Technology and rural communities

The first time my mother saw a computer, she was very fascinated, she said typing was so easy and reminded her of the few days she used a friend’s typewriter.

But she seemed convinced that that was technology for her children and grand children, because she had retired to her farm and was content with her subsistence farming. We tried convincing her that a computer would be necessary in her farm because she would keep all the records, and can retrieve them at the touch of a button whenever she wanted.

For her, she is happy to write the details of her farm and use her memory whenever there was any contest. Her arguments and allergy to technology may be the case for many rural folks in Kenya.

Many of the people in rural areas are happy if the high school graduate does all the records for them, at that time, they marvel at technology and will brag about it in the market.

That is why the drive to provide computers and aid farmers may be facing serious challenges. When we talk about technology for farmers, the strategy usually is to teach the farmers how to operate the computers.

What if the campaign targeted the primary school graduates who were not lucky to go to high school, task them with learning computers and helping their parents or relatives, then somehow they would embrace. 

The only challenge is that for the few computers in rural areas, they have been a monopoly of those with high school certificates, those who dropped out earlier are usually over looked. The tragedy is the majority in rural areas, working in farms, are those who may not have graduated from high school.

That is not to say that there are no farmers who are willing to learn the new technology, but the easier way would be to start with the younger ones. The Digital Villages project and all others attendant projects will surely help this drive for technology.

We can learn from the mobile phone growth, it was first a sign of class, then it became cheaper and now even the grandmother can not do without it. The strategy is what matters in making Kenya reliant on technology for every day life.