The Cabinet Secretary (CS) for Information Communication and Digital Economy Eliud Owalo has urged Members of Parliament to fast-track the construction of ICT hubs in their constituencies to enhance digital literacy among the youth.
Owalo said the move will enable the realisation of government’s plan to have ICT Hubs in all the 1450 wards in the country.
Speaking at the Swahilipot in Mvita Sub-County when he unveiled the 205 digital hub, Owalo said the Digital Superhighway is one of the key pillars of Kenya Kwanza administration.
“I have been directed as CS for ICT to ensure in nook and cranny of our country we establish ICT hubs to equip our young boys and girls with digital skills,” said CS Owalo, adding the Swahilipot hub aligns with the government plan of equipping youths with digital skills.
The CS disclosed that the ministry has forged a partnership with legislators to roll out digital hubs in every ward nationwide.
Owalo noted that MPs have amended the National Government-Constitutional Development Fund Act and can now utilize three percent of their annual CDF allocation to build digital hubs.
“Our role now as the National Government is to connect the internet, equip ICT labs with computers and provide free training without payment. Later we will link our youths with multi-national to get employment,” elucidated CS Owalo.
The CS encouraged to take cues from their peers earning income through online jobs to become financially independent, emphasising government’s overarching goal to enable the youth to get jobs in the wake of diminishing white-collar jobs.
“You can be here and working for a technology firm in America, Germany, India, United Kingdom, Singapore or elsewhere. Youths working online are paid in dollars,” said CS Owalo.
Moving forward, the CS said all government services will be available online.
“When we took the reins of power we had 350 services on the e-citizen platform. Today, we have 17020 that we have onboarded on e-citizen.”
“All the bottlenecks that some officers had put between government services and citizens, soliciting bribes will be a bygone moving forward. Government services will be between you, your phone and the government itself without middlemen in between,” added Owalo.
The CS further reiterated the government’s commitment to ensure seamless internet connectivity across the country.
“We have been digging trenches to lay fibre optic cables now we have changed the plan, moving forward we will be using electricity transmission lines of Kenya Power to put fibre. This means anyplace with a transformer we will connect fibre,” said CS Owalo.
“At the end anyplace that will have an electricity meter. We will supply fibre and we will have the capacity to connect to the internet.”
On his part, Swahilipot Hub Chief Mentor Mahmoud Noor extolled the Ministry of Information for their cooperation since the hub was founded.
The hub, he said, aims to create a safe space for youths to get digital skills, thus the unveiled digital hub will enable the youths to learn and earn through online jobs without boarding aeroplanes to foreign countries.
Nominated Senator Miraj Abdillahi advised the youths to use the digital hubs to improve their digital literacy as the Head of State has traversed the globe to look for jobs for them.
