June 2019 - KICTANet

Fixing Africa's zig zag investment ecosystem
by Eric M K Osiakwan 07 Jul '19

07 Jul '19

https://www.africa.com/fixing-africas-zig-zag-investment-ecosystem/ <https://www.africa.com/fixing-africas-zig-zag-investment-ecosystem/> Eric here

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draft_declaration_of_principles_on_freedom_of_expression_in_africa_eng.pdf
by Lydia gachungi 07 Jul '19

07 Jul '19

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Public Consultation on the Draft Principles on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa
by Lydia gachungi 07 Jul '19

07 Jul '19

Public Consultation on the Draft Principles on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa The Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa (the Special Rapporteur), one of the special mechanisms of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the African Commission), is undertaking an initiative to revise the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa (the Declaration), which was adopted during the 32nd Ordinary Session in October 2002. This initiative is being undertaken in pursuance of Resolutions 362, 350 and 222 of the African Commission, which mandated the Special Rapporteur, in conjunction with State Parties, civil society and other stakeholders, to revise and/or expand the Declaration to cover freedom of expression and access to information issues that may have been only part-included or not included at all in the Declaration, including by taking account of developments in the internet age. The draft Declaration on Principles of Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa (Draft Declaration) has been developed under the leadership of the Special Rapporteur. As part of the consultative process, the Special Rapporteur invites all state and non-state stakeholders to forward their inputs on the draft Declaration, by close of business on 01 July 2019. The Draft Declaration can be found using the link above, to the English, French and Portuguese versions. Contributions should be sent to the Secretariat of the African Commission on the following email address: au-banjul(a)africa-union.org. Done in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, 30 April 2019 http://www.achpr.org/news/2019/04/d375/

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Go big or Go Home: Money Matters
by Mbugua Njihia 07 Jul '19

07 Jul '19

Sometimes, deep pockets are needed to power through long-term opportunities; providing runway and capital for physical infrastructure and ‘plumbing’ before technology can stitch it all together - http://www.mbuguanjihia.com/business/gobigorgohome.html *Regards,* Mbugua Njihia ᐧ

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Fwd: [AfrICANN-discuss] Alert: Phishing Scam Email From "sales@icann.org"
by Barrack Otieno 07 Jul '19

07 Jul '19

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Yaovi Atohoun <yaovi.atohoun(a)icann.org> Date: Sun, 5 May 2019 21:13:33 +0000 Subject: [AfrICANN-discuss] Alert: Phishing Scam Email From "sales(a)icann.org" To: AfrICANN Community List <africann(a)afrinic.net> Hello everyone / Bonjour à tous EN: Please read more at https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2-2019-05-02-en FR : Alerte hameçonnage : escroquerie par message électronique depuis « sales(a)icann.org ». Plus d’information à https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2-2019-05-02-fr Thanks / Merci -- Yaovi Atohoun Stakeholder Engagement and Operations Manager- Africa; ICANN Tel. +229 66015649/65209067 www.icann.org -- Barrack O. Otieno +254721325277 +254733206359 Skype: barrack.otieno PGP ID: 0x2611D86A

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Twitter Kenya, Twitter Policy/Support
by Mutemi wa Kiama 07 Jul '19

07 Jul '19

Dear all, Are there individuals who work for Twitter Public Policy or Twitter Support on this list? Warm regards, Edwin Kiama Thoughts become things... choose the good ones! *-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------* *Social Justice & Social Accountability Entrepreneur, Facilitator, Movements' Coach, Human Rights Defender, * *#DevolutionIsRevolution Champion* *The Wanjiku Agenda Kenya Foundation (WAKenya)*Ordinary, fearless Kenyans. Sauti Ya Wanjiku Social Movement www.sautiyawanjiku.com https://www.facebook.com/wanjikurevolutionkenya https://twitter.com/WanjikuRevolt https://plus.google.com/u/1/+WanjikuMapinduzi/posts http://www.scribd.com/wmkenya "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." *~Margaret Mead*

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Fwd: Invitation to join the Africa Youth IGF session planning working group
by Keith Andere 07 Jul '19

07 Jul '19

Dear Listers, This might of interest to some of you. Regards, Keith. ---------- Forwarded message --------- From:SILLAH Kawsu <kawsu.sillah(a)gmail.com> Date: Thu, 2 May 2019, 22:47 Subject: Invitation to join the Africa Youth IGF session planning working group To: KAWSU ESSA SILLAH <kawsu.sillah(a)gmail.com> Cc: Keith Andere <kephand(a)gmail.com> Dear All, I am transmitting this message on behalf of my colleague Mr. Keith Andere, Youth Representative at African Internet Governance Forum <https://afigf.africa/>'s Multi Advisory Group <https://afigf.africa/sites/default/files/2018/Composition%20of%20African%20…> (AfIGF MAG) for 2019-2020. Mr. Andere is currently working on planning the Youth session at upcoming 8th session of African Internet Governance Forum to be held in September 2019 in a location to be determined. Accordingly, Mr. Andere is inviting young people active in the field of ICT/Internet policy related discussions to join the African YouthIGF Working Group. Interested candidates should be between the age of 18-35, and resident in African continent. To join, register your details from this link HERE. <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1L-XdZ_A1221TrMzzkZ35vU0e1jCb0Ts7KZv…> Also to a WhatsApp Group. Find link HERE. <https://chat.whatsapp.com/BFHCoywlZOM1kT2KY0rfoT> Kind regards, Kawsu <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1L-XdZ_A1221TrMzzkZ35vU0e1jCb0Ts7KZv…> -- Best Regards, [image: --]SILLAH Kawsu [image: https://]about.me/ksillah Website <http://www.auyc.org/> | Twitter <https://twitter.com/AYCommission> | Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/AYCommission/> | LinkedIn <https://www.linkedin.com/company/african-youth-commission/about/> M/WhatsApp: +2209865300 Skype: profkawsu

