Growing internet access drives surge in .KE domains as Kenyan businesses go digital

A Kenyan business once needed a physical shop, a signboard and a telephone number to establish its presence.

Increasingly, it needs something else: a digital identity.

The latest figures from the Communications Authority of Kenya show that registered users under the .KE domain reached 124,498 by March 2026, up 5.4% from 118,171 at the end of December 2025.

The biggest category was .CO.KE, used by companies, with 110,687 registrations.

The numbers point to a wider shift in how Kenyan businesses operate online.

Why .KE is becoming a business address

A .KE domain does more than give a company a website address.

It identifies the business as Kenyan and forms part of the country's internet infrastructure.

The Communications Authority describes the .KE country-code top-level domain as a national digital identity, while the government has been encouraging its use as Kenya expands online services and digital commerce.

For businesses, having a domain also provides a permanent address that is not dependent on a social-media platform changing its rules, algorithms or access.

The dominance of .CO.KE registrations is particularly telling:

Companies account for almost 89% of all registered .KE users in the latest quarterly figures.

A website is only the front door

Getting a domain is the visible part of going digital.

Behind a website, online shop, mobile application or business system sits infrastructure that most customers never see:

Servers, storage, databases, networks, security and computing power.

That is where cloud computing comes in.

Konza Technopolis

Konza Technopolis operates the Konza National Data Centre and Konza Cloud, offering services including virtual servers, storage, web hosting, email hosting, backup, disaster recovery and software platforms.

The facility is a Tier III-certified data-centre infrastructure and is being positioned as part of Kenya's wider digital transformation ecosystem.

Konza is also preparing to expand its national data-centre capacity through a public-private partnership, with the stated objective of strengthening Kenya's digital infrastructure, cloud capability and data-security resilience.

Then comes the skills gap

Cloud infrastructure is only useful if people can build and manage systems on it.

That is why digital skills have become part of the same conversation.

Konza's Knowledge Economy Centre runs programmes including Jitume, which provides digital-skills development and job linkages for young Kenyans entering technology and digitally enabled work.

Its training platform also includes courses covering cloud computing, storage, networking and cloud security.

AWS has also been part of Kenya's technology-skills ecosystem for years.

Beyond establishing a development centre in Kenya, AWS has continued engaging local technology institutions and communities around cloud skills and innovation.

More recently, Konza officials held a strategic engagement with AWS focused on possible collaboration around cloud infrastructure, data ecosystems, enterprise innovation and smart-city solutions.

The three layers of Kenya's digital economy

The developments therefore connect three parts of the same system.

.KE gives a Kenyan business its digital address.

Cloud infrastructure gives it somewhere to run its digital operations.

Digital skills provide the people who build and manage those systems.

Kenya's latest broadband strategy explicitly links these areas, calling for greater use of .KE domains alongside investment in hosting infrastructure, local cloud solutions and AI-ready data centres.

The result is a digital economy that is gradually becoming less about simply getting businesses online and more about building Kenyan businesses that can operate, store data, develop technology and sell services in a connected economy.