History in the making

It's good to see that the fibre optics cables are in place and some coastal regions will benefit fairly quickly. Unfortunately the stormy history of the last several years has diverted attention from the necessity to prepare the infrastructure that will make the cables so productive for East Africa. The hinterland will be waiting a while before high speed connections are hard wired. Wi-fi will set the pace but even that is moving slowly. 

Kenya and Tanzania - where the cables arrived at the same time in Mombasa and Dar es Salaam and were cermonially activated by Presidents Mwai Kibaki and Jakaya Kikwete respectively - will still find faster Internet connectivity remains out of reach. Until these two can get their infrastructure installed the wait for broadband internet for neighbouring  countries could still be lengthy.