Maybe the sweetest thing about the recently concluded census exercise is that the tablets used were assembled by Kenyan public universities.
This is a big milestone in the process of turning this country into an industrialised nation in line with Vision 2030 and the Big Four agenda. The people behind it need to be feted for such an achievement.
To increase mobile device penetration to every village and hamlet in the country, the government needs to consider, after getting its data from the gadgets and resetting them, gifting them the young men and women who worked day and night to make the exercise a success. This will be better than keeping them in storage until an exercise requiring their use comes up. This could also contribute to the Education ministry’s Digital Literacy Programme.
The youth can do a lot with the gadgets including learning and even doing business; many unemployed youths have multimillion shilling ideas but lack the means to get them rolling. This will also give the assembling teams an opportunity to continue improving their skills when given the next tender, not to mention that the economy can only grow through spending.
The benefits that accrue from giving out the gadgets far outweigh that of keeping them in a store somewhere where they are susceptible to theft, poor storage condition, harsh weather elements and degeneration with time. Giving them to these youths will also get them off the market full of unemployed youths with no way of starting a business.
With increased knowledge of the advancement in technology, the youths could be innovated to build something that would contribute to the economic growth of the country and improve their living standards.
Kisii
