
Grace, I shall try to respond. Q: Murigi had raised the concern of how the billions returned annually to the Treasury could be utilized to provide social goods and services, and would be possible to set aside 1.5 % of the budget for ICTs? A: We need not return monies that have already been set a side for specific projects. Most of these are either loans or donor funds that are tied to a specific project. Most of these projects have conditionalties that do not make sense even in the best of times. "Candidates" Ndemo will suspend all donor funds that we did not solicit for. You will be shocked to learn that in some projects you have several competing funds. One good example is KEMSA. Even if you get the best logistics expert you will still be innefficient since there are more than 600 donors with their own conditionalities. It will be much easier to manage things within your own capacities and avoid running around trying to please every donor. We had a similar problem in ICT but we said if something does not meet our projected priorities, we do not want the money. This paid off and you begin to see logic on what we are trying to do. Some donors give aid even when you do not want it then tie it to conditionalities that will take many months to meet. Further we need to change the procurement law. Specifically, we need to punish losers who bring frivoulous appeals that delay implementation. Such suppliers should be made to pay costs of delaying the project if they lose. We also need to reduce tender process period. It takes up to six months sometimes to complete a donor funded procurement process. By the time you begin implementation you are returning the money. There are also contractors who do not meet timelines hoping to hurry up the accounting officers to pay in order to avoid pending bills. Q: Harry Delano to comment on how ICTs be utilized to help confront tribal and racial profiling. A: I have responded to this a number of times. We have begun the process of developing a public key infrastructure (PKI) that will give every citizen a unique ID that even used in itself can be a good identifier. With such infrastructure we do not have to use names that automatically starts the profile of the citizen. George Nyabuga requested for an update on digital migration process. His questions were: 1. What is the progress on the migration from analogue to digital? Will the country meet the deadline for the migration? A: We have made significant progress and for sure we shall meet the deadline as promissed. 2. Has the government released enough funding for the process? How much is required,and what has the government released? A: We have given KBC Ksh. 600 million for the project. They are about to launch DVBT2 in some parts of the country. This should happen before the end of the year and we should cover at least 70% of the country by June. Northern Kenya and other remaining parts will be served via sattelite or DTH. This means that the entire country will indeed have access to Digital TV by end of June. 3. What is the state of digital media uptake in Kenya at the moment? A: We slowed down the uptake of DVBT since the technology had changed but we should get back to an aggressive programme of promoting DVBT2. 4. What is the position of KBC as far as digitization is concerned? A: KBC through its subsidiary Signet is the only current signal distributor and as stated, we should be ready by June. 5. Will the public service obligation of KBC change? A: No. We shall even improve on the existing programs since we shall have more resourses. Here I really want help with especially educational content or edutainment programs. We are in a sorry state with respect to content as we unlease more resources. George, this is where the Universities need to come in as a revenue stream. I will donate my time to content development advisory. 6. What public service obligation will commercial media have any under the digital regime? A: We have always wanted commercial broadcsters to dedicate at least one minute every hour to public service. We can use that minute to promote peace for example and many other social interventions. Regards Ndemo.
Listers
Again, there are requests to allow 'Candidate" Ndemo to continue engaging with listers. We have consulted and considering that some concerns raised are important, we are now extending it to August 31, 2011. Please raise your concerns within this extension period.
And now to "Candidate Ndemo". Could you kindly respond the following issues raised by listers?
Murigi had raised the concern of how the billions returned annually to the Treasury could be utilized to provide social goods and services, and would be possible to set aside 1.5 % of the budget for ICTs?
Harry Delano to comment on how ICTs be utilized to help confront tribal and racial profiling.
George Nyabuga requested for an update on digital migration process. His questions were: 1. What is the progress on the migration from analogue to digital? Will the country meet the deadline for the migration? 2. Has the government released enough funding for the process? How much is required, and what has the government released? 3. What is the state of digital media uptake in Kenya at the moment? 4. What is the position of KBC as far as digitization is concerned? 5. Will the public service obligation of KBC change? 6. What public service obligation will commercial media have any under the digital regime?
And finally in response to Yawes concerns on the Somali community, could you kindly go ahead and elaborate on the economic implications of the issue?
Kind Regards GG
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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!
From: bitange@jambo.co.ke Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2011 18:10:27 +0000 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Bitange for President? Xenophobia CC: kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke To: ggithaiga@hotmail.com
Harry, Examine Robert's logic through his metaphor of how long a cow takes to die out of hunger. If he meant that we should have seen it coming then he is a master of contradiction.
What is happening around Lake Victoria must be stopped. If indeed this were businessmen, then they need not spend money to silencing politicians. Infact some politicians speak like Robert. "Our people are lazy". This is a grave matter. We cannot fight poverty by telling our people to compete in a 200 meter race when the vistors are starting at 100 meter spot (Capital unlimited) and we cannot vouch on the sources of their immense financial strength.
The impact of excess liquidity in the market affects everyone through inflation and inflated property prices as well as rent. You do not need an economist to tell you this.
I do not blame Robert's puritanical reaction. This is typical of us when we fail to look at a global picture. If it wasn't the fact that the official "campaign" is over I would have spent more time on the economic implications of the issue at hand.
Ndemo.
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