The broadband mess in Kenya - and I’m so angry

Kenya is in dire need of investment in technology. That is why I am angry that the factors hindering growth are actually "policy" related to this sector, and not due to lack of innovators or investors. There are many innovators and investors willing to take the challenge of helping Kenya come out of the dark ages of narrowband and into the grace of broadband.
The problem rises from the differences between the Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) and other 3G service providers. There seems to be a great cloud of varying information which hardly gets to the man on the street. The unclear issues include the following:
The Zain situation with the CCK
Though very confusing, The East African recently reported that they have only applied for a 3G licence but have not paid for it. However, some Zain insiders earlier claimed that they had paid and were in the process of testing.
Meanwhile, a couple of senior chairmen and CEOs I had the privilege of meeting with in a closed session also mentioned that they been informed that Zain had paid the fee. Every once in a while it is reported that the Zain connection knocks into 3G, and a couple of local techies have told me that they have hit 3G before both on their modems and handsets.
The Orange situation with the CCK
This is another saga that was recently clarified when Orange finally stated their position. They too find the US$25m (Sh1.9billion) 3G licence fee excessive.
The reason we have no alternative provider is because the fee is set too high. But why? Since there is no other obvious reason, short of greed, it seems to go back to two individuals and a long-term strategy by the Government.
Safaricom still dominates the market but not because of innovation. President Kibaki recently directed that number portability be executed by end of January 2010, although it now appears this will not happen until mid-2010. Worse, someone had earlier mentioned to me that even two years down the road we will still be in anticipation. I will not be surprised if this was some ambitious politician's manifesto come 2012. And even Prime Minister Raila Odinga, instead of getting down to supervisory work, which is his real job, is busy flapping his gums about the Mau Forest and ODM policies, but not about what the Government is doing wrong.
The lack of ability to criticise Safaricom in media means we cannot complain about the poor service. Yet Michael Joseph, the Safaricom CEO, has been named CEO of the Year in Kenya.
Corporate cancer
The African leadership cancer goes beyond government and into corporates. But then again, in Safaricom's case, the corporate is in bed with the Government.
As it appears, we won’t have a new 3G service provider because Bitange Ndemo, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Charles Njoroge, the Director General at the CCK would prefer this not to happen, and if it must, that the competitors suffer in getting it. They also are not willing to look at alternative solutions to allowing other networks because Safaricom needs protection, to keep the money flowing in. Government protection. In the next two years, voice will probably be a dead business. Data will be the goose that lays the golden eggs – so that prohibitive $25m 3G fee is, one suspects, trying to protect the data for one company.
Zain, Yu and Orange’s alternatives
• Zain, Yu and Orange need to negotiate a better rate for the 3G licence and then finance a debt repayment on behalf of the CCK to cover the excess fee Safaricom paid.
• CCK keeps the same fee and work on a debt recovery management plan where they get percentages of incomes till the fee is covered, plus interest of course. The licence can be issued for free or at a deposit, and I believe CCK would have recovered the sums within five years.
• CCK refunds Safaricom the US$ 25m and we forget 3G. That way, no-one has it and it’s an even playing field.
Orange, is the beast that Safaricom is worried about. Funny, Orange is just about to get it right, and the only reason 99 percent of the country is not with Orange, is because it is yet to discover flat billing on data. This per MB rates they keep trying to sell on a sliding scale are so confusing and people would rather not buy. Orange is the only company that does not need to be greedy and they will get all the customers. But the greed is showing. The French owners are still French, and they bite. And they are greedy. They need to ease up.
Turning our backs on Ndemo
My point is, we need to isolate and openly ignore Bitange Ndemo who we openly allow into the tech fold (as his actions on media freedoms have shown, he is not a great believer in freedom of expression). Inviting him into Skunkworks meetings and conferences and other meet ups needs to stop. He needs to get the hint. I find it sad that we allow the same person who is ruining tech in Kenya to come in.
I find it sad that we, the tech community, have not stood up as one and said Enough! But we are Kenyans, the only things we know to unite around usually revolve around entertainment and even then, not for long. We have no common goals or agendas to developing tech in Kenya, we have united common wishes and ideologies, but we are not really out there turning wishes into goals. As for Charles Njoroge, well, I guess I’m glad I don’t run into him. I might say some unhappy words.
I hate the fact that my job now involves spending more time dealing with politics and struggling to get connections to work rather than working on projects. A good 80 per cent of my productive time is wasted because of these two individuals and I am getting fed up with losing ideas and time because of all this rubbish. So let’s begin showing our outrage by boycotting these two.

