In pictures: Nairobi's digital divide

Gabriel, 19, in a cyber cafe in Nairobi’s slum district of Kibera

Africa may have new fibre-optic internet links, but the continent's extremes mean that even gaining access to the web is a challenge for many of the continent's poor. Words and photos: Adam Blenford

A workman digs a trench for fibre-optic cable in Nairobi

In Nairobi, fibre-optic links are being rolled out in the city centre. Coils of cable are a common sight, as are the bobbing heads of workmen digging trenches. The men are paid 100 shillings ($1.40; £0.80) for every metre laid.

Workers at an outsourcing centre on the outskirts of Nairobi

Those who have benefited most from the new connections are established business users. At this outsourcing business, data costs have fallen by 90% since July, and bosses expect the business to grow rapidly.

But in Kibera, a sprawling shanty town not far from some of Nairobi's most important addresses, there are few signs of the new fibre-optic broadband. Here, just getting online is a challenge and costs remain high.

A woman uses a computer at an internet cafe in Kibera

In the handful of internet cafes scattered around Kibera, handpainted signs offer basic computing services as well as internet access. Most are rudimentary, cramped places, with poor lighting and slow connection.

Gabriel follows a tutorial from a computer text book, Kibera

The customers in the cafes are almost all young, and there is a serious mood. One is helping a friend sign up for a government service; another, sitting alone, teaches himself the basics of Microsoft Office using a manual.

View of old computers at an internet cafe, Kibera, Nairobi

The computers in the internet cafes work, but most are a little outdated. One cafe owner says his machines work fine, except for a few small problems: "They just need some repairs, like memory, processor, hard disk."

A young child stands by a stream of sewage in the Kibera slums

Getting online is just one challenge Kibera faces. The slum is overcrowded and dirty, with open sewers spreading disease. Kibera was also a flashpoint during post-election violence in 2008, and tribal tensions remain.

tech developers meet at an internet cafe in the city

Away from Kibera, though, change is afoot. Many of Nairobi's coffee shops now offer free or low-cost wireless internet, and tech enthusiasts have access to the latest computers and 3G-capable mobile phones.

A man looks at laptop computers through a Nairobi shop window

But for most Kenyans - not just those in Kibera - computers remain prohibitively expensive. And with broadband internet access costing more than the average Kenyan annual wage, the digital divide appears set to remain.