Pipelines: The Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC), a state-owned enterprise (parastatal) formed in 1973, transports about 90 percent of the petroleum products consumed in Kenya’s domestic market. The KPC owns and operates the Mombasa-Nairobi pipeline, whose throughput has risen because of restrictions imposed on the road transport of petroleum to stem the diversion of supplies to local markets. A second pipeline stretches from Eldoret to Kisumu in the west of the country, and a recent project is to extend the pipeline from Eldoret to Kampala in Uganda, under the auspices of the East African Community (EAC). The KPC is the dominant player in the regional energy sector, exporting to Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Sudan.
Telecommunications: In 2003 Kenya’s telephone landlines numbered 328,400. The generally unreliable system has seen little modernization except for service to businesses. Mobile cellular phone use is expanding rapidly, with the number of users climbing from 1.6 million in mid-2003 to 2.5 million in mid-2004. The cellular phone system is operated by two license holders, Safaricom and Kencell, to be joined by a third, Econet Wireless Kenya, in mid-2005. Internet use also has expanded rapidly, reaching 400,000 users by 2002. The country had eight television broadcast stations in 2002 and more than three dozen radio stations. In 1997 televisions numbered 730,000 and radios, 3 million.