ict practitioners bill is back

Hello Collins,

I will direct my response to the community(myself included) through your
email, but I assure you that I hold no grudge to you or anyone else
individually.

*I do not even see what the problem here is, What is so hard in having a
> membership based organization (who\’s membership is open to all) regulating
> policy, where members then can openly discuss, define, and review*
> *​..*..​
>

​This is the idealistic mentality that ​plagues this and every other geek
association that was ever formed on the planet Earth. We think we know the
easy path to solving every other problem.

​*Why should some people somewhere earn dollars to sit in expensive
> committees to come up with a classroom style definition of what an ICT
> professional is, and then spend even more money stopping people from
> exploiting their creativity. *

Because they are very sharp people who have taken the time to understand
what it takes to get things done, within the current environment. While the
*ideal* situation would be for them to lobby for the rest of us while we go
about our keyboard warrior campaigns, I would not hold it against them if
they served their own interests first.

I personally recall notifying this community as regards the peaceful
awareness march some time last year about a colleague of mine who died in
Ethiopia, and more so about the others that are still rotting in remand
(not even jail), and how many of you showed up?

More importantly, having a unified framework that details how to seek
opportunities and from where would have avoided many such unfortunate
incidents.

​
>
> *Bwana PS: I do not know what the motivations for this bill are, The only
> point of reference we have are the first one, I would still look at it
> suspiciously, especially the urgency with which it is being reintroduced,
> period! Why not present the gaps as they are and we just focus on filling
> the gaps. ​*

​
We have direct access to the CS. And he is not just any other guy but
someone who has proven himself at all levels in the industry. And he is
taking his time to engage with us and almost begging us to organise
ourselves in such a manner that our opinions can be of some meaningful use​
to both the industry at large and to ourselves individually.

The best that we can offer him is vague responses and maybe even some
hostility.

Let me break this one down, because this is what we need to \”accept\” to
understand. I say accept because I know we all have the capacity to do so
but we are applying some kind of myopia so that we can continue to vent hot
air from the cool shade of our comfort zones.

Mucheru has given us a very crucial pointer of the who is who to him as the
holder of the office of CS ICT in the Republic of Kenya. KEPSA is the body
that the three arms of the GoK would work with as the legitimate
representatives of the private sector in Kenya.

As important as ICT is to the present and future of +254, we are not any
more special than the other sectors so as to warrant every other grouping
within the industry a direct vote when it comes to public participation. It
is therefore wise for us to be in very good books with KEPSA and especially
with our current reps. One thing I
will point out is that it is important for us to take note that Mr.
Macharia comes from the umbrella of KITOS and here is there vision
. The word c*atalyst* should sound very
familiar to us so maybe we really really need to be nice to this man if we
are to remain relevant as KICTAnet.
​
The way I see it, it was actually a good show of faith by KEPSA to
accommodate KICTAnet into their submissions because they really didn\’t have
and in any case there would have been no significant repercussions for them
in ignoring this toothless [insert whatever you imagine we are].​
​

>
> *The one thing that differentiated how Britain\’s Industrial revolution was
> by magnitudes far more successful than France, is that one had an open
> policy to innovation, anyone could be listened to and the default challenge
> was always \”Prove it\”, In the other, Before you showed up before schooled
> men & women, you had to prove you are qualified to even set foot on
> stage. Names like John Kay, Richard Arkwright, James Watt and Stephenson
> would not exist today, in a worldview that seeks to strangle innovation. ​*

​This is a very good insight. To this I will respond as follows.

The people who hold sway in our economy and therefore policy are people who
got there by being cautious to things they do not understand. I think this
is where the issue both is and also therein lies our opportunity to get the
change we want. For instance, many of you here might be the IT person of
someone who would never listen to anyone else about anything to do with
\”computer\” without consulting with you. I don\’t think I will need to hammer
this point any further..
​
For my part I will support this bill. I am one of those with tonnes of
experience but with little formal education. I have tried to go to Uni and
it was always painful to sit in those classes. What I will tell you is that
for every other success story you hear of drop outs that you hear, there
are 1000x more who are suffering ​the pain of being filtered out of many
opportunities even before they can get a chance of presenting these skills
that they hold.

​It will be hard to get the exact right framework in place, but I am
willing to put in the work of starting this journey and hopefully create a
better future for many others that I can tell you will benefit from some
kind of recognition of the work they have put into developing their careers.

Regards,

Kevin

On 18 December 2017 at 13:45, Collins Areba via kictanet <