A ship's anchor has been dropped onto a sub marine fiber optic cable off the coast of Kenya in East Africa severely disrupting the region's internet access speeds. 

The BBC reported that the ship was waiting to enter the port of Mombasa when it anchored in a restricted area. 

The cable is owned and operated by the East African Marine Systems (Teams) who told the BBC that it could take 14 days to repair.

It said: "Cables run by Teams, which is partly owned by the Kenyan government, and Eassy - a consortium of telecoms companies - were damaged at the weekend.

Internet service providers and mobile phone operators have re-routed to the Seacom link - which was not damaged by the dropped anchor."

The BBC's Noel Mwakugu in Nairobi says as a result internet connections are expected to slow down by 20% in Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Ethiopia and South Sudan's capital, Juba.

Teams links the region to the United Arab Emirates - and Eassy, which went live in July 2010, links countries along the East African coast.