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Networked neighbourhoods come to Kenya Print E-mail
Networked neighbourhoods come to Kenya
       
Written by Kui Kinyanjui   

A technological phoenix has risen from the ashes of the much-troubled Nyayo Estate in Embakasi, Nairobi.

The estate, which has  an 11-year-old legacy of unfinished business, is now one of Kenya’s first fully-networked neighbourhoods.
“The revolution is here. . . Watch this space,” said Benson Karanja, account manager at Cisco Systems Kenya.

The networking solutions firm provided some of the technology to enable the estate to link up to fibre-optic cables laid in the city.

Situated near the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nyayo Estate is now a fully networked housing area and has technology pundits singing about similar initiatives. The resurrection is an example of an infrastructure investment that could provide a glimpse of the Nairobi of the future.

Telecommunication firms such as Kenya Data Networks (KDN) and Telkom Kenya have spent millions of shillings on the cable infrastructure in the city, and have plans to connect every estate in Nairobi.

“It’s happening and it’s here – and shockingly it’s being driven by the government,” said Mr Karanja.  “The Internet is changing the way local authorities are thinking,” he added. Networked neighbourhoods, areas where connections to the Internet and data cables are constructed along with electricity and telephone connections, permit the deployment of new applications and services to inform, entertain, instruct and protect people.

The networking project is a first step in the development of Nyayo Estate by the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), which owns it.

Local authorities plan to create similar estates like Nyayo Embakasi , which is pegged to serve as a showcase estate where a networked neighbourhood exists, with new opportunities for  social interaction and leisure.

Estate residents can use their connected homes to create community websites and chat services.  Email services provide communication between residents and with other Internet users.

Entertainment is  one  area where the connected communities will reap the benefits of local networking.

With the advent of  digital broadcasting and convergence in hi-tech devices, televisions are set too become increasingly important.

“Entertainment will drive increased Internet use in the estates,” said David Owino, general manager of KDN.

“First class infrastructure has been put down, now we aim to promote an Internet based lifestyle.”

Connected estates will also spawn community television stations and video-conferencing using the fast connections provided by carriers such as KDN and Telkom Kenya.

Nyayo’s past troubles, blamed on incompetent contractor,s had left the estate barren of residents for several years.

But in the late 1990s, Nyayo Estate became increasingly popular with professionals  and entrepreneurs in search of a peaceful and very secure environment.
Its  four-storey apartment blocks and one -storey maissonettes are now connected to fibre optic cable rings that run around the city. NSSF contracted a supplier to  build 4,774 units  houses at Nyayo Estate at a cost of Sh14 billion, expecting the project to be complete by 1999.

The contractor skipped off with 90 per cent of the payment leaving just 696 units completed by that date. NSSF soon after embarked on a resuscitation effort that has seen the estate’s gradual revival.

(c) Business Daily (www.bdafrica.com)
 
Tue 07 Sep 2010 - 14:41

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