[kictanet] Has the ICT Sector Failed?

[Edith Adera]

Listers,

Let us have the facts right. This is what IEBC assured Kenyans and observers about the electronic system (see in red).

In NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 26

Addressing a press briefing during a meeting with members of the East Africa Community observer group, Hassan reiterated that the relaying of election results will be effective and ruled out a repeat of the confusion witnessed in the 2007 General Election.

The chairman said that their electronic system for transmitting results was fool proof with near-zero chances of being interfered with or manipulated.

He added that phones to be used by returning officers had been configured to particular destinations and that only data verified by agents of candidates and parties will be transmitted, hence it was technically impossible to rig the election.

“This system has been used by the commission from 2010 until now. And we have two back-ups for our system. One is going to be at Bomas, the other is in the head office and a third one is outside the office. So we have put in place enough back-ups and security measures to ensure that this does not fail us,” he said.
Full article at http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2013/02/distribution-of-ballots-starts-thursday/

Sunday, February 10  2013 at  00:30

IEBC chief executive officer James Oswago says the systems had been fully tested and assured Kenyans of successful elections. “We are fully prepared for the elections and the systems we have put in place will not fail,” he said

Full article at http://elections.nation.co.ke/news/IEBC-moves-to-guard-against-fake-ballot-papers/-/1631868/1689728/-/1ufpy6z/-/index.html

What happened to this near 100% confidence? Where’s the back-up?

Edith

From: kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.ca at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Gilda Odera
Sent: March 6, 2013 10:42 AM
To: Edith Adera
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Has the ICT Sector Failed?

Listers,

I beg to differ here. It is about time we became perfectionists and stopped making excuses for our failure to ensure that the system was FULLY functional before the actual election took place. It is true that systems fail but in this case, it never really worked properly RIGHT FROM THE ONSET. If we keep adopting this attitude that 'systems fail' how will the processes and efficiencies ever be improved? It is wise to accept our weaknesses so we can improve on them. The moment the writing was on the wall, IEBC ICT Team should have advised of the risk of proceeding with the failing system in order for them to simply announce that they would have to run the elections on a dully manual system-expectations must always be managed, especially knowing how crucial these particular elections are for every party. Why is it that we don't normally read that systems failed during elections in all other countries. Probably because they fully prepare and have back up systems that work I event one fails!

Regards,

Gilda Odera

On Mar 6, 2013, at 9:52 AM, Erik Hersman <erik at zungu.com<mailto:erik at zungu.com>> wrote:
Agreed with Evans here.

Every single tech system has problems, that IEBC does as well should be no surprise.  I've been spending last night and this morning trying to better understand how the IEBC's data flow works, their lack of clarity here is the only problem that I can find.  You can see my questions, sources and even the IEBC RFP for the system here: http://iebctechkenya.tumblr.com/

•  Polling station uses Safaricom SIM cards »
•  App installed in phone, proprietary software from IFES »
•  Transmitted via Safaricom’s VPN »
•  Servers hosted/managed by Next  Technologies (needs confirmation) »
•  Google hosted website at http://vote.iebc.or.ke<http://vote.iebc.or.ke/> »
•  Google hosted API at http://api.iebc.or.ke<http://api.iebc.or.ke/>

You'll note that, besides the IEBC itself, there are at least 4 (large) organizations that have to be in sync in order for the system to work (Safaricom, IFES, Next Technologies, and Google).  That's no small task, and as you can see by the list of companies involved, these are largely not local companies.


Erik Hersman

www.ushahidi.com<http://www.ushahidi.com/> | www.iHub.co.ke<http://www.ihub.co.ke/>
www.whiteafrican.com<http://www.afrigadget.com/> | @whiteafrican<http://twitter.com/whiteafrican>

On Mar 6, 2013, at 9:42 AM, Evans Ikua <ikua.evans at gmail.com<mailto:ikua.evans at gmail.com>> wrote:


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<mailto: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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--
----------------------------------------------------
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_________________

Regards,

Gilda Odera

Regards,

Gilda Odera

On Mar 6, 2013, at 10:20 AM, Agosta Liko <agostal at gmail.com<mailto:agostal at gmail.com>> wrote:
Roland

The governance experts are saying - lack of governance

The networking experts are saying - lets get better VPNS

The server experts are saying - we should have used HP or SUN or IBM

The database experts are concerned Oracle was used (Open Source Guys would want MySQL)

Software Developers - why use language X and not you

Software Testers - want more testing

Everyone is pitching their wares ... no one is sure what happened ....... ... and the job is over this week :)
On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 10:00 AM, Roland Omoresemi <roland at tezzasolutions.com<mailto:roland at tezzasolutions.com>> wrote:
Can we really blame ICT when the true culprit appears to be the lack of proper testing of the systems in play?

IEBC could have performance tested (both load and stress) their systems to see how they would react under varying loads.

The tools and human resources were right there in Kenya but it is obvious we failed to apply them to help create a different result than what we currently face.

What we are witnessing is a classic case of what happens when we fail to adequately test our applications. Our non-conformance cost skyrockets...IEBC now has to worry about the cost of doing damage control on the biggest stage ever when it could have spent a fraction of the same cost to perform load or stress tests which would have helped them identify issues/bottlenecks in their systems long before now.

This is also not much different from what some of our local companies do...we deploy critical systems without proper testing and we then pray and hope nothing happens.

It is saddening that we don't see much value in setting aside adequate time for testing our applications (most especially those that are customer-facing) or we push whatever little testing we do to the very last minute when its practically too late to make any difference...or until the "s..." hits the ceiling and we then start to wonder why any of our issues could be happening.

Could we really blame ICT here or should we be looking closely at our lack of proper software testing?

- Roland
------Original Message------
From: Edith Adera
Sender: kictanet
To: Roland Omoresemi
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: [kictanet] Has the ICT Sector Failed?
Sent: Mar 6, 2013 12:55 AM

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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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.
---------------------------------------------
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Tezza Business Solutions Ltd
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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.
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