E-Government Moment: Part II

Stuff happening on the e-government sidelines

• July 1 is the deadline for Matatu's and other Public Service Vehicles (PSV's) to switch to cashless payments of accepting fares, in lieu of hard currency. PSV's are meant to have signed on to services like Google & Equity's - BebaPay or be in breach of the law.  It's not expected to be smooth sailing considering the slow uptake of cashless systems among smaller matatus within  Nairobi, and it's possible that after taxes, the minimum fare will be more than Kshs 30.
• June 30, (today) is also the deadline for Kenyans to file their tax returns. This had been a largely academic exercise of submitting paper forms that the revenue authority (KRA) was unlikely to ever go through, and had even been discarded. But in rejecting a bill, parliament re-opened this tiresome exercise. This year, KRA has advertised its website, as the only way for Kenyans to file their taxes - but the site and service still has many challenges, including inaccessibility. 
  
• While the schools laptop project seems to have stalled at the procurement stage, some $200 million has been allocated in the 2014/15 budget to procure some laptops. More visible in terms of making the government digital, has been the procurement by by county governments and parliament of iPad's and other devices for leaders to use.
• In the banking sector, June was a turning point for the migration to debit and credit cards to Chip-and-PIN enabled cards. While the benefits to consumers appear negligible (less fraud identity than swipe cards) and there is a cost of about $1.80 to 3.20, there has now been a liability shift, and going forward, costs associated with fraud involving non-EMV compliant cards will be borne by the issuing bank (currently they are borne by the acquirer/merchant).
• In terms of digital television, there's one year left for the analogue to digital migration in Africa. However, most countries are unlikely to make this deadline. Read more.

EDIT

• The Kenya Government has automated registration of companies by launching a one-day registration of companies system to improve efficiency at the state law office.

Visit a Huduma Centre

Arguably, the President was probably wrong when he said during a TV interview on the one year anniversary of his government, that their biggest achievement was free maternal health care.

A better answer was probably their introduction of Huduma (swahili for service) Centres in the country. Huduma Centres, which are at two post offices in downtown Nairobi, are offices where citizens can access a whole range of government services that they would previously have to visit a dozen different  offices over several days to complete.

Services offered in one room include business registration, driving license renewals, national ID’s, birth certificates,  city parking permits, land rate payments, querying NSSF & NHIF, and they even act dropping points of KRA (taxpayer) forms. 

They are popular and the parking at one had several red-plate (diplomatic) cars outside as vehicle log book collection is one of the services offered.

One Huduma Centre had a few important things that made the visit to this government office pleasant including: 

• A ticketing system and customer service person at the door to get you to the right queue quickly. 
• In case you need more cash, there is a mobile money agent (both M-Pesa & Airtel)
• A cyber cafe inside in case you need to print documents or make an (inevitable) photocopy.
• Free parking for customers.

Huduma Centres are pleasant, and airy, and served by smiling staff that make you want to get more and more essential services completed when there. 

Going forward, will this good feeling last? Will departments continue stop supporting services here? Will parking remain free? Will the staff get tired of smiling as crowds grow? Will the quality of service deteriorate over time? Can it scale to other towns? 

That remains to be seen but for now Huduma Centres which enable citizens to access several individual and business services in one time-saving office is the most important government achievement to date. 

The Huduma Kenya website notes that additional centers will be opened in each of the 47 counties within the next 24 months. And as the government grapples on how to revive post offices  that it owns in prime locations around the country (in an an electronic age with fewer letters), Huduma Centres may be the answer.

Guide to Kigali

A guest post by Niti Bhan

Getting There is not difficult  as there are Kenya Airways flights and also Rwandair flights. Our experience with Kenya Airways was not the best however. Our flight (via Bujumbura, Burundi) was on time and comfortable but the luggage for ALL, but three, passengers was never loaded in Nairobi, (or so they told us). Though, we were traveling under the "Priority" luggage tag due to colleague's KLM frequent flyer card, the luggage arrived the following day, with the locks broken on the suitcases and the contents ransacked. 

In terms of  Visa and eGovernment, this aspect was very impressive, even before we left for Rwanda  We applied for visas online in the morning and though the response to the submission said it would take three (3) days for the visa, we received our PDF visa documents the very same day by email  (to be printed out and carried on the flight).  The payment for this cost US$ 30 at the airport and there is a little process of approaching the immigration counter before one is sent to pay at a cashier and then return  for a stamp.

