Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised
Listers, This morning I received the oddest message. Through a bulk sms provider, one of the aspirants for MP in my constituency sent me an SMS appealing me to vote for him in the upcoming elections? Now I say odd because to the best of my knowledge I have never communicated to this politician my number and my constituency. In fact the only person I have ever given this dual information is the IEBC during voter registration. Which begs the question, could IEBC or its registration clerks be making voter registers available to politicians for consideration or otherwise? I'm also curious if this is an isolated event or its happening elsewhere? Now I don't need to emphasize on the very serious implications if politicians are in possession of such specific data on the electorate. I previously blogged (http://www.startupkenya.info/2010/08/chopping-up-big-green-giant-safaricom.h...) on the dangers of telcos in possession of too much personal data, but it is nothing compared to politicians with this data especially in a country that has experienced deadly post election violence. I'm curious what measures IEBC has in place for the protection of our personal information and if my experience this morning portends the compromise of all future governmently held e-data? Regards, Harry Karanja Sent from my iPad
Harry Interesting issue you raise here. Question. In the era of Big Data should we wonder about this? Should we automatically point a finger at IEBC? In my humble opinion there are myriad other ways that the aspirant could have gotten your information. Let me count the possible ways:- 1. Telcos 2. Hospitals 3. Check in books at various buildings ( ever wonder why Kenyans have a 'peculiar' way of asking you to fill in personal information including your mobile number, ID when you are visiting?) 4. Other Government & Company sources 5. Social Media sources like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter 6. Institutions of learning 7. And the list goes on I see the beginnings (baby steps for sure) of American style usage of Data for targeting voters. It may be questionable how this data is obtained but it is obtained. During the recent US Election Obama's data crunchers were able to distinguish and target specific voters with precise messaging:- 1. A confirmed Democrat will get an email/SMS//phone call to urge him/her to get out and vote (and for good measure bring someone else to vote for Obama!) 2. An undecided voter will get personalized communication tailored to convince him to vote in the right way. You get the picture... I believe it is Zuckerberg who paraphrased the now (in)famous statement - In the era of Social Media and voluntary sharing of personal information Privacy is over rated.. This is just the tip of the iceberg. It is just a matter of time before we get our very own David Axelrod. My two cents Ali Hussein +254 713 601113 Sent from my iPhone® On Feb 10, 2013, at 22:43, Harry Karanja <kkairo@gmail.com> wrote:
Listers,
This morning I received the oddest message. Through a bulk sms provider, one of the aspirants for MP in my constituency sent me an SMS appealing me to vote for him in the upcoming elections? Now I say odd because to the best of my knowledge I have never communicated to this politician my number and my constituency. In fact the only person I have ever given this dual information is the IEBC during voter registration.
Which begs the question, could IEBC or its registration clerks be making voter registers available to politicians for consideration or otherwise? I'm also curious if this is an isolated event or its happening elsewhere?
Now I don't need to emphasize on the very serious implications if politicians are in possession of such specific data on the electorate. I previously blogged (http://www.startupkenya.info/2010/08/chopping-up-big-green-giant-safaricom.h...) on the dangers of telcos in possession of too much personal data, but it is nothing compared to politicians with this data especially in a country that has experienced deadly post election violence.
I'm curious what measures IEBC has in place for the protection of our personal information and if my experience this morning portends the compromise of all future governmently held e-data?
Regards, Harry Karanja
Sent from my iPad _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
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KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
Harry, Indeed the sources are many as others have said. Do we have a data protection law (and FOI law) in place? Or the 10th parliament left “hurriedly” without enacting it? The scenarios of how an individual voter can be targeted are many and scary, to say the least. Edith From: kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.ca@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Harry Karanja Sent: February 10, 2013 10:44 PM To: Edith Adera Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised Listers, This morning I received the oddest message. Through a bulk sms provider, one of the aspirants for MP in my constituency sent me an SMS appealing me to vote for him in the upcoming elections? Now I say odd because to the best of my knowledge I have never communicated to this politician my number and my constituency. In fact the only person I have ever given this dual information is the IEBC during voter registration. Which begs the question, could IEBC or its registration clerks be making voter registers available to politicians for consideration or otherwise? I'm also curious if this is an isolated event or its happening elsewhere? Now I don't need to emphasize on the very serious implications if politicians are in possession of such specific data on the electorate. I previously blogged (http://www.startupkenya.info/2010/08/chopping-up-big-green-giant-safaricom.h...) on the dangers of telcos in possession of too much personal data, but it is nothing compared to politicians with this data especially in a country that has experienced deadly post election violence. I'm curious what measures IEBC has in place for the protection of our personal information and if my experience this morning portends the compromise of all future governmently held e-data? Regards, Harry Karanja Sent from my iPad
On interrogation of legislation I've actually found that the Kenya Communication (Amendment) Act imposed stiff penalties for unauthorized access of data. So whether it came from retail agents or telcos (which is highly improbable) this MP is not supposed to have my data. I'd also discount the idea of cell broadcasting - which to the best of my knowledge had not been activated in Kenya for commercial use. The SMS originated from a UK number. What is indisputable is that the aspiring MP accessed my personal data without authorization. The next challenge is who should be held accountable and how do I do this? As mentioned earlier, targeted campaigning or marketing is only one use of this data - but what if someone based on my surname surmises that I do not fit into the electoral map, will there be another form of targeting to evict me from that constituency? (Here lies the futility of SIM registration as these SMS can easily be sent from UK or India) The fears I have are real, for its happened before, and as most on this list can attest, technology has the power to make this process more efficient. Regards, Harry Karanja Sent from my iPad On Feb 11, 2013, at 10:40 AM, Edith Adera <eadera@idrc.ca> wrote:
Harry,
Indeed the sources are many as others have said. Do we have a data protection law (and FOI law) in place? Or the 10th parliament left “hurriedly” without enacting it?
The scenarios of how an individual voter can be targeted are many and scary, to say the least.
Edith
From: kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.ca@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Harry Karanja Sent: February 10, 2013 10:44 PM To: Edith Adera Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised
Listers,
This morning I received the oddest message. Through a bulk sms provider, one of the aspirants for MP in my constituency sent me an SMS appealing me to vote for him in the upcoming elections? Now I say odd because to the best of my knowledge I have never communicated to this politician my number and my constituency. In fact the only person I have ever given this dual information is the IEBC during voter registration.
Which begs the question, could IEBC or its registration clerks be making voter registers available to politicians for consideration or otherwise? I'm also curious if this is an isolated event or its happening elsewhere?
Now I don't need to emphasize on the very serious implications if politicians are in possession of such specific data on the electorate. I previously blogged (http://www.startupkenya.info/2010/08/chopping-up-big-green-giant-safaricom.h...) on the dangers of telcos in possession of too much personal data, but it is nothing compared to politicians with this data especially in a country that has experienced deadly post election violence.
I'm curious what measures IEBC has in place for the protection of our personal information and if my experience this morning portends the compromise of all future governmently held e-data?
Regards, Harry Karanja
Sent from my iPad
when the voter register was open for inspection, anyone with your ID Number could have accessed your voter information..... but again, i am advised that voter information is not private....so if thats the case, then to what extent do data protection laws apply to the voters register? and is it unauthorized access if i check others registration details? 2013/2/12, Harry Karanja <kkairo@gmail.com>:
On interrogation of legislation I've actually found that the Kenya Communication (Amendment) Act imposed stiff penalties for unauthorized access of data. So whether it came from retail agents or telcos (which is highly improbable) this MP is not supposed to have my data. I'd also discount the idea of cell broadcasting - which to the best of my knowledge had not been activated in Kenya for commercial use. The SMS originated from a UK number.
