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Kenya: ICT Policy Debates
AfricaFocus Bulletin
May 6, 2004 (040506)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor's Note
Virtually everyone agrees that information and communications
technology (ICT) must be a key component of any viable development
strategy for African countries. But lip service is still easier
than charting and implementing a coherent strategy. Recent meetings
in Nairobi and Cairo provide ample evidence of both lively debate
and continuing obstacles.
This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains an article on national ICT
policy in Kenya, with an extended critique of what the writer calls
"the government's ill-coordinated, non-inclusive attempts to draft
a national ICT policy." The article is a report on a conference
last month in Nairobi, and comes from the latest issue of Chakula,
a newsletter published by the Africa ICT Policy Monitor Team of the
Association for Progressive Communications (APC).
The full version of the Chakula newsletter contains much additional
material on this meeting and another Kenya gathering focused on
follow-up to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). It
is available in html at:
http://africa.rights.apc.org/newsletter.shtml
and as text only at: http://africa.rights.apc.org/chakula9_text
Another AfricaFocus Bulletin today includes selected articles
reporting on the Africa Telecom 2004 conference taking place this
week in Cairo.
Previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on related issues include:
Africa: Internet Creativity Feb. 17, 2004
http://www.africafocus.org/docs04/ict0402.php
Africa: Digital Solidarity Gap, 2 and
Africa: Digital Solidarity Gap, 1 Dec 15, 2003
http://www.africafocus.org/docs03/it0312a.php and
http://www.africafocus.org/docs03/it0312b.php
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' Kenya's Draft ICT Policy and Strategy Negates Development Goals'
feature article in Chakula: Africa ICT Policy Monitor newsletter
from the Association for Progressive Communications (APC)
Issue No. 9, April 2004:
Africa ICT Policy Monitor Team
http://www.apc.org/english/rights/africa/
To subscribe to Chakula, please go to
http://lists.sn.apc.org/mailman/listinfo/africa-ir-public
Kenya recently held a national ICT convention aimed at bringing
together a wide group of stakeholders to discuss Kenya's
information and communications technology (ICT) policy and most
importantly work towards an implementation strategy. The
convention was organized by the Kenya ICT Federation (KIF),a body
incorporating many private sector organizations involved in the
sector such the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) and the
Kenya ICT Board that was recently formed to try and incorporate
all the main actors including civil society organizations.
The convention was held in Nairobi, Kenya at the end of March
over a 3-day period and was funded by Canada's International
Development Research Centre (IDRC) and had received endorsement
from the highest office in the country, with a minister from the
Office of the President presiding over the opening ceremony.
Taking a close look at the profile of the organizers of the
convention, observers could not help thinking that the presence
of a large numbers of private sector organizations coming
together to talk about ICT policy and strategy would be
enthusiastically supported by the government, which has been
focusing its ICT policy strategy on the support of private sector
initiatives. However, not even the business groups present were
happy with the government's ill-coordinated, non-inclusive
attempts to draft a national ICT policy and the recent piecemeal
introduction and haste to move towards implementation of
scattered, under-resourced ICT projects.
Few of the groups present - particularly the civil society and
community groups whose interests and efforts have been ignored in
government plans - were convinced by the organizers calls not to
get bogged down in analysing the current policy position and
instead to focus on developing a strategy for implementation.
Will the current ICT policy draft please stand up?
As various speakers talked about the current national policy,
many were surprised to hear that the draft national ICT policy
released in late 2003, just prior to the World Summit on the
Information Society in Geneva had in fact been updated and
reviewed and that a 'new' draft was in circulation. The 'new'
draft had been issued sometimes in February but only circulated
to a select few on the 'need to know' basis said Charles Nduati,
the Executive Secretary of KIF. Delegates demanded to know why
they had come to a forum intended to provide a platform to
develop a comprehensive national ICT strategy when the latest
draft of the policy document had not been made public.
Demands to have the new document copied and distributed were
turned down by the conference organizers who indicated that since
the document was labelled 'confidential' they could be arrested
for distributing a document that had not been officially released
for public distribution. Efforts to query the government
representatives present at the convention as to the status of the
latest version of the ICT policy did not bear fruits either and
incredulous delegates were advised to contact the relevant
ministry and demand a copy as "tax-paying citizens who have the
right to access public policy documents".
Features of the current draft framework
A presentation on the 'confidential' version of the national ICT
policy illuminated conferencists on important questions regarding
the current ICT policy and thereby forming the basis for next
steps - strategies for implementation. The salient features of
ICT policy framework were presented at the opening of the
convention by Mike Eldon who also serves as the Chairman of KIF:
- Kenya's key policy documents fail to incorporate the role of
ICT as an enabler of various goals included in government plans
to transform the country into a Newly Industrialized Country
(NIC) by the year 2020, and as an enabler of national programs to
reduce poverty and promote economic recovery.
- The Kenyan government has been slow to formulate and implement
ICT policy and it is only recently that the government announced
an e-government strategy.
- The ICT policy formulation and implementation strategies vacuum
has been filled by efforts from the private sector and civil
society actors.
