Kenya lost 4.2bn shillings to Telegram shutdown in 2023

Telegram, a widely used social media platform in Kenya, faced an unexplained disruption coinciding with the country’s college entrance examinations.

Speculations arose regarding the motive behind the outage, with some suggesting a connection to preventing examination malpractice, given that the app remained offline only during the day, returning to normalcy at night when exams were not taking place.

NetBlocks, a London-based internet rights organization, conducted calculations revealing that the eight-day shutdown had a substantial impact 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.