By Iminza Keboge
Published July 22, 2016
This is a food, cruise, free wi-fi and motor rally live-streaming weekend.
How so?
Be my guest. First things first: Where can you partake of deep-fried soft shell crab tempura served with sweet Indonesian sauce or Japanese tempura sauce?
Wrong; you don’t have to travel to Indonesia or Japan.
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Can you eat fresh oysters, oyster mambrui or oyster piri piri till you drop (well, maybe that isn’t how to put it; OK, eat as much oyster as you can stomach!)?
Be careful what you wish for as it might just come true!
Believe it or not, but you can have as much oyster as you wish and enjoy soft shell crab while cruising along the magical Kenyan Indian Ocean coast this weekend!
The Tamarind Restaurant in Kenya’s second largest city, Mombasa, says it is not only organising a TunaFest for you, but that it shall offer you cocktails, lunch or dinner while cruising along the Makupa Creek of the Indian Ocean coast on its ship!
If it is entertainment, accommodation, conference facilities or well known wining and dining venues you are after, Mombasa says it has them. Just for you.
And that isn’t all. At least not yet.
Liquid Telecom Kenya, whose partnership with the Government of Kenya has led to free Wi-Fi hotspots in selected towns across the East African country, says it shall livestream Kenya National Rally Championship for you from Voi at the Kenyan coast on Saturday, July 23, 2016 starting from 8:00 AM (0500 GMT).
“There will be footage from drones over the stage, GoPro cameras and live commentary from the renowned journalist and Kenya’s voice of sport, Sean Cardovillis,” Liquid Telecom says in a statement. “This approach aims to re-connect Kenyans with their beloved sport by providing real time access to rallying in the comfort of their own homes, regardless of where the event might be taking place.”
Paul Statham, Chief Commercial Officer with Liquid Telecom Kenya, says the “broadcast of the rally is part of Liquid Telecom Kenya’s commitment to using technology to revolutionise motorsport in Kenya and Africa, with a key strand in our sponsorship agenda being to make the rally championships more accessible to a wider audience.”
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Saying Liquid Telecom will continue to innovate and increase their commitment to rallying across the 2016 season, being the Connectivity Partner of Kenya Motor Sport Federation, Statham says Liquid Telecom will “increase the coverage, stream a greater numbers of stages and introduce multiple social feeds: YouTube first, then Periscope, and then Facebook Live, as and when it properly launches here in Kenya.”
I guess you still want to hear more about this free internet hot spots, right?
Liquid Telecom Kenya says it has since 2015 been collaborating with the Government on the introduction of free Wi-Fi networks to what it refers to as ‘underserved towns up and down the nation’.
Nakuru, a town in southern Rift Valley some 185 kilometres from Nairobi, had a Wi-Fi network covering a 10-kilometre radius installed in 2015; it earned Liquid Telecom Kenya Best Wi-Fi Deployment to Connect the Unconnected in a Rural Environment at the World Wi-Fi Day Awards in June 2016.
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The company says a similar project is being rolled out across Kiambu County on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
“Over the coming weeks, Wi-Fi networks will be established in the Central Business Districts of each of the county’s four largest towns, offering residents internet speeds of up to 10 megabytes per second,” Liquid Telecom says.
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The first phase of installations will begin in Thika, Kikuyu, Ruiru and Kiambu, where hotspots are expected to connect hospitals, universities and schools.
“It is not just people in hospitals that will have access to the internet, but businesses and offices around the point of connections will also benefit,†says Douglas Njiraini, Kiambu County ICT Director. “These locations were chosen because they have the highest number of human traffic, highest concentration of businesses and offices, and thus they are expected to have the most impact.”
A further seven towns will be connected during the second phase of the initiative in Kiambu. with free Wi-Fi.
Any good reason for connecting urban people with free Wi-Fi?
“Research shows there is a direct correlation between internet access and economic growth, with World Bank statistics showing that a 10% increase in Internet access results in approximately 1% of extra growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per year,” Liquid Telecom says.
