Renewable Energy Penetration: Expanding Functional Infrastructure Through Technology Adoption and Meeting Gender Needs in Kenya

Benjamin McIntosh-Michaelis[1]

Issues of climate change and diminishing energy resources have pushed discussions of renewable energy to the forefront of global energy discourses. Transitions and expansion of infrastructure are key elements of these discussions.

Industry-Academia Collaboration: A Key Driver to the Achievement of the desired Digital Economy

By Leonard Mabele, iLabAfrica Research Centre, Strathmore University

The unveiling of Kenya’s Digital Economy Blueprint in May 2019 promises a great economic transformation driven by a number of factors such as Digital Skills, Infrastructure, Innovation-driven Entrepreneurship, Digital Government among other factors. With the vision of a digitally empowered citizenry living in a digitally enabled society, the Kenyan government stands to nurture an ecosystem that can rapidly grow to bridge the digital divide and create more opportunities for its citizens ahead of other countries within the region. The Big Four Agenda which covers Agriculture, Healthcare, Manufacturing and Housing sectors is emphasised in the preamble of the document even as Kenya strategically moves towards achieving the ambitiously outlined vision 2030. One thing that cuts across all the pillars described in this Blueprint is the strategic adoption and use of technology to deliver valuable returns. Joe Mucheru, the Cabinet Secretary of the Ministry of ICT, notes that the adoption of new technologies is creating well-paying jobs for professionals of diverse backgrounds translating into improvement in quality of life and increased connectedness.

How public participation can aid the uptake of solar – lessons from Makueni County.

By Morven Macewen

Public participation and community empowerment are fundamental to the success of Sustainable Development Goals; particularly, Goal No.7 that seeks to increase the ‘proportion of the population with access to electricity’, SDG 13 that aims at avoiding anthropogenic climate change, and SDG 5 concerning gender equality. This blog conceptualises this notion based on empirical research done in Makueni County, Kenya, on the uptake of solar power.

Nairobi Disaster Risk Hub signs an MoU with the Nairobi City Government

By Victoria Chengo & Joanes Atela

On 6^th May 2019 during the official launch of the ‘Nairobi Disaster Risk Hub’ under the ‘Multi Hazard Urban Disaster Risks Transitions’ project, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Nairobi Risk Hub – hosted at the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) and the Nairobi City County Government (NCCG) was signed. This was a move critical to the overarching goal of the Nairobi Disaster Risk Hub which is to provide the city with the capacity and policy framework that enables a shift in the focus of hazard management from a crisis response to a more integrated disaster management and planning towards reduction of risks and the achievement of sustainable development in Nairobi. Thus, the MoU established solid grounds for better collaborative engagements between the two parties who are also partners in the Nairobi Hub, in this work and beyond.