- Current policy defines the role of government as the principal
policy-making authority while the role of private sector is
relegated to one of operator and civil society is somewhat lost
in the middle.
- The current policy framework defines the main policy issues in
terms of economic impact, liberalization of certain key sectors,
e-commerce, e-government and human resource development.
Without dedicating any time to discuss the current draft and
issues of concern, Mike Eldon indicated the need to move
discussions onto policy implementation or strategy formulation as
the key to getting anything done when so many are looking for
results.
So the convention mirrored the problem of Kenya's ICT policy. At
the heart of the matter is government's failure to address ICT
policy and strategy in a cohesive and comprehensive manner. The
current draft policy apart from not being publicly available is
said to be lacking in many areas. There is no clearly-defined
strategy and day-to-day activities by the government are not
sending a clear message on a common vision for all.
Failure of policy and strategies to see beyond the private sector
This position is not helped by the latest move by government
policy to prioritise economic development in the (questionable)
belief that economic growth will automatically result into
significant social development. A key example is that the
government, in pursuit of attaining Newly Industrialised Country
status by the year 2020, is focusing on the private sector as the
country's "engine of growth" and thus putting in place major
policy frameworks for enabling enhanced private sector
participation in the economic growth of the country . However,
many claim that in reality the frameworks are not actually
private sector-friendly as government has not taken action on
some of the major policy issues that private sector has been
lobbying on the government to act upon. Sammy Buruchara of the
Telecommunications Service Operators Association of Kenya cited a
case where private sector inputs to the ICT policy were ignored.
At the same time there is also the feeling that current
government policies and activities are geared towards appealing
to foreign investors with little regard at local investors, a
fact confirmed by both Brian Longwe of Africa Internet Service
Providers Association and Bill Kagai of Circuit and Packets and
the Free and Open Source Foundation of Africa (FOSSFA).
At the same time, the role of civil society organizations and
other community development projects is ignored by the current
policy framework and strategies. For instance, the latest
initiative by the government on e-government strategy with no
mention of civil society involvement.
Over-ambitious e-government strategy
There are approximately 4,000 computers in the whole of the
Kenyan government. That's a ratio of one computer for every 60
civil servants!
Occupying a key position on the podium, Mr Peter Gakunu, a
government representative and advisor to the cabinet moved on to
talk about Kenya's latest initiative. an 'e-government strategy',
aimed at applying ICTs to transform the efficiency,
effectiveness, transparency and accountability of exchanges
within Government, between Government and citizens and businesses
locally and abroad, was released in March 2004 and is supposedly
ready for implementation.
The glossy booklet distributed to all delegates outlined
ambitious plans, including the delivery of all published material
into the public domain through relevant government and
departmental websites and the networking of all ministries and
departments. While all this seemed well-intentioned, what was
thrown into relief was the government ad-hoc approach to ICT
policy and implementation strategies. Kenya is rushing into a
complex e-government strategy without having first finalised a
national ICT policy.
And it appears the government is already getting tripped up by
their haste. The minister admitted to the convention that it's
seeing that "ICT skills in government are inadequate indicating a
serious capacity problem for effective roll out of [the]
e-government strategy".
Moving ahead with implementation without a human resource
development strategy running in parallel will only result in
failure or wastage of funds as government will end up having to
fund additional training for civil servants which could have been
avoided if ICT literacy has already been provided as part of a
national ICT plan.
ICT and economic growth
The Economic Recovery Strategy (ERS) has been THE buzzword coming
out of the 2003-2007 Economic Recovery Strategy For Wealth and
Employment Creation aimed at spurring growth, including creation
of job opportunities and wealth. Dennis Kabaara of the Institute
of Economic Affairs criticized the government for once again
looking at ICT as a sector, instead of a development enabler, and
thus proposing certain growth and financing indicators for the
sector.
In his presentation, Kabaara pointed to five key growth sectors
in the ERS and the average growth per annum projection during the
five-year strategy period of 5.0% in the ICT sector. In
comparison, the Kenya investment programme data for the same
period shows only a 0.27% planned investment into the ICT sector.
From an investment point of view there is no way to explain how
the 5.0% sustained growth would be achieved with an investment of
a mere 0.27% of which only about half of the funds are available,
meaning the actual investment could be less than 0.15% going into
ICT of the overall investment expected to be injected into the
Kenyan economy between 2003-2007. This indicates inconsistencies
of government's understanding of the potential of ICT
contribution to economic growth, said Kabaara.
Kabaara placed emphasis on how Kenya's national policy and
strategy focused on ICT as a sector, thus placing efforts on the
development and strengthening of ICT-service provision industries
(telecommunications and ICT-enabled services) instead of adopting
a conscious policy towards promoting ICT as an enabler to
socio-economic development.
Again backed up by statistics, Kabaara demonstrated that more
than 90% of Kenya's population lived in rural areas outside
Nairobi and thus focusing on ICT as a sector would only have
impact on the urban population which has access to ICT services.
