Hi,

This is a well presented posting but is has muddled the issue even more in that the tentacles of the board seem to be everywhere.

What we need as I remember from my programming class was that you need a flow chart to be able to better visualise the entire project and better appreciate the dependences of the system being developed.

Can we get a quick chart they show the workings of the board and how it complements the silo activities of the various arms of government. During Tandaa the question "what information does the public want from their government?" which unfortunately was not answered.  We had the issue of the requirement for birth certificates by all class 8 candidates, if a student has gotten to class 8 without a birth certificate then clearly we have a much more basic problem than the automation.  If a manual system does not work automating it will not resolve the issue if anything it will make it worse.

In your document you have mentioned TEAMS and country wide 3G (excluding South C), the question is how do this fit into a bigger picture of providing service to the public.  I am concerned that we are getting snippets of the issues and thus hope that when we have the town hall meeting we can receive an aerial view of what is being planned.

Thanks for the comprehensive report and we look forward to interacting with you so that we can get a better understanding of the board and the government initiatives.
 
Robert Yawe
KAY System Technologies Ltd
Phoenix House, 6th Floor
P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
Kenya

Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696


From: Paul Kukubo <pkukubo@ict.go.ke>
To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Sent: Tue, 6 April, 2010 20:08:36
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Who is ICT Board? - Capacity Building

A perspective that might enrich the forthcoming meeting. At the onset, I will suggest we cast our net wider to include anyone who might not be on this list for that meeting.

  1. The public sector is busy transforming in a way that matters to the common citizen, and in a way that will long term impact.
    • As an example, Public sector leaders presented 5 interesting case studies in government automation at the just ended connected government workshop (all slides on www.ict.go.ke/connectedgov)
      • Kenya Revenue Authority on their progress since inception on automation, By their IT Head Mr Saina
      • The automation of the Company registry including the initial reorganization of the registry, the on-going digitization and future service targets for citizens benefit. Presentation by Mr Wanjuki Muchemi, Solicitor General
      • The Integrated Population Registry System, presented by both the PS Immigrations Mr Emmanuel Kisombe and his team. Of note here is the role this would play in giving the government a 'single point of truth' of the citizen.
      • The on-going automation of the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA). Presented by the Director KEMSA
      • The Government Data Centre, presented by John Sergon Ag Director E Government.
    • Private sector was surprised by how committed and well thought and these projects are. These are just examples and they illustrate a government committed to laying the foundation for better citizen services. 
    • Those projects, when combined with the Government's role in TEAMs, the just commenced shared services project, the project to digitize the judiciary and the Ministry of Lands point to clear priorities. Private sector should align themselves around the opportunities presented by government. ( I cannot stop preaching this).   
    • Vision 2030 Director General provided an update on the work to develop a national value proposition proposed to anchored around Kenya's core strength as a hub and a centre of entrepreneurship and innovation within Africa.
    • Indeed in his wrap up, PS Dr Ndemo re-iterated the level of opportunity this all represented, but also stressed that there was still work to be done to get to where we want to get to.
  2. While there can be no shortage of ideas on how the government can and should be structured the debate could be enriched by discussion around where greater co-operation could break down silos and the role private sector might play. Indeed PS Ndemo pointed this issue out during the Prime Minister's Round Table recently. Private Sector, Civil Society and Academia add value by providing case studies of successes and failures locally with IT deployments, how the common citizen may be better served, even within the current reality. Good examples of successes include Safaricom's roll out 3G services even in very remote parts of Kenya to enable citizens have better broadband experience, Cisco is rolling out training in their Net Academies to enrich the digital villages concept by enabling training in rural communities and Oracle is investing in the capacity of IT leaders both government and private sector, to understand how to deploy complex technologies that are necessary, in order that we have simplified IT access. (as you know there is always complex systems behind simplified access. If you doubt that, try rolling out a WIMAX network, or running a BPO firm.).
  3. Some private sector participant observed to me that there might be a trend perhaps among a few on always putting forward suggestions without knowledge on what is on the ground, always proposing alternatives and not building on ideas and listening without internalization. While there is no harm in this, I would suggest a greater role for private sector, civil society and academia. These sectors could use their constituencies (if these are professional bodies, or associations, or working groups) to create forums for discourse on the issues and provide leadership and guidance, that is seen to be drawn from the constituencies themselves. The ICT Board interacts with many stakeholders and indeed many of them are also themselves looking for a suitable professional home. (be it the CIO Forum, KIFF, TESPOK, Kictanet, Skunkworks, Mobile Monday, Mobile Value Added Service Providers, the BPO sector, the systems intergrators, the Multinationals Forum, Pasha Trainees. They have diverse needs. Before the town hall meeting, my team could provide a brief summary of our observation in interacting with all them. Indeed in doing the rounds, we have not covered many of them. They are many..
  4. It is entrepreneurs who will build a true ICT sector, one business at a time. Fortunately we have plenty of them in Kenya. Many who seek guidance and counsel on where to direct their energies. There are some who believe IT is fibre optic and others still in the 'buy ICT equipment and sell mode". We are always encouraging them at forums such as the Tandaa Conferences and the Mobile Boot camp to widen their view into applications, solutions, project management, consultancy, new media development (animation, web marketing, mobile marketing) etc. This requires concerted effort. During the Connected Gov workshop, we showcased animations developed by Home Boys Studios in Kenya using local talent (who had no prior animation training). These animations are being shown on UK TV. Local companies like Symbiotic, Cellulant gave case studies of the challenges and opportunities entrepreuners face, and Seven Seas a large Kenyan system integrator demonstrated how the government could deploy a digital dashboard and how partnering with Safaricom, they have developed  capacity building program to train for IT.
  5. One last observation is that as ICT becomes more sophisticated, perhaps we can look at the role of the CIO and the CTO within both private sector and public sector structures. On this score, a few private sector firms in Kenya provide examples of ideal IT governance structure and we all could welcome them to share their experiences. 
Paul Kukubo
Chief Executive Officer, Kenya ICT Board
PO Box 27150 - 00100
Nairobi, Kenya

