Keypoints:
- LuLu will link Mombasa and Lamu
- Cable targets Q2 2028 service
- Vipingo could attract technology investment
INDOI and its partners have unveiled plans for a 500km coastal fibre-optic system linking Mombasa and Lamu, extending high-capacity digital infrastructure along Kenya’s Indian Ocean coastline.
The proposed LuLu Coastal Cable System would connect five strategic landing points, including Vipingo Special Economic Zone, Kilifi and Malindi. Developers say the system could enter service in the second quarter of 2028, subject to contract execution.
The project could strengthen connectivity beyond Mombasa, already a major landing point for international submarine cables, while supporting data centres, cloud services, financial technology operations and digitally enabled industries along Kenya’s coast.
New digital corridor takes shape
LuLu was announced at ITW Africa 2026 by Mauritius-headquartered INDOI, Blue Trade Investments Limited and their partners.
The planned system would combine a submarine cable running along the Indian Ocean seabed with a parallel protected terrestrial route, a design intended to provide greater resilience and redundancy.
According to the project announcement, the network will use 144 fibres and dense wavelength division multiplexing technology, with a design capacity of up to 60 terabits per second per fibre pair.
It is planned for an operational life of 25 years.
INDOI founder and chief executive Arunachalam Kandasamy said the project was intended to create a unified protected digital infrastructure system along the corridor between Mombasa and Lamu.
Vipingo targets technology investment
One of LuLu’s most important proposed landing points is Vipingo Special Economic Zone, where project partners believe direct submarine connectivity could strengthen the zone’s appeal to technology-intensive investors.
The developers say the infrastructure could help attract hyperscale data centres, regional cloud nodes, business process outsourcing operations, fintech platforms, cybersecurity centres and smart manufacturing services.
George Olaka, country head of ARISE IIP Kenya, said resilient submarine connectivity would reinforce Vipingo’s ambition to combine industrial development, logistics and digital infrastructure.
For Kenya, such investment could broaden the economic role of its coastal industrial zones by adding technology and digital services to existing manufacturing, logistics and trade activities.
Mombasa remains the global gateway
LuLu is not intended to replace the international submarine cables already landing in Mombasa.
Instead, its Mombasa connection is designed to give the proposed coastal network access to existing global internet infrastructure, extending connectivity northwards towards other coastal centres.
The project announcement says every LuLu landing station would be able to connect through Mombasa to existing submarine cable systems and onward international networks.
That makes the project’s distribution and resilience role particularly significant, potentially allowing economic centres further north to benefit from stronger links to Kenya’s established international connectivity gateway.
The developers have also identified the wider Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport corridor as one of the areas the system could eventually support.
2028 target remains conditional
The project is being co-developed by INDOI, Kenya-registered Blue Trade, ARISE IIP, AfriTrade Consulting Group and Kingdom Bank.
Blue Trade is expected to serve as the cable landing party, regulatory interface and operational delivery partner in Kenya, while AfriTrade has advised on regulatory, licensing and transaction matters.
LuLu, however, remains a planned infrastructure project rather than an operational cable system.
Its targeted Q2 2028 service date is explicitly subject to contract execution. The announcement does not identify a system supplier or specify a construction start date, leaving important delivery milestones still to be established.
If completed as proposed, the system could help shift Kenya’s coastal connectivity model from heavy dependence on Mombasa as a landing gateway towards a broader protected digital corridor stretching north to Lamu.
