Three university students have created a cybersecurity programme towards fighting attacks that have risen sharply due to increased online transactions and activities.
The application is designed to offer real-time monitoring and analysis to detect, prevent, and address security threats against local Kenyan businesses and individuals.
The App is set to address common cybercrimes in the country, including phishing attacks, malware, false publications, money transfer fraud, credit card fraud, and cyber terrorism.
The programme developers, who include 20-year-old Vincent Karanja, 21-year-old Ian Keiza, and 20-year-old Norah Chesit, said they came up with the innovation after realising that cybercrimes were a growing menace to government agencies, non-governmental organisations, corporates, Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), e-commerce platforms, as well as financial institutions such as banks and Savings and Credit Cooperative Organizations (SACCOs).
The trio, who are all Internet of Things (IoT) and robotics experts, are beneficiaries of the Shs 6.5 billion (US dollars 50 million) World Bank-funded Strengthening Kenya’s Innovation Ecosystem (SKIES) scholarship programme and were showcasing their innovation during the graduation of 97 apprentices attached to the Rift Valley Institute of Business Studies (RVIBS) in Nakuru.
The Institute was awarded Sh 10 million and raised a further Sh 4 million towards co-funding the implementation of the SKIES scholarship programme.
SKIES, which is being implemented by the Ministry of Investments, Trade, and Industry through the State Department for Industry, aims at enhancing innovation ecosystem infrastructure by building the capacity of 13 Kenyan intermediaries such as incubators, accelerators, and technology bootcamp providers.
Through the Kenya Industrial and Entrepreneurship Project (KIEP), the government is supporting the intermediaries, who also include 8 universities and 500 individuals in startups, in developing and deepening their operational strengths and individual business models, ensuring operational sustainability, expansion, and improved quality of services provided.
According to KIEP Project Coordinator at the State Department for Industry, Phillip Maitha, SKIES was providing performance-based grants to intermediaries and innovation hubs and was working with Technical Vocational Education Training Institutes and universities to provide skills on innovation.
The coordinator further said that the project’s agenda was strategically aligned with national development goals such as Kenya Vision 2030 as well as the global Sustainable Development Goals and Africa Agenda 2063.
KIEP Project Manager Mr. John Muinami advised Universities, Technical Vocational Education Training Institutions (TVETs), and polytechnics to set up innovation and incubation centers to attract investors, venture capitalists, and corporate partners who are keen to move innovative ideas to the next level.
He said governments in the continent were increasingly facing challenges in creating jobs, with the reality being that there were more training opportunities than there were job openings, a situation he said was creating a large population of young people in Africa with skills and knowledge but no jobs.
“We have to produce graduates who become employers. More importantly, we should produce graduates who are able to walk confidently into a number of careers and opportunities,” stated the manager.
Innovation Ecosystem Manager at KIEP, Ms. Cecilia Mwangi, urged students and instructors at TVETs to forge powerful collaborations with the business sector to translate research findings into industrial resources to create wealth and jobs.
To achieve this, she said TVETs should deliberately march towards becoming the springboards of economic development in the country by playing a more proactive role in supporting an innovation ecosystem, especially through recognition of innovation that could be patented.
Ms. Mwangi observed that commercialisation of research was becoming a common practice in most parts of the world where the private sector partners with universities and technical training institutes to develop innovations in sectors such as telecommunications, medicine, and engineering, resulting in the technical training institutes and universities earning extra revenue.
She urged Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutes to commercialise innovations invented by their students and tutors to enable them to tap their full potential in generating revenue.
Rift Valley Institute of Business Director Mr. Kimemia Gitau said although 2,200 youth applied for the SKIES scholarship, the institute was only granted 97 slots where the beneficiaries were university graduates and Diploma holders who were equipped with skills to be job creators and not employment seekers.
While observing that the SKIESS scholarship venture was a positive step in bridging the skills gap in the Kenyan job market, Mr. Gitau called for public-private partnerships to sponsor the growing number of innovative youth who are seeking to realise their dreams.
He affirmed that Science, Technology and Innovation were increasingly important to our personal lives and were also fundamental to the economic development of any given country.
The increased cybersecurity threats are attributed to the global increase in malware and the high level of unemployment of tech-savvy youth, with many Kenyan businesses said to be losing billions of shillings and troves of sensitive information to hackers every year, according to experts.
A new report by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) shows that cyber threats detected by the Kenya Computer Incident Response Team Coordination Centre (Ke-CIRT/CC) increased by 943 per cent and attributed this to limited investments in cybersecurity and outdated security systems.
By Esther Mwangi and Dennis Rasto