On Sunday 12th May, Kenyans and residents across the wider East Africa region faced internet downtime, with many users struggling to browse.
The downtime was linked to two malfunctioning cables in the Red Sea.
Ben Roberts, the Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, noted that three cable system providers had not yet fixed the cuts causing the outage.
He reported that all sub-sea capacity between East Africa and South Africa was unavailable at the time of reporting.
"Internet to East Africa is severely impaired. All sub-sea capacity between East Africa and South Africa is down," Roberts said.
Additionally, Roberts confirmed faults in the Eastern Africa Submarine System (EASSy) cable and the Seacom submarine cable, with both faults reportedly occurring simultaneously.
The EASSy, a 10,000-kilometer submarine cable system, runs along the East Coast of Africa with nine landing stations in Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Comoros, Madagascar, Mozambique, and South Africa, providing backhaul for at least 12 landlocked countries and extensive coverage in the East African region.
Meanwhile, the SEACOM cable, spanning 17,000 km, connects South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Djibouti, France, and India.
"EASSy Cable - Fault confirmed, Seacom Cable - Observing Fault that occurred at the same time, three cable cuts in Red Sea (Seacom, EIG, AAE1) remain unrepaired," Roberts announced.
In Tanzania, a total blackout was reported in some areas on Sunday, with intermittent service access for some users.
A map of the fibre internet distribution in Africa. Source: Techweez
"Major network channels have been affected by the downtime, though some service providers have managed to maintain limited access. For most, it's a complete blackout," reported a local newspaper.
This incident is not the first instance of faults in the sub-sea cables. Currently, gamers are also facing internet downtime with games such as Grand Theft Auto, League of Legends and Valorant. Live streaming and YouTube were also affected in the peak hours of downtime.