Service delivery and government policy making is set for a great turnover in the country, evidenced by the various products and services showcasing at the ongoing Connected Kenya conference at Leisure Lodge Beach Hotel, Mombasa south coast.IBM smart cities projectIBM is looking to introduce its “smarter cities” project in Kenya. Bill Doak, IBM Public Sector Leader for Middle East and Africa says the project seeks to make life in our cities better by making service delivery easier, more effective and smoother transport around our cities by, for example, usage of cell BTS (base transceiver stations) to track movement of cell phones from one cell to another. From the tracking, traffic congestion can be determined by the rate of movement of vehicles between cells. The transport system also provides other additional services like online vehicle identification through the registration plates, and also online fining of traffic offenders. This keeps traffic moving as cars do not have to stop to be charged.“40% of electricity is lost between the moment it is generated and moment it gets consumed,” says Doak. Smarter metering and power management systems can help manage power distribution thus achieving efficient utilisation of power.Smarter security cameras can assist in crime management. If police were pursing criminals escaping in a blue car, smart security cameras can be used to track and narrow down on blue cars in the locality. “Smarter public safety comprises smarter crime-data aggregation, emergency management integration, and smarter surveillance systems,” says Doak. Involving the public in decision makingWhile the grass root has several innovative ideas that can improve the country and help in improvement of efficiency, such ideas rarely make it to policy makers or majority of Kenyans. “Do we have a platform through which we can share ideas,” asks Mike Macharia, CEO of Seven Seas Technologies. The firm has developed a national innovation forum through which one can share ideas and vote them up. Titled “Community Baraza”, one creates an account through which they submit their ideas or vote for other people’s ideas. Voting can also be done by sending an SMS with the idea number to 0717410705. “It is easier for the PS of tourism to see ideas that many people are voting in from the grassroots,” says Macharia, adding that innovations need strategies such as incentives, processes and tools to measure them. The judiciary leading in ICT adoptionThe judiciary is leading other government agencies and ministries in adoption of ICT. This has been achieved through private-public partnerships with Google, Safaricom and other partners. Through a WorldBank sponsorship programme, court records are now digitized. The digitization process employs 200 young Kenyans in a permanent basis and has digitised 35 million records. In addition, the WorldBank donated laptops that has been given to judges.Other initiatives by the judiciary include use of Teleconferencing in the court sittings and judgments. Through a partnership with Safaricom, Judges can now have court sessions between Nairobi and Mombasa law courts without physically being present. This speeds up the process and saves time and money that would have been used travelling. The National Council for Law Reporting, ICT board, the National Assembly and Government press are now in a public private partnership with Google. The partnership sees Google digitizing all more than 5000 editions of the Kenya Gazette. The digital archive is fully searchable and is available by searching for the “Kenya Gazette” on Google Books. Google’s mission in digitizing the service is to enrich their Kenya search index.