Using Technology to Deliver the Public Services

For Kenya, the year 2012 was marked with a good number of industrial strikes. The most conspicuous strikes were the teachers’, lecturers’, nurses’ and the doctors’, not undermining the go slow by the chiefs and administration police. The rising cost of living had largely contributed to the strikes. About 2,300 members of the doctors’ union had stopped working after the government said it could not meet their demands for a 300 percent pay rise. Most patients in public hospitals were left unattended and sadly some lost their lives. Some hospitals had hired consultants to replace the striking doctors, but these were still not enough. Private hospitals and clinics however, remained opened as usual and attended to their patients.

On the other hand, about 200,000 teachers were demanding a wage increase of between 100% and 300% after the government had offered nearly 4% pay rise. The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) were demanding a 300 percent salary increment for their members, alongside responsibility allowance at 50 percent, 40 percent and 30 percent for principals and their deputies, senior teachers and heads of departments respectively. The strike had such a huge impact that it altered the annual Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations schedule.

Can technology help the overworked and underpaid teachers, nurses and doctors to provide their essential services? Kenya’s public health sector is facing important challenges that it needs to deal with such as increasing patient loads in public hospitals, a widespread shortage of qualified medical professionals, inequitable distribution of medical resources and the rising cost of providing medical care. Technology can be used to tackle some of these challenges. For instance, health presence is a set up that utilizes communication and collaboration platforms and lets patients interact with doctors hundreds of kilometers away within a clinical setting. In this setup, a qualified medical nurse gathers and transmits physiological data to a specialist doctor from which the doctor can make a prescription or decide the next course of action. With doctors and consultants sitting at Kenyatta National Hospital, the set up can help deliver medical to remote hospitals such as Marsabit where their skills might be rare but will have the availability of a nurse and a clinic with basic facilities.

In the education, the challenges are similar; shortages of teachers staff, overcrowded classes, static learning content and marginalization of semi-arid areas. More than bridging the gap of the students to teachers’ ratio, technology can make learning fun for both teachers and students. Various set ups can be deployed to allow students to share the same teacher or lecturer from one location to more than one classroom. When technology is used for distance learning, students can be face to face with other students a world away exposing them to experiences they would have never had before. This would enhance inter-university collaboration and research leading to innovation and fun learning. Colleges and universities can also bring in experts onto campus for classroom presentations, guest lectures, workshops, and other academic pursuits without their physical presence or considering the geographical distance. Considering that the lectures or lessons are delivered using video, this content can easily be stored for future reference or retrieval by other students or lecturers.

Some countries in the world have embraced technology to provide public services. In India, 60 per cent of the population resides in the rural areas. People living in these areas did not have access to the same quality of medical health care as in urban areas. A health presence solution helped bridge the gap. For some patients, everything from routine appointments to follow-up visits after a major surgery were too expense and inconveniencing to bear. Travel time for physicians and patients would take long hours or may not be fruitful at all. A study by KPMG estimated that India has approximately 12 hospital beds and just 6 doctors for every 10,000 patients, while Kenya has a doctor-to-patient ratio of one doctor for every 17,000 patients. The World Health Organisation recommends of one doctor for every 1,000 patients. Would Kenya deploy such technology to cater for the deficit?

Research and education requires relations between different institutes, research organizations, technology partners, and government departments. In the US, the National LambdaRail (NLR) was developed to provide of high-speed nationwide optical networking services for member research organizations, similar to Kenya’s Kenya Education Network (KENET). NLR enabled has enabled access to video conferencing services for anyone with access to the national facility. The facility has assisted in universities in the US to hold telepresence sessions with abroad such as in April, 2009 with the Khalifa University for Science, Technology and Research (KUSTAR) in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Through KENET, Kenya can take similar strides and lecturers from the main universities can be delivered to constituent colleges and campus. This will reduce the work load on lecturers and improve the lecturer to student ratio, virtually.

Why CCK Switched Off Fake Mobile Phones

On September 30th, 2012, approximately about 1.5 million fake mobile phones in the Kenyan market were switched off by mobile service providers on order by the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK). This went into the various initiatives to prevent crime perpetrated by wrong personification using mobile phones, such as money transfer fraud, threat text messages and so on. The exercise was conducted by comparing and handset’s International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number - the unique identifier for each phone comparable to a MAC address for computers – with an international database that has been developed by manufacturers. If a person’s phone IMEI number does not exist in this database, the handset is deemed fake and deregistered by the mobile service provider. The current challenge for CCK is the ‘creative’ Kenyans who are changing the IMEIs of the fake phones that have already been switched off thus reconnecting to mobile service provider. Such individuals now stand a jail term of not less than five years or a fine of not less than Sh1 million or both according to the law.

