[kictanet] ICT BOARD - ANY LESSONS TO LEARN

Fri Aug 23 13:42:17 EAT 2013

Daktari,

I guess these are the insights I was looking for and yes I do see the
balance. I guess I just didn't follow up keenly on what ICT Board was upto. 

Thank you for your reply.

Kind Regards, 

Bernard Kioko
Chief Executive Officer
Bernsoft Interactive Limited
P.O.Box 15177-00100 Nbi,Kenya
Office:   +254-703-080-000
Mobile: +254-722-540-883

-----Original Message-----
From: Bitange Ndemo [mailto:bitange at jambo.co.ke] 
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2013 9:20 PM
To: bkioko at bernsoft.com
Cc: bitange at jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] ICT BOARD - ANY LESSONS TO LEARN

Bernard,
The changes you are seeing now are as a result of the lessons we learnt and
correctly recommended that ICTB be combined with e-Government.  Most of ICTB
budget came from the World Bank and it meant that we do things as per the
demands of the Bank.  Majority of the staff were paid by the Bank on
contract basis.

Mid stream we changed policy and indeed communicated that we had shifted
from marketing Kenya abroad to local outsourcing.  This was necessitated by
the digitization program from WB resources.  Indeed work was done in
Ministry of Lands, State Law Office and Judiciary.  Registries that today
demad several applications and back end work.  If we had succeeded in
bringing the different ICT units together, we shall have realized our local
outsourcing much earlier and we hope this happens since they will be singing
from one hym book.

It was pointless to continue marketing Kenya abroad when we had sufficient
work locally.  In several fora, I stated that we wanted to invert India's
strategy (in October I will be in India to elaborate our strategy which the
Indians picked from Media) by looking more inwards for outsourcing. 
Once we became proficient and realized internal efficienies, then we could
now move to the outside world.  We still have the opportunity to use this
strategy.

On the innovation side we continued to encourage companies like IBM to bring
their research experience to Kenya.  Indeed if you peruse through the MOU,
we shall share IP proceeds while at the same time developing capacity.
Research is the backbone of any country that is building innovative capacity
like Kenya.  We must inculcate that culture by learning through others and
that is what we were doing.

Our efforts to incubate several startups at Sameer flopped as we could not
get the funding.  There were several firms from the creative industry who
would have benefited from the program but we were told to hold it until
Konza was built.  As you know Konza was not just a real estate exercise as
some of you may have thought.  We were trying to create a non existent
creative economy ecosystem.  To realize the triple helix model of
development just like the newly induatrialized or industrialized countries.
No country has developed on the backdrop of peasant mentality devoid of
research, policy and industry working in unison.

If you correlate for example, the growth of Korea and research spending, you
will see almost a perfect positive correlation.  The more the country is
spending on research, the more developed it becomes and more sustainable
wealth creation.

Working in Government is probably the most difficult assigment anyone can
do.  You get criticism from everybody.  There are multiple and conflicting
interests from various interest group that one must balance.  There is a
selfish parliament and individuals that no selection process can be fair. 
We tried our best and let us now support those in office to try as much.

Personally, I have no intention of ever wanting to serve in our sector at
the administrative level.  I continue to play a key role as a newly
appointed Honorary Chair of the Alliance for Affordable Internent (A4AI) and
an advisor to the Better than Cash Alliance.  I will also continue to
participate in activities that will deepen the application of technology in
Kenya.  I also have time now to write more than I have done before.

It is pointless to be aspectator who only highlight mistakes of those in the
field. I want to see you seek to lead ICTA just like Yawe has done with
Posta.

Ndemo.

> Listers,
>
>
>
> Now that the ICT Board has been disbanded (or absorbed not sure 
> which), my head has been active with the thoughts of what really went 
> wrong there and what lessons can be learnt. How did that board not 
> leave us with anything tangible or is it just me who didn't follow on what
they did.
>
>
>
> I always felt (quietly) that the ICT Board was going about their 
> initiatives in the wrong (or not practical) way but I kept silent 
> because I always kept feeling its me who was wrong. Now, more and more 
> now, am starting to think something was wrong there.
>
>
>
> Anyone with any insights.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Kind Regards,
>
>
>
> Bernard Kioko
> Chief Executive Officer
>
> Bernsoft Interactive Limited
>
> P.O.Box 15177-00100 Nbi,Kenya
>
> Office:   +254-703-080-000
>
> Mobile: +254-722-540-883
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> kictanet mailing list
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
> https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
>
> Unsubscribe or change your options at
> https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/bitange%40jambo.
> co.ke
>
> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder 
> platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT 
> policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for 
> reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled 
> growth and development.
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors 
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and 
> bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, 
> respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.

University of Nairobi
Business School, Lower Kabete Campus