Kenya Government has launched the LuLu Coastal Cable System, the country’s first fully protected coastal submarine cable network, in a move aimed at strengthening digital connectivity along its Indian Ocean coastline.
The project was unveiled at ITW Africa 2026 and is being developed by INDOI Ltd, Blue Trade Investments Limited, ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms, AfriTrade Consulting Group and Kingdom Bank Limited.
According to a statement by INDOI on Wednesday, the cable will link strategic landing points along Kenya’s 500-kilometre coastline between Mombasa and Lamu.
The landing points will include Mombasa, Vipingo Special Economic Zone, Kilifi and Malindi.
The LuLu system will combine a submarine cable installed on the ocean floor with a parallel protected terrestrial route. The dual-path architecture is designed to improve network resilience, redundancy and availability for government agencies, international telecommunications operators, data-centre companies and other critical users.
The project will deploy dense wavelength division multiplexing technology in the 1550-nanometre window, with 144 fibre pairs and a design capacity of up to 60 terabits per second per fibre pair.
INDOI said the system is designed for a 25-year operational lifespan and will feature centralised network management.
The cable is expected to become operational in the second quarter of 2028, subject to the completion of the required contracts.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of INDOI, Arunachalam Kandasamy, said the project would address a major digital infrastructure gap along Kenya’s coast.
“East Africa is not a market of the future — it is a market of right now,” Kandasamy said.
He described the Mombasa-Lamu coastal corridor as strategically important but said it had lacked a unified and fully protected digital infrastructure network.
Under the project, Blue Trade Investments, INDOI’s Kenya-registered infrastructure partner, will serve as the cable landing party, regulatory interface and operational delivery partner in the country.
The company will also support local implementation and long-term operations through its relationships with regulators, coastal communities and government institutions.
INDOI said direct submarine cable connectivity at Vipingo Special Economic Zone could broaden the zone’s investment prospects beyond manufacturing and logistics.
The infrastructure is expected to support hyperscale data centres, regional cloud-service nodes, business-process outsourcing and global business-services centres, fintech and payment platforms, cybersecurity operations and Internet-of-Things-enabled manufacturing.
Country Head of ARISE IIP Kenya, George Olaka, said the cable would complement Vipingo SEZ’s plans to develop an integrated industrial and digital platform.
“Vipingo SEZ was never intended to be a conventional industrial zone,” Olaka said.
“We are building it as a platform where industry, logistics, value addition and digital infrastructure can reinforce each other.”
He said the project could help attract technology-driven businesses alongside manufacturers and strengthen Kenya’s coastal corridor as an industrial and digital hub.
Vipingo SEZ is being developed as a major industrial and digital platform with the potential to mobilise up to $3 billion in investment.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Kingdom Bank, Anthony Mburu, said the project demonstrated the growing importance of digital infrastructure to investment and economic activity along Kenya’s coast.
AfriTrade Consulting Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director, Dr Caroline Saroni, said successful delivery would depend on effective regulatory, licensing and commercial execution.
Saroni said AfriTrade had supported the introduction of VSEZ and INDOI and provided advice on transaction structuring, regulatory approvals, compliance and onboarding.
She added that the project could support investment across Kenya’s coastal region, Vipingo SEZ and the LAPSSET corridor.
INDOI, headquartered in Mauritius, is the developer, owner and commercial operator of the LuLu Coastal Cable System, while Blue Trade Investments serves as its Kenyan investment partner focused on ICT opportunities.
Kingdom Bank, a subsidiary of Co-operative Bank of Kenya, provides financial services to individuals and businesses, with a particular focus on micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
