The naming of Jubilee Alliance leader Uhuru Kenyatta as the President- Elect by the IEBC seems to have spurred interest on a unique kind of techno gadgets.

In the last few weeks, solar laptops have been the talk of town in both social and traditional media platforms. This is in relation to the Jubilee alliance pledge to provide all school-going children with such devices.

On the Jubilee manifesto under the General Education solutions, the Alliance also featuring Deputy President Elect William Ruto pledges to work with international partners to provide solar powered lap-top computers equipped with relevant content for every school age child in Kenya.

At CIO East Africa, we set out to establish some few home truths and can now confirm that Samsung Electronics was the first manufacturer in August 2011 to unveil solar laptops in the world. Even more satisfying was the discovery that Kenya was among the first three global markets chosen to host the launch back then well ahead of Russia, the U.S, Europe and South Korea.

According to Samsung Electronics East Africa Business Leader Mr. Robert Ngeru, the solar powered 10.1- inch Samsung Netbook NC215S laptop features an eye-catching and intelligent large front solar panel located on the cover of the netbook. The Samsung Netbook NC 215S is an aggregation of Samsung's diverse forward thinking technologies and it satisfies the needs of global market consumers by integrating 'environmentally-friendly green IT technology.

Using about 2 hours of bright-mid-day sun, the user can charge the battery life by one hour with a fully charged battery lasting up to 14 hours of usage. The battery can be charged up to 1000 times over 3 years.

Samsung NC215S solar netbook has an edge over other netbooks available these days in market due to its 14.5 hours stand-by capability as compared to other netbooks having 7 or 8 hours stand-by capability.

The Netbook NC 215S also features an ultra-portable and stylish design, weighing just 1.3kg and featuring a slim display rim that's as thin as a finger. The new laptop is also loaded with a SuperBright anti-reflective display and can do almost anything with a powerful dual-core Intel® AtomTM processor and genuine Windows® 7 Starter.

Available only in black, the netbook's solar panel can also be used to charge a smartphone, MP3 player and other devices via its USB port, even when the PC is switched off or in power-saving mode.