Oral East Africa>Prime CS Mudavadi urges Luhyas to capitalise on the digital superhighway, they ask for electricity At the hut of the story

Written by Oral East Africa

Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi over the weekend launched ICT hubs in Kakamega where he urged residents to capitalize on the digital superhighways to lift the region out of poverty.

The Prime CS told residents that the region was densely populated and hence had little in terms of land mass to put into agriculture, but that the digital evolution presented a new inexhaustible frontier for growth, if only they could embrace technology en mase.

He was right, Kakamega County's population is the fourth most populated county in Kenya with a population density of 618 people per square kilometer.

But by virtue of its population, 2 million as at 2023, Kakamega has the highest adoption of technology in the Western region with the highest penetration of smartphones according to FinAccess Survey, released by the Central Bank of Kenya, KNBS and FSD.

The Western Kenya county has embraced the internet providing a means through which goods are bought and sold, but also building the internet infrastructure and expanding access.

E-commerce is penetrating rural towns at a time when business processing is gaining traction from outsourcing while data annotation firms are also targeting these areas for a cheaper workforce.

Remote tasks

During the event, we heard testimony from students who took up remote tasks from two digital hubs set up by the government and technology company Huawei that had hired us to cover the photography. The jobs which at time were low paying and irregular just like ours at Seamless Frames were testament of what was possible by just enabling grassroots access to the internet.

Despite the widespread adoption due to Kenya’s high mobile phone penetration, use has been limited by costs, especially among young unemployed youth. Rural Kenya, especially have lower levels of connectivity to the digital world that has propelled urban areas through higher levels of financial inclusions and more opportunities.

According to the FSD Finaccess report, about 9.9 percent of Kenyan adults remain financially excluded, with rural youth forming nearly half of this group (45.5percent). Key barriers to exclusion include the inability to afford a phone (64.1 percent) and lack of Identity Card (51.5 percent).

The government’s ambition is to bridge this divide with a series of 1,450 Digital Hubs across the Country to provide access to the internet, enhance digital skills, work and improve livelihoods.

Huawei contribution

This is in line with goals of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Partner2Connect Digital Alliance which Kenya has made a pledge to, as has Huawei, the technology company that has partnered to support the programme.

Huawei Kenya’s project aimed to connect 120 million people to high-speed broadband, contributing to this goal by setting up digital hubs in TVETs and providing connectivity and computers. Huawei’s connected the Hub to the government’s high-speed fibre-optic network (NOFBI), while providing eight Wi-Fi Access Points for campus-wide internet coverage, and equipping the facility with a smart screen for enhanced teaching. Konza Technopolis added 50 computers to the hub, and partners collaborated to train ICT trainers and upskill students

We saw two such units at Kakamega Polytechnic Jitume Digital Hub Launch and Shianda Polytechnic Digital Hub. They were decent classrooms packed with mint-new computers and very young girls and boys operating them.

Spike in enrollment

The polytechnic directors said since the computers were introduced, enrollment in the tertiary institutions had shot up and even the other students taking technical causes had taken an interest; that the computers were barely enough.

At Kakamega polytechnic the digital hub, operational for a year, has tripled enrollment from 200 to 668 trainees, while at Shianda Polytechnic, the enrollment doubled to over 500.

They however had a challenge of electricity which I noticed as I ran out of battery power and was looking to boost our camera battery as we launched the digital hub in Shianda Polytechnic. I saw the classrooms had those huge power cables that led to a diesel generator rasping off in the background.

Western Kenya has a huge problem of erratic electricity despite the fact that current Kakamega Govenor Fernandes Barasa headed Ketraco, the state electricity distribution firm, that has failed to construct the high voltage line from Olkaria through Lessos to Kibos substation with a capacity of 1200mw.

Erratic power

The project was meant to facilitate reliable and stable power to the Lake Basin Economic Block Counties that including: Bungoma, Busia, Homa Bay, Kakamega, Kisii, Kisumu, Migori, Nyamira, Siaya, Trans Nzoia, Kericho, Bomet, Nandi and Vihiga. The project would also strengthen the National Grid and facilitate a reliable and stable power supply to Kisumu Seaport and its environs.

It would also facilitate power trade between Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda. Lessos substation will be connected to Tororo via the Lessos – Tororo transmission project (Kenya – Uganda interconnector).

Last year, the government signed a $900 million power transmission deal with Adani Energy solutions to construct the 371 kilometers transmission line and five substations in eastern and western Kenya under a public private partnership model.

The deal has since been cancelled over allegations of corruption against the Indian businessman Adani which may leave Western behind even in this new bold shift into the digital age.