Kenya Launches National Cyber Security Strategy and Master Plan

The arrival of extensive undersea fibre optic cables in mid-2009 have spurred a major ICT revolution in East Africa with Kenya in the lead and Tanzania following close behind. The transition to broadband has spurred rapid growth in the number of Internet users and increased access for many to cheap Smartphones. Kenya has also been able to achieve faster broadband connection than their counterpart in South Africa. IBM even chose Nairobi for its first African Research Lab.

So, what does all this rapid progress mean for exposure to cyber attacks? More is at stake.

Cyber attacks could be devastating to a developing country on the path to a better future like Kenya. With the ever-increasing reliance upon and use of ICTs to enable more development, comes greater risk. Security problems like the defacement of government websites offering important services as well as attacks on the Banking sector, plus many others can be devastating in developing countries. “The use of ICT in many industries means that national infrastructure such as water companies, power infrastructure, banking and payments are exposed to ICT threats.” (Dennis Mbuvi, CIO/East Africa)  For these reasons, Kenya just recently launched a National Cyber Security Strategy and Master Plan in February of this year:

• In a nutshell, the Strategy will enable the government, private sector and Chief Security Officer to “[come] up with a national cyber security assets inventory and [establish] approved cyber security vendors.” (Mbuvi)
• A data protection bill is also in the draft
• a consultant behind the plan, Tyrus Kamau, says ”that its implementation will see better cyber security in the country, which will in turn lead to confidence in electronic transactions, resulting to economic growth. The move will also ensure confidence as the government rolls out various eGovernment services.” (Mbuvi)

Since I wrote my paper on the role of eGovernment in Tanzania, especially with regards to its role in establishing trust among citizens, I see huge potential in the implementation of a policy like this, especially in the rapidly developing ICT sectors in East Africa. I also think it’s interesting how what Kamau said is clearly where the benefits of employing an early plan for cyber security can be seen in developing versus developed countries.  In countries like Kenya and Tanzania there is the need to establish  trust and confidence from consumers who have been living for so long without these services, whereas in more developed countries like the U.S., the biggest threats are less of a concern to the public who is generally unaware so far of their [cyber attacks'] potential consequences. In my opinion it speaks volumes on the need for both developed and developing countries to establish comprehensive plans because regardless of their development levels, cyber threats/attacks can be detrimental to both of their economies, peoples’ livelihoods and overall safety.

From Matatus to Mobile Phones; Kenya’s Growing Tech Success

Throughout the semester we have discussed multiple application of ICTs that aid the the development of nations around the world. While many of these are practical and goal based, I stumbled across and fun an innovatice applicaction of information communication technologies that boosts the economy of the given nation, connects customs of the country to the world and is a catalyst for fun.

The African nation of Kenya has been at the forefront of ICT development for a long time, with incredibly high rates of mobile phone use relative to the rest of Africa. A newer start-up had been in the video game world. As mentioned in the Eocnomist’s Article Upwardly Mobile, Kenya has taken one of their craziest ways and turned it into enterntainment. In the capital city minibuses called matatus fill the streets moving with homicidal turns, twists, starts and stops. Signals are seldomly used, and brakes are used sparingly. With all the excitment they have to offer, Planat Rackus, a Nairobi based start-up, released “Ma3Racer”, a mobile phone game where each user steers a matatu down the street, with the quite unrealistic goal of avoiding pedestrians. Within a month of the games release, .25 million people in 169 countries around the world had downloaded the game.

This game brings the exciting street life of Nairobi to the world, but also demonstrates the growing trend of starts-ups popping up in the past few years. These companies are part of a quiet tech boom in Kenya happening alongside the coffee and safari industries the nation is known for. In 2010, Kenya’s tech related exports reached $360 million, and Nairobi is now known as the “Silicon Savannah”. However it still hold one crucially differential factors from its silican counterparts. Almost all of the tech firms have desinged their programs from mobile phones rather than computers. Why, well for ever 100 kenyans, 74 have cell phone, and nearly 99% of internet subscriptions in Kenya are on mobile phones

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As a result of the nation’s tech success, investors ore flooding in. Ranging from small firms like Nailib and 88mph Ngong Road, to Kenya’s largest bank, Equity Bank, opening an “innovation centre” the city has become a melting pot for innovation and growth, focusing most of the investment funds on on mobile technology. GSMA, a global association of mobile operators, is about to open an Africa office, also on Ngong Road.

