3 years on

We visited Bamburi Primary school a few days ago. They were having an end of term awards ceremony and we were invited along as 'special' guests to the event.

Bamburi primary School was one of the first schools to receive computers from Camara 3 years ago. They are one of a number of schools that will get an upgrade in the next couple of weeks (we expect refurbished computer to have a shelf life of about 3 years.

3 years ago we were sending out Pentium II computers with 64Mbytes of ram and a very basic edubuntu operating system. The minimum specification for computers these days is a Pentium III computer with 256MBytes of Ram and Ubuntu 6.10 which is considered one of the best educational based operating systems around. Things have come a long way.


We inspected the laboratory and discovered that about 65% of the computers were still going strong. About 25% were un fixable and the rest were giving trouble but still being used. The main problem seems to be the power supplies. Eventually, with mains power going on and off at the regularity it happens out here, the power supplies go.













Our power supply requirements were not as stringent then when we were handing over computers as they are today. UPS (uninterrupted power supplies) have become much more affordable these days and we new make it mandatory that schools invest in UPS infrastructure before we hand over the computers. Bamburi primary will have to do this before they get newer computers.

The other good news is that as the penetration of computers increases people are finding ways of keeping the computers going including ways of repairing damaged power supplies. These skills will ultimately create jobs.












Bamburi primary is on the Bamburi Cement (the biggest cement company in East Africa) campus. The company actually built the school and then handed it over to the government (with disastrous consequences). Hopefully we can convince the company to re-engage with the the school and the Digital Hub here. They have significant resources at their disposal.

The awards ceremony was very enjoyable. The school hosts some of the most deprived children in the area but it never ceases to amaze me how children here can remain positive and cheerful irrespective of their circumstances...