Hackathon targeting big 4 agenda goes to Bomet County

Bomet County recently played host to a county-based hackathon targeting ‘’the-big4-agenda’’ and the County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP) 2018-2022. The Hackathon was an offshoot of the first Big4 Hackathon held in Nairobi on the 8^th and the 15^th of September 2018 at the HeriHub, National Museums of Kenya.

The hackathon’s focus is an innovation and mentorship platform that seeks to nurture ideas and technology solutions developed by youth and which centrHackathone on tangible economic and social impacts in the Big 4 Agenda. The Bomet Hackathon was held on the 8^th and 9^th of October 2018, where the Big 4 issues and the CIDP were demystified on the first day and then the participants broke away into various interest groups to consolidate their ideas.

“The youth will use the next two weeks to refine their ideas under the guidance of mentors as they are prepared to face judges on the 22^nd of October 2018. Bomet County is hosting the Lake Regions Development Bloc Conference from the 23^rd to the 26^th of October 2018. This presents an excellent opportunity for the Hackathon winners to showcase their ideas to the 14 county governors present. This has been made possible by Huawei being a major sponsor of both the Hackathon and the LREB Conference,” read a press statement issued by Huawei, who partnered with the Bomet County ICT Department to make the event possible.

Other partners involved in “Hack-The-Big4” hackathon include, eMentoring Africa (eMA) a non-profit organization that helps youth through structured mentorship and empowerment programs, and the ICT Authority, whose vision is to be the leader in transforming Kenya into a regional ICT hub and a globally competitive digital economy.

Bomet County ICT Department took up the challenge of mobilizing the youth from across the county and hosting the two-day event at their Center of Devolved Governance. The County leadership is keen on seeing the youth play a central role in seeking solutions to local problems and giving them an opportunity to prove themselves in defining their own destinies. Bomet County aims to be a powerhouse in the technology driven development and governance solutions.

In Kenya more than one in every 5 Kenyans is aged between 15 to 24 years thus totaling to almost 10 million strong youth that are vital for Kenya’s future. As a result, about 10 million young people in the next decade are projected to enter the labor market which currently employs only 2.3 million in the formal sector.

The youth population continues to experience high levels of unemployment and underemployment – and thus the tech-solutions can not only solve the Big 4 issues, but also address this challenge of creating jobs for themselves and their peers. The developers therefore embark on leveraging the impact the youth have in the country to create long lasting and immediate solutions to the existing challenges and gaps in various sectors of the economy.

The winning solutions will be awarded and supported to full development.