FortySouth

The Universal Service Fund (USF) was established by the recently passed Kenya Communications Amendment Act 2008 and, while promising in theory, it seems to be rather thin on the details of its implementation.

Where a lack of clarity on the issues exists, the Law could be prone to misrepresentation and abuse.

What can be gleaned from the Act? Continue reading

On my WordPress dashboard is a draft post of a rant about official Kenya Government websites that I, almost without fail, find cause to update whenever I happen to visit these sites.

Save for a few diamonds in the ruff that present relevant and up-to-date content on a user-friendly, navigable and visually-appealing interface (e.g. CBK, KSMS, ICT Board, KNEC etc.), most of the sites that represent the online face of ministries and parastatals are sufferably navigable. Perhaps it’s a personal preference, but scrolling text and animated GIFs can be very distracting. This is where the AdBlock Plus and NoScript extensions for Firefox shine; they make it easy to block images, Flash and JavaScript in the browser.

So I was pleasantly surprised to note today that the Kenyan Ministry of Information and Communication revamped their site. The new design features a cleaner interface with simplified navigation and current news is prominently displayed; this in lieu of the previous congested landing page with inconsistent typography, symmetry and broken links .

Whether the “blog-like” format of the home page and site navigation exclusively from the header is appropriate for a site with as much content to offer as does this, is debatable; although it doesn’t lend itself any favors with complying with the Three-click rule best practice.

One big plus is the new forum section where threads can be started on any topic for discussion. If you’re lucky, the PS Bitange Ndemo just might respond as he (or his proxy) seems to be a regular visitor.

If you haven’t already, visit the site to find policy documents, draft bills, news and contribute to the discourse on all things ICT.

The Attorney-General met the Media Owner’s Association on Tuesday to receive proposals on finding the way forward on the disputed sections in the Communications (Amendment) Act 2008.

The verbiage of the memorandum is not clear, since it’s not (yet) in the public domain but these are the proposals from reports:

• Suspend or delete Section 88 from the Kenya Communications Act 1998 (the principal Act)
• Upon amending the content of Section 88, move it either to the Media Act 2007 or present it as an entirely new Bill
• Explicitly guarantee “freedom of the press” in the Constitution

The AG notes that the Amendment Act commenced on January 2nd and also Section 88 cannot be suspended pending any amendments. Nor can the Act be amended by Miscellaneous Amendments since it’s a major law.

I think that some of the regulatory functions stipulated in Part IVA of the Communications Amendment Act should be transferred to the Media Council, perhaps through an amendment of the Media Act 2007. Licensing should be regulated by the CCK, while content and programming would be handled by the Media Council.

Aspects relating to media freedoms would have been addressed in the Freedom of Information Bill 2007, including the right to information, disclosure and whistle-blower protection. Unfortunately the Bill did not make it past the 1st Reading according to Parliament’s 2007 Bill tracker.

It will be interesting to see what direction this process will follow in the coming weeks.