CS Owalo: ICT ministry has rolled out over 5000km of network

ICT and Digital Economy Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo on Monday shared his key achievement as he highlighted measures that will see the Kenya Kwanza's bottom-up plan, especially on job creation, is realised.

In a meeting with the editors to enumerate his scorecard, Owalo cited the rollout of fibre optic cable to speed up internet connectivity and provision of free public Wi-Fi hotspots.

According to Owalo, the partnership they have with the private sector to lay 5,280km of the cable has so far surpassed its June target of having 5,000km network.

“We have rolled out 2,780km while the private sector has rolled out 2,500km, which is a big milestone for us in the digital superhighway delivery,” the CS said. 

Owalo said this has seen 421 free public Wi-Fi hotspots established and made operational as at Monday, which is a significant development from its target of having at least two in each of the counties by June.

In his ambitious agenda, President William Ruto said they intend to have 100, 000km of national fibre optic in the next five years and 25, 000 public hotspots across the country.

The President said creating a digital superhighway will enable a seamless delivery of its services. 

“The digital superhighway will automate all government’s critical processes and make available at least 80 per cent of government services online enhancing service delivery,” Ruto said in a past event.

On digitalisation of government services, Owalo said a total of 5,084 services will have been fully digitalised by Monday

Some 9, 362 services, he said, have been identified and set to be moved to the e-citizen platform.

With the government keen on enabling Kenyans access government services at ease something which has since been identified as an impediment in the process, Owalo said there are plans to roll out cheap smartphones.

The devices, the CS, will be rolled out in the next one month adding that it will retail at $40 (Sh5, 600).

Principal Secretaries John Tanui (ICT) and Edward Kisiang'ani (Broadcasting and Telecommunication) among other government officials and private ssector representatives attended the event.

"We have gone a step further to partner with the private sector to embark on the assembly of smart enables phones in the Kenyan market," he said.

“We will subsequently move from local assembly to local manufacture of the handsets and we move to the next level of local manufacture."

The CS has at the same time announced that a total 336, 000 youth have so far been trained on digital jobs under the Ajira Digital and Jitume programme with some 109 digital jobs being created.

Through the programme, the government the government seeks to train youth on ICT skills using the existing TVET institutions.

This is "to create a critical mass of skilled labour to support and benefit from the digital economy".

Owalo said they have through the stakeholder partnerships secured a donation of 23,000 digital devices for deployment for purposes of digital skilling.

"We have deployed these devices in 77 TVETs, four universities, 21 schools and 100 ministry departments and agencies," he said, adding that 174 digital hubs have already been established.

Jitume labs being established at these institutions are aimed at addressing issues of connectivity, device access and digital skills, as well as job opportunities.

The skills gained, he said, will be directed to the market sector through digital entrepreneurship.

Kenya National Open University, which is set to be launched Wednesday by the President at Konza city, he said, will help facilitate digital skilling and training for Kenyans to acquire optimal levels of ICT skills.

"We have managed to operationalise the Kenya National Open University which is going to be a virtual university. I am happy to report that in a few days, the university will be officially commissioned by the President himself," he said.

The CS at the same time announced plans to revamp state broadcaster KBC and the Postal corporation.

In the plan, Sh170 million has been set aside for modernising KBC's TV centre, a process Owalo said is currently ongoing.

"This is intended to improve both sound and signal quality and has been put to tender," he said. 

Another Sh120 million will be spent on the purchase of a TV Outside Broadcasting van and a Sh50 million to acquire the same for radio. 

Owalo said the government is also working in partnership with the Spanish government to upgrading Digital Terrestrial Broadcasting Infrastructure to enhance nationwide signal coverage.

He said that they intend to move radio broadcast waves from the Medium Wave to FM.