The tech investment is spurring an increase in Aid, inspriring NGO’s to focus on devleopment of the tech economy alongside agricultural and humanitarian assistance. This growth focuses on solutions to many local problems, but also holds a valuable spot in the global stage, with braggign rights to platforms like M-PESA and Ushahidi. Head of Google in Kenya, Joe Mucheru, says “We need to solve the nitty-gritty first and then we can invent new things”. This is where we say programs like M-Farm, a service that gives farmers access to markt prices via text, and allows them to group and sell products. This helps Kenya, and can be exported to other poor coutnries.

Over all the movement towards mobile phone application development in Kenya will allow the nation to continue to grow in all sectors of the economy, regardless of there geographic position or underdeveloped past.

Low-Cost and Practical Solutions for Enhancing Rural Community Radio in Kenya

With over 80% of Africans having access to  radio and a little over 50% having access to television, these technologies have been in the spotlight for use in the developing world. Although these may be considered “old” technologies, using radio and television as a means for ICT4D does not mean not to bring “newer” technologies into developing countries like Africa, but more stresses that ICT initiatives should not overlook radio and television.  I read an interesting initiative taking place in Kenya called KenTel that offers a low-cost solution to enhance community radios and/or community telecentres that lack broadband internet connectivity. These programs utilizes a service offered by Twitter for those in rural areas with limited  connectivity and/or runs on simple feature phones that allows them to receive tweets as short text messages (SMS). “Each country has a special short code which they can use to configure any phone to receive tweet on feature phones.” The program involves compiling a list of listeners from the community, who then are instructed over radio how to subscribe to this Twitter feature. Using this Twitter channel, the community radio can remind listeners of upcoming broadcasts/programs, provide a feedback mechanism, and conduct surveys among other small services. This channel mobilizes the listeners ultimately enhancing the capabilities of the local radio to reach its listeners and achieve greater and more efficient means of communication and media.  I thought this was an especially neat program in the large difference it makes utilizing ICTs at an extremely low cost with only each tweet costing $o.o125 USD.

http://zunia.org/post/world-radio-day-reflections-affordable-icts-solutions-make-radio-more-relevant

Kenya’s Plan to Become Africas ICT Hub by 2017

Kenya has always been a bright star on Africa’s horizon, and more recently they have been improving their reputation with an innovative and aggressive plan to become Africa’s ICT Hub by 2017. The plan seeks to spur the development of 500 tier-one technology companies, the creation of 20 global innovations and 50,000 new jobs. Kenya also hopes to generate $2 billion dollars annually, up from $860 million IT spending recorded in 2011. How We Made in; Insight into Business in Africa interviewed Paul Kukubo, the CEO of the Kenya ICT Board, the governement agenicy in charge of positioning Kenya as an ICT destination, to find out how feasible the nation’s amibitions are.

The interview makes some bold statements about the nations plan, inluding:

1. “The plan has at its core vision that by 2017, Kenyabecomes Africa’s most globally respected knowledge economy.”

2. “We need to continue strengthening education in ICT so that people can come here to find talent.”

3. “Konza is already unlocking so many opportunities in the private sector. It is creating linkages with the financial sector, construction sector, health sector, education sector and with development partners. Institutions that serve the middle class and the poor should actually be built to the best and highest standards, not the other way round.”

The Konza Technology City project is a planned high-tech hub inspired by Silicon Valley. Other key areas of focus include marketing and brand awareness, and intruducing more start-ups. The Infographic below highlights the action plan, and does an excellent job of showing the logisitics and feasiblity of Kenya’s effots.

http://visual.ly/kenya%E2%80%99s-ict-master-plan-2017-infographic

Africa’s eTransformation & New Partnerships

In the article “Africa: Using ICTs for transformational development,” from the World Bank’s blog related to ICT, the author Tim Kelly highlights feasible ICT solutions in both the public and the private spheres. Kelly cites Kenya as an example of governmental intervention in ICT during which there is expected to be more
“open government, capacity building, and innovation” to reach the country’s ICT-related goals by 2017. As highlighted in Unwin’s chapter on policies and partnerships, a lack of transparency and a poor regulatory environment has often hindered the development of the ICT sector. Kelly explains that the goal of the “eTransform Africa” report argues that new technologies are essential for business entrepreneurship and economic growth. He also accents the ability of innovations to create job and increase domestic companies export potential.

