WHAT’S UP WITH THE TANDAA CONFERENCE? THE TRUTH ABOUT WHERE THE GOVERNMENT OF KENYA SITS IN CYBERSPACE.
Nov 13th, 2008 by Mars Group Kenya
WHAT’S UP WITH THE TANDAA CONFERENCE? THE TRUTH ABOUT WHERE THE GOVERNMENT OF KENYA SITS IN CYBERSPACE.
Today, the Business Daily has a full 2-page colour supplement which announces that:
The Kenya ICT Board will give a detailed description on the $4 million grant that will be made available to support Local Content Development in Kenya at Tandaa’O8. As part of its Transparency and Communications Infrastructure Project (TCIP) funded programme, the Board will invest US$4 million to support content development and generation in Kenya. The grant facility comprises two components.
One component of this grant will fund the Government-related content development and the other private sector applications. Government related content will be financed through a US$2.5 million facility, while private sector applications will be financed to the tune of up to US$1.5 million.
Grant applications will be invited via advertisements in the local dailies. The requested grant proposal for Government content development will be three-fold: developing specific content and applications; innovative new content and applications; urban and rural community based applications. For the private sector, the facility will target the development of at lest 15 new applications. The grant will cover the expenses for service and content development, licensing fees, advocacy and awareness building campaigns.
The entire grant facility will be managed by Kenya ICT Board.
A grants committee has already been appointed with the overall responsibility of approving the grant applications based on the prior review by an independent consultant.
The supplement heralds, Friday, 14th November 2008, when the government appointed Kenya ICT Board and the Ministry of Information host a one-day conference in Nairobi on local content for the Internet – and I understand to launch a National Local Content Strategy for Kenya. I hear the 4 million dollars is World Bank money – and I want part of it.
I am a large local content generator and run a Kenyan governance and transparency webportal with 19 thematic sub-domains containing over 1 and a half million terabytes of local content including digitized government and official reports on the national budget, government, state corporations and good governance. The site also features original multi-media resources including online news content generated by a team of 17 Kenyans all below the age of 30. This team has registered a number of achievements and gained recognition for its work in popularizing evidence-based-bottom-up-advocacy approaches. In its first year of operation it got over 20 million hits, registered over 7,000 subscribers and webcast live international events including the November 5th election victory of Barack Obama from the US Ambassador’s Residence from http://marstv.marsgroupkenya.org .The site is regularly cited as an authority by local and international media and was recognized as a new media exemplar by www.opendemocracy.net.
So I was very interested in learning more about this conference and how my organization could benefit from it – let’s be honest I had heard there is a pot of money (USD 4 million available to local content generators) and that this conference has something to do with it. The newspapers carried a full page advertisement which blurbed excitedly that Tandaa.08 (the conference identity) was all about “Telling our story … the Kenyan story.” Not wanting to be hypercritical about a government effort to advance qualitative use of the internet I ignored the fact that among the listed speakers there are few who can claim to be actual players in the generation of local content for the internet. One is actually infamous for suppressing local content, so forgive the following rant – it will only last a paragraph.
The very first speaker listed is Dr. Bitange Ndemo Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Information in the GOK. He is infamous for blacking out live radio and television broadcasts as soon as the Electoral Commission of Kenya announced President Kibaki’s reelection on December 30th 2008 – an action which contributed greatly to the loss of 1,133 lives and the dislocation and brutalization of hundreds of thousands of Kenyans. His personal responsibility was remarked upon by the Waki Commission of Inquiry on Post Election Violence at page 383 thus: “A ban on live media broadcasts may well have had negative unintended results in terms of security issues. Many citizens determined this act amounted to a further infringement of their rights, indicated that the government had something to hide and as a result heightened tensions that were already running at very high levels. The Attorney General in fact testified that in his view the ban was not legal.” Dr. Ndemo had by his own admission published the following illegal order:
“Pursuant to section 88 the Kenya Communications Act ,1988, I am directed by the Minister of Internal Security, Hon. John Michuki, that in the interest of public safety and tranquility, that I order the immediate suspension of live broadcast until further notice” A statement signed by Bitange Ndemo, the Information and Broadcasting PS. The Standard, Monday December 31 2008.
