Godfrey Osotsi

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 381 to 390 of 854.

• 25 Feb 2020 in National Assembly: Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for the opportunity to make my comments on this Motion. view
• 25 Feb 2020 in National Assembly: There are three aspects to this Report, but allow me to talk about the USF. I have listened to the debate and realised that many speakers have not talked about it, except Hon. Oundo. view
• 25 Feb 2020 in National Assembly: I am very familiar with the telecommunications industry. I am very concerned about the USF, particularly about the aspect of utilisation of the Fund. You are aware that this Fund is established under the Kenya Information and Communication Act (KICA) to allow telecommunication operators like Safaricom, Airtel and others to partner with the Government to support a widespread ICT access initiative, promote capacity building and enhance innovation in the ICT services. Since its inception, this Fund has not done as much as it was supposed to do. The kind of projects they have undertaken cannot convince anyone that they are ... view
• 25 Feb 2020 in National Assembly: The Kenya Communications Authority, which is supposed to manage and administer the Fund, says that they are trying to collect money so that they can initiate the project. I do not think that is an efficient way of doing things. As we speak, the only tangible project that has been done under the USF is connectivity to public schools. About 800 schools have been connected. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor. view
• 25 Feb 2020 in National Assembly: Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, most of the schools’ connectivity is not working. I have reports that every time the KCA inspectors go on the ground to monitor the service, the providers switch it on, but immediately they leave, it is switched off so that they can activate the next cite where they are going to. This service is poorly managed. There is no local support. This is because even the teachers who have been told to support the project do not understand the technology. So, we have put money in a project that is not serving the purpose. view
• 25 Feb 2020 in National Assembly: Operators who contribute money to this Fund, such as Safaricom, have been raising issues on the usage of the Fund. To them, the Fund can be used for many things such as infrastructure, so that we can have infrastructure sharing. We do not want to see every operator setting up base stations. Safaricom has its own, Airtel and Jamii telecom is trying to set up their own base stations. We are going to create confusion in the industry. The best scenario would be that the CA, using funds from the USF, can set up a uniform infrastructure that can be ... view
• 25 Feb 2020 in National Assembly: That is the vision that will reduce competition in the industry. We have been complaining about Safaricom dominance, but that is because we have not regulated the industry in the right way. One of the ways is to properly utilise the USF Fund. We are also seeing a challenge of duplication of projects. The USF is being used to connect schools. We have another project by the ICT Ministry called the National Optic Fibre Backbone Infrastructure (NOFBI), which is connecting counties to fibre. Recently, under the Big Four Agenda, the Government started connectivity to health facilities and manufacturing projects. We ... view
• 25 Feb 2020 in National Assembly: We are talking of many good things, but we are not aligning all of them. Right now, the Government has released what we call Digital Economy Policy. How does it lie with the USF? They are now talking about connectivity to the Big Four Agenda. How does it lie with the USF? I have a lot of concern about this USF. As a Member of the Committee on Information, Communication and Innovation, I think we should do something about it. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be ... view
• 25 Feb 2020 in National Assembly: I am aware that a Member of this House, Hon. Elisha, has brought a Bill focusing on the utilisation of the Fund. I have issues with his proposal in the Bill, but the general problem is how the funds should be utilised. This is something which if CA sat together with the operators and the Government, they can come up with a common approach on how to integrate all the efforts being done in the ICT industry. This will ensure we have a quicker way of achieving universal access without waiting for money to pile in the bank and say ... view
• 19 Feb 2020 in National Assembly: Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for this opportunity to also say something about this Bill. As you are aware, I come from a county that grows tea, the County of Vihiga, where we have a tea factory called Mudete Tea Factory. I have experienced first-hand challenges that tea farmers in that county go through. In fact, right now, most of the tea farmers have uprooted the tea plants because of low production and due to the fact that they are not benefiting from it. So, this is a very serious problem. I want to agree with the many Members ... view