1. By Prof. Meoli Kashorda, PhD, MIET, MIEEE Executive Director, Kenya Education Network (KENET) & Professor of Information Systems, USIU Transforming education Using ICT Sustainability of KENET as the NREN of Kenya A presentation at the TERNET Workshop for Vice Chancellors Ramada Hotel, Dar es Salaam April 28, 2016

2. Transforming education through ICT What is Our Agenda Higher Education and Research Context of Kenya Telecom / Internet Context What Does it mean that KENET is the National Research and Education Network (NREN) of Kenya? – History – KENET Objects – Vision, Mission, Core Values Development of the KENET Infrastructure 2008 – 2015 KENET services and sustainability – Broadband and NOC services, Shared service, Research services E-readiness survey and Special Interest Groups – Catalysts for transformation of education and research KENET partners – Google, ISOC, NSRC, DFN, etc

3. Summary Slide – Reflections of an NREN CEO “The teacher appears when the student is ready” – Chinese Proverb Support of universities with resources is crucial! – VCs of UoN and USIU critical pillars (offices, equipment space, paying salaries, paying for services, protection from procurement officers / CFOs) Support of the Ministry of ICT, Education and Universities and ICT regulators – We made them Trustees at KENET In Kenya, the CEO must be from the “tribe” of researchers or faculty (former faculty is OK) CEO must have deep understanding of the business of education and ICT (both, not one) – An MBA helps (TENET CEO) or senior leadership of universities, former ICT director of a research university

4. Transforming education through ICT Higher education and research context  Kenya has about 70 Universities, 32 of them public universities  57 Universities connected to KENET  About 400,000 undergraduate university students  Over 50% own a laptop and over 50% own a smartphone  Universities Act 2012 and Science Technology and Innovations Act 2013 regulate university education and research in Kenya  Commission for University Education (CUE) regulates universities in Kenya  KUCCPS – Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service  HELB - Higher Education Loans Board – gives loans to university students  UFB - University Funding Board being constituted to fund Capex and Opex of public universities  NRF - National Research Fund being constituted to fund research – 2% of GDP for research  NACOSTI – National Commission for Science Technology and Innovation  Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Act 2013  Regulates polytechnics and other colleges  Ministry of ICT – promotes ICT in Universities and Schools - ICT masterplan 2014, Broadband strategy 2013 – Minister former Google executive, PS former engineering lecturer and executive director of KENET!  Ministry of Education, Science and Technology – former minister of ICT and University lecturer  PS in charge of University Education former professor at UoN  PS basic education former Trustee of KENET

5. 5 The telecom / Internet market context – latest CA data Mobile growth continued in Q1 2015/16  4.7% growth  88%+ penetration  Usage at 99 min/month is vibrant & due to low tariffs & on-net incentives  Only marginal market share change Fixed broadband now dominated by fibre  Fibre services Wananchi (Zuku), Jamii, Liquid, Frontier Optical Networks, MTN Business, Access Kenya, Telkom Kenya, Safaricom  KPLC (Power Company) and NOFBI provide long distance fiber for leas But Internet / data subscriptions dominated by the mobile operators 4 Undersea optical fiber cables in Mombasa (Nairobi) – SEACOM, EASSy, TEAMS and Lion Internet/Data SubscriptionsSept 2015 Total Internet Subscriptions21,628,271 Mobile Data Subscriptions21,511,638 Terrestr. Wireless Data Subscriptions 13,221 Satellite Data Subscriptions720 Fixed DSL Data Subscriptions2,500 Fixed Fibre Data Subscriptions100,192 Fixed Cable Modem Subscriptions25 Total Internet Users31,985,048

6. Telecom / Internet competition is fierce in Kenya Four large operators – Liquid telecom, Jamii Telecom, Safaricom and Telkom Kenya Have expansive national mobile abd/or fiber networks Licensing framework in Kenya means they are both wholesalers and retailers Sell leased lines and International bandwidth to KENET but can also provide Internet services to member institutions cheaper Low Internet bandwidth prices by commercial operators are BIG challenge to KENET as an NREN (as low as $40 per Mb/s per month at retail (<100 Mb/s), $15 per Mb/s per month wholesale (1 Gb/s and above). – KENET is only one step ahead; pressure to offer over the top research and education services – KENET “lucky” that it started before the competition became fierce – KENET has established “business partnership” arrangements with all the major operators

7. KENET as the NREN of Kenya

8. Transforming education through ICT KENET Trust Objects and Membership Categories

9. Transforming education through ICT History of KENET 1.Constituted in 1999 as a vehicle for absorbing a USAID grant of $1.1 million Internet infrastructure grant for higher education and research 2.Five Founder members of the KENET Trust (both public and private) 1.U of Nairobi, Moi University, JKUAT, Daystar and USIU 3.Licensed as an educational operator in 2002 4.Membership organization governed by a Trust Deed 5.Since 2005, recognized as an NREN by Global Internet Community and Government of Kenya

10. Transforming education through ICT KENET Trust Objects are to: 1.provide a sustainable and high-speed Internet connectivity to educational institutions; 2.facilitate electronic communication among beneficiaries in educational institutions; 3.support sharing of teaching and learning resources among educational institutions; 4.support teaching and learning over the Internet for beneficiaries in educational institutions both in Kenya and outside; 5.Support collaboration in developing locally relevant learning materials in educational institutions; and 6.Facilitate collaborate in research in educational institutions.

