The recent demon­stra­tions led by Kenya’s Gen Z demon­strat­ed in spec­tac­u­lar fash­ion the immense pow­er of the inter­net. The impacts of the well-coor­di­nat­ed street action that was large­ly orga­nized on social media, are still rever­ber­at­ing across the coun­try. How­ev­er, for all the rave reviews of this water­shed moment for the coun­try, the protests also served as a stark reminder of the gap­ing dig­i­tal divide that still plagues our coun­try. While young peo­ple in Kenya’s urban areas and even the dias­po­ra engaged in stim­u­lat­ing debates on X spaces and oth­er plat­forms, some of their rur­al coun­ter­parts, could not enjoy sim­i­lar access to the avalanche of infor­ma­tion at the height of protests.

Indeed, the dig­i­tal divide in Kenya is sober­ing, with urban areas enjoy­ing con­sid­er­ably bet­ter con­nec­tiv­i­ty than rur­al regions. This dis­par­i­ty not only restricts access to infor­ma­tion but also sti­fles oppor­tu­ni­ty in emerg­ing dig­i­tal economies. Accord­ing to the Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Author­i­ty of Kenya, urban cen­ters boast an inter­net pen­e­tra­tion rate of around 40.8%, a stark con­trast to the under­served rur­al com­mu­ni­ties. This divide not only dimin­ish­es eco­nom­ic and edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties but also lim­its access to health­care, there­by per­pet­u­at­ing a cycle of exclu­sion. Find­ing solu­tions to the dis­par­i­ty must there­fore be an inte­gral part of any attempt to involve the Gen Zs and oth­er gen­er­a­tions in the man­age­ment of the country.

First­ly, we must embark on a robust invest­ment pro­gram in dig­i­tal infra­struc­ture to cat­alyze rapid eco­nom­ic growth. By enhanc­ing inter­net access in under­served areas, we can unlock the door to e‑commerce and entre­pre­neur­ial endeav­ors. Emu­lat­ing suc­cess­ful mod­els from coun­tries like India, where rur­al inter­net pro­grams have sig­nif­i­cant­ly boost­ed local economies, Kenya can pro­vide plat­forms such as Jumia and Kil­i­mall the oppor­tu­ni­ty to expand, thus democ­ra­tiz­ing eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ties and inspir­ing a new gen­er­a­tion of dig­i­tal entrepreneurs.

Sec­ond­ly, edu­ca­tion must be rev­o­lu­tion­ized through dig­i­tal inte­gra­tion. By ensur­ing every child has access to dig­i­tal tools and learn­ing resources, we can safe­guard their future in the glob­al econ­o­my. Suc­cess­ful ini­tia­tives like Estonia’s Tiigri­hüpe (Tiger Leap), which inte­grat­ed tech­nol­o­gy across its edu­ca­tion­al frame­work, demon­strate the trans­for­ma­tive pow­er of dig­i­tal edu­ca­tion. In Kenya, imple­ment­ing sim­i­lar nation­wide dig­i­tal lit­er­a­cy pro­grams, sup­port­ed by part­ner­ships between the gov­ern­ment and tech giants like Jamii Tel­coms, could pro­vide the next gen­er­a­tion with the skills nec­es­sary to thrive.

Third­ly, even as we grap­ple with the dis­put­ed SHIF, health­care can be sig­nif­i­cant­ly improved through dig­i­tal ini­tia­tives. Telemed­i­cine, inspired by mod­els in Brazil and Thai­land, can expo­nen­tial­ly expand med­ical access in Kenya. In Brazil, telemed­i­cine sup­ports over 40,000 med­ical cen­ters, pri­mar­i­ly for tele­con­sul­ta­tions, enhanc­ing health­care deliv­ery in remote areas. Sim­i­lar­ly, in Thai­land, the Sami­tivej Vir­tu­al Hos­pi­tal offers com­pre­hen­sive telemed­i­cine ser­vices, espe­cial­ly cru­cial in rur­al areas where there is only one doc­tor for every 2,065 peo­ple, com­pared to the WHO’s rec­om­men­da­tion of one per 439.

For these trans­for­ma­tions to occur, robust pol­i­cy sup­port is essen­tial. The gov­ern­ment must pri­or­i­tize dig­i­tal infra­struc­ture as a fun­da­men­tal util­i­ty, akin to water and elec­tric­i­ty. Pro­mot­ing pri­vate invest­ment and fair reg­u­la­to­ry envi­ron­ments is essen­tial for achiev­ing dig­i­tal inclusivity.

More­over, dig­i­tal plat­forms like the new and unmatched YouShiri­ki cre­at­ed by our Gen Zs can empow­er all Kenyans to enhance more trans­par­ent gov­er­nance ser­vices by propos­ing, dis­cussing, and imple­ment­ing poli­cies for a bet­ter future.

At this piv­otal moment, Kenya’s path to unmatched nation­al devel­op­ment through dig­i­tal inclu­siv­i­ty is clear. This is not mere­ly an invest­ment in tech­nol­o­gy but an invest­ment in the very struc­ture of our nation’s future. By har­ness­ing the poten­tial of dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies, we can trans­form our eco­nom­ic land­scape, enhance edu­ca­tion­al sys­tems, improve health­care deliv­ery, and build a more inclu­sive soci­ety. The demands of our youth, echo­ing through the streets in demon­stra­tions, align with this vision—they are not just ask­ing for change, they are ask­ing for a future where every­one has the oppor­tu­ni­ty to suc­ceed. The time to act is now- let’s make this vision a real­i­ty for every Kenyan, today and tomor­row. Think Green, Act green!