He said Kenya would only achieve the development goals especially
those of the Kenya's Poverty Reduction Strategy by taking a
crosscutting approach to ICTs, and not addressing ICT as a
separate sector. Such an approach would ensure "ICT is
mainstreamed within all sectors, without marginalizing any groups
such as gender and pastoralists".
Kabaara concluded his presentation by calling for a holistic ICT
policy and strategy driven by national development goals, "Is
there a pro-poor national ict strategy or policy?" he asked.
Kenya's draft policy and strategy compared to other countries
An interesting comparison of Kenya policy situation with other
countries' was presented by the Kenya Institute of Public Policy
Research and Analysis. The review supported the observation that
Kenya's current draft policy lacks a single vision that
harmonizes the efforts of the public and private sector, civil
society entities and communities. It also revealed that some key
issues (infrastructure development, human resource capacity
building and dealing with the digital divide) have been poorly
addressed and that government had not paid sufficient
consideration as to how ICT initiatives will be funded, again
corroborating economic data demonstrating the under-funding of
ICT investment.
The private sector caught up in the narrow perspectives of ICT as
a sector
Private sector operators at the convention though enthusiastic
about pinning the government down in order to finalize national
policy seemed somewhat caught up in the narrow perspective of ICT
as a sector and assuming that growth in ICT-enabled services will
lead to or is equal to economic and social development.
While private sector organizations are doing a great job in
lobbying government to move fast in policy implementation, their
biggest single failure is that they have a tendency to forget
about the wider development paradigm in their lobbying
strategies.
There was a heavy presence of private sector operators at the
conference but their presentations all focused strongly on
lobbying government to implement policies that create an enabling
environment for the delivery of ICT services. No wonder the
government is turning a blind eye to demands by the private
sector. One government delegate having being cornered as to why
the government was inept at implementing ICT policy replied that
government "cannot formulate and implement policy that is largely
driven by private sector concerns" and appeared to indicate that
private sector concerns were too skewed towards improved service
delivery and profit-making and with little regard to the
development agenda.
A presentation by the telecommunications service providers
association (TESPOK) raised some concerns around failure of
government to include private sector in policy formulation and
lamented that neither the policy draft of 2003, nor the new
'confidential' draft included private sector input.
It is worth mentioning that some key elements of private sector
organizations were noticeably absent from the convention. For
instance, the Computer Society of Kenya, which has been actively
lobbying for policy reform in Kenya, was absent. One cannot help
wonder why miss such an opportunity to network and find synergies
with other stakeholders in this important process. Perhaps CSK
were in a meeting to talk about the World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS) and the role of African private sector
organizations with the secretary general of the Coordinating
Committee of Business Interlocutors (CCIB). Given the nature of
contributions and interests pushed by CCIB at the WSIS processes
which mostly favour private sector interests in developed
counties sometimes at the expense of developing countries,
Kenya's private sector organizations might be better off aligning
themselves with the government and civil society entities as far
as the WSIS process is concerned.
All in all, Kenya's private sector could consider reaching out to
a wider and more diverse group of constituents to achieve better
results in the lobbying to government on policy formulation and
strategy, as well as begin to take a broader view of ICT as an
enabler to development, and not merely an industrial sector.
Civil society organizations fail to reach out to other
stakeholders
Civil society participation at the forum was noticeably very poor
in comparison to private sector actors and government
representatives. A hand-count indicated less that 10% of the
delegates came from civil society organizations and the numbers
present fluctuated widely throughout the duration of the
convention.
While the importance of involving all stakeholders in key policy
processing is constantly espoused, one cannot help wondering why
civil society numbers were so low at this convention. Was it
because civil society organizations were not informed? Was it
because there was a registration fee to attend? Is civil society
itself not aware of the importance of being part of ICT policy
formulations?
One of the key organizations involved in ICT policy did present
their work and key activities undertaken by civil society around
policy processes in particular related to the WSIS. The Kenya
WSIS Civil Society Caucus secretariat -based at APC member in
Kenya, Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN-EA)- presented
details on how the caucus has been operating and results achieved
at the World Summit in Geneva as well as a local workshop on ICT
policy held the previous year .
However, while that work is laudable, it has been mainly carried
out by is a very small group of civil society organizations who
are actively involved in the ICT sector. Civil society
organizations and NGOs not working directly with ICTs, such as
those working in health, trade, micro-finance, agriculture and so
forth, do not yet recognize how ICT policy impacts on their work,
or when they do have not been working closely with those
organizations already lobbying around ICT policy issues. Such a
scenario has only perpetuated a culture wherein many
organizations feel they are not part of a process or do not need
to act on ICT issues because they are not directly involved in
the sector.
Civil society organizations working specifically with ICTs have a
responsibility to reach out to the wider communities and have
them attend workshops or related activities to create awareness
on the role of ICT as a development enabler and thus discuss ways
in which all can work together to lobby government action on ICT
for development. It is only then that civil society will be able
to work collectively with other sectors such as the private
sector to lobby government to develop a progressive policy
framework and strategies for the nation.
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues,
with a particular focus on U.S. and international policies.
AfricaFocus Bulletin is edited by William Minter.
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