Regardless, Dr. Ndemo is the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry responsible for Internet Content policy and it is not for me to decide whether or not he keeps his job. The point I’m trying to make is that the List of Speakers for this important conference is troubling and uninspiring: Where are the real content generators? Why are BPO call centres at the forefront; what are radio magnates going to tell those of us on the internet that we don’t know? Come on!
My doubts notwithstanding I decided to browse the advertised conference website www.tandaa.co.ke to see if I could do some background reading before I decided whether or not to spend a whole day at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre; or whether it would be possible to get as much information on the proposed new content strategy online. My logic being that physical presence is unnecessary in this day and age especially when we are talking about the internet and possibly the event would be webcast. What I found was even more disturbing than the print advert.
Looking at Tandaa.Co.Ke it struck me that there was very little information about what looks to be a major event for the Kenya ICT Board – whose CEO is an old friend and college dorm-mate of mine, Paul Kukubo. The first odd thing that struck me is the stated Objective of the Tandaa Conference:
The screenshot contains the following information
Tandaa ’08 is organised under the following Kenya ICT Board strategic objective: “To develop and promote competitive ICT industries in Kenya” The Kenya ICT Board invites Microsoft to be the key sponsor and partner of Tandaa 08. As a key sponsor of Tandaa08, you will achieve the following objectives:
• Excite participants on the emerging opportunities that are developing in the field of content development
• Sensitize participants of the ways that content works with the other existing ICT initiatives in the support of content development entrepreneurship
• The Kenya ICT Board will launch the Kenya Content Strategy
It appears that the objective of the Kenya Content Conference is to attract key sponsors. On this point – Enough said (hmm…Microsoft?)
Well, sometimes new websites contain “place-mark” content so I ignored the objectives page and moved on. Could I find a draft of the local content strategy about which so much was being said? No I couldn’t. There isn’t a copy of the draft content strategy that is to be launched on Friday.
There is a registration form that runs off Wordpress and seems to sign you up to a blog. But unfortunately, there is little evidence of what Kenya’s ICT Board has identified as merit-worthy local content – no slur on the stock pundits whose flash movies occupy pride of place on the Tandaa.08 homepage, but personal opinion on what’s going to go up or down at the discredited Nairobi Stock Exchange doesn’t cut it for me as an example of the best local content on offer. Where were the Ushahidi’s and skunkworks? Where are the denizens of kenyaUnlimited, kenyaImagine, mzalendo , African Path and KENGO? Where, in short are the people who are already online and generating Kenyan content? Nowhere – it seems. Ditto my colleagues at www.marsgroupkenya.org
Piqued I decided to investigate and research this whole shebang and to tell Kenyans a story they may never have heard about the Government of Kenya and its internet presence.
The conference website is called Tandaa (I think Swahili for network) A Whois check at KENIC reveals the following information about the website:
domain: TANDAA.CO.KE
owner: Kenya ICT Board
ownerid: KE-KIBO4-KENIC
nserver: NS1.BLUEHOST.COM
nserver: NS2.BLUEHOST.COM
created: 20081008 #13995
changed: 20081021
expiry: 20091008
Blue Host dot Com? Why would a Kenya Government Local Content Initiative be hosted on Blue Host (and only for 1 year) I wondered – isn’t it one of those cheap webhosting companies – is it dignified for the GOK to be on something as generic as Blue Host? And we are talking about a USD 4 million grant?
Moving on, I pondered, are there any other Government Agencies hosted on Blue Host? What I found was far worse than I could possibly have imagined. The Government of Kenya who should be the greatest provider of local content is housed almost 99% on foreign owned servers – albeit less well known that Blue Host. Among these are:
The French owned Telkom Hazina.Treasury.Go.Ke (used to be ours – but was sold just before the election)
Something called Puck.Nether.Net – which sits on something called Deathstar.Org
Very interesting indeed. Both the host of the Kenya Local Content Conference and the Government of Kenya have for whatever reason chosen to place their content on servers which are not Kenyan owned. What a vote of confidence!
