COUNTY NEWS: HOMA BAY COUNTY FIBRE CONNECTION AND THE FREE WI-FI

Nakuru County was an envy of many people especially the youth from other counties due to its much publicized free wireless fidelity (WI-FI). The mainstream media was fast to declare Nakuru County a free WI-FI zone making it the first town in Kenya to have unrestricted internet connectivity and the third town in Africa and 16^th globally to have free WI-FI.

The sh 200 million project, which was a partnership between statehouse Digital Team and the Nakuru county Government was aimed at enhancing information communication Technology and ensure better service delivery, this was before it flopped badly.

Homa Bay County is set to be the next in line, through its governor, the County seeks to better Information Technology. The county government has opted for the installation of a fiber optic cable, an idea good implemented and real. In his facebook post, the governor wrote, “A sh 250m project to improve internet connectivity in Homa Bay County, officially kicked off on Tuesday. Social media users and the Business community now have a reason to smile because they will not only have a faster browsing speed but cheaper internet charges. I broke the ground for the project at Kabunde in Homa Bay Sub County and promised complete internet connectivity in major offices and town centre’s in two months time. The project is a joint venture between the county Government of Homa Bay and the National Government through the ICT Authority. Homa Bay is among the First counties to benefit from the project expected to interconnect all the47 counties. The project will help the county achieve the following:

• Faster and cheaper internet connectivity.


• Teleconferencing


• Stronger and cheaper WI-FI connection


• Job creation.

It will be done in THREE phases. “The first phase, known as the BACK BONE will involve a 34 km cable link from Homa Bay to Rongo where it will join the Kisii-Migori line. Phase two of the project, will involve connectivity of all offices at the county headquarters, And the county assembly, the police, post office and other offices. Third phase will include the Local Area Network (LAN) that will see the connectivity to all offices at the county headquarters.

In his closing remarks, the Governor said they value the project as a County Government because once completed it will help fast track the development agenda of the county.