11. Transforming education through ICT KENET Membership categories Full Members – Universities, University colleges, colleges, and other government organization in education sector Affiliate members – School Associations, World Bank, KUCCPS, ICT Authority KENET serves only members – it is therefore NOT a business (Kenya Revenue Authority waives VAT on all services and KENET is also Tax exempt)

12. Transforming education through ICT 110 Members full members (As of 31/03/2016 )

13. KENET is a community of Heads of Institutions

14. Transforming education through ICT Vision, Mission and Values of KENET Vision To be a leading research and education network driving quality of higher education and research through ICT Mission To be a key catalyst and driver of the integration of ICT in teaching, learning and research through quality, cost-competitive and efficient ICT services and to be a key partner in the development of the Kenyan ICT society

15. Google Confidential and Proprietary. Somalia INDIAN OCEAN KDN fiber-underground (Primary) Jamii fiber -overhead(Backup) KENET POP POPNo. of Campuses Connected No of Schools connected Nairobi POP100146 Kisumu POP201 Mombasa POP160 Eldoret POP220 Nakuru POP170 Meru POP151 Total Campuses connected 190148 Italian Space Agency -Luigi Broglio Space Centre- Malindi KENET National Broadband Network Coverage NOFBI Distance- 856KM KENET Owned Last Mile Fiber – 188KM KENET Core Ring Fiber Network – 110KM Access Fiber Spurs – 30KM Total KENET Owned fiber – 1084KM Connected Schools classified as follows; KENET/Wananchi Partnership schools – 144 (all in Nairobi) KENET Schools – 4 (Alliance schools, Kisii and Marsabit Girls) SEACOM International capacity (3150Mb/s ) KTCIP TEAMS International capacity (1200Mb/s) SEACOM (3150Mb/s) WIOCC International capacity (600Mb/s) KTCIP TEAMS/SEAMEWE4 (1200Mb/s) WIOCC (600Mb/s) TEAMS Landing station SEACOM Landing station GOK TEAMS to Fujairah (600Mb/s) GOK TEAMS International capacity (600Mb/s)

16. KENET as the NREN of KE Provides Affordable Internet Services to Member Institutions and Aggregates Internet traffic from Higher Education and institutions – KENET was distributing about 11 Gb/s of traffic as of March 2016 Provides community cloud services – web hosting, data backup, disaster recovery and Virtual Servers / Storage – Operates two tier 3 data centers with uptime > 99.99% – Over 166 TB storage capacity, upgradable to 1 PB Develops High-end ICT talent – technical + project management + Data analysis – Capacity building for KENET and member institutions Builds advanced research e-infrastructures and community in different areas – Africa Science Gateway and federated services (KENET CA, iDP, EDUROAM) – Special Interest Groups in STEM areas It is an Academic Community? HoI forums, mailing lists, people networks Internet Measurement Lab16

17. Weighted Internet bandwidth prices vs. Internet bandwidth subscriptions

18. Top 10 bandwidth consumers No.Institution NameInternet Bandwidth Capacity Mb/s 1University of Nairobi 1,600 2Kenyatta University 1,100 3 Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology 800 4Egerton University 400 5Moi University 300 6Strathmore University 240 7Maseno University 225 8The World Bank Group 200 9Dedan Kimathi University of Technology 180 10Karatina University 170

19. KENET as the NREN of KE (cont) Catalyst for transformation of education and research using ICT – Offers up to 10 travel grants to faculty researchers or post-graduate students in STEM areas – Sponsors innovative research using Mini-grants of $10,000 per faculty team (see http://raspberry.kenet.or.ke ) http://raspberry.kenet.or.ke – Organizes forums of faculty in different areas (e.g., engineering faculty forum in 2015 Regularly Conducts E-readiness Survey of Connected Universities – 2006, 2008, 2013 and 2015 (see http://ereadiness.kenet.or.kehttp://ereadiness.kenet.or.ke – Data-driven advocacy and influencing ICT strategies to increase use of ICT in education and research Conducts Baseline Survey of Selected STEM departments – – Baseline surveys of engineering, computer science and medical schools conducted in 2015 – Data will be used to prepare baseline survey reports and policy technical Builds advanced research infrastructures and community in different areas Measures research collaboration and productivity of Kenyan universities and research institutes – Subscribes to Elsevier’s SciVal research intelligence tool for research advocacy reports and discovery of research champions Internet Measurement Lab19

