February 2013 - KICTANet

Fwd:Defamatory Blog Publication by Moses Kuria & Demand For Apology
by Grace Mutung'u (Bomu) 20 Apr '17

20 Apr '17

Dear all, the suit between Muite & Others versus Moses Kuria, which I understand is proceeding to court, should be a very interesting one to watch. Hopefully it shall give some insights on content control vs freedom of expression. See below. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Ngunjiri <ngunjiri(a)kikuyusforchange.com> Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:05:07 +0300 Subject: {K4c} Defamatory Blog Publication by Moses Kuria & Demand For Apology To: KC4 <kikuyusforchange(a)googlegroups.com> This will most probably interest some of us, and help all of us be careful about what we write on our blogs. --- Ngunjiri [image: Issa & Co Advocates] Our Ref: M/058/001/L**** **** Tuesday, October 4, 2011**** **** Moses Kuria**** P. O. Box 1838-00200 ‘*Advance copy by email*’**** *NAIROBI***** **** Dear Sir,**** **** *RE: DEFAMATORY PUBLICATION ***** ------------------------------ We have been instructed by our clients, Wambugu Ngunjiri, Paul Muite, Ndung’u Wainaina, Maina Kiai and Hassan Omar.**** **** Our instructions are that you published in your widely read blog the following words of and concerning our clients.**** **** *‘I have said Ocampo has no case. All he has are fake witnesses coached by Hassan Omar, Wambugu Ngunjiri, Paul Muite, Ndungu Wainaina, Njonjo Mue and Maina Kiai.’***** **** Your insinuations are unfounded and baseless and our clients’ professional respective standings, characters and reputations have been severely tarnished by your publication.**** **** Our instructions are to demand a retraction, an apology and an admission of liability on your part for the publication of the defamatory words. This we hereby do. We shall address the issue of the damages payable to our clients upon receipt of your apology and admission.**** **** *NOTE* that if you do not publish an apology and retraction on your blog within the next *Seven (7) Days* of the receipt of this letter we shall proceed to the law for redress at your risk as to costs. **** **** Yours faithfully,**** *ISSA & COMPANY ADVOCATES***** **** **** *MANSUR M. ISSA***** **** cc. Clients**** **** *Issa & Co Advocates* <info(a)issadvocates.co.ke>**** ------------------------------ 5th Floor, City House, Wabera Street P.O. Box *24210 - 00100*, Nairobi, Kenya *ph*: *+ 254 20 340 150 · * *fx*: *+ 254 20 340 151* *em*: *info(a)issadvocates.co.ke · ***** ------------------------------ *CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:* This email and any attachments may contain information that is confidential, legally privileged and protected by law. Access by the intended recipient is authorized. Any liability (in negligence or otherwise) arising from any third party acting, or refraining from acting, or any information contained in this email is hereby excluded. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediatelyand do not disclose the contents to any other person, use it for any purpose or store or copy the information in any medium.**** -- --- Fear makes men act even against their own interests- changing them from men of reason to blubbering fools. -- Grace L.N. Mutung'u (Bomu) Kenya Skype: gracebomu Twitter: GraceMutung'u (Bomu)

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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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Music Piracy in Kenya - Government can Help
by Bernard Kioko [Bernsoft Interactive Limited] 23 Mar '15

