Building Information Communities in Africa
BICA -Kenya
Towards the realisation of
Kenya Information Society
:the status, the trends and a strategy for development
(fi-nal version)
BICA – Kenya Secretariat
Nairobi - February 2000
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Table of Contents
FOREWORD ....................................................................................................................................... III
INFORMATION SOCIETY: FROM INDUSTRIAL AGE TO INFORMATION AGE ................. 1
TRENDS AND THE DRIVERS FOR AN INFORMATION-BASED SOCIETY ..................................................... 1
INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE ......................................................................................................... 2
DRIVING THE INFORMATION SOCIETY .................................................................................................. 3
…international initiatives .............................................................................................................. 3
...regional level .............................................................................................................................. 3
MEASURING THE INFORMATION SOCIETY ............................................................................................ 4
KENYA AND INFORMATION SOCIETY: THE STATUS ............................................................. 6
THE BUILDING BLOCKS FOR AN INFORMATION SOCIETY....................................................................... 6
INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE OVERVIEW: COMMUNICATING INFORMATION .................................. 7
Telecommunications ...................................................................................................................... 7
Internet .......................................................................................................................................... 9
Electricity: Powering the infrastructure...................................................................................... 10
Mass media .................................................................................................................................. 10
PROCESSING INFORMATION; ABSORBING INFORMATION AND CAPACITY BUILDING ............................ 13
Information Technology and assimilation in information processing ......................................... 13
Human resource and capacity building....................................................................................... 16
CONTENT INDUSTRY: GENERATING INFORMATION ............................................................................ 16
Local information resources........................................................................................................ 16
Libraries ...................................................................................................................................... 16
CROSS CUTTING ISSUES...................................................................................................................... 17
Gender equity .............................................................................................................................. 17
Youth as agents of change ........................................................................................................... 17
Disabled ...................................................................................................................................... 17
SETTING AN ENABLING ENVIRONMENT FOR KIS ................................................................ 17
NATIONAL VISION ............................................................................................................................. 17
OPERATIONAL ISSUES ........................................................................................................................ 18
Standards..................................................................................................................................... 18
Human capital development ........................................................................................................ 18
Data and information integrity .................................................................................................... 18
Industrial policy .......................................................................................................................... 18
KENYA INFORMATION SOCIETY FOR DEVELOPMENT: THE APPLICATIONS ............. 19
JOB CREATION ................................................................................................................................... 19
EDUCATION ....................................................................................................................................... 19
ATTRACTING FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT .................................................................................... 20
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE................................................................................................................... 20
DELIVERY OF GOVERNMENT SERVICES .............................................................................................. 21
RURAL DEVELOPMENT ....................................................................................................................... 22
TELE–MEDICINE AND TELE-HEALTH .................................................................................................. 22
STRATEGY TO EVOLVE A KENYA INFORMATION SOCIETY ............................................ 23
ACTIVITY PLAN.................................................................................................................................. 23
DEFINING THE STAKEHOLDERS AND ASSIGNING THE ROLES ............................................................... 24
Government ................................................................................................................................. 24
Private sector .............................................................................................................................. 24
Non government organisations.................................................................................................... 24
Media........................................................................................................................................... 24
CATALYSING THE PROCESS: ....................................................................................................... 25
POSITIONING THE KIS INITIATIVE ...................................................................................................... 25
BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER: POSITIONING BICA (KENYA) .............................................................. 25
SHORT-TERM PROJECTS FOR IMPLEMENTATION BY BICA (KENYA)................................................... 26
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 i
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
TELECENTRES .................................................................................................................................... 26
Rationale ..................................................................................................................................... 26
Purpose ....................................................................................................................................... 26
Functions of the telecentres ......................................................................................................... 26
Strategy ....................................................................................................................................... 27
POLICY DEVELOPMENT ...................................................................................................................... 27
ANNEXES ............................................................................................................................................. 28
ANNEX 1: GUIDELINES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NATIONAL INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION
INFRASTRUCTURE (NICI) .................................................................................................................. 28
ANNEX 2: METHODS OF INFORMATION ACQUISITION, SHARING AND USE ........................................ 29
ANNEX 3: INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE INDICATORS ................................................................. 30
ANNEX 4: SELECTED INITIATIVES EXPLOITING IS TECHNOLOGIES ..................................................... 31
ANNEX 5: FURTHER READING ............................................................................................................ 36
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 ii
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Foreword
Building Information Communities in Africa (BICA Kenya) is a
collaborative effort between the British Council and the key organisations in
Kenya to work towards providing a strategic direction and leadership on
Information Society agenda and on the global knowledge society issues.
Through this gesture, Kenya can seize ownership of full realisation of an
information-based society by: -
engaging Kenya in an information agenda linked with global trends and
remain competitive in the evolving global village
creating a broad-based participatory process involving both the private
and public sector to develop the requisite infrastructure for the
information processing
In October 1999, BICA – Kenya organised a two-day workshop - Towards
realisation of a Kenyan information Society at Nairobi Safari Club. Mr
B J Kebati Deputy Secretary on behalf of Permanent Secretary Ministry of
Information, Transport Communications, opened the workshop. The two-
day high-level workshop identified a clear need for Kenya to develop a
strategy to move the country to an information-based society. British
Council is happy to be a partner in this process.
It is against this background that BICA-Kenya presents this document as a
basis to elicit informed debate on the necessary steps Kenya need to take in
the quest for a Kenya Information Society.
BICA Kenya acknowledges the important role by Mr Muriuki Mureithi
Director Summit Strategies who researched and authored this document
Lucy Kinyanjui
Information Manager
British Council
And Co-ordinator – BICA -Kenya
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 iii
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Information Society: from industrial age to information age1
Trends and the drivers for an information-based society
Information age is with us. A subtle transformation is now evident in the
society in developed countries. From the industrial revolution in the 18th to
19th century, which was concerned with energy and matter with the most
visible output being tangible goods, the share of intangible output is now
significant. The share of national economic output is declining from
agricultural and industrial goods to intangible goods.
In OECD countries, the share in the economy for service industry and the
public sector is now 70%, manufacturing and agriculture accounting for
25% and 3% respectively2. This trend is also evident in the developing
countries, the share in the economy for service sector is higher (43%) than
manufacturing and agriculture.
Service based companies do not produce goods directly; their activities are
in supply of services, distribution of goods, financial, insurance etc and most
significantly the exchange of information. Service based companies are
major generators and consumers of information. In non-service sector,
information is also as important. In USA, it is estimated that 75% of the
value added in manufacturing is information3.
This demand for information as a significant input in daily activities is creating
a new industry
Defining the transformation - from industrial to information
– to create, revolution
process and Industrial Revolution, Information Age
transport The shift, at different times in Transformation of
information to different countries, from a traditional information into a
agriculturally based economy to one commodity that is created,
consumers. based on the mechanised production produced, manipulated and
This activity is of manufactured goods in large-scale distributed by an increasing
now a enterprises. number of industries.
."Industrial Revolution," Microsoft (R) Encarta.
recognised Copyright (c) 1994 Microsoft Corporation.
Copyright (c) 1994 Funk & Wagnall's
industry – Corporation
information Summit Strategies
industry
creating jobs and most importantly providing an important service to the
entire economy. In the global terms, the information industry has been
growing at twice the rate of the rest of the global economy. In Canada for
example, the industry is now contributing 5% of the GNP4. The greatest
1
Information age is also taken to refer to a knowledge-based society.
2
The Consequences of Current Telecommunications Trend for the competitiveness of Developing
Countries ; The World Bank
3
World Telecommunication Development Report 1995: Information Infrastructures
4
Measuring the Global Information Infrastructure for a Global Information Society Performance
Indicators (Draft 1996) – Industry Canada
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 1
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
contribution however, is the impact the information industry has on the
efficiency of the rest of the economy and its competitiveness among nations
in the new millennium.
