Economic Agenda
Put ICT at the centre of the national economic
agenda, recognising the role of the ICT sector as
a critical pillar in national development and the
attainment of the goal of becoming and
remaining a global leader in the knowledgebased economy.

living for Kenyans. The Economic Survey 2018
report provides an overview of the ICT sector
performance and development trends,
recognizing that ICT output increased by 10.9%
to Ksh 354.1 billion in 2017.


Fibre Optic Coverage: Every county
headquarters has been reached by the
National
Optic
Fibre
Broadband
Infrastructure (NOFBI) in addition to other
fibre-optic cables owned by private
companies, Kenya Electricity Transmission
Company (KETRACO) and Kenya Power
and Lighting Company (KPLC).



2G Coverage: Geographical coverage is
45% of Kenya’s land area, with 94.4% of
the population covered.



3G Coverage: Geographical coverage is
17%, with 78% of the population covered



4G Coverage:
Reaches 37% of the
population and 15% of the surface area.



Internet Domains: The total number of
Internet domains grew by 13.08 per cent to
83,646 in 2018. The number of “.co.ke”
domains increased by 13.72% to account
for 92.5% of the total registered domains in
2017. Enhanced uptake and use of subdomain names as a result of awareness on
the benefits of use, led to the doubling of
domains under information content,
mobile content and those used in network
devices to 374, 126 and 466, respectively.



Broadcast Services and Subscriptions: The
number of Frequency Modulation (FM)
radio stations stood at 173 while Free To
Air television stations were 75 in 2018. The
number of digital signal distributors in the
country remained at 5 Digital Terrestrial
Televisions
Set-Top
Box
(STB)
subscriptions stood at 4.5 million in 2018
while cable TV and direct to home satellite
subscriptions stood at 1.28M.



Newspaper Circulation and online
Newspaper Readership: In 2017, the
circulation of daily English and Kiswahili
newspapers declined by 4.9 per cent and
9.9 per cent, respectively due to online
readership of newspapers. Similarly, the
number of weekly English newspapers in
circulation decreased by 5.9 per cent over
the same period. However, the average
online readership went up by 20.1 per cent
in 2017.

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November-2019

Ubiquitous Access
Fulfil the goal of giving every Kenyan access to
reliable, affordable, high-speed broadband
connectivity
Constitutional Principles
Improve government accountability, efficiency,
service delivery and maintain an open
government. Develop and protect citizen rights
and duties as enshrined in the constitution of
our republic.
Private Sector
Give the interests of the private sector top
priority in order to foster entrepreneurship,
innovation, investment and growth.
Sustainable Development
Leverage ICT to promote sustainable
development, accelerate human development,
bridge the digital divide and develop a
knowledge society.

5.4

Situational Analysis and Highlights

5.4.1 Regulatory Background
The Constitution of Kenya, 2010, the Kenya
Communications Act (No. 2 of 1998) and as
amended by the Kenya Communications
(Amendment) Act, 2009, and the Kenya
Information
and
Communications
(Amendment Act) 2013 provide the main
framework for regulating the communications
sector in Kenya. Other statutes include the
Media Act, 2013 and the Kenya Information and
Communications Technology (ICTA) Order
2013; among others.

5.4.2 Operational Environment
Kenya is currently one of Africa’s fastest
growing ICT markets where ICTs have
increased productivity in all spheres of
production process and enabled expansion of
skills, contributing to improved standards of

Ministry of ICT, Kenya

Select target paragraph3