Speed and transparency are important in such political events as they take care of environments that could create anxiety and suspicion among contestants and other interested groups.
While we cannot claim to have arrived at the highest edge of information technology, the performance of the Interim Independent Electoral Commission indicates the first real steps in that direction.
While initially it may be expensive to build a national informational infrastructure, there are no doubts that the gains could by far outweigh the investment cost.
The referendum experience goes a long way in demonstrating how much time and resources the government could save if it were to speed up the e-government initiative.
Many Kenyans still have to visit government offices to request for documents that can easily be downloaded from the Internet at any cyber café.
While all government ministries maintain a website, most are nothing more than introductory brochures. This must change, especially now that we plan to move to a less-centralised government.
There is an enormous opportunity for the private sector to jump in and provide the required infrastructure across the many new investment centres promised by the new constitution.
The rural electrification programme, which so far has had some success, is expected to widen so that more people can be connected to the national grid.
Digital technology will be the single biggest employer in the next few decades. It has the potential of checking rural-urban migration and creating work for millions of youth.
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Quelle/Source: Daily Nation, 08.08.2010
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