Education stakeholders in Homa Bay County have expressed concerns over rising cases of theft of digital literacy gadgets in schools.
Homa Bay Sub County Director of Education Ziada Osano noted that six schools had been broken into and gadgets stolen in the recent past.
Following the theft, the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) has embarked on tracking down the gadgets including laptops, tablets and projectors.
Osano said that the gadgets were instrumental in equipping learners with the crucial information technology skills.
She spoke today during the launch of the Kenya Digital Acceleration Project for Homa Bay County at Homa Comprehensive School.
Ms Osano said the county has already received smart boards and laptops for 421 institutions in the first phase of the exercise.
“We anticipate to receive another 366 smart boards and laptops for the next set of schools,” the education officer said.
She said the theft of digital literacy materials was a setback to efforts to equip schools.
“The matter is with our security team and we expect those who break into our institutions to be brought to book.” She said.
According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Commander Jimmy Kisobo, investigators were tracing the hardware with probability that some were smuggled out of the country.
The school that was hit the most is Omolo Agar School in Rachuonyo North where 45 computers that were donated by Safaricom were all stolen.
Police usually take serial numbers and ask internet providers to help trace the devices when connected to the internet.
Mr Kosobo said DCI officers have not received any feedback.
He noted that failure to trace them locally suggests they are taken outside Kenya.
“If they are being used here and they are connected to the internet, there is no way we can fail to at least trace them,” Mr Kisobo said.
Ms Osano said the gadgets will give learners a platform to interact globally with digital content and interact with teachers beyond their schools.
She asked community members to support schools to safeguard the electronics.
She said schools cannot be safe without support from the public.
“The government has spent a lot of money to install these devices. We only want to call upon our stakeholders to ensure the security and safety of these gadgets for posterity.” she said.
by Davis Langat.
