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Owalo: Free Wi-Fi, digitised government services top my one-year scorecard
Information, Communication and Digital Economy Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo.
ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo said his ministry is targeting the installation of 25, 000 hotspots across the country that will provide free Wi-Fi hotspots to members of the public.
The CS said the move to provide free public Wi-Fi was necessitated by the demand of Kenyans who said they wanted to see the cost of data go down in President William Ruto's government.
"Kenyans told us they'd like to see the cost of data go down. Our target was to have two Wi-Fi hotspots per county. As we speak, we have over 420 hotspots in the country, mostly in markets and bus stops," said Mr Owalo while briefing the media on the areas his ministry has focused on since he took over from his predecessor Joe Mucheru in October last year.
He added that they have done 192 Wi-Fi connections and through ICTA they are operationalising 55 more, which could be done in two years time as opposed to the five-year plan previously communicated.
A total of 14,690 public Wi-Fi hotspots have been identified across the country in close collaboration between the ministry and county governments.
Digitised services
According to the CS, the Ministry has exceeded its target of digitising 5,000 government services.
As of 30 June, the ministry had fully digitised 5,084 services and another 2,555 services are partially digitised.
"When we took over, eCitizen had only 350 services. We've targeted KRA, Lands, Transport, Education, Border Control, Cities and Services and Cabinet," he said.
The ICT ministry has also partnered with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) in a Sh600 million contract for postal services.
Mr Owalo also clarified that the recent glitch in eCitizen was the result of an attempt to hack the website, which was not successful.
"The platform was not hacked. It was an attempt to tamper with the system. I want to assure Kenyans that their data is safe. We have now returned to optimal capacity utilisation and we have sufficient risk mitigation against these future attacks," he added.
Cabinet services have also been digitised under the Kenya Kwanza administration, which will facilitate the delivery of quality services to Cabinet and other government agencies, and improve efficiency and effectiveness through the use of technology.
On the proposed digital identification, the CS said that no Kenyan will be forced to apply for it.
Data Protection
While reiterating that no data was lost during the recent attempted hack of eCitizen, the CS said the government has taken the necessary steps to ratify the African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection (the Malabo Convention).
"Under the auspices of the African Union, the Malabo Convention envisages Africa as a single entity for the purposes of data protection and privacy. It calls for a harmonised, independent and robust continental legal framework that will protect all peoples of Africa and people in Africa from data processors and data controllers," Mr Owalo said.
He added that the Office of the Data Commissioner has also been established and operationalised, and that a multi-agency government team has been set up to deal with cyber security, which includes representatives from the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Home Affairs and National Administration, NIS, Ministry of Information, Communication and the Digital Economy, the Communications Authority and the National Computer and Cybercrime Coordination Committee (NC4).
In terms of digital skills, the ministry has secured 23,000 devices through donations to be used to equip Kenyans with skills.
"We've deployed 6700 in 77 TVET institutions, 400 in three universities and we've also supported county governments. We've created 109 digital jobs and trained 336 youth in digital skills through the Ajira and Jitume programmes," Mr Owalo said.
Further, in a bid to deliver on the President's promise of cheaper smartphones for Kenyans, the CS said they have partnered with the private sector to assemble smartphones that will start selling for no less than Sh5,0000 from next month.
He announced that the tendering process for the development of a Sh170 million national addressing system is underway and that the government is procuring a Sh120 million OB van for the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), a partnership with the Spanish government that will see KBC broadcast rugby matches.
“We have also began work on a ‘National Contact Centre’, which will be a central point from which citizens can interact with the government through various channels,” he said.