Bayobab Kenya, part of Bayobab Group, the digital infrastructure business arm of MTN Group, announced the completion of a terrestrial fibre network connecting Mombasa to Uganda via the border cities of Malaba and Busia.
The fibre network will interconnect into Uganda via Malaba and Busia for onward connectivity to Rwanda, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which will boost reliability in the region, said Bayobab Kenya’s managing director Sylvia Anampiu in a statement.
“By connecting Mombasa to Malaba, we aim to create a seamless pathway to Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and DRC, fostering economic development and growth across these countries,” she said.
The company said the fibre network follows Kenya Railway’s metre gauge railway line route spanning over 1,000 kilometres on the Kenyan side, which Bayobab says creates an opportunity for towns along the route to be connected to the internet.
It also enables ISPs looking at expanding or boosting connectivity in the areas along the route to leverage Bayobab Kenya’s open access fibre infrastructure as a high-capacity backbone.
The new route is part of Bayobab Kenya’s National Long-Distance fibre project, the first phase of which was launched in 2022, running from Mombasa to Malaba along the Kenya Pipeline route. It is also part of Project East2West, which was launched last year with the aim of building a terrestrial fibre optic cable network connecting the eastern shores of Africa to those on the continent’s west.
"Our strategic investment in Kenya’s segment of the East2West Fibre Project underscores our dedication to pushing the boundaries of telecommunications infrastructure through our Ambition 2025 of building 135,000 km of proprietary fibre across Africa,” Anampiu said.