Timely conversation @Dorcas Muthoni , Beryl and Colleagues,

We have come a long way as a country but could still do better with respect to access to digital infrastructure. A lot of effort has been made to connect our Villages to the National Electricity grid. This was largely inspired by the Digital Literacy Programme that was being championed by the government through the Ministry of ICT. We also have the National Optic Fibre project (NOFBI) which i understand has been extended to sub county level under the stewardship of ICTA, however it is not being utilized optimally. There is also the question of availability and affordability of smart devices and taxation of digital products and services yet according to the latest census report, only 3.7 percent of the countries Citizens engage in Electronic Commerce which may imply that we are not yet Africa's Silicon Savannah as we have been thinking.

In a previous conversation on this list last week on whether the Internet in Kenya is resilient enough to withstand this crisis and similar sentiments arose in that conversation.

While i agree with Dorcas that the Internet Should be a Public Utility Service, i would also like to propose that we must ensure the Public Core of the Internet is protected, (the Domain Name System and our Internet Exchange points ) to name but a few so that the Internet does not become a new front for Human Rights abuse, insecurity and expansion of inequalities between the haves and the have nots.

Secondly as i proposed to Senator Abshiro in the previous conversation , the Senate and Parliament needs to be on the frontline in enacting bills similar to the High Perfomance Computing Act (also known as the Gore bill which as passed in 1991 which availed federal funding for high speed Networks).

Having listened to our members of parliament, i have heard fears such as ICT's don't translate into votes, Fibre does not bring water to name but a few. It is this kind of thinking we will need to change if we are to win this final push. We need champions in parliament who will make this conversation a reality.

Finally i think @Liz Orembo should amalgate all the infrastructure related conversations in the last three weeks as our submission to the National Assembly.

Best Regards

On Mon, Apr 6, 2020 at 8:18 AM Beryl Aidi via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

Hi
Quite a timely and very difficult conversation indeed. To date, I still think that ICT is treated as luxury as there are many arguments that the low income communities first need basic needs (water, food and adequate shelter) met before we can think of the internet, yet we are talking of e-learning, e-commerce, e-government etc. This is indicative of the continuing growing inequality gap and has a lot to do with government and also to a large extend, private sector, priority.
Several years ago when ICT4D and M4D were becoming a thing, an attempt to bridge the digital divide through a project that aimed at enabling community-based human rights networks harness the power of the internet to do engage better through an ICT4D initiative. Most of the networks were rural and totally out of the grid, apart from having no computer literacy. Once the literacy issue was overcome, still access was the greatest barrier as powering computers and laptops need adequate supply of electricity. Well, an idea to use generators attempted, but access was still out of reach as the signals from mobile modems, regardless of the ISP was too weak. Actually, to date, when I go to the village, mobile internet is still very problematic. Not to mention how expensive it is to use bundles as opposed to using wifi. Again, the cost of bundles is still out of reach for the low income households.
In short, infrastructure as the backbone is absolutely necessary. What is the point of Safaricom, Zuku, Airtel, Telcom and Jamii Telcom, to name the big players, to continue fighting over the pie in Kileleshwa, Kilimani, Karen, Runda etc urging us to migrate, when there are myriads of households elsewhere near and far inadequately served?
We need better policies to ensure access, and not one service provider or another running to Communications Community to get advantage over others.
These are long term issues and both government and the private sector should prioritize these. The internet is no longer luxury, has never been. And as such should be a public good, easily accessible and affordable.
In the meantime, what can be done even as Coronavirus threatens to grind life as we know it to halt?

Regards
Beryl

On Sun, Apr 5, 2020 at 7:25 PM John Kariuki via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
Hi.
As we discuss the matter of public utility we shall need it does not necessarily mean Universal Service. It could start with more policy, regulatory and legal intervention and even classified as critical infrastructure. FYI, in Kenya until late 70's telecommunications was considered a luxury and the debate of food versus telecommunications was quite common in the Minitstry of Finance. In the 1990's use of Internet in Government was banned. Even in early 2000 PC's were not considered a priority. Regarding power, Kenya is lucky at the moment because we have surplus generating capacity.
We are quite fortunate that we have demand
. The GOK has so many services on line. It means that Wanjiku has a good reason to be computer literate in order to access services. Private sector is following closely. In the past demand forecast was hell if one was to avoid over investment and under utilization.

The journey needs to start.

John Kariuki
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

On Sun, Apr 5, 2020 at 14:15, kanini mutemi via kictanet
<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

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