Nakuru County Government has partnered with the State House Digital communications office to provide free Wi-Fi to residents in the county. The campaign will run throughout March and it is estimated to cost $2.2-million. According to Dennis Itumbi, Director State House Digital, the project is being launched in partnership with Infonet Africa.
After Nairobi, Kakamega and Kiambu, Nakuru is the fourth largest county with a population of 1,603,325. The project is in keeping with Jubilee’s pledge to digitize the country, this includes the delivery of a newly-designed State House website as well as an Android App in the near future. The State House Digital Team was formed in 2013 to oversee the utilization of digital platforms in the government and to its credit a large part of official government communication is now posted on new media channels.
“Jubilee pledged to connect five towns to free Wi-Fi. The journey to keep the promise has just begun. We are committed to ensure Kenyans, particularly the youth are connected,” said State House Digital Director Dennis Itumbi during the launch. He also added that it will be rolled out to other counties soon. “Nakuru is only a pilot for this massive project that we will undertake in coming months. We will next roll out the service to Kisumu.”
Nakuru Governor Kinuthia Mbugua sees the free connectivity as an opportunity to improve research in the county’s institutions of higher learning and to give farmers access to information over the internet.
“We are ready to ensure that our people benefit from connectivity, we are certain we will transform the democratic space and open up opportunities,” the Governor said.