Anyway back to the Local Content Conference at Kenyatta International Conference Centre. I may still go to Tandaa’08 because only then will I get any information about the World Bank cash on offer. But I am not optimistic that the hosts know where they want to go – or put another way I’m not clear what they are trying to do. There is precious little content on their website.
Mwalimu Mati
Mars Group Kenya
Let us be fair, the perception by many who are sympathetic to and are in the government is that a section of the media and indeed some groups in the ICT industry have basically engaged in criticising the government without offering new insights or new vision for the country’s direction.
I am of the opinion that there are many in the government that would have welcomed informed ideas about new vision and new directions for the country after all it has gone through since 2002.
Isn’t it embarassing, for instance, that the Mars Group had to operate from the United States Ambassador’s residence to cover a monumentally historic moment marking the election of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States of America?
If those in the government are so ignorant as to have BlueHost.com hosting government’s websites (I have been a customer of BlueHost.com myself), then the ICT industry in Kenya shares the blame.
I would urge Marsgroup and others in the ICT industry in Kenya to begin social networking with those in the government in order to bring about changes in our people’s mental models. Changing mental models is an uphill task especially when generational hurdles are part of the problem. It will take time – but that is no reason to give up the effort. I would like to be optimistic about Kenya.
Dr. Daniel C. Macaria
Mati,
Can you print this and hand it over to the shadow minister for Information tech.-Those who read your insightful post are the few marginalised and angry Kenyans like the bloggers you cited above. So to achieve maximum impact, do it old school-send this to question time in parliament. Believe me, very few of the busy bodies in Kenya will understand the full consequences of hosting government data in 3rd rate servers where my blog happens to be hosted. You know what? I pay 9 dollars a month! So for a 4 million dollar project to be hosted here, it is one of those jokes that we have come to take as normal.
Know what, if you check the expenditure, you might be shocked to find that the accounts read=hosting fees ksh 2 million a year!!!!
You hit the nail on the head there, Mwalimu. I agree with you. I would like to voice my opinions to add to what you have said. The Government of Kenya is staffed with people who think of technology in the sense of stuff “others” should be using and not them. I think any bid to infuse technology into the workings of the government and its branches is met with resistance. Why? People don’t want transparency. Remember the port system?? Then there was the bid to give the government and it’s various arms websites. By some deal I do not understand a local company was picked to advice and develop the websites. A company whose main business is not even web development. The result is the hardly secure poorly designed and generally unhelpful government websites we have today. It will take real hard pushing to get the government to understand that locals can develop water proof systems which will save everyone time, money and headaches. A whole heap of stuff that you can do on the web takes people a days, weeks or even months to get done at government offices. What I see in this latest move is just a scam to get some people quick money. Whoever tyhinks otherwise might be new to this country we love that has been taken over by mercenaries. Those guys over here develop local content??? OK. Cool. I think I might have to revisit my English teacher to get a proper definition of content because I think if they are right then my English teacher was wrong. As for hosting the sites outside Kenya.. well… that shows how misguided the the government is as far as ICT’s concerned. Get some hackers into these offices and get some stuff done, GOK.
[from kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke]
Interesting… The Website for Tandaa http://www.tandaa.co.ke has been designed and developed by some of our local developers on their own time and resources as part of providing a platform for dialogue for the emerging content development community.
The ICT Board is very grateful. If there is a local company willing to provide free web hosting supporting all the features we shall eventually require for this particular website, we will gladly welcome the gesture.