What is indisputable is that the aspiring MP accessed my personal data without authorization. The next challenge is who should be held accountable and how do I do this? As mentioned earlier, targeted campaigning or marketing is only one use of this data - but what if someone based on my surname surmises that I do not fit into the electoral map, will there be another form of targeting to evict me from that constituency? (Here lies the futility of SIM registration as these SMS can easily be sent from UK or India)
The fears I have are real, for its happened before, and as most on this list can attest, technology has the power to make this process more efficient.
Regards, Harry Karanja
Sent from my iPad
On Feb 11, 2013, at 10:40 AM, Edith Adera <eadera@idrc.ca> wrote:
Harry,
Indeed the sources are many as others have said. Do we have a data protection law (and FOI law) in place? Or the 10th parliament left “hurriedly” without enacting it?
The scenarios of how an individual voter can be targeted are many and scary, to say the least.
Edith
From: kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.ca@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Harry Karanja Sent: February 10, 2013 10:44 PM To: Edith Adera Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised
Listers,
This morning I received the oddest message. Through a bulk sms provider, one of the aspirants for MP in my constituency sent me an SMS appealing me to vote for him in the upcoming elections? Now I say odd because to the best of my knowledge I have never communicated to this politician my number and my constituency. In fact the only person I have ever given this dual information is the IEBC during voter registration.
Which begs the question, could IEBC or its registration clerks be making voter registers available to politicians for consideration or otherwise? I'm also curious if this is an isolated event or its happening elsewhere?
Now I don't need to emphasize on the very serious implications if politicians are in possession of such specific data on the electorate. I previously blogged (http://www.startupkenya.info/2010/08/chopping-up-big-green-giant-safaricom.h...) on the dangers of telcos in possession of too much personal data, but it is nothing compared to politicians with this data especially in a country that has experienced deadly post election violence.
I'm curious what measures IEBC has in place for the protection of our personal information and if my experience this morning portends the compromise of all future governmently held e-data?
Regards, Harry Karanja
Sent from my iPad
-- Grace L.N. Mutung'u (Bomu) Kenya Skype: gracebomu Twitter: @Bomu Website: http://www.diplointernetgovernance.org/profile/GraceMutungu
Hi Harry, Not being a lawyer please indulge my ignorance, when you get an ID card it is that the public can confirm who you say you are therefore it is not a private but a public record. When you register as a voter you are going to elect public office bearers therefore your voter registration information is public information. I hear you on the issue of getting targeted but which is the greater evil the likelihood of you getting evicted or the likelihood of an election being compromised? My take is that the voter, SIM card, ID, passport, prison, land ownership and motor vehicle information need to be made publicly available for scrutiny by all and sundry with a means to monitor who has accessed the data (IPv4). All the data I have mentioned is available to a select few which means that the playing field is therefore uneven. With a select few having access to the data is more harmful especially since there is no way of any of us knowing who they are or what is their agenda. It truly pains me when a nation with such great minds at times like this reduce themselves to rock painters. In the run up to the last censors we ran what we called the "tribe Kenya" campaign which resulted in the ministry of planning being forced to define a new tribe called Kenya, whose code is 722, for those who wanted to respond to the tribe question as "Kenya" and not other. In addition the training materials for the enumerators where changed to indicated that no one should be forced to provide a specific tribe and neither where they to make any assumptions based on name. After the results where released it was recorded that 612,000 households across the country are members of the tribe "kenya". If I had a way of contacting this fellow tribes men/women of mine then we would be in a better position to plan our development and representation, which is one of the reasons that I am an advocate of making this data public. In closing, we keep questioning the results of the various opinion polls done by a myriad of organisations with all of us raising issues on sample distribution, ethnicity, gender and the like and more critically are they registered voters. This is a very simple issue to solve if the voter register was publicly available and merged with the SIM register, all we would ask you to do is respond to an electronic opinion poll using your mobile phone. The results could then be tallied and a comprehensive report provided that would answer many of the current contentious issues. Regards Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ________________________________ From: Harry Karanja <kkairo@gmail.com> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tuesday, 12 February 2013, 6:35 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised On interrogation of legislation I've actually found that the Kenya Communication (Amendment) Act imposed stiff penalties for unauthorized access of data. So whether it came from retail agents or telcos (which is highly improbable) this MP is not supposed to have my data. I'd also discount the idea of cell broadcasting - which to the best of my knowledge had not been activated in Kenya for commercial use. The SMS originated from a UK number. What is indisputable is that the aspiring MP accessed my personal data without authorization. The next challenge is who should be held accountable and how do I do this? As mentioned earlier, targeted campaigning or marketing is only one use of this data - but what if someone based on my surname surmises that I do not fit into the electoral map, will there be another form of targeting to evict me from that constituency? (Here lies the futility of SIM registration as these SMS can easily be sent from UK or India) The fears I have are real, for its happened before, and as most on this list can attest, technology has the power to make this process more efficient. Regards, Harry Karanja Sent from my iPad On Feb 11, 2013, at 10:40 AM, Edith Adera <eadera@idrc.ca> wrote:
Harry, Indeed the sources are many as others have said. Do we have a data protection law (and FOI law) in place? Or the 10th parliament left “hurriedly” without enacting it? The scenarios of how an individual voter can be targeted are many and scary, to say the least. Edith From:kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.ca@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Harry Karanja Sent: February 10, 2013 10:44 PM To: Edith Adera Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised Listers, This morning I received the oddest message. Through a bulk sms provider, one of the aspirants for MP in my constituency sent me an SMS appealing me to vote for him in the upcoming elections? Now I say odd because to the best of my knowledge I have never communicated to this politician my number and my constituency. In fact the only person I have ever given this dual information is the IEBC during voter registration. Which begs the question, could IEBC or its registration clerks be making voter registers available to politicians for consideration or otherwise? I'm also curious if this is an isolated event or its happening elsewhere? Now I don't need to emphasize on the very serious implications if politicians are in possession of such specific data on the electorate. I previously blogged (http://www.startupkenya.info/2010/08/chopping-up-big-green-giant-safaricom.h...) on the dangers of telcos in possession of too much personal data, but it is nothing compared to politicians with this data especially in a country that has experienced deadly post election violence. I'm curious what measures IEBC has in place for the protection of our personal information and if my experience this morning portends the compromise of all future governmently held e-data?
Regards, Harry Karanja Sent from my iPad
kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/robertyawe%40yahoo.co.... The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development. KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
+1 Robert *Ali Hussein* *CEO, 3mice interactive media ltd* *Partner, Telemedia Africa Ltd * Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim<http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim> Blog: www.alyhussein.com On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 10:51 AM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk>wrote:
Hi Harry,
Not being a lawyer please indulge my ignorance, when you get an ID card it is that the public can confirm who you say you are therefore it is not a private but a public record.
When you register as a voter you are going to elect public office bearers therefore your voter registration information is public information.
I hear you on the issue of getting targeted but which is the greater evil the likelihood of you getting evicted or the likelihood of an election being compromised?
My take is that the voter, SIM card, ID, passport, prison, land ownership and motor vehicle information need to be made publicly available for scrutiny by all and sundry with a means to monitor who has accessed the data (IPv4). All the data I have mentioned is available to a select few which means that the playing field is therefore uneven.
With a select few having access to the data is more harmful especially since there is no way of any of us knowing who they are or what is their agenda. It truly pains me when a nation with such great minds at times like this reduce themselves to rock painters.
In the run up to the last censors we ran what we called the "tribe Kenya" campaign which resulted in the ministry of planning being forced to define a new tribe called Kenya, whose code is 722, for those who wanted to respond to the tribe question as "Kenya" and not other. In addition the training materials for the enumerators where changed to indicated that no one should be forced to provide a specific tribe and neither where they to make any assumptions based on name.
After the results where released it was recorded that 612,000 households across the country are members of the tribe "kenya". If I had a way of contacting this fellow tribes men/women of mine then we would be in a better position to plan our development and representation, which is one of the reasons that I am an advocate of making this data public.
