Nairobi News

President William Ruto on Tuesday chaired the first paperless Cabinet meeting at State House, kicking off a major government digitization drive.

Cabinet Secretaries arrived at State House, Nairobi, without the traditional bulky folders, large briefcases and huge files.

According to State House, in the Cabinet room, they found secured portable digital devices interconnected and attached to their files, memos and a secure notebook to assist them take notes in the meeting without leaving the devices.

The bold move is expected to significantly reduce the cost of printing and enhance security of Cabinet records.

President Ruto said digitization of cabinet meetings is a clear signal that the government is going digital.

Early this year, the president announced that Cabinet meetings will henceforth go digital and would be run on the digital space.

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“From the next Cabinet meeting our Secretary to the Cabinet Mercy Wanjau has assured us our meetings are going to be paperless. We are going to run cabinet based on the digital space,” President Ruto said at the time.

Speaking during the 59th Jamhuri Day celebrations in Nairobi themed “Connect, Innovate and Inspire,” the Head of State said his administration will install 100,000km of digital highway in form of fibre optic cables to enable internet access in every part of the country.

“We have a target of one million jobs from our technology space. We’ve had a candid conversation with our technology and digital space leaders that Kenya… it is important that all of us understand the importance of technology and the place of innovation going into the future,” said Ruto.

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In an effort to exploit technology for service delivery, Ruto’s administration is also planning to have what is called an open university within one year to democratise education and open the way for everyone to “quench their thirst for knowledge, education and training.”

In December, the government announced that all payments for government services shall be made through the E-citizen portal.

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u gazetted the portal to be the official government digital payment platform.

He also announced that more transactions are being migrated to the online payment portal, as the government unveils a new universal pay bill number, 222222.

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