E-GOVERNMENT: ARE WE READY?

The person without the correct information will not be able to compete. Giving the community access to all the information enables it to compete with others fairly. So ICT can help to reduce the gap between people who would normally not have access to information, and people who would. You can’t make a decision without having good information. If you have no information, you are likely to make the wrong decisions.” Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohammed .more»

ACCESS: KEY TO PROGRESS

Infrastructure to help Africa achieve an all-inclusive information and knowledge society is still lacking.The latest statistics by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) indicate that the continent has the least Internet penetration with slightly over 100 users for every 10,000 people. This figure succinctly explains the digital division that exists when Africa is compared to other continents.more»

WHO RULES THE INTERNET?

It is only seven months away before the world converges again for the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Summit (WSIS) in Tunis, Tunisia.In readiness for this momentous occasion for the world, a series of meetings have been taking place in various major cities across the globe. The intention of these meetings has been to generally hammer out differences, come up with concrete proposals and include views from hitherto ignored stakeholders.more»

EASSY CABLE: AFRICA’S LAST ICT FRONTIER

The Eastern African Submarine Cable System better known, as EASSy Cable will be Africa’s last ICT frontier, should it be actualized by 2007. The colossal benefits tugging along for the people in the region can be quantified in two words, rapid development.more»

TRANBOUNDARY ECOSYSTEMS IN EAST AFRICA

“Fifty years ago, I set off from my hilly countryside

home of Othaya, boarded a train in Nairobi, and headed to Kampala to establish my new scholarly home at Makerere University. Transversing through the central Kenya countryside by bus, hearing the train engines roaring through the vast Rift Valley, then briefly anchoring on the shores of Lake Victoria, before finally arriving in Kampala, the sounds of East Africa began ringing loud in my mind.

ASTRONOMY BY THE PASTORALISTS

Fafi Member of Parliament Aden Sugow will never forget that hot day in mid July last year.
Sugow had gone back to his constituency in the humid North Eastern province of Kenya, to hold his homecoming party, celebrating his election to Parliament. He received the greatest shock of his life when he found his constituency ‘empty’. His constituents had immigrated to the war-ravaged neighboring country of Somalia, due to famine. Sugow had no option but to host his party in Fafi’s bordering constituency of Dujis

POPULATION & THE ENVIRONMENT

Population dynamics are also not left out on this thorny issue of the environment and poverty. Reproductive health happens to be at the core of population growth and stability.
In their paper “Population, Poverty and the Environment” the United Nations Fund for Population Awareness (UNFPA) contends

PESTICIDES: The Facts and Factoids

They pose the greatest danger to the African continent today. They are hazardous, portend grim and fatal implications and adversely affect all living things.
These are obsolete pesticides.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that three million people are poisoned and 200,000 die each year due to pesticides. A majority of these casualties are drawn from vulnerable, poverty stricken populations, agricultural workers and children.

POVERTY & THE ENVIRONMENT: A TIME BOMB!

Exactly 32 years since Indira Gandhi uttered these words, they are turning to be prophetic.
For decades, poverty and the environment were seen as poles apart. Not anymore. The two issues are intertwined. That poverty is a critical economic burden to any society is a foregone conclusion

POVERTY & THE ENVIRONMENT: THE KENYAN ANGLE

This facet is not unknown to the Kenyan Government. The previous administration was well aware of this link. In its National Poverty Eradication Plan (NPEP 1999 -2015), which came after the World Bank’s influenced Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) the Kenyan government notes: