Dream takes Shape with Konza Tech Varsity near Completion

Eliud Owalo, the ICT Cabinet Secretary, announced last week that the Konza Technology University would shortly be inaugurated by the government.

An intelligent university that will offer master’s and doctoral-level instruction in mechanical, electrical, and ICT engineering is the Kenya Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).

As part of the government’s initiatives to promote digital transformation, it will also create graduates with degrees in science, technology, and innovation.

The university, whose construction began last year, is expected to increase digital literacy while also luring international investors to launch tech firms in Kenya, thereby generating employment.

The institute for postgraduate studies received a Sh9.6 billion credit line from South Korea to help with funding. Kenya’s national government provided Sh4.5 billion.

It was based on the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, which emphasizes specialized training to solve the skills gaps in new technologies, and is located on a 36-acre plot of land in Technopolis.

The campus will have 10 research science labs that will serve as operation spaces for specialized local and foreign researchers in science, technology, and engineering, according to the development plan.
If the institution is effective, according to experts in the field of tech education, it will work as a catalyst in hastening Kenya’s transition into a middle-income nation.

According to Dr. Lilian Wanzare, an ICT instructor at Maseno University, research projects created by postgraduate students at the tech university have the potential to develop into impact businesses that will help construct tech-based sectors and, in turn, create jobs.

“If there is a way of creating a targeted centre of excellence or research groups for various issues or projects and bringing experts from different fields together, then that can be of great impact in terms of master and doctorate level research. The idea here is interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary collaborations towards solving challenges,” says Dr Wanzare.

“From this kind of research, ideas can come up that can lead to start-up formation thus creating jobs. The research can also lead to products that require large-scale production and this can lead to the formation of new tech-based industries,” she adds.

The construction of the cutting-edge smart university is a component of the Kenya National Digital Master Plan 2022–2032, which was launched last year by Joe Mucheru, then the ICT CS, as a roadmap for accelerating Konza expansion to support cloud services and data management.