Seventy-three students were inducted into the Kenya School of Internet Governance (KeSIG). The students will become the 8th cohort since the program’s inception in 2016.
The call for applications was announced in April with the selection process going through a rigorous selection process to arrive at a group of candidates that met the robust criteria outlined by the faculty.
“We have impacted over 450 participants who have gone through this course for the last eight years. I want to inform us that we had over 300 applications, and it is always a challenge (selecting) we had to come down to 70 this year, meaning that we have cut out approximately 230,” Mr Barrack Otieno, from the faculty disclosed.
“It is always our desire to have as many as we can take on the call, but we have to ensure that we are able to give you the best that we can do.”
KeSIG is an introductory course covering technical, economic, legal and contemporary social issues brought about by the Internet and how they affect Kenyans in decision-making.
The program aims to build a critical mass of individuals advocating for Internet rights and freedoms by equipping the participants with the skills needed to participate meaningfully in local, regional and global policy discourse.
KeSIG is convened by Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet), a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation.
Grace Githaiga, the Co-Convenor of the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet), said they successfully run KeSIG.
“I want to attribute the continuation and the success of KeSIG to the participants because they have gone out to speak well of KeSIG to demonstrate what they learned.
The 2023 program commenced on 2nd June 2023 and will run over three weeks culminating with the Kenya Internet Governance Forum (KeIGF), Kenya’s premier Internet Policy event.
KeIGF is an annual meeting that brings together various stakeholder groups to dialogue on ICT and Internet policy was first held in 2008. The 2023 theme is “The Internet We Want – Empowering All Kenyan People“
I’m very happy to be part of #KeSIG 2023 Cohort looking forward to be part of the team and work together.
The KeSIG and sessions for the Year 2023 was the best moments, however rigorous that i enjoyed. Learning the intricacies of internet, internet governance and the principles was a great refreshing course. The asoects od internet neutrality and access for example and need for end to end policy for the betterment of use and exploration of internet by persons of all walks of life, including assistive access for me was a great revelation. Strilingba balance amongs all players and stakeholder approach to internet governance is key, where the role of the state is important, for ratifying international treaties, principles and rules such as GDPR amd comparative applications elsewhere. Finally, the approach to inclusive and human rights and linkage with internet infrastructure is the bedrock of internet givernance, where policies and rules and universally shared .