The emerging information age is characterised by transformation of
information into a commodity created, manipulated and distributed to
globally distributed consumers.
To participate in the information society, information infrastructure5 is a
prerequisite. Those economies with poor information infrastructure will be
unable to participate in the new information led revolution.
Information infrastructure
Nations with the capacity to participate and exploit the potentials offered by
the information society have put in place policies and an enabling
environment to foster and promote:
Information generation, acquisition and creation at both local and national
level. This also includes measures to adapt foreign information for local
applications.
Information processing/storage and retrieval typically information
technology, information packaging etc. This also includes the capacity
building to absorb interpret and generally process information
Information dissemination systems typically telecommunications
broadcasting,
libraries service
outlets etc,
community
information
centres for
communicating
information.
Conscious of the
impact of the
information
industry,
governments are
putting in place
policies to foster
the development of the industry to harness its benefits and enhance
development. Because of the interdependence of the global economies,
nations are also co-ordinating their activities at regional and international
5
various physical means to generate, display, store, and transmit data and information-
collectively described in this paper as the information infrastructure
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 2
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
levels. The intention is to co-ordinate research, technology developments,
standards and most importantly define how to integrate the infrastructures,
consume information and safeguard the integrity of the information as well
as ownership.
Driving the Information society
…international initiatives
Governments all over the world have now realised the crucial role of
information and knowledge in national competitiveness among nations and
also as a major economic sector in its own right. Governments are
therefore putting in place measures to harness national resources to build
information infrastructure to exploit information and knowledge for
development.
Two approaches towards the evolution of information society have
emerged; -
Governments set out broad principles as a basis for information society
to evolve and define measurable indicators in national development.
Such nations have liberalised the Information and Communications
Technologies (ICT) industry notably telecommunications, broadcasting,
and Information Technology (IT). The principles set by the government
refocus independent industries towards one national vision –
information society. North American region and parts of Europe
followed this approach.
In nations where the government has direct control over the ICT
industry, the governments has set a vision and participated in the
investment towards the realisation of the vision. Singapore and a
number of Asian countries including South Korea as well as a South
Africa are following this route.
...regional level
At the regional level, African governments in May 1996 adopted African
Information Society Initiative (AISI) to provide a regional framework to
build an information society for Africa. AISI sets a framework to develop
and establish a sustainable information society by the year 2010 with the
following visible outputs;
“(a) Information and decision support systems are used to support decision making in all
the major sectors of the economy in line with each country's national development priorities;
(b) Every man and woman, school child, village, government office and business can access
information and knowledge resources through computers and telecommunications;
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 3
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
(c) Access is available to international, regional and national "information highways",
providing "off-ramps" in the villages and in the information area catering specifically to
grass-roots society;
(d) A vibrant business sector exhibits strong leadership capable of forging the build up of
the information society;
(e) African information resources are available which reflect the needs of government,
business, culture, education, tourism, energy, health, transport and natural resource
management;
(f) Information and knowledge are disseminated and used by business, the public at large
and disenfranchised groups such as women and the poor, in particular, to make rational
choices in the economy (free markets) and for all groups to exercise democratic and human
rights (freedom of speech and freedom of cultural and religious expression).6”
AISI calls for the preparation and implementation of National Information
and Communications Infrastructure framework7 (NICI) in all African
countries. This is in the pursuit of priority strategies, programmes and
projects which can assist in the sustainable build up of an information
society in the each country.
Twenty-two countries in Africa are participating in the NICI process. Kenya
is not one of the participants.
Measuring the information society
Like any new emerging phenomena, definition and indicators of
information society are still evolving. Should the measurement of the
information industry include services or also include equipment industry?
Alternatively, should this include non-electronic information creation and
distribution industries such as publishing and postal services?
This paper explores the status of the evolution of information society with
emphasis of information based services provided with increasing reliance of
electronic information creation and distribution industries.
The paper also assumes that Kenya will see the dominance of service
industry as a contribution to the economy - a trend noted in developed
economies as depicted in US economy below.
6
Africa Information Society Initiative: An Action Framework to Build Africa’s Information and
Communication Infrastructure.
7
See annex 1
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 4
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Into the information age - Change in % of US employment, 1810-1999
100% US Bureau of Labour Statistics - quoted by Tim Kelly ITU
Agriculture & mining Services
Manufacturing
0%
1810 1910 1999
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 5
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Kenya and information society: the status
The building blocks for an information society
ICTs are rapidly transforming the way the society is conducting its socio-
economic activities. By overcoming the limitation of the geographic space,
specialised services can now be delivered to all parts of the country by
applying ICTs. Services like health delivery, continuing and formal
education, and government services can now be delivered to the rural areas
more cost-effectively than through traditional means. For the countries that
Blasting in into the information age: Do we have the information infrastructure to compete?
Per 10 000 people Per million
people
Daily Radios Tvs – Fixed line Mobile PCs - Internet Scientists +
Newspap 96 97 Telephones - telepho 97 hosts – engineers
ers - 96 97 nes -97 Jan 99 85-95
Highest Hong USA ( USA Sweden Finland USA USA USA (3732)
Kong ( 21150) (8470) (6790) ( 4170) (4067) (1131.5)
8000)
Lowest Burkina Democratic
Armeni Chad Many Niger Ethiopia Many with
Faso (10) Republic of
a (50) (20) with 0 (2) (0.01) no data
Congo ( 10)
Kenya 90 1080 190 80 0 23 0.23 No data
Source; World Development Report 1999/2000, compiled by Summit Strategies
have built adequate information and communication infrastructure, they
have the potential to apply ICTs to the service of their citizens.
Kenya‟s information infrastructure is inadequate in the table above. Despite
the inadequacy, Kenya must compete globally with countries having better
infrastructure. Lower development in information infrastructure reduces
Kenya economy: increasing contribution of services
Kenya‟s capacity to
70
compete in global
terms.
% contribution to the
60
50
Government
economy
40
30
Agriculture
Industry
resources are
20
Services inadequate and
10
0 future development
1977 1987 1997 is increasingly being
The future driver of the economy: industrialisation or informatization? left to the private
sector that has the
necessary capital. The role of the government should therefore continue to
create an enabling environment and package the country to tap both local
and foreign investment to develop sustainable information infrastructure.
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 6
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Information Infrastructure overview: communicating information
Telecommunications
Communications Commission of Kenya is now operational and over the last
half-year has gradually opened up the telecommunications sector to limited
competition in certain market segments and enabling private sector to
compliment in sector development. Important market segments are
discussed below.
Telkom Kenya Ltd dominates in the fixed line market segment and manages
the national telecommunication system. The system comprise a total switch
capacity of slightly under 400 000 lines with a total number of customers
connected slightly over 290 000 as end of 1999. International services are
satellite based through Atlantic and Indian Ocean Intelsat satellites through
two earth stations situated at Longonot and Kericho. Over the network,
Telkom offers a range of services – leased lines, VSAT, packet switching,
Internet backbone etc
The licence for Telkom Kenya Ltd gives the company exclusivity in national
and international services as well as local services in Nairobi up to June 30th
2004. In all other areas, TKL will have to compete with Regional
Telecommunications Operators (RTO) whose tenders have been
announced on February 1st 2000.
TKL has a universal service obligation as well as rollout obligation over the
five-year period exclusivity period. TKL must install 225 000 fives lines in
the next five years. Non compliance will attract penalties from the
Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK)
If TKL complies then it will contribute a teledensity of slightly fewer than
2% in the next five years.
Other operators soon to enter the market are Regional Telecommunications
Operators who will be limited to regional level operation in competition
with TKL.
CCK licensed two cellular operators to provide national GSM services. A
third may be licensed within five years. Current forecasts projects that the
cellular market will increase to slightly over 1 Million by 2004. With these
projections, Telkom Kenya Ltd may be handling less that 30% of the total
market share of the telecom services by 2004. Nevertheless, by its hold on
international and national traffic Telkom Kenya will be a critical player in
the industry.
