The wild natural life shares the landscape of Kenya with modern cities, which has turned the African country into quite the popular tourist destination for safari lovers. Lions, leopards, giraffes, and many other animals can be seen just a few miles away from the skyscrapers of the capital city Nairobi, but the charming coastal beach resorts make this hidden African pearl a great choice for beach enthusiasts, too.
Kenya is also the African country where internet development has been the most significant, having the highest internet penetration of the entire continent and no shortage or access restrictions to the most demanded services, including social media, VoIP apps, and VPNs. However, Freedom House considers Kenya ‘partly free’ given some legislation that questions free speech, even though this has been put in place to protect against fake news and hate speech.
Kenya has followed the worldwide tendency and invested in broadband and mobile internet, which made the country a true success case. Back in 2011 less than 25% of the population had access to the internet but, given the growth of the mobile sector and the widespread nature of free public hotspots, by the end of 2017 that number had increased to 85%, a notable value that has put Kenya in front of every other African country. With a total population of around 50 million people, this is quite impressive considering that Kenya’s heritage of abundant wildlife and native tribes is still very much preserved.
Things are not so bright when it comes to the quality of access, however. According to Speedtest.net’s global index, in the beginning of 2019 Kenya’s average internet speeds were below rank 100 in both mobile and fixed broadband variants. Still, considering how fiber optic is already a reality, the continuous investment on the overall infrastructure is a certainty, and so eventually better speeds and even greater penetration percentages will be achieved. And all the better if access to Facebook, Twitter, Skype, WhatsApp and so on remains free and as tolerant as it is now.
Kenya is in a transitionary period when it comes to online privacy laws. The country currently doesn’t have a specific law on just this topic, but the Constitution of 2010 does mention the right to privacy. However, in 2018 the government approved the so-called Data Protection Bill and, if passed, it will be the country’s first law on this subject. The current draft legislation is inspired by the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union, and so the main highlight among its key aspects are the obligations that data controllers must respect when dealing with people’s data, such as user consent, collection and purpose limitation, and more.
After several years of ‘free’ ratings by Freedom House, in 2018 Kenya became ‘partly free’, mostly due to the “online manipulation and disinformation tactics on social media [that] proliferated during the 2017 elections season”. As a result, the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act was passed in May 2018, criminalizing the spread of fake news and hate speech with a sentence of up to ten years in prison. Some argue that this restricts free speech and some citizens were actually arrested for “alleged hate speech and criticizing the government online”. However, the good news is that none of the usual services are censored, such as social media platforms, VoIP services, or VPNs.
With the development of the mobile communications sector and the fact that it represents the largest percentage of connections to the internet, streaming services are also becoming popular among Kenyans. And while the market is still dominated by the media giants such as Netflix – whose library size within Kenyan borders doesn’t even come close to the U.S. or European countries – there are also several country-specific streaming alternatives have emerged in the last years, too.
Benefiting from the fast pace of internet penetration growth in Kenya, Eziki debuted in 2011 as the pioneer of online video streaming in the country, while Mdundo arrived a year later as a music streaming app specialized in African music. The latter was particularly important for Kenya and other African countries since some of the industry leaders – like Spotify or SoundCloud – still have limited availability for such content within the territory even up to this day, though Apple Music is available.
Ivacy was founded in 2007 and over a decade later it can already say that it has conquered its space in the VPN market thanks to a fast, worldwide network of servers. On top of that, the Singaporean company provides the best encryption level and even some additional tools – like split tunneling, a kill switch and IPv6 leak protection – that will make all its users happy but especially those interested in torrenting. In fact, Ivacy is an active supporter of P2P and file sharing and its attractive client is built to accommodate such activities, and covers a host of platforms ranging from computers and mobile devices to routers and more. Ivacy is also a title-winning contender when it comes to pricing, too, since it has a very nice price/quality ratio, as well as allowing those that want to try the service without commitment to do so with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
is a Romanian VPN service founded in 2011 and owned by Kape Technologies – known for other privacy-focused solutions like ExpressVPN and Private Internet Access. It features unlimited bandwidth, multiple-device compatibility, and above average speeds in over 11,500 servers across more than 100 countries.
It excels in hiding torrent practices and unblocking geo-restricted websites while still being an excellent option for those simply looking to surf anonymously. Plus, its apps are incredibly intuitive and aesthetically pleasing. Anyone can subscribe to CyberGhost VPN for as low as $2.03 per month with the option to try it first for 1 day on Windows and macOS or 3 days on Android and iOS.
PureVPN has more than 6,000 servers worldwide with reliable, secire, and uninterrupted connections, compatibility with over 50 devices, and excellent customer service.
Prices start as low as $2.11 per month for the VPN, and those willing to pay a little more can get their hands on a password manager, file encryption, and personal privacy manager – all under the same subscription. Plus, with a 7-day free trial, 31-day money-back guarantee, add-ons, and discounts of up to 83%, it would be a mistake not to consider PureVPN as a viable option.
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