Kenya's Internet Goes Dark Amid Major Protests Over Finance Bill Passage

A major internet disruption was reported in Kenya on Wednesday morning, hours after the interruption. The incident occurred amidst a wave of demonstrations across the country, as police violently cracked down on citizens taking to the streets to protest a government bill to hike taxes despite tough economic times and widespread corruption.

Table of Contents

Confirmed: Live Network Data Show Major Disruption to Internet Connectivity

According to live network data, there is a major disruption to internet connectivity in Kenya. The incident comes amidst a deadly crackdown by police on #RejectFinanceBill2024 protesters, a day after authorities claimed there would be no internet shutdown.

https://twitter.com/netblocks/status/1549691223945

Background: Protests Against Finance Bill 2024

Protestors have been using social media platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok to publicize their concerns over the high cost of living, taxation, unwarranted debt accumulation, and the rampant misuse of public resources by the political class. Despite efforts to get the attention of political leaders through social media, protestors took to the streets to make their voices heard.

Several Fatalities and Injuries Reported

On Tuesday, protestors stormed the parliament moments after lawmakers voted to adopt the Finance Bill 2024, resulting in several fatalities and scores of people with injuries. It was then that the internet started to fall over.

Cause of Internet Disruption: Unscheduled Maintenance?

When reached for comment about what caused the outage, NetBlocks Director of Research Isik Mater said it might be due to ‘unscheduled maintenance’:

"We’ve been tracking those statements. We can look at two factors: the observed impact, and the observed timings. Our observations indicate that today’s disruption affects multiple countries. However, this outage has much higher impact on Kenya than past confirmed major subsea cable cuts, including those earlier this year; we wouldn’t usually expect to see service collapse like this. Further, the other affected countries are downstream to Kenya, so likely affected by the situation in Kenya rather than the other way around.

Timings indicate that the outage occurred just around the moment protesters attempted to storm parliament in Nairobi and were met with live rounds by security forces. Together, these factors point to the possibility that an ‘unscheduled maintenance’ cycle may have been deployed."

Impact on Neighboring Countries

The ongoing internet disruption has impacted Kenya as well as neighboring countries including Uganda and Burundi.

Update: Safaricom’s Statement on X (formerly Twitter)

Safaricom said on X that the interruption is due to problems with the subsea cable. However, others are reporting that Airtel is working, which would not be the case if the cable was down.

https://twitter.com/SafaricomPLC/status/1549691223950

Timeline of Events

Tuesday: Protestors storm parliament, resulting in several fatalities and scores of people with injuries.
Wednesday morning: Internet services begin to fall over.

What’s Next?

The government has yet to comment on the cause of the internet disruption. Meanwhile, Kenyans are taking to social media to express their frustration and call for action from their leaders.