Kenya Power to begin providing Internet in December

Dr Ben Chumo

Kenya Power will roll out its fiber to home connections in December after a series of delays, Managing Director Ben Chumo has said.

The utility firm, which signed a memorandum of understanding with Safaricom in April, is targeting 12,000 homes in Nairobi in the pilot phase before rolling out the service countrywide.

Speaking to Citizen Digital, Dr Ben Chumo said the Internet connections to homes will offer an alternative revenue stream as the firm cuts its reliance on electricity sales.

“We have close to 5 million homes connected to the grid and we want to take advantage of the grid to deliver the fibre to homes. We are talking about 20 million people at once,” said the MD.

Kenya power formed an Internet service provider subsidiary dubbed Kenya Power International to handle its Internet business.

Kenya Power will provide its vast infrastructure covering 4,000 kilometers in length of fibre-optic cable that will ride on its power lines.

Chumo added that the service would be ultimately cheaper in the market since the firm will not have to dig trenches to lay the fiber optic cable.

“The service will be available to all users regardless. Kenya Power wants to become the most neutral provider of fibre along its network,” he said.

By John Wanyama, Citizen Digital