Kibaki's Letter to Abu Dhabi Ruler That Changed Kenya's Internet
President Mwai Kibaki was facing a myriad of issues in 2008 while in office, including a brewing post-election violence that was raging in the Rift Valley threatening to destroy the country.
However, during that turmoil, he acted swiftly when called upon to give a directive that would change Kenya's telecommunication sector according toNation.
While in his office in State House, Mutahi Kagwe, then the Information Minister and current Nyeri Senator called the Controller of State House at that time, Hyslop Ipu, to link him with Kibaki. Kagwe was in the United Arab Emirates at that moment following up on a plan to make Kenyans communicate easily and at a cheaper cost with the world.
https://www.kenyans.co.ke/files/images/news/mutahi-kagwe1-1.jpg
During those days, it cost Ksh 35-50 per minute to call in Kenya during peak hours. Majority of Kenyans had to wait for for the off-peak hours in order to reach out to friends and families. Internet connections also quite costly because Kenya relied on satellite Internet.
For Kagwe's plan for faster and cheaper Internet to be successful, Kenya had to abandon satellites and join the global fibre-optic network. This required the country to undertake an expensive procedure of laying fibre-optic cables under the sea.
Kenya had initially partnered with a South African fibre optic cable company but this turned out to be an unfruitful due to internal wrangles and high costs.
Despite this, the partnership with the South African company was maintained but Kenya worked quietly on building its own cable. Kagwe reached out to his fellow ICT Ministers in Uganda and Tanzania and rallied them to be part of his plan where they travelled to the US, Spain and finally UAE.
To their shock, upon arriving in Abu Dhabi, UAE's capital, they were turned down by the country's Foreign and Finance ministries that doubted the viability of the proposals. A frustrated Kagwe would not give up yet. He reached out to the Emir of Abu Dhabi,Sheikh Khalifa with Kenya's ambassador to the UAE then advising him to let Kibaki speak directly with the Emir.
Kagwe realised he could not get Kibaki directly, and thus called him through the statehouse controller. Kibaki would then write a letter to the Emir who responded positively ordering his ministries to cooperate. Construction of the cables started in January 2008 from Emirates and arrived in Mombasa on June 12, 2009.
This delivered cheaper Internet to millions of Kenyas and lowered call tariffs as Kenyans could also call outside the country. The creation of the famous Silicon Savannah, the technology ecosystem in Kenya can also be attributed to this intervention.
President Mwai Kibaki was facing a myriad of issues in 2008 while in office, including a brewing post-election violence that was raging in the Rift Valley threatening to destroy the country.
However, during that turmoil, he acted swiftly when called upon to give a directive that would change Kenya's telecommunication sector according toNation.
While in his office in State House, Mutahi Kagwe, then the Information Minister and current Nyeri Senator called the Controller of State House at that time, Hyslop Ipu, to link him with Kibaki. Kagwe was in the United Arab Emirates at that moment following up on a plan to make Kenyans communicate easily and at a cheaper cost with the world.
https://www.kenyans.co.ke/files/images/news/mutahi-kagwe1-1.jpg
During those days, it cost Ksh 35-50 per minute to call in Kenya during peak hours. Majority of Kenyans had to wait for for the off-peak hours in order to reach out to friends and families. Internet connections also quite costly because Kenya relied on satellite Internet.
For Kagwe's plan for faster and cheaper Internet to be successful, Kenya had to abandon satellites and join the global fibre-optic network. This required the country to undertake an expensive procedure of laying fibre-optic cables under the sea.
Kenya had initially partnered with a South African fibre optic cable company but this turned out to be an unfruitful due to internal wrangles and high costs.
Despite this, the partnership with the South African company was maintained but Kenya worked quietly on building its own cable. Kagwe reached out to his fellow ICT Ministers in Uganda and Tanzania and rallied them to be part of his plan where they travelled to the US, Spain and finally UAE.
To their shock, upon arriving in Abu Dhabi, UAE's capital, they were turned down by the country's Foreign and Finance ministries that doubted the viability of the proposals. A frustrated Kagwe would not give up yet. He reached out to the Emir of Abu Dhabi,Sheikh Khalifa with Kenya's ambassador to the UAE then advising him to let Kibaki speak directly with the Emir.
Kagwe realised he could not get Kibaki directly, and thus called him through the statehouse controller. Kibaki would then write a letter to the Emir who responded positively ordering his ministries to cooperate. Construction of the cables started in January 2008 from Emirates and arrived in Mombasa on June 12, 2009.
This delivered cheaper Internet to millions of Kenyas and lowered call tariffs as Kenyans could also call outside the country. The creation of the famous Silicon Savannah, the technology ecosystem in Kenya can also be attributed to this intervention.