The duty free at the airport is ridiculously cheap – with cigarettes cartons US$1 cheaper than in Nairobi and the Scottish single malt, Glenmorangie, cost just US$28 as compared to $40-50 for the same bottle in Singapore, Europe and the USA!

Getting around : The first thing to note in comparison to Nairobi is there is little traffic except for rush hour in morning and evening. The roads are wide, even, and clean and it was a pleasure to drive even during evening hours.

Kigali is a small town and reminds me of Bangalore in the late 1980s before the big boom – it has pleasant weather, mountainous vistas, hillsides with homes and a slower pace filled with mopeds – such as TVS 50 and ubiquitous  "motos" = boda bodas. All drivers have helmets, with spare for riders and they are marked with numbers and names. Taxis were less commonly seen.

Where to stay: We stayed at the Hotel Chez Lando - close enough to the airport yet it felt central to the town. We paid US$ 60 per single room which were neat, clean and comfortable. Only soap is offered in the bathrooms though and such amenities were limited. On the other hand, guests have Wi-Fi internet  access (via password) throughout this garden style hotel.

There is breakfast included in the rooms, as well as a bar and restaurant . The hotel also has pleasant walkways with the heady scent of night blooming jasmine when walking through to the guest rooms.

Note: There was a theft in my room and the front desk was reluctant to act upon it in any way. We hear that police tend to say "It must be Kenyans" if thefts occur, and this had also happened to our colleague who had her house burgled by 4 armed men who took everything of value. Rwandans will claim Kigali is safer than Nairobi, but I leave that to your judgment.

Communications: Our Safaricom connection worked but even though Airtel advertising has seen around Kigali  the prepaid Airtel one did not, - & they say that it will be arriving soon.

The top two service operators here are MTN (see everywhere, discreetly) and Tigo. We also saw  internet cafes and  one assumes most businesses and hotels have broadband as that was widely advertised through RwandaTel. Is Rwanda working towards internet access (and thus provision of eGovernment services) for all? Yes, that I would agree with based on what I heard (though MTN money from the city to rural recipients, is not yet convenient for due to shortage of agents) and saw (our visa response rates)

Dining We ate at the Hotel Chez Lando that was reasonable with beer in an open air environment, food tends towards a European menu rather than more local offerings that seem available in Kenya;  one of the many Chinese restaurants  had good food, fast service and was affordable and there was also KhanaKhazana - a premium Indian restaurant  whose food (speaking as an Indian from India) was superb, some of the best I've eaten and the restaurant was packed with expats from all over the world.  The service was better, in my personal estimation, than in Kenya, although our Kenyan
colleagues feel the Rwandans to be slow. There is tradeoff made there for waiters here are empathetic, courteous, and willing to help you choose and navigate the menu.

Beer: Mutzig is the highly recommended local beer and its better than a Heineken and maybe (dare I say) than  Tusker! It comes in two sizes, extra large and regular and is the preferred beer over the more plebian Primus (considered the Budweiser of Rwanda). 

Our hotel's bar was packed with non resident diners (the front half is separated by a garden gate from the residential half) and had TV sets, a pool table and casual open air seating. On the other hand, with all its non smoking rules, and Rwanda is said to be stricter about smoking than Kenya.  However, this was not felt as a major constraint by our smoking colleague.

Shopping & Sightseeing: Not much of this happened due to our packed
work schedule but a  must-see in Rwanda is the Genocide Museum in Butare. The reverberations of this nations’ events of 1994  can still be sensed across the country (we went deep south close to the Burundi border as part of our
work, passing the Ethnographic Museum) and influences the country's patterns of behaviour. April is the national month of mourning and the country, effectively shuts down.

Rwanda cannot be understood without understanding this national event, and even our group (on a commercial trip) could not avoid the bullet holes in our local office, or the scars - both mental and physical – as some of our colleagues, narrated their stories of survival.

Business opportunities: MTN Money has been there for three years but rural agents are not as common as the local Bank Populaire de Rwanda – which has more rural outlets than MTN Money agents per local interviews on cash flow,  although for the city dwellers, it is more convenient. There is opportunity here, as the government moves towards eGovernment and providing internet access for all, for a wide variety of services and applications on the mobile platform.

One also did not see much activity such as jua kali metalworks, fabricators etc. and the rural market's household goods shop had only china made offerings and no local ware such as in Kenya. Only one tailor was seen on the 110 KM trip to upcountry locale. Biashara is not as obvious nor as common, and one has heard is much more regulated by local councils and regions. In Kigali, Indians were seen doing business as were the Chinese.

