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Ict Policy Digest

This document discusses Kenya's ICT policy and strategy. It argues that ICT policy should be comprehensive, inclusive of all stakeholders including civil society, and aligned with development goals [S1]. Currently, the government's ICT policy focuses too much on the role of government and private sector without meaningful inclusion of civil society [S2]. For ICT policy and strategy to be effective, it must address capacity building, rural access, and view ICT as an enabler for all sectors rather than just a sector itself [S3].

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Reagan Mbitiru
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55 views4 pages

Ict Policy Digest

This document discusses Kenya's ICT policy and strategy. It argues that ICT policy should be comprehensive, inclusive of all stakeholders including civil society, and aligned with development goals [S1]. Currently, the government's ICT policy focuses too much on the role of government and private sector without meaningful inclusion of civil society [S2]. For ICT policy and strategy to be effective, it must address capacity building, rural access, and view ICT as an enabler for all sectors rather than just a sector itself [S3].

Uploaded by

Reagan Mbitiru
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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KENYA ICT POLICY STRATEGY DIGEST

Information and communications technology (ICT) is critical to any viable


development strategy for developing countries like Kenya.

Indeed, ICT policy and strategy should be enthusiastically supported by the


government and all stakeholders. This ought to be well coordinated, all
inclusive and comprehensive rather than the typical piecemeal approaches
and unsynchronized moves towards implementation of fragmentary, under-
resourced ICT projects that have been witnessed previously.

In particular the civil society and community groups whose interests and
efforts have always been ignored in government plans must be brought on
board when designing policy positions. Policy documents should be made
public through all possible means. Appropriate platforms for discussion and
awareness should be cultivated granted the high level of indifference
towards ICT amongst many Kenyans. Frequent reviews would also be
inevitable to incorporate emergent trends.

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 can be
filled by efforts from the civil society and private sector actors.
Unfortunately, the current policy is configured to define the role of
government as the principal policy-making authority while the role of
private sector is consigned as one of operator and civil society is somewhat
lost in the middle.

Sufficient effort needs to be dedicated to discuss the superimposing issues of


concern before any efforts are invested to implementation of any policy
strategies. At the same time caution should be exercised to ensure that
policies and activities geared towards appealing to foreign investors are not
to the detriment of local investors.

At the same time, the role of civil society organizations deserves a clear
highlight in the current policy framework and strategies. For instance, it’s
surprising that the latest initiative by the government on e-government
strategy has little mention of civil society involvement.

The ambitious E-government plan, which aims at delivery of all published


material into the public domain through relevant government and
departmental websites and the networking of all ministries and departments,
is laudable. What is not impressive is the government’s layman approach to
ICT policy and implementation strategies. The government’s rapidity into a
complex e-government strategy without having first concluded a national
ICT policy is strategically fallacious. Beyond argument ICT skills in
government are inadequate indicating a serious capacity gap for effective
roll out of the e-government strategy. Human resource development strategy
should doubtlessly precede implementation.
ICT must not be seen as a sector, but rather an enabler to socio-economic
development. It should be mainstreamed within all sectors, without
marginalizing any groups such as rural society, gender and pastoralists
granted that more than 90% of Kenya's population lives in rural areas
outside Nairobi. Thus focusing on ICT as a sector would only have impact
on the urban population which has access to ICT services. A holistic ICT
policy and strategy driven by national development goals, with a pro-poor
dimension is clearly of essence.

While private sector organizations are doing a great job in lobbying


government to move fast in policy implementation, their biggest single
failure is their tendency to forget about the wider development paradigm in
their lobbying strategies. Private sector concerns in some instances have
been too skewed towards improved service delivery and profit-making and
with little regard to the development agenda. That’s why the government
needs to be careful when trying to implement policy that is largely driven by
private sector concerns.

Kenya's private sector organizations might be better off aligning themselves


with the civil society entities as far as the lobbying process is concerned.
They 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 as a part of the industrial
sector.
Key activities undertaken by civil society around policy processes in
particular related to ICT require attention from all quarters considering their
broad responsibility of reaching out to the wider communities to create
awareness on the role of ICT as a development tool. In this way the civil
society working collectively with other sectors such as the private sector will
be able to lobby government to develop a progressive policy framework and
strategies for the nation. The government should also emerge with clear
policies regarding the funding of ICT initiatives.

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