The government will now require professionals working in Kenya’s ICT sector to register their services so as to continue practicing.
A new Information and Communication Technology Practitioners Bill 2021 outlines the requirements which are bound to increase the burden of compliance to operate in the fast-growing sector.
“Every person eligible to be registered as an ICT practitioner may apply in the prescribed form to the Registrar for registration in the register, and every such application shall be accompanied by the prescribed fee,” reads the bill in part.
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The Bill also proposes the establishment of an ICT Practitioners Institute that will be governed by a council.
The Bill proposes a council comprising: secretaries from the ICT Ministry and National Treasury, officials from the ICT authority and academia, members from the Information Communication Technology Association and Telecommunication Service Providers of Kenya (TESPOK).
The ICT Practitioners Institute will be charged with registering and licensing ICT practitioners, issuing approval fro training programmes and advising the government on policies in the industry.
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The ICT Practitioners Bill 2021 further says the Institute will publish all the registered service providers with their addresses in the Kenya Gazette, with details of their qualifications annually.
The Bill will also introduces minimum qualifications an individual must meet to qualify for certification from the institute, failure to which they will be barred from practicing.
The proposed Bill is similar to the ICT CS Joe Mucheru’s proposal a few years back. The government in 2017 sought to enact the ICT Practitioners Bill that had similar compliance requirements for professionals in the sector.
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“The recent elections have brought up several issues that need to be addressed such as the unsubstantiated reports of the alleged hacking of the IEBC made by the opposition,” ICT CS Joseph Mucheru said at the time.
“These claims went to more than 200 countries and embarrassed our country because they were unfounded which would not have been the case if the government had credentials of such individuals,” he said.
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