 Hello then, thank you so much for keeping us company why in the morning is the show and the Y254 TV is what the station now it's about time we talk about internet and we are looking into the journey to Lodwa where fiber cables were laid connecting the north eastern part of Kenya to the rest of the world. Like I had mentioned earlier internet and technology has made the world to be a global village. What benefit does this bring to the people of north eastern part of Kenya remember for a very long time they have been marginalized in terms of infrastructure development. Even the way of living they have been so much behind but of course that has been an assumption to someone who has not been there like I like myself. So the people in studio with me they will tell us whether it's true those people are marginalized how the situation is on those particular areas. I'm speaking to David or the Ambu senior manager and transport IP planning with Safaricom and Paul Barasa he's also a project manager. Apparently we couldn't make it to have the connection to Peter J here who is in Turkana he's the area sales manager there but we may get to have him during the conversation as we move on. But for now these are the people in studio with me they will tell us and they will help us to understand of what benefit it is for us to be all connected regardless of where we are and what does that bring especially to the young people in terms of a business opportunity and so much. Keep it Y254 send us all your comments to all our social media platforms at Y254 channel on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter as well. My handle is at Moraeni Hila and my name is Dereva Hila. Welcome to the broadcast. Good morning gentlemen. I must say it's a great honor to have you here. In a way I was calling you people the three maska tiers of technology in good faith because now you are the people who have brought light. I would say I saw your story and it was amazing to understand that you took part in helping the people of north eastern Kenya to be connected to the world. But before even we get to much details I want to hear briefly I'll begin with you David briefly how was the journey considering we were during the pandemic there were restrictions of movement there were night curfews. How did that impact your working? Thank you Mr Hilary and the viewers. It's quite a very interesting project starting from the onset. Trukana as you know is on the northern part of the country. Very marginalized one of the largest county in actually the largest county in Kenya. 60,000 square kilometer which is like 100 times of what Nairobi is but the population is almost just a quarter of what Nairobi is about one million. As much as Nairobi is almost 4.2 million. Trukana do not have good roads so accessibility is quite a big issue. And anytime that you go there people struggle you see them struggling to meet ends and most of them are struggling with their kato trying to get what and so forth. So going through that journey and just seeing people how they are trying to connect and also be part of the country has actually been a challenge over a period of time and we've been there quite a lot of time. They complained to us that this is Nairobi, sorry, you people are from Nairobi as we are from another country. This has really been quite a challenge over a period of time but as a company we said no. Let's transform the way Trukana people are. Let's work a little bit harder and ensure that at least they are able to also keep on going and communicate the same way the rest of the country communicating. That was the basis of the project. So we worked harder with the rest of the team and the rest of management of which we got the blessing to ensure that we can go ahead and open up Trukana by extending fiber connectivity which was the last county. Today Trukana by around November was the only county in this country that has not been connected by fiber. So we tried as much as possible as a business to look at what's available though it cannot make commercial sense but we can actually be able to transform the lifeline of people, lifestyle of people in Trukana area and also keep them going and that is actually the mantra that drove us to go to that area. So as we went there going through navigating through a lot of challenges some starting from Kafiu you go there with the team they are blocked there residents searching for jobs it's very hot you still have to meet the timeline you have to balance between the community stakeholder requirement and also people looking at you that at the end of the day you are you going to mobilize because there's a Kafiu what are you going to do but we managed to come up with a lot of ways to help us to ensure that we navigate through which is part of the conversation that we actually want to have with you. Exactly. All right now Paul. Yes. How about you? How was the journey? How was the experience up there? Thank you Hilary. Trukana County is in terms of climate it's very hot and when we went to the ground to deploy we had the locals who wanted to work and the locals could not appreciate that this kind of work you were to have a specific way of how you supposed to put on the PPE so they could just come with their civilian clothes and they wanted to be in the trenches to work and then there are specifications for project deployment specifications are you need to excavate at least for that type of soil structure you supposed to excavate at least 1.5 so that when the flash floods come and the rains come at least they do not get to the infrastructure 1.5 deep? Deep, yes 1.5 deep and 0.4 and you can imagine people have never done that work before so it was quite a challenge to make them understand that number one you have to go to that depth number two you need protective clothing to be able to work and now because we had designed a project in such a way that we wanted to mechanize the project so that we move a bit fast so we had that particular challenge from the locals and then there is something else that we encountered over there we had never been in a situation where we have you are working and suddenly we have flash floods now it has changed from being hot yes we have the extremes of the weather so we have a situation where you working and suddenly the water comes so that was one of the things that we had to tell our people you have to watch out on the weather you could be working around here and suddenly you just see what it's not raining where you are but suddenly you see water coming because it is raining on the upstream very far from the upstream ok yes so I would say in terms of challenges we had a bit of challenges with the Tukana but we thank God we were able to manage now speaking of marginalization you have just even mentioned that and in terms of skills these are things that we are told by maybe say politicians or people who have been there like you have been now are they that really marginalized in terms even of level of education in terms of skills like we have the government has brought about things to do with Tivet are these people that marginalized that we need to be cautious of thank you Hilary the situation is dire to the extent that you go there and majority of people you meet are during the school during the days when people are meant to be kids when they are meant to be school you see them hard in cattle and you see people sitting in small barazas meaning that firstly there is no source of income for those who are in the age that they can actually be able to do meaningful jobs you see them some sitting across just small barazas chatting and it is during the normal working hours and for the small kids you see them chasing cattle left right and center so the question is when do they get opportunity to go to school yes and then you can see mothers struggling with jarikans of water going long distances to search for water because again water is a big challenge in that area flash flood can come but water is coming from a very long distance that is why they are flash flood and they actually have to travel long and then you just get to know that water has arrived but in terms of access to that water and clean water is not there as a completely so those are some of the challenges that you meet and then you realize no one that they always say you guys are from Kenya as we are from Turkana and that divide is quite significant when you go there and the way they actually view things and for them the basic thing that they just want is just to see that they also get to be part of the country and that's why when you work with them you realize the divide is so big and because the country so the country is also quite big is 100 times Nairobi with resources that you've had like Kola and so forth which needs to be tapped but we need to make interventions so that we also open that place and also pull up people along with us so that they can also receive meaningful education and also trying to get access to opportunities just similar to the same way somebody in Nairobi can and that's the time they actually feel that they have also been gifted to the level that is required so today as it is they have got challenges unique to Northern Kenya unique in terms of infrastructure in terms of access to quality, livelihood and social welfare systems and those are some of the challenges that you meet when you're going there and that's why for us if you can continue to work with these communities as part of shared values to ensure that we can raise them to the level that they can also access similar resources across the country we know that we're going to make a difference in their life and that for us is a big thing now to a greater length you could say that is what inspired you people to help them be connected and like you mentioned the last people maybe to have now internet in the country but now Paul with them being marginalized or the region being marginalized I know they are asmat guys they are asmat people there they now have internet how do you think this is going to benefit them? Thank you Hilary first to pick it up from what David said about the marginalization when we went to the ground actually the issue of roads it is from from low kitchen all the way to to Lordwa that section of the road when you went there for surveys was bare earth you were just to struggle to find the road but now later on during the project execution we have seen that the roads have been given out to to contractors so the sections of the roads are being done so that is number one marginalization in terms of transport number two in terms of communication was a big challenge communication by the language connectivity we are talking about the connectivity and that is why a safari kum we transform lives we decided that despite despite it not making a lot of economic sense we decided that we have to move in right in terms of how this connectivity can can transform the transform lives of the people of Turkana we are saying you can look at it in two ways number one there is social improvement people can communicate better now you can make a call you can place a call from here to Turkana and you get because there is a lot of capacity now we have opened up because fiber has a lot of capacity you can be able to make your calls to Turkana the people there so the social aspect we can say has really improved recently the governor himself said that some few years down the line connectivity was 7% right now as we speak we are at 70% and it's because of now because of this particular project we are now at 70% you can talk about economic transformation because now in terms of you doing your business because now you can be able to communicate well in some places sometimes back you cannot be able to do it so people there can be able to communicate well in terms of youth the youth there can be able to start generating starting to develop content because they can push it into the into YouTube previously you could not be able to do that you could not be able to do that you can have meetings you can have online meetings you can have teams meeting you can have zoom meeting right now we are talking about Peter our colleague the sales area manager we are supposed to speak to him and we are only able to speak to him because now we have sufficient capacity sufficient bandwidth to be able to to communicate so those are some of the benefits that the people of Turkana are now going to see after the communication has been made better and of course connected them to the the other part of the country now maybe they will now start seeing the Arkenians they are not from Turkana under all these circumstances and all these challenges that you people underwent during the project what kept you going what motivated you David for us anytime that we see a life transformed for us that's a big thing and if we can be able to make a difference in somebody's life and we see the youth there I remember going to Turkana sometimes in 2007-2008 and the place by then you could