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By Hillary Keverenge, Tech-ish KenyaSeptember 1, 2025<\/p>\n
September 1, 2025<\/p>\n
Facebook,\u00a0Kenya\u2019s favourite social media giant<\/a>, is literally diving into Safaricom\u2019s<\/a> internet future, this time, under the sea. According to a report by\u00a0Business Daily, Meta\u2019s infrastructure arm, Edge Network Services, will co-finance and take a stake in Safaricom\u2019s new subsea fibre optic project, the Daraja Cable, linking Oman to Mombasa.<\/p>\n And no, this isn\u2019t just another cable story. The Daraja project stretches an impressive 4,108 kilometers, carries 24 fibre pairs (which is like having 24 lanes on a highway instead of the usual 8 to 16), and is designed to go live in 2026. Translation: faster 4G, 5G, and home broadband for hundreds of thousands of Kenyans who are already bingeing Showmax shows, TikToks, Reels, and endless WhatsApp videos.<\/p>\n The Kenyan leg alone will cost about $23 million (KES 2.97 billion), filings seen by\u00a0Business Daily\u00a0show. Safaricom is the project\u2019s main driver, but Facebook is swooping in as both investor and tech partner. The Communications Authority has already received landing-rights paperwork, as per the report, giving this thing real momentum.<\/p>\n For Safaricom, Daraja is more than just a big shiny cable. It\u2019s independence. Right now, much of Kenya\u2019s internet bandwidth rides on agreements with operators like\u00a0SEACOM<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Telkom Kenya<\/a>, with some of those deals expiring in 2028. Daraja gives Safaricom its own bandwidth muscle, reducing reliance on third parties and, potentially, lowering costs for end users.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Big Tech is on a subsea shopping spree. Meta is already building out massive cable systems elsewhere (Project Waterworth<\/a>\u00a0being one example), while Google is busy threading Africa into its global network. Facebook\u2019s stake in Daraja keeps it in the game, particularly in Kenya, where the platform remains the undisputed king of social media.<\/p>\n And the timing couldn\u2019t be more interesting. Safaricom faces new competition from Starlink\u2019s satellite internet,\u00a0while Airtel is also activating its own subsea cable routes<\/a>. With\u00a0Kenya\u2019s government pushing digitisation and rural connectivity<\/a>, bandwidth wars are heating up. And Daraja might just tilt the scales.<\/p>\n