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It's time to take back your data from Google and Facebook's server farms | Giri Sreenivas
by David Indeje 12 Dec '18

12 Dec '18

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/12/its-time-to-take-back…

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Expression of Interest - AfriNIC board
by Walubengo J 12 Dec '18

12 Dec '18

Listers, In case you are interested apply. https://afrinic.net/call-for-expressions-of-interest-for-board-appointments walu.

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Pwani Innovation Week Think Piece
by Simeon Oriko 11 Dec '18

11 Dec '18

* Dear Listers, Some of you may be aware that the inaugural Pwani Innovation Week <http://pwaniinnovationweek.co.ke> was held last week at Swahilipot Hub. I’d like to share with you a Think Piece - an analysis of the discussions we had at the event: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bnRAVuG7Y1HQMqkDcIXriofwanQPnYjDtUcicuk… free to use the comment feature to share additional thoughts or insights you may have. For convenience, I’m also attaching a PDF version of the document to this email. I’d also like to share photos of the event: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jV8jGGnGDG_L0VKD1Eqtp61mWrX6nm5s?us… These are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/>(CC BY) license. We look forward to your involvement in developing the innovation ecosystem in the Pwani region. Kind Regards, Simeon Oriko Board Member - Swahilipot Hub Chairman - Pwani Innovation Week Steering Committee *

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M-Pesa is a critical resource that should never fail
by Barrack Otieno 11 Dec '18

11 Dec '18

Listers In Summary M-Pesa has grown from an option to literally being a must-have financial service for millions of Kenyans. It has also become integrated in the lifestyles of Kenyans in terms of paying for anything, ranging from groceries to school fees and even bribes. With over 25 million mobile money subscribers, the platform's going down translates into the economy slowing down. The regulator must require additional and external information security checks to provide assurance that the potential risks and threats have been identified and mitigated. The regulator should also demand that Safaricom facilitate business continuity for its subscribers rather than telling them to be patient until services are restored. https://mobile.nation.co.ke/blogs/1949942-4889230-6roifmz/index.html It would be interesting to know what is in the mind of listers. Best Regards -- Barrack O. Otieno +254721325277 +254733206359 Skype: barrack.otieno PGP ID: 0x2611D86A

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How Safaricom lost its way
by Mwendwa Kivuva 11 Dec '18

11 Dec '18

It was evening of 7th December 2018. Consumers had challenges using mpesa from around 6.40pm. I tried paying for a product, but did not get a response for around 40 minutes. Then, I got this SMS: "M-PESA is not able to process your request. Go to M-PESA>My account>Update menu>M-PESA PIN>Send. Then try again." Then this "MPESA is experiencing delays, and is not able to accept your request. Please wait for 10 minutes before trying again." Then finally after an hour, reality hit home: "MPESA is currently unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience caused." At this point, people were stranded in weird places. Car owners were stranded at petrol stations having ordered full tank hoping to pay with the often reliable MPESA. They had to park their car as they sought alternative ways to settle their bills. Revelers at the many entertainment joints had extended hours trying to pay their bills. Patients at hospitals were turned away. Queues and queues of Shoppers at supermarkets left their full baskets at tills. Online platforms were not spared either. The shopping carts were abandoned. I was stranded like the rest, and finally managed to pay with the mpesa at 8.08pm. See, I was determined. I had consumed products, and I did not have any alternative way to pay. That is how successful Safaricom has managed to make Mpesa part of our lives. At around 9.24pm, Safaricom sent this SMS "M-PESA is undergoing scheduled maintenance." Of course that downtime was not a scheduled maintenance. So now a respected company with a top notch communications team had resorted to small lies that add no value to their brand. Desperate times truly calls for desperate measures. An unexpected downtime is not the same as scheduled maintenance. Scheduled maintenance is communicated early in advance to all parties. This was not the case with this particular scenario. Back to my payment, I manged to sneak in the payment in the midst of the "scheduled maintenance". But the deductions of my mpesa balance were completely off. I informed the establishment. They investigate from their system (which is just mpesa SMSes from their feature phone), and them too had got one message indicating my payment. My previous balance did not add up when the current purchase is included. It was way less. The mpesa statement could also not reconcile where the difference of my balance had gone. It only showed one transaction. So for example, if I had a balance of Ksh20,000, and make a purchase of Ksh5,000, the balance should be Ksh15,000. But now my balance read Ksh10,000. Today is Tuesday, 11th December, and I'm yet to be united with my funds. It's good the CS Hon Mucheru has asked for a systems audit of the mpesa platform. In the audit, they should capture how many transactions were eronouse, and where users' balances disappeared to. It may be mischievous individuals carting our balances the NHIF and KPC way.

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Why Kenya's Konza technocity failed to take off
by Barrack Otieno 11 Dec '18

11 Dec '18

Listers In Summary - Five years later, it appears the Konza dream, one of the Vision 2030 projects that would give Kenya a Silicon Savannah to match the Silicon Valley in the United States, is a case of stunted growth. - The only visible sign of progress at the site is an unfinished eight-storey building. - Among global conglomerates that expressed interest in the project included Google, Huawei, Toyota, Shapoorji Pallonji Group from India, and Telemax Technology Corporation from Taiwan. For further reading : https://www.nation.co.ke/business/Why-Kenya-Konza-technocity-is-dead-in-the… Regards -- Barrack O. Otieno +254721325277 +254733206359 Skype: barrack.otieno PGP ID: 0x2611D86A

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Tweet from DCI KENYA (@DCI_Kenya)
by Timothy- Coach- Oriedo 10 Dec '18

10 Dec '18

DCI KENYA (@DCI_Kenya) tweeted at 6:23 pm on Fri, Nov 16, 2018: #ARRESTED|Detectives from the Serious Crime Unit have Today afternoon arrested four young men who created a website similar to Uwezo Fund and using the name of the @FirstLadyKenya, defrauded applicants millions of shillings after they sent an application fee for loan processing. https://t.co/5GBi6ZkxPV (https://twitter.com/DCI_Kenya/status/1063452464446353408?s=03) Get the official Twitter app at https://twitter.com/download?s=13

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Is MPESA down?
by Keith Andere 08 Dec '18

08 Dec '18

Listers, Is anyone else experiencing challenges with Mpesa? Regards, Keith.

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Redundancy Key for Digital Utility Platforms
by Mbugua Njihia 08 Dec '18

08 Dec '18

Market “dominance” is often only frowned upon by parties that do not currently enjoy the said status. However this status carries with it inherent responsibility, especially so if a product or service has acquired utility status, with an enviable number of daily active consumers - http://www.mbuguanjihia.com/tech/redundancy-key-for-digital-utility-platfor… *Regards,* Mbugua Njihia ᐧ

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National Dialogues on Tech Assisted Violence Against Women
by Liz Orembo 08 Dec '18

08 Dec '18

Morning listers, KICTANet and Article 19 will hold a workshop on 11th Dec at Radison Blu on the subject theme. We have a few slots for those interested/working on policy aspect of digital satefy. Please find a concept note attached with more details. If interested, please send an OFFLIST message to cheryl(a)article19.org, and cc mwaragichanga(a)kictanet.or.ke Asanteni.

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