>>> new
>>>> channels have come up including one helping consumers understand what
>>>> is
>>>> in the market and how it compares with other competitors.  Perhaps you
>>>> need to upgrade your approach to consumerism.  Only technology will
>>>> help
>>>> be more effective.
>>>>
>>>> Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year my brother.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Ndemo.
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> ______________________
>>> Mwendwa Kivuva
>>> For
>>> Business Development
>>> Transworld Computer Channels
>>> Cel: 0722402248
>>> twitter.com/lordmwesh
>>> transworldAfrica.com | Fluent in computing
>>> kenya.or.ke | The Kenya we know
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> ______________________
> Mwendwa Kivuva
> For
> Business Development
> Transworld Computer Channels
> Cel: 0722402248
> twitter.com/lordmwesh
> transworldAfrica.com | Fluent in computing
> kenya.or.ke | The Kenya we know
>