e-Government and ICT in Kenya

GICT, Kenya Country Unit, PREM Governance Unit, infoDev and the E-Development Thematic Group and IT SLC present:

"e-Government and ICT in Kenya"

Presentation by the Hon. Mutahi Kagwe, MP,
Minister for Information and Communications, Kenya

Speaker: The Hon. Mutahi Kagwe, MP, Minister for Information and Communications, Kenya

Chair: Colin Bruce, Country Director - Kenya, World Bank

Opening Remarks: Philippe Dongier, Sector Manager, CITPO, GICT

Discussant:  Arleen Seed, Senior Information Officer, ISG, World Bank

Program Description:

The World Bank approved recently a financing package of US$164.5 million for Kenya, Burundi and Madagascar as the first tranche of a US$424 million Regional Communications Infrastructure Program (RCIP) for high-speed connectivity in East and Southern Africa.  There is a notion the Africa region is being held back by the prohibitive costs of international connectivity.  Businesses are unable to compete in the global economy; university students suffer because they cannot access the Internet; and Government agencies cannot communicate effectively with each other and their citizens because they are not connected.  East and Southern Africa is the only region in the world that is not connected to the global broadband infrastructure and accounts for less than one percent of the world’s international bandwidth capacity.  As a result of this "missing link", the region relies on satellite connectivity, with costs amongst the highest in the world.  

RCIP financing of terrestrial networks will be a catalyst to attract and maximize private sector investment in telecommunications infrastructure and complement regional undersea cable initiatives, such as the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) developed by telecommunications operators with support from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and other development partners.  By the end of the Program, it is expected that all capitals and major cities in East and Southern Africa would be linked to competitively priced high-bandwidth connectivity. This will equip Africa to trade on a level playing field, extend education beyond the classrooms, and accelerate good governance.

In Kenya, RCIP will facilitate connectivity for the country’s emerging business process outsourcing industry, support the creation of digital villages in rural and urban areas, accelerate e-Government services such as drivers’ license and land registration, and help create an enabling regulatory environment.  The e-Government component of the operation will target several government applications amongst the government services that meet the following criteria: (i) implement e-Government in quick-win areas where there is a change champion, where private sector participation can be leveraged, and where Freedom of Information (FOI) would have the greatest impact in terms of transparency and accountability (e.g. immigration, pensions, drivers license, company registration, land records); and (ii) introduce e-Procurement in selected departments.

The event will be webcast for Country Offices and remote audiences

Live Webcast / e-Discussion and archived videoclip will available at:   http://www.worldbank.org/edevelopment/live

For background information, including a list of recommended readings see:   http://www.worldbank.org/edevelopment/

External Participants: Please contact Siou Chew Kuek at skuek@worldbank.orgor 202 458 2692 for a building pass

For further information on the seminar or to join our mailing list, please write to edevelopment@worldbank.org or contact Oleg Petrov at 202-473-8861

The e-Development Thematic Group is powered by GICT and ISG in collaboration with WBI, PREM and other partners. Visit us at http://www.worldbank.org/edevelopment to download materials for this and all previous e-development seminars (over 75 since Sept 2003).