[kictanet] 3 Media houses protest Majanja's Digital Migration Ruling

Mutua, Muthusi Mutua at cck.go.ke
Sun Dec 29 14:33:34 EAT 2013


Any bidder who is convinced they have lost unfairly doesn't need a lot of encouragement to take legal measures. My problem is for those of us who believe every story they hear from the media without seeking facts.

We can easily accuse anything to corruption because the corruption is rampant in our society. This means corruption can be found anywhere. Pushing for one to be given a licence after losing a competitive bid is in itself not above board. And that's what some of us would rather we do "to fight perceived corruption".

Its easy to blame government entities for corruption but can one say which sector is corruption-free? Not even the church, I dare say. Those who know how the details of this tender by section of media doesn't need convincing that they put together an inferior bid. Even they, themselves, haven't said anywhere, that they had won the tender. After they lost their appeal at the legal sphere they turned to the public court; using their advantage to seek sympathy. Its working for them somehow because they have won a few convertees who believe in their story without need for facts. Everyone knows this is not how to appeal against unsuccessful tenders. But there we are, singing along! Propaganda is powerful.

Those interested in FACTS about this debate please read The People Daily today and see what Dr. Ndemo says about what the media is not telling us. Let's pick it from there.

From: Ngigi Waithaka [mailto:ngigi at at.co.ke]
Sent: Sunday, December 29, 2013 01:38 PM
To: ICT Researcher <ict.researcher at yahoo.com>
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>; Consumer and Public Affairs
Subject: Re: [kictanet] 3 Media houses protest Majanja's Digital Migration Ruling


Normally, if you lose your case at PPARB thats the Board that hears the Procurement reviews, you can take your case to the High Court for a Judicial Review.

The High Court has quashed many previous rulings made by PPARB whose reviews, at least IMO, tend to be shallow and in a lot of cases have a lot of 'influence' undertones around them.

I have had the misfortune of being involved in a case where PPOA were procuring an eProcurement system, and they went ahead and picked, word-for-word (including misspellings) from one competitors brochure and made those the official technical requirements.

Naively, we appealed to PPARB thinking we would win ( but someone warned us that if u don't have certain 'well-connected' law firms representing you there, your chances of winning are <0 we didn't believe them) but we lost.

Reasons, there was some 1% difference btn the tender document and our competitor's technical documents.

In short-order we appealed to the High Court and previous rulling was quashed with Judge quoting that such cases should not even have made it past the initial review.

Infact when we blame corruption in procurement in Kenya, the buck stops at PPOA & PPARB (they have never been reformed / vetted as Judiciary was) and prior experience tells me, if you 'know' people you can always win your cases there.

And I am not surprised the local-consortium lost their cases there. The die was already cast.

Did they appeal to the High Court? I dont know. But, they had a better chance for justice there.

Waithaka Ngigi

Alliance Technologies
Nairobi, Kenya

www.A1.io<http://www.A1.io>

On 29 Dec 2013 12:44, "ICT Researcher" <ict.researcher at yahoo.com<mailto:ict.researcher at yahoo.com>> wrote:

 Ndemo's public views can be read here:

 Tell Kenyans the truth about digital migration, Ndemo dares media | The People - http://www.thepeople.co.ke/43602/tell-kenyans-truth-digital-migration-ndemo-dares-media/

Much referred 2011 lost bid was repprted here:

Nation, Royal Media lose appeal for signal distribution licence - Corporate News - businessdailyafrica.com<http://businessdailyafrica.com> - http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/Nation--Royal-Media-lose-appeal-for-signal-distribution-licence/-/539550/1204274/-/2jgqstz/-/index.html

In the likely event that the Court of Appeal reverses Public Procurement Oversight Authority decision, what would be the scenario look like?

a) court favours applicants bid re-consideration

b) since 1 distributor was ideal but we ended with 2, CCK responds there is no spectrum to allocate 3rd licensee

c) all past PUblic Procurement Oversight decisions become ripe candidates heading to Court of Appeal.

The trio-patitioners don't get license, Court of Appeal gets more work and PPOA oversight role gets sharp scrutiny.

Have I missed something?

------------------------------
On Sun, Dec 29, 2013 10:36 AM MSK ICT Researcher wrote:

>
>You are pointedly and selectively unfair to Dr. Ndemo by asking him to critisize official decisions he initiated or happened under his watch as PS Ministry of Information.
>
>Broadcasting signal infrastructure is among critical resources, and so are telecommunications, Internet, servers, data centres,  IXPs, superhighways, rail and civil aviation (including aircrafts)...etc..
>
>Going by you argument, Kenya should exclude all foreigners from all related procurements, construction, networking, equipment and expertise and everything where dollar outflows are emminent.No more Boeings, Embrayers, British and German car and techhologies, no more chinese electronics, road contractors,   (Your assuption being that the dollars will keep flowing in regardless). While at it we may stop trading with EAC, COMESA, SADEC, EU...to save Dollars and Euros..
>
>Thus this selective amnesia and forceful "local preference" argument fails to remember that only 5% of Kenyans control 95% of the resources, therefore, in essence advocates for widening local wealth-poverty divide.After all, we all know how these local tycoons carry themselves around... Is it not better side with developments that equalize the past inequities?
>
>In any case, blind protectionism fuelled by just one or two local media moguls self-interests portlys Kenya as taking steps on North Korea's path to self-destruct.
>
>Regards
>
>------------------------------
>On Sun, Dec 29, 2013 10:02 AM MSK Kivuva wrote:
>
>>Ali, I'm afraid many listers are not getting your argument, that of
>>auctioning our critical resources to foreigners.
>>
>>Many of us have been dragged into taking sides either for the
>>government (CCK), or the local media houses. If we divorce them from
>>this debate, maybe we will be more objective.
>>
>>Let me digress, we have enough coal in Kitui to setup a powerplant
>>that can propell Kenya to vision 2030 and stop relying on poor
>>rainfall and other unreliable renewable energy like geothermal. But
>>what did we do with the coal? We auctioned it to the Chinese "who need
>>the power more than us." That is the same thing happening to our
>>spectrum resources.
>>
>>Forget about procurement laws and let's think about economics that
>>will build the country without taking sides. Is it better to give the
>>frequency distribution to a local firm, and keep local dollars local,
>>or is it better to have that capital flight to China? We should even
>>give the third licence FREE to a consortium of local firms than
>>auction it for a Billion dollars to a foreigner.
>>
>>Are we a nation that has lost national pride?
>>
>>Remember CCK cannot have an objective stand on this since Wambua has
>>to respond with the official government position, and I cannot fault
>>him for that. Only civil society can take the high moral ground and do
>>what is good for Kenya. Advocate for our critical resources, airwaves,
>>minerals, tourism, ... to be controlled by locals.
>>
>>Dr. Ndemo is the economist on the list. Can he teach us why developed
>>economies work so hard to support their industries, while Kenya works
>>extra hard to support foreign economies? What are the repercussions on
>>future generations?
>>
>>Anybody who cannot get this argument is beyond uncolonization.
>>
>>--
>>______________________
>>Mwendwa Kivuva, Nairobi, Kenya
>>twitter.com/lordmwesh<http://twitter.com/lordmwesh>
>>kenya.or.ke<http://kenya.or.ke> | The Kenya we know
>>
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