Kencell Communications Ltd licensed in end January 2000 has announced
an ambitious programme to cover 56% of the population in fewer than 2
years. The company intends to bring down the tariffs by 50%.
Safaricom is also to build 450 000 lines in the same period.
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 7
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Cellular operators have a rollout obligation for national coverage. The
present policy issued in April 1999 allows to consider licensing a third
cellular operator at its discretion.
Paging industry is perhaps the most competitive with 21 companies now
licensed and expected to be operational by mid 2000. The paging licence
carries no rollout obligation
Competition is expected to make the service affordable and encourage
operators to venture in major towns in search of customers.
Paging Services Ltd provides paging services since 1993 and has six
operations in major towns in the country namely Nairobi, Mombasa,
Eldoret and Kisumu and Nakuru, Nyeri with a customer base of close to
5000. In August 1998, a second paging operator – Capital Pagers was
licensed introducing competition. Capital Pagers is operational in Nairobi
City and is using RDS technology over broadcasting infrastructure of the
parent company – Capital radio. The impact of competition was a dramatic
reduction of tariffs by 25%. Further reduction is expected with increased
competition.
Paging companies a have to factor-in the reducing tariffs of cellular
operators to survive the competition. Reducing tariffs of cellular has
drastically eaten into the paging market in Uganda and Tanzania forcing
some of the companies to close down. Growth markets in paging appear
feasible in markets where fixed line operators agree on revenue sharing of
traffic with paging operators.
Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) - PABX‟s, terminal sets, faxes etc.
were liberalised 1991. The easy mode of entry in to the market segment
and product availability has brought over 242 companies in the CPE market
bringing tangible benefits to the consumer in terms of lower prices, quality
products and reliable support. As result, Kenya has developed a competitive
CPE sector with sufficient skills and capacity to install and maintain
customer premises facilities.
About 85% of the support companies are within Nairobi. Rural areas have
therefore limited support facilities.
In addition, there are over 500 telephone bureaux, many more operate
without licences particularly in the residential areas.
If the current commitments by the fixed line and cellular operators are
achieved, then Kenya will rapidly increase its communication infrastructure
by a factor of 5 to over 1.5 Million lines by 2004. This a far better
infrastructure than is presently available. The critical issue is to ensure that
the rural areas are equally served. Presently less than 20% of infrastructure
serve 80% of the population in the rural areas.
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 8
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Equally, there is need to address the construction of wide band infrastructure
nationally to serve the increasingly high volume of information needs.
Present policy restrictions will not support private enterprise in this sector.
Internet
African Regional Computing Centre (ARCC) launched the first full Internet
service in Kenya in the last quarter of 1995. Since then, 23 more Internet
Service Providers (ISPs) have been licensed although only slightly over half
are operational. This has unleashed competition, which has brought down
prices, increased the Points of Presence (PoP) in all major towns and
generally raised Internet awareness. Additionally, Telkom Kenya Ltd has
implemented a national Internet backbone – Jambonet for up to 30 000
connections. Jambonet has not been able to measure as per expectation due
to frequent failures. When fully implemented, 90% of the population will be
within reach of Internet at local call rates. Kenya will therefore join eight
other countries in Africa with nation-wide availability of Internet.
International connectivity is the monopoly of Telkom Kenya Ltd, which
continue to price bandwidth highly, consequently, Internet charges are
extremely high. Full Internet per month now range from Ksh 7000 – Ksh
10 000 to the customer.
Typical service packages offered by ISPs include dial-up and leased lines
services, web design and hosting as well as training and consultancy. The
industry has yet to establish a regular means of collecting data and therefore
track Internet development as well as its impact in various sectors including
e-commerce.
The market is expanding rapidly and now have close 30 000 users mostly in
Nairobi and represent a market size worth Ksh 0.6 billion annually. The
industry has also created over 1000 high technology jobs directly. The jobs
in the ISPs operations, web design industry, Internet resellers, cyber cafes,
generally command higher than average salaries in technical management.
In addition to the connectivity provided by the ISPs, another new industry is
emerging. Content creation through web design, creation and
implementation on inter and extra company communications (Intranets and
extra-nets) web hosting, and training and consultancy.
While the bulk of the Internet work coalesces vertically around the ISPs,
there is a notable horizontal development in the industry. Independent
specialised companies have been established and are entering the Internet
industry market. This is an indicator of a maturing industry and in the next
few years, the industry will see specialisation in hosting services,
connectivity, countrywide Intranets, e-mail services, and consultancy
services
The government has not yet fully embraced Internet technologies and
therefore has not taken advantage of this technology for information
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 9
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
dissemination and/or communication within itself or to citizens. When the
government becomes a major user of Internet, many psychological barriers
will be overcome and the ensuing customer base will force down prices
further based on economies of scale. One of the most significant steps the
government needs to take is the formulation and pronouncement of an
official policy of Internet technologies and it‟s adoption as tool for
communications internally and externally.
Electricity: Powering the infrastructure
Electricity in the rural areas is lacking or unreliable. Only 8% of the
Kenyan homes have commercial power largely in the urban areas8. Rural
electrification programme established by the government to redress rural
infrastructure has yet to make an impact in large parts of the rural areas.
This poses a challenge of using ICTs in the rural areas. Where
commercial power is unavailable, solar power can be explored to
power ICTs. Kenya has however utilised its sol ar energy
potential more than other countries in the region. To
encourage the use of the solar power, the government has
progressively reduced import duty and value added tax to make
the units more affordable. There is need for refitting solar
power to support ICTs where commercial power is unavailable.
Kenya Power Lighting Company (KPLC) has extensive cable pylons across
the country. Such pylons offer an instant infrastructure to strap fibre optic
cables and thus extend a wide band communications capacity nationally. In
December 1999, KPLC announced tenders to pre-qualify suppliers to build
such a fibre on its pylons.
Mass media
Broadcasting
The Minister of Information, Transport & Communication continues to
issue licenses for radio and television operation. In spite of this, neither
Kenya Communications Act nor KBC Act (Cap 221) establishes a clear
regulatory framework under which radio and television can be licensed.
The critical problem is a decision on information policy and the right of the
citizens to have a choice of information sources. If information is a right
then the government has a duty to facility the collection and the
dissemination of the information to citizens. To achieve this objective,
licensing process and frequency allocation process should be a clear process.
8
Energy Sector Reform and Power Development Project; World Bank Staff Appraisal Report Kenya -
May 21 1997.
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 10
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Closely intertwined is information content itself. Broadcasting media
operators have not increased the local content disseminated. This is in part
due the lack of a policy on local content.
Impact on development will continue to be elusive, as long as creation of
local content is not addressed. As a policy measure value-add in local
content creation should be measured against the following components over
a specified time; -
personality covered - is he/she Kenyan citizen?
content is it on Kenya or does it impact on Kenya?
geographic space of coverage - is it in Kenyan?
Government should institute a strategy to encourage mass media to build
local content in their programmes over a specified time.
Secondly, should electronic media be subjected to coverage obligations? If
the station is licensed as national broadcaster then it has an obligation to
extend a nation-wide coverage but equally a nation-wide sourcing of news
and information. This recognises broadcasters, as critical players in the
information industry just like telecommunications operators.
By mid 1999, 24 broadcasting stations had been licensed. However, the
process is still cumbersome in that the licence by the Minister is not an
automatic qualification for a frequency. Additionally, even with the licence
the same can be withdrawn. Finally, the minister has absolute discretion on
whom to issue with a licence.
Radio has the 350
widest coverage N e w r a d io s & T v s e ts s o ld a n d lic e n c e d
and certainly easy 300
to buy. In the 250
difficulty days of 200
the onset of
multiparty, slightly 150
over 250 000 100
radios were
Tv (x 1 0 0 0 )
R a d io (x 1 0 0 0 )
50
licensed per year.