The “eTransform Africa” full report correlates with Unwin’s ideas of using multi-stakeholder approaches for the advancement of technology. Unwin explains that these partnerships are essential for the creation of ICT4D initiatives (Unwin 159), which the “eTransform Africa” report supports, stating that these stakeholders are essential for funding initial programs and start ups. The importance of openness of data and transparency of information is accentuated in the report, supporting different data sets including geographical information systems (GIS). Both Unwin and Kelly stress the importance of the inclusion of civil society in this process. What is the best way to create these partnerships or is it better to allow them to form organically? How do we further diversify them to allow ICT implementation to be as effective as possible?

Open Innovation Spaces: Promoting Technological Entrepreneurship

As we work through the introduction to ICT4D, one main concept we have encountered is the knowledge society, where knowledge is a public good, readily accessible to all members of the community. A program entitled iHub in Nairobi, Kenya, is an example of a real world attempt to promote innovation and sharing of knowledge.

iHub is an open space, both physical and digital, where “technologists, investors, tech companies, and hackers” are able to create and share ideas with the iHub community. The product of this open technological space is meant to be new technologies that will address the most pressing issues in Kenya. The program itself does not establish any new technologies or projects, but simply provides a forum in which bright minds can come work together. Members can post job openings, research findings, blog posts, business pages and upcoming local events on the iHub website.

Projects featured on the website include a data incubator to help the public better understand data relevant to public issues, a database for refugees to reconnect lost family members, and a project to analyze mobile phone usage among poor populations, among other projects. Through these projects, iHub is helping create a knowledge society in Nairobi by way of the innovation of the community itself.

One question to consider, however: Does the limited membership of the program lend itself to a situation where knowledge is open to all? I would argue yes, since only creating and researching through the program is limited to members, while viewing the website and its content is open to the public, regardless of membership .

The Cloud in Africa

Cloud computing technology is becoming increasingly important in ICT. This technology provides hardware and software services over a network. “The Cloud and Africa: Indicators for Growth of Cloud Computing” discusses predictors of cloud computing success in Africa.

The paper first discusses the potential benefits of the cloud in Africa– economic growth, greater data storage, increased communication and collaboration, and lower overhead costs. In addition, cloud computing can specifically be used in different ICT4D projects like e-education, e-health, and e-commerce.

The article describes the idea of “cloud readiness,” focusing on five indicators of cloud readiness: ICT, infrastructure, business, investment, and socioeconomic factors. These indicators help to determine which nations are most ready to employ cloud technology. In order to conduct this study, the author chose the 10 largest internet using nations in Africa: Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Zambia. Finally, Rwanda was added to the study because of its government’s focus on ICT4D.

The author then created a Cloud Readiness Index (which is described in much greater detail in the paper). The top five countries for cloud readiness were, in order: South Africa, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Sudan, and Kenya. A visual representation of the Index can be seen below:

In his conclusion, the author reemphasize the importance of the cloud as one tool in the ICT4D toolkit, but also reminds us that each country will need its own individualized path to cloud readiness and this should be a focus in coming years.

