Edwin Tallam (24 May 2022)

Kenya has seen a huge growth in the use and reliance on mobile technology for economic and social life, propelled by rapid expansion over the last decade in mobile money and smartphone access, particularly in urban areas. There is a need to reflect on how internet connectivity is revolutionizing information exchange and how this has triggered new(er) ways of getting online. This blog post explores these issues in relation to the needs and experiences of Kenyan university students who take various creative steps to gain vital access to the Internet.   

Connecting Kenya: national policies and private data providers

The massive expansion of internet connectivity in Kenya over the last decade has mainly been enabled by policy and legislative changes. According to the Communication Authority of Kenya, Kenya had a mobile SIM penetration rate of 119.9%  as of June 2020, out of which 97.3% were active mobile broadband subscribers. This seemingly high penetration is primarily attributed to people’s ownership of multiple SIMs. Mobile service providers such as Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom Kenya are currently competing with new entrants in the data market, owing to the increasing demands triggered by the high mobile use rates. However, the cost of data bundles remains relatively high. According to the National Broadband Strategy 2018-2023, as of 2018, 1 Gigabyte (GB) of data cost a Kenyan user 4.01% of their gross monthly income. Through this broadband strategy, the government of Kenya aims to reduce this cost to below 2% (the recommended global average) by the year 2023.

The Kenyan Government has made information and communication technologies (ICTs) a central pillar in its development agenda. Dating back to  Kenya’s 2010 constitution, and the recent aforementioned broadband strategy, deliberate efforts have been made to safeguard fundamental ICT-related rights such as the provision of internet infrastructure and access to affordable internet. The government has identified digital technologies as a catalyst for socio-economic development, for example, through constituency innovation hubs to encourage new applications and tech start-ups. In addition, the government has invested in research to map ICT trends, and has sought to align its agendas appropriately.

The Kenya Vision 2030 foregrounds digital technologies that will ‘transform Kenya into a knowledge and information-based economy by enabling access to quality, affordable and reliable ICT services through innovation and e-government’. The knowledge economy is heavily dependent on information access enabled by data infrastructures, while discussions of the fourth Industrial revolution aim to leverage technologies such as the Internet of Things (IOT), artificial intelligence, and big data analytics, to tap global economic opportunities.

Universities, internet connectivity and the datafication of sociality

The Kenya Vision 2030 document positions universities and young people as critical components in the realisation of a knowledge economy, necessary to achieve the country’s socio-economic and political goals. Like the expansion of internet connectivity, public and private universities have proliferated in Kenya since the early 2000s. As of 2021, there were over 70 universities in Kenya— 38 public and 35 private—with an estimated 500,000 students. Again, this was partly enabled by policy and legislative changes, which allowed the establishment of private universities.

Universities attract many young people hoping to kick start their careers through a wide range of programs. Young people constitute over 70 % of the total population in Kenya. They have been exhorted as drivers of innovation due to their creativity and willingness to experiment. However, the epochal spread of the internet and mobile devices in Kenya and many other African states necessitate more critical thinking about the nexus between young people as ‘makers’ or ‘breakers’, institutions (including the media and universities), and young people’s broader societal roles.

This need for critical thinking is evident around the increased adoption of the internet and mobile devices, and how it has inadvertently triggered market expansion for data bundles. This has not only introduced competition for new data clients but has also opened up alternative parallel data markets. These dynamics play out in particular ways for young people and for university and colleges.

Two decades ago, the internet was perceived as a luxury and unnecessary additional cost to many universities and tertiary learning institutions. Today, it is a necessity for most universities to provide internet infrastructure, not just to boost online access but also to overhaul conventional teaching modes. Disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in the early 2020 brought to the fore the challenges facing a section of the public universities. These include the relatively high cost of data and poor network coverage in different parts of Kenya.

