Internet services in the country have been severely affected after an illegally anchored ship on Saturday cut two submarine cables connecting Kenya to the rest of the world. The East African Marine System (TEAMS) that carries the bulk of Kenya's traffic will take about three weeks to repair, the cables general manager Joel Tanui said.

The problem was compounded by the fact that another cable, The East Africa Submarine System (Eassy) cable also experienced a cut near Djibouti and is currently undergoing repair. Telecom operators, data carriers and internet service providers were forced to scramble to switch traffic to alternative Seacom which is now almost single-handedly carrying Kenya's data traffic.

Others like Airtel sought southern routes through Tanzania and onward to South Africa. Safaricom which carries the bulk of Kenya's data announced partial restoration of data service for its customers after its internet services and international calls were affected. "Safaricom has successfully moved all its internet traffic to alternative routes, principally the Seacom undersea cable, resulting in partial recovery and resumption of services," the company said in a statement. "To put the matter in perspective," Safaricom Corporate Affairs Director Nzioka Waita said. "Safaricom carries 80 per cent of Kenya's internet traffic and we've put 50 per cent of it on TEAMS."

Airtel Kenya communications head Dick Omondi said the company was relying on its sister companies networks to route traffic. "We are flat out working on it, all the engineers are working (on switching traffic)," Omondi said. "It's not optimal but we are taking some traffic through Tanzania." Cable operator JTL said said it was also looking for alternative routes. Some players were said to be reluctant to move all their traffic to Seacom which is said to be almost three times as expensive as TEAMS