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Retrogressive Bill? Why Kenya’s ICT Practitioners Are Worried
![ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru [Photo: Courtesy]](https://cioafrica.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/BCS_3977-scaled.jpg)
On Wednesday, a contentious ICT Practitioners Bill 2020 went through the final stage – third reading – in the Kenyan Parliament. The Bill now awaits Presidential Assent before it is turned into law.
The third time is the charm. The first proposed ICT Practitioners Bill was introduced to the Kenyan parliament in 2016 but was rejected on the basis of repetitiveness. It then resurfaced in 2018 and suffered a similar fate. It was then reintroduced in Parliament in November 2020 with very minimal changes from the previous ones and this time it passed through the first, second and finally the third stage of reading.
What the ICT Practitioners Bill is all about
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The bill seeks to establish an ICT Practitioners Institute for training, registration, licensing, practice and setting standards for ICT professionals in Kenya. The proposed Institute will also issue annual licenses to the practitioners at a fee.
Generally, because of low barriers to entry, the IT industry has always attracted any person with an interest in that field. Many renowned IT specialists did not study IT at University and some are school dropouts. The newly appointed Meta CISO Guy Rosen, for example, dropped out of Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI) in the first year.
Suffice to say, the requirements proposed by the Bill will be a hurdle to many young people wishing to join the profession but do not meet the threshold set by the body. The bill also proposes to introduce an annual licensing fee for the ICT practitioners. This could kill the dreams of young people who want to join the profession but lack money to pay for the annual licenses.
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Kenya and Africa by large still have a huge gap in IT talent. This gap has only been made smaller by practising IT professionals who do not have an educational background in the field.
In a country where IT talent is in short supply, the bill should have come up with solutions on ways to upskilling, reskilling and training IT talent. It should have identified barriers limiting the effectiveness of the market and then propose interventions. Overall, it should have proposed solutions that seek to promote Kenya’s innovation ecosystem and not kill it.
Also read: ICT Practitioners To Uhuru: Don’t Sign The Bill
Its simple. Someone sold the country ICT to the reds
I agree
The bill should have proposed solutions that seek to promote Kenya’s innovation ecosystem and not kill it.
I’m trying to transition into tech from a finance background… surely this will make it difficult for so many of us
This is sheer shinnanigans, surely and the same government will ask why the youth will opt to work for foreign countries, i mean, it is such bureaucracy that pushes the youth work force off this country, i sometime tend to believe that the Mp’s leave their brains in their cars as they enter parliament, or better yet someone pays them to pass some bills so as to beat competition before it even starts.
Very nice read. These professional bodies kill so many young careers instead of promoting them.
I majored in philosophy and minored in math because there were few schools offering an IT degree at the time. Through on the job training I became a Senior Database Engineer. Before that I was an IT Manager, Unix Admin, and other ICT roles. If this new license requires an IT degree, it will eliminate some of your most experienced ICT professionals. They really need to rethink this entire approach. There are not many with 30 years experience, and I know most do not have a degree in that subject.
This is really retrogressive and unfair. Such sn industry cannot be for a few learned individuals. This bill will destroy livelihoods. Let’s speak up!!!
The bill was proposed and passed by unexperienced goons who cannot differentiate foot from mouth in matters ICT, the sheer audacity by the CS in claiming he did his best is even worse, the problem with this country is that we are all greedy and that’s why we keep choose gluttons in public service and elate their character relatives in corporate. Be rest assured the so-called GoK has no capacity to train nor vet our techies let alone the experience, this is someone’s business and they are going to milk us for a while, let the president prove us wrong by rejecting it or go silent and the damn bill becomes law then my theory on the training agencies will suffice quite fast, wait & see!
Uhuru should not sign the bill, this would kill the dreams of young youths and people benefitting from ICt