Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom PLC CEO.

Safaricom, a Kenyan telco, has donated $116,279 to assist protest casualties and hospitals. 

Safaricom announced on Wednesday that it will provide $77,518 to the hospital's Disaster Response Centre and $38,759 in assistive gadgets to injured victims to support those who have been hospitalised to the hospital. 

The donation will also go towards providing affected persons with three months' worth of food and one year's rent for those living in dire situations. 

Speaking at Kenyatta National Hospital, where Safaricom and M-PESA Foundations donated, Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa stated: “Our Foundations are there to stand with people, especially in times of need. We are happy to provide hospitals with structured support in times of emergencies, both for infrastructure improvement and patient recovery.’’

The donation comes only a week after the company accused by Kenyans of arranging an internet blackout during the Finance Bill protests. 

Ndegwa, however, issued a statement disputing suggestions that the disruption was purposeful. He stated that the sluggish internet speeds witnessed during the protests were due to an outage of two of its subsea cables.