President William Ruto has instituted some changes to this year’s Jamhuri celebrations slated for December 12, 2022.
On his first Jamhuri Day as President of Kenya, President Ruto said the celebrations will be marked with a special focus on technology and innovation.
Unlike previous celebrations where Kenyans would converge for political speeches, parades and entertainment, President Ruto said he has invited guests from the technological fields to grace this year’s event.
Speaking on Tuesday during the launch of the Virtual Desktop Programme at Kabete Technical Institute, President Ruto said the celebrations will be preceded by an ‘innovation week’.
“I deliberately decided that this year’s Jamhuri Day is going to be profiled properly and themed as the innovation Jamhuri Day. Instead of inviting the usual people who we invite, I have decided to invite our technology leaders worldwide from Facebook and Google so that we can share with them the opportunities that exist in a world that is increasingly becoming digital,” said Ruto.
The President said the ‘Innovation Jamhuri Day’ is part of the government’s effort to digitize all government services in the next six months.
“I am very confident that this is going to happen because the digital economy has the potential to enhance productivity, expand incomes and improve the socio-economic well-being of all our people,” he said.
Ruto also said the government will roll out a digital superhighway and ensure every shopping centre has internet and a hotspot.
“We are going to roll out the digital superhighway to make sure that young people in every part of Kenya have access to the internet and they have internet-ready devices that can assist them to connect to the job market,” he said.
“The government is going to roll out 100,000 km of fibre optic to make sure all 29,000 shopping centres countrywide, all our 27,000 schools will be on the internet. We also want to lay our fibre network on the Kenya Power transmission lines so that 8.5 million homes that are connected to electricity are equally connected to the internet,” Ruto said.
