Konza City Wins 2026 Smart Gigacity Excellence Award in Vienna

By Faith Wanza

Kenya’s Konza Technopolis has won the 2026 Smart Gigacity Excellence Award at the World Broadband Association (WBBA) Broadband Excellence Awards held in Vienna, Austria, in recognition of its technology-driven urban development model.

The award was announced on Wednesday, October 14, 2026, at the VIECON in Vienna, following an international selection process involving telecommunications operators and government ministries.

The State Department for Information, Communications and the Digital Economy said the award recognises Konza Technopolis as a model for gigabit-enabled urban development, integrating high-capacity connectivity, artificial intelligence (AI) and digital public infrastructure to improve service delivery.

Commissioned in October 2025, Konza City is a flagship project under Kenya’s Vision 2030 development agenda and serves as the physical home of the country’s digital government.

The award was received by Kenya’s Ambassador and Deputy Head of Mission in Vienna, Amb. Valerie Rugene, on behalf of the Principal Secretary for ICT and the Digital Economy, Eng. John Tanui, and the Government of Kenya.

Konza’s smart-city infrastructure includes a 79-kilometre city-wide fibre-optic backbone connecting businesses, institutions and homes, alongside public Wi-Fi and 141 smart poles equipped with closed-circuit television cameras and environmental sensors.

These systems feed into the city’s Intelligent Operations Centre, which enables real-time monitoring and faster responses to incidents. The centre also operates as a digital twin, integrating 600 cameras and 12 Intelligent Transportation System sites under a unified artificial intelligence command system to help operators anticipate congestion, incidents and service disruptions.

The city has also incorporated smart drainage, a wastewater reclamation facility that recycles up to 90 per cent of treated water, and an automated underground waste-collection system described as the first of its kind in East and Central Africa.

The waste system transports 40 tonnes of waste daily through 14.8 kilometres of pipelines without collection trucks, while Konza Smart Energy supplies electricity with 99.9 per cent reliability through a 120-megawatt smart substation.

The Konza National Data Centre, comprising Uptime Institute Tier III-certified facilities, provides secure sovereign cloud and hosting services to government agencies and local businesses. It currently hosts more than 100 public and private institutions.

The city’s development also integrates education, research and housing. The Open University of Kenya, the Kenya Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and Riara University are expected to link education and research with enterprise and innovation, while more than 1,000 affordable housing units are under construction.

Accepting the award, Amb. Rugene conveyed the Principal Secretary’s appreciation to the WBBA and its judging panel, acknowledging President William Ruto’s leadership, the support of the Cabinet Secretary for Information, Communications and the Digital Economy, Hon. William Kabogo Gitau, the Technopolis Development Authority and the partners, engineers and innovators behind the project.

“Kenya accepts this honour not as the completion of Konza’s journey, but as a call to accelerate it and to share a practical, replicable model with cities across Africa,” she said.

She invited international partners to work with Kenya in developing cities that are intelligent, sustainable, inclusive and human-centred.

The government said the recognition strengthens Kenya’s position as a destination for technology investment, data-centre capacity and global business services.

It is also advancing the next phase of the Intelligent Operations Centre and a public-private partnership to expand cloud services, with plans to connect more than 300 additional public institutions to the Konza platform.

The WBBA brings together operators, vendors, regulators and research institutions to promote broadband development worldwide. Its annual Broadband Excellence Awards recognise achievements in network deployment, innovation and user experience.

The State Department for ICT and the Digital Economy continues to implement the government’s digital transformation agenda through national fibre-network expansion, digitisation of public services, establishment of digital hubs and development of digital skills and employment opportunities for young Kenyans.