September 2011 - KICTANet

Digital to Analog Conversion
by robert yawe 19 Jun '15

19 Jun '15

Hi, When the migration from analog to digital was initially raised fear was put into the public on how there would be no option but to throw away our analog TV sets and replace them with Digital. Now that digital transmission is finally here we need to look at how to make the migration as painless as possible while at the same time we do not disenfranchise any citizens. It has been mentioned that there are over 1 million TV sets in Kenya today, that means 1 million digital to analog converters will be required over the next 2-3 years. I believe this is a great opportunity for us to go into the electronic assembly business, I would like to propose that we 1st increase duty on converters from the current 35% to 250% so as to discourage the importation of the converters. Then exempt from duty and vat all assembly stations, test equipment and components for anyone who sets up a converter assembly plant, with a 3 year tax holiday. If you setup the plant more than 200 kilometers from Nairobi or Mombasa you receive an addition 2 years tax holiday. I believe this will sort out the issue of substandard converters and will also provide an opportunity for us to develop our electronic devices assembly skills. If you make a net profit of 1,000/- there is a clean 875,000,000/- to be made, close to what the government is spending on purchase of the Malili farm. This is assuming a standard device, there is still a market for those who want high end devices with recording, tuners, USB ports, etc which would mean that the returns could be much higher than projected above. So will we move away from juts being importers and retailers or do we have what it takes to do some value add? Regards Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696

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Commodity Exchange System - Revisited
by robert yawe 21 Feb '13

21 Feb '13

Hi Listers, About 9 month ago (human gestation period) I mentioned the need for developers to start looking into the development of a futures exchange system and as always is with the village madman I was dismissed. On Wednesday 8th June 2011 the Capital Markets Authority advertised for a futures exchange system, rfp is open to both international and local vendors. Regards Hi, The National Cereals and Produce Board together with the East African Grain Council are working towards the creation of a commodity exchange to trade futures. This process is at an advanced stage which begun with a process called warehouse receipting and currently Equity Bank offers credit against the receipts. What does this have to do with us in the IT field? When the Nairobi Stock Exchange tendered for the automated trading system (ATS) and more recently for the Broker Back-office System no local IT company made it past the 1st round. The fact that companies like Virtual City are winning international awards for systems development and others like PesaPal are receiving large direct foreign investments means that we do have the skills to develop world class solutions. This is an appeal to all ICT experts in the country to prepare ourselves to make sure that the grain exchange system is locally developed and we stop being spectators in our own country. I know it is said that a prophet is never recognised in his own town, it is time we made this phrase redundant. NCPB and others are already shopping overseas for a solution so be warned that time is not in our hands and if we are to have an impact we need to move quickly. The proposed system is supposed to provide a trading platform, depository system, GIS for land information, settlement system, warehouse management, weather monitoring and seed planting information system (acreage, seed type, fertiliser, etc). Lets get off our high horses and put a together a world class solution for a local problem. No tears after the horse has bolted. Useful links http://dn.nationmedia.com/DN/DN/2010/09/03/ArticleHtmls/03_09_2010_030_014.… http://allafrica.com/stories/200904271171.html http://www.ratin.net/mainfeature.asp?id=40 http://www.monitor.co.ug/Business/Smart%20Money/-/688614/899436/-/bypmdxz/-… http://www.unctad.info/upload/SUC/LusakaWorkshop/WarehouseServicesKenya.pdf Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: robertyawe(a)yahoo.co.uk Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/robertyawe%40yahoo.co.…

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IIEC: voting for technology
by Andrew Limo 17 Aug '12

17 Aug '12

The Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) will hold a two-day conference and exhibition on election technology at the KICC grounds in Nairobi on 22nd- 23rd Sept., 2012. Over 40 firms dealing with election technology, both local and foreign, have been invited to showcase their innovations to the Commission and the public. Electoral management bodies from East African Community (EAC), professionals in electoral technology, political parties and other interested parties have also been invited to the open forum on election technology. Participants will be expected to interrogate and evaluate the solutions offered by the various vendors and share their findings with IIEC. The aim of the open day is to expose voters to election technology and give them an opportunity to try out some of the solution on offer. In looking for the appropriate technology, the electoral management body would like to make informed decision based not only on expert advice but also the user experiences. It is apparent that the expanded 2012 general elections, which will require voters to vote for six elective positions in a single session instead of the traditional three, will require a fast and reliable solution. The appropriate application of technology should increase administrative efficiency, reduce long-term costs and enhance political transparency.Since technology is always designed to solve problems, and elections are not short of problems, technology is therefore first port of call by the Commission. We would be happy to have the ICT fraternity visiting and sharing with us their views. Welcome all, Andrew

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Bitange for President? Reality-on Media
by Alice Munyua 17 Jan '12

