Kenya’s telecommunications and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector registered strong growth in the final quarter of the 2025/2026 financial year, driven by surging data demand, rapid smartphone adoption, and expanding mobile money services.

According to the latest Fourth Quarter Sector Statistics Report released by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) for the period ending June 30, 2026, the country is witnessing an aggressive transition toward high-speed broadband and digital platforms, even as legacy technologies like traditional fixed voice and copper internet face structural decline.
Active mobile subscriptions across the nation reached 88.0 million as of June 30, 2026, marking a 4.6% annual increase and pushing Kenya’s mobile penetration rate to 165.0%. This expansion was bolstered by aggressive customer acquisition and win-back campaigns run by mobile network operators.
The shift toward internet-enabled handsets gained further momentum:
  • Smartphones: Usage surged to 52.26 million devices, reflecting a 4.2% quarter-on-quarter increase.
  • Feature Phones: Usage dropped by 3.9% down to 27.42 million units.
  • Broadband Dominance: Mobile data subscriptions climbed to 64.26 million, with 4G and 5G connections accounting for 85.5% of all mobile internet traffic as users migrate away from legacy 3G networks.
Mobile money services also solidified their position as the backbone of everyday financial transactions. Subscriptions grew 13.2% year-on-year to reach 54.0 million, representing a national penetration rate of 101.3%.
Safaricom PLC retained its dominant position in the mobile sub-sector, holding 69.8% of mobile subscriptions, 64.4% of mobile broadband connections, and 88.8% of mobile money transfer services.
While total domestic voice traffic rose by 13.6% annually to 126.7 billion minutes, SMS volumes dipped slightly by 0.3% to 57.1 billion messages. Regulator observations indicate that subscribers are increasingly substituting traditional text messaging with Over-The-Top (OTT) messaging platforms such as WhatsApp.
Meanwhile, Machine-to-Machine (M2M) subscriptions expanded 24.1% year-on-year to 2.22 million, driven by corporate adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions in logistics, fleet management, and smart metering.
Kenya’s fixed internet landscape experienced unprecedented growth, growing 32.4% year-on-year to hit 2.84 million subscriptions.
  • Fibre-to-the-Home/Office (FTTH/O): Remains the leading fixed medium, powering 1.57 million subscriptions (+29.7% YoY).
  • Satellite Broadband: Emerging low-earth-orbit (LEO) technologies drove a 54.4% annual surge to 27,695 subscriptions. Starlink Internet Services Kenya secured a 1.0% overall market share with 27,616 active connections.
  • Copper (DSL): Sustained a 25.8% drop, leaving a negligible 23 subscriptions active nationwide as consumers upgrade to higher-speed alternatives.
In the fixed market share space, Safaricom leads with 36.1%, followed by Jamii Telecommunications Ltd (JTL) at 19.1%, and Wananchi Group at 10.4%.
The surge in digital adoption is significantly altering adjacent sectors:
  • Courier & E-Commerce: While traditional letter volumes handled by the Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) fell by 70.2% annually, private courier operators saw revenues rise 6.7% to KES 6.70 billion. National courier operators saw a dramatic 67.5% revenue jump, largely driven by last-mile deliveries for local e-commerce networks.
  • Cybersecurity Alert: Digital expansion has drawn heightened cyber threats. The National KE-CIRT/CC detected over 11.12 billion cyber threat attempts in FY 2025/2026—a 29.0% annual increase. System vulnerabilities made up the bulk of detected threats (10.64 billion), while Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks jumped 114.3%, prompting the release of over 83.0 million advisories to domestic infrastructure operators.
As high-capacity undersea cables, such as PEACE, DARE 1, and 2Africa, continue to scale utilized international bandwidth (up 23.9% annually to 19,432 Gbps), Kenya’s digital ecosystem is positioned for continued high-speed connectivity. The shift toward app-based services, enterprise IoT, and cloud adoption will remain primary engines of ICT expansion into the next financial year.