This gradually fell 0
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998
to 50% by 1994
Statistical Abstract 98, Economic Survey 99, GOK
when an upward
swing was noted to peak in 1997. This trend appears to respond to
heightened political activity.
Kenya Broadcasting Corporation and according to a survey conducted by
KBC, Kenya has 6 million radios and 600 000 television sets. Radio
coverage is 90%9 of the population and therefore a major source of news
9
Mr Simon Anabwani MD KBC in a closing speech to Radio Africa 97, Nairobi.
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 11
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
and information particularly in rural areas where illiteracy is high and print
media is unavailable and often unaffordable
KBC Tv has a population coverage of 45%.
None of the other broadcasters has the reach of KBC either by own
decision or by restriction under government licensing action.
Print media
Up to 400 000 newspapers circulated daily in 1990. With a high level of
sharing, there was an estimated leadership of over 1 million. This has
gradually fallen over time to a low in 1994 to gradually pick up to slightly
below 300 000 in 1997. Again, the daily newspaper uptake appears to
respond to political processes and not economics. Impact of print media
for the population with lower academic level is limited considering Swahili
papers in circulation are in the range of 50 000 daily. Newspapers are
commercial undertakings, run on advertising revenues, and therefore focus
on the major population centres. Areas with lower consumer power for the
advertiser get less attention and therefore lower coverage.
As distributors of information, should newspapers be subject to universal
services obligation? Presently the circulation is slightly over 1% of the
population and therefore purchase of the papers restricted to a small portion
of the population. Costs of the newspapers (50% of a Kenyan GDP for
one year supply) and literacy ( English proficiency <40%) high distribution
costs , limited coverage are major constraints to increase the impact of
newspapers as a information medium. At 1% penetration Kenya newspaper
Local new spaper circulation
700
Sw ahili Daily
600
English Daily
Sw ahili w eeklies
500
English w eeklies
units x 1000
400
300
200
100
0
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998
Source: Economic Survey 99, Statistical Abstract 98, GOK
industry is way behind what Egypt had at 3.8% in 1996.
Government should encourage print media to widely distribute newspapers
across the country and develop measurable indicators to this end e.g. a
minimum number to all localities/schools/community facilities etc
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 12
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Processing information; absorbing information and capacity building
Information Technology and assimilation in information processing
Kenya is yet to formulate a comprehensive Information Technology policy.
Nevertheless, despite the lack of such a co-ordinated policy, the government
has taken certain actions that have a significant bearing on the developments
of the IT industry.
The government has progressively reduced the tariff barriers in the IT
industry. In the present financial year, the import duty on computers and
software is now 5% down from a high of 40-45 % in early 90s. The lower
duties has brought down the prices of computers and enhanced
affordability, consequently the number of PCs in the country has increased.
It is estimated that the country has 200 000 PCs10 which are estimated to
grow at 10 -15 % per year. At this level, the Personal Computers (PC)
density is almost equal to the telephone density at close to 1%.
In addition to importation of IT, local entrepreneurs have established a
thriving PC assembly business in the country. The assembled PCs, clones of
major brands come with a comparatively lower price tag thereby bringing
even more pressure on the prices of branded PCs. This market has been
impacted negatively by differential taxation that favours imported
computers.
Similarly, a thriving local software industry provides the requirements of
specialised needs. At least seven companies have entered off-shelf mass-
packaged software products11. This is a major milestone for the possibility
of localising IT for local applications.
Continuously falling prices and increased awareness of IT will continue to
be the driving force for increased use of IT in the coming years
The government has increasingly accepted the use of computers in its
offices thereby providing a role model in acquisition and use of information
technologies. The actual benefit the government offices derive is another
matter without a cohesive policy on IT use which is not apparent.
As result of the increased computers in the market, the sales and
maintenance points have increased rapidly and spread nationally. Main
towns have sales and support outlets.
All major towns also have training capacity on basic computer usage.
Additionally, the government has decided to introduce computer courses in
secondary schools. This is therefore going to be a major impetus to enhance
IT awareness in the country.
10
The East African -May 5-11 1997 pp19
11
Micro-computer Guide Vol. 2 No 4 June 1996 Upstart Ltd Nairobi (The magazine is now renamed
PC World East Africa)
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 13
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Leading the drive for advocacy of IT development are professional IT
associations like Computer Society of Kenya.
Experiences gained in 1999 in activities related to y2k , indicate that Kenya
is relatively well equipped in computing resources and has well trained
human resource. The challenge however is to encourage corporate
organisations and indeed all organisations to raise the strategic positioning
of IT function in an organisation. From a low-level function in a support
department to be a strategic function, in itself in information management.
It is believed that Kenyan organisations are mostly in the middle case
scenario of table below.
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 14
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Fall & Rise of IT function: integrating IT for competitiveness
Source: Corporate Computing & Communicating.. Survival of the fittest in the Global Village Mike Eldon MD CAL presentation at Information Technology Forum 28 Jul 1995 Nairobi organised by Telecommunication Foundation of Africa
CEO CEO
CEO
Chief
Information
officer
Chief Chief
Accountant Accountant Admin Manager
IT Consultancy
Computer Systems Development
operations Word processing Comms
Computer Supervisor (Tel, Tx., Fax)
Manager Supervisor
Network Management
PC Users PC users
Wanted; Computer manager
Reporting to the Chief Accountant, he/she will be Wanted: Chief information officer
responsible for implementing and maintaining the
organisation‟s computer systems and ensure reports are Reporting directly to the Chief Executive, this is a senior management position. The CIO is responsible
issued in a timely and accurate manner for setting corporate strategies and policies for information technology and systems, contributing the IT
Candidates must posses a sound knowledge of UNIX, component to overall business strategy.
FoxPro and WordPerfect, have a degree in Computer Candidates must understand how IT can provide a competitive edge to the company and as agents of
Science and three years experience in a computer department change give enthusiastic leadership to the assimilation and use of IT at all levels. They must be excellent
communicators and have a full understanding of business re-engineering and cost-benefit analysis.
Low level technician
High level manager
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 15
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Human resource and capacity building
Two perspectives are imperative:
development of long term strategies to increase training personnel to
support all processes of information industry - communications and
dissemination , generation and packaging and storage of information.
formal as well as continuing education to enable citizens absorb
information and therefore participate meaningfully in the information
age. It is generally accepted that information will be useless if the
capacity to use it among the citizenry is limited. Phenomenal growth of
South Korea was based on the increasingly widespread education among
the population particularly in tertiary education.
In both perspectives, Kenya needs to review and prepare a long-term
strategy
Content industry: Generating information
Local information resources
Each community is endowed with special information and knowledge
resources and should be assisted through a long-term policy to create
databases of local knowledge resources. These databases will provide useful
information for community and regional level planning. It is conceivable
that if communities are supported to establish such databases, invaluable
regional information will soon be available to national planners generated by
the local community. Presently, planning data for the rural areas is largely
unavailable
At the high end, our industrial and academic institutions produce
information that can be indicated by the number of patents filed. Between
1985-1995, no data was available of scientists and engineers in R&D citizens
however filed 15 patents.12 This is low; Egypt filed 504 in the same year.
Libraries
Library services provide an important link in the storage, processing and
dissemination of information and therefore play a significant role in the
evolution of the information society. To this end, Kenya has estimated 300
public library service outlets spread out unevenly across the country. Most
of the outlets have a range of material for general uses.
Digitalisation of the information is slowly changing the usage patterns of
traditional libraries in the information society. Kenya libraries will have to
review their roles in light of the changing technologies to be competitive in
the provision of information and be a player in the information society
As a start, KNLS has launched a well-detailed Internet site, which provides
extensive information on its activities – see www.knls.or.ke
12
World Development Report 1999/2000
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 16
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
African Virtual Library Initiative (AVL-I) is a national long-term initiative
to connect and place all African information content online to be accessed
over Internet in the next five years. AVL –I has plans to establish a model
community information centre in every provincial headquarters starting with
a Nairobi suburb.
Libraries however need to be supported to increase more outlets particularly
at the local level. Additionally, the community should be positioned to be a
community information centre. This provides interactivity with the
communities and provides an avenue for community to contribute to
information generation at the local level.
Cross cutting issues
Gender equity
This is an area of concern and needs to be addressed to promote gender
equity in the information society.
Accessibility to media In the present situation, women
Men Women have less access to media and
Radio (Daily) 81 58 therefore sources of
Television (weekly) 46 26
Newspapers 61 37
information. The method of
Source: Women and men in Kenya: Kenya information delivery should also
Gender Data Resource Centre be carefully selected. It is noted
that in the rural areas, the radio
is mans‟ domain and women have limited access to radio as a source of
information.
Youth as agents of change
Kenyan population is relatively young with 60% of the population below 20
years. This is the population expected to take leadership in the information
age. In setting strategies for development, this group is significant should be
taken into account. Introduction of ICTs in education curriculum is major
factor for preparation. Another entry point is through the over 2000
NGOs, with youth support training programmes.
Disabled
Disabled have special problems interfacing with ICTs and care should be
taken to ensure that information age technologies do not disadvantage them
further.
Setting an enabling environment for KIS
National Vision
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 17
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
While all parts of the ICT infrastructure are in place, the growth is not co-
ordinated and consequently, highly uneven particularly in the rural areas.
The need for a cohesive
Visions of Information Society
and all-inclusive co- Singapore IT2000 (1991) - Intelligent Island by the year 2000 -
ordinated development Create the first city of distinction in the tropics, of gracious living and
of information society cultured society
E-mail box to all including 8 old school children by 2002
cannot be All newspapers online by 2000
overemphasised. A Sweden - Swedish National Post Office to give every citizen from as
young as 6 years an e-mail account. Government would place information
broad vision directing kiosks at street corners to allow people access mail.
the development of Canada - create a network to give Canadians access to employment,
information society in educational, investment, entertainment, health care and wealth-creating
opportunities of the information age.
the country is imperative. Japan - Intellectually creative society for the 21st society.
This vision must be South Korea - --an improved quality of life and increased national
competitiveness
integrated with other South Africa – improve quality of life, .. Make South Africa future
socio-economic generation’s a knowledge based society and help create a national
development economy…. Establish a networked information community to empower
the way people work, live and play to make South Africa globally
programmes for impact. competitive
With 70% of the Kenya ---- ?
Summit Strategies
population in the rural
areas, such vision must include the special needs of this population.
Operational issues
To realise the broad vision, some components to constitute the framework
for achieving this vision to be incorporated are enumerated below.
Standards
Broad technical standards to apply in the acquisition of ICT, establishment
and maintenance of public databases, public information dissemination etc.
Human capital development
A long term systematic programme to develop human capital.
Data and information integrity
The new information economy is bringing in new challenges in the secrecy
of data, taxation on cross border e-commerce transactions, cross border
information flows. Pakistan and Malaysia are considering introducing laws
to adjudicate issues arising from activity on the Internet on e-commerce.
Industrial policy
Supply and acquisition of ICT, local manufacture, supportive taxation
regime, and incentives for investment in ICT
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 18
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Kenya Information Society for development: the applications
Kenya faces many challenges in its quest for development. Critical areas are
in the supply of quality education, health delivery, rural - urban migration
and most importantly to empower the citizen to be more productive in
wealth creation to provide a sustainable socio-economic growth.
Information society technologies, while not a panacea can play a significant
role in the route to development as cited in the following areas.
Job creation
ICTs are now providing a new opportunity to create new jobs based on
cheaper labour costs. With cheaper telecommunication costs, companies in
developed countries are shifting back-office business transactions to markets
with cheaper labour costs and thus a lower payroll cost. Swissair does its
revenue accounting in India to process one million transactions a month at
lower costs than in Switzerland and creating 100 direct jobs in India13. In
Ireland, US Companies are contracting back-office data entry jobs to Irish
based firms who utilise the local labour. This has extended to hotel booking
services, call centre operations etc
Kenya with its abundant cheaper labour can, with a focussed approach spur
a new growth industry and create jobs in such high technology areas like
software development. In India, software industry development under
contract with software houses in the US and Europe has recorded a 47%
CAGR between March 1993 and March 1994 and was accounting for 40%
of the technology exports in the country. With cheaper telecommunication
costs in future, British Airways is considering transferring reservation
requests after 6 PM to their US offices to avoid paying overtime in UK at
higher overtime costs14.
In Senegal, private companies are already exporting skills to French based
companies thereby creating jobs in the following business areas
architectural designs
cartoons for tv entertainment
digitising French court decisions
Kenya with abundant and highly skilled labour can tap this increasingly
lucrative business market.
Education
Both formal and continuing education are now greatly benefiting from ICT
by spreading benefits of specialised learning resources cheaply and
efficiently by overcoming geographical space. In South Africa, Ubuntu
Edunet is using satellite to distribute live professional courses to thousands
13
The Consequences of Current Telecommunications Trend for the competitiveness of Developing
Countries ; The World Bank
14
as above
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 19
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
of students in South Africa. In Canada, Schoolnet Programme is linking 16
000 schools delivering invaluable learning resources to the nation-wide
educational network.
Distance education using ICTs is being pioneered in Kenyan universities
under the African Virtual University project (AVU) but are invariably
affected by the communication infrastructure policy. In the AVU
programme, the interactivity is hampered by use of low bandwidth of leased
lines on the return leg.
The need for broadband networks for academic and research activities
cannot be over-emphasised. The challenge for Kenya is to foster the right
policy environment to build the necessary infrastructure for education.
Kenet – a project supported under the Leland Initiative is expected make a
significant impact through the provision of Internet connectivity to the
universities.
Attracting Foreign Direct investment
Countries are going to great lengths to build telecommunication
infrastructure to attract foreign direct investment in their economies.
Malaysia is investing US$5 Billion to develop the first phase of Multimedia
Super Corridor (MSC) to turn the country to an international centre for the
multimedia industry by attracting state-of-the-art multimedia companies to
invest in the MSC. In Finland, Helsinki is investing heavily in wide-band
telecommunication infrastructure as a major investment attraction due to
cheap communication costs.
A survey carried out by East African Association, shows that
telecommunication ranks highly as an essential infrastructure that affects
business operations adversely15. All respondents who are British based
private sector investors cite telecommunication infrastructure as affecting
their operations adversely. More than half (66 %) stated that the situation is
getting worse than the year before. This poor showing is going to influence
decisions on investments in future business expansion and future new
investments.
Concerted development of information infrastructure can greatly enhance
Kenyan competitiveness as an international investment destination and
reverse the declining trend.
Electronic Commerce
Commercial sector has rapidly adopted the benefits of e-commerce.
Applications like online banking are now available in Kenya. More
applications are being developed and will soon be common in the market
place.
15
The East African: June 2-8 1997 : It will take more than a budget to jump start Kenya
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 20
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
In developed countries, the applications are well established. In Singapore,
ships are cleared through customs while still at sea reducing the need for
expensive warehousing. In the large supermarkets in USA 90% of
merchandise does not enter warehouses but is shipped directly to the shop
floor by extensive use of Electronic Data Interchange. “In the US clothing
industry, inventories have been reduced by 60 per cent since 1985. Retail markdowns
have been reduced by up to 40 per cent, as the right goods are being ordered and excess
merchandise does not have to be marked down. In-stock positions have been improved by
up to 95 per cent, leading to an increase in sales of up to 30 per cent”.16 The reduced
operational cost has been transferred to the consumer through lower cost.