In closing, we keep questioning the results of the various opinion polls done by a myriad of organisations with all of us raising issues on sample distribution, ethnicity, gender and the like and more critically are they registered voters. This is a very simple issue to solve if the voter register was publicly available and merged with the SIM register, all we would ask you to do is respond to an electronic opinion poll using your mobile phone. The results could then be tallied and a comprehensive report provided that would answer many of the current contentious issues.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ------------------------------ *From:* Harry Karanja <kkairo@gmail.com> *To:* robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk *Cc:* KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> *Sent:* Tuesday, 12 February 2013, 6:35 *Subject:* Re: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised
On interrogation of legislation I've actually found that the Kenya Communication (Amendment) Act imposed stiff penalties for unauthorized access of data. So whether it came from retail agents or telcos (which is highly improbable) this MP is not supposed to have my data. I'd also discount the idea of cell broadcasting - which to the best of my knowledge had not been activated in Kenya for commercial use. The SMS originated from a UK number.
What is indisputable is that the aspiring MP accessed my personal data without authorization. The next challenge is who should be held accountable and how do I do this? As mentioned earlier, targeted campaigning or marketing is only one use of this data - but what if someone based on my surname surmises that I do not fit into the electoral map, will there be another form of targeting to evict me from that constituency? (Here lies the futility of SIM registration as these SMS can easily be sent from UK or India)
The fears I have are real, for its happened before, and as most on this list can attest, technology has the power to make this process more efficient.
Regards, Harry Karanja
Sent from my iPad
On Feb 11, 2013, at 10:40 AM, Edith Adera <eadera@idrc.ca> wrote:
Harry,
Indeed the sources are many as others have said. Do we have a data protection law (and FOI law) in place? Or the 10th parliament left “hurriedly” without enacting it?
The scenarios of how an individual voter can be targeted are many and scary, to say the least.
Edith
*From:* kictanet [ mailto:kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.ca@lists.kictanet.or.ke<kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.ca@lists.kictanet.or.ke>] *On Behalf Of *Harry Karanja *Sent:* February 10, 2013 10:44 PM *To:* Edith Adera *Cc:* KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions *Subject:* [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised
Listers,
This morning I received the oddest message. Through a bulk sms provider, one of the aspirants for MP in my constituency sent me an SMS appealing me to vote for him in the upcoming elections? Now I say odd because to the best of my knowledge I have never communicated to this politician my number and my constituency. In fact the only person I have ever given this dual information is the IEBC during voter registration.
Which begs the question, could IEBC or its registration clerks be making voter registers available to politicians for consideration or otherwise? I'm also curious if this is an isolated event or its happening elsewhere?
Now I don't need to emphasize on the very serious implications if politicians are in possession of such specific data on the electorate. I previously blogged ( http://www.startupkenya.info/2010/08/chopping-up-big-green-giant-safaricom.h... ) on the dangers of telcos in possession of too much personal data, but it is nothing compared to politicians with this data especially in a country that has experienced deadly post election violence.
I'm curious what measures IEBC has in place for the protection of our personal information and if my experience this morning portends the compromise of all future governmently held e-data?
Regards, Harry Karanja
Sent from my iPad
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
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The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/info%40alyhussein.com
The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
Hi All, More developments on this topic: http://elections.nation.co.ke/news/PS-accuses-candidates-of-hacking-registra... On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 11:59 AM, Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke> wrote:
+1 Robert
*Ali Hussein*
*CEO, 3mice interactive media ltd*
*Partner, Telemedia Africa Ltd *
Twitter: @AliHKassim
Skype: abu-jomo
LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
Blog: www.alyhussein.com
On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 10:51 AM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk>wrote:
Hi Harry,
Not being a lawyer please indulge my ignorance, when you get an ID card it is that the public can confirm who you say you are therefore it is not a private but a public record.
When you register as a voter you are going to elect public office bearers therefore your voter registration information is public information.
I hear you on the issue of getting targeted but which is the greater evil the likelihood of you getting evicted or the likelihood of an election being compromised?
My take is that the voter, SIM card, ID, passport, prison, land ownership and motor vehicle information need to be made publicly available for scrutiny by all and sundry with a means to monitor who has accessed the data (IPv4). All the data I have mentioned is available to a select few which means that the playing field is therefore uneven.
With a select few having access to the data is more harmful especially since there is no way of any of us knowing who they are or what is their agenda. It truly pains me when a nation with such great minds at times like this reduce themselves to rock painters.
In the run up to the last censors we ran what we called the "tribe Kenya" campaign which resulted in the ministry of planning being forced to define a new tribe called Kenya, whose code is 722, for those who wanted to respond to the tribe question as "Kenya" and not other. In addition the training materials for the enumerators where changed to indicated that no one should be forced to provide a specific tribe and neither where they to make any assumptions based on name.
After the results where released it was recorded that 612,000 households across the country are members of the tribe "kenya". If I had a way of contacting this fellow tribes men/women of mine then we would be in a better position to plan our development and representation, which is one of the reasons that I am an advocate of making this data public.
In closing, we keep questioning the results of the various opinion polls done by a myriad of organisations with all of us raising issues on sample distribution, ethnicity, gender and the like and more critically are they registered voters. This is a very simple issue to solve if the voter register was publicly available and merged with the SIM register, all we would ask you to do is respond to an electronic opinion poll using your mobile phone. The results could then be tallied and a comprehensive report provided that would answer many of the current contentious issues.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ------------------------------ *From:* Harry Karanja <kkairo@gmail.com> *To:* robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk *Cc:* KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> *Sent:* Tuesday, 12 February 2013, 6:35 *Subject:* Re: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised
On interrogation of legislation I've actually found that the Kenya Communication (Amendment) Act imposed stiff penalties for unauthorized access of data. So whether it came from retail agents or telcos (which is highly improbable) this MP is not supposed to have my data. I'd also discount the idea of cell broadcasting - which to the best of my knowledge had not been activated in Kenya for commercial use. The SMS originated from a UK number.
What is indisputable is that the aspiring MP accessed my personal data without authorization. The next challenge is who should be held accountable and how do I do this? As mentioned earlier, targeted campaigning or marketing is only one use of this data - but what if someone based on my surname surmises that I do not fit into the electoral map, will there be another form of targeting to evict me from that constituency? (Here lies the futility of SIM registration as these SMS can easily be sent from UK or India)
The fears I have are real, for its happened before, and as most on this list can attest, technology has the power to make this process more efficient.
Regards, Harry Karanja
Sent from my iPad
On Feb 11, 2013, at 10:40 AM, Edith Adera <eadera@idrc.ca> wrote:
Harry,
Indeed the sources are many as others have said. Do we have a data protection law (and FOI law) in place? Or the 10th parliament left “hurriedly” without enacting it?
The scenarios of how an individual voter can be targeted are many and scary, to say the least.
Edith
*From:* kictanet [ mailto:kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.ca@lists.kictanet.or.ke<kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.ca@lists.kictanet.or.ke>] *On Behalf Of *Harry Karanja *Sent:* February 10, 2013 10:44 PM *To:* Edith Adera *Cc:* KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions *Subject:* [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised
Listers,
This morning I received the oddest message. Through a bulk sms provider, one of the aspirants for MP in my constituency sent me an SMS appealing me to vote for him in the upcoming elections? Now I say odd because to the best of my knowledge I have never communicated to this politician my number and my constituency. In fact the only person I have ever given this dual information is the IEBC during voter registration.
Which begs the question, could IEBC or its registration clerks be making voter registers available to politicians for consideration or otherwise? I'm also curious if this is an isolated event or its happening elsewhere?
Now I don't need to emphasize on the very serious implications if politicians are in possession of such specific data on the electorate. I previously blogged ( http://www.startupkenya.info/2010/08/chopping-up-big-green-giant-safaricom.h... ) on the dangers of telcos in possession of too much personal data, but it is nothing compared to politicians with this data especially in a country that has experienced deadly post election violence.
