Waithaka and listers I have a contrarian view point here. We need to be creative to ensure that we are on the table asking for a piece of the action. I believe in this case (and in a number of other cases) there are specific clauses that allow for partnerships to be formed to enable meet certain basic minimums. That is what we should be lobbying to ensure that Kenyan companies are not locked out of such tenders. Having said that I would like to urge the Government to embed certain principles as a matter of course in such procurement. 1. Firstly specifically indicating a brand name in a tender document kind of skews that to one particular vender and I believe this gives that vendor an unfair advantage. The document should be generic in its description. 2. That Kenyan companies should be involved in one way or the other through including this as part of the technical scoring to ensure that foreign companies have an incentive to partner with local ones. 3. Even though the proof of the pudding is in the eating this issue of pegging the effectiveness of a solution to a finite revenue number is abit old fashioned. In our space expensiveness doesn't necessarily equate to quality and hence revenue numbers can muddy the water when it comes to evaluation of the tenders. I believe that our procurement laws, although not yet fully foolproof are way better than they were a few years ago. We should strive to continuously improve them through engagement and consultation with government. Ali Hussein +254 0770 906375 / 0713 601113 "Kujikwaa si kuanguka, bali ni kwenda mbele" (To stumble is not to fall but a sign of going forward) - Swahili Proverb Sent from my iPad On Sep 18, 2013, at 1:07 PM, Ngigi Waithaka <[email protected]> wrote:
Guys,
It seems whatever is happening at KICT Authority has caught quite some attention, which is good, as we cannot forever go hiding as if everything is okay, when clearly the status quo remains and only less than 10% of current GoK procurement is for products and services produced locally.
I have blogged about the recent happenings here and comments are welcome. http://www.a1.io/a1io_blog/kenyan-ict-industry-old-habits-die-hard/
As regards lobbying for local ICT industry, and for those who were there during #140Friday, a lot needs to be done as currently what we have are just rumblings and subsequent hot-air from the powers that be that our grievances will be addressed.
IMO, probably the only way is for the local ICT players to join Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM). It is the only body with the experience, resource and drive to piush for adoption and promotion of local industry. Any other bodies such as KITOS/CSK etc that have previously been suggested do not have the experience, knowledge and drive to push our agenda. Infact, if you ask me, they will just be used to ensure the status-quo remains.
The second way is to prepare to challenge the status-quo legally. It will cost quite some money, but no one ever said freedom is cheap!
We are already meeting amongst a couple of firms with KAM, and I will be pushing for them to allow either corporate and individual membership and use them to articulate our issues.
But, bottom line, we cannot let the networks of old that intentionally lock out Kenyan firms from grabbing the bigger chunks of ICT Projects procurement, and especially so that now everything ICT has been centralized at KICT Authority.
We are centralizing to gain efficiencies not so that we can centralize corruption.
Ngigi Waithaka A1.iO
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