Ruto Is Right On Starlink Causing Stir In Kenya, Elon Musk Reacts

Billionaire businessman Elon Musk has taken pride in the crucial role his satellite internet service provider Starlink has sparked in Kenya.

His remarks followed the recognition of the satellite internet as a game changer by President William Ruto for creating competition in the country and causing existing players like Safaricom to provide better services.

The President made the mention during the US-Kenya Business and Investment Roundtable in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

Present was Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa.

“I have my CEO for Safaricom; sometimes he’s not very happy with me for bringing other characters like Elon Musk and others into the space. I keep encouraging Peter that competition makes you keep ahead, and he’s been doing pretty well, I must admit, he’s really upped his game,” Ruto said.

Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by Starlink Services, a subsidiary of American aerospace company SpaceX co-founded by South African-born American billionaire, Musk.

The tech titan was in attendance at the UNGA, where he mingled with several leaders, including Africa’s heads of state.

“As the President of Kenya says, Starlink causes local competitors to provide better services,” he concurred with Ruto’s sentiments.

Musk launched Starlink in Kenya in July 2023 and almost immediately disrupted the network market by providing cheaper internet services with better speeds.

Its arrival caused jitters among traditional internet service providers who called for state intervention as Starlink boosted satellite internet subscriber numbers more than tenfold in the nine months to March 2024.

Currently, Starlink offers a competitive 50-gigabyte data package in Kenya priced at Sh1,300 at fixed residential locations across the country.

This translates to Sh26 per GB with a speed of up to 220 Mbps, way lower than the country’s average price of Sh76.20 and over 20 times faster than the average internet speed of 9.78 Mbps, according to the Communication Authority (CA).

Compared to the existing competitors such as Safaricom, Telkom, Faiba, and Zuku who rely on fibre-optic technology, Starlink relies on satellites in space that orbit around the earth and then transmit signals to internet modems at home or offices.

This gives Starlink an edge over its competitors, as satellite internet comes in handy in rural areas where penetration of cable or fibre optic is either limited or completely unavailable.

As of Tuesday night, Musk had yet to meet with Ruto, but he met various other world leaders on Monday and Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN assembly.

He said they discussed matters of investment, including exploring the possibility of introducing Starlink in some of the countries.

They include President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Argentine President Javier Gerardo Milei, Lesotho’s Prime Minister Sam Matekane and the President of Namibia, Nangolo Mbumba, whose country is the latest in Africa to embrace Starlink.