17 Jan '12

Dear P.S Ndemo, I would like to take you back to the question on media. The role played by media, mobile phone sms's, internet, (e-mail, blogs, websites, etc) during both the pre and post-election period in 2007-2008 is well documented, with media picking up and printing/broadcasting uncensored statements by politicians and sometimes government that amounted to hate speech, which helped to create the right kind of environment that exploded into our bloody violence, but also promoting good civic behavior, peace and human rights campaigns. Government has so far responded with various media related policies and the new constitution is set to radically change the environment within which media operates. But taking into consideration the ever changing nature of new technology and how it affects media policy and regulation, how would you ensure that policy and regulation keep up? -What has been the impact, has there been any additional policy/regulatory processes? -How would you/your government address this challenge (hate speech etc) if it were to occur again? Best Alice

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Bitange for President? Driving Knowledge Economy? Online Interview with PS Ndemo
by Grace Githaiga 04 Nov '11

04 Nov '11

Dear Listers Greetings. This is to inform you that PS Ndemo has agreed to articulate his vision in regard to his role under the new constitution, and his plans for the Internet Governance and ICT sector. PS Ndemo, can we in this sector say "Bitange for President?" And can we be confident that you would drive the country into a knowledge economy? Listers, this will not be an interrogation as such but an engagement similar to what was being done with "Yawe for Post Master General"-- the Kictanet style. Anyone with questions to PS Ndemo has this chance to ask him. The discussion will take place for five days, starting tomorrow wednesday August 3, 2011 to next week on tuesday August 9, 2011 and will be facilitated by me and Barrack Otieno. Over to you listers! Rgds Grace and Barrack

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Legalizing Phone Tapping in Kenya?
by Edith Adera 12 Oct '11

12 Oct '11

Listers, Many of us may have missed the front page news in the nation newspapers yesterday given the flurry of activities at the IGF. This idea poses many questions - is this the way to go? What are the implications? etc etc. Coming at the time when Kenya is hosting the IGF begs for a debate and deep reflection as a country. Can we have a public debate on this and inform the draft bill? The public hardly has the opportunity to debate bills that make their way to parliament (despite the new constitution enshrining this as a requirement - or is it a right?). I indeed hope this time it will be different given the over 20 million mobile users in Kenya - they have a stake in this. Look forward to reactions. Edith

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Vizualisations on Student Teacher Ratio
by bitange＠jambo.co.ke 06 Oct '11

06 Oct '11

Listers, Uwezo has deveoped a visualization tool on the distribution of teachers in the country. If you carefully review this piece of open data, you will find that teachers had no case in the recent strike threat. What is disturbing is the growing number of decisions made without proper scientific methods. I am glad media tried to dismiss the teachers' case. What the public did not know is that once the contract teachers are confirmed, the same union officials will demand transfers for their relatives from marginal areas (often with teacher deficit) to surplus regions. They will then use marginal or deficit areas to ask for more recruitments. The cycle will continue. Further the union dues will increase but education in marginal areas will decline. Can we be ever embrace rational approaches to decision making especially on critical development programmes? Where I come from teachers have outsourced their services as they do their businesses or visit relatives in far flung areas as in the US. KNUT knows this and nobody bears responsibility on the declining standards. There is no performance apparisal and if it was ever introduced 50% of teachers will go home. Last year myself and three other friends randomly gave the past KCPE exam to 10 teachers in five districts, only one scored 350. We can do this on large scale but I doubt that the result will be any different. Can we stand up and be counted on this. Education is the foundation of any nation. Regards Ndemo. ---------------------------------------------- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by Jambo MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. --------------------------------------------- "easy access to the world" ---------------------------------------------- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by Jambo MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. --------------------------------------------- "easy access to the world"

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Safaricom Limited adjusts its tariffs
by Harry Hare 05 Oct '11

05 Oct '11

This has been long coming http://bit.ly/oYOiHr Enjoy your weekend. Harry

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Vin Cerf @ ihub: Internet Oldies meeting young techies
by Grace Githaiga 02 Oct '11

