President Mwai Kibaki has directed the Ministry of Information and Communication to put in place an elaborate databank that will ensure all mobile telephone subscribers are registered within six months.
The President expressed concern that there was increase in crime perpetuated through mobile telephony due to the fact that the owners of mobile handsets and SIM cards were not registered.
"To guard against these tendencies, I am directing the Ministry of Information and Communication to put in place within six months from now, an elaborate databank that will ensure all mobile telephone subscribers are registered," he said.
In a speech read on his behalf by Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka during a gala dinner to commemorate the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) 10th anniversary and an ICT industry Expo at the Carnivore on Monday evening, the President said the Government was committed to ensuring that all Kenyans have access to ICT services.
ICT skills
He noted that the Government will this year spend Kshs. 1.3 billion in purchasing mobile computer laboratories for each constituency for use by secondary schools and another Kshs. 15 billion to support the purchase of lap tops.
The president said such projects will ensure that youths in the rural areas were well equipped with key ICT skills to enable them participate effectively in the unfolding digital economy.
To redress the rural/urban divide in access to ICT services, the President said the Government has amended the law to facilitate the creation of Universal Service Fund to finance the deployment of communication services in un-served areas of the country.
He said that in the 2009/10 financial year, the Government has given numerous incentives to the ICT sub-sector by lowering taxes and giving rebates on key capital intensive investment areas and asked the industry to take advantage of the situation.
President Kibaki said the Government recognizes the telecommunication sector as a key player in the emerging digital economy, noting that the future of the world in the highly digitalized global village was entirely dependent on the extend to which people embraced ICT innovations.
"The ICT era has brought with it an unprecedented expansion of the democratic space and a tendency and yearning everywhere for free enterprise and entrepreneurship,'' said President Kibaki.
He said in the current situation of innovation and free enterprise, regulation was important to maintaining order and avoids misuse of technology.
The President said the Government has identified ICT as a key pillar of Vision 2030 where the Business Process Outsourcing sub-sector has been singled out as the next frontier of growth and employment creation for the youth.
"To ensure that this becomes a reality, the Government has facilitated the construction of high speed international fiber-optic infrastructure to connect the country to the international network,'' he said, adding that the arrival of the fiber optic cable in Kenya was expected to revolutionize communications in the country and the region.
President Kibaki further called for enhanced collaboration between the Government and the private sector in ensuring that the underserved areas which presented the next business frontier were reached.
