Dear listers The article by COFEK (Consumer Federation of Kenya) on their website, http://www.cofek.co.ke/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1529%3Awhy-ndemo-may-have-been-missed-on-the-ict-docket&catid=1%3Alatest-news&Itemid=62creates the impression that digital villages do not exist. The Kenya ICT Board wishes to correct this position. The Kenya ICT Board has committed funding for 65 Pasha centres to date across the country. For a factual update, we urge listers to visit. http://www.ict.go.ke/index.php/digitalinclusion. We will update this even further with an announcement we are making on Monday to further develop these centres. The Kenya ICT Board will write to COFEK formally providing further information in the public interest on the basis of COFEK's stated goal as stated on their website "advocacy is based on authentic information as backed by continuous research." We have finalised our 6 year report on the Kenya ICT Board which is currently being printed. we shall upload a digital copy onto our website, in the next week or so. This will make an exciting read on the sector. My view as the outgoing Kenya ICT Board CEO is that Dr Ndemo provided the vision, compeled us to seek a world class approach, set the tone of energetic execution, helped us cement partnerships in order to improve capacity, and focus on enterprise development, innovation and the ordinary citizen. He cautioned against getting too carried away in ICT dogma, but asked that we rather just get the job done. This was augmented with spirit of learning to pick up quickly from mistakes, (and many were made). There will be much debate, and indeed many things are left for the next team to do. As a team, we gave this our very best effort and Dr Ndemo gave us a style of leadership that even in the best private sector environments, you will struggle to find. (I will write more extensively on this later.) We reaped a leadership dividend in the sector, with support from the highest level of government. On this score there can be no debate. The country is much better for it We pray this carries on. Asante Paul Kukubo Chief Executive Officer, (outgoing), 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