23 Mar '15

Bwana Daktari, The music industry in Kenya is unable to grow. Companies like mine and individuals are investing money in creating music but the same cannot be commercialized effectively. One of the main problems is organized piracy. Take for example the website WAPKID.COM, this website provides almost every Kenyan song FREE FOR DOWNLOAD. The website at the moment lists the following as popular tags - meaning these are the artists whose content is currently heavily being downloaded. I understand that this website is offering pirated content because Music works that is owned and copyright administered by myself is being offered for FREE here - the total investment I made for the songs on offer is Ksh. 5million over the last 2 years and now I have no way to recover my investment by sales since consumers can opt for free. John De Mathew - Nimwamenyire Muno Wangari Wa Kabera - Aciari Redsun - Shika Glasi Sam Kinuthia - Muiritu Wa Gikomba Onyi Papa Jey - Migingo Dhi Muigai Njoroge - Muti Utari Matunda Kamaru - Nairobi Iraguo Ki Kamande Wa Kioi - Kapusi Kakwa Salim - Kanyina Kanini Kamande Wa Kioi - Githukia Tombo It's possible that these artists and many more don't actually know that this exists BUT millions of Kenyans are downloading the music and who is benefiting? The Network Operators who charge money based on the data downloads. Infact, at one point, one of the mobile operators even sent SMS advertisements to their subscribers urging them to access content from WapKid.com As an industry, we are bleeding and desperately in need of government support to stop this organized piracy that is benefiting local and international organization at the expense of our content and therefore killing and local development of content. As we seek your assistance, we are also doing something on our part. We will be meeting next week Wednesday 3rd October 3pm at Panafric as a music industry (Record labels, Kenya Copyright Board and Music Copyright Society of Kenya) to discuss and work out strategies that can help us especially in creating a clear licensing framework. We will also be announcing an Anti-Piracy Campaign called "iCareforMusic" whose aim is to educate the consumer on the benefits of getting music from licensed partners. We believe that either the government or the courts can issue an order blocking WAPKID.COM, MP3RAID.COM and any other website offering local music from being accessed and this is fairly easy at the ISP level. Before we take to the court route, we wish to seek a diplomatic route first. If we can stop this organized piracy, investing in a song would be worth it for the Artist, the Record Label and/or the music publisher. And in overall, KRA would collect tax from all of us. Everybody wins! Who knows, it would be even worth having a music studio at Konza City. Bwana PS, how can you assist our music industry? Kind regards Bernard Kioko Chief Executive Officer, Bernsoft

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GSMA: Calls will remain high between African countries
by Grace Githaiga 02 May '14

02 May '14

GSMA: Calls will remain high between African countries By Rebecca Wanjiku, Computerworld Kenya 29 Sep, 2011 The cost of telephone calls between African countries is likely to remain high and international call volumes will drop with the introduction of taxes, according to a report from the GSM Association. Senegal, Ghana, Congo Brazaville and Gabon have introduced taxes on incoming international calls, leading to higher costs for users and reduced revenue and call volumes for mobile operators. The taxes are also likely to reduce foreign direct investments because the costs of operating businesses such as call centers will probably go up. "The tax takes the form of an imposed fixed price that operators must charge for international inbound termination, of which the government takes a set amount," said the report, issued on the sidelines of the U.N. Internet Governance Forum in Nairobi. A private party measures international inbound minutes terminated by operators and bills them accordingly, it said. While the taxes are different in the four countries, the affect on the operators has been the same. In Senegal, call prices rose by 50 percent. In Ghana, prices rose by 58 percent while inbound traffic fell by 12 percent in the six months after the tax was introduced. In Congo Brazaville, the price of inbound calls rose by 111 percent while the volume fell by 36 percent. In Gabon, prices rose by 82 percent when the tax was introduced in August 2011. The report questioned the benefit of the tax on economies, given that half the money collected is shared with the third-party company that monitors the calls. "The main objective of this taxation is to raise revenues for governments, in this case by taxing users calling from abroad into the country, however, the government transfers approximately 50 percent of the revenue from the tax to the external call monitoring party," the report said. "This leakage should be taken into account when assessing the effectiveness and net benefit of this tax." The report projects that other African countries are likely to reciprocate by raising the cost of inbound calls. In Congo Brazaville, an operator reported that an operator in another African country raised call termination charges by 30 percent. while in Senegal, an operator reported that nine operators in other African countries raised rates by 23 to 80 percent, making the call costs very high. The GSMA further noted that many operators are not making profits because the cost of other services and maintaining rural telecoms infrastructure is high. In supporting its case to remove telecommunication taxes, the GSMA released another report that highlights the benefits that Kenya has gained since it zero-rated mobile handsets in June 2009. This year, the mobile communications industry will contribute US$300 million to the GDP and a further $100 million from intangible benefits to Kenyan consumers. The industry also employs 250,000 people in Kenya. "Since June 2009 when the tax was removed, handset purchases have increased by more than 200 percent and penetration rates have increased substantially from 50 percent to 70 percent, this successful policy confirms that consumption taxes can have a significant impact on consumer behavior in Kenya," said the report. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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Draft National ICT Masterplan
by Paul Kukubo 06 Jun '13

