• Ruto who graced the event at Amani Gardens, Karura Forest, commended Google for its continued support to upscale Kenya’s digital economy.
• “The promise of growth profiled in the wonderful milestone over the past 15 years makes Google’s presence in Kenya truly historic,” he said.
Image: WILFRED NYANGARESI
Google Kenya celebrated its 15th birthday on Thursday.
The leading global technology company marked 15 years since it started operations in Kenya.
Google has made it its mission to make the internet more helpful for every user and partner in Kenya.
This is in a bid to bring the benefit of the internet, innovation, and the digital economy to everyone.
President William Ruto who graced the event at Amani Gardens, Karura Forest, commended Google for its continued support to upscale Kenya’s digital economy.
“The promise of growth profiled in the wonderful milestone over the past 15 years makes Google’s presence in Kenya truly historic,” he said.
President Ruto also said that a lot of daunting barriers to productivity and success simply vanish once connectivity is effectively facilitated.
“An event like this offers us a huge opportunity to explore game-changing opportunities and cumulatively form an undeniable transformation package,” he added.
“The connection between ICT penetration and digital connectivity on one hand and sustainable development on the other is no longer up for debate.”
In 2021, Google CEO Sundar Pichai contributed Sh600 million to help in Kenya’s digital transformation.
Google Director for East Africa Agnes Gathaiya said that this grant was meant to support the government's work in bringing connectivity to key citizen services.
“Contractors are already on the ground in partnership with the ICT ministry to connect 91 government institutions to the national optic fibre backbone,” Gathaiya said.
These are 11 public hospitals, 68 law courts representing over 300 courtrooms and 12 TVETs.
Citizens will be able to access justice and medical care remotely.
“This will increase efficiency and reduce the cost of access,” Gathaiya added.
As part of its success story in Kenya, Google’s sister company X has developed wireless technology that delivers high-speed connectivity over long distances using beams of light.
Project Taara links our readily available regions across liquid Telcom networks in Kenya including in the pipeline suburb where Google started their trials.
Gathaiya said that the links are providing high-speed connectivity in places where it is challenging to lay fibre cables.
“These are densely populated areas whereby they are already laying out in Eastleigh, national parks and across rivers,” she said.
“This was the first role out of Taara technology in Africa following a series of pilots in 2019.”
Google continues to partner with many organizations to build affordable smartphones for the Kenyan market.
This alone has led to exceptional growth for those who then access the internet opening up a whole new world to them.
“Even under Sh7,000, a smartphone remains beyond the reach of very many Kenyans,” Gathaiya said.
To address this issue, Google partnered with Safaricom to introduce a smartphone device financing plan dubbed Lipa Mdogo Mdogo.
Gathaiya said that with a deposit of Sh500, it is now possible to purchase a smartphone via manageable daily instalments for as little as Sh20.
Google has also launched the Google Hustle Academy across Africa.
The small and medium-sized business boot camp was set up to grow businesses by helping them increase revenue, positioning for investment and building a sustainable business for the future.
In Kenya, the first cohort of over 1,000 businesses will be graduating in the next few weeks.
Over the last three years, Gathaiya said that Google gave billions in grants, capital finance and loans to startups and small businesses in Kenya.
Through Google.org, in the last four years, Google has provided Sh 1.6 billion in cash grants.
They have also provided in-kind support to nonprofits and social impact enterprises in Kenya.
Together with the first lady Mama Rachel Ruto, as the patron of the Google Impact Challenge, they gave out Sh240 million which was shared among 12 NGOs working on economic opportunity in their communities.
Google has also committed to empowering women and girls to transform their economic potential into power.
They invested Sh2 million dollars in grants to three organizations to help address systemic barriers, cultivate entrepreneurship and develop financial independence.
Gathaiya said that they have been honoured to collaborate directly with the government in driving digital transformation.
“In 2011, we helped to bring over a century of Kenya’s parliamentary history online through the Google Books project,” she said.
Since then, Google has worked with the Ministry of Tourism and Culture to take Kenya to the world using digital tools.
With Google Street View, users can virtually explore 21 leading national parks and all major cities, towns and roads connecting them through 360° connectivity and imagery
Working with the National Museums, Kenya’s cultural heritage, artefacts and assets have been digitized and are available online through Google Arts and Culture.
This includes stories about outlined our history, our peoples and 61 folk and cultural heroes representing every community in Kenya.
All these works and more remain incomplete.
Google, however, is committed to continuing working with its partners and the government on products, partnerships and programs that solve Kenya’s biggest challenges.