I will give my 2 cents from a legal perspective ....There is no standard legal way that is used to deal with copy right issues touching on employee and employer relationships,mostly different countries have different national legislation to deal with the issue ....and IP rights or laws differs substantially between the two main legal systems in the world today, the common law system and the civil law system.

In the common law system e.g. in the United States and in the United Kingdom (Kenya has borrowed from the two), the investor (employer) benefits from its employees’ intellectual creations.  In those countries the employer is the initial owner of the employees’ intellectual property rights produced in the course of the employment. The
employer is treated as the first owner, but not deemed to be the author. Therefore the duration of copyright, for example, is measured with reference to the life of the employed creator. Further on, the national laws in these countries make it clear that contractual provisions, whether expressed or implied, can affect the employer’s initial
ownership.

In the civil law system to which most of the countries of Continental Europe –Germany, France and the Nordic countries, for example – belong, a legal person such as an employer, may not generally be deemed the first holder of an intellectual property right. Those rights are normally linked to individual persons. Therefore, an employer may normally only obtain intellectual property rights by assignment by law or in contract.

Since Kenya lacks exhaustive and detailed legislation to deal with copyright issues of this nature I will borrow from the EU.The European Commission published proposals for copyrights within the EU,If you look at Directive 91/250/EEC on the Legal Protection of Computer Programs,. Article 2(3) of the Directive contains a mandatory requirement on employees’ programs.The employer shall exclusively be entitled to exercise all economic rights in an employee’s computer program, where a program is created in the execution of the employee’s duties or where the employee is following instructions given by the employer. It is an automatic legal transfer of the copyright in computer programs. However, if the parties agree, the employed author of the computer program can recover the rights through a specific clause in the employment contract or a separate agreement on the exploitation of the computer program made by the employee (waiving the legal automatic transfer of rights).

My advice to the concerned employee is he could have found away of handling the issue amicably with the employer. Short of sounding pre-judicial he can not stop KRA from tendering for the software or using it.But all is not lost he can sell it to county governments and help them collect revenue from real estate as well.

My arguments are from a law student perspective and I stand corrected from other senior and experienced legal ccontributors in this list.

Thanks

On Thu, Nov 22, 2012 at 2:45 PM, J.R. Kirongothi <kirongothi@kasneb.or.ke> wrote:
This is very strange. Its obvious that the employee developed the system as an employee hence for the employer. Simply put, it belongs to KRA! Why then would KRA be buying its property from a third party? And while the employee resigns to seek to supply, will he pay for the organisation's resources (including time) that he used to develop the system?

Capt(rtd) Jessie R. Kirongothi
Email: kirongothi@kasneb.or.ke

----- Original Message ----- From: <ngethe.kariuki2007@yahoo.co.uk>
To: "Jessie R. Kirongothi" <kirongothi@kasneb.or.ke>
Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Sent: Thursday, November 22, 2012 9:31 AM
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Resign and seek to supply the system as an outsider


KRA is a public body funded by taxpayers.Clearly it cannot behave like a private entity.Is there a public interest matter in this issue?
Sent from my BlackBerry®

-----Original Message-----
From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk>
Sender: "kictanet"
<kictanet-bounces+ngethe.kariuki2007=yahoo.co.uk@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Date: Thu, 22 Nov 2012 06:02:26
To: <ngethe.kariuki2007@yahoo.co.uk>
Reply-To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk>
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Resign and seek to supply the system as an outsider

_______________________________________________
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/ngethe.kariuki2007%40yahoo.co.uk

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/kirongothi%40kasneb.or.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/mcdonaldoj%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.