06 Jun '13

Listers The Kenya ICT Board wishes to invite comments towards the completion of the Kenya ICT Masterplan 2012-2017 being developed on bhealf of the Ministry of Information and Communication. The link to view the draft can be found here. We shall also be finalizing a Facebook page to receive comments on the same. http://www.scribd.com/doc/110892993/Kenya-ICT-Masterplan-2012-2017-For-Revi… We propose to open this out for comment for 10 days after which we shall commence the process of editing and finalisation. This review process follows several review forums where the summary masterplan has been presented to various stakeholders for comment including workshops, conferences. We welcome comments and proposals through this forum in order to enrich and complete this process. Regards CEO Paul Kukubo Kenya ICT Board -- Paul Kukubo Chief Executive Officer, Kenya ICT Board PO Box 27150 - 00100 Nairobi, Kenya 12th Floor, Teleposta Towers Koinange Street Tel +254 20 2089061, +254 20 2211960 Fax: +254 20 2211962 website: www.ict.go.ke local content project: www.tandaa.co.ke, www.facebook.com/tandaakenya twitter:@tandaaKENYA BPO Project: www. doitinkenya.co.ke Digital Villages Project: www.pasha.co.ke personal contacts _______________ Cell: + 254 717 180001 skype: kukubopaul googletalk: pkukubo personal blog: www.paulkukubo.co.ke personal twitter: @pkukubo ____________________ Vision: Kenya becomes a top ten global ICT hub Mission: To champion and actively enable Kenya to adopt and exploit ICT, through promotion of partnerships, investments and infrastructure growth for socio economic enrichment

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IEBC technology challenges
by robert yawe 05 Mar '13

05 Mar '13

As IEBC seems to be having a few technology hitches would it not have made more sense for them to take up the services of Safaricom's cloud services especially since they are offering the connectivity component? I would think that such a move would be more cost effective than the rushed purchase of more powerful hardware (due to the short time all procurement procedures where therefore suspended) 8 days to the election date and yet that additional power will not be required after the 4th until the next major election in 5 years time when the technology will be obsolete. Vision 2030 and that other thing we launched a few weeks ago keep looking like more and more like pipe dreams. Regards PS. Have a wise and peaceful pre and post election Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696

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Re: [kictanet] [ISOC_KE] Kenya IGF: Planning
by Ali Hussein 02 Mar '13

02 Mar '13

Paul Apologies for cross-posting. Great to see ISOC Kenya take up the mantle.. Looking forward to a successful IGF. Regarfds *Ali Hussein* *CEO, 3mice interactive media ltd* *Partner, Telemedia Africa Ltd * Tel: +254713601113 Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim<http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim> Blog: www.alyhussein.com On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 12:35 PM, Paul M <paulitrix(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Dear listers and fellow IGF stakeholders, > > Firstly, I would like to extend my appreciation to the organisers of last > year's Kenya IGF. The meeting was indeed a success and we witnessed in the > Kenya IGF and in subsequent meetings, how discussions and outcomes > regarding the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) > forged the policy position for the Kenyan delegation to Dubai. We hope in > this year's Kenya IGF, more can be accomplished. > > As you are all aware this year the ISOC Kenyan chapter will be planning, > hosting and co-ordinating the local IGF. The event is slotted for the month > of May. > > Because the IGF is a multi-stakeholder meeting, as such I believe > stakeholders should be consulted in the planning and preparation of such an > important meeting. Indeed as the chapter, we've just barely began the > ground work and we'll need all the necessary inputs from the wider > stakeholder community to properly plan and execute the meeting. > > I would like to suggest a first meet up in the second week of March (11th > - 16th). I have no qualms hosting the meeting at the iHub (coffee would be > on me :) but I'll leave the stakeholders to agree on what date and time > best suits them. Let me know what works for you. I'll also work with fellow > organisers to draft an agenda and circulate it in the list before the first > meet up. > > I welcome your contributions to this discussion. > > > Kind Regards, > > Paul Muchene. > _______________________________________________ > isoc mailing list > isoc(a)orion.my.co.ke > http://orion.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/isoc >

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Re: [kictanet] Techies to fail Kenya again
by robert yawe 01 Mar '13

