INFRASTRUCTURE
LuLu plans a 500km protected cable from Mombasa to Lamu
INDOI of Mauritius, Kenya's Blue Trade Investments, ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms, AfriTrade Consulting Group and Kingdom Bank are behind LuLu, a 500km system running Mombasa to Lamu with five landing stations including Vipingo SEZ, Kilifi and Malindi. The pitch is redundancy: a subsea run paired with a parallel protected terrestrial route, 144 fibres and a design capacity of 60Tbps per fibre pair, aimed at governments and mission-critical users. Service is targeted for Q2 2028 subject to contracts, on a 25-year design life.
TechTrends KE
GOVERNMENT
KEMIS meets its first real deadline — and 1.2 million learners are in the queue
Kenya's replacement for NEMIS became mandatory for the 2026 Grade 10 selection, in which roughly 1.2 million Grade 9 learners pick senior schools and subject combinations before today's cut-off. Schools report failed logins, slow responses, submissions that appear to save but do not, records showing last year's cohort, and schools with capacity missing from the list. The context is money: KES 103.99 billion was previously disbursed on unverified NEMIS data, and the latest capitation had to lean on manual verification. The Ministry has still not said publicly who built KEMIS or on what contract.
Techweez
GADGETS
Apple's foldable is real, and it is called iPhone Duo
Monday's preview landed close: a $1,999 foldable with a 5.4-inch outer screen and a 7.6-inch inner display, Grade 5 titanium, IP68, the 2nm A20 Pro chip, two batteries quoted at up to 44 hours on the outer screen, and iOS 27 Split View. Pre-orders open 16 October, shipping 23 October. It is also eSIM-only, so anyone buying grey-market in Nairobi cannot simply drop a physical SIM into it. Alongside it came the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, AirPods 5, Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4.
Techweez
POLICY
The CA wants a digital passport on every box of network kit
Draft Technical Specifications for Network Equipment, 2026 would set the type-approval rulebook for anything connecting to Kenyan telecom, mobile, computer and broadcasting networks: 240V/50Hz platinum-efficiency power, mandatory IPv6, firewalls, intrusion detection, IPSec and TLS, a 5–45°C operating range, no lead, mercury or cadmium, and QR or RFID "Digital Product Passports" carrying each device's environmental footprint. High-risk AI systems would need human safeguards; voice latency is capped under 100ms and data under 400ms. Comments close 30 September.
Techweez
SKILLS
X kills reply-driven payouts, and Kenyan creators have to reapply
Revenue Sharing — which paid on ad revenue generated in a post's replies, and so quietly rewarded whatever started a fight — closed on 7 September, with final payouts on 11 September. Original Content Rewards opened for applications on 8 September and pays on post performance instead, gated behind an X Premium subscription, 500 verified followers and 500,000 Home Timeline impressions from verified users over a rolling 90 days. Payout and verification details carry over, but the impression threshold is a real bar for Kenyan accounts built on reply volume.
Techweez
