Kenya to Add Two New Undersea Internet Cables Ahead of Rising AI and Cloud Demand

Kenya is set to add two new undersea internet cables before 2027, increasing its international fibre connections from seven to nine as demand for international internet capacity continues to rise.

One of the projects is the 4,108-kilometre Oman-Kenya cable, funded by Meta with Safaricom serving as the local landing partner in Mombasa. The second is Africa-1, a 10,000-kilometre submarine system backed by a consortium of global telecom operators that stretches from France through the Mediterranean and the Middle East before reaching Kenya next year.

The expansion will strengthen Kenya's position as one of Africa's most connected digital gateways. Once the two systems are operational, the country will rank behind only Egypt, Djibouti, South Africa and Nigeria in the number of submarine cable landings.

According to the Communications Authority of Kenya, available international internet bandwidth grew by 16.4 percent to 28,130 Gbps in the first quarter of 2026, reflecting rising demand from businesses, cloud providers and consumers. The new cables are expected to support continued growth in cloud services and AI workloads across the region.

Beyond increasing bandwidth, the additional routes will make Kenya's internet infrastructure more resilient. More landing points allow network operators to reroute traffic when submarine cables are damaged, reducing the risk of widespread service disruptions. East Africa experienced the importance of that redundancy in 2024, when multiple cable cuts in the Red Sea disrupted internet connectivity across the region. With two new systems coming online, local telecommunications providers will have greater flexibility to keep critical services running during future outages.