In a notable setback for the Kenyan economy, the widely used social media platform Telegram experienced an unexplained eight-day disruption in 2023, coinciding with the country’s crucial college entrance examinations.
Speculation surrounding the motive behind the outage arose, with some suggesting a connection to preventing examination malpractice. The app remained offline only during the day, returning to normalcy at night when exams were not taking place.
Calculations conducted by NetBlocks, a London-based internet rights organization, revealed the substantial impact of the eight-day shutdown on businesses in Kenya, resulting in losses amounting to billions of Kenyan Shillings.
Each day of Telegram’s inaccessibility is estimated to have cost businesses and the country a staggering Ksh537 million ($3.4 million) in foregone sales, wages, and economic benefits tied to the application’s use.
A study by UK-based internet privacy and security organization, Top10VPN, shed light on the global scale of such disruptions. Kenya’s loss during the 192-hour Telegram shutdown ranked as the sixteenth largest among the 25 jurisdictions that experienced internet or social media platform shutdowns in the previous year. The cost to the country amounted to $27 million, impacting 15.6 million people.
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The incident in Kenya reflects a growing concern about internet shutdowns across Africa. In 2023, Sub-Saharan Africa faced a substantial financial setback of $1.74 billion during 30,785 hours of internet downtime, affecting a staggering 84.8 million people, as per research by Top10VPN.
Globally, a concerning trend emerged, revealing that 50% of government-initiated internet outages in 2023 were linked to additional human rights abuses, with restrictions on freedom of assembly being the most frequently reported violation.
In the African context, major internet shutdowns were predominantly attributed to military coups and protests within the region.
As the world grapples with the implications of such disruptions, the incident in Kenya serves as a stark reminder of the broader global trend and its impact on businesses, citizens, and human rights. The economic fallout underscores the need for a balanced approach to addressing security concerns while safeguarding the economic well-being of nations.