I'm curious what measures IEBC has in place for the protection of our personal information and if my experience this morning portends the compromise of all future governmently held e-data?
Regards, Harry Karanja
Sent from my iPad
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KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
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The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
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The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
Hi Listers and laggards I hope I am not in isolation in the two faced nature of this country when reading the statement by Dr. Ndemo on the issue of unsolicited messages on our mobile phones in relation to the proposed Kenya ICT Master Plan? The Kenya ICT Board is set to launch Kenya’s four year ICT master plan. It projects that by 2017: 1. Every citizen, resident, home and institution will be connected through a countrywide robust, accessible and affordable ICT infrastructure. 2. Kenya will become the leading ICT HUB in Africa attracting leading global players and generating globally respected local entrepreneurship and innovation. 3. Public Services will be available to all citizens through ICT and ICT will enable a truly open and efficient Government delivering meaningful value to citizens. 4. Kenya will be a Knowledge Based Economy. All Kenyans will be able to use ICT to improve their knowledge, businesses and livelihood. ICT will contribute greatly to Kenya’s economic growth. To me, mobile is the new mass media and therefore can no longer be treated as a private means of communication in the same way that you cannot stop a TV or radio station from delivering content to your device and as with the other device you have the capability built into your device to change channels. When you buy a newspaper you get the full shebang, you cannot request for a copy that does not have the adverts of your competitors. Dr. Ndemo, you would better serve this industry and the country as a whole if you came up with solutions to some of this minor issues rather than venting. You keep raising issues about the need for opendata so why not practice what you are preaching, issue a short code to all the political parties and then have them send out an opt in request to all mobile phone owners (18 million x 5/- = 90 million shillings x 11 parties = 990 million x 2 messages = 1.98 billion shillings). Allow the mobile companies to make available location information to developers so that location specific messages can be sent out, we have a self tethered electorate so lets use that to change their lives. After the election the same app could be used to send messages to people caugh up in a traffice jam explaining the reason and offering alternative actions such as "turn off car and read newspaper as you are going nowhere for the next 20 minutes as the Governor is going home". After making this money provide the political parties with the voter register in the format indicated in my post yesterday (also available below for those not reading on their berries and apples) and allow those with the skills to develop a radically new campaign method, this will create direct jobs for at least 1,000 highly skilled developers and 10,000 programmers meaning that in 1 day you will have created high level jobs at the fastest rate ever done in the history of political and bureaucratic rhetoric. Let us use this window of opportunity that has presented itself to make this the most tech savvy election ever held in the whole world, let us make such an impact that the rest of the world will come calling for more than mPesa and Ushahidi. We can either take up the mantle or just seat back and tweet before resuming our "na omba . . . " campaigns. To be able to implement the requirements of the new constitution we must change our mind sets and approach, KPLC as well as the various water supply companies will soon be required to provide services not by choice or political patronage but to meet the requirements of the bill of rights so in the same way let us not hold back the tide of technology as relates to communications let us instead embrace the changes. In the heydays of KPTC all the telephone numbers where published in a book called the telephone directory and it was not deemed as a privacy issue, if you did not want your number listed you would have to pay for un-listing, which was the practice the world over. So I laugh when I read a so called techie, who likely uses an "i" device with a quad core processor, complaining about unsolicited SMSs yet we intend to become a knowledge economy in the next 4 years. The 999/- mobile phone has a feature where you can screen incoming messages so let us stop complaining about side shows especially so close to the countries most transformational elections. If you cannot read the phone manual to become knowledgeable how do we intent to become a knowledge economy? A smart town, city or country occupied by not so smart people is a recipe for disaster, ask yourself why the natives who where found in Egypt and Columbia had no idea how the pyramids where built. Every day as I drive to town I am bombarded with posters and billboards sending me messages that I did not request. The walls, street signs and direction boards on which this posters have been plastered are done without the consent or authorisation of the owners so if the government with its machinery cannot charge a political party/candidate (yet they have their pictures and names plastered on the poster) for defacing street signs which is illegal how do they expect to track down some mass SMS spammer sitting in Afghanistan? Regards. PS. I am surprised no one noticed the error in my previous post where I indicated IPv4 instead of IPv6 Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ________________________________ From: Brian Ngure <brian.ngure@gmail.com> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Thursday, 14 February 2013, 9:07 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised Hi All, More developments on this topic: http://elections.nation.co.ke/news/PS-accuses-candidates-of-hacking-registra... On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 11:59 AM, Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke> wrote: +1 Robert
Ali
CEO, 3mice interactive media ltd Partner, Telemedia Africa Ltd
Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassimBlog: www.alyhussein.com
On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 10:51 AM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hi Harry,
Not being a lawyer please indulge my ignorance, when you get an ID card it is that the public can confirm who you say you are therefore it is not a private but a public record.
When you register as a voter you are going to elect public office bearers therefore your voter registration information is public information.
I hear you on the issue of getting targeted but which is the greater evil the likelihood of you getting evicted or the likelihood of an election being compromised?
My take is that the voter, SIM card, ID, passport, prison, land ownership and motor vehicle information need to be made publicly available for scrutiny by all and sundry with a means to monitor who has accessed the data (IPv4). All the data I have mentioned is available to a select few which means that the
Hussein playing field is therefore uneven.
With a select few having access to the data is more harmful especially since there is no way of any of us knowing who they are or what is their agenda. It truly pains me when a nation with such great minds at times like this reduce themselves to rock painters.
In the run up to the last censors we ran what we called the "tribe Kenya" campaign which resulted in the ministry of planning being forced to define a new tribe called Kenya, whose code is 722, for those who wanted to respond to the tribe question as "Kenya" and not other. In addition the training materials for the enumerators where changed to indicated that no one should be forced to provide a specific tribe and neither where they to make any assumptions based on name.
After the results where released it was recorded that 612,000 households across the country are members of the tribe "kenya". If I had a way of contacting this
fellow tribes men/women of mine then we would be in a better position to plan our development and representation, which is one of the reasons that I am an advocate of making this data public.
In closing, we keep questioning the results of the various opinion polls done by a myriad of organisations with all of us raising issues on sample distribution, ethnicity, gender and the like and more critically are they registered voters. This is a very simple issue to solve if the voter register was publicly available and merged with the SIM register, all we would ask you to do is respond to an electronic opinion poll using your mobile phone. The results could then be tallied and a comprehensive report provided that would answer many of the current contentious issues.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi,
00200
Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: Harry Karanja <kkairo@gmail.com> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tuesday, 12 February 2013, 6:35 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised
On interrogation of legislation I've actually found that the Kenya Communication (Amendment) Act imposed stiff penalties for unauthorized access of data. So whether it came from retail agents or telcos (which is highly improbable) this MP is not supposed to have my data. I'd also discount the idea of cell broadcasting - which to the best of my knowledge had not been activated in Kenya for commercial use. The SMS originated from a UK number.
What is indisputable is that the aspiring MP accessed my personal data without authorization. The next challenge is who should be held accountable and how do I do this? As mentioned earlier, targeted campaigning or marketing is only one use of this data - but what if someone based on my surname surmises that I do not fit into the electoral map, will there be another form of targeting to evict me from that constituency? (Here lies the futility of SIM registration as these SMS can easily be sent from UK or India)
The fears I have are real, for its happened before, and as most on this list can attest, technology has the power to make this process more efficient.
Regards, Harry Karanja
Sent from my iPad
On Feb 11, 2013, at 10:40 AM, Edith Adera <eadera@idrc.ca> wrote:
Harry,
Indeed the sources are many as others have said. Do we have a data protection law (and FOI law) in place? Or the 10th parliament left “hurriedly” without enacting it? The scenarios of how an individual voter can be targeted are many and scary, to say the least. Edith From:kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.ca@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Harry Karanja Sent: February 10, 2013 10:44 PM To: Edith Adera Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised Listers, This morning I received the oddest message. Through a bulk sms provider, one of the aspirants for MP in my constituency sent me an SMS appealing me to vote for him in the upcoming elections? Now I say odd because to the best of my knowledge I have never communicated to this politician my number and my constituency. In fact the only person I have ever given this dual information is the IEBC during voter registration. Which begs the question, could IEBC or its registration clerks be making voter registers available to politicians for consideration or otherwise? I'm also curious if this is an isolated event or its happening elsewhere? Now I don't need to emphasize on the very serious implications if politicians are in possession of such specific data on the electorate. I previously blogged (http://www.startupkenya.info/2010/08/chopping-up-big-green-giant-safaricom.h...) on the dangers of telcos in possession of too much personal data, but it is nothing compared to politicians with this data especially in a country that has experienced deadly post election violence. I'm curious what measures IEBC has in place for the protection of our personal information and if my experience this morning portends the compromise of all future governmently held e-data?
Regards, Harry Karanja Sent from my iPad
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The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
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The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
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The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/robertyawe%40yahoo.co.... The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development. KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
Just to reiterate that mobile is the new mass media, it is shocking how no one is actually raising an issue about IEBC's blatant waste of money, exactly what is the objective of printing information about the pooling stations in the newspaper? IEBC has over the past few days been publishing in the former mass media a.k.a. newspapers a list of the registered pooling stations, each run has taken up over 12 full pages at 320,000/- per page that adds up to 3.84 million x 3 newspapers per day = 11.52 million and this has been going on for 3 days = 34.56 million. This confirms that expenses fill the budget allocated in the same way as work fills the time allocated, from this wasteful spending it is clear that we would have had the same kind of election with a 10th of the budget allocated. Yet the same IEBC charges me 10/- to check the same information using their SMS service, if this is the cost of democracy then we are doomed to poverty. Regards PS. What exactly was the ICT strategy launch all about? Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ________________________________ From: Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wednesday, 13 February 2013, 11:59 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised +1 Robert Ali Hussein CEO, 3mice interactive media ltd Partner, Telemedia Africa Ltd Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassimBlog: www.alyhussein.com On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 10:51 AM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote: Hi Harry,
Not being a lawyer please indulge my ignorance, when you get an ID card it is that the public can confirm who you say you are therefore it is not a private but a public record.
When you register as a voter you are going to elect public office bearers therefore your voter registration information is public information.
I hear you on the issue of getting targeted but which is the greater evil the likelihood of you getting evicted or the likelihood of an election being compromised?
My take is that the voter, SIM card, ID, passport, prison, land ownership and motor vehicle information need to be made publicly available for scrutiny by all and sundry with a means to monitor who has accessed the data (IPv4). All the data I have mentioned is available to a select few which means that the
playing field is therefore uneven.
With a select few having access to the data is more harmful especially since there is no way of any of us knowing who they are or what is their agenda. It truly pains me when a nation with such great minds at times like this reduce themselves to rock painters.
In the run up to the last censors we ran what we called the "tribe Kenya" campaign which resulted in the ministry of planning being forced to define a new tribe called Kenya, whose code is 722, for those who wanted to respond to the tribe question as "Kenya" and not other. In addition the training materials for the enumerators where changed to indicated that no one should be forced to provide a specific tribe and neither where they to make any assumptions based on name.
After the results where released it was recorded that 612,000 households across the country are members of the tribe "kenya". If I had a way of contacting this
fellow tribes men/women of mine then we would be in a better position to plan our development and representation, which is one of the reasons that I am an advocate of making this data public.
In closing, we keep questioning the results of the various opinion polls done by a myriad of organisations with all of us raising issues on sample distribution, ethnicity, gender and the like and more critically are they registered voters. This is a very simple issue to solve if the voter register was publicly available and merged with the SIM register, all we would ask you to do is respond to an electronic opinion poll using your mobile phone. The results could then be tallied and a comprehensive report provided that would answer many of the current contentious issues.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi,
00200
Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: Harry Karanja <kkairo@gmail.com> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tuesday, 12 February 2013, 6:35 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised
On interrogation of legislation I've actually found that the Kenya Communication (Amendment) Act imposed stiff penalties for unauthorized access of data. So whether it came from retail agents or telcos (which is highly improbable) this MP is not supposed to have my data. I'd also discount the idea of cell broadcasting - which to the best of my knowledge had not been activated in Kenya for commercial use. The SMS originated from a UK number.
What is indisputable is that the aspiring MP accessed my personal data without authorization. The next challenge is who should be held accountable and how do I do this? As mentioned earlier, targeted campaigning or marketing is only one use of this data - but what if someone based on my surname surmises that I do not fit into the electoral map, will there be another form of targeting to evict me from that constituency? (Here lies the futility of SIM registration as these SMS can easily be sent from UK or India)
The fears I have are real, for its happened before, and as most on this list can attest, technology has the power to make this process more efficient.
Regards, Harry Karanja
Sent from my iPad
On Feb 11, 2013, at 10:40 AM, Edith Adera <eadera@idrc.ca> wrote:
Harry,
Indeed the sources are many as others have said. Do we have a data protection law (and FOI law) in place? Or the 10th parliament left “hurriedly” without enacting it? The scenarios of how an individual voter can be targeted are many and scary, to say the least. Edith From:kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.ca@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Harry Karanja Sent: February 10, 2013 10:44 PM To: Edith Adera Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised Listers, This morning I received the oddest message. Through a bulk sms provider, one of the aspirants for MP in my constituency sent me an SMS appealing me to vote for him in the upcoming elections? Now I say odd because to the best of my knowledge I have never communicated to this politician my number and my constituency. In fact the only person I have ever given this dual information is the IEBC during voter registration. Which begs the question, could IEBC or its registration clerks be making voter registers available to politicians for consideration or otherwise? I'm also curious if this is an isolated event or its happening elsewhere? Now I don't need to emphasize on the very serious implications if politicians are in possession of such specific data on the electorate. I previously blogged (http://www.startupkenya.info/2010/08/chopping-up-big-green-giant-safaricom.h...) on the dangers of telcos in possession of too much personal data, but it is nothing compared to politicians with this data especially in a country that has experienced deadly post election violence. I'm curious what measures IEBC has in place for the protection of our personal information and if my experience this morning portends the compromise of all future governmently held e-data?
Regards, Harry Karanja Sent from my iPad
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/robertyawe%40yahoo.co....
The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/info%40alyhussein.com
The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
Robert, We must protect the privacy of Kenyans especially those who do not want their mobile number in the public domain. Attached see the sections of the Communications Ammendment Act and the regulations. It is brief and you can read in one minute. Ndemo.
Just to reiterate that mobile is the new mass media, it is shocking how no one is actually raising an issue about IEBC's blatant waste of money, exactly what is the objective of printing information about the pooling stations in the newspaper?
IEBC has over the past few days been publishing in the former mass media a.k.a. newspapers a list of the registered pooling stations, each run has taken up over 12 full pages at 320,000/- per page that adds up to 3.84 million x 3 newspapers per day = 11.52 million and this has been going on for 3 days = 34.56 million.Â
This confirms that expenses fill the budget allocated in the same way as work fills the time allocated, from this wasteful spending it is clear that we would have had the same kind of election with a 10th of the budget allocated.
Yet the same IEBC charges me 10/- to check the same information using their SMS service, if this is the cost of democracy then we are doomed to poverty.Â
Regards
PS. What exactly was the ICT strategy launch all about?
 Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wednesday, 13 February 2013, 11:59 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised
+1 Robert
Ali Hussein CEO, 3mice interactive media ltd Partner, Telemedia Africa Ltd
 Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassimBlog: www.alyhussein.com
On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 10:51 AM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hi Harry,
Not being a lawyer please indulge my ignorance, when you get an ID card it is that the public can confirm who you say you are therefore it is not a private but a public record.
