The Digital Parliament
After the ICT Day, I went to review my notes and well, well, well, my optimistic self had a fresh look at what the whole day meant for Kenya’s National Assembly. It hit me that Kenya’s Parliament is going digital with a new innovation to beat quorum hitches, vote-rigging, and the shouts of ‘aye’ and ‘no’ in House proceedings. Though the change-over to the new chambers that have been refurbished to a tune of Sh1 billion is two months late, and going by the pace of things in the House it is likely to take longer, the vision of a digital Parliament is slowly taking shape. This week, the contractors working on providing the electronic voting infrastructure were finalizing up the cabling of the House floor in readiness for the roll-out of a state-of-the-art multimedia system. The system will help cut down on the mechanics of the oral process that has been practiced in Kenya’s Parliament since independence. As a result, the House will be quieter and more organized; that’s if the MP...