Having a genuine IMEI on your phone has some benefits. The IMEI is a number, usually unique, to identify mobile phones, as well as some satellite phones. It is usually found printed inside the battery compartment of the phone. The IMEI number helps a service provider track a mobile phone; identify the location, incoming calls and contacts. IMEI is a structural 15 digit number that indicates the origin, model, and serial number of the device. When a subscriber loses a phone and requests the service provider to block its usage, the provider adds the IMEI to an Equipment Identity Register which blacklists the mobile device and renders it useless. Many providers can share information on stolen or blocked mobile devices by having a Central Equipment Identity Register; which is essentially a database of the IMEI numbers of blacklisted by many service providers. This improves users' security by switching off stolen phones, making them useless for mobile phone thieves and thus less likely to be stolen in the first place. Previously, the stolen phone’s IMEI number could be changed to use the phone again. This challenge has been overcome by blocking all IMEIs that are not genuine. In fact, some subscribers that had their phones block in September had genuine phones but with fake IMEIs. Makes sense? The phones had been stolen.

The next phase of the switch-off, which is said to start in January, will target unregistered SIM cards. The activity may affect revenue from mobile money transfer, voice and data services for service providers. To this end, CCK has signed a memorandum of understanding and set a budget to meet the costs incurred by providers in effecting the switch-off. However, the consumers affected by the exercise will not be compensated, causing uproar by the Consumers Federation of Kenya. Switching off of unregistered SIM cards is definitely paramount in fighting crime. In the past, the police commissioner had expressed his concerns in the ability of criminals to purchase and use multiple unregistered SIM cards thus camouflaging their identity. With registered SIM cards, suspicious activity can easily be traced to the owner of the mobile device. As we approach the elections, it will be important to identity individuals who send hate messages. Without SIM registration, this task is impossible. Does SIM registration intrude into your privacy? Yes it does, but so does bank account details, Kenya Revenue Authority certificate, Insurance Cover details and so on. If well managed, demographic information that is shared during SIM registration can provide reference in make certain beneficial policies.

Other countries in the region also plan to follow the Kenyan example. In Rwanda, for instance, the Rwanda’s telecommunications regulatory body, the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA), intends to get rid of the counterfeit handsets in widespread use in the country at approximately 47.5 percent. The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), on the other hand, has opted to first educate the public on the need to buy genuine mobile phones before embarking on the switch-off exercise. Uganda has witnessed an upsurge in the number of fake mobile devices in her market. The regulatory body, Uganda Communication Commission, banned the importation of fake phones and has plans to start blocking counterfeit mobile phones from the 30th November. Fake phones that have been switched off in the region can be recycled. According to Bruce Howe, General Manager for Nokia East Africa, for every one million phones recycled, it is possible to recover nearly 35kg of gold and 350kg of silver, which can be re-used in the production of future electronic goods. This is an opportunity for the industrialists! The National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) already engaged service providers to encourage consumers to dispose of these fake handsets in a responsible manner by recycling them.

Use of Social Media in Politics

The United States presidential election of 2012 is the next United States presidential election, to be held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. The Democratic and Republican Parties have held their conventions and technology was featured immensely. At the end of President Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, there were 52,756 tweets per minute with the hashtag #DNC2012. The outcome of the First Lady’s speech at the convention was a peak of 28,003 per minute while the former President Bill Clinton’s speech had a peak 22,087 per minute. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney hit 14,289 tweets per minute at the end of his speech, while the vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan's hit 6,669 tweets per minute.


All in all, globally, politicians have taken on technology during the campaigns, with most leveraging on social media. For instance, Barack Obama is the most followed world leader with 17,115,077 followers, globally in 5th place just behind Britney Spears. Other leaders include the Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez is in second place with 3,152,608 followers, followed by the White House, Queen Rania of Jordan and 10 Downing Street who all have over two million followers. In Kenya, a number of presidential candidates have taken on social media; Martha Karua, Raila Odinga, Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ruto, Kalonzo Musyoka and Peter Kenneth. The activities on their accounts though seem to be minimal and are too cautious on tackling pertinent issues discussed on the medium. Most Kenyan politicians revert to “old” technologies such as television and radio to propagate their campaign messages.