12th Floor, Teleposta Towers Koinange Street

Tel +254 20 2089061, +254 20 2211960
Fax: +254 20 2211962
website: www.ict.go.ke
local content project: www.tandaa.co.ke, www.facebook.com/tandaakenya
twitter:@tandaaKENYA
BPO Project: www. doitinkenya.co.ke
Digital Villages Project: www.pasha.co.ke


personal contacts
_______________

Cell: + 254 717 180001


skype: kukubopaul
googletalk: pkukubo
personal blog: www.paulkukubo.co.ke
personal twitter: @pkukubo


____________________
Vision: Kenya becomes a top ten global ICT hub

Mission: To champion and actively enable Kenya to adopt and exploit ICT, through promotion of partnerships, investments and infrastructure growth for socio economic enrichment


On Tue, Apr 6, 2010 at 6:21 PM, Harry Delano <harry@comtelsys.co.ke> wrote:
 
Lilian,

This is so comprehensive.. Hope, notes are being taken from these resourceful discussions coming in.
 
Mine, is just a proposal. Clearly, the different agencies existing, happen to work within some form of
mandate in their own areas of jurisdiction or so, whether the mandates are competing mandates or
a duplication, it may be quite difficult to just "merge" them..
 
Clearly, Listers - one thing that is now clear, is that ICT is a huge phenomenon, that cuts' out across
the entire spectrum of Govt and ministries - beyond INFOCOM.  This means, stakeholders from other
Govt. sectors need to be brought into the fold to harmonize strategy..
 
I suppose therefore, this may call for an oversight body - to which, each of the Govt agencies can have a
representation. This oversight, could encompass reps, from all sectors, private , and govt. All interests
should be declared as a pre-requisite to serving on this panel for purposes of accountability and
transparency..
 
If in order, I could float some names for such a body, such as:-
 
  • National ICT Task Force - (NICTAF)
  • National ICT Agency of Kenya - (NICTAK)
  • National ICT Oversight Board -(NICTOB)
Other names are welcome..
 
Harry

From: kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Lilian Karanja
Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2010 11:43 AM
To: harry@comtelsys.co.ke

Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Who is ICT Board? - Capacity Building

Yes, Robert.......I see.

 

Certainly, what GoK needs is ICT Governance. “Without governance you do not produce good decisions consistently. ‘Governance’ in the context of the management of ICT crafts a clear framework in which decisions are made, who makes the decisions about business and technology developments, who has input into the decision-making process and how the decisions are formed”.

