IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

According to the ICT industry regulator's new strategic plan for the period 2013 to 2018, CCK also wants to have a TV broadcast coverage of at least 80 per cent of the estimated 40 million population in Kenya from 55 per cent at present.

Network limited to a subcounty, and a community will be issued with a 10-year license.

In Summary

• Communities can now organise themselves in such a model so as to supply and provide internet services through community networks.
• The advantage of an Internet Network that is set up this way is that it has collective ownership, helps in the growth of local economies, and promotes local content development.

Treasury permanent secretary Joseph Kinyua made the announcement when he met with a Chinese delegation led by vice-minister for Commerce Chen Jian to sign a framework agreement on the provision of the concessional loan. "The proceeds will be specifically applied for the construction of fiber links to connect Nairobi City with former provincial headquarters to the core ring network, and via fiber broadband, connect 36 administrative district centres," PS Kinyua said.

Finance Permanent Secretary Joseph Kinyua said the two governments were currently putting together the details of the draft ahead of a formal signing by the end of July 2012.

The NOFBI project will include the construction Fibre optic links (systems which provides a data connection between two given points) to connect the Larger Area Network(LAN) of 36 administrative District Centers across the country with the National Fibre optic, hence allow the locals to access faster internet services.

Today ICT offers SMEs, particularly in Africa, the tools to revolutionise their business processes, and to operate just as efficiently and effectively as any world-class firm. However, according to the World Bank's Africa Competitiveness Report 2011, Africa overall has low penetration rates of most ICT tools, which is reflected in the country rankings for technological readiness.

The NGO is currently training more than 180 students at Kasikeu . Speaking yesterday, the ICT for Development director Jonathan Mativo said his desire to equip the locals with basic computer skills started when he was working with Plan International as an ICT officer.

Other orgarnisations that have expressed intention to set up are Tea Board of Kenya, Nairobi Hospital, University Of Nairobi and The South Eastern University College (SEUCO). The ministry of Information and Communication has embarked on an awareness campaign to get more local and international companies and investment groups on board the Konza City development.

Last Friday, the government formed a committee with members drawn from Ministry of Information, E-government Secretariat and the Communications Commission of Kenya to map out the regions to be connected to the infrastructure.

Cabinet Secretary for ICT Fred Matiangi says it is necessary for county governments to give tax rebates and other incentives in order for the private sector to invest in establishing requisite infrastructure at the grassroots.

ICT Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i said the ministry is willing to offer support to the county governments, to establish the required infrastructure in counties.

"There is need to build ICT infrastructure in the counties that will help in business, governance and service delivery," he said during a meeting of the ICT Board in Nairobi.

FOSS is computer software that is not privately protected under copyright and it is free to use, alter and share although not necessarily free from all costs to the user.

Katherine Getao, the ICT Secretary at the directorate of e-government, Office of the President (pictured) says it costs the State agency more than Sh237 million a year to acquire and upgrade copyrighted software.

Nairobi is set to get an upgrade of a Ksh8 billion smart traffic management system to decongest the capital.

In 2024, the Government of Kenya, through the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA), signed a contract with Samsung C & T Corporation from South Korea for the construction of the Nairobi Intelligent Transport System (ITS) and Junction Improvement Project.

After decades of rising inequality and unsustainable investment, we have the tools and knowhow to achieve inclusive, sustainable development. We must use them to leverage new digital-finance technology to build a financial system that works for people and the planet. “We are experiencing the sharpest decline in per capita income since 1870,” United Nations Secretary-General (UNSG) António Guterres pointed out in a recent speech, warning that the COVID-19 crisis has put 70-100 million people at risk of being pushed into extreme poverty. Preventing that outcome will require concerted and comprehensive action to reboot and rebuild the global economy in a sustainable, inclusive way. Technology – in particular, new digital-finance tools – can play an important role in this process.

Digital medical records will help cut costs by eliminating duplication of tests as patients’ records will be available online.

“This is coming. There is nothing you will do to stop it,” said Dr Bitange Ndemo (pictured) , the Information ministry PS, when he addressed the annual Kenya Medical Association Scientific Conference last week.

The objective of the Bandwidth Capacity Support is to enable the 63 Digital villages to purchase high quality and affordable connectivity for their centres to enable information sharing and offer affordable access in rural areas. Speaking during a workshop in Nairobi with Pasha Managers, The Kenya ICT Board CEO, Paul Kukubo said, "We have recognized that the major challenges surrounding internet access for Pashas centres are connectivity and affordability. As a solution we have decided to subsidise the internet costs."

• Several projects launched to help modernise government services through the multi-million shilling e-Government initiative are currently not working despite millions of tax payers’ money having been used to install them.
• Kenyans online have repeatedly complained about services like the SMS passport and ID tracking service which was supposed to provide Kenyans with enquiries about the progress of their passport or ID applications.
• The stalled projects raise questions of the ability of various departments in the government to fully implement and maintain large, expensive ICT projects.
• Local IT experts are however, stating that if the government does not take appropriate steps to ensure the maintenance and updating of the software and hardware systems are done appropriately, all these projects risk failure.
• Another reason that has been advanced for the collapse of electronic systems is that they were designed by foreign software companies and therefore, maintenance and any upgrading has to be done by the same companies and this means extra expenses.

The E.Government – online interaction between the public and the adminstration – will ultimately make all “red tape” simpler, clearer, faster, fairer; and hopefully more honest and more accurate.

And what a relief any sign of any of those qualities would be! But we should not underestimate the task of converting a whole national history of manual records into digital data; nor forget the number one maxim of computerisation: “rubbish in, rubbish out”. For example: The essential information for vehicle registration alone will require the input of 300 million characters (20 data fields per vehicle, 10 characters per field, 1.5 million vehicles).

This follows the injection of a six billion shillings loan by the Chinese government to support the E-government initiatives.

Kenya ICT Board Director Edward Selenwa has said, under the revamped E-government projects the public will have a platform to engage with the government agencies real-time.

Public Service Minister, Dalmas Otieno, underscored the need for e-governance. “Adoption of e-government as a service delivery enabler has the potential to improve accountability. Kenya has continued to make significant progress in improving public services through online delivery, adoption of electronic procurement of goods and services and practise of e-governance aimed at enhancing public participation in decision making,’’ said the minister.

Africa's first healthcare accelerator will be launched in Kenya, courtesy of German companies Ampion and Merck.

According to Ampion, the accelerator will take up startups and entrepreneurs venturing in e-health solutions with large scale impact in the society.

"Our goal is to work with people who are starting or have been doing business in the health care sector in the Kenya. Healthcare is of course an important sector in Kenya with many opportunities to venture into," Ampion co-founder and head of communications, Jan Schafft said in Nairobi.