Busy Bodies intent on holding Kenya back - Controversial ICT Practitioners bill

Aviator

Elder Lister
If the kind of regulations we have or try to put up today had existed a few decades or centuries ago, we would still be living in our localized villages without any knowledge of outside world.
lmagine the kind of licences Wright brothers would need. Or the sailors who discovered Africa. Or Fleming in his search of Penicillin.

Regulation is the number one hinderance to development/discovery.
 

bigDog

Elder Lister
Any profession that has public interest should have some form of regulation, e.g why do you insist that your surgeon/pilot be qualified. The shape and form of which should be agreed by the professionals and the regulator.
Not all IT work has public interest lakini kuna zingine e.g guy incharge of system / data security, guys who do systems audits, very soon guys who will over see AI, those guys should subscribe to a code of ethics and regulator have a whitelist of members.
Sijui much about this bill, but lots of arguements naona zinasema throw it out wholesome which I disagree with
Supposing we regulate, how do we enforce it? Supposing I'm a self taught programmer in an area like data engineering. I sell my skills online. How do you regulate me and my customers?

OP(@CurrentThing ) has said that this is a solution looking for a problem. Which problem are we solving here? Does signing some code stop shoddy road construction? Does it stop cooking of books? Does it stop crooked procurement?
 

bigDog

Elder Lister
Then you would agree that the existing bill is very ill-suited. Let them identify which roles they want to regulate, and why it makes sense to do so, with input from people who practice those roles. Not placing a barrier to everyone who wants to get into IT. If say, they want to register forensic experts who can give admissible evidence in court, or those who can set up and maintain government IT systems, by all means let them do so.
I'm against regulations for regulations sake. We have had convictions for cyber criminals. Do we have a problem of criminal cases collapsing because of lack or regulation of digital forensic experts? I lean towards regulating if and only if it's the only option on the table.
 

shocks

Elder Lister
Supposing I'm a self taught programmer in an area like data engineering. I sell my skills online. How do you regulate me and my customers?
In your example, if your customer is a person who holds public data, there should be a way to vet those who can work on such a database(this is where my public interest comes in)
I'm not supporting the current bill, sijaisoma hata. What I'm against is arguements here and on other platforms that regulation is not required in the entire IT space.
 

CurrentThing

New Lister
I'm against regulations for regulations sake. We have had convictions for cyber criminals. Do we have a problem of criminal cases collapsing because of lack or regulation of digital forensic experts? I lean towards regulating if and only if it's the only option on the table.
True. Even when I say, for example, that information security people in a typical corporation are certified, top companies with the highest stakes - the likes of Google - don't care about certifications. Instead they go for top talent and skill that has been demonstrated.
 

bigDog

Elder Lister
In your example, if your customer is a person who holds public data, there should be a way to vet those who can work on such a database(this is where my public interest comes in)
I'm not supporting the current bill, sijaisoma hata. What I'm against is arguements here and on other platforms that regulation is not required in the entire IT space.
But then, why target IT people only when it comes to public data. What about non-IT people and decision makers?

I think legislation here would work better. Simply penalize those who misuse data they have access to whether public or private.
 

Aviator

Elder Lister
In your example, if your customer is a person who holds public data, there should be a way to vet those who can work on such a database(this is where my public interest comes in)
I'm not supporting the current bill, sijaisoma hata. What I'm against is arguements here and on other platforms that regulation is not required in the entire IT space.
We already have a law/guidelines on data.
 

wrongturn

Elder Lister
The ICT Practitioners Bill seeks to fight cybercrime, a real danger to the economy.
The passage of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrime Act has not helped much due to implementation challenges.
For that Act to work the authorized person's as defined in the Act must be regulated and issued with practicing licenses.
“The ICT Practitioners Bill provides the framework of licensing the Authorized persons,” says Dr Ochuodho.
The Bill was praised as the antidote to the growth of the ICT sector in the country during its consideration in the House.

This is based on the fact that the ICT sector is riddled with many local and international quacks leading to poor and costly service delivery.
The Bill therefore, seeks to rein in the “quacks” in the sector and ensure adherence to ethical standards, which means that the genuine ICT professionals will have a voice and their career progression is guaranteed.
If signed into law, the Bill will enhance ICT innovation as innovative youth with compelling innovation will be admitted to the Institute without a demand for academic qualification.
It also provides a framework through regulations that shall be formulated by the ICT council on self-regulation of the ICT sector through formal accreditation of various associations leading with various aspects of ICT like computer forensics and software engineering among others.


 
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