[kictanet] ICT BOARD - ANY LESSONS TO LEARN

Fri Aug 23 19:27:36 EAT 2013

Dr,

Excellent insights. "*No country has developed on the backdrop of peasant
mentality
devoid of research, policy and industry working in unison*" --- must be the
quote of the week

Mutuvi.

On Fri, Aug 23, 2013 at 1:42 PM, Bernard Kioko [Bernsoft Interactive
Limited] <bkioko at bernsoft.com> wrote:

> 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
> >
> >
> >
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> >
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>
> University of Nairobi
> Business School, Lower Kabete Campus
>
>
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> 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.
>

-- 
There is always a way where there is a will.>>
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