Biggest Surprise: Rural Rwanda barely noticed us mzungus and we did not feel we were foreigners like we had in other rural regions e.g.  in Kenya. Only in a rural market, was our Kenyan colleague teased for having a mzungu with her. Our second biggest surprise, (coming from Kenya,) was the minimal wall paintings seen  across rural Rwanda and how structured and regimented the buildings were - similar construction, similar colours and mostly natural earth walls in comparison to the bright series of walls  (with cheap corporate advertising) one sees in Kenya.

Overall, a peaceful, small, well managed nation was the impression left although one could see prisoners in their bright orange suits at work in the city as well in the rice fields in the rural areas. Prisoners do not escape when working the fields because, if they do, their families homestead will be confiscated in return by the government.

Summary: The sense was that Kagame would indeed reach his 2020 vision of becoming the Singapore of Africa, but I add the caveat of the obvious and unnecessary thefts from the hotel room as a caution.

Financial Revenge of the Mainstream

Have you ever navigated a bank or financial site, and tried to complete a transaction or upload a file, but found an inexplicable error? Even after re-checking all the fields, character formats, cell alignments, password & field lengths, it still does not work.  It might even be a matter of uploading a simple text file into the system and with all the proper steps followed, or even cutting & pasting from the bank's sample file, it still won't upload or allow you to move to the  level? 

The answer to this could be that you're using a Mac computer or a Firefox  or other browser - and if you try the same process using a PC and/or Internet Explorer browser,  you might find that the problem is fixed, if there ever was one. 

Sometimes the site admins are aware of these quirks, and advise users to try and complete transactions using PC's or by running Internet Explorer, while others may not be aware - even as platforms other than Windows and Internet Explorer are now just as common. Anyway, always have a PC nearby or run down to the secure cyber cafe instead of trying over and over,  and wasting a few needless and frustrating hours.

E-Government Moment: Part I

Parliamentary Transcripts: This week the, the National Council for Law Reporting - [NCLR, a state corporation charged with publishing the law and judicial opinions of the High court and Court of appeal) in partnership with Google Kenya launched digital versions of the Kenya Parliamentary debates - or Hansards dating back to 1960. These are the official records of debates in Parliament and enables historians, scholars, researchers, students, and citizens to read up on mundane debates and historic moments – such as January 15 2008, when parliament was re-constituted for the election of a speaker and the swearing in of new members, with a lot of unprecedented procedural side-shows

.

Typical government records registry

The publication of the Hansards on Google books radically changes the ease with which information on parliament is obtained. The Business Daily has an article on the challenges of obtaining Hansards previously. "Until Thursday, they were only available to the public in hard copy at a fee after a visit to Parliament’s library. One also needed to have prior knowledge of the year and month in which that issue was discussed and the edition of the Hansard in which it was recorded."

Now about 2,000 editions of the Hansard comprising 134,000 pages have been converted into 8.5 GB of data on Google books and is indexed and searchable, while still in magazine style & original font of the current Hansards for easy accurate browsing & navigation.

Digital searchable Kenya Hansard on Google books in original font

Government Bible: Also, two months ago, (in April 2011), the same partnership resulted in the publication on Google Books of over 100 years of the Kenya gazette. This is the ‘bible’ of the Government with gems of information such as government appointments, issuance of land title deeds, proposed land use updates, mergers, anti-corruption reports, notices of intent to acquire private land, inheritance of estates of deceased persons, bankruptcy orders, winding up & de-registration of societies and companies, applications mining, broadcasting, aviation, communication licenses etc. The collection has indexed over 190,000 pages of Gazettes from 1899 to 2011.

Summary: While concerns have been raised about the ability of foreign bodies like the World Bank and Google to get access to data, the end product is world class and un-precdented on the continent. In addition the cost for each of these to the tax payer has been marginal - at about Kshs. 2 million ($25,000). There are no restrictions on the use of the content on Google books which can be linked and shared with a single click and will be be available on an API for more adaptations.

Prepaid Electricity in Kenya

Kenya Power & Lighting Company (KPLC), the national distributor of electricity is converting customers in many parts of the country from post use billing and payment to pre-usage payment.

One KPLC challenge for many years has been revenue collection, but that has changed since signed they signed up banks and supermarkets (some at a cost of ~ Kshs 50 per bill paid) outlets like Uchumi.

