In the year 2000 there were just 200,000 people online in Kenya.
By 2010 it had risen to almost 4 million.

That in itself is an impressive number, giving Kenya in 2010 as many internet users as New Zealand or Ireland have today.
Then smartphones arrived.
And like many other African nations Kenya effectively by-passed the desktop dial-up and landline era and went from 4 million to over 40 million in  just the past eight years.
Yes, Kenya started 2018 with over 43 million people using the internet.
That’s more internet users in Kenya than there are people in Canada.
That’s literally twice as many people online in Kenya as there are in Australia.
That’s more people online in Kenya than in Spain.
That’s four times as many people online in Kenya as in either Belgium. Sweden, Czech Republic, Hungary or Portugal.
That’s eight times as many internet users in Kenya as there are in either New Zealand, Bulgaria, Ireland or Denmark.
And while the focus here is on Kenya, there’s a bigger story still behind these numbers.
As 2018 began there were 453 million Africans online. That’s 127 million more than the entire population of the USA.
In fact there are more people online in Africa than in North America – that is, the USA, Canada and Mexico combined.
And here’s where it gets exciting. The USA is at 88% internet penetration. Africa just 35%.
When Africa reaches 50% internet penetration there will be 647 million people online. On current trends that will be early next decade. Certainly within the next five years.
To put that fully in in context, within five years there will be almost twice as many people online in Africa as there are people in the United States.
Africa – the ebook opportunity.
Internet statistics here.