we need to regulate it laws in east africa, says buturo

By Al-Mahdi Ssenkabirwa (The Monitor)

May 1, 2006: The State Minister for Information, Dr James Nsaba Buturo, has urged the East African governments to harmonise the Information Communication Technology industry.

He said for a meaningful regional integration, the member states must have hamornised policy, regulatory and legal framework in various sectors that span all the member states.

The EAC is the regional intergovernmental organisation of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania and the three heads of state signed a treaty in 1999 to forge a regional federation.

"We need to come up with a joint policy to counter evils of technology like homosexuality and pornographic trade that are morally repugnant to the majority of our peoples," said Buturo.

He added, "Other evils like internet fraud, illegal access to systems, loss of confidential information and cyber terrorism have to be disabled before taking a centre stage in the region."

Buturo was opening a two-day regional information security consultative forum at Grand Imperial Hotel on Thursday. The forum is aimed at creating awareness, sensetitisation and advocacy on the significance of cyber laws and electronic justice, economic development and the impact of their continuing absence in the East African region.

It was organised by the East African Community and supported by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the Canadian electronic Policy Resource Centre.

The Kampala forum is a follow-up on the recommendations of the second electronic government stakeholders meeting held last June in Nairobi. The participants including senior government officials responsible for legal and security dockets and ICT experts deliberated on ways of formulating an information security policy for the EAC region.

Buturo said Uganda had already developed a national electronic government strategy that would address the concerns of information security.

"Though we have moved a step further as far us information technology is concerned, we still lack cyber crime laws yet information security is very vital for all organisations," he said.

He said the government had drafted the Computer Misuse Bill and soon Cabinet will approve it.