- Ruto said Kenya was keen on creating jobs for its population using technology but it has come with many challenges.
- Ruto said Kenya is leveraging the space to deliver government services.
Disinformation and fake news should not rob us of the opportunity to leverage on opportunities technology has to offer, President William Ruto has said. https://shorturl.at/0uUt6
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Disinformation and fake news should not rob us of the opportunity to leverage on opportunities technology has to offer, President William Ruto has said.
Speaking at a Nairobi hotel on September 11, Ruto said he was working closely with Parliament to regulate fake news in the digital spaces.
"We are discussing with Parliament to regulate Artificial Intelligence, regulations around digital space to ensure that fake news, misinformation and disinformation does not rob us of the opportunity to use technology to drive our development," he said.
Ruto said Kenya was keen on creating jobs for its population using technology but it has come with many challenges.
“In our plan to deal with challenges that face our demographics that we have, one of the items we are working on is how we are going to use technology to create digital jobs," he said.
Ruto said Kenya has close to 120,000 young people in TVET institutions that monetise their digital expertise in such platforms.
"We are leveraging on tech to create jobs. Tomorrow, I will be signing an agreement with the president in Germany, again to leverage on technology to access opportunities for Kenyans to work in Germany physically or virtually,” he said.
Ruto said Kenya is leveraging the space to deliver government services.
"While building the ecosystem for technology there will be challenges. That is why we are discussing how to enact regulations," he said.
He said he does not want Kenya to be left behind when the world is moving forward with the use of technology.
"It is the reason why I appointed a technology envoy. But it is the reason why I want us not to miss the opportunity. Misinformation and fake news should not rob us from taking advantage of the opportunity technology and AI gives us," he said.
"We do not want an opportunity to be left behind. We want to develop talent around AI and nurture its expertise. This time round we want to be up to speed with the rest of the world to ensure AI and technology becomes part of the system."
Ruto who was proud of what Kenya has done while using technology said the Hustler fund has been a success.
"We rolled out the Fund and so far we have 12 billion in it, 22 million beneficiaries and we have 2 million Kenyans borrowing daily. It is delivered in tech platform the single government project that has no corruption because technology has provided a framework," he said.
"Just imagine if we were giving Funds using committees. It will be chaos. But technology has made it seamless."
Ruto said the other way the government is using technology is through the Means Testing Instrument, which has helped on the new University Funding model.
The model has been a source of contention between parents, students and the state.
University managements, however, insist the model is good.
Ruto is also expected to sign an agreement with Chancellor Scholz in Germany to leverage technology to access jobs.
He will depart for Germany today for an official visit that will see him witness the signing of a Bilateral Labor Agreement ending months of negotiations between the two nations.