- Ministry of Defence, then under CS Eugene Wamalwa, came out as the best performing in the ministries category.
- Sports,Culture and Heritage, under CS Amina Mohamed, was the worst performer.
Image: File
The former ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs ministry under Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru in the last Uhuru Cabinet has been ranked among the worst performing government entities.
This leaves a deep and wide pit for the newly repurposed Ministry of Information, Communication and the Digital Economy, under Eliud Owalo, to fill.
The official report on Evaluation of Performance of Ministries, State Corporations and Tertiary Institutions for the Financial Year 2021/2022, listed the Mucheru-led ministry at number 18 out of 25 ministries.
For purposes of the assessment the defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services was classified among government ministries.
The Ministry of Defence, then under CS Eugene Wamalwa, came out as the best performing in the ministries category, while Sports,Culture and Heritage, under CS Amina Mohamed, was the worst performer.
The poor ranking of the ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs Ministry is of special interest, as the repurposed ministry under Owalo has been earmarked for a special role in the delivery of President Ruto’s ICT driven bottom-up digital economic agenda.
The Owalo-led ministry has been singled out as a prime enabler in the Kenya Kwanza development plan. It has a tall order to step up to the plate, with emphasis on placing Kenya on the global digital economic platform.
Owalo hit the ground running, soon after his appointment to the ICT docket in November last year. He led government launches of public Wi-Fi hotspots in marketplaces and digital laboratories in technical and vocational training centres in diverse parts of the country.
Owalo has painted a glowing picture of his ministry’s performance, so far, at the recently concluded Connected Summit in Kwale.
The CS told the summit that his ministry had began working on the first 25,000 of 100,000km of fibre optic that the government is expected to roll out over the next five years in partnership with the private sector.
“We have held meetings with the Private Sector and agreed on how they will lay out 48,000 km, while the government will do the rest,” he said.
Also in stride are 25,000 public hotspots that will connect marketplaces, schools and other learning institutions, hospitals, and a wide range of public institutions to the internet, at no cost to users. A special fund of Sh52 billion has been negotiated with the World Bank to pay for the 25,000 hotspots.
The CS also reported good progress in pursuit of government funded equipment of the people with digital skills. This is being done through the Jitume laboratories, which have been launched in various TVETs across the country by President Ruto, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, and Owalo himself.
“The primary objective for Jitume labs is to train a public workforce that spawns efficient and effective service delivery in different trades and crafts,” Owalo told the Kwale summit.
The Jitume programme is set to equip TVETS countrywide with 23,000 virtual desktops. Through this programme, it is expected that one million learners will be equipped with market-ready business and ICT related courses, for free. Seventeen Jitume laboratories have already been set up and connected countrywide.
Elsewhere is a twelve-month internship package that is essentially a digital talent programme with the key components of skill development, on the job coaching, mentorship, training, certification and ICT innovations under the Information and Communication Authority (ICTA). The programme is developing high-end digital skills in recent university graduates.