Jimmy
Let me respond to you by repeating a quote I love:-
*Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your
country ~ Khalil Gibran (Lebanese writer)*
We can’t give up on this country. It is ours. Period. We will continue to
hammer it into shape. One nyundo at a time.
Regards
*Ali Hussein*
Digital Transformation
Tel: +254 713 601113
Twitter: @AliHKassim
Skype: abu-jomo
LinkedIn: ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
<ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>
Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely
mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the
organizations that I work with.
On Mon, Jul 6, 2020 at 12:59 PM Jimmy Gitonga via kictanet <
[email protected]> wrote:
> Sen. Abshiro and Ali,
>
> Dr. Kate Getao, then a director at the ICT Authority, at an Oracle
> Developer Conference at PanAfric Hotel was asked this precise question.
>
> She explained that the government had a Disaster Recovery Centre at
> Ruaraka and that the government was building a datacenter in Naivasha,
> close to Olkaria (for power purposes) to house all the data from and for
> government agencies.
> This data centre would then be opened up for counties. She carefully did
> not give a date but we were thinking with the “digital government”
> promises, we would see this come to fruition within that election period.
>
> Note, the problem is not lack of expertise in ICT. It seems we do not
> “love” our country. I am not talking about patriotism, I am talking about a
> good balanced pride in our country.
> When people join government as elected officials or the civil service, it
> is like they die inside. Something happens and I cannot figure out what it
> is.
>
> Ali is strong. Some of us stopped asking questions because it is tiring.
>
> *Jimmy Gitonga*
> @Afrowave
> Web : Motion
> On 6 Jul 2020, 08:58 +0300, [email protected], wrote:
>
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2020 08:55:34 +0300
> From: Ali Hussein <[email protected]>
> To: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: [kictanet] .Ke domains cross the 100,000 Mark (Reminder
> to Team KeNIC to make good on their promise during last year?s AGM on
> transparency and improving on Corporate Governance. The silence is
> worrying) – REMINDER NO. 2
> Message-ID:
> <CAPjmBy1wbNPNA4ibbCAe9KKsdKON4O2tEs+G6UsiTrGORy98Kw@mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=”utf-8″
>
> Mheshimiwa
>
> Thanks for your personal attention on this matter. My two cents:-
>
> 1. First to answer your two issues.
>
> a) *T**hat government jobs are so temporary especially for a certain cadre
> of peopl*e – For as long as one is in Government employment everything that
> person does on behalf of the people of Kenya remains the property of the
> people of Kenya. I think the confusion starts when government employees mix
> personal business with government business. There’s a possibility here that
> there is a requirement for some sensitivity training. We do take a lot for
> granted but we shouldn’t. Bottomline. ALL OFFICIAL BUSINESS SHOULD BE DONE
> OFFICIALLY. ON GOVT COMMUNICATION CHANNELS. Which means official .go.ke
> emails.
> b) *Tech maintenance and support is so bad* – I will not be surprised if
> this is the case. However, this should not be an excuse for not using
> official Govt Email. To be honest, Mheshimiwa, its super embarrassing for a
> country that is kicking ass (forgive the slang) in the technology space
> worldwide to have a conversation with colleagues in say Nigeria, and one
> sentence about Government Ministers using gmail/yahoo/hotmail deflates the
> conversation. Isn’t the ICT Authority supposed to sort of act as Government
> CIO (Chief Information Officer). May be its time for a substantive
> Government Chief Information Officer responsible for all ICT issues in
> Government? including Data Centres, ICT Strategy etc? Do we need to revisit
> ICTA’s mandate?
>
> 2. In today’s world, we cannot afford sensitive government documents all
> over the world wide web on servers that we have zero control of. My sense
> is that we need to have some basic **musts** that need to be engrained in
> government employees. This could actually be an act of parliament on how
> govt operates ICT Infrastructure for its day to day operations. Here’s an
> example of how the U.K Government deals with this email issue
> <
> chrome-extension://ohfgljdgelakfkefopgklcohadegdpjf/https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/207131/Private_Email_guidance.pdf
> >
> .
>
> 3. Lastly Mheshimiwa, this issue of government email use has been discussed
> for years on this list and others. I don’t honestly think (with all due
> respect to all responsible) that it has been taken seriously enough. Time
> to take it a notch higher. Could it possibly be something that the Senate
> ICT Committee can take up and see it to its logical conclusion? I mean if
> the National Government is in such a rut when it comes to basic email
> communication can you imagine what is happening in the counties?
>
> I think that should be enough to keep you busy on this issue. 🙂
>
> *Ali Hussein*
>
> Digital Transformation
>
> Tel: +254 713 601113
>
> Twitter: @AliHKassim
>
> Skype: abu-jomo
>
> LinkedIn: ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
> <ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>
>
> Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely
> mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the
> organizations that I work with.
>
> On Sun, Jul 5, 2020 at 11:33 PM Abshiro Halake via kictanet <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
> > Ali, Twahir, team,
> >
> > Great idea to enlighten the government and its agencies on this. The ICT
> > Ministry should actually take the lead. We could put a parliamentary
> > question to the ICT Ministry as to why the government continues to use
> > personal emails. That being said, I was once told that there are two
> > reasons why this is the case – 1. that government jobs are so temporary
> > especially for certain cadre of people and 2. tech maintenance and
> support
> > is so bad. Not sure if these are just excuses but it may be worth it to
> > still put the questions. Can someone send me a few pointers to include in
> > the question/statement? Perhaps why it is important to change this and
> also
> > reassurance on security etc…..
> >
> > Thanks and kind regards,
> >
> > Sen. Abshiro
>
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