[kictanet] A good piece by Dr. Bitange Ndemo

Wed Nov 20 01:39:56 EAT 2013

Daktari,

If there is one thing I and the rest of the community does appreciate, is
the fact that you at least take the time to look at the comments &
critiques coming in through these forums, and taking the time to reply to
them.

Your reply I guess, gives me an opportunity to ask more than the one
*question* that I had promised to ask earlier.

I also see where you are coming from regarding how the Civil Service works,
but IMO, a lot more could have been done.

Let me start with a story that you once told when someone asked you in a
forum on whether we should start eBusinesses that used the then nascent
Mobile payments platforms, and your answer, for a Civil Servant, was
astonishing!

"... Don't just sit and ask whether to do it... Do it and then let GoK, if
they ever will, come and ask you questions later..."

The point was, you cannot regulate innovation, as you can only regulate
what has been invented.

But therein lies the contradiction in your earlier statements. Simply
because, from where I sit, I never saw that level of innovation when it
came to pushing for a credible local technology industry employing
thousands of our citizens. Your points number 2,3,5.

As the PS ICT, and applying the same analogy, I would have expected that
you would have crafted policies or came up with innovative ways, to be
followed by say at least your Ministry and the then Kenya ICT Board, in
terms of how they ought to push for local innovation and businesses in
order to aid in job creation for the local industry.

I would have rather that one day, someone had taken you to court for
rooting for Kenyan innovation & businesses, when the policy, said maybe you
shouldn't have. You might have lost, but you probably could have earned
your stripes in battle.

If I was to tell the story of Alliance Technologies, a firm that I started
some 10 odd years ago, we wouldn't be where we are today, if some persons
then in Government, who we are eternally grateful to, did not rise up and
make some key decisions and recommendations to go with a local firm while
the easier route would have been to go with the flow and ensure this
country forever imported enterprise business software.

What I then learnt is that, it is not that we do not have such policies to
support local enterprises and build local capacity, indeed the Procurement
Act 2005, leave alone the newly updated one, gives such leeway to Cabinet
Ministers, Ministerial Tender Committees etc. The limit to what any one
person in a position of influence can do is determined simply by their
resolve and determination to a cause!

Let me use two examples. If anyone in the early 2000s had indicated that we
were going to build a 85 Billion USD City in the middle of nowhere, they
would have been considered bonkers. Fast forward to 2010, and you had
managed to deliver the Konza Project and get the government to commit to
putting in such resources by 2030.

If anyone also had told you in 2007 that the biggest bank by customer value
and transaction by 2012 would be Safaricom, you would not have believed
them. Yet, you were key to making it happen. You were key in making the
Central Bank Governor sign-off on this venture against the wishes of the
established banks whose lobbying power is quite formidable.

You created and/or changed policy! The results of which speak for
themselves.

And that is why I would respectfully say that the reason why we have an
almost non-existent technology industry here, employing local persons, the
reason why this government is still importing 95% of its software & 100% of
its hardware, the reason why Kenya cannot even build or assemble laptops
for their primary school kids is not because it is hard to change policy.

So, and for whatever reason, you didn't have enough determination and
resolve to change policy and ensure that a thriving local technology
industry takes root.

As much as I am cognizant of the fact that you cannot win them all, I still
rate that as the single biggest failure in ICT of the past government.
Failure not because we tried and failed, but because we didn't even make a
serious effort in trying to make it work.

Finally, I do hope, and my prayers are, 10-15 years from now, once I am
done with what I need to do in the private world, and perhaps with a bit
more wisdom, I could dedicate a good 10 years of my life to Civil Service.

So thank you for your prayers and I do hope that they will be answered.
AMEN!

On Tue, Nov 19, 2013 at 10:34 PM, Bitange Ndemo <bitange at jambo.co.ke> wrote:

> Ngigi Waithaka,
> I was in government for 7 years.  I sought to focus on:
> 1.) Infrastructure
> 2.) Content, Application and Innovation
> 3.) Capacity Building
> 4.) Public Private Partnership
> 5.) Employment creation.
>
> No. 1 and 4 worked very well since we were able to see at least 95 percent
> of the infrastructure done.
>
> No. 2 and 3 are an ongoing process and requires government support.
> Treasury and Parliament are key.  We made some key proposals through
> public participation but we were not successful in convincing either
> Treasury or Parliament to provide sufficient support.
>
> No. 5 is a product of all of the above.  The entrepreneur creates jobs as
> well as the government through spending.  In our thinking we wanted the
> government to invest in productivity enabling projects but we were not
> obviously on the same wavelength with parliament.
>
> We actually got the ICT policies in place and even revised them.  We asked
> for at least 30 percent in local software but as usual compliance was not
> there.  We actually fought for removal of tax from hardware and we were
> equally surprised with the removal of tax on imported software.
>
> You are most likely thinking that every civil servant has the power to
> change fiscal policy.  This is far from the truth.  Blame me for the ICT
> policies.
>
> Lastly, I have been the same person all through.  Critical on what I see
> is not good for the country.  At some point in this fora we had a mock
> presidential debate on my views which are still the same.  You can
> actually verify this.
>
> I will be delighted to respond to any of your concerns during my tenure.
> To be a civil servant is perhaps the most difficult thing in any one's
> life.  My prayer is that one day you get the chance to serve your country
> in the civil service.
>
>
> Ndemo.
>
>
>
>
>
> > If I ever have a chance to sit down with Dr Ndemo I will ask just *one*
> > question:
> >
> > You were in Government as the PS ICT for 10 years, with a golden chance
> to
> > formulate the policies that you are now saying we need. Yet, you wasted
> > that chance and if anything, oversaw the domination of the Kenya ICT
> scene
> > by foreign firms, implementing products & services that could have been
> > done here and also oversaw the abolishing of the import tax on software,
> > that is needed to shield the nascent software industry and hence
> exporting
> > even more Kenyan jobs to those countries like India, who probably need
> > them
> > more than we do!
> >
> > So, what has changed now? Is this a case of Saul converting on his way to
> > Damascus?
> >
> > Would that be *one* question?
> >
> > Waithaka Ngigi
> > A1.iO
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Nov 18, 2013 at 3:22 PM, Dorcas Muthoni <dmuthoni at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> A good piece by Dr. Bitange Ndemo
> >>
> >>
> >> *We must be more pragmatic to resolve Kenya's high unemployment *
> >>
> >>
> http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/blogs/dot9/-/1959700/2077756/-/oodsogz/-/index.html
> >>
> >> --
> >> Muthoni
> >>
> >> My Blog: http://rugongo.blogspot.com/
> >> --------------------------------------------
> >> Mahatma Gandhi once said:-
> >>
> >> First they ignore you,
> >> Then they laugh at you,
> >> Then they fight you,
> >> AND THEN YOU WIN!!!
> >>
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> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > *Regards,*
> >
> > *Wait**haka Ngigi*
> > Chief Executive Officer | Alliance Technologies | MCK Nairobi Synod
> > Building
> > T + 254 (0) 20 2333 471 |Office Mobile: +254 786 28 28 28 | M + 254 737
> > 811
> > 000
> > www.at.co.ke
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> 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
>
>

-- 
*Regards,*

*Wait**haka Ngigi*
Chief Executive Officer | Alliance Technologies | MCK Nairobi Synod Building
T + 254 (0) 20 2333 471 |Office Mobile: +254 786 28 28 28 | M + 254 737 811
000
www.at.co.ke
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