, NAIROBI, Kenya Mar 3 – Senate Committee on Information and Communications Technology Tuesday demanded a detailed briefing from ICT and Youth Affairs Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru over poor cellular network in rural parts of Kenya despite huge allocations under Universal Service Fund (USF) to resolve the problem.
Committee Vice Chairperson Senator
Abshiro Halake (Nominated) said clear answers are needed on funds amid concerns
that some parts of the country remain out of reach by 2G networks.
“It is not fair that some parts
of this country people literally have to climb on trees, hills or go many miles
to get signals,” she said citing parts of Isiolo, Baringo, West Pokot and Kitui
counties which lack basic communication infrastructure.
“Apparently some Sh9.6 billion
was available for this work. It is enough for this county. We cannot understand
why it is taking so long, why people must be excluded when billions are
allocated. We need these answers, we are going to be recommending some of these
parastatals to be done away with if they are not doing whatever they are
supposed to,” Halake stated referring to the Communication Authority (CA) under
which the USF is domiciled.
CA currently exercises an administrative
mandate over the fund and is expected to finance national projects that have
significant impact on the availability and accessibility of ICT infrastructure
in rural, remote and poor urban areas.
USF boasts three hallmarks namely,
availability, accessibility and affordability.
In the 2015/16 financial CA
undertook an ICT Access Gaps Study which identified 348 sub-locations without
telecommunication services.
The Authority then allocated Sh1
billion to connect 202 sub-locations to 2G telecommunication services and a
further Sh500 million to connect 894 public schools to broadband (5Mbps).
CA has however cited challenges in
concluding the initiative among them lack cooperation from licensees, the
demand for the USF projects outstripping the budgetary, inequality in
distribution of projects among sub-sectors, external interference and delays in
tendering.
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