The Public Research University to be established in Konza Techno City will receive Sh1.5 billion annually from the National Treasury.
According to information from Konza Technopolis Development Authority (KOTDA), the public research university will be established by the Kenyan government in partnership with the South Korean government.
KOTDA further the National Treasury will begin making the allocations in the 2019-20 financial year for the project which is 60Km from Nairobi city.
The ministries of Education and that of Information, Communications and Technology also want the National Treasury to further set up a Sh1.5 billion endowment fund to ensure the financial sustainability of the university.
KOTDA chief executive Eng John Tanui said in Nairobi that the money will go towards salaries for the faculty and staff, scholarships, operational and maintenance costs.
Eng Tanui, however, said that once the institution is running, it will have its own money.
“Once the institution runs effectively, it will have its own leadership and its faculties of learning, research and innovation will start generating money through linkages with the private sector.”
Plans to establish the Kenya Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) were first announced in May last year following a meeting between President Uhuru Kenyatta and South Korean President, Park Guen-hye.
At the time, Seoul committed to invest Sh10 billion in the university which will be modeled in line with the vision and principles which guided the establishment of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
Konza Techno City, a Sh1.48 trillion project, is an ICT business hub dubbed “Africa’s Silicon Savannah.”
The project, a multi-billion- dollar ICT business hub, has the ability to spur massive employment, trade and investment.
Kenya strives to achieve sustainable development through the promotion of youth employment and vocational training, infrastructure development, ICT and innovations, food security initiatives, industrialization and trade facilitation, and regional integration within East African Community.
The research university will offer masters and PhD programmes in electric and electronic Engineering, ICT Engineering, Civil Engineering and Agricultural Biotechnology. Twenty Masters and five PhD students will be admitted into each of the programmes annually.
Kenya’s Vision 2030 secretariat has said that the two countries have ironed out the regulatory framework under which the university will operate.
The institution will be established also in accordance with a provision of the universities Act which gives the President the Mandate to award a charter to a research institution of “strategic national importance.”
In a statement, KOTDA said: ”Kenya KAIST will be founded upon a legal framework fundamentally distinct from that governing existing Kenyan universities so that it can pursue innovative approaches unconstrained by existing convention.”
The government is expected to bring on board by April this year a consultant to design the institution at the planned 5,000 – acre Smart City. Construction is set to begin before the end of 2017 and run for 39 months.
The Korean University against which KAIST will be modeled has been a key part of Seoul’s industrialization strategy since the 1970s. Currently, 20 per cent of Samsung Electronics executive – level engineers have graduated from the Korean KAIST.
In 2013, the university executed government and private sector research contracts worth about 23.4 billion.
Eng. Tanui says although the university at Konza will begin from a base of 150 students per year, the plan is to grow the student body just as the Korean institution did.
Kenya has also made greater strides in development in several fields among them the transport investments. An example is the construction of the Ksh.25 billion Dongo Kundu by-pass project which is now 40 per cent complete.
The project to be built in three phases aims to decongest Mombasa Port and is expected to be completed next year.
Transport, Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development Cabinet Secretary James Macharia said the project is funded by the JICA and the Kenyan government. JICA will finance 80 per cent of the project.
While speaking at the Port of Mombasa where he received the first batch of six locomotives for the standard gauge railway, Macharia said: “The transport projects started by the Jubilee Government will go a long way in growing the economy to become a regional business hub”.
On the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), Macharia said:” This project is 18 months ahead of schedule. It cuts across 17 counties from Mombasa to Malaba and will transform millions of lives of Kenyans,” he added.
The CS said the Mombasa – Nairobi SGR has a remarkable construction speed and President Uhuru Kenyatta is expected to officially launch the SGR operations on May 31 this year.
Macharia who was accompanied by Transport Principal Secretary, Irungu Nyakera said 56 locomotives manufactured by CRRC Corporation will operate on the Mombasa – Nairobi SGR route, adding that the entire fleet is expected to be in the country by mid-year in four batches.
He said Phase One covers 472 Kilometres while passengers and freight services on SGR will be rolled out from Mombasa to Nairobi on June 1, this year.
Macharia said the government has initiated a crash training programme for young Kenyans to train locally and in Universities in China to acquire railway operation and maintenance skills. “Already, over 300 students are undergoing training locally at the Railway Training Institute and in field training in the project. It is expected that by the end of this year, a further 500 students will have completed training in middle-level skills related to driving of trains, maintaining infrastructure locomotives and rolling stock and in traffic operations,” he said.
Kenya’s global cooperation will bring to the country benefits in scientific development, technology, infrastructure development, reduced poverty, disease and environmental threats. It will also enhance trade and flow of ideas and will enable Kenya to realize the potential of 21st Century.
--mygov.go.ke