see them running around and trying to search for a place asking you whether they have ever seen a phone you have a phone a different one from what they have seen people coming with and for now if you go there you actually see a couple of kids youth and many old people within the community holding phones and standing somewhere and you can actually see them trying to transact if you see them that they can actually be able to you can cross that divide where you can be able to give them access to information you enable them to connect them in terms of being able to access banking system, all the services that you provide and then make their life going where they can create opportunities around those particular access to communication which a lot of opportunities exist that for us is one of the big thing that keeps us going and anytime that I used to go to Kakuma also Kakuma has also been one of the our biggest customers and very demanding because they have a very unique challenge and they have got kids who are there people who are refugees they have to get access to a couple of content, they have to be educated online and so forth and they struggle to hold virtual classes struggling and they get very happy and excited when kids stand in front of a big a big TV and they are seeing people across different world, they get excited and some of them say one day I would want to be like this for us that's a big hope if we can be able to walk with those people in those marginalized like those ones and give them access and also education so that they can also be empowered and can be able to also mind the value that come with the ICT that keeps us going and that is actually one of the thing that made us to continuously struggle through the challenges of COVID and so forth until we ensured that they actually have access to very high speed internet Alright, now Paul you mentioned of the challenges and you spoke of the people they are needing the job but you as a team, I'm just speaking to two of you, I'm sure you you are not just two, it was a team but you are the people who saw the project go through. What set of skills did you people have that you felt even these people aren't by the way still coming back? Did you mentor some guys there? Did you show them some of the skills that you have? So what did you combine bring together and made the project successful? Hillary when we went to Turkana the first time we did what we call the committee engagement where we were able to get hold of the people who live around the corridor where we are working and then we spoke to them and we had to make them understand the value of what we were doing and usually when you are carrying out a project of that magnitude the locals are stakeholders so you have to engage them and I want to tell you Hillary Turkana was a bit different because this type of infrastructure was unique to them so it was only fair that we sit them down and explain to them what you are doing so at the same time when we go to a place to work we have a way of designing the project to accommodate the locals to be able to work now the skill sets that we required so that number one so that we have buying from the community and number two so that they can also feel like they are part of this project we were able to get some of the youths who are because at that time some of them were not in school and we were able to engage some of them as supervisors we explained to them how it could be done some of them could assist to look around for probably things like like first aid things that are not so taxing in terms of like you see on the corridor where you are working you need to protect it you need to barricade it things that don't require specialized skills we could be able to assign them but as we progress towards lordwa and kakuma I think the community appreciates the fact that there are some skills that are supposed to be developed so that they can be able to do some jobs so that's what I'm able to say but those areas that did not require a lot of specialized skills were able to allow the community to do them just a quick one how was the reception by these youth engaging them to these nobo tasks when you gave them yes at first I want to tell you Hilary that we had different contractors doing the job for us we have contractors who went in without doing the a bit of engagement and there was a a bit of attention a bit but the other contractors having learned what happened they learned from it and we have photos we have photos with us actually we should be seeing them right now I'm hoping my director would be playing yes we have photos with us showing us sitting down with the community talking about the project and I can tell you the reception from there became very good in fact we were thinking the issue of security was going to be there I can tell you we deliver this project without any security issue in fact we are not going to mention security here as a challenge do you want to weigh into that there is always a very thin line between doing a project in an area and moving with people along and one of the biggest in that area is that you come in and they are seeing you working firstly they will want to know what you are doing and secondly because the challenges that all of us are facing they will also want to be part and parcel of it so that positive tension there is always there or sometimes go to the extreme but if well managed in terms of working with the community trying to engage them prior to explaining to them in fact one of the biggest challenges that we had with the community is that they saw this is just a trench you can go in this is what this people are doing but if you understand the nature of that area in terms of the climate temperatures goes past 36 37 and so forth it gets too hot to give you a sufficient output so that you can still keep within work within your timeline you will never finish a project so you have to balance and try to also explain to them the very reason why we are going for this particular part to be mechanized is because this machine can work technically 24-7 with light once you have the places where it can work technically 24 hours 7 days but as a human being you want when it is so hot people get dehydrated so you cannot be able to perform and you have to struggle actually trying to make them to be hydrated for them to continue performing so we really had to work with them and explain to them we still engage you they are part of this project that definitely we cannot