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"speaker_name": "Mr. Mungatana",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Medical Services",
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"content": " Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, may I take this opportunity to thank you for giving me an opportunity to also contribute to the Kenya Communications (Amendment) Bill, 2008. First of all, I would like to congratulate the Minister in charge of communications for bringing this Bill to this House. The Minister for Information and Communications in moving this Bill mentioned several things that are crucial for purposes of us getting this law passed at this time. I want to commend him because this is one of those Bills that we can say are Bills that are going to put the country in the right place in the world map. The Kenya Communications (Amendment) Bill, 2008 will have a lot of impact in terms of ICT and e-commerce development in this country. In fact, it will have a big impact in terms of laying down the law that will govern the e-eommerce that is already taking place in this country. I am very happy that the Minister realised that Kenya is a leading economy in the East African region. In fact, in the whole Horn of Africa, we are the biggest economy by far. Therefore, it is important for us to also set the pace in terms of ICT development and the legal regime that must back the development of ICT and e-commerce, so that the other countries that neighbour us will be able to emulate what this country is doing. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am also sure that the Minister has realised that one of the five pillars of prosperity in our Vision 2030 is the development of ICT. For ICT and e-commerce to prosper in this country, we must ground it on proper legal foundation, which is lacking in this country as of now. Kenya has the capacity to develop technology and export it. Why? It is because of all the countries surrounding Kenya, we are the country that has been most stable. Therefore, we have been able to educate many of our people, both in this country and outside. Therefore, we are a net exporter, as far as education and technology are concerned, of manpower, but we can do even better if we put the correct legal regime in place. Other countries which we would like to emulate like Malaysia have done it before. Even other countries that we do not consider to be very advanced as compared to Kenya, that is some of our neighbours, have gone very far as far as ICT development is concerned. We need to know that November 13, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3511 countries like Rwanda, for example, have many of their villages already connected to the Internet, which is something we cannot say of this country today. This means that there is a challenge to us even from this region. If we do not, as a nation invest in laws and environment and set correct pace, then we might face some challenges from even some of our neighbours, whom we consider to be a bit behind us. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to congratulate the Assistant Minister for bringing the Kenya Communications (Amendment) Bill before this House because despite all these developments that have taken place in Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) in Kenya today, we did not have any form of amendments or serious developments in terms of the law in this country. For the last ten years, there has not been any attempt to bring law and regulations with regard to the development of ICT despite the fact that today, almost 50 per cent of the adult working population own a mobile phone. That estimate tells you that in this country today, information communications technology has developed faster than our law. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, even if you look at trade, it is normal for many huge banking transactions in Kenya, nowadays, to take place through the internet. We are already purchasing a lot of equipment through the internet. Most of the huge suppliers who do business with the Government and the private sector go to the internet to source and purchase goods that we are utilising in the country today. Therefore, when we talk of laying down the law, we are, in fact, saying that we need to catch up with what the private sector and business people are doing today. Mr. Deputy Spear, Sir, therefore, there are good reasons for us as a House to pass this Kenya Communications (Amendment) Bill as soon as possible. I fully endorse this Bill in its current form. However, like we always say, Bills come here with beautiful suggestions that we can always improve and I am sure the relevant Departmental Committee is dealing with some of them. However, I would also want to put some of my thoughts in terms of the Kenya Communications (Amendment) Bill. First of all, the proposed Clause No.7 gives the Minister the power to appoint the board of the Commission. It also designates the respective occupational backgrounds of those appointees that the Minister is supposed to make. I think it is a beautiful inclusion in this Kenya Communications (Amendment) Bill. However, as I have always said, we need to accept as a principle, Government and society, that we will not leave out people of the opposite gender, whether men or women in the representation in the board. So, in this Clause 7, I would urge the Minister to consider inputting an amendment that would make it law that in appointing the seven persons, not being public officers, he will take into consideration the issue of gender balancing so that at least one-third of those that will be appointed will be people that not only have the necessary knowledge or experience in matters relating to the various fields like broadcasting, communications and so on, but will be people from all the two genders. So, in Clause 7, the Minister should take that into consideration. At the same time, there should be a clear position that in this board, there will be consideration on regional balance. We would like this to be included into the law so that any Minister who will have the opportunity to appoint will take that into consideration. That way, we will have created a law that will secure the question of regional distribution as well as that of gender equity. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have looked at the proposed Clauses 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. These are basically clauses that are bringing amendments that enhance criminal penalties against offenders. We have to accept right now that the kind of offences or crimes being committed through the internet and ICT have a huge impact. For example, if you fiddle with information that is contained in a computer that runs the payroll of a whole department of Government, the losses could be tremendous. For example, if you hack into a website of a bank and deduct, say, ten shillings from all the customers and put it into one account, you could make a lot of money from 3512 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 13, 2008 that criminal act. So, the enhancements that are proposed here should be supported by this House. We have seen harsher penalties like five years imprisonment or fines in millions of shillings from small penalties that previously existed. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am very happy with the inclusion of Clause 16 in this Bill because as far as broadcasting services are concerned, there is now a clear requirement under the law that we will licence and regulate broadcasting services and promote development of local content in broadcasting. We have spoken about this matter for a long time inside this House. We are very happy that, at least, the Minister has been listening. So far, we have seen that, in fact, the idea that local productions were boring, useless and people were not interested in them is a falsehood. When they started coming in, more Kenyans now watch and listen to them. We thank the Minister for these proposals. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to skip some of the proposals that I have made but, the last and most important thing is that the amendments that are proposed to the Evidence Act, as proposed in this Bill, are extremely crucial. Previously, it was not possible to admit electronic records in any court proceedings in this country. Even when evidence is so clear, it was a matter of the discretion of a judge or magistrate to accept or refuse and yet, it is something which is so clearly recorded. So, we are now putting it clearly in the Evidence Act that we need to have electronic evidence admitted in court. I think that is a good thing. All in all, what we could say is that this is one of those laws that look into the future. It is a law that we need to pass very quickly as a House. It is a good law, and we will be waiting for all the other laws relating to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to be brought here, so that we can pass them quickly, so that our country can be in line with the best international practice. So, I beg this House to entirely support this Bill. Thank you."
}