Stanbic Kenya Foundation opens digital learning centre at Embu school
Staff of the Stanbic Kenya Foundation during the handover; The Head of Stanbic Foundation, Mercy Githanji addresses students of ACK Kiamuringa School in Embu County.
Thirty computers and a new ICT laboratory give 200 students and their teachers access to modern technology — and open the doors to an entire community
By MKT Reporter
A rural school in Embu County took a significant step into the digital age on Thursday when the Stanbic Kenya Foundation officially launched a fully equipped ICT laboratory at ACK Kiamuringa School, donating 30 computers to establish what is the institution’s first dedicated digital learning facility.
The handover ceremony marked the culmination of an initiative designed not only to serve the school’s 200 students and 23 teachers during the academic day, but to function as a shared community resource outside school hours — offering local youth and residents access to digital skills training, online learning platforms, and preparation for employment in Kenya’s growing digital economy.
Mercy Githanji, head of the Stanbic Kenya Foundation, used the occasion to frame the investment in terms that went beyond a single school or county. “Digital literacy is no longer an option, but a fundamental prerequisite for success in the 21st century,” Githanji told those gathered. “By equipping this school with computers, we are not only enriching the classroom experience for 200 students and supporting their teachers, but also opening a gateway of opportunity for the entire community.”
The foundation’s intervention addresses a gap that school leadership has long felt acutely. Joseph Mwaniki, principal of ACK Kiamuringa School, acknowledged that students previously had limited exposure to practical computer lessons — a constraint that placed them at a disadvantage in a curriculum that increasingly demands digital competence.
“This new ICT laboratory changes everything,” Mwaniki said. “It elevates our capacity to teach STEM subjects, prepares our candidates for a digital world, and gives our dedicated teachers modern instructional tools. By opening this facility to local youth, ACK Kiamuringa School becomes a centre of hope and economic empowerment for the wider Kiamuringa community.”
The Embu launch forms part of Stanbic Bank Kenya’s broader corporate social investment strategy, anchored in the institution’s stated national purpose: Kenya is our home, we drive her growth. Since 2021, the Stanbic Kenya Foundation has worked with partners to equip women, youth and micro, small and medium enterprises with 21st-century digital skills through its Future ni Digital platform. The foundation says more than 250,000 Kenyans have accessed training across basic, intermediate and advanced digital competencies since 2019.
Thursday’s launch also signals the foundation’s alignment with the Government of Kenya’s national digital masterplan, which targets expanded digital literacy and the establishment of community-driven technology hubs as drivers of local job creation and innovation. By delivering hardware directly to grassroots institutions, the foundation is working to close a gap between national digital ambitions and the infrastructure realities facing schools in rural and peri-urban Kenya.
For the students of ACK Kiamuringa, the significance was immediate and tangible. For a community that has long watched the digital economy grow at a distance, the new laboratory represents something rarer than hardware — it represents access.
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