[kictanet] Kenya ICT Practitioners Bill - Walu's Views

Wed Jul 6 20:41:23 EAT 2016

The factthat the Bill has been presented to Parliament before the ICT Policy reviewprocess is completed means that it will be very difficult to administer it whenenacted into law. Usually, the policy sets vision and mission for the sectorfor a foreseeable future. The policy may have a human resource developmentcomponent. The policy is then implemented through legislation, government budgetand regulations. When I read the reason and memorandum of the bill, the only policystatement that I can see is ‘to establish a legal framework for the training,registration, licensing, practice and standards of Information CommunicationTechnology (ICT) professionals in Kenya.’The ICTpractitioners bill therefore creates some unusual situation. Those who can remember,we in the ICT sector faced a similar situation in the period 2005 – 2007. Therewere many people supporting the legislation of the Media Bill but there wereserious disagreements on the media council membership; licensing of mediapractitioners; the role of the government; the role of the media owners; regulationof print and electronic media, offences, and the financing of the Council. Thegovernment, for instance, while supporting the establishment of the MediaCouncil, did not want the Council to be financed from foreign sources. On theother hand, some media practitioners did not want to be financed by thegovernment.  The middle ground was fundingby member subscriptions and accreditation. This too was opposed by many media practitioners.Eventually,a policy was developed through public consultation covering such aspects asmedia ownership, accreditation of journalists, code of conduct of journalistsand the broadcasting code, etc.In my view thepolicy informing the  ICT professionalbill should have borrowed heavily from the outcome of current ICT policy reviewprocess and been subjected to wider stakeholder consultation. The following issues,for instance, require wider consultation.1. The definitionprovided for ICT practitioner which I quote ‘ICT practitioner (ICTP)"means a person registered under this Act as an ICT practitioner who is alsolicensed under section 20 to practice’ is vague, misleading and may be viewedas discriminating.2. Many ICTprofessionals qualify or are already registered by other organizations. Theseinclude those in fields like Telecommunication Engineering, ComputerEngineering, Medical Information Systems, financial information systems, etc. 3. Theeligibility for registration which is stated as ‘holder of at least abachelor's degree in an ICT related field from a recognized university,’ is vagueand can be abused. Already, we have other fields like engineering where applicantsfor registration are suffering due to this condition. Graduates from countrieslike USSR which offer MSc as first degrees cannot be registered. Similarly,those with Higher National Diploma who have gone ahead to get MSc and even PhDcannot be registered! Further, in some universities like Maseno all degreeprogrammes have an extension ‘with ICT.’ How will the Council treat these degrees?4. Technologistshave drafted another bill which is before Parliament. How will theTechnologists bill co-exist with the ICT practitioners bill?5. Thereare many institutions carrying out institutional accreditation andcertification of ICT practitioners. How will such accreditation and certificationbe treated by the Council?Bestregards,Prof. JamesKulubi 

    On Wednesday, 6 July 2016, 19:10, Wangari Kabiru via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

 Blessed Wednesday!A handshake to the 2014 article!There is a great opportunity for Techies to take their rightful place as professionals and be invited to give valued contributions to the nation building table.As I said earlier, non-Techs will be there. Perhaps another classification within the broader "ICT Professional".*ICT Practitioners - sounds like a very broad term to attempt to compact and create shared guidelines/standards.On the said ICT Practitioners Bill - it seems that part of the issue is with regard to who is/are behind it. All in all, to have gotten a hearing, it means this is an organised group.
Which is perhaps what this community might seek to engage with and build together before "shooting the innovator".Blessed day.Regards/WangariOn Jul 6, 2016 15:47, Alex Watila via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

Thanks Walu,What is the way forward on the bill? Regards, Alex  From: Walubengo J [mailto:jwalu at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 6, 2016 3:26 PM
To: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Cc: Dennis Muthuri <muthuridennis at gmail.com>; Alex Watila <awatila at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Kenya ICT Practitioners Bill - Walu's Views @Alex, @Muthuri, Thnx for 'bursting' me @

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/blogs/dot9/walubengo/-/2274560/2305252/-/1208fkiz/-/index.html 

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