Summit Strategies Ltd ICT Research and Consultancy

Today is a special day, it is a day to celebrate success but most importantly to celebrate, empowerment, development, inclusion and mainstreaming, participatory development, and opportunity for the people of this great nation. We celebrate this success   as propelled by cellular telephony over the last decade.  Where we are today has amply been illustrated by the skit you have just seen -   a phone is part of our social economic life - it's part of ME I dare say it defines ME

As early as 1984, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), concerned with the slow pace of telecommunications development established an international commission to recommend strategies for faster growth especially in developing countries.  The report commonly known as the Missing link or Maitland Commission called upon all stakeholders to work towards a phone within walking distance by the early part of last century. That was 16 years before the end of the century and to the global community it looked doable. This initiative provided a benchmark to measure progress for Kenya and rest of the developing countries.

Certainly for Kenya, the phone was not only far from walking distance but was a mirage by end of the century as the following data attests

By Late 1999 early 2000, availability and penetration of fixed line was barely 1% and cellular was not only a functional luxury but unavailable for the 30 million Kenyans.

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