Safaricom Commits Towards Connected Kenya Summit 2012 As Questions Are Asked

Safaricom has renewed its sponsorship towards the Connected Kenya Summit. The communications services provider will be partnering with the Kenya ICT Board in to host the summit which will be held at the Leisure Lodge Hotel, Diani from the April 2nd to 5th, 2012.

With many stakeholders questioning the achievement of Kenya ICT Board since the 2011 summit, it will be interesting to see what the response of Kenya ICT Board will be on the question. In the meantime, nothing much has been said by the ministry or the board. The main aim of the the summit is to establish a platform for collaboration, capacity building and knowledge sharing between the government and the ICT sector with a view of linking and hastening implementation of government IT projects.

Safaricom gave a platinum sponsorship of Kshs 5 million for the Connected Kenya summit 2012. At the function, Safaricom CEO, Bob Collymore, said:

“The private and public sectors need to work in partnership to achieve the ICT sector goals set in the Kenya Vision 2030 which aims to transform Kenya into a middle-class economy providing a high quality of life for all citizens in the next two decades.”

More than 14 million Kenyans are believed to have access to the internet in one way or another with over 80% accessing data through their mobile phones.

The theme for the 2012 summit is “Knowledge. & Beyond”. Most of the government of Kenya projects are dominated by friends of Paul Kukubo of ICT Board with many Kenyans now starting to question the favouritism. The Kenya ICT Board has also been limiting its activities to Nairobi with not much happening even in Nairobi’s satellite urban centres.

Let us wait and see what the excuse of Kukubo and his team will be now.