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[strategic inefficiency is what creates a large number jobs] Jobs fall to 6 year low despite GDP "boom".
by Patrick A. M. Maina 07 Jul '19

07 Jul '19

Dear listers, In order to create jobs, the government should move away from policies that focus on increasing efficiency to those that are strategically inefficient. Examples: 1. SMEs, e. g. cottage industries, are inefficient - compared to larger factories, but they can create exponentially more jobs with less tax breaks. Most SMEs also spend all their revenues in Kenya, while promoting other dependent MSMEs.. unlike large corporations which tend to move funds abroad for different reasons (tax, asset protection, hedging, dividends etc). 2. We always see donors (especially, I believe, WB & IMF if I recall correctly) always pushing govt to redirect expenditure from recurrent/wages to "development"/infrastructure (clearly in their own interest as assets can be securitized for their own peace of mind, and more debt can be incurred in dev projects). So they push developing countries to reduce manpower in critical strategic sectors of the economy (less teachers, doctors etc) or to pay below-market wages. What is the impact of such financial efficiency measures? Do they not care that the employees they keep asking to be retrenched are real people with families? Do they not care that manpower reduction means our children get the worst teacher:pupil or doctor:patient or police:civillian ratios? Such recommendations lead to massive hidden costs downstream that cannot be attributed (e.g. low quality education, poor healthcare, increased insecurity due to overloaded+underpaid workers). It just looks like we have endless problems of incompetence but it is not by accident... we follow "weaponised advice", designed to keeps us poor. Efficiency efforts should be limited to enabling high impact service delivery (optimized processes) not financial efficiency. Government should find ways/tactical excuses to ignore callous and unethical requests/pressures for cold blooded fiscal efficiency. Public sector Performance Contract targets need to be linked to a basket of grassroots metrics that reflect the general quality of life for the ordinary population (besides GDP, Inflation, NSE Index & exchange rate). This can be presented in dashboard format on eCitizen so that wanjiku can see what is happening, hold officials to account for not delivering and be motivated to support such initiatives (but the data must be *real* to avoid risk of future backlash). Our "missing middle" problem (i.e. a tiny middleclass) needs to be addressdd. It exists because government incentives for business have focused mainly on Micro enterprises which are too inefficient to be sustainable, and large corporations that are too efficient to fill the jobs gap (and too demanding - always asking for endless concessions just to maintain status quo). If you track current incentives given to large corporations and account for all outflows and hidden costs (many of these corporations are the architects of grand corruption in the country) - you will see a MASSIVE NET LOSS / WEALTH EXTRACTION directly attributable to corporate activities (e.g. encouraging harphazard spending, lobbying for bad laws or poor incentives).. despite the appearance of "gains" on simplistic paper reports that ignore the full impact. A thriving middle class (people who are not rich and not poor - with ability to buy a car, spend regularly on mid-level leisure and even save for luxury spending) is what ends poverty and drives a strong economy. Small and Medium-sized Enterprises SME are the key to a thriving middle class and rapid, large scale jobs creation. They tend to lean towards formality, will often have more educated founders, are inefficient because of scale - but not overly so as to be unsustainable like Micro enterprises, and a few will have potential to grow into mega corporations. De-risked MSEs are what attracts high quality FDI in the form of venture capital. So rather than pitch tax breaks to global investors, the government should pitch de-risked high potential small enterprises (the way Israel and some EU countries are doing) whose business model has been proven in order to attract capital to scale up the businesses. The reality of Tax incentives to big corporations is that they only cannibalize the treasury - and these same corporations will do everything they can to minimize local expenditure (even furniture is imported yet we have skilled carpenters), and extract wealth in all manner of ways (e.g. transfer pricing). Most jobs offered by large factories are low level, while skilled jobs (r&d, conceptualization, design, development) will be outsourced with the (false) excuse that Kenyans are not competent. In reality they just want to prevent HIGH VALUE KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER so that locals don't build indigenous alternatives. I know some of the things I write are not supposed to be said because it will spoil some lucrative plunder parties.. but I alsonknow many of you know what I am saying is TRUE because you have seen it being done, heard about it or (God forbid) participated in it . This habit of taming monsters by feeding them with our kids is becoming too much and has to be called out for what it is. The youth are our children. It is our duty to create an enabling ecosystem framework that attracts opportunities and truly rewards them for innovation. We need a Kenyan Steve Jobs or Bill Gates who own their own companies - rather than have them and their ideas gobbled up by monopolistic dinosaur corporations that want to suppress their enterpreneurial dreams supressed in order to delay, the next wave of disruptive innovations. We need hundreds of winning case studies - not tens of mostly foreign owned startups (not that it's a bad thing to have foreign ownership, the key thing is that, given our history of suppressed esteem, our youth desperately need role models they can relate to so that they can start BELIEVING in themselves). We can't just tell youth to be job creators.. that's like telling a starving person to go find food. If they knew how - or where, they would not be starving. The REAL reason we tell the youth to employ themselves - yet we have not created an enabling framework - is because they have caught us napping and we want to deflect responsibility. "We" means anyone over 35 years old whether in privage sector or Government. Our parents didn't give us a gift to keep (the opportunities we enjoyed), they gave us a BATON to pass on in a long term RELAY RACE. Did you drop your baton (I did too)? Pick it up. Ignore the naysayers. Start running. Link: https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/news/Formal-jobs-fall-to-6-year-low-des… Warmest regards,Patrick. Patrick A. M. Maina[Cross-domain Innovator | Public Policy Analyst - Indigenous Innovations]

