Politics and policy
Education principal secretary Belio Kipsang at a past event. Photo/FILE
By DAVID HERBLING, hdavid@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
- PS says government is seeking investors for an assembly plant to lower cost of acquiring the devices.
The Education ministry has said it will start
the search for investors to put up a laptop assembly plant in Kenya to
lower the cost of the devices and build local technical capacity.
Education principal secretary Belio Kipsang on
Thursday said the laptop assembly line would be developed under a
public-private partnership to ensure the devices are available locally
at a cheaper cost.
Dr Kipsang said his ministry would float an
expression of interest next week after the government finalises a
concept paper on the framework for the laptop assembly factory.
“A local assembly line will ensure the devices are
available locally and cheaply and that there is technology transfer to
the local IT industry,” said Dr Kipsang while briefing the Press on the
achievement and plans of his ministry at Harambee House.
The search comes two weeks after President Uhuru
Kenyatta’s One Laptop Per Child project stalled following tendering woes
that saw the procurement watchdog cancel a tender awarded to Indian firm Olive Telecommunications.
The Public Procurement Administrative Review Board
(PPARB) in March nullified the award after it found that Olive did not
meet the financial threshold to participate in the tender, was not an
original equipment manufacturer and it had illegally inflated its final
bid by Sh1.4 billion to Sh24.69 billion.
The board ordered the ministry of Education to,
within 45 days, offer the tender to supply the 1.28 million laptops to
either Hewlett Packard or Haier, the other top contenders.
But Olive has appealed the decision in court, a move set to delay the supply of the gadgets to schools.
“We will make sure the laptop project succeeds as
soon as we’re done with the courts. We shall respect the decision of the
court,” Dr Kipsang said.
He added that the planned assembly line will also
create employment and offer Kenyan universities a chance to link IT
students with industry to bridge the skills gap in training.
The State expects the owners of the plant to work
with the firm that will be awarded the Sh51 billion contract, which will
be staggered for three years, to supply the schools with the 1.28
million laptops.
The government also plans to roll out computer
laboratories for Class 4 to Class 8 in all public schools, further
creating demand for local assembly of PCs.
HP and Chinese firm Haier had committed to engage
local partners to set up local assembly plants and service centres that
would serve the country in the long-term.
Samsung last year announced plans to open a laptop and television assembly plant in Kenya.
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