Safaricom experienced a network-wide data services outage on Wednesday evening. The outage, which lasted more than 2 hours saw Safaricom subscribers cut out of internet and other data services for the period. It was not clear what caused the outage but a customer service operator indicated that the outage was within the Safaricom network.
“The problem is within our network. Our engineers have identified it and are working on it,” said the operator who sought anonymity. “It started at about 7pm and we expect the network to be fully operational by about 9pm,” he continued.

The number of network outages in the country has been on the rise lately with operators pointing to sabotage by completion and just pure vandalism as the main causes. In the past 6 months all the operators have experienced at least one network outage with Telkom experiencing the most.

Operators are now calling for the government to provide special protection to ICT infrastructure, which has become critical to business and individual lives alike. Other developed countries have classified ICT infrastructure as “critical infrastructure” and accorded special protection by law.