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34 | NEWSFOCUS October 9, 2018 www.mygov.go.ke PS launches National Optic Fiber project for Kisumu County revises performance contract for workers Governor James Ongwae says contract had been improved and urges the workers to deliver on their services BY CHRISPHINE OTIENO AND JANE NAITORE, KNA-KISII K isii County has revised workers’ performance contracting as area governor James Ongwae cautioned workers that the new contract will demand physical outcomes. Launching the annual event on Friday governor James Ongwae said the contract had been improved and urged the workers to deliver on their services. Ongwae cited the County Department of Water where the public officers are required to do nine water schemes per subcounty with one additional borehole in each of the 45 wards during the year in question. This comes even as residents castigated the county officers for giving great emphasis to procedures of public projects which eventually failed to be completed by the end of the year under evaluation. Noting that the tools for measuring the public servants’ service delivery were near completion for rolling out, Ongwae noted that the strategy’s assessment would include rewards for performers. Ongwae introduced a public service delivery manual which spelt out policies and processes in service delivery. He said all performing ministries will be rewarded at a public forum and urged those willing to peruse the manual to do so as it will be placed within the precincts of the county assembly. On the recent head count of civil servants at the County Government, Ongwae revealed that details will be released any time from now. County Commissioner Godfrey Kigochi applauded the County government for efforts to ensure efficient service delivery to wananchi saying performance contracting ensures public officers are well managed. He said the annual exercise enables innovativeness on the worker to reach the required target. All 47 counties and their subcounties will get connected over the next three to five years BY JOSEPH OUMA KNA-KISUMU T he National Optic Fiber Backbone Infrastructure (NOFBI) connection commenced in Kisumu County on Saturday with seven sub-counties earmarked for connectivity. Principal Secretary for Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) Jerome Ochieng disclosed that NOFBI, which is a national government project, had Sh10 billion dedicated to it by the government. The amount, Ochieng noted, will ensure that all counties and sub-counties get connected over the next three to five years in what is anticipated to greatly transform service delivery to the public. He was speaking when he launched the project at the Nyanza Regional Commissioner’s office grounds on Saturday morning. The PS said by extending NOFBI from county to all subcounties the ability to prepare an ICT infrastructure to be used across the country will be greatly enhanced. “As the foundation of eGovernment programmes, including NOFBI which is done in phases together with the county connectivity projects aimed at achieving universal connectivity, we are moving into the future where the 4th industrial revolution will be driven by technology,” he explained. The PS noted that only several decades ago, four out of the five top corporations in the world were energy-based and only one was ICT related. But in recent years ICT-related corporations have turned the tables to go top of the list. Today one cannot afford to leave behind their mobile phone, he noted, since we all greatly depend on technology for almost every aspect of our lives and so no one should be left behind by this global push. “Laying down the fiber optic cables across the country will help us achieve many things. ICT drives such successful initiatives like the M-PESA which we depend on,” he said. The PS announced that his team was in Kisumu to connect Nyando, Muhoroni, Seme, Kisumu East, Kisumu West, and Kisumu Central sub-counties. Having applications running on the fiber infrastructure such as the IFMIS used to pay or distribute funds through the National and County governments, the people in subcounties will connect directly to the IFMIS and so save more time. Ochieng said through the last mile initiative, the government will connect all hospitals and now that Kisumu Amount, in Kenya shillings, dedicated to the National Optic Fiber Backbone Infrastructure (NOFBI), which is a national government project Principal Secretary Jerome Ochieng testing the Unified Communic ation System of the County Connectivity Project in Kisumu on Saturday. With him is the representative of Nyanza Regional Commissio ner, John Cheruiyot (left) and Kisumu County ICT Officer, Jowi Seif Ouma. Laying down the fiber optic cables across the country will help us achieve many things. ICT drives such successful initiatives like the M-PESA which we depend on - PS Jerome Ochieng the Universal Health Coverage (UHC), local residents and counties should maximise on the opportunity. He explained that the country will also be able to facilitate tele-medicine which will reduce the number of patients travelling long distances to have X-rays interpreted and lab result analysis done in farflung health facilities as was the norm in the past. “Such information can easily be obtained through the internet,” he said. The other aspect, he said, was security which remains crucial; what with the installation of CCTV cameras along the roads, to facilitate surveillance by police officers. “Since the 4th industrial revolution will be based on technology, we are building our internal human capacty. This is by ensuring t ICT is embedded in ur education curriculum hrough Digital Literacy Programs (DLPs),” the PS said. Ochieng said constituency and wards should adopt technology by building the Constituency vation Hubs where young people can come up with ideas or innovations that would transform their lives. “President Uhuru Kenyatta has been identified as the UN Global Youth Champion in charge of 1.8 billion global youths. As such, the Constituency innovation and Ajira programme which creates massive online jobs must be facilitated,” he argued. The PS said technology is disruptive since it changes the way we do things with one outstanding aspect being that we have moved from working within certain confines to doing so online as opposed to office hour regime. He said innovation can actually be transformative citing Uber which he argued was not a taxi company and do not own any taxi but controls millions of taxis and so handles billions of shillings, just like M-PESA, helping other people to make money. Speaking at the forum, the representative of Nyanza Regional Commissioner John Cheruiyot, disclosed that the DLP programme had already covered 488 primary schools out of 610 in Kisumu County, while 35 youths have benefited through the Ajira programme. 10m

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