Technology can also assist politicians to raise funds during campaigns. Some vendors have developed software suites that scale to match campaigns of different sizes, internet-based fundraising and supporter management packages. The campaign secretariat needs technology to control and manage the campaign activities. The essential tools usually include a website, an email-based Constituent Relations Management system and an online fundraising module. Back in 2008, the Obama campaign online fundraising tapped into a vast number of politically interested ordinary people who could not donate hundreds or thousands of dollars but whose smaller donations can added up to a huge sum. It is also during this time that the Obama campaign utilized the use of text messaging in politics. Frequent updates on the campaign trail and important events would be circulated to the electorate using this medium. Who knows? Maybe in future we will have geo tagging applications that would send political messages based on location.

The main advantage of new campaign support technologies is they allow candidates to accomplish their planned missions efficiently and often more cost effectively, with less staff or fewer volunteers. Video casts have been used in political campaigns with the president candidate Raphael Tuju as one of the pioneers in Kenya. The candidate posted video casts in Sheng, Swahili and English on YouTube during the launch of his presidential campaign. This enabled him to reach an audience on the Internet domain that he would otherwise not been able to reach. However, the some video casts have been to the politicians’ disadvantage. For instance, the puppetry comedy show XYZ exemplifies some of the political traits in a satirical manner.

In last couple of years, a new trend of the use of technology has emerged. Internet activism has rapidly gained popularity. The activists use electronic communication technologies such as social media to enable faster communications by citizen movements and the delivery of local information to a large audience. Social media was heavily involved in the Arab Spring is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests that occurred in the Arab world that beginning 18 December 2010. The popularity of viral videos made it easy for people to throw their weight behind campaigns, leading to widespread demos. To date, rulers have been forced from power in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen due to the uprisings. News was spread by freelance journalists via blogs, twitter and facebook as the mainstream media cautiously avoided the risk of venturing in the areas with the demonstrations.

Another wave of Internet activism was in 2010 and 2011, when Wikileaks released huge caches of documents and videos that were highly sensitive. This demonstrated how Internet activism can have a global impact and should not be ignored. During the campaign periods, politicians require expert advice as the dive into the use of technology to capture the youth vote. A simple mistake, like posting the wrong photo, could easily change the political dynamics with the opponents taking advantage of the mishap. At the same time, technology can propel a candidate to political glory in the shortest time. Case in point, would Obama be President if there was no Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or the Internet? No.

Behind The Scenes At The Olympics

The Kenya Olympic squad arrived home with 2 Gold, 4 Silver and 5 Bronze medals, landing on position 28 behind South Africa and Ethiopia as far as African countries are concerned. This was a disappointing performance considering the high expectations that Kenyans had on the team. It was unlike the performance in Beijing, China, where Kenya had a sum of 6 Gold, 4 Silver and 4 Bronze medals, a record performance for the Olympic team. Interestingly, the Kenyan squad lost the Gold medal to Mo Farah of the UK (10,000m), Tawfiq Makhloufi of Algeria (1,500m) and Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda (Marathon) who trained in Iten in the Rift Valley region.

The London 2012 Olympics was one of the most spectacular global events in the year 2012 with a lot going on behind the scenes. The event turned out to be test bed for some of the most ICT endeavours by various vendors. Construction in preparation for the event involved considerable redevelopment, with the main focus on the Olympic Park which stood on 490 acre piece of land. Preparation for the event is said to have cost about £9.3 billion, the bulk of it, £5.3 billion, going to building venues and infrastructure. The organizers estimated that 8 million spectators would attend the Olympic Games, while 1.5 million would attend the Paralympic Games. This provided a platform for technology companies to show case their latest inventions.

Starting from the swimming pools, sensitive contact pads were installed to register a swimmer’s best time. At the end of the race, each swimmer had to press the contact pad with a minimal pressure of 6.6 pounds to record their time. The technology used was so precise that the pads could register a time difference of one one-hundredth (0.01) of a second. On the track events, the best times of the athletes were determined differently. At the start of the race, the starter pistol was synchronized with the timing console, to record the best times and detect false starts. At the finish line, athletes would pass a laser that beamed across the track and connected to the timing console.  Additional, cameras capturing 2000 frames per second recorded the winner of the race.

During the London 2012 Olympics, all tickets were sold online. Most of the transactions were cashless. Spectators had to purchase their tickets on the web in advance, to avert long queues at the entrance. Visa was the Olympics official payment provider; spectators would use Visa to purchase snacks, drinks and so on, without cash. In fact, ATMs were switched off by officials complying with the Visa's sponsorship terms. Another conspicuous sponsor was O2, the second-largest mobile telecommunications provider in the United Kingdom and is headquartered in Slough. The mobile operator signed a deal with Westminster City Council and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to make free wifi available to millions of residents and visitors.

