Submarine cable cut. Accident or Sabotage?

It is now emerging that the slow connection in internet connection for subscribers of companies depending on the TEAMS cable is as a result of a cable cut. A statement sent by Safaricom limited says a major cut has occurred on the TEAMS cable at the coast, cutting a crucial link for the bulk of internet and international voice traffic in the region.

The cut that was precipitated by a ship off the coast of Mombasa resulted to complete loss of traffic last Saturday for a number of subscribers of various companies including Safaricom, Jamii Telecom, Wananchi, Essar, Kenya Data Networks, Access Kenya, Telkom Orange and Bandwidth & Cloud Services as well as the government of Kenya. The cable that is co owned by the government of Kenya through a public private partnership with a number of local companies accounting for 85% shareholding was installed at a cost of 130 million dollars or approximately 10 billion shillings. The coble connects the Kenyan coast to Fujairah off Sri Lankan coast. The cut that occurred some 4.5 kilometers off the Kenyan coast forced many companies to re-route their data through SEACOM and satellite with recovery expected to take hours and repair to take close to three weeks. However there is a feeling of economic sabotage with reports that a ship illegally dropped its anchor at the point where both the Eastern African Submarine Cable System (EASSY) and The East African Marine System cables are situated and dragged them leading to the cut. The undersea cables that are about 650 feet below link East Africa to Middle East and Europe have also affected electronic communications from Djibouti to Djibouti. Questions will also be raised on the frequency of the cuts being that the TEAMS cable is the fourth cable to be severed in the region in the last two weeks. The Teams cable had been rerouting data from three other cables severed 10 days ago in the Red Sea between Djibouti and the Middle East. Even with all ideas sprouting on what could have led to the cut that has affected business in the entire regions the Kenyan parliament is yet to legislate a law on economic sabotage to tackle the numerous cable cuts.