Ndugu Ali,

Have no fear, we are not giving up. 

When we are asking, we are asking with good intentions, so that we work together to make it happen.
At that time, I was in communication with an upcountry county ICT government official who had wanted to know whether they wait for the ICT Authority or they implement their own solution for communication purposes.
You can imagine how that story went. 


We have been part of strategy meetings and roadmap panels and left it to the ICT authority to do their part. What we don’t get is official communication to keep us in the loop, even if things take time.
Communication helps everyone. It seems we have a level of distrust that clouds how we interact, yet we are working to benefit one another.

So we are continue with other avenues ... and wait. 

Jimmy Gitonga
@Afrowave
Web : Motion
On 6 Jul 2020, 15:10 +0300, Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke>, wrote:
Jimmy

Let me respond to you by repeating a quote I love:-

Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country ~ Khalil Gibran (Lebanese writer)

We can't give up on this country. It is ours. Period. We will continue to hammer it into shape. One nyundo at a time.

Regards

Ali Hussein

Digital Transformation


Tel: +254 713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim




Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the organizations that I work with.


On Mon, Jul 6, 2020 at 12:59 PM Jimmy Gitonga via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
Sen. Abshiro and Ali,

Dr. Kate Getao, then a director at the ICT Authority, at an Oracle Developer Conference at PanAfric Hotel was asked this precise question.

She explained that the government had a Disaster Recovery Centre at Ruaraka and that the government was building a datacenter in Naivasha, close to Olkaria (for power purposes) to house all the data from and for government agencies.
This data centre would then be opened up for counties. She carefully did not give a date but we were thinking with the “digital government” promises, we would see this come to fruition within that election period.

Note, the problem is not lack of expertise in ICT. It seems we do not “love” our country. I am not talking about patriotism, I am talking about a good balanced pride in our country.
When people join government as elected officials or the civil service, it is like they die inside. Something happens and I cannot figure out what it is.

Ali is strong. Some of us stopped asking questions because it is tiring.

Jimmy Gitonga
@Afrowave
Web : Motion
On 6 Jul 2020, 08:58 +0300, kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke, wrote:

Message: 1
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2020 08:55:34 +0300
From: Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke>
To: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Subject: Re: [kictanet] .Ke domains cross the 100,000 Mark (Reminder
to Team KeNIC to make good on their promise during last year?s AGM on
transparency and improving on Corporate Governance. The silence is
worrying) - REMINDER NO. 2
Message-ID:
<CAPjmBy1wbNPNA4ibbCAe9KKsdKON4O2tEs+G6UsiTrGORy98Kw@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Mheshimiwa

Thanks for your personal attention on this matter. My two cents:-

1. First to answer your two issues.

a) *T**hat government jobs are so temporary especially for a certain cadre
of peopl*e - For as long as one is in Government employment everything that
person does on behalf of the people of Kenya remains the property of the
people of Kenya. I think the confusion starts when government employees mix
personal business with government business. There's a possibility here that
there is a requirement for some sensitivity training. We do take a lot for
granted but we shouldn't. Bottomline. ALL OFFICIAL BUSINESS SHOULD BE DONE
OFFICIALLY. ON GOVT COMMUNICATION CHANNELS. Which means official .go.ke
emails.
b) *Tech maintenance and support is so bad* - I will not be surprised if
this is the case. However, this should not be an excuse for not using
official Govt Email. To be honest, Mheshimiwa, its super embarrassing for a
country that is kicking ass (forgive the slang) in the technology space
worldwide to have a conversation with colleagues in say Nigeria, and one
sentence about Government Ministers using gmail/yahoo/hotmail deflates the
conversation. Isn't the ICT Authority supposed to sort of act as Government
CIO (Chief Information Officer). May be its time for a substantive
Government Chief Information Officer responsible for all ICT issues in
Government? including Data Centres, ICT Strategy etc? Do we need to revisit
ICTA's mandate?

2. In today's world, we cannot afford sensitive government documents all
over the world wide web on servers that we have zero control of. My sense
is that we need to have some basic **musts** that need to be engrained in
government employees. This could actually be an act of parliament on how
govt operates ICT Infrastructure for its day to day operations. Here's an
example of how the U.K Government deals with this email issue
<chrome-extension://ohfgljdgelakfkefopgklcohadegdpjf/https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/207131/Private_Email_guidance.pdf>
.

3. Lastly Mheshimiwa, this issue of government email use has been discussed
for years on this list and others. I don't honestly think (with all due
respect to all responsible) that it has been taken seriously enough. Time
to take it a notch higher. Could it possibly be something that the Senate
ICT Committee can take up and see it to its logical conclusion? I mean if
the National Government is in such a rut when it comes to basic email
communication can you imagine what is happening in the counties?

I think that should be enough to keep you busy on this issue. :-)

*Ali Hussein*

Digital Transformation

Tel: +254 713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
<http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>

Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely
mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the
organizations that I work with.

On Sun, Jul 5, 2020 at 11:33 PM Abshiro Halake via kictanet <
kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

> Ali, Twahir, team,
>
> Great idea to enlighten the government and its agencies on this. The ICT
> Ministry should actually take the lead. We could put a parliamentary
> question to the ICT Ministry as to why the government continues to use
> personal emails. That being said, I was once told that there are two
> reasons why this is the case - 1. that government jobs are so temporary
> especially for certain cadre of people and 2. tech maintenance and support
> is so bad. Not sure if these are just excuses but it may be worth it to
> still put the questions. Can someone send me a few pointers to include in
> the question/statement? Perhaps why it is important to change this and also
> reassurance on security etc.....
>
> Thanks and kind regards,
>
> Sen. Abshiro
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