Appropriate infrastructure can contribute significantly to the
competitiveness of the commercial sector now being forced to compete
with global firms by trade liberalisation.
A survey17 carried out in Kenya in 1999, shows that Kenyan companies are
slowly taking up e-commerce in various business sectors. Kenyan companies
are active in tourism, the sale of artefacts, agro-business to the international
market. Similarly, there are companies engaged in importation for example
motor vehicles transferring efficiency benefits to Kenyans. In the services
sector, the leading daily newspaper The Daily Nation is pioneering on-line
publishing and with it online advertising reporting 200 000 page views per
day. Other areas include sale and rent of upmarket properties in Nairobi.
The companies are focusing on the international market to take advantage
of the prevalence and acceptance of e-commerce in developed countries.
Domestic e-commerce is however hampered by the lack of e-commerce
infrastructure and most importantly by the low awareness among business
and consumers. Equally important is the lack of a regulatory framework to
conduct the trade.
The critical problem is however the lack of online payment infrastructure.
Only multinational companies selling Kenyan products had incorporated
online payment in the their sites. This disadvantages Kenyan based
companies in e-trade
Based on the survey cited above and other considerations at a conference
held on May 17th 1999, and a National Task Force on E-commerce was
established. This body was charged with responsibility to co-ordinate the
development of e-commerce in terms of infrastructure, policy and legal
framework and awareness creation.
Delivery of government services
Government is the major single consumer and generator of information;
information that is a critical input to other economic processes in the
country. Adoption of the ICT trends will assist in building an efficient
16
Information Outlook 1997 OECD
17
E-commerce: The trends, the status, and the way forward for Kenya, Muriuki Mureithi Summit
Strategies and Francis Hook Telecom Forum Africa – May 1999
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 21
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
economy. The numerous administrative forms we file in Kenya – driving
licences, tax returns, voter registration, persons registration (Identity Cards)
etc which are all again re-keyed, can be filed directly and public documents
could be delivered over Internet. Sweden intends to provide e-mail boxes to
all citizens by 2002 and put information kiosks at street corners to enable
citizens‟ access information. South Africa postal service is piloting public
Internet kiosks to enable citizens‟ file or retrieve daily tasks with the
government.
Simple telecommunications availability has an immediate impact. A 1993
study in Uganda showed that 2 000 local government officials made a total
of 40 000 trips a year to handle administrative matters that could have been
dealt with by telephone or mail, if these services had been adequate. The
study concluded that such travel cost the country the equivalent of 250 years of government
staff time, valued at about US$600 00018.
The government is the single largest entity that consumes information,
processes massive information and generates just as much. Simple logic
shows the government would be the single largest beneficiary if it were to
embrace ICT to reduce operational cost and most importantly provide
efficient services to the citizens. A nod by the government would bring
down any perceived barriers and quickly bring the undecided corporate
sector. These two would generate and create content as to make information society in
Kenya and its benefits a viable reality.
Rural development
Poor infrastructure and low incomes in the rural areas are forcing urban
migration causing overcrowding. Better communication infrastructure can
improve the quality of the life by providing important marketing
information for farm produce and increase farm gate prices. A study
concluded that farmers in Sri Lanka could have stepped up their annual
earnings by 50% merely by having access to a telephone to check current
market prices for crops. Without that information, middlemen reap the profit.19
Tele–medicine and Tele-health
Telemedicine is defined as the use of telecommunications to provide medical
services using telecommunications equipment and technologies whereas
telehealth is the use of telecommunications to provide medical information
and services. With telemedicine and telehealth, doctors are being „wired‟ in
novel ways to benefit patients.
18
Choices July 1997 edition (UNDP quarterly Magazine)
19
Choices July 1997 edition (UNDP quarterly Magazine)
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 22
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
The practice of telemedicine may be as simple as two health professionals
discussing a case over the telephone or as sophisticated as using satellite
technology to broadcast a consultation between facilities in two countries
using videoconferencing equipment. The first is used daily by most health
professionals in developed countries, and the latter is used largely by the
military and some large medical centres and university medical centres in the
same advanced countries.
It is the practice of medicine somewhere in between these two extremes that
is pertinent to developing countries institutions. This is described below.
Two different kinds of technology make up most of the telemedicine
applications in use today.
- store and forward is used for transferring digital images from one location to
another. A digital image is taken using a digital camera, („stored‟) and then
sent („forwarded‟) to another location. This is typically used for non-
emergent situations, when a diagnosis or consultation may be made in the
next 24-48 hours and sent back.
- two-way interactive television (IATV), is used when a consultation between the
patient, primary care provider and specialist is necessary.
Videoconferencing equipment at both locations, typically an urban and a
rural location, allows a „real-time‟ consultation to take place. This means
that the patient does not need to travel to an urban area to see a specialist,
and in many cases, provides access to speciality care when none has been
available previously. Almost all specialities of medicine have been found to
be conducive to this kind of consultation including psychiatry, internal
medicine, rehabilitation, cardiology, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology
and many more.
Africa, and particularly sub- Saharan Africa and Kenya should not be left
behind with this technology. In fact, this technology helps solve transport,
distance, capability, capacity, and other problems in developing countries
than developed ones.
Strategy to evolve a Kenya Information Society
Activity plan
The following action plan, which has been applied in other parts of Africa,
is proposed
Baseline survey
Needs assessments
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 23
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Identify priorities
Identify and reconfirm opportunities for KIS
Determine timeframe
Preparation of Kenya Information Society strategy plan
Define role of stakeholders
Organise a validation workshop
Evaluate mechanisms
Sensitisation workshop
Create awareness and linkages
Policy implementation
Creation of implementation organs, and implementation teams
Establishment of mechanisms and procedures for implementation
Defining the stakeholders and assigning the roles
Kenya information society when thriving is a new phenomena and culture
of information sharing to reduce information gaps between various groups.
Consequently, in the preparation of the Kenya Information Society strategy
plans it is necessary to include all stakeholders in a broad participatory
process.
The following are the broad categories of stakeholders and their possible
roles ;-
Government
- develop policies and regulatory framework with other stakeholders to
support implementation of KIS
- promote KIS and its technologies within government
- liase with other nations and international agencies to ensure co-
ordination with trading partners among others.
Private sector
- Seize and build on the new opportunities provided or arise from KIS. It
is noted that most of the information industry is in this category.
Non government organisations
- Empower and provide a link to the rural communities ordinarily
disconnected by the new technologies. This may also include research and
academic institutions.
Media
Create awareness among the population and stakeholders
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 24
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Catalysing the process:
Positioning the KIS initiative
Where should the KIS initiative be positioned within the governance
structure of Kenya? In deciding this issue, it is necessary to consider:
- if a government institution, this is likely to be viewed like any another
parastatal . This is a position that the government is moving away from.
Indeed the private sector role which is critical may be sidelined
- if a private sector institution, KIS initiative suffers from a lack of
authority
In many countries where the Information Society has taken off, the initiative
has been initiated as a personal commitment at the highest levels of
government. A select team positioned at this level is able to marshal all the
necessary authority and reach as well as resources to drive information
society initiatives. The life of such a team unfortunately expires if the
commitment by top leadership changes. In Egypt, Information Decision
Support Centre (IDSC) a cabinet organ is responsible for introducing and
widely diffusing cheap access to the internet as well as development of
Egypt Information Superhighway. In US, the information society issues are
a White House issue. In South Africa and Rwanda, this is a pet project of
the sitting Vice President.
In designing the positioning of Kenya Information Society Initiative, it is
imperative that it be positioned at the highest level possible.
Bringing it all together: Positioning BICA (Kenya)
BICA (Kenya) in its time has curved a niche in the quest for KIS and should
continue playing this role in future in consultation with all stakeholders
Specific areas include
- promote the evolution of KIS
- create awareness of the role of BICA(Kenya) as a co-ordinating organ for
information society programmes.
