[Daily Nation] ‘Digital villages’ to be set up all over Kenya to speed up access to data Story by NATION correspondent Publication Date: 2007/04/30 The Government plans to set up ‘digital villages’ throughout the country, to ease access to information for its citizens. Information assistant minister Mr Koigi Wamwere said during the weekend that the villages to be set up in all the 210 constituencies, will facilitate easy access to information that would trigger economic development in those areas. Commissioning The minister was speaking in Kisumu during the commissioning of the Od Mikayi satellite information centre, where the project by the Government also received a major boost with the approval of a Sh8 billion grant by the World Bank. This will see local communities exposed to new technologies such as the internet and SMS banking. “We intend to roll out the first of these projects in August,” said Mr Wamwere. He added, “The laying of fibre optic cables throughout the country is on course and when completed, Kenyans are going to enjoy the benefits of high speed internet connectivity.” This initiative is intended to double the number of people having access to such services from 2.7 to 6 million, he said. Also targeted will be telephone subscribers, whose numbers are expected to rise significantly from the current 8.5 million to 15 million before the year ends. Learning centres “We also intend to set up E- learning centres in all schools in addition to computerising all Government departments in the country. "This will enhance transparency in the running of Government affairs,” said the minister. http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?premiumid=0&category_id=3&newsid=97056> ------ Alex Gakuru <alex.gakuru@yahoo.com> wrote: Alice, Thanks for this wonderful news. Please send me the link. Alex alice <alice@apc.org> wrote: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From Balancing Act MPS SUPPORT E-GOVERNMENT LEGISLATION IN KENYA Kenya's legislators have surprisingly added their voice in support of the transformation to electronic governance in their operations, both within parliament and in at the constituency level. During a two-day meeting held in Nairobi recently, the members of parliament (MPs) discussed various issues related to Kenya Information Society including e-government and ICT strategies in the country and what should be the role of parliamentarians in the process of implementation and monitoring. The meeting with theme: "Empowering Kenya's MPs and National Assembly staff on Building the country's Knowledge Economy," was organised by the UN's Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the Canadian e-Policy Resource Network (ePolNet). e-PolNet aims at supporting the implementation of the African Information Society through the provision of various kinds of expertise. The participants, who included 15 MPs, discussed how ICTs can accelerate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and various applications like e-health, e-learning, e-commerce and open platform. This is in response to the eighth goal of MDGs, declared during the UN's Millennium Declaration in 2000, which aims to develop a global partnership for development (including a target to make available the benefits of ICTs to all the world's inhabitants). The participants resolved that there is need to take advantage of the on-going restructuring of all parliamentary committees in order to have ICT either accommodated in one of the committees or set up an independent committee on the subject. In his opening address, Mathioya MP, Joseph Kamotho, said that through the use of ICT, governments become less bureaucratic, and more efficient. "With deployment of ICTs, several opportunities that corrupt public officials normally use for their private gain are eliminated or greatly reduced therefore increasing transparency and accountability in the management of public resources," said Kamotho. Kamotho said that governments in Africa must, therefore, invest in ICT so that the public is able to monitor the performance of their representatives through the establishment of websites where citizens can get information about their institution, leaders and the laws made. On electoral processes, participants gave the example of Zambia where the voters register bears the holder's photo to stem vote rigging. (SOURCE: East African Business Week) _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@kictanet.or.ke http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Please unsubscribe or change your options at http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/alex.gakuru%40yahoo.com --------------------------------- Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell? Check out new cars at Yahoo! Autos. --------------------------------- Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell? Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos.