[kictanet] [Security Forum] #KeIGF15 Online Discussions Day One: Inclusiveness and Diversity

[Mwendwa Kivuva]

Thank you Grace and Barrack for this important topic.

I will start by sharing the sentiments of the Speaker of the National
Assembly Justin Muturi.
http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Kenyans-must-be-involved-in-all-processes/-/440808/2768460/-/view/printVersion/-/6tg7g9/-/index.html
The speaker lamented that public participation ... and consultation in
matters of national building are either not happening, or not enough.
"citizens wanted to be consulted on everything being done on their behalf
by their leaders and that transparency was not optional", he said.

As it stands, the Communications Authority of Kenya is in limbo after the
court threw out the sitting board pending appeal. Is it possible that there
was proper consultation by the Ministry and Cabinet Secretary of ICT, but
some people did not feel their "interests" were covered well enough and
opted to run to the courts?

Well, being a member of the CA board may attract bigger allowances,
probably the reason why the litigants did not bother with the important
Universal Service Fund (USF) Council. The USF is supposed to be the
ultimate inclusiveness and diversity tool when it comes to offering a
semblance of uniform communication services to all Kenyans may it be radio,
postal, telecommunications or cyber services. I am yet to see any report on
how the USF Council has contributed to bridging the digital divide using
the funds at their disposal. A little history here will help.  The
Universal Service Advisory Council (USAC) was entrenched in the Kenya
Information and Communications act (1998) to advice the then CCK and give
policy guidance in the implementation of the USF. The term of the first
USAC expired in January 2014, and a new Council put in place from May 2014
to May 2017. I understand there are a few pilot projects that have been
setup across the country by the USF, but we would like to see a report on
the same from the said Council, and probably measure the effectiveness of
these projects.

There is also the issue of "Multi-stakeholder-ism", how is it playing out
in our ICT landscape? Does the word make any sense to the different
stakeholders? How are partnerships forged between say government and
business community or academia? Well, I have seen many initiatives in the
country where the different stakeholders have partnered and blended really
well to transform the society. A good case is our celebrated ICT hubs
especially in Nairobi ... iHub, iLab, C4Dlab, Nairobi Garage, e.t.c. where
businesses have partnered with the government and academia and the
technical community to give our youth hope and opportunities in life. "The
Kenyan Dream". Truly, multistakeholderism can work. We only need to put
more effort, and recognise the important role eac stakeholder plays.

Sincerely,

______________________
Mwendwa Kivuva, Nairobi, Kenya

"There are some men who lift the age they inhabit, till all men walk on
higher ground in that lifetime." - Maxwell Anderson
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