Changes

Payment: You can buy electricity tokens from some KPLC offices, but it is easier to pay by mobile money Safaricom's 'M-Pesa' or 'Airtel Money' zap. You load money into M-pesa, send it to KPLC, and in about an hour you get a 20 21-digit number that you punch into the meter for an immediate update of electricity credits.

Orientation: None at all! One day you come home and find workmen in the corridor doing a lot of re-wiring (at first I thought the landlord was installing fibre to the block, but it turned out to be KPLC's sub-contractors) and the next day, you come home and find the watchman with a booklet for you to read and study on the pre-pay system! The booklet has been quite useful, but it omitted a process where you have to call KPLC to link your old meter and new meter numbers – in order to activate the new meter.

Cost: None to the customer, and the brochures say cost of usage should be the same, and so far I’m on par at about Kshs 500 ($6) per week.

The meter also has some commands that you can use to check out your usage at any given time (a fluctuating 80W) and usage since installation – 100Kwh in three weeks. What I miss (for tracking inflation is a breakdown of usage, fuel surcharges and other taxes that form anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of every bill, and
- [edit] cost of collection which may vary from Airtel to Safaricom) i.e it cost Kshs 20 to pay by M-pesa
- In order to pay by M-pesa, you have to know your Meter No. (so save it in phone)
- The cost of electricity has gone up by ~45% in a month i.e in mid-April a 'unit' of electricity cost Kshs 9.8 and in mid-May its Kshs 14.2.

Shared Technology Opportunities in Kenya Government

One of the platforms that the Kenya ICT Board is spearheading a shared services platform/master plan for the Government.

They have studied the concept in the US, Australia and at large computer companies. They also appointed a consultant firm, Accenture, to carry out an assessment, and this week Accenture released a report this week on shared services (back office functions) use at various government levels.

The findings were rather harsh and included:
- GoK is not well positioned to support Vision 2030 through its platform, and for all the talk, IT spending is not a priority in government,
- Low level of staff, low ability to execute projects,
- Lack of standard process automation across government arms, few processes are automated - still heavy manual work, and use of outdated technology

- Kenya spends 70% of IT funds on hardware (which can go out of date quite fast), with very little spent on people and software. This is below world standard which Accenture defined as near – 20% spent on hardware, 40% people, 19% software, and 20% outsourcing
- Most IT projects are developed with silos within the different ministries or local authorities even within ministries and even if the current 80 large ongoing tech projects were completed, this would not lead to share services, e.g. because databases cannot talk to each other

Nevertheless Accenture had bright spots & recommendations:

- The low level little process automation presents a lot of opportunity for private sector to work with GoK in shared services
- Best practices can be driven by single entity
-The shared service goals can be achieved not by increasing current IT expenditure, but by refocusing it on items like automation and standardization
- By developing IT career paths, Government can have access to the better people in IT
- Accenture mapped out some current government process like obtaining a birth certificate and getting a passport - to the deal target scenario using shared services approach.
- The cloud can be used to leapfrog other governments – i.e. enable citizens to use mobile phone and access services without visiting a government office
- There are other opportunities for the private sector to develop end user services, applications, architecture, and capabilities.

Other Comments
- Information & Communications PS Bitange Ndemo said they had set out to fulfill presidential target to digitize four processes by this June 2011 – and mentioned the judiciary, land ministry and state law office (also Google Books has digitally archived the Government Bible - with 100 years of the Kenya Gazette now online)
- Office of the President Administrative Secretary Sam Mwale it is government policy to share services, and asked that more services be translated to Kiswahili which is understood by the majority of Kenyans. He also said that for shared services to work, it was important to demonstrate to government staff that the services work, that they are in charge and they have not lost their jobs.
- Catherine Gitau, the Director of E-Government, said government departments will have to share infrastructure, services, and must also share data (Article 35 of the new Kenya Constitution notes that the state shall publish and publicize any important information affecting the nation, and every citizen has the right to information held by the state)

E-Government Moment

E-demand Kenya High school exams results were announced this week, and the top keyword searches at the site for one day were as follows showing the demand for information online

