Kenya’s First Lady Rachel Ruto has unveiled the 83rd Digital Hub at Butere Girls High School in Kakamega County.
The First Lady was accompanied by Information Communications and the Digital Economy Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo during the launch.
She said the Jitume Digital Hub project has seen over 28,000 users connected with over 8,700 courses enrolled and 118 digital job platforms connected across the country.
“The full implementation of the Jitume Digital Hub project will spur a wave of digital jobs across the nation in relation to our President William Ruto’s clarion call ‘Finya Computer Upate Dollar’,” the First Lady said.
She urged digital users to be cautious against cybercrime, cybersecurity and cyberbullying as the government continues to expand access to the digital space.
“Every student should exercise personal responsibility and self-discipline ensuring that their computer time is productive and contributes to their desired future,” she explained.
She said that the Jitume digital hub will encourage students at Butere Girls to be diligent in pursuing their education especially those focusing on science, technology, engineering and mathematics among other courses.
“As the country gears towards the fourth industrial revolution, we need to be agile enough to ensure we take advantage of emerging opportunities. We now live in the era of generative artificial intelligence where technology enables our work and sparks efficiency, we need to be ready for this new era,” she added.
On his part, the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy Eliud Owalo noted that the government has managed to establish digital hubs in 203 institutions and equipped them with over 13,000 devices across the country.
He said the government has also trained 490,000 youth in the past one year on digital skills and created 139,000 digital jobs for access by Kenyan youth.
“This is extremely transformational because in the near future, if we pursue this course to a logical conclusion we should be able to sort out the fundamental unemployment challenges that we have been facing in this country,” he noted.
The CS said the government is also on course to establish over 1,450 ward based Digital hubs that will be used for citizen digital literacy training, film production and public access to government services.
“I am under instruction from the President to ensure we set up a digital hub in each and every ward in this country where we are going to train our boys and girls on ICT Skills, in terms of digital skilling and most importantly to also connect them to global technological companies so that they can get digital jobs,” he said.
Adding, “This will be a game changer for this country because we will be having our young brothers and sisters there in the village working for global technological companies and being paid in foreign currencies, solving the unemployment challenge that we have been facing in the country.”
He also said that the digital skills are critical to enhancing access to government services which are undergoing digitalization from 350 services which were digitized in 2022 to over 16,892 services currently available on the E-citizen platform.
He urged Kenyans to take advantage of the digital transformation to even study and acquire certification online at the comfort of their homes through the Open University of Kenya.
“As on 30th October last year, President William Ruto opened the first Kenya Open University which is domiciled at the Konza Technopolis. The importance of this is that you can now log into the university online as opposed to having to physically be confined to the four walls of a classroom. This again will help us drastically reduce the cost of education, because education is the greatest equalizer. We want to make education affordable under this government,” he added.
The CS also noted that the government’s roll out of 100,000 kilometer of fiber optic cable will connect all parts of the country to the internet with now focus on utilizing Kenya Power Transmission Lines to extend the cables across the country.
“We have changed the model of rolling out the fiber. Instead of digging the trenches down, we are now going to use the KPLC transmission lines to help us take fiber connectivity to all parts of the country. We will terminate the fiber cable at the over 74,000 transformers in the country to connect the internet to schools, markets and all public institutions and the villages,” he explained.
The CS also said the government targets to set up 25,000 Wi-Fi hotspots across the country.
“So we are on the right trajectory and I want to assure everybody that we are so determined under the guidance and supervision of the President to transform Kenya into a digital economy. If we pursue our goals and objectives to a logical conclusion we will in the near future be running a paperless government and a 24-hour economy,” he added.
By Moses Wekesa and John Ochanda
