By Mutai Kipngetich
Kirinyaga Central ICT Hub is fueling hope to young people from Kirinyaga, and parts of Ndia and Gichugu constituencies amid myriad challenges ranging from poor internet connectivity to outdated desktops, and small numbers of facilities in the region, according to the National Assembly committee on National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF)
The committee, which was on parliamentary visit to check on how best they can assist the 100-seater tech hub through the NG-CDF fund to cater for expenditure and expansion of the facilities across all wards, was led by Dagoretti North Member of Parliament Beatrice Elachi who pledged support to the critical tech ecosystem.
“We decided now to agree that the Constituency Development Fund can assist the different hubs that we have in terms of paying the current expenditures that they face, which was a challenge before. So, the challenges of the internet, the challenges of having desktops, the challenges of even having one center in Kirinyaga need to be looked into considering the President insisted that you must take hubs to the ward level,” Elachi said.
Elachi added that after listening to proposals from various centers, they would make recommendations that will assist all hubs countrywide to do better and improve the capacity to accommodate the growing number of youths that are enrolling in online jobs.
The legislator also challenged the ministry to provide necessary equipment as the NG-CDF will do its part without failure.
“But I want to ask the Ministry, in all these places we’ve gone, if there’s anything they are requesting, kindly, if it is something you can do, do it for us,” she said.
Another committee member Joshua Mwalyo (MP Masinga) said the ICT hubs are game changers, especially in this era where job opportunities are scarce – tech hubs generally enable a community to manage its own development as they provide access to apt information, facilities, resources, training and services.
Maria Lekuloto, board member, NG-CDF board noted that some centers in the country are not working because of the challenges that has been raised before especially the recurrent expenditure, but the current proposal by parliamentary committee will give them power to cover some expenditures
“We are aware that many of the innovation hubs around the country are not operational because of some challenges that we became aware of a long time ago, like for example the issue to do with the recurring expenditure of running the innovation hubs. But at that point in time we didn’t have anything to do about it because our hands were tied due to the guidelines or the requirements of the Act. But I want to appreciate our National Assembly Select Committee on NGCDF because they have really worked hard to ensure that that is now changed in the Act so that we are able to cover the operational or the recurrent expenditure of running the ICT hubs,” Lekuloto said
She was impressed by the coming together of all the stakeholders, the National Assembly Select Committee, the Ministry in charge of ICT and the board, saying it will ensure that each and every of the stakeholders do their part to make sure that we operationalize this hub so that our students can benefit.
Kirinyaga Central ICT Hub Center Manager Albert Miano said the major challenges include the internet downtime, fluctuations of the internet. Power blackouts, more blackouts. The other challenge is few desktops and laptops in the center.
Winfred Chege, a beneficiary of a hub and currently a trainer, said freelancing is the best source of income, flexible and easy to get global clients.
