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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have travelled to many parts of the world. In some countries, when you walk into a cyber cafe, you do not just start using a computer before you have identified yourself in a register. You put your identified name on the register before you proceed to use the machine. There has to be a legal framework which will protect society from things like pornography which can be dangerous. As we all know, somebody can spread seditious information that can be harmful to the society. This is still open in the internet. We need a framework whereby even in the internet, we are able to block such ills from reaching the society. We are also aware that criminal activities are done from places such as cyber cafes. Once you register, they are able to monitor and put penalties on those who are found, for example, looking at pornography. There is a fine that is levied, on the spot, on those found indulging in such activities. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in this Motion, we are asking for a framework in which the Government does not just sit back and tell the investor not to invest in ICT because there is no framework. You need to jump from one Ministry to the other to get registration and relevant licences. We need a one-stop shop where an investor just has a checklist from which to tick off the requirements. Once he has the documents in place, there is absolutely no reason why the Government will deny him an opportunity to invest in that business. All over the world, there are things that are happening that we must also be very open about. We have the issue of hacking and people creating viruses to shut down others businesses. We need a legal framework in which anybody found doing such activities, the law would take its course. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we know that this Government and other successive governments had not put legal frameworks for many of these things that we are now seeing in the ICT environment. For an investor to get licence, for example, for broadcasting or publishing a newspaper, he had to be politically-correct. We need to get away from this mentality and license even those with opposing ideas. We have Government facilities involved in broadcasting. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are in an election year and campaigns will take place. Therefore, we do not want particular arm of the Government to control the amount of information that is going to come out of the system. The issue of cross-media ownership is one that we also need to address. There are some people who hold more than one licence. For example, we have somebody holding a licence for radio broadcasting and publishing newspapers. In this way, we are creating an entity where somebody is allowed to do all businesses under one umbrella. Even if he needs to do the business, we need to separate these businesses to operate independently. This is because the person is likely to sell information in one direction. This can be very detrimental to the society. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we know that ICT, at large, needs connectivity at the grassroots level. Right now, the easiest way to do this is through satellite linkages. Licence fees and 1762 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 13, 2007 the cost of these satellites are pretty high. I think the figure is up to US$3,000 or US$5,000 to have a disk connected. However, until today, there is no legal framework that has been put in place to control some of these things. I remember, one time I was in Dubai and tried to access a site of a Kenyan newspaper. I found it was blocked. Countries have even put facilities in their internet that control what they want their society to access. When they think certain information would be detrimental to their society, they do not allow it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have been hearing what has been happening in some of our radio stations. Some have programmes that are unethical. If you listen to some of these stations and you are sitting with your child in the car, you feel like turning off the radio. This is because the debate is out of this world. It is something that you cannot even discuss in public because it is detrimental to the society. To borrow a culture that is not yours is critical. We need to get some of our radio stations to air 70 per cent local cultural programmes. In this way, we can build our culture as a society and have an identity as Kenyans. We often find Kenyans watching M- Net on their televisions. Sometimes they are glued to Nigerian programmes because that is what they find close to them as a society. However, we, as Kenyans, need to have an acting industry where we have our people becoming stars and other Africans can look at us as a country that creates their own movies and plays. In this way, if we really get these radio stations to hold a certain percentage of local issues, we will go a long way in stopping the young generation aping the Europeans or Americans and avoid becoming that typical hip-hop society. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I will also like to bring up the issue of the reason why we want this Act in place. I remember there was a time in this country when the Government decided that even a fax machine was a problem. They did not want people to receive faxes. There was a big problem when fax machines came in the initial stages. When we had our first mobile phones, there were people who were listening to the conversations people were having. They felt threatened that it was a matter of national security. Even now, I think the Government might start thinking of how they can reduce digital links and start interfering with individuals. We need to get the Government to stop eavesdropping on people. Kenyans should have the opportunity to talk freely and feel safe when discussing on phone with others. The Government can use the information against an individual or put insecurity issues on you. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in many countries, people are not allowed to use mobile phones in banking halls. We need to have a legal framework. In areas where we feel there could be insecurity, mobile phones should not be used. What happens is; somebody walks out of a bank, he watches somebody in a bank and uses the information for criminal activities. These are the kind of things we need to have a legal framework for. Right now, it is just a societal thing that you cannot use a mobile phone in the banking hall. We need to make this a criminal offence. You will find that even in banks where there are signs that forbid telephone use, people still use them. They do this because they believe somebody cannot do anything to them. That is the truth! You cannot do anything to anybody using a mobile phone in a banking facility. There is no legal framework to stop him from doing so. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I think I have basically gone through what I wanted to talk about in the introduction of this Bill and I would like hon. Ochilo-Ayacko to second it."
}