British Telecom was not left behind in exhibiting her expertise during the Olympics. The telecommunications services company is one of the largest in the world and with presence in over 170 countries. BT delivered a cloud based voice network connecting 25 Olympic venues as the Games' official communications services partner. A converged voice, video and data network was provided for the London 2012 Olympics interlinking all the venues. More than 16,500 handsets were deployed across all London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) offices and London 2012 Olympic sites ahead of the opening ceremony. The cloud service was based on Cisco’s Hosted Unified Communications Services (HUCS) platform and had been under testing since the end of May 2011.

3D broadcasting technology had already been tested on sports such as basketball and big stadium events and the Wimbledon tennis finals. The London 2012 Olympics followed suit in earnest. Panasonic had announced that the London 2012 Games will be the first Olympics to be broadcast live in 3D. Panasonic provided 3D equipment including camcorders, TV monitors and a technical team for live 3D TV production at the Olympics. Various broadcasters would then pick the signal and broadcast their customers. Coverage of the Beijing 2008 Olympics was made in HD, but the London 2012 Olympics took it a notch higher by using the state-of-art technology to broadcast the sports.

Looking at Local Content

On July 8 2012, the Kenya Open Data Initiative celebrated its one year anniversary. The initiative, launched by the President on the same day last year, was aimed at making key government data freely available to the public through a single online portal. The data available would include such information as census, national and regional expenditure, and information on key public services. So far, the portal has been used in research and education, creation of Mashups - a Web page or application that uses and combines data, presentation or functionality from two or more sources to create new services - and journalism. Some of the Mashups include Kenya Budget Explorer, an initiative of Twaweza to visualize the Kenyan budget, and Mzalendo, a portal that keeps an eye on the Kenyan parliament highlighting the latest news as relating to parliament; Hansard recordings; information on MPs and their participation in parliament.

The anniversary of Kenya Open Data Initiative was celebrated at the Open Data Development for Development Camp held at the iLabAfrica – Strathmore University on the 27th and the 28th of June 2012. The event was organized by ICT Board Kenya, Kenya Open Data Initiative, Open for Change, World Bank, NaiLab, @iLabAfrica, Akvo, 1%CLUB, Hivos, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, and Development Gateway, among other collaborators. The event assembled Government officials, educational researchers, software developers, journalists and other players in the ICT experts. The aim was to share experiences and networks, build tools, and show the power of Open Data. In essence, the event highlighted the importance of Government as a source of local content and how players in the ICT space would enable the citizens to access data provided by Government.

Local content can be created either for local or global consumption, meaning contextual origin in the region it is utilized or served from. Another aspect of local content is content hosted in data centers that are local to the country, for instance the google cache servers in Kenya or the web content on the .co.ke domain names. At the moment, unfortunately, over 90% of Internet users in Kenya are net receivers of information from foreign sources in the US and Europe. How can we change this? The Kenya Open Data Initiative is certainly an effort towards the right direction. Citizens would be enticed to access local content if more Government services were available online such Identity Card and Passport application, Birth or Death Certificate application, Title Deed search and application, Business Licenses application and verification, Driving License renewal and so on. The mobile payment systems can be integrated for any form of payment required for the services.

Another way of creating local content is by capturing the local cultural activities and traditions or even better producing content in the local language. For instance; the locally contrived ‘Kulahappy’ comedy animations that have been done in Swahili. The XYZ show has also attracted online viewers, especially the Kenyans in Diaspora who want to catch with the local political intrigues. E-Commerce is an emerging concept of local content. Portals such as Mama Mike’s has provided a unique solution to facilitate incoming remittances by enabling Kenyans living abroad to send goods and services to their family and friends back home. Through the portal, Kenyans abroad can buy supermarket vouchers, buy airtime, pay electricity bills or school fees, send gifts or flowers and so on.

Funding can be a challenge in producing local content. In an effort to promote local content, Kenya ICT Board’s Tandaa has been running a $4 million three-year grant program to support the development of local digital content. Applicants can apply for up to $50,000 for companies, $10,000 for individuals and $150,000 matching grant for established companies. The short listed applicants are taken through a business strategy training that assists in understanding how to write a business plan, price products and develop a marketing strategy. The program began in 2010 with the first round of funding to 15 grantees worth $689,526 while the second round had 30 grantees selected for funding worth a total of $1.28 million. The second round has 2,000 applicants, indicating the quest of many Kenyans in venturing into creation of local content.