I don't think I'm a starter when it comes to this industry, I probably know more than you would expect. You can refer to the following thread and comment #7 if you want a reference: thread

Also watch the following video and see the kind premises where companies like Google, Paypal, Logitech all started off -a tiny squashed office: Video

Google only has kym's working in Kenya the others were fired recently since they were not up to the task. In fact, some google employees don't even consider google kenya to be part of Google.

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That is exactly what they think of our "talented" Kenyans and its worse, I just withheld the other comments.


I keep on saying that until we get our heads out of our butts thinking that we are that good, then we shall never be the best.

If the attitide of the ICT board is what murchr has to offer then I can categorically say without doubt that Konza as an ICT project will fail miserably.

I will give you a plain example of what I mean by lack of capital. This is a real story and you can look for me to references if you wish.

Company A is a Kenyan company. They try to get gov't contracts but they are told they are not qualified ( I remember Ndemo saying this in a public forum somewhere and shook my head). They then decide that they will die if they concentrate on getting Kenyan clients.

So Company A decides to market their products and services outside the country. They hit it big.

They decide in the spirit of helping Kenya to hire Kenyans. They can't find any that are qualified to do the work. After 6 months of training, hiring etc they have to accept that Kenya does not have the manpower to deal with the work load.

Meanwhile, their workload doubles. So they are forced to hire Filipinos to do the work.

This company with revenues of over $40,000 in 6 months has exactly 4 Kenyans working for it and 25 filipinos. All their money is offshore accounts and they live in an SQ (the part of SQ is by choice)

They still can't get a loan from a Kenyan bank. They can't get a gov't project since they aren't qualified. They can't repatriate their cash to Kenya since simple things like online banking have been ignored for Konza.

This is a true story Murchr. It is one of 4 I know about. Of course they don't come for your "ict meetups" coz they are busy doing something not dreaming.

In the meantime, the ICT board is building a Konza city in 20 years, and they are giving out awards to companies that have no product or services. Just more dreams to offer. I didn't say it http://www.techmtaa.com/...and-content-generators/

I want anyone to tell me which product or service has won one of their awards that anyone on wazua knows about or can remember.

These are just the facts on the ground.

The ICT board has for sometime been living in dreamland and Konza is the ultimate dream.

Konza will not solve the problem of a young entrepreneur not getting financing. It will not solve the problem of a young business getting gov't contracts. It will not solve the problem of having gov't data in the hands of American corporations. It will not solve the problem of Cronyism in gov't contracts.

Konza however may end up making a few people extremely wealthy at the expense of young Kenyan entrepreneurs who end working as call girls and call boys in the BPO's created.

But first they need to make Kencall profitable before they can make a whole 5000 acres profitable.

I also have an interest in ICT products as a hobby. A few years ago, i discussed with wordbank about an IT solution that would make planning approvals more efficient.

As i was working on my proposal thinking that Worldbank are more interested in helping the poor,financing e.t.c and cant actualize such a project, Worldbank called for ICT programmers to code such a solution and sold it to Nairobi City Council.

I tried to complain but i didn't get any favorable response-only veiled legal threats.

I thought of selling the idea to Uganda and Rwanda where i was also working on some construction project but was too late-Worldbank was already there.
They were also in so many other countries in the world.
At that point i realized that Kenya needs to develop serious ICT policy that seeks to ensure intellectual property is protected.

My main livelihood is in architecture, not ICT-therefore life could continue as normal.
Now that Worldbank had Nairobi City Council, i approached PS Ministry of Local Govt to see whether we can work with other smaller councils in Kenya.
The portal was evaluated technically and was seen to be efficient by Local Govt technocrats.
Unfortunately,the PS again asked me to sell the idea to the individual councils which to me is time-consuming.

Anyone interested in working on this can contact me then we dust it from the shelves and push it to the market again.

I fear for those whose livelihood depends on ICT in Kenya with such weak ICT intellectual property laws.

On another note, the ICT Solution was based on a wordpress portal. Getting programmers for such basic tasks in Kenyan was not easy since most are more into Drupal e.t.c.

Most Wordpress developers/coders work online from all over the world, coming up with marvelous plugins that can virtually perform any task.
Educational courses that teach Kenyans to code the plugins can come in handy.

@MURCHR..