01 Mar '13

Hi, The information to be visualized is minimal as what is being received is only summaries from the polling stations and not each voters results which would mean that the data could be visualized quite comfortably with a spreadsheet on a 486 or lower processor so when they say that it was underpowered on what platform where they running the application, a Huawei ID10T "smart phone". This is a clear indication that all we remain is a silicon savanna where there is a scarcity of trees from which one can climb to get a vantage point into the future. (A savanna, or savannah, is a grassland ecosystem characterized by the trees being sufficiently small or widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of grasses.[1][2][3] Some classification systems[which?] also recognize a grassland savanna from which trees are absent.[4] This article deals only with savanna under the common definition of a grassy woodland with a significant woody plant component) Regards Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ________________________________ From: Gabe Sailepo <gabe(a)kentelcom.com> To: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke> Cc: robert yawe <robertyawe(a)yahoo.co.uk> Sent: Thursday, 28 February 2013, 0:15 Subject: RE: [kictanet] Techies to fail Kenya again We are living in the day and age of Hardware Abstraction, Multi-core CPU, Hypervisors and Virtualization of physical resources. The statement “Server was under powered” does not inspire a lot of confidence in our nascent IT Industry. In my opinion, the physical hardware should no longer a limitation once you virtualize the Compute, Network and Storage Nodes? Did the engineers do any stress-tests and capacity planning? Did they even scale the System? It would be ironic and tragic if the Kenyan Elections failed due to some ID10T errors considering that Kenya is the African Silicon Savannah. “Never was so much owed by so many to so few” stolen from Churchill. Gabe Shompole From:kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+gabe.shompole=kentelcom.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of robert yawe Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2013 9:59 AM To: Gabe Shompole Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: [kictanet] Techies to fail Kenya again Hi, I am shocked that none of the people of this list felt it necessary to the bring the following issues to light yet it could be a major issue if not resolved immeidate “Sunday when we had the transmission of results, there was something that didn’t work. We used a server of a lesser power than the one we thought we should use. We confirmed that all results were relayed to the server but it could not do visualisation,” Mr Oswago said. http://elections.nation.co.ke/news/System-to-relay-poll-tally-queried-/-/16… Shall we keep behaving like pathologists whose clients have no opportunity for a second opinion? Regards Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 The content of this e-mail from Kentelcom (including any attachments) is strictly confidential and may be commercially sensitive. If you are not, or believe that you may not be, the intended recipient, please advise the sender immediately by returning the e-mail, deleting it and destroying any copies. This Email has also been Scanned for Viruses by MailScanner and is believed to be clean.

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Re: [kictanet] Techies to fail Kenya again
by eonchari＠lynxbits.com 27 Feb '13

27 Feb '13

I have not seen any updates from IEBC or even from the Political parties on this one. Hope they have this sorted before Monday Edwin ----- Original Message ----- From: krsnjo(a)gmail.comTo: eonchari(a)lynxbits.com Cc: kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke Sent: 2/26/13 1:21 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Techies to fail Kenya again Any news on the test? On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 4:21 PM, Gilda Odera <godera(a)skyweb.co.ke> wrote: Robert, It is really because sometimes we get so flabbergasted by the things we hear and read that it leaves us speechless for a day or so! Like this one.... Regards, Gilda Odera On Feb 26, 2013, at 5:58 PM, robert yawe <robertyawe(a)yahoo.co.uk> wrote: Hi, I am shocked that none of the people of this list felt it necessary to the bring the following issues to light yet it could be a major issue if not resolved immeidate “Sunday when we had the transmission of results, there was something that didn’t work. We used a server of a lesser power than the one we thought we should use. We confirmed that all results were relayed to the server but it could not do visualisation,” Mr Oswago said. http://elections.nation.co.ke/news/System-to-relay-poll-tally-queried-/-/16… Shall we keep behaving like pathologists whose clients have no opportunity for a second opinion? Regards 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 https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/godera%40skyweb.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. _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or..ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/krsnjo%40gmail.com 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. -- If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn't. - Emerson M. Pugh

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First African Internet Measurements Lab site @ KENET
by Josphat Karanja 27 Feb '13

27 Feb '13

Listers, KENET in collaboration with Google and the Measurements Lab project has setup the first Internet measurements lab site in Africa at KENET data center in Nairobi. This means you can measure the quality of your broadband connections (simply access the site from http://www.measurementlab.net/) This is going to be useful for consumers, researchers, policy makers and the broadband Internet regulator (CCK). Please try it out and give us feedback. Regards ........................................................... Josphat Karanja, * *

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