[kictanet] Happy New Year - ref: Re: Vision 2030: ICT and Other Sectors Converged (Day 3)

Sun Jan 1 02:27:55 EAT 2012

Friends

This is to wish you the very best
of 2012.

Kictanet has been a good source
of information, ideas and exchange of those ideas in 2011. I hope that will be
the case. I hope that we can make the best of those ideas in the interest of
the nation, Kenya and the businesses associated with participants. 

Dr Ndemo raised an issue on
Diaspora academics and professionals. Some of his observations are right: it is
easy to cheer or jeer from a distance. We see it in soccer matches where some
(as someone put it) some of the best players are on the spectator benches.

That said, though, this matter
cannot be generalized. We have many, many accomplished academics and
professionals that choose to make the Diaspora their home; some do it by choice
others by circumstance. I once listened to professor Mazrui on how he ended up
on the United States, recognized as an authority in his space (globally) and
yet no institution in Kenya wanted to welcome him. By the time Kibaki came
along in 2002, he had been too long gone and entrenched in his space to be
simply transplanted. 

We have many Kenyans in the
Diaspora like those: they moved out when times were bad, are well-established
and cannot simply come back.

There are other examples that
make people stay away from Kenya. A friend I know came home but could not even
be short listed for an interview, despite his PhD and a number of published
works. His luck came through a friend he met at a pub, someone who knew one of
the VCs; an appointment with the VC then led to an interview and a job. He
later told me that the department was dominated by some ethnic group and the
reason he was kept out for such a long time.

Another one I know supervised
grad students meticulous only to become a target of his colleagues, eti he was
making them look bad: completing paper reviews in timely manner, and having
students get their degrees in reasonable time. His recourse: join a research
outfit and leave out the politics of academia!

I was recently in the UoN Senior
Common Room with a friend; and it is amazing how our ivory tower reflects the
ethnic cleavages in the country. Since I wasn't in the company of fellow Kisiis
to the place, I  ended at a table that
appeared colourless with sober conversation and none of the ethnic passionate
obsessions. For people that have established positions where they are in the
Diaspora, it would be hard to adapt to such  an environment.

I once visited a friend at his post
at the UoN and talked about his routine, much of which was composed of driving
across campuses, offering the same course across different institutions for no
one job paid enough; the man literary lived on the road! He used the same notes
from year to year; and research? What language is that again? He kept talking
about his former position back in the USA and how progressive the institution
was, requiring ranking in teaching and research; and having time to attend
conferences/seminars and the like plus supervise graduate students with
interesting study topics. Yet here he was in a system of persistent struggle,
spinning wheels to meet basic needs. Yet quacks that had connections with
corruption rings were the limelight and mwananchi and authorities seemed to
love it.

There is more.

GoK and other companies can pay experts as much as $3K/day; so called experts
then staff work with junior consultants (to cut costs and make a profit) ending
with dubious deliverables! If a Kenyan (whether in the Diaspora or in Kenya)
asked for even $1K a day, which in some cases is less than what they are
qualified to get, some people think it is charity! 

And the cost of doing business in Kenya?  Speak not.

I personally have a lot of respect for those that choose to settle back home; I
salute their patriotism and commitment. I would NOT besmirch those that choose
to leave for quiet peace somewhere else, where they can achieve their life
goals. I just think that patriotism alone would not make people come home. Lack
of patriotism is NOT the recluse of those that leave; we have a lot of people
doing very unpatriotic things in Kenya like stealing from public coffers,
taking short cuts in public services (pot holes anyone?), committing crime,
selling drugs to our youth, doing inhuman demolitions, etc. 

But Diasporans can also bring different perspectives if we engage them
appropriately; and in my view, we should be working towards collaborative
models to allows for knowledge exchange and sharing of experiences. And this
can be done both in the private and public sector. And there are many academic
institutions keen on such collaboration; we just need to nurture these.

If we truly want to develop Kenya we need to create an environment where ideas
"germinate", get "watered" and result in true harvest in
terms of products and service and hence economic development. An environment in
which Kenyans can prosper on merit and fair play; an environment of ethics and
values.

Back in the 80s/90s GoK was a major bottleneck for people wanting to go
overseas, what with the frustrating clearance process for those in public
service and trying process in the issuance of passports. Today, we celebrate
Diaspora remittances! What if, in hindsight, Moi and co had left the floodgates
open for people to disperse across the world? We could probably be reaping
several times more in remittances than we are doing presently. 

In a nutshell, we are better off with our people dispersed across the globe;
they link us to networks in places they live and allow for knowledge flow and
exchange that can benefit our country. 

The role of Indian and Chinese Diasporas in those countries’ economic
development is well known; it is the reason I would like more of our people
across the world. The Indian government has a special ID for people of Indian origin across the world; the ID, while not conferring citizenship, acts like a permanent visa for into India for holders. As the Indian ambassador to the US said at our recent Kenyan Diaspora conference in the USA, this card has spurred Indian tourism to a degree they hadn't imagined before.

Happy New Year.

Matunda Nyanchama

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Matunda Nyanchama, PhD, CISSP; mnyanchama at aganoconsulting.com
Agano Consulting Inc.;  www.aganoconsulting.com; Twitter: nmatunda;  Skype: okiambe
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Be prepared to face ICT Security failures & know how to respond when they happen! 
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