NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 28 – Information, Communication and Technology Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru has named former ICT Permanent Secretary Dr. Bitange Ndemo to head a 10-member taskforce on blockchain and artificial intelligence.

Mucheru says the task force has been mandated to publish a roadmap for distributed ledger and AI for the country for the next fifteen years with the primary objective of making Kenya a leader in job creation through the big four agenda.

The Ndemo taskforce is, within the next three months, expected to make its recommendations on how the government can leverage on the emerging technologies in the next five years, with other key milestones in 2027 and 2032.

“In the ICT field, one year is almost equivalent to five years in the real world so we are breaking it into five-year periods so that we are able to take bite-sized chunks,” says Mucheru.

The roadmap developed by the task force will contextualize how the application of these technologies can be used in the areas of financial inclusion, cybersecurity, land tilting, election process, single digital identity and overall public service delivery.

Mucheru says Kenya’s push towards a digital economy aims to create a thriving semiconductor and electronic manufacturing – including sensors for the Internet of Things, E-commerce and logistics hub, financial technology centre and cloud services.

“I want when people online search keywords such as; Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital Funds, Digital Economy, E-Commerce, Media, logistics and distribution, jobs and employment, health and education, that Kenya is always at the top,” said Mucheru.

The other members of the taskforce include Ushahidi co-founder Julian Rotich, Safaricom head of regulatory affairs Stephen Chege, IBM researchers Charity Wayua and Elizabeth Ondula.

Others are Lesley Mbogo, Fred Michuki, Michael Onyango, John Gitau, John Walubengo and Mahmoud Mohamed Noor.