Surfshark’s annual Digital Quality of Life Index (DQL) has ranked Kenya 76th in the world, improving by two places from last year. Out of the Index’s 5 pillars, Kenya performed best in e-security, claiming 65th place, while facing challenges in internet affordability, ranking 97th.
The nation ranks 68th in e-infrastructure, 75th in e-government, and 92nd in internet quality. In the overall Index, Kenya lags behind South Africa (72nd), but surpasses Nigeria (88th). Overall, African countries lag behind in their digital quality of life, Kenya taking 3rd place in the region.
“In many nations, ‘digital quality of life’ has merged into the broader concept of overall ‘quality of life’. There’s no other way to look at it now that so many daily activities, including work, education, and leisure, are done online. That’s why it’s crucial to pinpoint the areas in which a nation’s digital quality of life thrives and where attention is needed, which is the precise purpose of the DQL Index”, says Gabriele Racaityte-Krasauske, Surfshark’s spokeswoman.
Fixed internet averages 21 Mbps in Kenya. To put that into perspective, the world’s fastest fixed internet — Singapore’s — is 300 Mbps. Meanwhile, the slowest fixed internet in the world — Yemen’s — is 11 Mbps. Mobile internet averages 38 Mbps. The fastest mobile internet — the UAE’s — is 310 Mbps, while the world’s slowest mobile internet — Venezuela’s — is 10 Mbps.
Compared to South Africa, Kenya’s mobile internet is 44% slower, while fixed broadband is 69% slower. Since last year, mobile internet speed in Kenya has improved by 59%, while fixed broadband speed has grown by 11%.
Kenyans have to work 10 hours 19 minutes a month to afford fixed broadband internet. It is 35 times more than in Romania, which has the world’s most affordable fixed internet. Kenyans have to work 2 hours 16 minutes 35 seconds a month to afford mobile internet. This is 8 times more than in Luxembourg, which has the world’s most affordable mobile internet.
The e-security pillar measures how well a country is prepared to counter cybercrime, as well as how advanced a country’s data protection laws are. In this pillar, Kenya outperforms South Africa (72nd) and Nigeria (73rd). Kenya is unprepared to fight against cybercrime, the country has some data protection laws.
Advanced e-infrastructure makes it easy for people to use the internet for various daily activities, such as working, studying, shopping, etc. This pillar evaluates how high internet penetration is in a given country, as well as its network readiness (readiness to take advantage of Information and Communication Technologies). Kenya’s internet penetration is fairly high (85% — 60th in the world), and the country ranks 76th in network readiness.
The e-government pillar shows how advanced a government’s digital services are and the level of Artificial Intelligence (AI) readiness a country demonstrates. Kenya’s e-government is below the global average.
The DQL Index 2023 examined 121 nations (92% of the global population) based on five core pillars that consist of 14 indicators.
Surfshark is a cybersecurity company focused on developing humanized privacy and security solutions. The Surfshark One suite includes one of the very few VPNs audited by independent security experts, an officially certified antivirus, a private search tool, and a data leak alert system.