If the allegations are true then I am deeply saddened
because this lot will have done nothing more than seriously damage
the chances of those who are deserving among next lot getting
access to much needed funds.
Was there a clause along the lines of "In case of failure to
deliver as per commitment, the Board reserves the right to
recover disbursed funds".
Does/will the ICT board audit grantees to ensure that the
monies were put to good use?
A few good points raised there,
but as usual, Alai kills the good points with the
bad ones. He hit the nail on the head when he
asked for a review into the progress of the
grantees from last year's Tandaa Competition. I
don't think any of them have made the progress
they were expected to. It seems as if they made up
some fancy presentations and were rewarded on that
basis. Take for example Kenyabuzz, who were
supposed to 'mobilize' their website. One year
later, and all to show for it is a faulty mobile
site:
Take another company, ibid labs. These guys were
supposed to create a virtual museum for Kenya. But
alas, they conveniently folded soon after the
grants were issued:
Jumuika media solutions site seems to be down, and
on their Facebook group, it seems their
subscribers started having issues with their SMS
network early this year:
According to this Powerpoint presentation,
Media Edge Communications conveniently changed
their name to Edge Africa shortly after the
competition. They were supposed to produce an
m-farming product from the grant, and have only a
pathetic shell of a website to show for after the
Tandaa competition:
Jamobi were supposed to make a Jua Kali book
keeping app with their Tandaa money, but it seems
they have not got down to it. Their product page
leads to a service page, which in turn leads to
lengthy descriptions, with no app in sight:
Kenya school of technology studies have come out
with a mobile learning portal, which seems to
have been done half-half, but I think it's a
commendable effort when put side by side with the
rest:
http://m.ksts.mobi
Makutano Junction and Ask a Doc are the only ones
to come out of that Tandaa grant with some
credibility. They implemented their solutions
fully and beautifully: