Safaricom scored a major deal to provide fibre internet to the governments Affordable Housing Programme, bringing broadband connectivity to thousands of low-cost homes right across Kenya.
Mukuru Project Connection
The telco has already connected the first phase of the Mukuru Affordable Housing project in Nairobi which got underway in May 2026. Safaricom will be providing pre-connected internet to all 14,000 units in the Mukuru project , as well as to other developments stretching way out across the country.
The contract was let out of the bag by Safaricom’s South African parent company, Vodacom Group, – no surprise really that it’s a big deal considering how important this partnership is in terms of driving Kenya’s digital inclusion agenda.
Nationwide Rollout Planned
Safaricom confirmed that this rollout will be repeated in other affordable housing projects getting built all over the country. We’ll “be rolling out similar services to all the other housing projects across the country, under the Affordable Housing programme” – that’s what a Safaricom spokesperson had to tell Business Daily.
This is just the latest of a series of big public sector deals for the telco, one of which was its involvement in the multi-billion-shilling digitisation of the Social Health Authority (SHA) and the National Surveillance, Communication and Control System. The government holds a 20 percent stake in Safaricom, so they have a fair say over where the company is headed.
Affordable Wi-Fi Bamba Technology
The affordable housing units will be linked up using Wi-Fi Bamba – a tokenised fibre broadband service aimed squarely at the lower-income bracket. It costs 800 shillings a month and offers speeds of up to 15 megabits a second – that’s enough to support simultaneous connection of up to three devices.
Unlike the conventional fibre installations which need point-to-multipoint access technology and all that, Wi-Fi Bamba just uses a single plug-and-play cable, which makes it much easier and quicker to get set up – saving time and cash and making it perfect for big housing project rollouts.
Big Savings
Wi-Fi Bamba is a whole lot cheaper than Safaricom’s standard Home Fibre plans which start at 2,999 shillings a month for 40 Mbps and then climb all the way to 20,000 shillings a month for 1 Gbps. This cheaper option is specifically for people with uncertain incomes who can’t commit to a regular monthly plan.
Government’s Housing Targets
The government is pushing on with affordable housing projects across all 47 counties – aiming to build 500,000 affordable, social, institutional, and student housing units by June 2029. To pull that off though they need to get about 124,500 new houses built every year from July 2025 to June 2029 – that’s a pretty steep target.
Market Growth Plans
This housing contract plugs straight into Safaricom’s ambitions to get into lower-income broadband customers and help them grow beyond the higher-income households and businesses. And they’re not done yet – the company is also planning to launch some tokenised Wi-Fi services this year – which will be offered for a fee just like the mobile data service – and will be rolled out in both Kenya and Ethiopia.
CEO’s Vision for Market Expansion
Chief Executive Peter Ndegwa emphasized that tiered pricing, targeted deployment in high-demand locations, and lower-cost delivery models would expand broadband adoption to millions of households currently priced out of fixed internet access.
“By tiering pricing, we can deliver propositions that expand participation and that will also reduce cost to serve, to allow us to reach the extra three million customers [not served by the broadband market],” Ndegwa stated in a recent company video.
Market Position and Growth Potential
As of March, Safaricom controlled 35.4 percent of Kenya’s fixed internet market with 941,501 subscriptions, according to Communications Authority of Kenya data. The company estimates the domestic market has potential for approximately four million fixed broadband connections, with growth strategy combining fibre expansion, 5G-powered fixed wireless access, and more affordable devices marking a strategic shift toward lower-income market segments.