When you register as a voter you are going to elect public office bearers therefore your voter registration information is public information.
I hear you on the issue of getting targeted but which is the greater evil the likelihood of you getting evicted or the likelihood of an election being compromised?
My take is that the voter, SIM card, ID, passport, prison, land ownership and motor vehicle information need to be made publicly available for scrutiny by all and sundry with a means to monitor who has accessed the data (IPv4). All the data I have mentioned is available to a select few which means that the
playing field is therefore uneven.Â
With a select few having access to the data is more harmful especially since there is no way of any of us knowing who they are or what is their agenda. It truly pains me when a nation with such great minds at times like this reduce themselves to rock painters.
In the run up to the last censors we ran what we called the "tribe Kenya" campaign which resulted in the ministry of planning being forced to define a new tribe called Kenya, whose code is 722, for those who wanted to respond to the tribe question as "Kenya" and not other. In addition the training materials for the enumerators where changed to indicated that no one should be forced to provide a specific tribe and neither where they to make any assumptions based on name.
After the results where released it was recorded that 612,000 households across the country are members of the tribe "kenya". If I had a way of contacting this
fellow tribes men/women of mine then we would be in a better position to plan our development and representation, which is one of the reasons that I am an advocate of making this data public.
In closing, we keep questioning the results of the various opinion polls done by a myriad of organisations with all of us raising issues on sample distribution, ethnicity, gender and the like and more critically are they registered voters. This is a very simple issue to solve if the voter register was publicly available and merged with the SIM register, all we would ask you to do is respond to an electronic opinion poll using your mobile phone. The results could then be tallied and a comprehensive report provided that would answer many of the current contentious issues.
Regards
 Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi,
Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: Harry Karanja <kkairo@gmail.com> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tuesday, 12 February 2013, 6:35 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised
On interrogation of legislation I've actually found that the Kenya Communication (Amendment) Act imposed stiff penalties for unauthorized access of data. So whether it came from retail agents or telcos (which is highly improbable) this MP is not supposed to have my data. I'd also discount the idea of cell broadcasting - which to the best of my knowledge had not been activated in Kenya for commercial use. The SMS originated from a UK number.
What is indisputable is that the aspiring MP accessed my personal data without authorization. The next challenge is who should be held accountable and how do I do this?  As mentioned earlier, targeted campaigning or marketing is only one use of this data - but what if someone based on my surname surmises that I do not fit into the electoral map, will there be another form of targeting to evict me from that constituency? (Here lies the futility of SIM registration as these SMS can easily be sent from UK or India)
The fears I have are real, for its happened before, and as most on this list can attest, technology has the power to make this process more efficient.
Regards, Harry Karanja
Sent from my iPad
On Feb 11, 2013, at 10:40 AM, Edith Adera <eadera@idrc.ca> wrote:
Harry,
 Indeed the sources are many as others have said. Do we have a data protection law (and FOI law) in place? Or the 10th parliament left âhurriedlyâ without enacting it?  The scenarios of how an individual voter can be targeted are many and scary, to say the least.  Edith  From:kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.ca@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Harry Karanja Sent: February 10, 2013 10:44 PM To: Edith Adera Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised  Listers,  This morning I received the oddest message. Through a bulk sms provider, one of the aspirants for MP in my constituency sent me an SMS appealing me to vote for him in the upcoming elections? Now I say odd because to the best of my knowledge I have never communicated to this politician my number and my constituency. In fact the only person I have ever given this dual information is the IEBC during voter registration.  Which begs the question, could IEBC or its registration clerks be making voter registers available to politicians for consideration or otherwise? I'm also curious if this is an isolated event or its happening elsewhere?  Now I don't need to emphasize on the very serious implications if politicians are in possession of such specific data on the electorate. I previously blogged (http://www.startupkenya.info/2010/08/chopping-up-big-green-giant-safaricom.html) on the dangers of telcos in possession of too much personal data, but it is nothing compared to politicians with this data especially in a country that has experienced deadly post election violence.  I'm curious what measures IEBC has in place for the protection of our personal information and if my experience this morning portends the compromise of all future governmently held e-data?
Regards, Harry Karanja  Sent from my iPad
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KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications. _______________________________________________
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KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
Thanks Daktari for these insights, and the attachment. There is, however, no 17.(3). It would be good to know what this says (if at all it exists). Dr George Nyabuga Tel: +230 403 51 00 Head, Communications and PR, AFRINIC Fax: +230 466 67 58 george@afrinic.net - www.afrinic.net ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please join us at the Africa Internet Summit, Lusaka, Zambia, 9 – 21 June 2013 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On Feb 18, 2013, at 12:22 PM, bitange@jambo.co.ke wrote:
Robert, We must protect the privacy of Kenyans especially those who do not want their mobile number in the public domain. Attached see the sections of the Communications Ammendment Act and the regulations. It is brief and you can read in one minute.
Ndemo.
Just to reiterate that mobile is the new mass media, it is shocking how no one is actually raising an issue about IEBC's blatant waste of money, exactly what is the objective of printing information about the pooling stations in the newspaper?
IEBC has over the past few days been publishing in the former mass media a.k.a. newspapers a list of the registered pooling stations, each run has taken up over 12 full pages at 320,000/- per page that adds up to 3.84 million x 3 newspapers per day = 11.52 million and this has been going on for 3 days = 34.56 million.Â
This confirms that expenses fill the budget allocated in the same way as work fills the time allocated, from this wasteful spending it is clear that we would have had the same kind of election with a 10th of the budget allocated.
Yet the same IEBC charges me 10/- to check the same information using their SMS service, if this is the cost of democracy then we are doomed to poverty.Â
Regards
PS. What exactly was the ICT strategy launch all about?
 Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wednesday, 13 February 2013, 11:59 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised
+1 Robert
Ali Hussein CEO, 3mice interactive media ltd Partner, Telemedia Africa Ltd
 Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassimBlog: www.alyhussein.com
On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 10:51 AM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hi Harry,
Not being a lawyer please indulge my ignorance, when you get an ID card it is that the public can confirm who you say you are therefore it is not a private but a public record.
When you register as a voter you are going to elect public office bearers therefore your voter registration information is public information.
I hear you on the issue of getting targeted but which is the greater evil the likelihood of you getting evicted or the likelihood of an election being compromised?
My take is that the voter, SIM card, ID, passport, prison, land ownership and motor vehicle information need to be made publicly available for scrutiny by all and sundry with a means to monitor who has accessed the data (IPv4). All the data I have mentioned is available to a select few which means that the
playing field is therefore uneven.Â
With a select few having access to the data is more harmful especially since there is no way of any of us knowing who they are or what is their agenda. It truly pains me when a nation with such great minds at times like this reduce themselves to rock painters.
In the run up to the last censors we ran what we called the "tribe Kenya" campaign which resulted in the ministry of planning being forced to define a new tribe called Kenya, whose code is 722, for those who wanted to respond to the tribe question as "Kenya" and not other. In addition the training materials for the enumerators where changed to indicated that no one should be forced to provide a specific tribe and neither where they to make any assumptions based on name.
After the results where released it was recorded that 612,000 households across the country are members of the tribe "kenya". If I had a way of contacting this
fellow tribes men/women of mine then we would be in a better position to plan our development and representation, which is one of the reasons that I am an advocate of making this data public.
In closing, we keep questioning the results of the various opinion polls done by a myriad of organisations with all of us raising issues on sample distribution, ethnicity, gender and the like and more critically are they registered voters. This is a very simple issue to solve if the voter register was publicly available and merged with the SIM register, all we would ask you to do is respond to an electronic opinion poll using your mobile phone. The results could then be tallied and a comprehensive report provided that would answer many of the current contentious issues.
