Nyandarua County is one of the beneficiaries of the school broadband project, acting Director General of the Communications Authority of Kenya, Ms. Mercy Wanjau has said.
While affirming this at the County Information Communication Technology (ICT) consumer forum held in Nyandarua today, Ms. Wanjau noted that the project which is implemented under the Universal Service Fund program is aimed at connecting all public schools to fast internet.
She said that five schools had already been connected across the County among them, Shamata Girls, Njabini Boys, Mt Kinangop Girls, Karima Girls and Magomano Girls.
“ICT enables more children to affordably access learning content, it’s an area which has huge potential for growth in enabling online education,” she added.
Ms. Wanjau at the same time urged the County government to consider further tapping into National Optic Fibre Broadband Infrastructure (NOFBI), Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited (KETRACO) and other networks deployed by the private sector to enhance its delivery.
On his part Nyandarua Governor Mr.Francis Kimemia said that his administration had championed use of ICT in the County.
He said that the county had set up ICT centres at youth polytechnics in Mirangine, Kangui, Miharati and Kinangop which involved supply, installation of computers and installation of local area network (LAN).
He at the same time said that Olkalou library was also digitized noting that 10 computers had been supplied to the library configured with the internet to ease research work adding that this was implemented as part of the incubation centre project.
“My Government intends to install Fibre Optic Cable to all Sub county and revenue offices to reduce the cost of bandwidth and provide higher capacity bandwidth.
“These will be connected in the National Fibre Optic Backbone Infrastructure that is currently offered to the Counties for free by the National Government,” said Kimemia.
The County Chief also urged the Communication Authority to consider issuing broadcast rights to devolved units and allayed fears that licensing radio and television channels for the Counties would fan divisive politics.
By David Njoroge and Anne Sabuni
