Alex, to have the list participate meaningfully,we may need to start a new thread, with the correct topic. This is no more a Policy issue, it has become legislative. I'm therefore starting a new thread. Regards ______________________ Mwendwa Kivuva, Nairobi, Kenya twitter.com/lordmwesh On 5 July 2016 at 19:39, Alex Watila via skunkworks < skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke> wrote:
fyi
*From:* kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+awatila= yahoo.co.uk@lists.kictanet.or.ke] *On Behalf Of *Grace Mutung'u (Bomu) via kictanet *Sent:* Tuesday, July 5, 2016 7:28 PM *To:* awatila@yahoo.co.uk *Cc:* Grace Mutung'u (Bomu) <nmutungu@gmail.com> *Subject:* Re: [kictanet] [nairobilug] Draft National ICT policy
Interesting developments Alex.
My initial reaction after reading the Bill is, questions questions questions:
First of all, why would anyone conceive such an idea? To cure what problem? How will it better society as a whole? If indeed there was a problem to be addressed, couldn't the same have been dealt with in the policy process first? Assuming this Bill emanated from the Ministry, why would the Ministry undertake a policy review process and at the same time undertake a legal process to regulate the profession? And why is regulation of ICT professionals not even mentioned in the draft policy? We are always ready to engage and I am shocked to have learnt of the process so far in the day. Or did ICT professionals have a processes the outcome of which is this Bill?
Speaking of a profession, what is the ICT profession? I see the Bill has attempted a definition at section 2 but isn't ICTs the most dynamic and cross cutting "profession" we have? Was there a study done to support such a disruptive regulation of the profession? Are there other countries that regulate their geeks this much? So what informed this legislation?
Think of all the young people who eke a living from ICT related businesses. Why would anyone want to subject all these youth, together with those graduating from colleges and universities to one more hurdle before they can start working? Can't we leave it to the market to separate the very good practitioners from the average ones?
I do not understand the Kenyan obsession with ever regulating professions. What I know is that it is expensive for parents to perpetually pay fees before their (overgrown) children can finally get employment. It is also an additional cost to businesses as they have to foot the cost of compliance for the various professionals they employ or outsource.
Finally, what are our legislative priorities in this sector? I would have thought the Data Protection framework is more urgent and maybe a Cyber Security one. While I did not intend to comment on the contents of the Bill, I can't help but notice that one ICT Association of Kenya will have the arduous task of appointing five (out of nine) people to the Council that will regulate professionals (Section 4). Pray tell, who is this association?
Regards,
2016-07-05 14:03 GMT+03:00 Alex Watila via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>:
FYI
-----Original Message----- From: nairobi-gnu@googlegroups.com [mailto:nairobi-gnu@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Tim Schofield Sent: Tuesday, July 5, 2016 11:37 AM To: nairobi-gnu@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: [nairobilug] Draft National ICT policy
This could be a crushing blow to Kenya's ICT industry. If the USA had such a law then so many of their major ICT companies would never have happened. To name but 2, neither Steve Jobs nor Bill Gates gained any formal ICT qualifications, in fact neither of them passed a degree in anything. Several of the leading Linux kernel developers have no formal ICT training.
Tim
On 4 July 2016 at 14:04, Tony White <tony.mzungu@gmail.com> wrote:
...and *this*:
http://kenyalaw.org/kl/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/bills/2016/InformationCo
mmunicationTechnologyPractitioners_Bill_2016.pdf
Which was introduced in the National Assembly last week, which will rquire all ICT 'practitioners' to be licenced (annually!!) and registered, with examination of qualifications, and ongoing 'training'!!
Phew!!
Tony
On 04/07/2016, Ibrahim Ng'eno <eebrah@gmail.com> wrote:
Y'all have seen this[1], yes?
[1] http://www.information.go.ke/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Draft-Nationa l-ICT-Policy-20June2016.pdf
-- Ibrahim
-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nairobi GNU/Linux User Group" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to nairobi-gnu+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to nairobi-gnu@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
-- Tony White
-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nairobi GNU/Linux User Group" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to nairobi-gnu+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to nairobi-gnu@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
-- Course View Towers, Plot 21 Yusuf Lule Road, Kampala T +256 (0) 312 314 418 M +256 (0) 752 963 325 www.weberpafrica.com Twitter: @TimSchofield2 Blog: http://weberpafrica.blogspot.co.uk/
-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nairobi GNU/Linux User Group" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to nairobi-gnu+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to nairobi-gnu@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/nmutungu%40gmail.com
The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
--
Grace L.N. Mutung'u Nairobi Kenya Skype: gracebomu Twitter: @Bomu
<http://www.diplointernetgovernance.org/profile/GraceMutungu>
PGP ID : 0x33A3450F
_______________________________________________ skunkworks mailing list skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke ------------ List info, subscribe/unsubscribe http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------
Skunkworks Rules http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 ------------ Other services @ http://my.co.ke