[kictanet] Cofek Article citing Digital Villages

Thu Apr 25 23:13:39 EAT 2013

Mr. Kukubo should know better than play PR on the list. Many of the
Pasha centers are studs with no operation. We live in these villages
and we see them.

The result of an independent audit done by Listers and spearheaded by
Dr. Warigia Bowman is available in the archives of this list. It
emerged that one major operator was claiming to sponsor the Digital
Villages hence get exempted from the USF yet at the ground, the
Digital Villages are NGOs (Nothing Going On). This amounts to stealing
from me, the public. Actually, the operator should be compelled to pay
arrears she owes to the USF. It's criminal.

@Madete, repeat projects are a ripe area for grand-corruption and
looting public money. Postal cooperation of Kenya rolled out VSAT to
all Post offices in Kenya, with cyber cafe like operations dubbed
"Posta Surf". It was a total failure. That project became a white
elephant and Kenya lost millions of shillings. My fellow citizens, let
us be vigilant and eagle eyed for taxpayers money to be used wisely.
There are people who are already salivating on thinking of this new
project Mr. Madete is talking about. For the failed corrupt "Posta
Surf" initiative scandal, please read the Mars Group report here
http://www.marsgroupkenya.org/corruption/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=29

Regards

On 25/04/2013, Bruce Madete <madetebruce at gmail.com> wrote:
> Allow me to shed some light on this matter. On behalf Dr Ndemo, l chair the
> committee that was to utilize close to ksh 250 million- as part of the
> Economic stimulus Programme to role out the Digital Villages throughout the
> country. In conjunction with the PCK the progamme would cover select Post
> Offices and later cover all of them. This was in line with the wider
> objective of reaching out to the rest of the country as the Government
> embarked on the 'one stop shop' concept of providing services in line with
> the Constitutions devolved system (indeed a team from PCK went to Brazil to
> benchmark on this). Unfortunately due to time constraints in the
> preparations, the funds were not utilized by the time the budget was
> revised. The funds were withdrawn. The committee is still in place and
> hopefully the funds will be made available next financial year to
> actualize the dream of having digital villages in all the post offices in
> the country.
> Madete
>
> On Thursday, April 25, 2013, Warigia Bowman wrote:
>
>> Dear colleagues and Mr. Kukubo
>>
>> I just want to clarify that the pasha centers do exist, and I have viewed
>> them. As of my last audit, many were not yet in operation, so we may need
>> to go do another review.
>>
>> With regards to the safaricom digital villages, based on my research,
>> which many on this list participated in, it is indeed fair to say that
>> they
>> do not really exist, other than as private cybers with a banner. It is
>> possible that massive improvements have been made, in which case lets go
>> out in the field this summer!
>>
>> Mr. Kukubo, perhaps you need to make a strong effort to brand the pashas
>> separately from the digital villages.
>>
>> Take care, and kind regards,
>>
>> Warigia
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 1:19 AM, Brian Munyao Longwe
>> <blongwe at gmail.com<javascript:_e({}, 'cvml', 'blongwe at gmail.com');>
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> Hmm, seems to me that COFEK's credibility is decaying rapidly with these
>>> kind of false allegations, one would expect a consumer body to embrace
>>> the
>>> highest standards for integrity, honesty, fairness....but
>>> apparently......
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 8:04 AM, Paul Kukubo <pkukubo at ict.go.ke> wrote:
>>>
>>> Dear listers
>>>
>>> The article by COFEK (Consumer Federation of Kenya) on their website,
>>> http://www.cofek.co.ke/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1529%3Awhy-ndemo-may-have-been-missed-on-the-ict-docket&catid=1%3Alatest-news&Itemid=62creates
>>> the impression that digital villages do not exist. The Kenya ICT
>>> Board wishes to correct this position.
>>>
>>> The Kenya ICT Board has committed funding for 65 Pasha centres to date
>>> across the country. For a factual update, we urge listers to visit.
>>> http://www.ict.go.ke/index.php/digitalinclusion. We will update this
>>> even further with an announcement we are making on Monday to further
>>> develop these centres.
>>>
>>> The Kenya ICT Board will write to COFEK formally providing further
>>> information in the public interest on the basis of COFEK's stated goal
>>> as
>>> stated on their website "advocacy is based on authentic information as
>>> backed by continuous research."
>>>
>>> We have finalised our 6 year report on the Kenya ICT Board which is
>>> currently being printed. we shall upload a digital copy onto our
>>> website,
>>> in the next week or so. This will make an exciting read on the sector.
>>>
>>> My view as the outgoing Kenya ICT Board CEO is that Dr Ndemo provided
>>> the
>>> vision, compeled us to seek a world class approach, set the tone of
>>> energetic execution, helped us cement partnerships in order to improve
>>> capacity, and focus on enterprise development, innovation and the
>>> ordinary
>>> citizen. He cautioned against getting too carried away in ICT dogma, but
>>> asked that we rather just get the job done. This was augmented with
>>> spirit
>>> of learning to pick up quickly from mistakes, (and many were made).
>>> There
>>> will be much debate, and indeed many things are left for the next team
>>> to
>>> do.
>>>
>>> As a team, we gave this our very best effort and Dr Ndemo gave us a
>>> style
>>> of leadership that even in the best private sector environments, you
>>> will
>>> struggle to find. (I will write more extensively on this later.)
>>>
>>> We reaped a leadership dividend in the sector, with support from the
>>> highest level of government. On this score there can be no debate. The
>>> country is much better for it
>>>
>>> We pray this carries on.
>>>
>>>
>>> Asante
>>>
>>> Paul Kukubo
>>> Chief Executive Officer, (outgoing), 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
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Dr. Warigia Bowman
>> Assistant Professor
>> Clinton School of Public Service
>> University of Arkansas
>> wbowman at clintonschool.uasys.edu <javascript:_e({}, 'cvml',
>> 'wbowman at clintonschool.uasys.edu');>
>> -------------------------------------------------
>> View my research on my SSRN Author page:
>> http://ssrn.com/author=1479660
>> --------------------------------------------------
>>
>

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