The Kenyan government’s announcement that it will go it alone in constructing a link to the international fibre optic cable must be a cause for worry, particularly among its land-locked neighbors. The move could mean these states will wait longer before they get hooked onto the international fibre link, and it could also mean that they will pay more to access international fibre optic bandwidth than they would if the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) were implemented as a joint project of various states in eastern and southern Africa.

On May 3 2006, Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper reported that Kenya was frustrated by failure by EASSy to take off, so it was going to fund its own link to the international marine cable system through Djibouti. Bitange Ndemo, Kenya’s Information and Communication permanent secretary, was quoted as saying Kenya was frustrated that three years since the project was envisaged, and in spite of the numerous meetings which had been held to actualize it, EASSy had failed to get off the ground.

Kenya is not alone in its frustration – so is the World Bank, which has a keen interest in EASSy. When she addressed the March 10 2006 civil society meeting in Mombasa, Kenya, the senior investment officer from the Bank's lending arm IFC, Eme Essien, said: "We are frustrated because the project is taking along time ... we are trying to push for a solution with an open access solution. We are all anxious to see this project move forward."

The reasons for Kenya wanting to jump off the EASSy ship were well articulated by Ndemo: many foreign companies had expressed interest to invest in the country but were holding back due to connectivity problems; and the link to the international fibre will open up several ICT jobs for youths.

If the Kenyan government abandoned EASSy, it would deal a big blow to efforts to complete the cable in the fourth quarter of next year as is planned, and could make it harder for some of Kenya’s neighbours to access cheap and reliable bandwidth in the near future. Kenya has played a pivotal role in EASSy: it not only hosted the East African Business Summit that set EASSy rolling, but Telkom Kenya, in which the state has a key stake, has for years hosted the EASSy project secretariat. In fact, some observers say Kenya is as crucial to EASSy as South Africa was to SAT 3. Besides Telkom Kenya, the other Kenyan firm in the EASSy consortium is Kenya Data Networks (KDN).

Another reason why Kenya is a pivotal member of the EASSy project is that for hinterland countries like Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and even northern parts of Tanzania, the easiest and cheapest way to link to the coastal cable from South Africa to Sudan cable would be through Kenya. Connecting through any other means would be substantially more expensive. KDN already has a fibre optic cable from Mombasa (where an EASSy plans to have a landing point) and the capital Nairobi. The company hopes to have extended this fibre network to the border with Uganda by the end of 2006, from where the Ugandan members of the EASSy consortium (MTN and uganda telecom) would hook onto it. Of course this would still be possible if the Kenya government and - God forbid – the Kenyan companies pulled out of EASSy, but it is likely to be more expensive in the latter case.

Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and Tanzania have a memorandum of understanding through which they are collaborating in the planning and implementation of the so-called backhaul links – the infrastructure to link these countries to the marine cable. The question is if Kenya decides to abandon EASSy, will it stay committed to this MoU? It would also be interesting to see how it would charge its neighbors who may wish to tap onto its ‘owned by Kenya’ fibre. And would the bandwidth available on this Kenya-Djibouti be sufficient to cater for the huge and rising needs of Kenya’s neighbors?

What the Kenyan government official did not make clear is whom he meant when he was reported as saying "Kenya" had pulled out. Is it the government, or the government and the private sector? And if government abandons EASSy, will private sector players like KDN follow suit? Daily Nation quoted the official, as saying money to fund Kenya’s link to the fibre would be raised at the Nairobi Stock Exchange where the public would buy shares. The report did not say who would raise that money.

But the report also said a meeting involving players in the industry was being organized to discuss how to raise funds. KDN, Celtel and Telkom Kenya would among others, attend the meeting. It appears therefore that the Kenyan government is of the view that the venture should be a private-public partnership with various private sector players involved.

Whether parties like KDN and Kenya Telkom will buy into the government’s thinking remains to be seen. But the ramifications for regional connectivity could be resounding, especially if Kenyan private sector players decide to dump EASSy altogether.