DNLaptop1806cDAILY NATION By LILIAN OCHIENG,

Monday May 02, 2016

Class one pupils in 150 selected schools will have digital devices delivered and installed in their schools starting Tuesday, marking the actualization of the Sh17 billion Digital Literacy Programme.

Mombasa and Kwale counties are marked as first beneficiaries with Garissa, Kisumu, Homa Bay, Kisii, Uasin Gishu, Kakamega, Bungoma and Kajiado following closely this week.

The exercise is expected to close on May 13, already, four schools already received their laptops in March, marking a sample of the entire Proof of Concept stage of the project’s delivery.

Class One pupils at Ilbissil boarding primary school, Kajiado were the first to receive the laptops. Katheka AIC in Machakos, Sharki Primary in Mombasa and Hill Primary in Eldoret already have their laptops delivered.

Pilot phase

“The Digital literacy programme will be delivering and installing devices to schools between 3rd and 13th May,” said a press statement from the ICT Authority, “the programme will also be holding sensitisation workshops starting 3rd of May for key stakeholders in counties.”

Two consortia of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and Moi University will install laptops, routers and servers in this pilot phase. They will then move on to deliver 600, 000 laptops to marked schools in the first phase by June this year.

While Portuguese firm JP SA Couto together with Moi University will supply the laptops to 26 counties, JKUAT together with Positivo BGH (a joint venture between an Argentinian and Brazilian firm) will supply the laptops to 21 counties.