Government to Build Industrial Training Institutions in All 47 Counties

                                                    Photo By Sammy Mburu

The government will invest industrial training centers of excellence in all counties in a bid to supply the adequate and skilled man power essential for realization of Vision 2030.

Labour Minister John Munyes on Friday 24th August 2012, said that the government was aimed at providing quality industrial training to the youths in all counties as way of achieving Vision 2030 goal of industrializing Kenya.

Mr Munyes said that the government “appreciates the need to invest in new technology through constant upgrading of industrial equipments” as well training to ensure the country becomes modernized.

“We need to have adequate, efficient and effective supply of skilled labour force, to achieve this we need to provide quality industrial training in all the 47 counties and the government will create centers of excellence in each

county as the country prepares for devolution,” Mr Munyes said.

He further said that the government will mobilize funds to implement the initiative and more so partner with other countries in procuring new technology facilities as well as training.

The Minister expressed optimism that such a move would spur both economic and social growth in the country and he called on stakeholders to come on board and support the industrial institutions.

“Industrializing Kenya requires committed and motivated stakeholders, the governments so far is working together with Canada and Qatar in procurement of updated technological equipments and also in offering quality training to ensure adequate supply of brain-power,” Mr Munyes said.

Mr Munyes was speaking at National Industrial Training Authority (NITA) headquarters at Industrial Area in Nairobi where he stressed that industrial training was important and that it would accelerate industrial development as set out in the social pillar of the Kenya Vision 2030.

Mr Munyes at the same time inaugurated 12 Board members of the NITA led by Chairman Prof Thomas Akbar and acting Director General Elizabeth Kimenyi.

NITA Board vice chair George Muchai who is also Central Organization of Trade Union (COTU) deputy secretary general echoed words of the minister and he said the newly appointed Board was equal to the task.

“NITA will work tirelessly to ensure Kenya becomes industrialised in order to attain the Vision 2030 goals which are anchored on the ability of a country to utilize technology to maximize its production,” Mr Muchai said.

Mr Muchai further said that only investment in industrial training would ensure adequate and efficient manpower in the country and also partnerships with developed countries such as “Denmark, Italy, Canada and South Korea” to provide relevant training and expertise.

CHINA TAKEOVER-Hawkers demonstrate against Chinese and their products

Small scale traders in Nairobi on Thursday 18th August,2007 held demonstrations against "encroachment" by Chinese merchants in to the Kenyan market risking their businesses .

The traders who mainly deal with essential imported goods cited proliferation of Chinese hawkers in Nairobi selling same goods as those they import from their country leading to competition for space, a move they described as dangerous to the Kenyan traders.

The demonstrations were organized by Kenya Worldwide Importers and Traders Association (KWITA), a conglomeration of small and medium enterprises trading in imported products and they sought to cushion government on legality of presence of Chinese brokers in the country and the quality of some of their products.

According to KWITA chairman Ben Mutahi, the government has shown lack of concern in enforcing law and establishing regulations on trade to salvage small scale traders from exploitation by large scale sellers such as the Chinese.

Mr Mutahi accused the Ministry of Immigration of laxity and he questioned whether the ministry was aware of the existence of Chinese traders, their legality and the social-economic ramifications of their entry in the Kenyan market.

“The current rate at which the Chinese are flowing into our country and our businesses unchecked by the immigration ministry is so alarming that we might soon witness a total take-over of our import and retail chain with disastrous consequences not only in losing employment opportunities but also in exchequer collections,” Mr Mutahi said.

The traders who mostly deal with goods ranging from textiles, mobile phones and accessories, vegetables and electronics alleged that the Chinese merchants operated in the ountry without work permits as well as licenses from various authorities and they urged the government to intervene on the matter.

“We are worried that even some of the Chinese do not have work permits, we would like the trade ministry to establish under what business permits and trade protocols are these people operating on,” Mr Mutahi said.

He further called on the local authorities especially the city council of Nairobi to “establish the licenses if any under which the Chinese are operating to literary hawk on our streets.”

Apparently, the small scale entrepreneurs claimed that the Chinese have repositioned themselves from being suppliers to retailers hence selling goods directly to consumers in Nairobi.

“They have not spared even Wakulima market where they are selling imported onions at the expense of locally produced, if this continues we will be forced to close our small businesses,” the traders said.

