Nairobi, Kenya | By Michael Wandati | President William Ruto has highlighted the impact of Elon Musk’s satellite internet company, Starlink, on Kenya’s network market, noting the disruption it has caused for local internet providers.
Speaking at a United States – Kenya Business and Investment Roundtable in New York, President Ruto explained that Starlink’s entry into the market has intensified competition, prompting existing providers to improve their services.
The president expressed his support for healthy competition among service providers, emphasizing that it leads to enhanced quality and more efficient service delivery for consumers.
“I have my CEO for Safaricom, sometimes he’s not very happy with me for bringing other characters like Elon Musk and others into the space. I keep encouraging Peter that competition makes you keep ahead and he’s been doing pretty well, I must admit, he’s really upped his game,” Ruto said.
Safaricom currently dominates Kenya’s fixed internet market, connecting over 370,000 households and 32,000 businesses through its fibre-optic network. In response to growing competition, especially from Elon Musk’s Starlink, the telco increased internet speeds for its Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Diamond packages on Monday, September 23.
Additionally, Safaricom introduced a new Platinum package, offering speeds of 1,000 Mbps, catering to heavy internet users like gamers and content creators.
While Safaricom relies on fibre-optic cables for its internet services, Starlink employs satellite technology. Starlink’s system transmits data from satellites in space to an internet provider, then to a satellite dish, and finally to a WiFi router. This allows users in rural areas, where fibre-optic infrastructure is lacking, to access high-speed internet.
Since Starlink’s launch in Kenya in July 2023, the company has attracted many customers with its impressive internet speeds ranging from 50 Mbps to 500 Mbps, surpassing many local providers whose speeds typically reach up to 100 Mbps. Starlink aims to push these speeds even further, with plans to reach 1 Gbps and eventually 10 Gbps by launching additional satellites.
During a United States-Kenya Business and Investment Roundtable in New York, President William Ruto underscored the government’s efforts to expand broadband connectivity by adding 100,000 kilometres of fibre across the country.
He also highlighted the government’s plans to harness Artificial Intelligence (AI) for key initiatives, including a new university funding model, fertilizer distribution, and the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF), pending the passage of necessary legislation in Parliament.
“Parliament has the necessary legislation that will support our AI journey but already we’re leveraging on AI to do our needs testing instrument for how we’re distributing education money to beneficiaries to use it to get the algorithm to know the financial status of each parent,” the head of state remarked.
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“We are using to desegregate how we distribute our fertilizer to farmers. We are using it for the beneficiaries of SHIF.”
Ruto, however, acknowledged the challenges presented by AI which can pose a lot of cybersecurity threats.
“The challenge we have in AI is fake news, disinformation, misinformation and cyber security where sometimes I have to call Ndegwa to figure out when government services are attacked and he’s been useful so there’s hope for us to collaborate with Google and others to better secure the platforms,” he added.
