A majority of Kenyans reported an outage of multiple Google services which included YouTube, Gmail, maps and Google Docs.

The services went offline at around 3pm but some of the services were restored shortly after.

Users around the world majorly in India and UK reported problems with Gmail, Google Drive, the Google Play Store, Maps, and more.

It was not clear what caused the outage.The services affected by the shut down are crucial as millions of Kenyans now rely on Google for critical services such as work communication (Gmail), getting directions (Google Maps), as well as news and entertainment (YouTube).

A statement from YouTube acknowledged that the streaming service was aware of the world wide outage.


"We are aware that many of you are having issues accessing YouTube right now – our team is aware and looking into it. We'll update you here as soon as we have more news," read the statement in part.

According to Down Detector, a website that shows a live map of outages showed that the outage impacted people worldwide.

Many businesses were affected in the shot period the site was down as some companies rely on google docs while teachers depended on the services to teach.

"Google Gmail YouTube AdWords down! across Europe, US, Canada, India, SA, Kenya, countries in Central and South America, Australia & likely more.2020 clearly ain’t done with us yet," observed Anthony Muraya.

"Africa Kenya, all Google properties not working, what could be wrong?" questioned another.


YouTube is estimated to have over 2 billion users who watch one billion hours of video everyday. It is also estimated that 79 per cent of Internet users have their own YouTube accounts.

Gmail, on the other hand, has over 1.8 billion users worldwide. As of June 2020, it was established that 306.4 billion emails are sent and received daily. https://www.kenyans.co.ke/news/60278-failure-google-services-affects-millions-kenyans