Committee engages Creative Economy Working Group

This weekend, Dagoretti South MP Hon John Kiarie led the Departmental Committee on Communication, Information, and Innovation in a two-day retreat to deliberate on Good practices on Regulating the Digital Superhighway and the Creative Economy.

In his opening remarks, Hon. Kiarie emphasized the Committee’s commitment to support the ICT sector players through ensuring the introduction and adoption of necessary legislation and policies that will help grow the sector.

Leading the participants in the engagement were Ben Robert’s-Chair ICT Sector Board KEPSA, Alex Gakuru-Director of Kenya School of Law, Christopher Wambua-Ag CEO KFCB, Michael Murungi-Google Government Affairs, Kibisu Mulanda – Head of Production and Technology at Switch Media, Rosemary Mulanda – Broadcasting Regulations Officer at the Communications Authority (CA), and the student leadership of Kenya School of Law(KSL).

In their submissions to the Legislators, they briefed the Committee on how the continued collaboration between the public and private sector has greatly contributed to the government’s digital economy transformation agenda.

The presenters highlighted the industry’s very dynamic nature, that has been a reason why any existing laws and regulations struggle and have had to continually play catch up with the trend. Additionally, the key players in the sector pointed out the fact that some laws are quite outdated, and sought the Committee’s indulgence to ammend them in order to align with the changing trends.

Notably, the Ag. CEO of the Kenya Film Classification Board, Mr. Christopher Wambua submitted that they have developed self-classification guidelines and regulations to enable the Film industry do better at service deliver. According to Wambua, these regulations will enable the industry to self-regulate, as the Board offers training and monitoring services.

The two-day retreat ended today, with the key discussions focusing on fostering synergy among the players in the digital sector.