More than 15 computer monitors sit empty at Lillian’s cyber café on Nairobi’s Tom Mboya Street, a reminder of how technology changed a business that was once at the heart of Kenya’s digital revolution.
On a recent afternoon, only one customer is browsing at the partitioned café. Lillian, who has run the business for 20 years, is seated at an empty cubicle watching TikTok videos, while her sole assistant watches YouTube videos at the reception desk.
It is a far cry from the years when customers streamed into cyber cafes to print documents, send emails, apply for jobs, and catch up with their friends on Facebook and the now-defunct Google+.
Internet shops in Kenya boomed in the late 2000s and early 2010s in the cities and larger towns. But now, widespread use of smartphones and cheaper, faster mobile data has largely replaced the need for traditional internet browsing at these cafés.
Lillian says business has declined by about 90 percent due to the reduced need for physical computer access.
The decline has forced her to cut her staff from four to one, as power and other operating costs rise. Browsing charges, meanwhile, have remained at Sh1 per minute for years.
‘This business needs to bring in around Sh5,000 to be able to sustain itself – rent, power, internet bill, staff costs,’ she says, pointing across the empty chairs and the black network rack mounted on the wall.
‘Now, getting Sh1,000 will be a challenge at the end of the day.’
Even a day-long browsing offer of Sh300 has done little to bring customers back, she says.
The decline has also hit printing, once a major source of income for cyber cafes. With smartphones and laptops allowing users to create, store and share documents digitally, customers are increasingly questioning whether they need physical copies.
‘Printing costs are relatively high, so people are really weighing options before they have to print anything,’ she says. ‘If they can use it in softcopy format, why bother printing it at a higher cost?’
The rising cost of living has compounded the problem, making both customers and the business more cautious about spending.
‘I have to pay staff more, yet the business is not doing as well, so I am forced to lay them off and remain with just one, who I am still struggling to pay,’ says the businesswoman.
‘Furnishing this café was about Sh250,000 then. Now all these desks are here collecting dust.’
Kenya’s smartphone connections rose to 50.2 million in the three months to March, up from 48.7 million in December, marking the first time the country has crossed the 50 million smartphone threshold.
The handsets have become the primary gateway to the internet for the majority of Kenyans, with Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) data showing that 98.2 percent of Kenyan internet users between January and March 2026 accessed the net through a smartphone.
In contrast, the use of other devices such as desktop computers, laptops, and feature phones continues to decline.
On the walls of Lillian’s internet café, there are notices advertising ‘Zoom calls’ and ‘Teams meetings’. A larger enclosed cubicle at the corner has been turned into a private working space for customers who need somewhere quiet.
It is, she says, her attempt to adapt to the evolving technology. ‘That is for people who might have important calls when in town, and they want to take a work call or job interview at a quiet place within a public café.’
But even these additions have not been enough to reverse the decline. Her plans now point to an exit from the traditional cyber café model.
She plans to close the business within a year, sell the remaining monitors to second-hand goods buyers and retain only a few computers in a smaller shop offering essential services such as document printing, KRA returns, job and visa applications.
‘Farming has also come in handy; that is where my focus is now,’ she says.
For other cyber café operators, survival has meant changing the business almost entirely. In uptown Nairobi, along Muindi Mbingu Street, Fred Omondi’s shop is a glimpse into what the internet café business has evolved into.
The business still has computers, but browsing is no longer at the centre of its operations. Instead, Fred now describes it as a computer services provider, offering typesetting, basic graphic design, corporate branding materials, banner and window-sticker printing, adhesive decorations, photocopying and document printing.
Customers can also get help with tax filing, CV and cover letter formatting, job and visa applications and government services such as applying for driving licences and certificates of good conduct.
Every few minutes, a customer walks in for photocopying, another brings photos on his smartphone for colour grading and printing, while a motorcycle rider seeks adhesive decorations for his bike.
Mr Omondi employs two other people and has reduced the traditional cyber café footprint to just three computers. The rest of the shop is occupied by specialised equipment, including a photo printer, heavy-duty document printer and banner vinyl printing machine.
‘We still get customers seeking the cyber café style of browsing once in a while, but most of them are now in need of services that they cannot do at their homes from their smartphones or laptops,’ he says.
Mr Omondi says customers are also increasingly seeking technical assistance with tasks such as managing email and calendars, applying for government tenders, submitting documents and applying for jobs online.
The decline of traditional computer package training, which also boomed in the 2010s, has also left shops like his filling part of the computer literacy gap.
The introduction of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) in 2017 has provided another source of business.
‘With parents now more involved in their children’s schoolwork, demand for printed research material and assignments has increased. That was previously mostly a reserve of the schools,’ he says.
The shop has also found a niche among small businesses in the city centre, which outsource bulk printing rather than invest in their own equipment.
The pivot has required a significant investment; Mr Omondi estimates that his equipment alone is worth almost Sh3 million, making the operation far more capital-intensive than a conventional cyber café.
However, the investment is paying off, he says. Online services and applications start at Sh500, while typing and editing cost from Sh350. Binding ranges between Sh50 and Sh150, while printing costs between Sh650 and Sh1,500 depending on the paper and size.
Logo design costs Sh7,000, while letterhead designs, business cards, and company profile design and printing cost about Sh15,000.
He says some businesses have spent as much as Sh50,000 on bulk branding materials at his shop.
The cyber café may be disappearing as a place to access the internet, says Mr Omondi, but for those willing to invest in equipment and turn their shops into service centres, the digital transformation has created new opportunities.
‘They can be reinvented as places where customers come to get things done,’ he says, ‘since there will always be tasks they cannot handle at home because of equipment needs and varying computer literacy levels.’