Poleni sana! Here they are.

I have noted the Ministry of ICT has a program targetting MNAs to see that they have ICT hubs in their respective constituencies. The funds to set up these hubs are to be deducted from CDF kitty, about 1 million for every ward in the constituency.

At the same time, Nairobi county CIDP wants to ensure there is access to ICT in the county by also building hubs (I think). I have not read any other CIDP so I cannot confirm whether this is ongoing in other counties.

This is a duplication of efforts within the same area. Wouldn't it be more prudent for the national government to partner with ICT departments in the counties for the development of ICT? Wouldn't it make more sense for national executive to speak with county executive? Wouldn't it be a better use of resources for the two levels of government to work together on similar matters?

In my view this is how devolution will work. The current set- up of the national government working with MNAs to further ICT looks more like decentralisation, which undermines devolution.

I have noticed this strategy is not just with ICT but also with the Ministry of Industrialization (setting up industrial zones at constituency level while counties are also doing the exact same thing) . There is need to relook at how the national government is interacting with other players in the entire government structure so as to streamline all activities and avoid duplicating efforts.

Regards,

Deborah

Good morning Listers,

Welcome to Day 1 of 'Talk to the Senate'. This must have been what the framers of the Constitution had in mind when they entrenched public participation as a key constitutional principle- an opportunity for us to make a case on what we think ought to be the Senate's priority 2017-2022. I therefore encourage that we all participate in this session and look forward to an animated discussion.

As Grace had briefed us on Friday, we will have a three day discussion focusing on the counties and opportunities for intervention by the Senate.

This being the first day, our goal is to bring out issues of concern in the counties as far as ICT is concerned. Once we have these, we will proceed to make proposals on how the Senate may be of help in resolving these issues on Day 2. On Day 3, we will discuss how to foster engagements between the ICT community and the legislature.

This is our guiding question for today–

What do you consider to be the ICT

(a) challenges;

(b) risks; and

(c) opportunities in the counties?

As well, if there are ICT success stories coming out of the counties, feel free to highlight them.

We are honoured to have Senator Abshiro Halake (Vice Chairperson, Senate ICT Committee) on the list. Senator, karibu sana.

This discussion is now open!

Mercy Mutemi, Advocate.