 

In my opinion, the ICT Board (under Min. Of Info Comm), the Directorate of e-Government (under OP), the GITS Department (under Min. Of Finance), and both the CCK and NCS (both under Min. Of Info Comm) seem to have related ICT goals and objectives. They (unfortunately) don’t seem to oftenly collaborate in their decision-making. I personally like the idea of a KITA like SITA/RITA. Sometime ago, the Directorate of e-Government seemed to come-up into a KITA (in the way we think of SITA/RITA), but did not ‘mature’ into the institution envisioned.

GoK ICT Governance Decisions would ideally focus on:

·         Determining the strategic approach to e-government and ICT within GoK

·         How the e-government initiatives should be used in GoK, to improve services, reduce costs, develop the community, etc

·         How fundamental e-government and ICT is to GoK and the country at large

·         The way e-government and ICT is to be managed (e.g. by what mechanism and how resources are to be managed)

·          The way investments are to be made and policies on realising and sharing benefits

·          How the required skills are to be procured (through strategic partnerships, in-house, through consortium, etc)

·          The principles that underlie the ICT architecture

·          Setting priorities and determining e-government and ICT investment programmes

·          Managing the foundations and regulations regarding the core elements of the infrastructure:

o   Personnel – who will be responsible for their professional development and where certain skills should reside

o    Methods and techniques – what project/programme management, development and operations management standards should be used

o    Charging mechanisms and services standards (performance management)

o   Information – standards to enable the effective sharing of information

o    Core applications – intranet, finance systems, payroll, registries and personnel standards, etc

o   Technical – network, consolidated service desk, data standards

o    Security

o    Legal

 

This has conspicuously missed within GoK, in the past years. We look to GoK greatly to spur ‘mwananchi’ by keenly committing to ‘add value’ to broadband so that their attitude, confidence and appreciation towards the use ICTs and the Internet increases (especially in the rural areas, as they access Government e-Services), thus creating an Internet Community and an IT culture. Am not sure we necessarily need support from outside to do this, even donor funds (we don’t need). We can do it on our own, as we (Kenya) are, now, known to be an emerging knowledge economy. GoK can lead the way to create a Kenyan way ‘working with’and using ICT. We have so many Youth (any way), who are jobless! Lets purposefully develop capacity of these young and use them sufficiently.

 

I rest my case, and I apologise for any misunderstandings.

 
LILIAN

 


--- On Tue, 4/6/10, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Who is ICT Board? - Capacity Building
To: "Lilian Karanja" <l_wkaranja@yahoo.com>
Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Date: Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 12:32 AM

Hi Lilian,

Just wanted to clarify an issue, government has some of the best trained ICT fellows and I know because I have regularly interacted with them for over 10 years.  Do not be deceived by the fact that they are no fancy websites or iphone applications the men and women who keep the government systems running are basically miracle workers.

How they do it is beyond my comprehension and the last thin they need is a capacity building what they need like all with the other areas of government is a co-ordinator or a Deputy Prime Minister IS.  Hon Raila has definitely moved government efficiency a notch higher and without a "dream team" or expatriate consultants all he did was dust off the diamonds within. 

Government has a beautiful retention strategy which is we pay you for 2 hours a day and we expect you to only deliver the paid for work, if you are unable to find something profitable to do with the balance 6 hours then that is your problem.

What we need is a deputy prime minister information systems or ICT or BPO whatever the name of which KICTB has proven not to be to "desilo" (term coined by Dr. Ndemo during the PM Round table meeting) the government activities.

Can you government ICT gurus stick your heads out and defend your selves, I know many of you are on this listing, so be warned that next time I need to put the record strait on your behalf I will actually name names.
 
Robert Yawe
KAY System Technologies Ltd
Phoenix House, 6th Floor
P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
Kenya

Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696


From: Lilian Karanja <l_wkaranja@yahoo.com>
To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Sent: Mon, 5 April, 2010 16:58:41
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Who is ICT Board? Hijacked

Dear PS:
 
It is a little discouraging to hear you say that the issues discussed in this topic are 'kuchongoana tu'. We look up to you, and others in Government and also in the private sector who are so passionate about the use of ICTs and the Internet to create opportunities for all, in Kenya, and see that ICT remains a reliable vehicle for economic growth and development. So, please don't stop listening to us, patiently and we beseech you to continue in your wisdom in dealing with these matters.
 