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Fwd: [AfrICANN-discuss] [OT] Invitation RightsCon-Tunez: Roundtable discussion about biometrics
by Barrack Otieno 07 Jul '19

07 Jul '19

Listers This is for your information and attention. Best Regards ---------- Forwarded message --------- From:Katitza <katitza(a)eff.org> Date: Fri, 3 May 2019 00:40 Subject: [AfrICANN-discuss] [OT] Invitation RightsCon-Tunez: Roundtable discussion about biometrics To: <africann(a)afrinic.net> Cc: Jennifer Lynch <jlynch(a)eff.org> Dear friends: My colleague Jennifer Lynch, EFF Surveillance Litigation Director,[1] is organizing a strategic roundtable at RightsCon to discuss biometric surveillance. If you are working on the issue and also going to RightsCon, would be great if you can join this conversation. If that's the case, could you please let Jennifer lynch(a)eff.org <jlynch(a)eff.org> knows directly that you’re interested in participating? [1] https://www.eff.org/about/staff/jennifer-lynch <https://www.eff.org/about/staff/jennifer-lynch> Thanks so much! Looking forward to seeting you at RightsCon! Katitza *Session Title: You're Not Just a Pretty Face: Biometric Surveillance Has Moved Beyond Face Recognition - How Do We Stop It?* Session Description: Every day we hear about new developments in face recognition in China, Israel, the US, and other countries - face recognition accuracy has improved exponentially; cameras are being deployed in more and more places; and face recognition is used for more and more services. However, by focusing solely on face recognition, activists, NGOs and lawyers are missing the forest for the trees. Face recognition is now just one of the many technologies incorporated into vast surveillance systems and used to track people. Other technologies in these systems - like object recognition, license plate and text recognition, voice recognition, and gait recognition - combined with cheap cloud storage and machine learning are allowing for tracking on a never-before-seen scale. This session will provide a space to discuss these topics. It will bring in experts to explain how technologies are working and how they are being deployed around the world. It will also encourage interactivity by asking all participants to share stories and contribute ideas for change. Main Goal of Session: The main goal of this session will be to share knowledge about the biometric technologies that governments are using or planning to use to surveil and track their citizens - what are the capabilities of these surveillance systems; which are the companies designing the technologies; what activism has worked to limit the reach of these systems; and how can we strategize and work together to stop them. Translate to Post-Conference Action: This session will translate to a post-conference action by building a community of lawyers and activists who are working together to share knowledge about and fight biometric surveillance. It may also develop principles for companies that are working on these technologies. _______________________________________________ AfrICANN mailing list AfrICANN(a)afrinic.net https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/africann

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In America’s indictment of Huawei some conversations...
by Ali Hussein 02 Jul '19

02 Jul '19

Listers As an ICT Policy practitioner and avid follower of #GeoPolitics the #HuaweiDebacle has great interest to me. Recently our CS ICT, Joseph Mucheru tasked ATU to probe alleged security risks on Huawei and ZTE Equipment. In America’s indictment of Huawei Technologies some interesting conversations:- 1. The Global Cop routine is sort of wearing thin and portraying it not as a force for good but as a bully. 2. Are Chinese companies so dependent on America that a ban by America can kill them? The case of the almost collapse of ZTE Corporation is instructive.. Only a surprise last minute reprieve from #TheDonald saved it from total collapse. 3. Could Huawei Technologies survive a ban by America? Intel Corporation, Seagate Technology and Qualcomm are major suppliers to Huawei Technologies. How will this affect their ability to deliver cutting edge technology to their customers? This last point brings me to wonder how much of the Chinese Technology renaissance is dependent on America? Read on and follow the conversation on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6496196045268090880 Ali Hussein Principal AHK & Associates +254 0713 601113 Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit." ~ Aristotle Sent from my iPad

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