News & Events

According to an article published in ‘NUANCE: Newsletter of the UbuntuNet Alliance: Networks, Collaboration, Education’, open access is a powerful solution to the barriers that researchers in developing and transition countries face.

"A lot of research has been undertaken over the years in Uganda and many seeming breakthroughs arrived at, however these have not been disseminated and subsequently have not added value to the lives of Ugandans,” says John Chrysostom Muyingo, state minister for higher education in Uganda. This revealing statement was made last year at the very first national open access conference in Uganda, which Electronic Information For Libraries (EIFL) co-hosted with the Consortium of Uganda University Libraries (CUUL).

Chair: Louis Papaemmanuel, Project Director of iMENTORS, SU

• Björn Pehrson, KTH, Sweden
• Meoli Kashorda, KENET, Kenya
• Aida Opoku-Mensah, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

Copyright © 2002 - 2013 IST-Africa Initiative

The panel will consist of an open discussion on the needs and benefits of enhancing the coordination of donors and investments in e-Infrastructures in Sub Saharan Arica, and will be followed by a live demonstration of the iMENTORS platform as a tool to optimise the coordination of donors and investments in e-Infrastructures in Sub Saharan Arica.

Click here to see the Agenda

Kenyan science officials say they plan to set up a national research foundation to manage and disburse research grants.

The foundation would operate along the lines of the South African National Research Foundation (NRF). It is one of three institutions being introduced as part of a bill approved by parliament in December 2012.

Crispus Kiamba, permanent secretary in the ministry of science, says preliminary work to set up the foundation has begun. It might be established in the next two months, he says.

The foundation will manage the National Research Fund, a proposed grant facility, which would receive an initial input from the Treasury amounting to 2 per cent of GDP. It will also fund research projects selected by the National Innovation Agency (NIA), another of the three planned institutions.

As MPrep—an SMS-based quizzing and tutoring platform—crosses the 10,000-subscriber mark across 400 schools in Kenya, the award-winning team behind it is hard at work bringing smarter, affordable schooling where it's most needed.

Though Kenya has emerged as a regional powerhouse for mobile innovation, many of its future visionaries remain burdened by the structural challenges—overcrowding, underfunding, and lack of access—facing the 9 million Kenyan children in primary school.
 
The problem is especially daunting in rural areas, where more than two out of three current students will fail their classes, including 80 percent of girls.
 

Applications (Apps) built by Kenyan students ahead of the March 4th elections were unveiled today at event, where they all highlighted the need for information to be availed to every Kenyan.
 
Their focus was centered on the following themes: Civic Education; Party and Politicians; Lifestyle; Resource Monitoring; and the Electoral process. The Apps include: Tukumbuke (Swahili meaning let us remember), Spotlight, Jijulishe (inform yourself in Swahili), Wenyenchi (the owners of the country), Opinion Yetu, Haki II (justice) and Rasirimali (resources). The Apps will provide technological solutions to governance and the electoral process challenges.
 

In the last decade, Kenya has moved from a very backward position technology-wise to one to look out for. From dead slow internet speeds to plenty of bandwidth, low mobile network coverage to robust countrywide coverage and now eyeing Long Term Evolution technology like the rest of the world.
 
Most of these developments have been mostly pushed by the consumer demands and need to keep up with the global business environment.
 
In 2006, the government had a plan whose focus was on building infrastructure to connect Kenyans to the internet. Thus, one fibre optic cable was welcome. That was then, now there are four fibre optic cables live in the country, a fifth one is expected to land very soon and two more later.
 
With sufficient broadband now in place, Kenya is ready for take off to be the ICT hub of Africa.
 
The ministry of Information and Communication has developed a five-year master plan that will determine the priorities and key initiatives to be undertaken to achieve this.
 

Kenya is edging closer to launching an online business directory and information pool that profiles all businesses operating in various sectors of the economy.
 
The move comes at a time when the country has performed dismally in global and regional cost of doing business indices, which have blamed bureaucratic and time consuming procedures of starting a company as responsible for discouraging prospective investors.
 
For example, a new firm spends about 40.4% of its annual income to set up operations in Kenya compared to just 4.3% in neighbouring Rwanda, according to the World Bank.
 

The Kenyan government today partnered with Nailab, a Kenyan incubator, to launch a $1.6 million technology incubation program in an effort to support ’s growing information and communications technology (ICT) startup community. The Kenyan government aims to become one the top 10 ICT hubs in the world.

Ground breaking of Kenya’s multi-billion dollar Konza Technology City kicks off today despite project delays, a land procurement scandal and concerns from industry experts.

Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki is expected to preside over the ground breaking ceremony of the 5,000-acre city project, also referred to as Silicon Savannah.

The project is to be built just over 60 km from Nairobi and is planned to feature business processing outsourcing (BPO) centres, a science park, university campus, an international business district and commercial and residential properties.

The city is also is intended to form part of the Kenyan government's 2030 plan to create jobs and boost the economy. A private-public partnership financing model is to be implemented, whereby government has offered the land and is building infrastructure such as electricity, water, rail and roads.