Based on a study conducted in two public universities in Kenya, two main findings emerge about data and network access in Kenya universities, and its ability to support young people’s use: Universities have invested in internet infrastructure, including wireless-fidelity (Wi-Fi) services, to boost information access among their community of young people. At the same time, there are booming parallel data markets within university spaces, indicating an interest among students to fill gaps in university provision.

In focus group discussions at the University of Eldoret and the Technical University of Kenya, students explained how Wi-Fi-enabled services have revolutionized how they access information and conduct their studies. For instance, they described internet-enabled smartphones as ‘new libraries’ where young people search for information for assignments, download research and learning materials, and, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, attended virtual lectures. However, despite the centrality of Wi-Fi-enabled services for participation in learning activities, internet facilities were also insufficient. They were limited in upload and download speeds, which affected students’ ability to stream lectures or download resources. Although universities have made significant investments in internet infrastructure, the signal strength and bandwidth remain insufficient to meet student demand. In response, students would cluster in physical areas on campus where the Wi-Fi signal was relatively stronger, for example, by the library.

Relatively low internet speeds and the relatively high cost of data bundles have triggered youth to explore new forms of internet access, beyond universities’ public access points and private providers. Research identified informal, creative ways that youth gained access to data. For some, this involved hacking Wi-Fi passwords. Once hacked, some young people shared the passwords among members of a group. This was a key, informal way of ensuring wider access. This contingent of young people constantly scanned their immediate environment for possible Wi-Fi signals to crack the passwords. These passwords were then shared through existing WhatsApp groups for free.

Also, research revealed the existence of illicit and hidden data vendors, who hawk cheap black market data bundles. Popularly known as ‘bundles mwitu’, these are data bundles that can be used on mobile phones but are not obtained directly from the major mobile providers. They are advertised and sold strategically in notices and lecture halls. These adverts promise enticingly cheap data, including from mainstream network providers in Kenya, including Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom.

Students were reluctant to share the identities of these ‘anonymous vendors’ how they have been able to access and sell cheap data bundles at a price far below market rates. In some instances, inquiries along this line led to unanswered calls. Students interviewed still shared individual experiences of sending money to third parties — allegedly telecom company employees engaging in an illicit sideline — who would then process and deposit data into their mobile devices. In this way young people could navigate high data costs and limited public Wi-Fi alternatives.

These emerging forms of internet access exemplify Francis Nyamjoh’s argument that: ‘Africa’s creativity cannot allow for simple dichotomies or distinctions between old and new technologies since its people are daily modernizing the indigenous and indigenizing the modern with novel outcomes’ (Nyamjoh, 2005:4). Kenya’s ‘digital revolution’ is not only driven through the success of private and public innovations in infrastructure. Instead, it includes hidden, subversive attempts, such as these among students, to by-pass the limitations/constraints of public and private infrastructures.

Conclusion: Celebratory tech-solutionism versus everyday creativity

There has been unchecked optimism towards the catalytic potential of data infrastructures and new media platforms to address massive unemployment among young people in developing countries, including Kenya. This optimism is grounded in transformative discourses that have increasingly linked new media with economic development in lower and middle-income countries. Studies on new media in Africa have devoted significant attention to new technologies’ development and transformative potential, thus obfuscating what people actually do with (or to) the technologies based on their everyday needs and lived realities. Normative and techno-deterministic approaches to new media have blurred rather than illuminate new media access dynamics in Africa, with realities of people’s lived experiences hidden beneath statistics showing relatively high internet and mobile penetration rates.

As potentially the greatest Internet enthusiasts in Kenya, young people are exploring and experimenting with their creative potential, evident as they devise solutions to ensure maximum internet utilization amidst the prevailing economic constraints. This positions them as the beneficiaries of the internet revolution while at the same time illuminating their creative roles in Kenya’s booming parallel data market; they are the ultimate target market for the cheap data vendors. However, this form of digital ‘hustling’ is hardly economically sustainable for those who practice it. Therefore, it is important to reflect on the short and long-term implications of these emerging trends as a key area for further research.

Edwin Tallam is a lecturer in the School of Information Sciences, Moi University Kenya.