President William Ruto on Tuesday visited Huawei’s exhibition stand at Kenya Innovation Week to discuss how 5G technologies, digital power, and enterprise transformation can transform Kenya.
Ruto saw the first indoor 5G site in the region, solar power solutions and smart boards with video conferencing used in telemedicine.
When viewing the telemedicine demonstration on the IdeaHub smart board Ruto said that doctors can treat patients from around the World without being there physically.
"Even if a doctor is not on site, he can leverage technology to treat a patient in a remote place," he said.
A doctor was using Huawei Cloud Meeting to communicate from a hospital.
Huawei’s exhibition also demonstrated how 5G and Wi-Fi technology can improve the efficiency and safety of ports and factories.
Ruto also saw Huawei’s digital power products which are used in Kenya’s largest solar farm, homes and businesses across the country.
Other products exhibited were smart office and smart consumer products, Huawei Cloud and various Enterprise IT equipment.
The President said that innovation has the power to accelerate productivity.
“Developing relevant policies that will nurture and stimulate innovation in Kenya in appreciation that innovation has the power to accelerate productivity, generate gainful employment and create wealth for millions of ordinary people is a great move," he said.
He committed to leveraging technology to deal with the challenges of unemployment by getting more young people to access the internet.
The President pledged to galvanise the digital economy and emphasised the government’s commitment to mainstreaming innovation into public and private sectors including enhancing the uptake of emerging technologies.
Dr Tariya Makotsi from AAR Healthcare explained how using 5G on an ambulance can enable a doctor sitting in the hospital to provide remote support to patients in the ambulance by viewing ultra-high definition video footage as well as patients’ vital data.
The President spoke to Julie Makena from Astral Aerial, who have been using industrial drones to help with spraying farms, mapping farms, and monitoring the health of crops through various drone photography.
Julie explained how 5G will help stream higher-quality video data from multiple streams to provide better data for analysis.