02 Oct '11

Vin Cerf at ihub: Internet Oldies meeting young techies By Mutwiri Mutuota NAIROBI, Kenya, September 29- The pioneers of the information age met with their young disciples on Thursday in an eye opening assembly held as a side event of the ongoing 6th Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Nairobi. The session was held appropriately at a venue where technologists, investors, tech companies and hackers congregate in Nairobi, known as iHub, the global IT gurus led by Google vice-president and one of the acknowledged founders of the internet, Vint Cerf. “The enormous social impact of the internet was evident even before the e-mail was invented in 1971. Now, internet and mobile technology drives the world and the potential for industry are limitless,” Cerf stated in one of his moving insights into the gift his invention alongside Bob Khan in the early 70s gifted the world. While re-counting in detail how the thesis developed by the two computer scientists turned to be a tool that billions transact their daily lives almost 30 years on, Cerf challenged Africa to be at the forefront of capitalising on the expanding cloud computing opportunities for business and economic growth. As young techies gathered scrambled to store the large volume of information being passed from the living IT icon, the gathering also proved to be a think tank on the next generation innovations that will maintain the info age bubble. “I hope than on January 1, 2013, IPv6 will be turned on to run alongside IPv4 to mark exactly 30 years since internet was turned on. I’m so excited and I cannot wait for this to be realised," Cerf enthused. For the uninitiated, Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the next edition that is designed to succeed the 32-bit predecessor, IPv4 and it will see the Internet operating by transferring data between hosts in small packets that are independently routed across networks. The award winning Google vice-president who joined the tech giant in 2005, said the company had designed products specific to the needs of Africans with the continent’s native languages incorporated to make them appeal to all spectrums of the populations. “We have made it easy for African businesses to advertise on Google Ads by developing the system that sees users pay for the adverts once they are clicked on. This model has appealed to many enterprises particularly those in Africa,” Cerf offered. He added: “We continue to encourage more user friendly content and creating volume for locally generated content since I believe content generated in Africa for example should circulate within Africa, not through Europe or America.” Adel El Zaim from the Global Alliance for ICT and Development in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs who was also in the assembly dwelt on the economic aspect of the advancements in information technology. “It is the responsibility of individual entrepreneurs to archive their data on the internet but research on how content is being uploaded, the risks that posses and how it is stored and privacy should be done to give the correct picture on the risks,” said El Zaim. “Cloud computing should be opened up to be free to all but there is need for reaching acceptable level of internet and mobile technology. There is also need to understand better how technology can be used and for business opportunity in Africa, local content products should be offered by using local languages,” he added. Laura Abba, who was involved in the RINAF project mooted in the 90s that was tailored to usher Africa into the ICT age recalled the efforts that were spearheaded by the UN led initiative that fast tracked internet development in the continent. “Today the internet is no longer about the infrastructure but the content. When we started this project, 90 percent of content concerning Africa was generated in Europe and other parts of the world but this has changed and should be encouraged,” Abba told the gathering. Engineer James Rege, the Member of Kenyan Parliament for Karachuonyo Constituency who is one of the first IT specialists in the country observed that Africa and Kenya in particular was catching up in IT innovations. “However, there is need for democracy in communication. Development of ICT in Africa has been hampered by political hurdles and they need to be freed,” Rege advised. “Even old women in Karachuonyo have email accounts and I urge tech companies such as Google to view Kenya as a remote part coming up and should help it advance,” the legislator added. He singled out the Kenya ICT Board for the positive steps it had taken to ensure the country was in tune with development as well as generation of local content for the Internet. Kaburu Kobia, who is in charge of generating local content at the board acknowledged more Kenyans were contributing content conversant to them particularly in social networks such as Facebook. There was concern about ownership of data in the cloud. “At Google we believe you own your data. With cloud computing, there will be substantial amount of support since data will be shattered into small pieces,” Cerf explained. Cloud computing will see shared resources, software, and information provided to computers and other devices as a utility like the electricity over a network. “We need to find standards where clouds can communicate with each other, use the high speeds between them in the backbone of the internet to transfer data and I’m very much in favour of use of clouds for this purposes". “But with concerns on cyber security, we all need to ensure it is compliant with the rules in the jurisdiction they operate with the kind of protection people should have,” the tech sage added. ----------------KICTANet----------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have the strength to survive, you have the power to succeed. Life is all about choices we make depending upon the situation we are in. Go forth and rule the World!

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Use ICTs to resolve food problems in Kenya
by Grace Githaiga 01 Oct '11

01 Oct '11

Use ICTs to resolve food problems in Kenya By Mutwiri Mutuota Nairobi, Kenya, September 30- Kenya can solve her food deficit problems by incorporating ICT in agriculture to stem the over reliance on erratic natural rainfall patterns currently favoured by most rural farmers. Ministry of Information and Communication Permanent Secretary, Dr. Bitange Ndemo urged the country’s universities to lead the way by using their land as models of how IT can realise the dream to eradicate drought. “The Government has already done the entire mapping of the country’s soils, and good use of the data can inform farmers when it is most appropriate to for example to plant potatoes, wheat or maize,” Ndemo told students from various Kenyan universities during an IGF Public lecture on Friday. Ndemo was emphatic that “the highest productivity in the farms will only be achieved when we incorporate advancements made in the information technology sector that can be used to create knowledge on hunger trends and food security solutions”. Turning to institutions of higher learning, Ndemo cited the Egerton University of Agriculture as a centre that could hatch a solution to the raving drought that continues to bite the country particularly in the Northern and Southern parts. “The Universities possess 2GB broadband and 5000 acres of land, and if these two resources were adequately used, Egerton could generate enough revenue to subsidise fees and research for their students as well as offering solutions to farmers countrywide.” The former ICT lecturer at University of Nairobi turned to his Alma Mater stating they could also take up the challenge in dairy farming since they possess enough land for agrarian research as well. “We must be able to see the opportunities that exist to solve the food shortage problem through research by using the available data and convert it to knowledge.” Shifting to the impact of the ICT evolution on governance, Ndemo observed that democracies in the world were feeling threatened by the rise of integration through Internet social media platform. “Only recently, Britain, one of the most stable democracies in the world almost shut down social media after the incidents in London, illustrating how governments are becoming increasingly confused by development of the democratic space in the Internet.” He stressed the need for governments to formulate policies aimed at bringing them in tandem with the unlimited freedoms of expression available on the internet. -------------------------KICTANet-----------------------------------------

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