By Victor Njuru
Internet users in Kenya have been experiencing low internet speeds since May 12th.
This was caused by damage to undersea fibre optic cables.
The Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) and the Seacom cables, which provide connectivity between Southern Africa and Eastern Africa were cut in South Africa, affecting the whole country and other parts of Eastern Africa.
The damage to the cables has disrupted communication channels, resulting in the interference of both personal and professional messages.
As a result, many companies and businesses that rely on the internet for their operations are now facing decreased productivity.
The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has stated that repair work is currently underway but it may take time for services to be fully restored.
“We wish to inform individuals and corporate consumers that the recovery process has since commenced but intermittency and slow speeds may remain in the coming days before services are fully restored,” CA director-general said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Authority has directed service providers to take proactive steps to secure alternative routes for their traffic and is monitoring the situation closely to ensure that incoming and outbound internet connectivity is available.
According to the authority, the East Africa Marine System (TEAMS) cable, which was not affected has been used for local traffic flow to minimize impact.
“The East Africa Marine System (TEAMS) cable, which has not been affected by the cut, is currently being utilized for local traffic flow while redundancy on the South Africa route has been activated to minimize the impact,” read the statement in part.
Safaricom PLC, a major telecommunication company in Kenya has acknowledged the outage and implemented measures to minimize service interruption while awaiting the full restoration of the cable.
“We have experienced an outage on one of the undersea cables that deliver internet traffic in and out of the country. We have since activated redundancy measures to minimize service interruption and keep you connected as we await the full restoration of the cable,” Safaricom PLC noted.