State bets on ICT to improve services

By PATRICK BEJA 

Kenya: Government officials are optimistic the 47 counties will be connected via internet links in the next five years.

Speaking at an ICT conference in Mombasa yesterday, the team said once this happens, it will prove that the Jubilee government is committed to supporting ICT.

They say an ICT link will improve service delivery in the counties as well as support the free laptops programme in primary schools.

“This interactive conference is important because its resolutions can be used to enrich the country’s ICT policy,” Information PS Bitange Ndemo said.

The delegates attending the ‘Connected Kenya 2013’ conference said ICT would be an engine for growth and that once counties and the national government are linked, service delivery would significantly improve. Cabinet Secretaries Fred Matiang’i (ICT), Najib Balala (Mining) and Adan Mohamed (Industrialisation) and other leaders are attending the four-day conference. The officials told the Press that ICT would be an engine for economic development as envisioned in the Jubilee manifesto.

Dr Ndemo said every county has a broadband but noted that Northern Kenya still experienced challenges, which have to be addressed through a wireless service. He said the broadband coverage stands at about 90 per cent and more investment was required to improve it.

At the same time, the PS decried cyber crimes, which he said were increasingly becoming more serious in Kenya. “We have set up a strategy towards fighting cyber crime. We have a team based at the Communication Commission of Kenya,” he said.

Balala said there was political goodwill as the national and county governments were committed to implementing ICT. He said in the next five years, ICT would help harmonise policies between the national government and counties and hence boost service delivery.

On mining, Balala said his priority would be to speed up the enactment of the Mining Bill, carry out a survey of minerals, establish a metal exchange centre and an international mineral laboratory in Nairobi.