The Way Technology Affected Kenyan People Lives During 10 Years

Our everyday interactions, transactions, and even the way we think have been transformed by technology in the last decade or so. A wide range of new technologies and resources have made it possible for us to get critical information on almost any subject.

When it comes to the lives of Kenyans, nothing has had a greater influence than the smartphone. Everything has been changed by it.

Many aspects of daily life are directly influenced by the widespread use of smartphones, according to computer science lecturer Lilian Wanzare of Maseno University in Kenya.

Despite its two-year introduction, only a small percentage of Kenyans had an Android-powered smartphone in 2010, with the bulk of the middle class claiming ownership of “high-end” 3G mobile phones running the Symbian operating system.

Most people had 2G phones, which did not have access to the Internet, and they had difficulty connecting to the 2G telco networks that were in use by that time. All Kenyan telecommunications providers are now connected to the 4G network, thanks to the advancements in technology.

More than eighty-five percent of Americans now have access to a 3G or greater signal. In the current World Bank study on Kenya’s digital economy, it is said that “both the government and the private sector have laid out fiber backbone networks linking undersea landing ports, population centers, and neighboring countries”.

Internet

As of September 2018, there were 46.6 million mobile phone subscribers in Kenya, up from 22 million in 2010, according to the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA). In terms of Internet speed, as it’s written here, Madagascar has the second-fastest connection at 24.9 Mbps, while Rwanda, Uganda, Ghana, and Namibia are all below 10.1 Mbps. As a result, new job descriptions have emerged.

“This decade has seen so many changes.” Online employment is on the increase, thanks to falling Internet prices that allow individuals to save money on transportation to and from work, according to University of Nairobi Business School professor Bitange Ndemo.

Fintech, agritech, e-commerce, and transportation solutions all grew in prominence throughout this decade, while a major disruption left the majority of business models obsolete as technology and innovation took center stage in every successful enterprise.

Mobile Applications

As mobile lending applications proliferated in the middle of the decade, more Kenyans, including those with modest incomes, had access to loans, which increased the microeconomy’s dynamics but left many stranded due to their inability to repay during a recession.

People may now purchase things from the comfort of their own homes, reducing transportation expenses, increasing trust, and freeing up time for other tasks.

Start-up founders’ minds have been altered by e-commerce. To be competitive, they must now include online payments and delivery into their business models. E-commerce is making inroads into rural areas by allowing people to order products online and have them delivered right to their front doors.

There were many individuals he thought were being left out of online shopping in Kenya’s major cities, thus Copia Kenya CEO Tim Steel resolved to fill the void.

“I considered it pertinent to provide individuals in such places a chance to profit from e-commerce in the most economical methods possible since mobile money has well infiltrated Kenya’s rural houses,” he adds.

In Nairobi, the introduction of ride-hailing and carpooling services has had a significant impact on the transportation industry. There are now services in Mombasa, Kisumu, and other large cities, making the concept of owning a vehicle a thing of the past for many people.

But the practice of carpooling extends back decades when people would line up at busy intersections and wave down passing cars in an attempt to share a ride.

Although these obstacles were solved through the use of social media, online carpooling took off as a result.

Startups

High-speed Internet and automation are the driving forces behind the emergence of tech clusters.

Smaller spaces are no longer necessary for productive work, and startups have taken advantage of this fact. Savio Wambugu, the creator of Mount Kenya Hub, says that instead of hiring a large office for marketing, sales, and finance, firms prefer to take the tech hub route where they can save money and acquire all the tools they could need under one roof.

Many young people have turned to the Internet to sell products and services, particularly online writing. In addition to using the hubs’ facilities, these young people may use them as a physical location for their freelancing firms, thanks to tech hubs.

Programming languages have also changed throughout the years. Since the broad adoption of C++ in 2010 and the rise in popularity of contemporary languages like Python, creating a functional website has never been simpler.

During this decade, the nation went from the Third Industrial Revolution to Industry 4.0, where new technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT) began to gain traction.

He goes on to say that access to government services has improved. E-Citizen enables Kenyan citizens to apply for passports quickly and seamlessly, allowing them to make safe payments and keeping track of the application’s progress until it is issued.