ICT Authority Plans to Use Kenya Power Lines to Supply Internet to Schools

Kenya Power transmission lines are set to be used in a plan being rolled out to connect all public schools with internet. This comes barely a week after the power supply company experienced three major failures in less than 24 hours.

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Authority is collaborating with Kenya Power, Ministry of Energy and Communications Authority (CA) in the plan to supply internet to public schools which is aimed at boosting learning and teaching.

So far, Kenya Power has connected over 22,000 schools with power. The authority will use the same infrastructure to stream fibre to all the learning institutions.

“We estimate within two years we will have completed. The internet that comes to your school already purchased by the government will be through the Kenya Education Cloud to ensure all the content is properly vetted,” said ICT Authority acting director programmes and standards, Thomas Odhiambo.

Mr Odhiambo said the internet penetration will capture villages touching 10 million households.

“This will blend learning and ensure we get the internet productivity that a nation can get. Internet penetration is crucial for development,” he said, noting that internet connectivity is crucial for growth in digital learning.

He said the government has formed a special purpose vehicle with Etisalat in Fujairah to ensure Kenya is connected.

“Fujairah is where Kenya gets its internet from. With that we will get all the internet we can ever need. There’s a submarine cable from Mombasa to Fujairah that will bring all the internet we ever need,” he said.

Mr Odhiambo said so far some 9,000km of fibre has reached all the sub-counties distributing internet in Kenya. However, he said the 9,000km of fibre is not enough.

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Authority has so far issued 1.2 million devices for the Digital Literacy Program (DLP) in 22, 890 public primary schools.