- Establish and maintain a bridging mechanism with the government as a
major stakeholder in the evolution of Information Society
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 25
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Short-term projects for implementation by BICA (Kenya)
Telecentres
Rationale
As noted elsewhere in this paper, information infrastructure is highly
inadequate – telephone penetration 1%, newspaper circulation 1% of the
population, radio 21%, and consequently majority of the population do not
have access of means on information access. Telecentre is a shared
information and communication service facility to improve access to
information and communication services in rural and isolated areas as well
as in deprived urban areas. The telecentre is intended to be flexible,
inexpensive to user, user-friendly and a source of learning opportunities. It
will provide telecommunication facilities, user support and training for the
majority of the population of a rural community who cannot afford such
facilities on an individual basis and/or do not have the skills to use such
tools.
Purpose
Specifically, telecentres will provide the following services:
communication facilities - public telephone, fax services,
Local information gathering
Access to data networks (e.g. Internet) for e-mail, access to electronic
libraries and databases if needed,
Government and community information,
training and essential community services such as telemedicine, e-
commerce etc
The telecentres will be equipped with information and communication
infrastructure of varying sophistication and complexity that enable them to
deliver combinations of different services to the community that they
service. The infrastructure includes but is not limited to:
postal facilities
library facilities
The ownership of the telecentres will reside on the communities amongst
whom the telecentre is located. In principle, telecentres will be funded by a
service fee set on cost recovery basis.
Functions of the telecentres
Enhance access or information points
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 26
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Working with communities, government agencies can use the telecentres
as outlets of public services and make savings in the delivery of, for
example, education and healthcare to reach rural and remote areas.
Be a point of local information resource sharing for local knowledge
Be a centre of technology incubation for the use and applications and
exploiting of the opportunities in the information age
Provide the community with information or the means to access
information that facilitates participatory decision-making and hopefully
contribute to reducing poverty, and to develop indigenous capacity to
participate in democratic processes as active producers of culture and
products rather than being passive consumers.
Strategy
BICA (Kenya) intends to work with other interested parties to build
telecentres across the country.
Policy development
BICA (Kenya) has committed itself to work with the government and all
stakeholders to establish a viable environment for the evolution of KIS.
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 27
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Annexes
Annex 1: Guidelines for the development of a national information and
communication infrastructure (NICI)
1 Define vision, mission, strategic objectives, scope.
2 Define the institutional framework.
3 Define the regulatory framework.
4 Define the information technology business sector.
5 Define the development priorities (five-year plan, cabinet directions, etc.).
6 Define the economic and business sectors as well as the market trends.
7 Define education and science and technology infrastructure.
8 Define needs and priorities for information, decision support, networking,
information services, etc.
9 Define the data/information and decision support agencies, actors, etc., at the
different levels: national, local.
10 Define the technology infrastructure.
11 Identify, formulate and develop programmes and projects.
12 Formulate strategies for development of NICIs.
13 Develop a detailed action plan, time schedule, priorities and budget.
14 Determine the implementation agencies in charge.
15 Solicit the commitment of policy makers, industry leaders, etc.
16 Formulate the public awareness campaign.
17 Implementation.
Source: AISI: an action framework to build Africa’s Information and Communication
Infrastructure – ECA 1996
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 28
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Annex 2: Methods of Information Acquisition, Sharing and Use
Target Method Purpose Frequency Frequency
Group (locally) (Outside)
LC, NGO, Consultation; meeting; Decision making; frequentl regularly
Business letter writing; Radio planning; y
people, announcements; Reports information sharing;
farmers reporting
Teachers Lectures, Teaching, Imparting and frequentl rarely
reading; discussion; sharing knowledge, y
teaching
Teacher Teaching, lecturing, Impart, share frequentl frequently
educators discussion. knowledge, training y
Women Meetings; face to face Information frequentl rarely
discussion; seminars sharing; decision y
making;
training/learning;
Students Lectures; discussion Acquisition and Frequentl rarely
letter writing; debates; sharing of y
knowledge
Medical Lecture; meetings; Planning; decision frequentl frequently
and health seminars; letter; reports; making; training, y
radio calls; discussions; information and
reading; knowledge sharing;
advisory services
Farmers Consultation, reading; Solve agricultural frequentl frequently
learning; discussion; and farming y
meetings problems; sharing
or learning new
practices and
technologies;
Source: Information and learning needs survey: Nakaseke sub-County Uganda by
John Kakaire Menya April 1998
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 29
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Annex 3: Information Infrastructure Indicators
1999 (unless otherwise indicated)
Telephones connected 290 000
Waiting list 120000
% of rural phones 14
Teledensity rural % 0.14
Companies licensed to support telecom 242
Companies in capital city (%) 85
Targets (national teledensity) 5(2015)
Targets (rural teledensity) 1(2015)
Cellular phones 12 000
Waiting time for telephone (yr.) 6.2
Fixed line operators NTO – 1
RTOs – 8 (2000)
Licensed Paging companies 21
Licensed cellular providers 2
Licensed broadcasters 24
Daily newspaper circulation 240 000
Radio 6 000 000
Tvs 600 000
Public library outlets 300 (est.)
Volumes held No data
PC Units installed 200 000
ICT companies (IT) 250
Estimated annual % growth of IT (1998) 4
No of ISPs 24
Users (est.) 30 000
Internet user-density/1000 people 1
Hosts 692
Monthly tariff for an full internet account(US$) 125
Duty on IT(%) 5
VAT on IT (%) 16
Rural electrification % of total of households 8
Sources; CCK, TkL, GOK, ISPs, Summit Strategies
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 30
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Annex 4: Selected initiatives exploiting IS technologies
Name of Promoter Theme Project objective Project description
Initiative
African Virtual Kenyatta Education To build world-class degree programs that A first-of-its-kind interactive-instructional telecommunications network
University University/ support economic development by educating and established to serve the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. When implemented,
World Bank training world-class scientists, technicians, the AVU project, the subject of ongoing feasibility studies, will be the first
engineers, business managers, health care attempt to use , on a grand scale, the power of information technologies to deal
providers, and other professionals with the challenge of bringing to the market a large number of well-trained
African scientists, technicians, engineers, business managers and employees.
AVU will tap the potential offered by the new technologies to overcome the
financial, physical and informational barriers that prevent increased access to
high quality higher education in SSA. The strength of the organisation will lie in
its ability to adapt to the demands of the marketplace
Centre for Export Commerce To create a national trade information hub with Project is co-ordinated by PriceWaterhouse Coopers to run for a period of
Business Promotion & Trade other trade organisations as a spoke. three-years . At the completion of the project, district centres will be able to
Information in Council dial into the database. CEBIK would be a hub with other trade organisations
Kenya e.g. KNCCI, KAM, who would in turn generate data and feed the same into
(CEBIK) CEBIK. The centre will be linked to international sources of trade information.
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 31
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Name of Promoter Theme Project objective Project description
Initiative
Trade Kenya National Commerce To facilitate the development of a modern and Trade related information
Information Chamber of & Trade efficient Trade Information Service centre which Business opportunities
Service Commerce and will link up trade centres from other provinces of Company information
Industry Kenya to one central unit and to develop an Country/market information
Economic Data Bank
To promote international and national trade as an Node network
essential part of economic growth by: Ten nodes would be established in all provincial headquarters and certain
- gathering trade information into an major towns
international and domestic trade information The towns are;
centre Central province Nyeri and Thika
- disseminating collected information to the Nairobi Nairobi
KNCCI members Rift Valley Eldoret and Nakuru ( Kericho)
- becoming a reference centre for investors Coast Mombasa (Malindi)
and business in Kenya and those coming from Nyanza Kisumu and Kisii
other countries Eastern Machakos, Embu. (Meru)
Develop communications with the national In each point a computer/printer would be provided as well as connection to
branch offices at provincial level by internet
telecommunications networking and connecting Each branch would manage it own node.
the Kenya rural business to electronic trade
opportunities
Develop an Economic Data Bank to contain a
separate file on General Demographics and a
reference file for all sources of information in the
Bank. The objective for developing the EDB is
to expand the KNCCI's capacity to respond to
economic issues and provide its members with a
source of national economic data.