20. Development and Expansion of KENET Infrastructure – sources of funding

21. Transforming education through ICT KTCIP for Universities and Colleges 2008 - 2013  Universities and colleges that were members of KENET allocated $19 million by GoK in 2007 to build national broadband network – KENET appointed Implementation agency by WB/GoK But no engineering capacity Only 2 engineers and administrator  Member institutions all signed up a commitment to subscribe to bandwidth services for a consideration!  Buy one Mb/s get one FREE  Currently 36 full-time employees, 26 engineering or technical staff operate and continue to expand kenet network  KENET was distributing about 10 Gb/s of Internet as of January 2016 from 200 Mb/s in January 2009! KENET received < 1 % government budget support under KTCIP in FY 2015/2016

22. Transforming education through ICT What Did We Build with $22.5 million KTCIP grant? 7 Network PoPs – 2 data centers at USIU and UoN – Provides NOC and Community Cloud Services Lighting 724 KM of Government and 186 KM of last mile fiber developed under project Project paid for 2 years for 200 Mb/s satellite bandwidth and 4-years of leased lines to 55 campuses Total grant disbursed - $22.5 million over 5 years

23. Who sustains KENET operations and expansion after KTCIP? KENET sustainability fund – About $11.4 million, 2009 – 2014 to upgrade and expand network – About $2 million of depreciation fund available per FY for network renewal and expansion – Data center infrastructure expansion Member institutions through subscriptions to services and installation fees to new campuses – $6,000 per campus, over 140 campuses added Internet bandwidth pricing adequate to pay all expenses + renewal of infrastructure SEACOM Interest FREE loan by SEACOM for purchase of international circuits

24. KENET Sustainability and Services

25. KENET Bundled Services and Sustainability KENET sustained by members who pay for services – – Internet bandwidth and connectivity services Capacity building, Cybersecurity, Research Infrastructures access services, Institutional Web hosting, expert ICT advisory services are bundled with Internet bandwidth Video and Web Conferencing Services also FREE for connected institutions – Community cloud services Web hosting, co-location of servers, Infrastructure as a Service (Virtual Servers), backup storage, Disaster Recovery – Campus Network Consulting and Diagnostics services – How to build and operate campus networks Research and Education Community and Collaboration Services – Special Interest Groups, Raspberry PI Student-owned lab projects, workshops / forums for VCs, Faculty, ICT directors – Advanced research services (digital certificates, identity providers, EDUROAM) Broadband as an Innovation Platform25

26. Access to advanced research infrastructures – uptake is low! The Global Research and Education has many FREE research infrastructures – High performance computing (e.g., grid computing or Cape Town HPC) – Advanced instrumentation and applications especially for Physics, Chemistry and Engineering – Research databases and repositories Access requires – Digital certificates that are recognized by the community – Identity provider – who is this scientist or researchers? KENET operates a Certification Authority (CA) that issues Trusted digital certificates – Accreditation by European EUGridPMA on January 26, 2016 KENET operates the identity provider service for Kenyan community -This is similar to the roaming service for mobile phones; -Scientists accessing the global resources MUST have a “passport” issued by KENET

27. ICT Staff development pipeline and the Graduate Trainee Program Transforming Education with ICT27

28. We build capacity of institutional ICT staff Transforming education using ICT Universities Data Collection28Meoli Kashorda

29. KENET partners Google No. 1 partner for KENET – Currently saving KENET about 4.5 Gb/s of International traffic – Google cache (YouTube) in KENET data center and Google PoP in Mombasa for all other Google traffic – Co-investing in University campus networks – 2010 – 2015 – Sponsoring training of technical staff up to 2016 ($50,000 per year) Wananchi Group(Zuku) – Provides FREE access to Akamai saving over 800 Mb/s of International traffic – Provides up to 600 Mb/s international bandwidth for Nairobi schools FREE Internet project (connected 111 schools to KENET) IBM for online FREE certification in Cybersecurity, Cloud Computing, Mobile application for engineering and ICT students ISOC – Internet Society – FREE online UNIX training and sponsoring engineers international travel NSRC at the University of Oregon – Training of technical staff, travel grants, and donating used network switches for universities, international human network DFN – the NREN of Germany. Twinning agreement for training/exchange of senior engineers

30. Questions and Answers?

31. Contacts Meoli Kashorda, Ph.D., MIEEE, MIET Professor of Information Systems, USIU School of Science and Technology and Executive Director, KENET (http://www.kenet.or.ke )http://www.kenet.or.ke E-mail: mkashorda@kenet.or.kemkashorda@kenet.or.ke Office Phone: +254 732 150500 Transforming Education with ICT31

32. www.kenet.or.ke Jomo Kenyatta Memorial Library, University of Nairobi P. O Box 30244-00100, Nairobi. 0732 150 500 / 0703 044 500 Thank You