Your sincerely
Paul Kukubo
CEO Kenya ICT Board
Mr. Kukubo. You are a public servant and should be accountable. Are you satisfied that your organisation is setting an example for your colleagues in Government – would you buy your own explanation? Here is the KENIC whois in full for your conference website “designed and developed by some of our local developers on their own time and resources as part of providing a platform for dialogue for the emerging content development community” –
as of today – 2008-11-14 10:01:52 (EAT +03:00)
domain: TANDAA.CO.KE
owner: Kenya ICT Board
ownerid: KE-KIBO4-KENIC
responsible: Al Kags
address: CCK Compound, Waiyaki Way, 27150,
address: 00100 – NAIROBI –
country: KE
phone: +254 20 2089061 []
owner-c: PHN
admin-c: PHN
tech-c: PHN
billing-c: PHN
nserver: NS1.BLUEHOST.COM
nsstat: 20081112 AA
nslastaa: 20081112
nserver: NS2.BLUEHOST.COM
nsstat: 20081112 AA
nslastaa: 20081112
created: 20081008 #13995
changed: 20081021
expiry: 20091008
status: published
ke-nic-hdl: PHN
person: Intrepid Data Systems
e-mail: billing@INTREPIDKENYA.COM
address: 1st Floor, Vinodeep Towers, Baricho Road, Nairobi, 20790,
address: 00202 – NAIROBI –
country: KE
phone: +254 20) 6752655 []
created: 20060623
changed: 20080915
Friday, 05 December 2008: The ICT Board recently held the first Kenya content conference, Tandaa 2008, to discuss the creation of local online content. I felt that in several ways, the conference fell short of its potential – and as an industry, ICT has enormous potential to nudge Kenya along in economic diversification and the creation of dynamic new industries. (A caveat first: I only attended the first half of the conference.)
Online, anything goes. The possibilities are endless. But it’s a different trying to make a mark – or, on a commercial level, run an online enterprise. In the conference, ‘content’ was the all-purpose catchword, but for the rapid developments in the online world and the exponential growth in content of all kinds, this seemed just too vague. The conference structure stopped short of focusing the sessions on categories of content that could then be discussed with their specific challenges, leaving me with a feeling of ‘online anything’.
Obviously the media are amongst the most important creators and distributors of online content, as presentations by Capital Group and the Nation Media Group showed. Those, however, are the big and established groups who have a long track record in offline production. Revenue models, especially for smaller, new and niche publications, would have deserved more analysis. Salim Amin has launched A24 Media a few months ago as an online content sales platform for journalistic content from across the continent that pledges to give more revenues to their contributors. And ironically, media owners’ serious concerns over the ICT Bill, coming from the same ministry that backed the Tandaa conference, did not receive enough attention. Tourism was mentioned frequently, and it would have been useful to discuss e.g. companies like Southern Africa Direct TV who had representatives in Nairobi twice recently looking for digital content to market Kenya and East Africa as a travel destination, and have a platform that can give a genuine boost not just to tourism, but also to media companies and anyone else who creates content. Retail and sales have long used an online presence to transact business, but payment platforms are still an obstacle in Kenya.
The bottomline for me: No, I don’t think that sending un- or underemployed youths through villages collecting proverbs, photographs or any other items will be a solution to Kenya’s youth unemployment rates, nor will it push Kenya’s online content creation to the next level. We already know that everyone and their pet fish can go online – it’s professionalism that’s lacking (and that’s by no means a Kenyan issue – it’s a global concern).It was up to Joseph Mucheru from Google East Africa, several sessions into the morning, to mention the key fact that for a commercially successful venture, you need a business plan, i.e. you need to think about your business first. He touched on different ownership and revenue models, and this could and should have probably been the underlying structure for the conference.
If the conference was focused on budding online entrepreneurs – which was not entirely clear to me, and I think this was one of the problems –, this would have provided a great opening to then hold smaller interactive sessions to teach them about business planning, marketing, revenue generation, the specifics of content best practices in their industry. A website is your showroom, but what goes on behind the scenes?
Of course not every online venture has to be for-profit. Two of the more exciting and popular ventures focusing on information for the public good have been left out: Shortly after the conference, Ushahidi, a ‘crowdsourcing’ platform to collect information in crisis situations, has been featured in Forbes magazine and would have an interesting lesson about how they mobilized their programmers, and how they raised funding. The Mars Group website, a more established organisation, attracts a large number of hits for its information on governance in Kenya.
I also feel that the ICT Board itself could perhaps stop a moment to think about its own content: By their own admission, their official website was very outdated. Perhaps confusing for an investor – or anyone who seeks to understand what the ICT Board is trying to do in Kenya – they then added a new website for the Tandaa conference, and another one for doing ICT in Kenya. Isn’t there a point about online content creation, management, and brand building here …?
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