The project is sponsored by UNDP
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 32
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Name of Promoter Theme Project objective Project description
Initiative
Information Library Commerce Establish and build information resources for
Kiosks Information & Trade the small and medium scale enterprises and then
Support Service build information distribution points to be
known as information kiosks
Multi purpose Magerete Rural A self-development project near Kibwezi. To include a community radio station
telecentre(MAC Women‟s group developme
OMEPP) nt
E-commerce Media Street Commerce Create a viable e-commerce industry in Kenya Has established a web site for sale of a wide range of Kenyan products from
& Trade beer, flowers, artefacts etc. The company also assists in the purchase of
products over the internet for Kenya clients.
The company has established a partnership with DHL, Securicor and Mobil
petrol stations for delivering over courier both locally and internationally and
deposit at the nearest petrol stations.
By networking a community of small businesses, we can communicate with
them directly.
Telemedicine/t International Health 1) To make speciality care more accessible; By finding out what they buy, and storing that information in become a major
In not too distant a future, telemedicine and telehealth would a database, we
elehealth Centre for 2) Provide continuing education for isolated or industry within the health power of thousands of small entrepeneurs. dream
can group the purchasing care field. However, currently this is a grant
Health rural health practitioners who may not be that must not be allowed to evaporate as this project is still hampered by many
Interventions able to leave a rural practice for long periods barriers. The barriersbuying power and credit provided by PRIDE, they high
With their grouped includes the absence of telephone lines, electricity,
and Research in of training; cost of the necessary equipment and current lack of legal framework.
become an enconomic force
Africa 3) There is possibility that the cost of medical
[ICHIRA] care may go down for those in remote rural By finding more about the nature of their business, we can communicate with
areas. them using database driven personalised newsletters which carry features,
advice and adverts which are very highly targeted indeed.
PRIDE AFRICA now provides infomation and credit, and thus liberates the
small entrepreneur.
Using e-mail as a means of collecting information, features and advertising,
DrumBeat will be able to gather its content from a wide geographic region.
What is more remarkable however, is the manner by which DrumBeat can be
distributed. Using database driven technology, we can produce different
versions of DrumBeat with content that depends on both the recipient, and
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 the community in which the recipient resides. What is even more exciting, is 33
that the community can be determined by location, business interests or even
gender.
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Name of Promoter Theme Project objective Project description
Initiative
Universal Telkom Kenya Internet Jambonet to be used for the provision of
service Ltd universal service
Commercialisati Telkom Kenya Telecommu The project involves the field trail of two rural The systems which will serve a minimum of 100 customer lines during the trial
on of rural Ltd nications telecommunications systems and the formulation period will be based on wireless access technologies and be required to meet
telecommunicat of key elements in the Kenya government's technical and financial criteria which is pre-set. One of the conditions is that
ions liberalisation for the rural telecommunications there must be local ownership of no less than 70% and demonstrate the ability
market. This includes the establishment of to mobilise adequate resources to successfully carry out the project.
private sector operating licenses and franchises The project is to be based in Isinya of Kajiado district and Kyumbi of
for the provision of rural telephone service. The Machakos district
field trial is expected to last six months
Industrial & Kenya Industry Strengthen national capacities and capabilities of INTIB anticipates to strengthen the capability of the NFP in the following
Technological Industrial the National Focal Point at KIRDI in acquiring, ways
Information Research processing and delivering useful industrial, - upgrading skills of information specialities
Bank (INTIB) Development investment and technological information using - provision of hardware and software
Institute the Information Resource Management System ( - networking of industrial information service providers
IRMS) and the internet. The former is a package - sensitisation and awareness of information users at different levels
developed by UNIDO for data processing and - providing access to reliable investment and technology information resources
dissemination
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 34
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Name of Promoter Theme Project objective Project description
Initiative
Community Mount Kenya Environme Two projects are currently under development:
Development Youth nt MKYDA aims at providing a bridging
Initiative Development mechanism between youth organisations / 1.„Training and Technology transfer project on application of Biotechnology
Association groups operating in the mount Kenya region, and for Sustainable agricultural development”
(MKYDA) between them and external stakeholders Under this project, efforts will focus on the promotion of Bio-organic fertiliser
(government policy-makers, private and public production and mushroom growing as appropriate bio-conversion
sector researchers, commercial sector, NGO technologies for the effective utilisation of abundant organic waste materials
sector). Apart from attempting to promote and (agricultural and industrial).
replicate a running project known as Thegu
Environment Youth Group (TEYG) model of 2. “Social applications of Information Technologies project”
youth-led This will build on the experience of TEYGs outreach programme to schools.
Community development initiatives, MKYDA The project aims to introduce application of information technologies (digital)
will also promote activities aiming to further in solving local development problems, in addition to printed, tape and video
environment and development objectives in the technologies. The project will focus on the development of “community
mount Kenya region. information centres” which will be the
hubs of information from, into and out of the surrounding community.
Source; Summit Strategies
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 35
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Annex 5: Further reading
African Information Society Initiative (AISI): An Economic Commission for
Action Framework to Build Africa‟s Information and Africa: Addis Ababa Ethiopia
Communication Infrastructure 30th August 1996
Committed to helping make e-commerce truly IICD , Netherlands
“borderless”
Democratising access to The Information Society: United Nations Economic
Theme Paper African Development Forum Commission for Africa,
September, 1999
Empowering Communities in The Information Helderfontein Estates, Glen
Society: Conference Proceedings Ferness, Fourways, south Africa
15-17 May 1996
Facing the new millennium: E-commerce for Survival Prepared by Muriuki Mureithi :
: Symposium Proceedings Report Summit Strategies: May 17th
1999
Facing the new millennium: E-commerce for Prepared by: Muriuki Mureithi
survival: Speakers‟ Papers Summit Strategies May 99
Gender Disaggregated Statistics and Facts : Women Prepared by: the Kenya Gender
and Men in Kenya Data Resource Centre/Family
Support Institute Project, 1999
Globalisation and the Information Economy: United Nations Economic
Challenges and Opportunities for Africa: theme Commission for Africa,
Paper African Development Forum September, 1999
Information and Communication Technologies for United Nations Economic
Improved Governance in Africa: Theme Paper Commission for Africa,
African Development Forum September, 1999
Information and Telecommunication Technologies: IDRC: September 1996
The Impact of Their Adoption on Small and
Medium-Sized Enterprises
Liberalising Telecommunications: IEA Occasional IEA: November 1999
Paper Series
Our Problems Our solutions : an economic and Compiled By: the Institute of
Public Policy Agenda for Kenya Economic Affairs, 1998
Policies and Strategies for Accelerating Africa‟s United Nations economic
Information Infrastructure Development: Theme commission for Africa,
Paper September, 1999
Project on Women and Governance and Information Family Support Institute ,
and Communication Technologies (ICTs) January, 1999
Rural Community Information Services: A Literature United Nations Educational
review and guidelines for developing services Scientific and Cultural
Organisation: Paris, 1990
The Importance for sustainable Development : ICTs IICD 1998 ,Netherlands
in Developing Countries, Booklet 1
The Process of Developing National Information United Nations economic
and Communications Infrastructure (NICI) in Africa Commission for Africa
September, 1999
Information Society and Development: The role of European Union Mar 98
the European Union. Conference paper to the World
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 36
Towards the realisation of Kenya Information Society: the status, the trends and a strategy for development
Telecommunications development Conference
Valetta Malta.
World Telecommunication Development Report: ITU: 1995
Information Infrastructures World
Telecommunication Indicators
Muriuki Mureithi Summit Strategies Feb 2000 37