1. 12.79% www.examscouncil.or.ke
2 6.73% bankelele
3 4.38% kcse results 2008
4 2.69% related:www.examscouncil.or.ke/searchkcseresults2007.php
5 2.36% Kenya examination council
6 1.68% examscouncil.or.ke
1.68% 2008 kcse results
1.68% http://www.examscouncil.or.ke
1.01% Kenya examinations council
1.01% examscouncil Kenya
1.01% www.examscouncil
1.01% www.examcouncil.or.ke
1.01% kcse examination results 2008
1.01% related:www.examscouncil.or.ke/
1.01% Kenya national examination council kcse results

E-possibilities: Also at the Kenya revenue authority site is this land rent checker which should enable potential buyers to investigate land claims before they buy

E-legislation the media kenya communications 2008 bill which contained several laws regulating and facilitating e-commerce is back in the news with media owners asking for certain sections to be amended. Read How was the bill passed over their protest

E-infrastructure The first of three undersea fibre cables has reached Kenya’s shores. Much is expected with promises that communications costs could be lowered by up to 90%. And other transformations through new possibilities for e-government, bandwidth, service providers, broadvand, film & video, content etc. We will see how this plays out, as all these plans and talks will now be put up to the harsh light of reality.



Also - Found at @dkobia - an E-government website I hope will come to Africa one day.

Media Bill 2008

(Download and read the KCA Bill 2008 (PDF) here)

Regarding the Kenya communication (amendment) bill 2008: Like with the last controversial media bill, getting a copy of the bill that has the media up in arms has not been easy.

I’ve seen one PDF version of the bill, and these are some other aspects of the bill brought forward by now cowed permanent secretary Bitange Ndemo and hapless Minister Samuel Pogishio which was on January 3 2009 signed by President Kibaki who hailed at as a milestone bill for e-commerce
What’s in it?

Content government which produces the most content gets to decide what’s in the in the public interest? Who knows what’s in demand e.g. all TV stations play music videos targeted at youth - and does that meet the requirement to of Kenyan programs that serve children - also set what time programs can be shown – does the CCK have time for this really?

Controversial topics: coverage must be balanced and where a complaint is lodged e.g. on a news story, must take action

E-mail (electronic record) now recognized as official communication. E.g. companies with tens of thousands of shareholders, legal correspondence

Electronic contracts are now recognized in law e.g. by e-mail – they can also can include security features like an e-signature, and can be for official government transactions

Electronic signatures now recognized except for wills, and title deeds
Electronic fraud/forgery now outlawed, but the maximum fine is just 200,000 (~$2,500) or two years in jail

Electronic files now admissible in court if it meets criteria specified e.g. the requirement of banks to provide physical statement and letters in court, can now be substituted by printouts. In addition tasks performed over several computer networks can be deemed t have been on one computer and qualify

Kenya gazette electronic version of the Kenya gazette now recognized as authority

Fair play new restriction include monopoly of programming and unfair competitors may be fined up to 10% of revenue (ii) but also discrimination of some kind is banned – this could be outdated as mobile companies in Tanzania and Uganda have introduced location based discounts - depending on their location at the time of calling and the level of traffic on the network

Hacking now outlawed, but the maximum fine is just 200,000 (~$2,500) or two years in jail. Elsewhere it states a fine of 1 million and jail of 5 years

Infrastructure sharing e.g. mobile phone towers may be shared, where no agreement can be reached between providers minister may mandate this (co-location)
Mobile phone reprogramming outlawed 300,000 or 3 years in jail for those seeking to unlock the I-phone. Elsewhere it has been said even downloading or changing the ring tone on your phone constitute reprogramming

Movie censorship empowers decisions made by the Kenya film censorship board ? to bar/edit films they have reviewed

Pornography outlawed– publication of obscene material online (including forwarding of obscene e-mail) liable to a fine of 200,000 and 2 years jail.

Vernacular radio/TV elevates and restricts vernacular broadcast stations – mandates that members of the community participate in the selection and provision of programs to be broadcast. But also restricts what parts of the country they can be broadcast - what is the interest of one media house to broadcast in several languages?

Summary
- Regulator CCK (communications commission of Kenya) gets powers it does not need nor do the members understand, but they can hold them just in case, or till the day they need them like the next election
- New tax (i) universal service fund charged on all licenses – mobile phones, television, radio etc. which the minister for information will set. funds raised can be given out as loans or grant for provision of service to rural or under-served areas

Overall an omnibus bill combines communications and broadcast, good and bad characteristics, it is here to stay and we all have to adapt to it now that it is law

More training needs to be done now, at the judiciary - on the new laws, at banks and companies - on the consequence of e-mail communication since its now binding and enforceable, and in offices everywhere - on the sharing of passwords and other secure resources

Banks have a framework for e-commerce; also there’s more government bureaucracy in this bill – a universal service advisory council, and more members to the CCK Board.

