@Kanini Thank you for the work you are putting in. My contribution is towards County data collection and using it for county budgeting and monitoring. We know that county governments are expected to provide access to and/or disseminate timely and relevant county based information in a simplified form that is accessible by the citizens as envisaged in the County Governments Act, 2012 and Access to Information Act, 2016. But we have not created a system(s) that collate county data onto a platform or portal that then the public and CSOs can interrogate and get a pulse of what is going on in a county. The Kenya Bureau of Statistics already has all the base social-economic data a county would need to develop the county budget and policy development strategies. The data has been visualised as the Kenya Socio-economic Atlas ( http://kenya-atlas.org/) that former CS of Devolution Ms. Waiguru launched. My belief is that if the counties could set up a department that collects county data and turns it into information of a portal, then we would be using ICT in a way that makes sense for counties. -----Original Message-----

From: "kanini mutemi via kictanet" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: ?05/?02/?2018 08:24 To: "deborah.wanjugu@gmail.com" <deborah.wanjugu@gmail.com> Cc: "kanini mutemi" <kaninimutemi@gmail.com> Subject: [kictanet] Day 1 of Talk to the Senate (2017-2022 Priorities)

Good morning Listers,

Welcome to Day 1 of 'Talk to the Senate'. This must have been what the framers of the Constitution had in mind when they entrenched public participation as a key constitutional principle- an opportunity for us to make a case on what we think ought to be the Senate's priority 2017-2022. I therefore encourage that we all participate in this session and look forward to an animated discussion.

As Grace had briefed us on Friday, we will have a three day discussion focusing on the counties and opportunities for intervention by the Senate.

This being the first day, our goal is to bring out issues of concern in the counties as far as ICT is concerned. Once we have these, we will proceed to make proposals on how the Senate may be of help in resolving these issues on Day 2. On Day 3, we will discuss how to foster engagements between the ICT community and the legislature.

This is our guiding question for today?

What do you consider to be the ICT (a) challenges; (b) risks; and (c) opportunities in the counties?

As well, if there are ICT success stories coming out of the counties, feel free to highlight them.

We are honoured to have Senator Abshiro Halake (Vice Chairperson, Senate ICT Committee) on the list. Senator, karibu sana.

This discussion is now open!