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Mobile internet, 4G and 5G in Kenya

Kenya has an enormous mobile market with one clearly dominant player. At 30 June 2026 the regulator CA counted 88.0 million active mobile subscriptions, 4.6% more than a year earlier, at a penetration of 165.0% — well over one and a half active lines per inhabitant. Of those, 64.3 million are mobile internet subscriptions, up 9.7%. Mobile broadband accounts for 85.5% of all subscriptions, with 4G, in the CA's words, the most adopted broadband technology; data consumption on 4G and 5G keeps climbing while 3G declines. Safaricom holds 69.8% of mobile subscriptions and 64.4% of mobile broadband, with Telkom Kenya recording, per the CA, the smallest shares of the three.

That mobile is the norm in Kenya rather than the exception shows up another way in the CA's figures: mobile money penetration stands at 101.3%, and the number of text messages sent fell slightly, which the regulator attributes to growing use of messaging services such as WhatsApp. What the CA does not publish is a national coverage percentage for 2G, 3G, 4G or 5G: its quarterly report contains none, its study of coverage gaps dates from 2016, and its mapping tool shows only 2G and 3G. So we quote no percentage. 5G does exist — Safaricom activated it in March 2021 and Airtel launched commercially in July 2023 across over 370 sites in the country.

Roaming in Kenya without an eSIM

Kenya is outside the EU and the EEA, so 'Roam Like at Home' does not apply. That arrangement covers the EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, along with Moldova and Ukraine, and Kenya is not among them. Your Belgian or Dutch bundle therefore stays behind: your operator bills every megabyte at its own out-of-bundle roaming tariff, without the EU price caps that apply inside the zone. On a trip to Kenya that meter typically runs for a fortnight, and a fortnight in Kenya is exactly when you lean on data: navigation, confirming bookings, sending photos, staying in touch with your guide or your driver. The European Commission advises checking that tariff with your provider before you go.

What Kenya's regulator publishes about network quality

Kenya is one of the few countries where the regulator puts on the record how the networks perform — by name. In financial year 2024-2025 the CA ran quality measurements across all 47 counties. The result: Safaricom scored 90.36%, above the 80% target, while Airtel came in at 76.47% and Telkom at 47.94%. Across five regional clusters, Safaricom met the target in all five regions, Airtel in two, and Telkom Kenya in none. The CA also notes that the industry average has been on a downward trend over four years.

That is useful information, and precisely for that reason two things belong with it. First: which Kenyan network a roaming eSIM ends up on appears in no source we were able to consult, so we do not claim you land on the best-scoring one. We are passing on the regulator's finding, not a promise about our own product. Second: the CA also offers a free IMEI check — dial *#06# and text the fifteen-digit number to 1555 — meant to identify counterfeit devices without a valid IMEI. That is an authenticity check, not a registration duty, so we will not write that Kenya requires you to register your handset.