This topic, 'Who is ICT Board?' as well as that of 'eGovernment is it a myth or reality?' have raised important questions that should be addressed with 'a big heart' and an open mind. As you have noted, a town hall meeting is good and always welcome. However, moving forward, it needs to be clear how ICT Board interacts with Government and how it promotes the existence of an Institutional Framework for ICT management in Government. Clearly, the ICT Board manages of a huge chunk of donor funds for ICT growth in Kenya, eGovernment and the likes (through the KTCIP), but still the Government lags behind in their ICT technical know-how and skills.
 
While one of their mandate (the ICT Board) is Capacity Building (Providing GoK and other stakeholders with skills, capacity and funding for anchor implementation of ICT projects for development) over time we have only seen laxity in the management of ICT by Government i.e. poor websites, unsatisfactory performance of legacy systems, inconsistent DNS & IP address management, meagre IT Security (web, network, etc), little or no R&D and M&E of ICT & eGovt, etc. But may be it is not deliberate laxity, it is that the Government Officers who manage IT issues in Government are not continuously trained in all pertinent areas to raise experts and skillful personnel.
 
I hope this is an area ICT Board can address, when they say that part of their mandate is Capacity Building, otherwise we have Government Officers who cannot do much to use broadband properly and strategically as well as make eGovernment a reality. The cabilities of these Officers should be close to, if not better than those in the private sector. And when GoK finally has real experts and engineers in ICT, a retention strategy MUST be adopted to keep them and recompense them accordingly. This is the future of Government IT, 'people who are knowledgeable and focused on a bright future'.
 
LILIAN
 
 
 
--- On Sun, 4/4/10, bitange@jambo.co.ke <bitange@jambo.co.ke> wrote:

From: bitange@jambo.co.ke <bitange@jambo.co.ke>
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Who is ICT Board? Hijacked
To: "Lilian" <l_wkaranja@yahoo.com>
Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Date: Sunday, April 4, 2010, 9:42 AM

Barrack,
Several posts have come by on the role of ICT and I think it will be wise
if we sorted this in a town hall meeting similar to one we had on Malili.
Honestly it feels as though some Neanderthal decided to create these
agencies without putting some thought to it.  Criticisms are good only
when you point out where there are gaps.

The other day I posted a policy proposal for comments but only one person
did respond.  What it means then is that this forum ni ya kuchongoana tu.
Which really is unfortunate.  I have four other policy proposals that I
really think should push through then arouse sufficient interest from the
membership here.


Ndemo.


> This is truly "Jicho Pevu", i think some answers to this questions are
> very much in order as we celebrate Easter, can someone provide us with
> a list of all agencies involved in ICTs and ICT4D so that we can do
> some tooth comb analysis, i saw a  post from Paul on what the board
> has achieved early this year, that was very much in order we need
> something from NCS as well plus any other agencies.
>
> Regards
>
> On Sat, Apr 3, 2010 at 12:50 PM, Vitalis Olunga <volunga@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> There is also another body , National Communications Secretarait. What
>> is
>> the diffrence between NCS and ICT Baord and how do the two bodies relate
>> with respect to  advisory services to the governement on ICT matters?
>>
>> Regards
>>
>>
>> Vitalis
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk>
>> To: volunga@yahoo.com
>> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
>> Sent: Sat, April 3, 2010 12:03:22 PM
>> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Who is ICT Board? Hijacked
>>
>> Hi,
>> I rest my case on this issue, the ICT Board is a monolith, Try
>> reading this... (pdf file), as I feared it is mandated to do anything
>> and
>> everything under the sun that could be called ICT which includes your
>> microwave oven and copier.
>> Functions of Kenya ICT Board
>> The core functions of Kenya ICT Board as documented in the Kenya Gazette
>> Legal Notice No 26 of the May 2007:
>> •  To advice the government on all relevant matters pertaining to
>> development, coordination  (remember the PM post) and promotion of ICT
>> industries in the country.
>> •  Promote both locally and internationally the opportunities for
>> investments in ICT technology
>> •  Facilitate and manage ICT industrial incubation parks and technology
>> parks together with associated facilities on sites, estates and land.
>> •  Partner with agents within and without the country to carry out such
>> functions as it may consider necessary.
>> •  To transform and empower society through deployment and use of ICTs.
>> •  Carry out any other activity to promote and develop ICT products and
>> services.
>> Have a restful Easter as we await the limited range 4G, yes you guessed
>> it I
>> still have a 3G issue and I am in Nairobi.
>> Regards
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke
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>>
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>>
>
>
>
> --
> Barrack O. Otieno
> Geneva
> Skype: barrack.otieno
>
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