[kictanet] Has the ICT Sector Failed? Yes, dismally

Wed Mar 6 10:38:54 EAT 2013

Ikua,

I have always wondered why we as ICT practitioners never make it to the C-Suites from your answer it is now clear it is because we assume that IT is a separate animal from the rest of the organisation yet this cannot be any further from the truth.

As you might know I write for the the CIO magazine, but do I say, and over the years my articles have tried to understand why we do not have CIOs (chief information officer) in organisations but more IT managers masquerading as CIOs which explains why over the past few years many organisations have scraped the position and relegated the department to a section within either finance or operations.  ICT is at the core of any modern business therefore we cannot pass the buck on the IEBC issue  with frivolous statements as that is was an operations issue.   

I raised this issue over 3 weeks ago but as is normally the case on most forums the village madman was written off and instead the issue has been regurgitated as if it was a new by the milliard of undertakers, tech has failed the Nation all because we think that technology is about buildings and grasslands.  

The issue of the system failing when it was being tested a week before the elections was highlighted in the print media but since we did not see the same on social media the issue was deemed irrelevant.  Dr. Ndemo, Mr. Kukubo and the rest of the ilk never raised an issue but instead retracted into their cocoons to come back after the fiasco to carry out a postmortem. 

To avoid being treated as an outcast let me also regurgitated an old issue, we are a lose collection of social media noise makers with no platform to stand on, the only person with the mandate to castigate the IEBC is Dr. Waudo of the Computer Society of Kenya or maybe also Mr. Mutoro of COFEK as they lead formally constituted organisations, the rest of you are no different from me, village mad people. 

On a lighter note:  

IEBC were advised by the society for prevention of cruelty to cows to turn 
off the live feed as the nation had come to a standstill with citizens 
glued to their TV and phone screens trying to analyse and make outcome 
decisions based on 20% of the cast votes. 

This has resulted in cows not being milked for the past 3 days causing 
them untold pain and agony.  This will further cause a drop in milk 
being delivered to the dairies and thus no milk in the urban areas which
 might be misconstrued as sabotage by the newly elected governors by the urbanites who have been busy populating social media server hard drives.

Nenda ukakamue ngombe

Google Image Result for http://www.worldofstock.com/slides/PWO5775.jpg

Regards

PS.  IEBC said they will give us provisional results at least 48 hours after the closing of the last polling station which was at 9 pm on the 4th of March do the math, the constitution allows them 7 days within which to make the final results available so lets stop creating a mountain out of a skin mole.  

Robert Yawe
KAY System Technologies Ltd
Phoenix House, 6th Floor
P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
Kenya

Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696

________________________________
 From: Evans Ikua <ikua.evans at gmail.com>
To: robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk 
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> 
Sent: Wednesday, 6 March 2013, 9:42
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Has the ICT Sector Failed?

Edith, I beg to differ. Its not ICT that has failed here. Its the processes. Just throwing some expensive servers and plenty of bandwidth at a problem will not solve it. The top leadership has to fully understand their organization's ICT strategy. They have to internalize the opportunities that technology brings to the table, as well as the inherent risks that come with it. This cannot be left to techies, however good they may be. The reason being that if the organization that you lead fails (and the reason was technology), its you who is answerable, not the techies. This is the spirit of IT Governance.

It would be interesting to know if the IEBC commissioners fully understand the risks of the technologies that they are relying on.
Let us not blame the technology.

Evans

On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 8:55 AM, Edith Adera <eadera at idrc.ca> wrote:

Listers,
>
>It is a shame that for the first time in Kenya's history when IT is given a chance to bring credibility and efficiency in the electoral process, ICT has failed SPECTACULARLY!
>
>what went wrong?
>
>Edith
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-- 
----------------------------------------------------
Kind Regards,
Evans Ikua,
lanetconsulting.com,
lpi-eastafrica.org,
ict-innovation.fossfa.net,
Skype: @ikuae
Cell: +254-722-955831

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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.

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