mechanize but where we see this value of mechanizing because we still know how to keep our focus in terms of providing access to you to information within this preferred date balance is what we have to struggle with the community, village elders, chiefs and so on until they embrace the project so going along they saw what we are trying to do they saw how much we are engaging community to do some other jobs ensuring they lay the ducks, they return they do backfilling or returning the soil and helping us to pull the fireball through they were able to participate in that by virtue that they actually seeing how great the machine was working breaking rocks that they could not break Paul through the challenges I still want to get there because there comes in something to do with communication and how you relate with people when you are moving from Nairobi just like he mentioned you are from Kenya and you are through Canada so other than this case being the expert other than this case that you had how else were you prepared knowing you are going to unknown region people do not know you they view you as someone else or coming from somewhere else how else were you prepared in terms of engaging the community and in terms of even trying to tell them this is what we are doing and this is what it benefits you the preparedness for delivering this process started right from from our offices we had several meetings with the contractors who are going to deliver for us several meetings we planned many meetings because we said we are going in a very unique environment so we prepared we started with the meetings in the office by speaking to the contractors and letting them know the uniqueness of the area now apart from the meetings in the office we also had an opportunity to speak to the to the stakeholders on the ground the county government of Tokana and the first time we had an encounter with them was during the surveys during the surveys we commissioned a contractor to do to run all the way from from Kapenguria to Tarquel Kainuk, Lokichar Lodwa to Kakuma and as they were doing all that there was an interaction with the with the community and they knew what was coming now apart from that in the part of because you must understand we are talking about the journey and we cannot talk about this journey without mentioning where we began because we must talk about Kapenguria we must talk about Tarquel we must talk about Kainuk that part is part of Westpacot Yes and now as we as that engagement was happening so that now we by the time this reports came in Westpacot they said we are not going to charge you for wayleaves because usually when you excavate that you must pay but they said we are not going to charge you as much that our locals have to work Okay so now you can see that we are preparing the ground so that even if there was something that was to be over concern by the time you get there things were a bit soft for you okay so when we went to when we went to Kana County in the beginning I think they have an issue of funny gazeted red but later on after speaking to them I am sure you will talk about it the reds came down and they were very supportive so we can say there is a way we did from the county government and ourselves on the ground the county government is a way they played their part and they had an oversight a bit and then ourselves with the locals we had a sit down with them and we had a smooth delivery of the project Davido was the negotiations it's always a tough one especially for the and I would understand where the counties come from the counties also look at anything that is going on from the first value without looking at the total benefit and for them they see that opportunity to do what we call revenue collection because they are also hard pressed to ensure that they collect money enough so that they can sustain themselves so it was a lot of push and pull just to ensure that these counties first of all we explain to them the benefit of this and also to try to make them realize that charging exorbitant fee in terms right of way or access is actually more of an impediment rather than a nebula we are coming to work with you in this county to ensure that we open up and give you the opportunity to access information but then if you put for us exorbitant charges like 1000 per meter for you to be able to use right of way then the projects already the projects of the negative because if you look at the cost benefits you are already on the negative if you pay the county you will never be able to do that project you can always walk away and say it is easier for you to walk away but then with the push and pull and just explaining to them to appreciate the total benefit that will actually go to the community and them at large after a period of time some of them now started understanding where we are coming from and why we must do it and the sacrifices we are making to make them a better county and then the relaxation to the extent but after almost a couple of weeks or three weeks of push and pull Reminds me of the tasks between our governors and the products that come through we have had issues from Kituya and the charcoal we have had also water from moranga coming to Nairobi so these people have been fighting so it is something that has been going on and it is good to know that you are able to negotiate and bring some sanity you were doing this work during COVID-19 other than the curfew and the other restrictions Paul what else how else did COVID-19 impact you project Hilary COVID-19 impacted us in a big way because usually it is called OHS occupational health and safety it is one of the main consideration during our project execution already before COVID-19 we were feeling OHS was OHS was increasing our our cost of delivering the project OHS you make sure you have gamboots you make sure you have an uproar you make sure you have the helmet you make sure you have the and it is too hot you make sure you have the reflector now when COVID-19 kicked in you have to ensure now that you have we have a thermal gun you have you need to have the sanitizer you need to have the mask now you can imagine so the cost of the project in a way went up that is in terms of cost because now we have to make arrangements over how our people in the field are well protected and I told you this project was mechanized for two reasons number one the terrain over there the terrain there allowed us to mechanize because we did not have so many underground infrastructure and number