Back in the late 1990s and early 2000, if you said one day 3 in every 4 Kenyans would own a mobile phone you'd probably be mocked all the way to mars. Mobile phones were a reserve for elite working class who earned hefty salaries and could afford at least KES 10,000 to buy a mobile, let alone afford to regularly buy airtime for their phones. Back then, the cheapest Safaricom scratch card went for KES 250 while that of Kencel (now Airtel) went for KES 300. Buying a SIM card was again another expense that most couldn’t afford. A Kencel SIM card retailed at KES 1,200 before the price was reduced to about KES 999. A Safaricom SIM card on the other hand went for about KES 2500.

Mobile service providers are now practically dishing out SIM cards for free.

Let’s take a look at the prices of mobile phones back then and compare those prices to the phones they can buy now.

Do you remember the Alcatel One Touch Club?

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This phone featured speakerphone, Alarm clock, dual band capability, and was at most times locked to the Kencel network, limiting its use to a Kencel line alone. This phone retailed for at least KES 10,05o, its price could go as high as KES 15,000.

What can you get today:

You can get a LG Optimus ME P350 for KES 11,499 which runs on the Android platform, has a coloured screen and comes with a 3.5 Megapixel camera, all for KES 11,499 

You can also get a Nokia 302 Asha for about KES 9,999 which comes with 3.15 megapixel camera and Wi-Fi capability.

There is the LG C105 which goes for KES 5,499 and has a coloured screen, 1.3 Megapixel camera and can support a MicroSD of up to 4GB capacity.

There was the Motorola M3588

This was a common phone back then. It had dual band capability, and was available in two colours: Champagne and dark blue. You could get it for at least KES 12,700. 

What you can get today:

a Nokia 302 ASHA for KES 9,999 or a Samsung Galaxy Pocket for KES 9,999.

There are even more high end phones in comparison to the Motorola M3588 which have a lower price range:

There is the Samsung E3210 Caspi which retails at KES 6,499 or the Nokia C2-01 which retails at KES 6,999.

There was the Ericsson A1018S, a reserve for the well off members of the society

This phone retailed at KES 16,000 with one unique feature of easy colour changing. This phone came packed with different colour covers. You could change the interface a will.

KES 16,000 can now get you a Nokia 500 which comes with a 5 megamixel camera, 32GB MicroSD support and runs on the Nokia Belle operating system.

There was the common Motorola T2288 which retailed at KES 13,400

It actually ran on these 

There was the high end Samsung SGH600 which retailed at KES 22,600. it had voice activated dialling, vibrator and was dual band capable.

KES 22,600 can now get you a Huawei U8800 X5 worth KES 18,999 and you would still spare some change.

There was the Motorola V3690 worth KES 42,800 at the time.

This phone featured voice activation, message recording, dual band capability and vibrator alert.

KES 42,800 can now get you a Sony Ericsson Xperia ARC S at KES 39,999, spearing you some change, or a Samsung Galaxy Tab 7inch P6200 worth about KES 42,000.