ICT and Digital Economy Cabinet Secretary William Kabogo /FILE
The counties and the national government are bracing for a fresh round of tussle after the Cabinet Secretary for ICT, William Kabogo, revealed that there are plans to scrap wayleave charges.
The charges have been a bone of contention between state agencies and the devolved units, with entities such as Kenya Power having been slapped with a Sh5.13 billion bill in early this year.
Speaking during the groundbreaking of Airtel’s $150 million (Sh19.35 billion) data center in Nairobi, Kabogo said the plan is meant to make it easier to lay fibre and internet connection infrastructure.
“Together with the cabinet, we are working with the county governments to remove investment bottlenecks set by counties such as way leaves, so that Kenya becomes desirable for investments,” said Kabogo.
This comes at a time when the Senate has introduced a new legislation that will hand county governments a major boost in their protracted battle with the Kenya Power and Lighting Company over the payment of wayleave fees.
The Energy (Amendment) Bill, 2025, seeks to grant counties the authority to impose wayleave charges on Kenya Power and other state agencies without requiring approval from the Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum.
The CS added that investments such as the 44MW data centre will be key in Kenya’s digitisation drive.
NXTRA CEO Yashnath Issur said that cooperation not only with the governments but among data centre operators will be critical to unlocking Africa’s digital future.
Issur noted that while competition is inevitable in the fast-growing digital infrastructure market, collaboration will ensure redundancy, reliability and long-term growth for enterprises and consumers.
“Data centres are not just about rivalry. They must work together to guarantee reliability and scale for the new generation of services such as AI, cloud computing, and fintech,” Issur said. “Only through a mix of players – local and global – can we create the ecosystem that will allow Kenya to thrive as a digital hub for East Africa.”
The NXTRA facility, billed as the largest in East Africa, will provide scalable storage, processing, and connectivity solutions for small businesses, enterprises, and cloud providers.
The investment is expected to reach over $150 million (Sh19.35billion) in its initial phases, focusing purely on advanced cooling, power delivery, and infrastructure.
Airtel Kenya Managing Director Ashish Malhotra added that the centre will allow Kenyan businesses to avoid heavy capital expenditure on IT infrastructure by renting capacity, enabling them to focus on growth and innovation.
Issur added that the project will also generate high-quality local jobs, as more global tech firms bring services onshore to Kenya.
“For too long, African digital services were run from servers outside the continent. We are now bringing that capacity home, creating opportunities for Kenyan talent to build and manage the infrastructure of tomorrow,” he said.
The development comes amid growing investment in Africa’s digital economy by global players such as Amazon Web Services and Google, who are also expanding data centre footprints in the region.
