The government has embarked on the process of rolling out a 100,000km fibre optic cable, ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo has said.
Speaking during the 12th edition of the Connected Summit held in Diani, the first time CS said the government is looking to complete the prohect in 5 years.
"We are at the threshold of 25,000 km, we hope that by June, we would have done an additional 5,000 kilometers as we have put in place all the mechanisms," he said.
The CS said the Kenya Kwanza administration is working to establish and operationalise a minimum of 25,000 free WiFi hotspots which will target markets and bus termini across the country.
"We are targeting traders who would like to leverage on technology for the purposes of ecommerce," he added.
The government will also establish up to 1,450 ICT hubs domiciled at the ward level.
If the government will be successful in laying the 100,000 km fibre cable, it will have succeeded in improving efficiency and cutting internet costs in Kenya and the region.
In 2022, under former ICT CS Joe Mucheru's tenure, Kenya received the a 15,000km submarine fibre cable worth USD400 million (Sh44 billion)
Dubbed Peace Cable, it connects Pakistan, Kenya, Egypt, France and countries along the way with an extension to Singapore and South Africa.
The cable has a designed capacity of 16 Terabytes per second and is expected to last 25 years.
It was funded under Public Private Partnership courtesy of Telkom Kenya, Orange, Telecom Egypt, Cybernet, HMN Tech and PCCW Global.
