Yesterday I did an article talking about why coding should be a must for the young kids in Kenya. Then one of the tech guruās in Kenya Mr. Tom Makau replied on my tweet about it by saying that to him, ethics, communication skills and financial literacy should be a must. From there others will just fall in place. That made me to think for an extended period of time why those three things should be considered more important than coding.
I think ethics, communication skills and financial literacy should be a must. The rest will come naturally https://t.co/lAQrTY4GGL
ā Tom Makau (@tommakau) December 13, 2016
Of the three I found ethics more interesting considering what has been happening in Kenya with corruption and how people keep on blaming their āstolenā Financial system IFMIS password. A system is as good as people who operate it. Ā And people have found perfect ways to manipulate the system and perfect excuses when caught in the act. This is a story for another day and I am looking at working on it in more detail
The problem with ethics is not limited to the public scene only, private sector has its own demons. Currently US-based IT firm, Cognizant Technology Solutions, under probe for bribery. This story is important because the firm has some clients in Kenya most notably Commercial Bank (KCB) and Faulu Bank. Ashwin Shirvaikar, an analyst with Citigroup, said: “While it is too early to know the specifics of the investigation, the possible violations appear to be quite serious, especially since the company’s President Coburn resigned.” It has been reported that by end of October, Cognizant investors had lost over US $ 4.5 billion, with many fearing that the allegations might affect the company in many ways
Locally it should be noted thatĀ back in 2013, KCB did fire its Chief Information Technology Officer for undisclosed reasons. The rumors at the time was that it was due to bribery allegations. I think this could be awkward for KCB but I hope the issue then was/is not connected to Cognizant Technology Solutions.
Looking at those examples above, may be Tom Makau was right with the need for kids to learn ethics before thinking about coding.
