Ali Sometimes we learn the hard way. Digital migration has been a living room joke until CAK woke people up. I laud the bold steps taken by CA DG Mr. Francis Wangusi and his team, they have gotten every household enquiring what this digital migration elephant (which indeed it is ) is all about. Anyway, what is the fuss all about? arent we driving on roads built by the Chinese across the continent?, i think this is a wake up call for us to style up in terms of raising our standards in business. Excellence is not an option that is why the Chinese have reached where they are. Even those crying foul are likely to source for technology from the East because it makes business sense. I think the Supreme Court of Kenya made very wise rulings that could and should resolve this issue. People should learn to sit around a table and resolve contentious issues instead of invoking legalese. This is indeed a demonstration that some sections of the industry do not value Multistakeholderism hence the challenges we have encountered in the recent past that have slowed down our growth as a sector. I am a strong beleiver in the Multistakeholder model, let all the people concerned sit on one table and iron out their issues amicably as proposed by the highest court in the land propaganda will only make things worse for everybody. Regards On 2/18/15, Ali Hussein via isoc <isoc@lists.my.co.ke> wrote:
Listers
Interesting article by Jaindi Kisero.
Titled 'Digital migration across Africa is all about dubious deals with Chinese' The gist of the article is that:-
1. StarTimes has basically dominated digital migration contracts in a number of African Countries. (Is this the new Lonrho?) 2. That there are dubious and opaque deals being cut (tell me something new in Africa!) 3. That Africans are giving away their national broadcasting Crown Jewels to the Chinese (More like replacing Western Interests with Chinese ones!) 4. That we shouldn't allow foreign companies to build networks for us. He goes on to quote an American security official:- "I liked the way a senior American security official, Mr Michael Chertoff defended the action against Huawei. He said: “If you allow a foreign company to build for you the network on which all data flows, the company will be in a perfect position to populate it with backdoors and vulnerabilities that only the foreign company knows about. And, each time the foreign company upgrades it, that will be an opportunity to install new spyware” .
For once, let’s think about national interest."
Question: When did we ever build our own ICT Infrastructure? If it's not Huawei its Ericcson, IBM or Cisco.
The truth of the matter is that both sides in this Soap Opera of Digital Migration have erred. They have let egos and vested interests mar a process that should be beneficial to this country.
Not sure where this country goes from here...
http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/-/440808/2627116/-/3rcbqgz/-/index.html
Meanwhile, tune in to second part of Season I
http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Minister-quizzed-on-digital-migration-row/-/105...
My take is that we really don't have the interests of this country at heart. Private Sector does a shoddy job of lobbying government for the right policies, government turns a blind eye to 'national interest' and the people look on helplessly like a deer caught in the headlights of a speeding road train.
Ali Hussein
+254 770 906375 / 0713 601113
Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim Blog: www.alyhussein.com
"I fear the day technology will surpass human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots". ~ Albert Einstein
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