I had not signed 'confidentiality agreements' with Worldbank.
I could not imagine that Worldbank can engage in business or even comprehend code e.t.c. They looked like angels to me then with their 'help the poor' attitude.
I even volunteered for free to help them with ideas on how to modernize Nairobi City council-this is where i gave out the ICT idea.

I went to Kenya copyright board -they can only patent code, not general software idea.

What i saw that could assist was a case law in the US that says if someone gives an idea to another whom they deem to be of high status e.g a priest,president e.t.c then the person of high status creates business with this idea, then some compensation can be done regardless of whether confidentiality agreement was signed or not.

The solution has the possibility in being replicated in over 180 countries worldwide-of which World bank has offices and a network in.

Already, Rwanda,Zambia, a few cities in Asia and Europe have started to use the idea.

@murchr..not any one wins a case against the Worldbank-i dont even think they can be sued due to diplomatic immunity but will need clarification to that.

What the worldbank has is the money and not the ideas.

What startups have is the idea and not the money.

The easiest way to deal with them is to improve on the idea then resell to other sectors of the economy.

This idea was to be consumed by Local Authorities. Unfortunately,most African Govts will listen to the Worldbank first before a small startup due to obvious reasons.

What can work best is for me to team up with an ICT company then we work towards improving and remoulding the product to serve citizens directly as opposed to Governments since Governments clearly already have their 'owners'.
ICT startups in developed countries are well-protected by laws as opossed to here in Kenya. Its not easy to come up with an ICT solution to be consumed solely by the Kenyan Govt due to hurdles. The best method is to reshape the product to serve the citizens e.g facebook,yahoo ,Google, Microsoft e.t.c

I feel you but i still think this should be known. Seek legal advice even if they cannot be sued.

Our Gov is so poor at implementing even the least and esp the ministry of lands, hopefully things will change for the better raise this issue at KICTANET and maybe someone will have a solution. I don't want to believe that its the end of it

What u take IT to be is completely diff with what i do. Even in the noble profession of journalism there are freelancers but that has not stopped the likes of Nation and Standard from setting up.

The issue of starting up an IT company, its not different, all businesses in Kenya suffer the same predicament and go through the same

My fear is very simple. The information age is the only time when man can be equalized. Apple beat IBM, Amazon beat Borders, Netflix beat blockbuster etc.

It is the story of the small guy beating the big guy.

That story can be replicated here in Kenya. Where the small KU graduate can create a monolith big enough to beat Kenyan corporates in his bedroom.

That is the beauty of the internet.

Now what we have here is a case where the ICT board seems to wish to have the corporate still rule the world. They even boast about it when they name drop names such as Nokia, Google, Mpesa etc every time they talk.

I want them to name drop Oduori Achola who created something in his bedroom in Kayole.

That can be achieved if they did what those in Silicon Valley do. Support the small start up with the stupid idea.

If they continue in this path of only dealing with corporates, then they are simply recolonizing Africa again. This time our minds.

If you really want to think BIG think this way. Where any Kenyan can boast of having had a hand in creating something that changed the world.

As we stand, the ICT board is only interested in corporate events, corporate trips abroad and corporate cities.

Nothing to do with the mama mboga ict guy who's paying them their salaries through taxes.

It is the wrong way to go and we shall suffer for it in the future.

The only reason why someone could start a business in a garage and name it microsoft was not because the garage was 10 stories, had fire hydrants and had a manicured lawn.

It was because when they needed to grow the idea, they found that the Gov't had in place all the facilities they needed to do so.

My view is that the ICT board has nothing to show for their term other than Kenyanbuzz.com (not kenyan) and conferences in Italy and trips to Stanford.

So they have seen that they need to create this monolith called Konza to show they were "thinking Big".

Yet when you ask a simple question, "what has the ict board done for me lately?" no one has an answer.

Think Big Man!

He can buy Paris!

If you have any reference that you were in contact with them and discussed that idea say mails etc. then talk to a lawyer that was a great idea stolen.

I think its similar idea like that you had that will push this country ahead.
Lets stop thinking that we have to start at the level of microsoft, google, apple etc. because we seem obsessed that we can only start at their level these companies took advantage of the problems that existed then and build great companies providing solutions to those problems. We can build similar companies here if we start focusing on providing solutions for our problems a few people have started doing so yet over and over they are being dismissed as just a bunch of 200 -300 sitting somewhere just doing small time apps.

The ICT sector cannot grow without collaboration with people with expertise in different areas like you bwana a4architect.com.