Oops! Now that my 'cover' has been blown by Gakiria, I might as well add that when we arrived at the mombasa workshop, we were as 'fatigued' as Rebecca about the wide, wide wait for eLegislation... However, we were briefed right from the SG's mouth (SG - Solicitor General, is the 'learned' term for the PS in AG Office) about the steps towards enacting law and why it may or may not happen in a snap. Generally here are the steps (if i remember correctly). 1. (Relevant) Policy is discussed, agreed and formulated. 2. (Relevant) Draft Bill is formulated, discussed and endorsed through a Cabinet Memorandum 3. The sponsoring (Info&Comm) Ministry then forwards the above to the AG's Office for action. 4. AG's Office would review the Draft Bill -basically generating a final draft that can be presented in Parliarment. Specifically, the implimentation implications (Legal, Financial, Institutional, Human Resource, etc) will be highlighted and forwarded back to the sponsoring Ministry for further consultation. 5. The sponsoring Ministry would then review the revised Draft - particulary with Min of Finance and after consensus, another Cabinent Paper will be made for Cabinet discussion. 6. If Cabinent discusses and reaches consensus, then the sponsoring Ministry would forward the second Cabinent Memorandum to the AG for final review and Publication. 7. And then the Parliamentary Process is ready to begin...(and that you probably agree is a story for another day) Ofcourse, the whole process needs sustained pressure for quick(er) results. But sometimes, when one lacks the inside story, the pressure often comes out as endless negative criticism. This potentially leads to (Governments? other stakeholders?) adopting a non-progressive 'hardline' attitude... walu. --- Gakiria <gakiria@gmail.com> wrote:
Rebecca/Walu,
Am tempted to agree with Walu's comments about the percieved lack of commitment by Government. As some of you might be only too aware, good intentions and will by Government sometimes get bogged down by circumstances beyond anybodys immediate control..Archaic legal environment, cumbersome procurement procedures, electoral calendar etc...However, i would like to bring to your attention recent initiatives, hoping these will give an indication of Government's commitment to legislative reform vis a vis e-Commerce and e-Government.
1. Between 13th - 15th November 2006, a stakeholders workshop on electronic transactions was held in Mombasa, in which key groups discussed on the way forward on this matter. KICTANET was ably represented by Walu, among others. This workshop was a national follow up of a regional workshop on cyber-laws and cyber-security for e-Government, held in Kampala in April under the auspices of the EAC, GOK, UNECA and CePRC. The regional workshop resolved to set up two Regional expert working groups on cyber-laws and cyber-security, to develop policy and technical proposals on how we can actualise a supportive legal environment in East Africa.The working groups are presently being constituted. 2. On 11th - 15th December 2006, a technical training workshop is being conducted here in Nairobi on the legal aspects of e-Commerce. The target participants are technical and management staff in various sectors, with heavy representation from Government. The training is being conducted by UNCTAD, GOK and EAC. The aim is to build critical capacity in understanding the policy and technical issues involved in developing a supportive legal environment for e-Commerce.
Andrew
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