two the heat over there so we did not have so many people and number three we did not want to have so many casuals working in a region because COVID had come in so COVID escalated our cost of delivery but again in terms of time in terms of logistics materials were coming from Nairobi and when these materials came from Nairobi number one we had to prepare letters for each and every resource that was going to to Lordwa we had letters done for them number two in between where you could use one day to access one or two days we were using about four days to reach Lordwa there are so many roadblocks on the way and each time you go to a roadblock you are to alight you are to show papers you are gun was to the thermal gun with the temperature your temperature has had to be taken your conducts had to be put down for conduct tracing if anything was to happen and there were so many of those roadblocks I cannot remember how many times I alighted to be able to go through that so you can imagine the impact of COVID it's a huge impact alright finally as we finish how long did the project take and was this your major project you could say finally thank you so the project took six months that's from December to around June and with all those challenges so you can see we just by the time the restrictions for COVID came we were in midway and then we had to battle to still ensure that we finish within time and that was one of the challenges that as he told you we had expected it to take much shorter but with the struggles and a lot of adjustment we ended up actually taking that long secondly in terms of the challenges trokana is a bit unique let me say each and every project is unique today we have over 9,000 km of Fahimba laid across and almost about 1,800 in northern Kenya which is also part of when you go to the other dabas you go to Habasuen and then you go to Jia and Moale the uniqueness of the northern corridor and the entire north part of it is just special maybe the part of the when you go to us at Jia that is Moale and so on they also have their own challenges that we met but for this particular project which is more which was in trokana the biggest thing was the period that we were doing it which was itself unique then the infrastructure there was a little bit in fact in terms of meeting those flash flood very extreme was that is the only place where you get blocked in a place and get cut out for 14 hours and you have to wait, sleep there and you're waiting for 14 hours for water to subside so that you can cross so you wake up but you never know where you're going to sleep which is unique to trokana it is not anywhere else so it's a very challenging project but very nice for you once you deliver we have made a difference I want your final comments as regards to internet and technology and opening up of trokana or the north eastern part of Kenya to the rest of the world final comments I will begin with you Paul final comments in terms of connectivity in Kenya I think we are doing quite well by far Safariko itself has the largest network about 9000 kilometers and when you look at other players in the space they are quite a number quite a number who are doing fiber we have JTL we have liquid we have NOVB1 NOVB2 we have KTACO we have Kenya Pipeline Corporation we have Kenya Power all those are players who are doing fiber and this one this is meant to enhance connectivity here in Kenya as I said Safariko by far the largest we are in every town we are in every metro any town in Kenya you can imagine trokana county was the last county for us to to connect otherwise we are in all the 47 counties so in terms of connectivity we are as a county we are doing very well and the reason why we have the largest we have a lot of we put in a lot of capex so that we are able to transform the lives of many people thank you very much I don't know whether I will have an opportunity to thank the colleagues that worked with us in this journey but I would like to take this opportunity to thank Safariko for providing the capital to be able to lay with the cable Elio Dera our HOD James Juguna David Rotich we have Arato our TX planner we have Enokimngetich we have Coronelia Skuto we have James Langat we have Shadra Kabarusei we have Joseph Nganga we have a host of people Kate Maena we have accepted the project together a host of people who participated and we worked together in this journey and I would also want to thank them so much for making sure that we deliver this project for the people of Tokana the customer is king we are notoriously obsessed with the customer and we want to thank you Hilary for having us thank you 30 seconds Yes, yes for me today if you look at our national broadband policy they are 2018 to 2023 within there is what we call definition of broadband which is anything beyond 2 megabits per second when you provide quality affordable internet which is a speed of 2 megabits per second in terms of that how we do as a country we are currently around 44 percent we still have that particular 56 to go we need to work on the supply side supply side of it is ensuring that we continuously invest continuously invest in terms of coverage and also in terms of the right technology so that we can be able to access on the demand part of it also we need to work on what we call the Latin demand of which demand is first of all about awareness how do you create awareness so that communities can embrace and the new things that are coming up new learning and so forth then attractiveness how do we continually create content and repackage internet to be aware of life and unlock opportunity then finally affordability how do we make the devices and also internet affordable so that many people can join the digital journey if we do that as a country we'll be able to cross the bridge and we'll be able to actually make an economy to be a digital economy much more better than today where we are alright thank you so much gentlemen for coming and trying to tell us how the journey was to open up and look and account it to the rest of the world as far as communication is of concern they have been my guest Paul Barrasa he is a project manager and David Dodiambu senior manager transport and IP planning I'll be coming up next with health interview we'll be looking into non-communicable diseases and how they are fearing during this COVID-19 the misses and hits as far as health is of concern keep it thank you so much for keeping us company my name is Adereva Hilewi good morning see you in a beach