It may not be to the magnitude of David
Ndii’s mega structures, but it is
equally difficult to comprehend the county governments in Kenya's obsession with
offering free WI-FI in their counties. Is this a competition for worthless
prestige or a genuine desire to economically transform the counties?
Whatever the answer, considering the level the country is in terms of development, if the country is serious about being a middle income country with reduced poverty and economic gap, the priority areas certainly should not include free internet access. Not at this time!
While Kenya is emerging as undisputed ICT
for development frontier, quantification is badly needed on how much of the
internet usage benefits the basic development and growth we currently need.
Why would counties that are largely (and
indeed the majority are) rural economy, small scale farmers or herders find it
a priority to spend huge funds of their budget on putting up free WI-FI? IFAD
report states that nearly half of Kenya’s population is unable to meet its
daily nutritional requirements. Now, that is an embarrassment to the nation! Why
are we so obsessed with providing free luxury service to those who can actually afford
it, in stead of spending the same shillings 200 million to improve or save the
lives of the poor majority?
Our small scale-farmers, or are they called
peasants, are highly in need of improving their farming techniques for improved
productivity. Very few counties are spending funds training farmers, putting up
irrigation projects, or building dams.
Internet is an infrastructure. If we cannot
improve productivity, the internet use will only be for the idle, sex trade,
paedophiles and Al-Shabaab recruitment of the youth. First things first! Let us
focus on training our youth to be productive and innovative by improving on
what we already have.
Why do our leaders hatch such ideas? To which extent do they involve the citizens in their planning?
Caspar Pedo
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