On September 13th and 14th, hundreds of young people streamed into Charter Hall, Nairobi, for some serious business, to watch professional gamers play video games. Kenya was hosting the first-ever PUBG Mobile Africa Cup finals, and Bay Luahl, a Kenyan gamer, was waiting to test his skills on an international stage.
The two-day tournament brought together 16 teams from across the continent, including three from Kenya, with a prize pool of $ 8,000, approximately 1,036,000.00.
After battling it out for 12 matches, the South African team, X Force Rejects, emerged as the winners. But for Bay, the tournament was much more than a scoreboard; it was an opportunity to compete with regional peers. However, this tournament also highlighted the gaps in Kenya’s gaming infrastructure.
“They’re not better than us. It’s just that they had better equipment than us before. So the synergy they have, us as Kenyan players we don’t have that. We don’t have the support that they have in their countries,” Bay says.
With Kenya’s expanding esports scene and a competitive gaming community, having the right equipment can be the difference between a glorious victory and a disappointing defeat. Therefore, to compete on equal terms with the continent’s best, Kenyan gamers need training screens and high-quality devices capable of supporting competitive play, reliable high-speed internet, consistent prize pools, and regular tournaments.
“There are no tournaments hosted in Kenya, you know. Like the Mauritian team playing here, they have played in many LAN tournaments, so they have the experience and the pressure here. They understand everything, as compared to Kenyan teams, who are inexperienced,” Ridhwan Mohamed, also a gamer, says.
Bay shares the same opinion as Ridhwan, adding that Kenya does not take PUBG seriously. The PUBG Mobile Africa Cup served as the qualifier for the PUBG Mobile Global Championship (PMGC).
Another thing they need is prize pools, which undoubtedly serve as an incentive for esports players to compete at a professional level. Prize pools drive competitive excellence, provide financial support to players, and influence a tournament’s prestige.
“There is no prize pool for tournaments and LAN events, you know. Mostly LAN events and online events for Kenyan teams need a prize pool to sponsor so that players can compete. If there is no prize pool, the players cannot compete,” Ridhwan says.
In competitive online gaming tournaments like the PUBG Mobile Africa Cup finals, every millisecond counts. During the competition, all 12 matches were powered by Safaricom’s 5G network, which delivered seamless gameplay for the players.
“If you are playing on 5 G, it has better ping and MS, you know, as compared to like, 4 G and 3 G,” Ridhwan says.
For Bay, the difference was clear.
“This is literally the first day I’m playing with 60 MS in Kenya. Crazy.” He says.
Kenya’s esports scene is no longer just about entertainment. It has evolved significantly, moving from cyber cafes to international tournaments, such as the Otamatsuri Gaming Convention held at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in August 2025, and the “Wai Ndai” online gaming challenge, which offered cash prizes and a grand prize of three Suzuki Altos.
“Looking at the growing tech-savvy youth population that we have aged between 18 and 35, it presents more than just a form of entertainment,” says Steve Ochiel, Digital Content Platform Lead at Safaricom.
He continues, “There are people who are making a living out of influencing on the gaming content. If you look at Twitch and the number of creators who are able to earn a living from it, it’s a perfect opportunity that suggests gaming is not just a form of entertainment, but also provides a viable career path for our youth.
Watch the video to learn more about what Kenyan gamers want.
