Company Industry
Ministry proposes ban on used computers
Information and Communications PS, Dr Bitange Ndemo, says his ministry is proposing to Treasury to include in the next year’s Budget a ban on used computers. Photo/FILE
The government is proposing a ban on second-hand computers to curb dumping and encourage local assembling.
A study on electronic waste conducted in Kenya in 2008 indicated that the country generated 3,000 tonnes of e-waste from computers, monitors and printers in 2007.
Information and Communications PS, Dr Bitange Ndemo, says his ministry is proposing to Treasury to include in the next year’s Budget a ban on used computers.
The government zero-rated duty on imported computers in 2006, a development that led to rise in imports.
Dr Ndemo said last week over the years many government incentives have made new computers affordable, adding there was no need for imports with short life span that led to accumulation of e-waste.
While new computers can last up to eight years, the second-hand machines can only go for three years.
“The organisations shipping in these used computers are being paid to get them out of those countries but are disguising themselves as donors assisting Kenya’s schools,” said the PS. “It is cheaper for companies in the developed world to pay these organisations to bring the computers here than destroy them.”
Removed VAT
A study conducted by Eco Ethics International in 2007 on the impact of imported second-hand computers in the country show that those dealing in these computers started bringing them in 2003 but the number doubled after the removal of VAT.
“When asked on the development of the business over time, we were shocked at their response,” reads part of the research report.
“The business only picked up in 2003 and doubled in 2006 when the government removed VAT.”
During this year’s Budget read last year, the government announced a one-million laptop campaign where it was to guarantee interests on loans borrowed from banks for buying a laptop or personal computers (PCs).
However, the private sector, mainly the telecommunications companies embarked on a similar initiative that made the government to retreat, leaving it to the private sector.
The operators have partnered with various financiers and are offering laptops from Sh25,000 and Sh75,000.
On the other hand, refurbished computers retail from as low as Sh15,000.
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Come on Ndemo u was my biggest fan but now you are tripping .....i mean how can you say we have problem with used computers as long am concerned we dont have Pentium 1,2,3's in the market all used computers brought in nowadays are Pentium 4 Lowest been 1.8ghz 256Mb /512mb ,secondly everyone is slowing moving from CRT to LCDS right now 15" LCD used ones are going for Sh 6500... Now Ndemo do want to take us back to the days of Fake clowns?
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There is a distinction between hardware and software. While a ten year old (Yr 2000) PC may not run windows 7 it can run linux distributions such as Kubuntu which would still allow a user to keep up. The problem in my view would be shipping PCs running Windows 2000 or Windows 98 and having children hit the market and finding themselves immediately at a disadvantage. Hardware is not the problem. We have netbooks in the market with hardware specs most would consider dated outselling full featured laptops. We need to be more open about the software being used
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