The Kenya ICT Authority has managed to connect all 47 counties to the fiber backbone. The connection was part of a project implemented through the national fiber backbone (NOFBI) at a cost of Kshs. 6 billion that covered 2,100 kilometers. Citizens visiting counties will now have it easy in accessing e-government services with communication across counties improving.
The Kenya ICT Authority is now implementing phase 2 of the National Fibre Optic cable set for completion in June 2016. The second phase will also build a 500 KM dedicated fiber network for the military. Part of the completed Phase 1 is already in use in the national government, Telkom, Safaricom, Jamii Telecom and KENET utilizing more than 3,000KM of the cable. The operations and maintenance of NOFBI Phase 1 is being handled by Telkom.
Once the NOFBI project is implemented, the last mile connectivity under County Connectivity Project (CCP) will take over where the ICT Authority has also created a road map for Counties in Kenya to ensure the supply for e-government services is in tandem with broadband requirements. The ICT road map project which kicked off in March 2015 seeks to collect data on the status of each county as well as gather information on planned projects in each county. In addition, the project will draft an ICT development plan for each county for a period of six months. Once completed, each county will begin executing their road maps.
After the launch of the ICT Road Maps, the Counties shall begin to execute their individual plans. With the project helping in the procurement of systems with common applications in the county such as revenue collection under a shared services model.
