The Nyeri County Government and Jamii Telecom will install wireless internet at Whispers Park in Nyeri town.
Jamii Telecom team led by general manager John Kamau made the announcement when he made a courtesy call to Nyeri governor Mutahi Kahiga at his office on Friday.
The general manager and the governor signed a Memorandum of Understanding which will ensure there is provision of internet in the town.
“This will enable the youth to use free internet at the park once it is rehabilitated enabling them do online jobs,” Kahiga said.
The park had been occupied by traders who had been moved from Nyeri open-air market to pave way for the upgrade of the facility.
However, they left the park a couple of weeks ago after the market was completed.
“They can also transact businesses online, open up new opportunities and also stay up to date with the latest on technology,” Kahiga said.
The governor also urged the organisation to also install Wifi to other smaller towns in other subcounties.
This is not the first time that Wifi is being installed at the facility. During the last regime, the services were installed but did not help much as the internet was too slow.
The late governor Nderitu Gachagua in 2015 launched free Wifi at Whispers Park but the project failed as the internet was too slow partly due to traffic and low bandwidth. Kenya has been looking at online jobs to bridge the yawning gap of youth unemployment with online jobs. This has seen companies such as Google, IBM and the ministry of ICT conduct free computer training programs to equip the youth with the skills to compete on a global job market
The high cost of the internet, however, continues to hamper access by the country’s youth several years after multiple undersea cables made landing on the country’s coast. This is despite the hype that the cost of the internet will drop. Cybercafes that had started dying off are coming back in many corners of the country’s capital as internet costs remain sky-high.
The high costs are also attributed to the high cost of capital as each service provider invests in infrastructure as opposed to shared networks that could have brought the costs down.
The national government had targetted to set up free Wifi hotspots in Kiambu, Nakuru, Kisumu among other counties. But in Nakuru, the initiative failed then Kiambu followed after users complained over low speeds. Information CS Joe Mucheru had in 2016 said the government was planning to offer free Wi-Fi in major towns to boost Internet communication.
The CS said the government plans to purchase data bundles from Internet Service Providers to facilitate communication between businesses and their customers.
He said many businesses advertise their products, stock and services online, enabling them to get a lot of customers. “We are testing and checking the strength to know if the project will be viable. We plan to reduce the cost of data bundles people purchase every day,” Mucheru said.
It turns out that the project was not viable and it is not clear whether it will be a viable project for Nyeri county since no money will be coming in but only expenses will accrue to the county. Finacial hiccups in counties have seen such plans die.