Njeri Rionge is a 36-year-old internet entrepreneur from the capital, Nairobi. She is a single mother with a 19-month-old daughter.

I am the managing director of Wananchi Online, which since we began in March 2000 has been providing internet services to individuals, companies and basically anyone who would like to get online.

We currently have a staff of 79 serving about 7,500 customers in offices in six towns.

	Our industry is probably one of the few mediums that can actually bridge the gap between the poor and the rich

We were probably the 30th internet service provider to go for licensing and we almost didn't get our licence even though we spent more than $250,000 on infrastructure. We spent a long time lobbying with different officials for our application to approved.

Another difficulty for us was when we went to Telkom Kenya for 200 telephone lines we required and we had to fill out individual forms which constituted three pages each with three signatures and all the details of our company.

We ended up filling 600 pages and it took hours for two people to do that.

In addition we had to give them 200 copies of our company's registration certificate and copies of my identity card and photographs.

	We have to be seen to be getting things done for our country and doing things differently from the past

We have had challenges as a small and medium-sized company in providing internet services to our customers – some of them have been related to the telecommunications infrastructure in Kenya.

There has been a need to increase capacities within Telkom Kenya, a state-owned monopoly. In terms of the capacity of telephone lines and ISDN lines, there have been some bottlenecks.

We still have challenges in the areas of human resources, in terms of skilled people and we need more students with the right skills.

Changing minds

We know that our industry is probably one of the few mediums that can actually bridge the gap between the poor and the rich in our economy, but there is huge concern among us that the majority of the decision-makers within this economy just don't quite understand the medium.

	It goes without saying that the majority of decision-makers are not aware of the benefits of the internet and are actually afraid of touching and using a computer

This is one of our biggest challenges, and I am really looking forward to a new government. I hope they will enhance our sector within the economy by making Telkom Kenya, for example, accountable for delivery of services, by liberalising the whole telecommunications sector, and by encouraging players to come into this market.

It goes without saying that the majority of decision-makers are not aware of the benefits of the internet and most of them are actually afraid of touching and using a computer. But that has been changing in the past year as we see government officials taking training sessions and learning to use computers.

It's also unfortunate that when three of our main presidential candidates were asked about the internet, only one of them displayed any basic knowledge of what it is. A group of us hope to set up appointments with them or send them a white paper explaining to them what they could possibly do.

The common good

I think in this country, in the past 20 or so years, we stopped working and stopped thinking for ourselves, in the private and public sector.

It's become about working and thinking for oneself, and not about the common good of all of our country. That's what I think is our biggest hindrance in turning our economy around.

I am very optimistic about the new government. But it's important to remember that our economy is so damaged that we can't expect a miracle in just one year.

What I would like to see is more young people being engaged in the process of change and in roles that would make a difference. We need to embrace the 21st Century and make sure that we don't get left behind.

We have to be seen to be getting things done for our country and doing things differently from the past.