They questioned whether the government has any bilateral agreements with China that allows its unskilled nationals to flood our country and take up jobs and businesses that Kenyans are capable of and are already undertaking.

The traders also took issue with the quality of some of Chinese products especially mobile phones, accessories and electronics and they noted that some were below the set international standards thus undermining Kenyans and called on various government agencies to examine quality of those products.

“We want the Kenya Bureau of Standards to ascertain the quality of these products, the Anti-counterfeit agency also should establish the genuineness of goods they are peddling especially mobile phones and accessories in view of the fact that Communication of Kenya is about to block all counterfeit mobile phones,” Mr Mutahi said.

The traders marched to the Prime Minister’s office where they issued their petition before proceeding to Parliament buildings where they petition was received by Dujis MP Aden Duale, Ikolomani MP  Dr Bonny Khalwale and nominated MP Amina Abdala who promised to present their petition in parliament.

The 3rd Annual Education and Leadership Congress:Innovation for Change

Equity Group Foundation has been hosting their 3rd Annual Education and Leadership Congress at the Kenyatta University. The congress has been running from August 13th and is scheduled to end on 23rd.

 The Group invited James Wabochi from Virtual City, Paul Kukubo from ICT BOARD, Anthony Mwai from IBM KENYA and Erik Hersman from I HUB to take part in their panel discussion Innovating for Change. Hosted by the Equity Bank CEO, Dr. James Mwangi, the panel members spoke of their experiences and thoughts on innovation as they have seen it in Africa.
The 5000 students at the congress were some of the best from their schools.

Though this is a good quality to possess, one cannot make it on academic qualifications alone. There has to be a lot of effort put in order to achieve success. When one talks about innovation in Africa, there is a different way of looking at it. Thinking about connectivity in Africa you would look at mobile phones before looking at computers. To make money in the future, this the view most people have taken. It is the reason for the success of Mpesa in Kenya. Innovation means challenging the status quo, i.e. the paradigm that currently drives business, universities and industries. For example, challenging the way information flows in the media
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As an innovation space, the iHub presents this case perfectly. The iHub already has 8,700 members, technologists, investors, media professionals and students, a cross-section that provides a view of what’s going to happen next. To be a startup founder, there is no age or educational limit. Having the ability to take a look at technology and using it to lower the barrier for you to create services and products gives you the chance to become successful. According to Erik Hersman, there are two things that one has to be aware of to create a successful start up companies, jump on the internet and learn from it in order to be ready for what will be happen in the future and try to learn from your experiences, especially your failures in order to create better decisions in future.
Many times in John Waibochi’s vision, there have been mistakes, but being able to peservere and learn from bad decisions has helped him attain a success in his business. Mr. Waibochi was involved in the popular Simu Ya Jamii project which then was a good idea but would not make a very good business sense right now. He has since been involved in other ground breaking business ventures including an Internet Service Provider and a company that sold mobile phone scratch cards. At the time there were only 18 such companies where presently there are 600. As CEO of Virtual City, he has overseen the creation of mobile solutions that are used in the agriculture sector and other industries.

IBM has thrived on reading the market trends and creating products which match the consumer demands. Having changed from creating typewriters to mainframes and then to desktop PC’s. But the company made a mistake by disregarding the operating system created by Bill Gates. Bill Gates went on to become one of the richest men by profiting from the popularity of his operating system. At one time, the company got rid of the divisions that were still supporting old technology in order to continue being relevant in the market. It is evident that change applies to both small and big companies alike according to Tony Mwai, the IBM General Manager for East Africa.

