Afrigather Kenya has revived the controversial ICT Practitioners Bill, now rebranded because the ICT Authority Bill, 2024. The brand new laws goals to control its ICT {industry} by licensing and registering ICT firms and professionals.
First launched in 2016 by the then majority chief Aden Duale, the ICT Practitioners Invoice obtained industry-wide criticism. Critics identified that the invoice duplicated current legal guidelines and faulted its potential to hinder proficient professionals by mandating college levels. In the long run, it didn’t obtain presidential assent.
With the reintroduction of the ICT Authority Invoice 2024 by ICT cupboard secretary Eliud Owalo, Kenya is once more trying to mandate that firms providing ICT companies be accredited by an authority below the ICT ministry.
This accreditation will contain assembly minimal technical {qualifications}, related expertise, and having the mandatory sources—all decided by the authority. The method will even embrace paying a price much like the unique invoice proposed eight years in the past, though the costs have been undefined. The prices can be decided by the Authority ought to the present invoice be handed.
Regardless of a number of amendments to the Practitioners Invoice, the brand new ICT Authority Invoice carries ahead some unresolved points. For example, it stays unclear on two key factors: the definition of “ICT companies” and the “minimal technical {qualifications}” required by practitioners and corporations. This lack of readability echoes considerations raised throughout the invoice’s earlier iterations.
“The Authority could revoke a certificates of a service supplier, the place the service supplier ceases to hold on the enterprise with respect to which the certificates was issued; is wound up, liquidated or in any other case dissolved; and on the finish of suspension interval, the service supplied has not complied with any directive provided,” reads a part of the proposed invoice.
In 2018, the ICT Practitioners Invoice was revised to introduce certification by the Practitioners Council. Though the modification now not required practitioners to have a bachelor’s diploma, eligibility remained unclear.
Additional amendments in 2020 included fines of as much as KES 500,000 ($3,800) and jail phrases for non-registered companies, elevating considerations about overly harsh penalties.
The invoice narrowly averted passage in June 2022, simply earlier than the nationwide elections held in August. Whereas President Kenyatta did not sign it into law, the re-emergence of those unresolved points suggests additional debate is probably going.
Kenyan ICT professionals keep that the true measure of success usually lies past formal {qualifications}. Others argue that the {industry} rewards those that can suppose creatively and broaden their data base and that validation comes from efficient options, not simply institutional approval.
“I’ve by no means labored for any shopper or firm that cared about my {qualifications}, all they ever wished is to know if I can remedy issues of their group and add worth to their enterprise,” mentioned John Irungu, a pc programmer.
