The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has opened a public consultation process on a proposal to introduce a standalone licence category for data centres, in a notice signed by Director General David Mugonyi.
The regulator currently oversees co-location data centres under the Network Facilities Provider–Tier 2 licence, a category that was not originally designed with data centres in mind. The CA said it now wants to create a dedicated Data Centre licence to provide clearer regulatory oversight of the sector as demand for digital infrastructure grows across the country.
According to the notice, the proposed approach is intended to enhance visibility over data centre operations, support continued investment in digital infrastructure, and bring Kenya’s regulatory framework in line with proportionate approaches adopted in comparable jurisdictions. The new licence would apply to entities providing co-location data centre services, along with attendant supporting services.
The CA has given stakeholders and members of the public thirty days from the date of publication to submit written comments on the proposal.
The consultation is the latest phase of a modernisation process the CA has been running since early 2025, when it published a consultation document proposing a review of the telecommunications market structure. After weighing stakeholder submissions, the Authority published its responses in September 2025 and held a validation workshop before finalising a Revised Telecommunications Market Structure in June 2026. That revision formally brought data centres into the regulated telecommunications regime for the first time, placing operators under Network Facilities Provider Tier 1 and Tier 2 categories depending on scale, and closing a gap in a Unified Licensing Framework that had not expressly addressed data centres. The current proposal builds directly on that groundwork, refining how co-location facilities specifically are licensed.
Kenya has emerged as one of East Africa’s fastest-growing data centre markets, driven by rising cloud adoption, the expansion of hyperscale and colocation facilities, and increasing demand from AI and enterprise workloads. Regulatory ambiguity has been cited by industry players as a persistent constraint on investment decisions, making the CA’s move toward a dedicated licensing category a significant development for operators, cloud providers, and investors assessing the market.
The proposal marks the latest step in the Authority’s ongoing effort to modernise Kenya’s ICT licensing regime to reflect the growing strategic importance of digital infrastructure to the country’s economy.
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