Safaricom IPO Allocation Part II

From a discussion in the skunkworks group forums: Taking up on concerns about e-government in the IPO application process, the same site now offers investors tracking their applications a chance to check how many shares they will get. (I checked and for retail investors, like me, the 22% application appears to be in order)

However the skunkworks group users raised concerns that anyone (not just applicants) could tweak ID and CDS numbers and look up other people’s applications – and beyond that - box numbers, phone numbers, e-mail, amounts applied for, where their refunds will go, etc.

update 1 [SITE TAKEN DOWN NOW - 5PM NAIROBI TIME]

update 2 CHECK BALANCES VIA PHONE SMS
There was an advert in the Saturday (7/6) newspapers, advising investors to confirm their allocations via mobile phone SMS; send an SMS with CDS and ID numbers ( "CDS___*ID ____*")to 2732 on Safaricom or Celtel [cost is Kshs. 10 per message] I tried but got an error message, i.e one of my numbers was wrong!

Update 3 CHECK BALANCES VIA PHONE SMS
There was an advert in the Sunday (8/6) newspapers, advising investors to confirm their allocations via mobile phone SMS; send an SMS with CDS and ID numbers ( "CDS___*ID ____*")to 4009 on Safaricom or Celtel [cost is free/unknown] I tried and got an answer SIX HOURS later, same balance as the e-mail - 22%

IPO Guilt

I am

- Guilty of having to get into an IPO queue after signaling a wavering of my IPO strategy (its political season)

- Guilty of waiting till the last minute; procrastination is a Kenyan habit, and the queues of Safaricom are very long in the last 24 hours, despite the IPO having run for almost a month. What were we waiting for? (and does Obama carry this gene?)

- Party guilty of not fully embracing technology: it’s actually possible to buy the shares without having to join a stockbroker queue if (i) you apply online at the official IPO site (which I did) but I did not (ii) attempt to pay via ATM for the same shares. IPO’s tend to run on a different cycle and I didn’t want to be time barred for a delay in funds

More on the official IPO site; it calls for a leap of faith like buying an air ticket online with boarding pass and successfully completing the flight. But the site does not seem to allow for any amendments (buy more or less shares or even cancel an order after you have applied.

And then I received this ominous e-mail from whoever runs the official site

Safaricom IPO"
To: ___________________
Subject: SAFARICOM IPO APPLICATION: PENDING PAYMENT
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008

Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you for your online application for Safaricom IPO shares dated 4/__/2008 reference _______, in the name of ______.

Please note that the next stage of the application process is to make payment for your application at the receiving bank or broker that you selected, by the close of the IPO offer period on Wednesday April 23rd 2008.

If you have already made payment for your application, kindly disregard this email.

In the event of any queries, contact us via email at safaricomipo@swiftkenya.com or call us on +254 20 2754300.

Warm regards
Customer Service Team
Safaricom IPO at Citi

So let’s see how it goes in the last day of the IPO as I pay for the shares.

across the border: Stanbic Uganda, another over-subscribed IPO from 2007 performed even better than expected with a nice dividend of Ug. Shillings 6.64 shillings per share. Maybe I should try the Zambia Celtel IPO too

E-government and privacy

Online IPO Registrations I applied online for my Safaricom IPO shares.

There’s the offical site for the IPO registration that is very easy to use. Just type in your CDS number and ID number and ID/ passport number (that you used to open the CDS account) to get started ( it’s an indictment for investor education initiatives by the CMA that there are leaders and executives who still don’t know what a CDS account) - and you get all your information like contact information, select your stockbroker, how you want your refunds and dividends to be handled etc.


Some Kenyans, may find it unnerving to see their information in an online public database, like having Safaricom know where you are . The Electoral commission of Kenya (ECK) enabled online verification of vote registration (I checked and confirmed mine online, but it was missing from the voting day roll) in one of the many positive things they did before the election, and the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) which utilizes the internet for some clearing & forwarding processes ahs also promised to enable online tax filing and driver license.

Econet hiring Econet mobile has promised to launch services by August 2008, with new partners Essar. They even advertised for some jobs in the Friday paper, something they have done several times before. Hopefully the company will become operational and the jobs materialize