Kenyan telcos will come together to produce the country's first smartphone within the next six months.

This is according to the Trade and Industrialisation Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria who was speaking during a conference in Seoul, South Korea.


He disclosed that Kenyan telcos Safaricom, Airtel, Telkom Kenya and Jamii Telcom have come together to produce the country’s first mobile handset.

Kuria also said the country is wooing MTN and South Africa into the project to give it an African outlook.

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He expressed Kenya’s commitment to the project, saying the country means business and would reverse the trade.

"We are trying to woo MTN and South Africa into that project so that it does not become just the Kenyan phone, but Kenya becomes the home of a truly African phone," Kuria said.

"We mean business and we are going to reverse this trade. I want the next time we have this bilateral trade."

This comes after President William Ruto during the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry Annual General meeting announced the Kenyan Government will work on an arrangement to have locally manufactured mobile handsets, which will be affordable within the next year.


He said the move will see Kenyans boast of manufacturing the cheapest smartphones on the continent, which will retail for less than Sh5,000.

"The real last mile in technology is the gadget and already we are working with Telcos so that we can have a smartphone that is going to be less than Sh5,000 and that can do everything you want," Ruto said.

"We want to see if we can get it to Sh3,654 or Sh4,872. I want to promise the country that in the next 8 to 12 months we will have the cheapest smartphone in Africa, manufactured in Kenya."