It is difficult to find the words ICT and politician within the same sentence. The two words have had very little in common in the Kenyan context.
Yet, for ICT to have any meaningful impact on society, it must begin to get intimate with politicians. Getting Kenyan politicians genuinely interested in information technology has continued to be a challenge. It is probably the biggest obstacle towards achieving the full potential of ICT within our society. Why it is important for politicians to understand and embrace communication technology can be best appreciated after looking at the missed and mishandled digital opportunities within the sector - courtesy of both political interference and political inertia. The Kenyan politician has a notorious track record of engaging in ICT matters when his input is least required and disengaging when most required.
The recent dismissal of the Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) Board may have been a quickly forgotten case in Kenya but it continues to serve as a global case study on why not to invest in the telecommunication sector in Africa. The intriguing circumstances surrounding the roll out of the Econet Wireless network and the stalled process of getting a Second National Operator have thinly veiled political innuendos behind them.
Whenever positive political engagement is required within the ICT sector, it is hardly there. And it is not about engaging in ritualistic, PR photo-sessions such as ministers launching websites or opening ICT seminars. It is about a systematic and deliberate effort to promote ICT as a way out of the socio-economic challenges facing Africa. The fact that Kenya is still talking about enacting an ICT policy, six years after Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania have done so, is just one of the embarrassing manifestations of what political inertia can do to such an important sector.
The private sector, civil society and NGOs can only promote ICT to a very limited extent. Government, through political leadership, has the obligation and responsibility to spearhead the process. Governments the world over are by far the largest buyers and consumers of ICT goods and services. By adopting ICTs on a national scale, the impact can be phenomenal, both in terms of improved public service delivery and the level of capital infused into the local economy.
But how do we get the politician and by extension the government to start walking the ICT walk? Various approaches have been tried with little or no success. Initially, it was thought that the previous government structure that split ICT functions across several ministries was the problem. This was resolved in last year's Cabinet reshuffle that saw the creation of the Ministry of Information and Communication. This neatly put most ICT functions together. However, it failed to yield sufficient impetus towards ICT integration within the government.
An e-Government secretariat had earlier been constituted towards the same objective but beyond publishing an elaborate strategic paper and engaging world-class professionals, nothing tangible seems to be happening on the ground. ICT implementations require quick wins in order to fuel and sustain the momentum necessary for realisation of longer-term benefits. If the quick wins are absent, the whole process collapses due to the simple fact that there are more ICT skeptics than there are evangelists.
The Ninth Parliament boasts the largest percentage of professionals, yet none of them has come out as an ICT champion or e-leader. All Members of Parliament need not be computer literate to guarantee the desired political intervention.
What we need is one or two enthusiasts who believe and appreciate the momentous implications of adopting ICT in the day-to-day operations of governance and public service. The enthusiasts can then take up the important challenge of driving the dream of leap-frogging the Kenyan economy into 21st Century.
Without this, we shall never walk the walk of ICT in governance in Kenya. We face the risk of continuing to talk about, but never implementing national ICT policies and strategies five years from today.
Autor: John Walu
Quelle: AllAfrica, 01.05.2005