Kenya National ICT Resources

• Kenya’s National ICT Policy/Plan/Strategy: National Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Policy by the Ministry of Information and Communications (2006) 
• Helpful and more current review of Kenya’s ICT Sector: Timothy Waema, Catherine Adeya, and Margaret Nyambura Ndung’u. Kenya ICT Sector Performance Review. 2009/2010.  
• Information about Kenya’s economic profile can be found here, through The World Bank country profiles
• Fortunately, there is a ton of great information on Kenya incorporated into these two larger reports:
• The Networked Readiness Index 2010-2011. The Global Information Technology Report 2010-2011. World Economic Forum.
• ITU. International Telecommunication Union. Measuring the Information Society. 2010. 
• Kenya ICT Board 2010. 
• Non-governmental Resources:
• Great article: Fengler 2012: How Kenya became a world leader for mobile money. For example, Fengler tells us that Kenya has more cell-phone subscriptions than adult citizens and more than 80% of those with a cell phone also use “mobile money” or “M-PESA.”[1] I highly recommend doing some research pertaining to M-PESA.
• WSIS Stocktaking: Success Stories from the World Summit on the Information Society (this source offers some examples of development projects occurring in Kenya. Example: The project, ‘Reaching out to Rural Africa,’ involved installation of Rural Internet Kiosks, and then expanded to create a technological training program).
• Fortunately there is so much information about Kenya! Although Kenya suffers from low levels of ICT readiness “due to the underdevelopment of ICT infrastructure and the lack of a widespread skill base that would enable society to make an optimal use of technology” and “the cost of accessing technologies is still high for a large share of the population.”[1] Infrastructure is central in achieving the goal of digital inclusion. I wish you happy researching and learning!

  [1] The Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013. World Economic Forum. 2012. (WEF) pg. 25

Water for People

Access to clean, safe drinking water is a basic human right – one that still presents a challenge for developing countries. Water for People has found an ICT solution to making sure governments have the correct information and resources to supply safe drinking water. $80 handheld computers allow “organizations an integrated way to collect, analyze and report monitoring data regarding the condition of water and sanitation projects.” The handheld device software allows for data collection through GPS and cameras, and visual mapping software through Google Maps/Earth. Currently it is used mostly to track locations and conditions of water pumps.

Here’s an example of the what the dashboard looks like when viewing the Southern end of Malawi.

 

So far, the Water for People technology is being used in over 17 countries including Nepal, Uganda, and Peru. I think because this program is so universally applicable it will be very succesful. It was only started in 2010, and it already widely used.The fact that the handheld only costs $80 is a very affordable for a government’s budget. The software is also easy to use and is straight forward. This project will be sustainable because there is a universal need for access to clean water. The only potential drawback would be that the handheld needs proper cell phone signal to function, which might not always be available.

Water for People

ICT4D Postcard Project: A good idea, or mislead?

One of things mentioned in our readings for this week, as they debated the pros and cons of the term “ICT4D” was a postcard project within the ICT4D world as a way to document the effectiveness of such projects. Intrigued by what this postcard project actually entailed, i found a blog post describing what was behind the idea (http://www.kiwanja.net/blog/2011/11/ict4d-postcards-the-story-so-far/). 

In this post, he describes his reasoning behind the project- he was hoping to provide a few examples of good work being done in the field, since much of what is focused on is the drawbacks and inefficiencies. With each picture, the person who sent it is supposed to describe what is going on in the picture, the context (information such as the country, region, and what some of the main ICT4D issues are there, whichever the contributor chooses). While it is a good idea to try to create a good impression of the work that is being done, and in the descriptions the people do discuss what effect they have had, the failures of the field are present in both the pictures and the description. Almost every single picture perpetuates already existing stereotypes held by people in the western, developed world- africans with a phone, africans with a digital camera, all looking so excited and happy to be helped by the european or american. The two pictures that stuck out to me, where the first and last- the first was a picture of two women using mobile phones in rural Rwanda. It is then described how mobile phone rates for women have risen so dramatically, but as is sometimes the case, the phones are mainly being used for calls with friends and family, and not for microcredit or mobile banking as so many development officials hope they will be. At the same time, it is much easier for them to stay connected to family members and the world around them, which is extremely important. The last picture is the use of a digital pen in Kenya for women in labor. This approach is different- instead of trying to alter usage of a technology that has already been integrated into daily life in a certain way, this is introducing a completely new type of technology, in a field (health) that can use all the help it can get in rural Kenya. Since the concept is simple- audio goes off when a dangerous point of labour is reached, it does not require too much explanation or training for how to use it- it is a simple, straightforward and extremely applicable option that can be extremely beneficial for reaching lower rates of maternal and child mortality because of complications during childbirth.