IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

If the time wasted by the applicants queuing for hours, the travel expenses and the hassles involved were quantified, this would turn out to be a significant loss both to the individual and to the economy.

The sense of urgency created by the sudden demand for the documents is fertile ground for corruption.

The partnership follows an ongoing government contract with private companies to provide bandwidth capacity necessary for the delivery of electronic government (e-government) services to the public.

While this is partly due to their own ignorance of the steps required, it is also due to the numerous processes that one has to go through.

In Doing Business in Kenya 2009 report, the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation says it requires 12 procedures, 34 days, and costs 36.48 per cent gross national income per capita to register a company in Kenya.

This is why Information and Communication Technology (ICT) becomes the refrain whenever talk about development comes up any where in the world.

With growing globalisation, ICT has become an integral part in developing a highly effective human resource through quality education.

The emergence of the internet has revolutionised business access to information. This plays an important role in combating graft.

Globally, Korea emerged at the top of the rankings for the second year running ahead of the US and Canada.

In Africa, Mauritius and the Seychelles were the front-runners with Kenya in the third place.

Mr F.T. Nyammo, the area MP, gave a break to the traditional meet-the-people tour in which a local leader visits a cattle dip, a coffee factory, some road construction or any other development mradi (project).

Digitalisation of agricultural commodity prices is part of an Sh8 billion Kenya Transparency and Communication Infrastructure Project (KTCIP) whose aim is to increase the use of technology in the agricultural sector.

The grant provided for the Kenya Transparency and Communication infrastructure project (KTCIP) , a three to five year initiative, is part of the World Bank’s Regional Communications Infrastructure Programme (RCIP) that has set out to improve connectivity in east and southern Africa.

The restructuring follows the merger of three agencies, the Government Information Technology Services, the Directorate of e-Government and the ICT Board, which were all advising the government on technology matters. The ICT Board was reporting to the Ministry of ICT. The trio were merged following a presidential executive order in May 2013.

Kenya's mobile subscribers hit 37.8 million as of the end of the third quarter this year, up from 36.1 million recorded in the previous quarter, industry regulator said Wednesday.

Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) said the mobile penetration has grown to reach 88.1 percent, up from 83.9 percent in the period under review.

An official from Konza Technopolis, Kenya's smart city, said here Monday that the technology hub is seeking to attract Chinese investors to boost the country's technology sector.

Lucas Omollo, the manager of ICT (information and communications technology) and Smart City Solutions in Konza Technopolis, said Chinese technology firm Huawei has already completed the construction of a data center in the smart city.

“We have forged linkages with counties to help them develop ICT master-plans in line with the central government’s directive to digitize public services,” Kenya ICT Authority said the Marketing Director, Eunice Kariuki said in Nairobi.

She spoke to Xinhua during the announcement of ConnectedKenya 2014 conference to be held in mid April in the coastal city of Mombasa.

Released by the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology, the KSh257 billion (US$2.9 billion) NBS aims to streamline the sector through providing a roadmap to transform Kenya into a knowledge-based society driven by a reliable high-capacity nationwide broadband network.

On Monday, IEBC cancelled and soon after reinstated the procurement for Biometric Voter Registration kits following a row in the tendering process. IEBC Chief Executive Officer James Oswago had announced the cancelation but was overruled the commission’s Procurement Manager Bernard Nyachio.

Already, a process has been initiated under the auspices of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Washington’s Economic Growth Agriculture and Trade/Information Technology and Energy (EGAT/IT&E) Bureau to guide the process leading to the development of the legislation in Kenya.

Among the lucrative yet unexploited sectors is e-health. E-health refers to health services and information delivered or enhanced through the Internet and related technologies.

Experts say this sector, which has been operating in a legal vacuum, could achieve more in improving the economy in the coming five years if better policies were put in place.

Bitange Ndemo, the Information and Communications permanent secretary, however, says failure by Parliament to pass the ICT and Information Bill has stifled growth in the sector.

A Kenyan-grown financial consultancy firm, AVLC Group, has been picked by MC Telecom, a Kinsasha-based firm, to offer lead consultancy services in the construction of a multi-billion-shilling smart city in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The state-of-the-art project dubbed Kasangulu Smart City covering an imposing 40 hectares of prime land valued at USD210 million (Sh32 billion) is designed to accommodate multi-storey houses, a level 4 hospital, a school, a train station, a water theme park, malls, shopping centres, a hotel, club houses, a lake, an artificial beach and an array of other essential facilities.