Regards
 Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi,
Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: Harry Karanja <kkairo@gmail.com> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tuesday, 12 February 2013, 6:35 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised
On interrogation of legislation I've actually found that the Kenya Communication (Amendment) Act imposed stiff penalties for unauthorized access of data. So whether it came from retail agents or telcos (which is highly improbable) this MP is not supposed to have my data. I'd also discount the idea of cell broadcasting - which to the best of my knowledge had not been activated in Kenya for commercial use. The SMS originated from a UK number.
What is indisputable is that the aspiring MP accessed my personal data without authorization. The next challenge is who should be held accountable and how do I do this?  As mentioned earlier, targeted campaigning or marketing is only one use of this data - but what if someone based on my surname surmises that I do not fit into the electoral map, will there be another form of targeting to evict me from that constituency? (Here lies the futility of SIM registration as these SMS can easily be sent from UK or India)
The fears I have are real, for its happened before, and as most on this list can attest, technology has the power to make this process more efficient.
Regards, Harry Karanja
Sent from my iPad
On Feb 11, 2013, at 10:40 AM, Edith Adera <eadera@idrc.ca> wrote:
Harry,
 Indeed the sources are many as others have said. Do we have a data protection law (and FOI law) in place? Or the 10th parliament left âhurriedlyâ without enacting it?  The scenarios of how an individual voter can be targeted are many and scary, to say the least.  Edith  From:kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.ca@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Harry Karanja Sent: February 10, 2013 10:44 PM To: Edith Adera Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised  Listers,  This morning I received the oddest message. Through a bulk sms provider, one of the aspirants for MP in my constituency sent me an SMS appealing me to vote for him in the upcoming elections? Now I say odd because to the best of my knowledge I have never communicated to this politician my number and my constituency. In fact the only person I have ever given this dual information is the IEBC during voter registration.  Which begs the question, could IEBC or its registration clerks be making voter registers available to politicians for consideration or otherwise? I'm also curious if this is an isolated event or its happening elsewhere?  Now I don't need to emphasize on the very serious implications if politicians are in possession of such specific data on the electorate. I previously blogged (http://www.startupkenya.info/2010/08/chopping-up-big-green-giant-safaricom.html) on the dangers of telcos in possession of too much personal data, but it is nothing compared to politicians with this data especially in a country that has experienced deadly post election violence.  I'm curious what measures IEBC has in place for the protection of our personal information and if my experience this morning portends the compromise of all future governmently held e-data?
Regards, Harry Karanja  Sent from my iPad
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KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect
00200 people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
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KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications. _______________________________________________
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The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications. <Consumer Protection[1].doc>_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
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The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
I too wondered about the massive adverts on polling stations in the press, what’s the utility?. I would rather a query-based system (more like peeling an onion). Unless it’s required by law such that no “bandia” polling stations can be added for rigging purposes…can’t a gazette notice suffice? Still wondering! Edith From: kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.ca@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of robert yawe Sent: February 18, 2013 8:16 AM To: Edith Adera Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised Just to reiterate that mobile is the new mass media, it is shocking how no one is actually raising an issue about IEBC's blatant waste of money, exactly what is the objective of printing information about the pooling stations in the newspaper? IEBC has over the past few days been publishing in the former mass media a.k.a. newspapers a list of the registered pooling stations, each run has taken up over 12 full pages at 320,000/- per page that adds up to 3.84 million x 3 newspapers per day = 11.52 million and this has been going on for 3 days = 34.56 million. This confirms that expenses fill the budget allocated in the same way as work fills the time allocated, from this wasteful spending it is clear that we would have had the same kind of election with a 10th of the budget allocated. Yet the same IEBC charges me 10/- to check the same information using their SMS service, if this is the cost of democracy then we are doomed to poverty. Regards PS. What exactly was the ICT strategy launch all about? Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ________________________________ From: Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke<mailto:ali@hussein.me.ke>> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk<mailto:robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk>> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke<mailto:kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>> Sent: Wednesday, 13 February 2013, 11:59 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised +1 Robert Ali Hussein CEO, 3mice interactive media ltd Partner, Telemedia Africa Ltd Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim Blog: www.alyhussein.com<http://www.alyhussein.com/> On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 10:51 AM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk<mailto:robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk>> wrote: Hi Harry, Not being a lawyer please indulge my ignorance, when you get an ID card it is that the public can confirm who you say you are therefore it is not a private but a public record. When you register as a voter you are going to elect public office bearers therefore your voter registration information is public information. I hear you on the issue of getting targeted but which is the greater evil the likelihood of you getting evicted or the likelihood of an election being compromised? My take is that the voter, SIM card, ID, passport, prison, land ownership and motor vehicle information need to be made publicly available for scrutiny by all and sundry with a means to monitor who has accessed the data (IPv4). All the data I have mentioned is available to a select few which means that the playing field is therefore uneven. With a select few having access to the data is more harmful especially since there is no way of any of us knowing who they are or what is their agenda. It truly pains me when a nation with such great minds at times like this reduce themselves to rock painters. In the run up to the last censors we ran what we called the "tribe Kenya" campaign which resulted in the ministry of planning being forced to define a new tribe called Kenya, whose code is 722, for those who wanted to respond to the tribe question as "Kenya" and not other. In addition the training materials for the enumerators where changed to indicated that no one should be forced to provide a specific tribe and neither where they to make any assumptions based on name. After the results where released it was recorded that 612,000 households across the country are members of the tribe "kenya". If I had a way of contacting this fellow tribes men/women of mine then we would be in a better position to plan our development and representation, which is one of the reasons that I am an advocate of making this data public. In closing, we keep questioning the results of the various opinion polls done by a myriad of organisations with all of us raising issues on sample distribution, ethnicity, gender and the like and more critically are they registered voters. This is a very simple issue to solve if the voter register was publicly available and merged with the SIM register, all we would ask you to do is respond to an electronic opinion poll using your mobile phone. The results could then be tallied and a comprehensive report provided that would answer many of the current contentious issues. Regards Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ________________________________ From: Harry Karanja <kkairo@gmail.com<mailto:kkairo@gmail.com>> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk<mailto:robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke<mailto:kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>> Sent: Tuesday, 12 February 2013, 6:35 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised On interrogation of legislation I've actually found that the Kenya Communication (Amendment) Act imposed stiff penalties for unauthorized access of data. So whether it came from retail agents or telcos (which is highly improbable) this MP is not supposed to have my data. I'd also discount the idea of cell broadcasting - which to the best of my knowledge had not been activated in Kenya for commercial use. The SMS originated from a UK number. What is indisputable is that the aspiring MP accessed my personal data without authorization. The next challenge is who should be held accountable and how do I do this? As mentioned earlier, targeted campaigning or marketing is only one use of this data - but what if someone based on my surname surmises that I do not fit into the electoral map, will there be another form of targeting to evict me from that constituency? (Here lies the futility of SIM registration as these SMS can easily be sent from UK or India) The fears I have are real, for its happened before, and as most on this list can attest, technology has the power to make this process more efficient. Regards, Harry Karanja Sent from my iPad On Feb 11, 2013, at 10:40 AM, Edith Adera <eadera@idrc.ca<mailto:eadera@idrc.ca>> wrote: Harry, Indeed the sources are many as others have said. Do we have a data protection law (and FOI law) in place? Or the 10th parliament left “hurriedly” without enacting it? The scenarios of how an individual voter can be targeted are many and scary, to say the least. Edith From: kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.ca@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Harry Karanja Sent: February 10, 2013 10:44 PM To: Edith Adera Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised Listers, This morning I received the oddest message. Through a bulk sms provider, one of the aspirants for MP in my constituency sent me an SMS appealing me to vote for him in the upcoming elections? Now I say odd because to the best of my knowledge I have never communicated to this politician my number and my constituency. In fact the only person I have ever given this dual information is the IEBC during voter registration. Which begs the question, could IEBC or its registration clerks be making voter registers available to politicians for consideration or otherwise? I'm also curious if this is an isolated event or its happening elsewhere? Now I don't need to emphasize on the very serious implications if politicians are in possession of such specific data on the electorate. I previously blogged (http://www.startupkenya.info/2010/08/chopping-up-big-green-giant-safaricom.h...) on the dangers of telcos in possession of too much personal data, but it is nothing compared to politicians with this data especially in a country that has experienced deadly post election violence. I'm curious what measures IEBC has in place for the protection of our personal information and if my experience this morning portends the compromise of all future governmently held e-data? Regards, Harry Karanja Sent from my iPad _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke<mailto:kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/robertyawe%40yahoo.co.... The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development. KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications. _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke<mailto:kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/info%40alyhussein.com The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development. KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
Hi, In my post I made a glaring error in my calculations, I had indicated that the number of pages that the IEBC was advertising on in the newspapers was 12 pages but it actually ranges between 32 and 36 pages, I would like to retract that post and replace it with the following. IEBC has over the past few days been publishing in the former mass media a.k.a. newspapers a list of the registered pooling stations, each run has taken up over 32 full pages at 320,000/- per page that adds up to 10.24 million x 3 newspapers per day = 30.72 million and this has been going on for 7 days(and counting) = 215 million in english that is almost one quarter of a billion shillings. Now you can understand why the print media will never publish this calculation as they are the greatest beneficially, unless they have been publishing the lists as part of their CSR. Regards PS. Have a typicallyl wasteful weekend Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ________________________________ From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Monday, 18 February 2013, 8:15 Subject: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised Just to reiterate that mobile is the new mass media, it is shocking how no one is actually raising an issue about IEBC's blatant waste of money, exactly what is the objective of printing information about the pooling stations in the newspaper? IEBC has over the past few days been publishing in the former mass media a.k.a. newspapers a list of the registered pooling stations, each run has taken up over 12 full pages at 320,000/- per page that adds up to 3.84 million x 3 newspapers per day = 11.52 million and this has been going on for 3 days = 34.56 million. This confirms that expenses fill the budget allocated in the same way as work fills the time allocated, from this wasteful spending it is clear that we would have had the same kind of election with a 10th of the budget allocated. Yet the same IEBC charges me 10/- to check the same information using their SMS service, if this is the cost of democracy then we are doomed to poverty. Regards PS. What exactly was the ICT strategy launch all about? Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ________________________________ From: Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wednesday, 13 February 2013, 11:59 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised +1 Robert Ali Hussein CEO, 3mice interactive media ltd Partner, Telemedia Africa Ltd Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassimBlog: www.alyhussein.com On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 10:51 AM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote: Hi Harry,
Not being a lawyer please indulge my ignorance, when you get an ID card it is that the public can confirm who you say you are therefore it is not a private but a public record.
When you register as a voter you are going to elect public office bearers therefore your voter registration information is public information.
I hear you on the issue of getting targeted but which is the greater evil the likelihood of you getting evicted or the likelihood of an election being compromised?
My take is that the voter, SIM card, ID, passport, prison, land ownership and motor vehicle information need to be made publicly available for scrutiny by all and sundry with a means to monitor who has accessed the data (IPv4). All the data I have mentioned is available to a select few which means that the
playing field is therefore uneven.
With a select few having access to the data is more harmful especially since there is no way of any of us knowing who they are or what is their agenda. It truly pains me when a nation with such great minds at times like this reduce themselves to rock painters.
In the run up to the last censors we ran what we called the "tribe Kenya" campaign which resulted in the ministry of planning being forced to define a new tribe called Kenya, whose code is 722, for those who wanted to respond to the tribe question as "Kenya" and not other. In addition the training materials for the enumerators where changed to indicated that no one should be forced to provide a specific tribe and neither where they to make any assumptions based on name.
After the results where released it was recorded that 612,000 households across the country are members of the tribe "kenya". If I had a way of contacting this
fellow tribes men/women of mine then we would be in a better position to plan our development and representation, which is one of the reasons that I am an advocate of making this data public.
In closing, we keep questioning the results of the various opinion polls done by a myriad of organisations with all of us raising issues on sample distribution, ethnicity, gender and the like and more critically are they registered voters. This is a very simple issue to solve if the voter register was publicly available and merged with the SIM register, all we would ask you to do is respond to an electronic opinion poll using your mobile phone. The results could then be tallied and a comprehensive report provided that would answer many of the current contentious issues.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi,
00200
Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: Harry Karanja <kkairo@gmail.com> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tuesday, 12 February 2013, 6:35 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised
On interrogation of legislation I've actually found that the Kenya Communication (Amendment) Act imposed stiff penalties for unauthorized access of data. So whether it came from retail agents or telcos (which is highly improbable) this MP is not supposed to have my data. I'd also discount the idea of cell broadcasting - which to the best of my knowledge had not been activated in Kenya for commercial use. The SMS originated from a UK number.
What is indisputable is that the aspiring MP accessed my personal data without authorization. The next challenge is who should be held accountable and how do I do this? As mentioned earlier, targeted campaigning or marketing is only one use of this data - but what if someone based on my surname surmises that I do not fit into the electoral map, will there be another form of targeting to evict me from that constituency? (Here lies the futility of SIM registration as these SMS can easily be sent from UK or India)
The fears I have are real, for its happened before, and as most on this list can attest, technology has the power to make this process more efficient.
Regards, Harry Karanja
Sent from my iPad
On Feb 11, 2013, at 10:40 AM, Edith Adera <eadera@idrc.ca> wrote:
Harry,
Indeed the sources are many as others have said. Do we have a data protection law (and FOI law) in place? Or the 10th parliament left “hurriedly” without enacting it? The scenarios of how an individual voter can be targeted are many and scary, to say the least. Edith From:kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.ca@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Harry Karanja Sent: February 10, 2013 10:44 PM To: Edith Adera Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised Listers, This morning I received the oddest message. Through a bulk sms provider, one of the aspirants for MP in my constituency sent me an SMS appealing me to vote for him in the upcoming elections? Now I say odd because to the best of my knowledge I have never communicated to this politician my number and my constituency. In fact the only person I have ever given this dual information is the IEBC during voter registration. Which begs the question, could IEBC or its registration clerks be making voter registers available to politicians for consideration or otherwise? I'm also curious if this is an isolated event or its happening elsewhere? Now I don't need to emphasize on the very serious implications if politicians are in possession of such specific data on the electorate. I previously blogged (http://www.startupkenya.info/2010/08/chopping-up-big-green-giant-safaricom.h...) on the dangers of telcos in possession of too much personal data, but it is nothing compared to politicians with this data especially in a country that has experienced deadly post election violence. I'm curious what measures IEBC has in place for the protection of our personal information and if my experience this morning portends the compromise of all future governmently held e-data?
Regards, Harry Karanja Sent from my iPad
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KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/robertyawe%40yahoo.co.... The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development. KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
Harry, There is a feature in GSM sytems called "Cell Broadcasting" and this can be used to send bulk message to mobile phones in a particular cell without requiring any individual detail. John Kariuki. Sent from my BlackBerry® -----Original Message----- From: Harry Karanja <kkairo@gmail.com> Sender: "kictanet" <kictanet-bounces+ngethe.kariuki2007=yahoo.co.uk@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2013 22:43:56 To: <ngethe.kariuki2007@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: [kictanet] Has IEBC Voter Register Been Compromised _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/ngethe.kariuki2007%40y... The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development. KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
participants (9)
-
Ali Hussein -
bitange＠jambo.co.ke -
Brian Ngure -
Edith Adera -
George Nyabuga -
Grace Mutung'u (Bomu) -
Harry Karanja -
ngethe.kariuki2007＠yahoo.co.uk -
robert yawe