WHERE IS THE VOICE OF THE KENYAN ICT PROFESSIONAL?

I am a worried man; worried for my country!
That the world has become a global village is no longer a myth; it is a reality. The once
alluded to ‘knowledge economy’ is at last here with us. It is not any wonder that Google
is today one of the world’s most sought after company; neither is it that in Kenya, the
‘communications’ sector is one of the fastest growing, even in the midst of a global
recession. That information and communications technology (ICT) will from henceforth
drive world economies is already abundantly clear. Kenya – and Africa, generally - is not
being left behind either. Yet I am very concerned with the conspicuous muteness of the
Kenyan ICT expert.
In the same vein, waste and garbage offers us immense economic opportunity in Kenya.
I was delighted to read that the Finance Minister, himself a Professional Accountant, was
presenting before Parliament an “Accountants’ Bill”. Lucky them! But who will stand up
for the ‘Informaticians’? That the Government of Kenya has identified the Knowledge
Economy and ICTs in particular as a pillar for our strategic socio-economic growth could
not be more evident than it is in the Draft Vision 2030. ICT has been identified therein as
one of the six priority focus sectors for Kenya’s transition to mid-income status. Yet
without a clear strategy to develop, harness and utilize the ICT human capital, this
prioritization remains a mere fallacy.
If nobody in Government is going to stick their necks out for the profession, then where
are the professionals themselves? Is it any wonder that this is perhaps the only profession
where anyone and everyone can be ‘an expert’ overnight? In a local Internet discussion
group recently someone queried whether it was possible for anyone to be ‘a professional
accountant’ without being ‘qualified’. The discussion emerged from an earlier posting
calling upon ‘a qualified, professional accountant’. The query was understandably raised
by a Medical Practitioner, coming from a profession where one cannot be ‘an expert’
without being ‘qualified and professional’. Why is it that in ICT, one can be an expert
without being ‘qualified’? And what constitutes qualification? If this is the sector to drive
our future and competitiveness, is it not time we did something about it?
That Safaricom, only an eight-year old company, has become the most profitable
company in East Africa should not surprise anyone. The sale of Government’s shares in
the company is now behind us, the controversies with it notwithstanding. But then again
why did the Government have to do it? And for me, Mobitelea wasn’t even the greatest
problem with the IPO. There was an equally, if not more fundamental concern. As the
Americans would say, ‘why fix it if it ain’t broken?’. I happen to be a firm believer in
competition, liberalization and commercialization – only cautiously so for privatization.
Privatization in the telecom sector in Africa has not presented a glossy picture. One only
needs to look at the cases of the botched initial privatization of incumbents in Zambia,
Tanzania, Ghana and the Gambia – just to mention a few. Yet during the Safaricom IPO
saga, I only heard the voices of the politicians. Where were the voices of the
professionals?
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As if that was not enough, we one day wake up in 2008 to learn that a whooping 51%
(controlling majority) of Telkom Kenya has been sold! And an estimated 18,000-strong
workforce has been reduced to 3,000. Why did we have to do this? If it was to raise
capital, why do we read in the papers that Treasury is still being asked to plough more
resources into Telkom? Often, one reason given for staff retrenchment is better reward
for those who remain behind. One would have thought that by reducing the workforce
from 18,000 to 3,000, at the very least those who survive would get a minimum of a
200% pay increase. We are now told the Union had to struggle just to get a 20%
increment. Did we first analyze the likely impacts of some of these actions, and mitigate
sufficiently against them? What an innovative way to stem unemployment and reduce
poverty! If the Americans or Chinese owned anything close to 51% stake in France
Telecom, I would not be half as worried.
Some countries love their subjects – not so much Kenya. Yet if there is anything Kenya
beats most other African countries, it is her enviable human capital. It is not surprising
that our own Prof. Calestous Juma is today a pillar for Science & Technology Policy in
the developing world. Neither was I surprised while in the US mid last year that one Prof.
Wilson Endege was reputed to ‘have cracked the DNA code’, whatever that means! And
while on a visit to Brussels as part of a Parliamentary Committee touring nuclear reactor
plants, at one stage the tour was suspended to allow a UN Inspector – one David Otwoma
(based in Vienna, Austria) to inspect the facility! Equally, one would have been forgiven
for marvelling on realization that once when a major national microwave backbone
system broke down, and after several experts from some developed countries had failed
to fix it, one Engr. John Kamau was brought in from the US to fix it. Similarly, it is not
unusual to work into Doha Airport, Qatar, and find that the string of a dozen or so ‘black’
people serving on the check-in counters for a leading global airline (not KQ, in this case)
are all Kenyan! The list is endless.
In spite of this competitive advantage, I am stunned that we do not have a Human
Capacity Development Plan. Human capital should be considered Kenya’s gold and oil,
since we do not have either! Some African countries long recognized the importance of
human capital, and have fairly comprehensive national human capacity development
plans. One even has a whole, unique Ministry of Capacity Building. Unless we can
nurture, harness and harvest to the best abilities of all our professionals and actors in the
knowledge economy – accountants, doctors, lawyers, engineers, scientists, informaticians,
agriculturalists, economists, interpreters, etc – our competitiveness is doomed. Microsoft
calls it ‘Unlimited Potential’: we must ask ourselves to what extent are we using and
getting the most out of our ‘knowledge workers’? From experiences from other emerging
economies, they alone can be the propeller for Kenya’s accession to mid-income
economy status.
However, to give credit where it is due, am delighted that Kenya which since
independence has ridden like a rudderless ship, is at last launching a ‘National Vision –
Vision 2030’. Vision, more than anything else, spells out the virtues we espouse, and
points to the horizon where we would want to be in the years to come. If you asked me, I
would rate the Vision evenly with the Constitution; some may even argue that it is more
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important than the Constitution. I now gather we are about to launch the Vision – yet I
don’t believe Kenyans have adequately debated it. A Vision needs to be owned by the
people. Walking along the down-streets of some of the smaller Rwandan towns, it is not
unusual to see a small kiosk labelled ‘Vision 2020’. What it means is that the Vision is
engraved in the hearts and souls of the people. Why are we rushing to launch a Vision
that Kenyans do not own?
In the hope that I would find at least something going right with the ‘king sector’, I
picked a newspaper the other day, and noticed an advert for a major Government
ICT/automation project. I enquired with a friend whose company I thought quite fitted
the bill if they had applied. What struck me most – and still bothers me a lot – was his
stark reply: ‘I no longer bid for government tenders. From day one, it is already known
who the tender is meant for.’ That worries me a lot – especially for the sector in whose
our future and the future of our children will so heavily depend. For a moment I asked:
‘you mean as a society we have decayed so much?’. When ‘professionals’ lose so much
faith in a system, then something is terribly wrong! Yet like almost everywhere else, the
single most major consumer of ICT services and products is Government. How then do
we expect our nascent ICT companies and professionals to thrive – and drive the sector
that we expect to deliver us to Jerusalem?
I must say that there are a few interesting and laudable things that the Government is
doing on the ICT scene. However, they are few and far between. Besides, even in those,
the voice of the ICT professional is drowned. Pray, tell me! When did the rain start
beating the ICT profession?
Dr Shem Ochuodho, Advisor on ICT Private Sector Development, Ethiopia, and Former
Member of Parliament