According to John Waibochi Kenyan innovators can take leadership in what they are doing, especially in terms of mobile applications. This can be done by posing critical questions. Mr. Waibochi asks, “Can we create applications that we can export?” When considering outsourcing, you have to look at what you are good at. Outsourcing works both ways since you could be both a recipient and provider of outsourcing services. “Kenyans have a lot of talent in IT training,” says Mr. Kukubo, “In the middle tier of employment in South Africa, Ethipia, Uganda and Rwanda, Kenyans are very dominant.” He mentions both the education from school and gaining virtual experience as ways of develloping talent in a country. As companies become more aggressive in their growth, they demand more skills. This drives universities to change their curriculum to develop skills that are not available in the country.
In hiring, it is better to look at what one has done rather than what they have learnt. Erik Hersman tries to interview people to find out if they are smart and if they can get things done. “Being smart allows you to learn anything, getting things done allows you to execute those things,” says Erik Hersman. People who are top in their business possess both these qualities. Very few universities in Kenya produce good computer scientists, this is the same with most of the universities in the world. The best computer scientists are those who set out to learn on their own. Kenya has a competitive adventure in mobile technology. Taking advantage of this puts you in a better place of leading the world.
iHub research was built as a channel for people and companies who want to do research and fund that research locally. By partnering with Google and Intel, the iHub is building a supercomputer cluster which will provide access to testing solutions created for big data. “Again we are building a user experience lab and it’s the only one in Africa. So small and medium enterprise companies like John’s (Virtual City) and larger companies can test their applications,” says Erik Hersman. The iHub is doing this so that Kenyan technology in future will be owned by us and not by other people, by software and game developers.
Kenya’s innovation will be built around a lot of solutions being invented to solve problems which do not have solutions today. We have a great history of the Jua Kali sector. In the next 20 years, there is going to be a margin between the hardware and the software where the hardware is going to be as easy to use as the software.

C/O  Carlos Ageng'o

Kalonzo to soon Launch Manifesto

The Vice president Kalonzo Musyoka has said that the Wiper party is expected to soon launch its Manifesto for Kenyans to see and understand what the party stands for and more so what it intends to achieve for Kenya, he cited some of the agenda the party will push for in attempt to spur economic, social and political growth in the country.

“Very soon I will launch my presidential bid and Kenyans will be able to see the manifesto of my party, some of the WDP priorities include; 24 hour economy, job creation, eradicate hunger, strong democracy and national unity,” said Mr Musyoka

The VP further urged Kenyans to uphold as the country heads for elections in March 2013, he called on Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC)to immediate procure  Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits to help eliminate election malpractices that can lead to chaos as seen in 2008.

Kenyans want peace as we head for elections and they expect nothing less than the BVRs, so IEBC should speed up the procurement process but ensure they do it diligently to avoid further delays said Mr Kalonzo.

Mr Musyoka urged worshippers across the country not to be deterred from going to churches following the series of grenade attacks that have been experienced in the country mostly targeting worshippers and believed to be carried by the Al-Shabab militia.

He told Kenyans should not give credit to extremists for their cowardice actions, everybody should feel free and protected to go to church, temple and mosque because the government and the church has put up security measures to ensure worshippers are safe

Information ministry Procurement Officer deny irregularity allegations over Konza city

Information Ministry Chief Procurement Officer Stephen Mwenda has denied reports linking him and Permanent Secretary Bitange Ndemo to flouting procurement rules while purchasing Konza city land.

Mr Mwenda yesterday said the procurement of the land in Machakos County was carried out in a transparent and open manner and that reports linking him to embezzling public funds were misinformed.

“The procurement of land for Konza city was done above board, the tender was advertised in the Daily Nation and Standard newspapers, we followed the Public procurement and disposal Act procedures,” said Mr Mwenda.

Speaking at a Media briefing at the Ministry of Information and Communication Headquarters in Nairobi, Mr Mwenda, disputed claims that direct procurement of the techno city land was used instead of an open tender citing negotiations held by the government in identifying the top bidder.

“When the tendering process began, we got advice from the Ministry of Land on how best to undertake the procurement of Land in Machakos, we don’t know where the complaint came from,” Mr Mwenda said.

His remarks came after the Daily Nation reported malpractices and irregularities in the procurement of Land in Machakos for establishment of a technology park that would boost country’s growth through creation of over 20,000 jobs.

Anti-corruption report seen by the Nation said that Dr Ndemo together with Mr Mwenda failed to comply with necessary rules while procuring 5,000 acre of land from Malili Ranch for the development of Konza techno city, the land is approximated to have costed the government Sh 1 billion.

There were assertions that three directors of Malili ranch that won the tender of sale of 5,000 acre to Information Ministry at Sh 1 billion had been charged for embezzlement of Sh 143 million and more so they sold the land without approval of the shareholders.

However, Mr Mwenda said that they are waiting completion of investigations over the matter to identify the next step, “the matter is now in the hands of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) who are conducting investigations and we expect complete report from them to enable us establish way forward,” he said.

EACC had opened new investigation in to the procurement fiasco after the Director of Public Prosecutions ordered further investigations following recommendations that Dr Ndemo and Mr Mwenda be prosecuted for bid-rigging, abuse of office and procurement irregularities.