Introduction
ICTs have quickly developed. Therefore, new knowledge and modernization have been designed to lead to the constant growth in the economic system and community, and society.
To support the modification of ICT and to create and enhance the ICT potential of Kenya in the worldwide market, The Kenya Digital Masterplan (2013-2017) was created to be used as a structure for piloting the e-Government Strategy 2004, the first National ICT Policy of 2005 and The Master Plan 2013.
To this end, the Government has also revealed the Master Plan, 2022-2032 at the Connected Kenya 2022 Summit that is being held at Diani.
The show is being led by the ICT Authority.
An ICT master plan is a primary means of managing information and resources within the organization.
The government of Kenya has requested state departments to come up with ICT plans to keep up with developments of both ICT infrastructure and the flow of information that can lead to better decision-making.
The mission of the decade-long Master Plan is to enhance the collaboration of the public and private sectors to form the development network of information systems and infrastructure.
The Plan also details ICT management and planning for education and training.
The Master Plan is anchored on four primary pillars that will be entrusted with the provisioning of digital services to Kenyans and businesses.
One of the pillars is the digital infrastructure which has designed for equitable access to national service through a pervasive and ubiquitous national ICT infrastructure.
The second pillar is digital government services, products, and data management. It will see the provision of e-Government information and services for improved productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, and governance in all sectors. It also considers technology-related products and services.
Digital skills are also part of the Plan: the state wants to see the development of a digitally skilled workforce and citizenry that is grounded on ethical practices and social-cultural values to implement and operationalize this master plan.
Lastly, the Plan seeks to explore digital innovation, enterprise, and digital business. This will effectively enhance the innovation value chain to turn innovative ideas into sustainable businesses and operating models. The pillar also aims to migrate businesses onto the digital platform.
Digital Infrastructure
Kenya has done substantial work in terms of digital connectivity. It is one of the most connected countries in the region and is being served by six submarine cables: TEAMS, EASSY, SEACOM, DARE, PEACE, and LION2.
The government of Kenya owns 20 percent of TEAMS and is also connected to the service.
While the government has used its capacity in TEAMS through the activation of the 10 Gbps connection. However, some issues have been raised so far. For instance, there are not enough experts to support ICT infrastructure. At the same time, there is no ICT infrastructure development plan.
Nonetheless, the last decade has seen the government build more than 9K kilometres of terrestrial fibre that has reached all Kenya counties via the National Optic Fibre Backbone Infrastructure Project (NOFBI) (Phase 1 was implemented in 2008, Phase 2 in 2014, and 2E in 2017).
The last mile connectivity of the government has also developed 534km of the infrastructure that has linked 1650 public institutions and offices in offering services such as Government Common Core Network (GCCN).
The growth of connectivity by 2030 will be huge and bandwidth requirements will also grow substantially due to big data consolidation and analytics.
A single household could need 2 Gbps of broadband speed by 2030.
A new report from the Fibre Broadband Association predicts that a four-person household will require 2,141 Mbps speeds in the next decade.
The master plan will also ensure that the structural designs incorporate ICT infrastructural requirements for any building erected or development of land to comply with ICT building code.
Regarding data centres, the government built a Tier 2 Government Data Centre to secure government data, apps and create a hosting environment for critical information.
The government has also developed another data centre at the upcoming smart city, Konza. The Second Phase of the project was nearing completion sometime in 2021. It is a tier 3 data centre.
Lastly, the government wants to see the success of universal access to ICT services.
In terms of cellular mobile network infrastructure, and through the USF that is under the Communication Authority of Kenya, the government started to rollout communications infrastructure and services in unserved and underserved areas in the country to ensure universal access to ICT services by all in Kenya.
The first phase of the project was started in 2021 and targeted 28 sub-locations.
The second phase has also started, and will target 101 sub-locations in 17 counties.
Subsequent phases will target 278 sub-locations in 25 counties.
The national physical addressing system project seeks to provide street addressing, numbering and coding of all properties and thereby provide clear logistical support for economic activities. The project has been ongoing and was hinted to launch sometime before the end of 2021. The development, however, has not happened.
The plan also mentions sustainable power supply for ICT installations, because there is a need to establish green energy plants for sustainable electricity supply to ICT systems to ensure reliable and accessible services as well as service continuity.
Conclusion
Overall, the growth of ICT in Kenya can be considered great when measured against other African markets. ICT development also does seem to be a priority for the government.
Thus, Kenya should develop intensive planning for ICT Master Plan implementation and integration.
The main factor holding back the development of ICT in Kenya in all indices is the readiness of the information and communication infrastructure, which is insufficient and has limited coverage.
This constrains the development and use of ICT, which is still inefficient and ineffective, in building up knowledge, developing enterprises, and serving the government. Thus, the development of ICT infrastructure is an important issue that the decade-long ICT Master Plan must resolve.
