Digitise KBC library it's valuable history, Alai urges state

Kileleshwa MCA Robert Alai has urged the government to digitise archives at the KBC library.

On Wednesday, the MCA expressed his concern over the negligence of the materials, which he argued have a great value to Kenya’s history.

“Just from visiting the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) Library and seeing the treasure we have here getting destroyed, I cry,” Alai said in a statement.

As a result, he called in CS for ICT Eliud Owalo to digitise the material.

“The speeches and programmes since colonial days are a treasure. We need to digitise and store all these in the cloud,” Alai said.

In 2020, KBC showcased it's unrivaled content library thanks to its history as Kenya’s first media house.

From celebrations when the union jack was lowered at Uhuru Gardens in 1963 to speeches by former Presidents Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Arap Moi as well as classic Kenyan sitcoms including Vitimbi and Vioja Mahakamani, KBC has in its archives what many in the industry consider content gold.

Kenya kwanza government have been advocating for Kenyans to embrace the digital space. At least 5,000 government services have been digitised, as of June 1, 2023.

President William Ruto said his administration intends to cover all the remaining services by the end of 2023.

Ruto added that Kenya is among the earliest of its continental peers to establish a policy framework for data protection, which includes comprehensive legislation and regulations to safeguard privacy and personal data