21 March 2024
The Kenyan government, through the Universal Service Fund, will invest 10 billion shillings to connect 8.4 million homes to the internet by 2027.
According to Edward Kisiang'ani, secretary of state for telecommunications, the government will rely on the electricity poles of the national electricity company to deploy aerial optical fibre across the country.
“When we deployed the fibre optic cables by digging trenches across the country, the contractors assigned the work charged us high rates for a single kilometre of fibre, but then we realized that we had Kenya Power that could help us get into more homes,” said Kisiang'ani.
The initiative is part of a larger government project to deploy 100,000km of optical fibre across Kenya, in partnership with telecom operators. The country seeks to strengthen the national ICT framework by extending the coverage of the fibre network, reducing the cost of internet connectivity and improving the provision of e-government services. The network targets 40,000 schools, 20,000 government institutions and 13,000 health facilities, among others.
