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KENYA: What could have been done better?

04/07/2008 (KICTANet) -- By Michael Ouma

After the release of the presidential results of Kenya’s general elections in December 30 and the resulting violence that has so far claimed over 500 people and displaced over 250,000 across several parts of the country, those in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry are now pondering over their contribution to the process.

They are also asking themselves if things would have turned out differently had they been more prominently involved in the elections from planning stages up to the final tallying exercise.

Under the auspices of the Kenya ICT Action Network’s (KICTANet) online ‘ICT Policy Discussions’ forum, the industry players are also coming up to ask themselves whether the outcome from the elections would have been different had ICT tools been utilized in the process for more efficiency and accuracy.

Evelyn Rono of Kenya Data Networks (a local data network operator) wrote in the online forum that several ICT companies and individuals approached the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) with the intention of supporting and a managing the process with ICT.

Rono says that in 2004, the ECK was provided with IT hardware and software and Geographical Information System (GIS) electoral database created with each individual polling station positions' mapped using GIS technology that integrated with the electoral database through a unique ID for polling station.

Says Rono: “The constituency boundaries provided the domain universe within which each polling station could be located for administrative purposes. Training was also conducted for ECK. The same company that had provided the commission with software and hardware in 2004 tried to do the same 2007 but the ECK declined the offer this time round.”

It can be said that the use of the provided ICT tools by the ECK enabled it to conduct a a very transparent exercise during the Constitutional Referendum in November 2005, a process that never witnessed any ugly scenes, leave a alone the kind of violence witnessed after the release of the 2007 election results.

The ICT stakeholders also took issue with the fact the ECK chairman Samuel Kivuitu dismissed a short message service (SMS) that had been made available by Telkom Kenya’s wireless product that had enabled voters to confirm their details through their mobile phones. The chairman of the commission even went further to say that he “does not know how to send an SMS.”

Members of KICTANet also suggest that had it been forewarned about the irregularities, the opposition would have been advised to provide each of their agents with a camera equipped mobile phone to enable the agents take pictures of the tallying forms and also record the returning officer announcing the results.

“This would then have been easily sent to party head quarters. There are 210 or so constituencies in the country and the mobile phones I am talking about cost about Kshs 10,000 (about US $ 150) each,” says Robert Yawe, KAY System Technologies.

The amount of the money that could have been spent in purchasing the mobile phones, though huge is not beyond the many political parties in the country. Most of the big wigs in these parties used chartered helicopters while campaigning from one corner of the country to other in 2007.

The members further fault the EU’s observer team saying they “came equipped as if it was the 12th Century after which they proceeded to make unsupported statements about the result that further inflamed bloodshed.”

The media and especially vernacular FM radio stations have not escaped the blame either. Some ICT industry stakeholder claim that the FM stations that broadcast in local dialects played a part in fanning the tension leading to the violence after the elections results were announced.

“The creation of vernacular radio stations has not helped the issue. We have become worse at implementing ethnic segregation than God or the colonizers, the Boars cannot hold up a candle to us. What this does is it makes it uncomfortable for me and my neighbour to listen to radio together because he is Luo and I am what I am (from a different community),” says one commentator.

Some of the ICT players are of the view that with a literacy level of 60 percent, Kenyans should stop the habit of “cowering into our tribal cocoons” and instead become more cohesive.

“I believe that Kiswahili and English programing should take up 80 percent of all radio station content otherwise we might as well have the parliamentarians take a vernacular proficiency test to be allowed to participate in elections and also have our national exams done in vernacular,” writes Robert Yawe.

Yawe also took issue of corporate firms who support the vernacular stations in form of advertising enabling the stations to “broadcast inflammatory contents soon after the commercial message.”

Since Kenya’s airwaves were liberalized in the 1990’s, the country has seen a proliferation of various broadcast stations, some targeted at specific audiences that use local dialects apart from Kiswahili and English. The number of frequency licenses issued so far to broadcasters by the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) could be over 50 even though there are only tens of vernacular stations currently on air.

The main ones are Kameme FM, Inooro FM, Coro FM, Ramogi FM, Mulembe FM, Egesa FM, Musyii FM and KASS FM among others. The mentioned stations broadcast in the country’s main (dominant) dialects like Kikuyu, Luo, Luhya, Kamba, Kalenjin and Kisii.

One of the advertisers that was picked out as supporting the local FM stations is mobile network operator Safaricom which also doubles up as the region’s most profitable company. The firm’s chief executive Michael Joseph, wrote in the online forum that advertisers should not be “implicated in the message broadcast by vernacular radio stations.”

Asked Michael Joseph: “Are we supposed to operate as a censor and control the output of these stations? I do not condone in any way any of the violence which may have been caused by their output, but they are listened to by a great proportion of the population and provide us with a channel to reach their listeners.”

He went further and asked those questioning their advertising spend on the local stations whether it would be acceptable “not to advertize on the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) radio station because it is perceived to be the voice of the Government.”

Adding his voice to the debate over vernacular stations, Harry Karanja of SoftLaw Limited wrote that “we need not throw the baby out with the bath water.”

“The problem is not that there are vernacular stations, but that these stations have been used irresponsibly by their promoters. Vernacular stations if responsibly managed can play the important function of positively promoting culture and traditions, which add to our national heritage,” wrote Karanja.

He added that what “we need is a code of ethics and regulation that impose stiff penalties on those who use vernacular radio stations for purposes of incitement.”

Contributing to the debate, Geoffrey Shimanyula, managing director, UUNET Kenya said that “we need to be confident enough to let "other" people understand that which is being spoken and by this I am referring to the FM radio stations that use proprietary languages/dialects.”

Said Shimanyula: “I am not in any way against radio stations having a niche in terms of captive audience but I believe that they can still achieve their objective in a transparent language in this case - Kiswahili. This way, we shall eliminate all sorts of mistrusts that we are seeing today in this beautiful country.”

He added that “we don't need these vernacular radio stations in a country that is striving to move from the least developed country (LDC) quadrant.”

Dr Bitange Ndemo, ministry of information and communication permanent secretary said in the same forum on local FM stations that the stakeholders would be welcome to give their views concerning vernacular FM stations when the proposed ICT Bill that seeks to regulate the industry comes up for debate.

Dr Ndemo asked the ICT fraternity to “revisit Nyerere's philosophy of undugu as there is much (for Kenyans) to learn from our neighbours in Tanzania.”

Date: 04/07/2008
Location: Kenya
Theme: Access, National ICT Strategies, Security and Privacy
Source: KICTANet
Contact: Michael Ouma