Phone firms say rivalry rules still not level

The telecoms industry is under heat over competition rules that were opposed by Safaricom prompting the government to appoint consultants to review them.

Related Stories

 

Essar Telecoms says that it was not the work of the consultant to make rules rather that should have been left to the Communications Commission of Kenya. Photo/FILE 

 

Frontier Economics, a UK consultancy firm appointed by the Ministry of Information and Communications in June to take a fresh look at telecom regulations, has been accused by operators of re-working them in favour of Safaricom.

The consultants, in their verdict, found out that some sections of the rules were not in conformity with international best practices.

They have proposed the removal of the fair competition rule in the definition of dominance as a player with more than 25 per cent of total revenues in a particular market segment saying that threshold is low in view of best practice.

Unfair to amend document

In response, Mr Rene Meza, Zain Kenya’s managing director says, “whereas we appreciate the spirit of consultation in the sector, we fault the manner in which the review of these regulations has been conducted.”

Mr Meza says that in principle, it is unfair to amend a document that has been arrived at after extensive consultations just to accommodate the wishes of one player.

He says changes, if any, should have only been accommodated after the laws had been implemented.

“Laws are not created to suit one party,” he said, adding that as much as the revised regulations are a product of a review by a third party, the process of selecting the consultant should have been all-inclusive.

He says that by appointing Frontier Economics unilaterally, the impartiality of the process and the ultimate output becomes questionable.

Telkom Kenya’s head of regulatory affairs, Mr Stephen Kiptiness says that the competition rules are not introduced to punish for abuse of dominance, rather to control dominant behaviour which is an undesirable consequence of competition.

Essar Telecom’s country manager Atul Chaturvedi says, “Frontier Economics does not make regulations. It is only CCK which does. They were supposed to see whether our recommendations are in line with best practices in the world and they did bench marking with EU.”

Safaricom, which controls 78 per cent of the market, had opposed the regulations saying that they were aimed at curtailing its growth.

It accused the Communications Commission of Kenya of allegedly trying to penalise it for huge success.

In the earlier version of the regulations, it could take 90 days for a provider of regulated services (dominant player) to publish intended tariff changes.

The consultant has, however, proposed a reduction to 30 days.

According to Frontier Economics, the regulator will not have the power to set tariffs in cases where they are not satisfied with a dominant player’s application to adjust them.

The firm says CCK will only advise an operator to make readjustments on the proposed tariff without being specific.

In the clause of dominance, no operator will be declared to be so exclusively due to its market share but other factors.

They include those that can limit the entry of new players and those that can bar existing operators from expansion.

Micro-financier sets up shop in western Kenya

Mr. Dan Awendo, InvesteQ Capital CEO (right) receiving an award. Photo/FILE

Scramble for small and medium enterprises by financial institutions has intensified in Western Kenya with the latest entry of a new player.

InvesteQ Capital, a financial firm specialising in serving small and medium enterprises has opened an office in Kisumu and joins Faulu Kenya, Real People and Kenya Women Finance Trust which are targeting small businesspeople who tend to shy away from commercial banks due to high interest rate.

According to Mr Dan Awendo, the chief executive officer, the move meant is to bring services closer to the people from Western Kenya region and who have been travelling all the way to Nairobi to be served.

“We have been operating in Nairobi for the last seven years and most of our customers have been from outside Nairobi and in particular Western Kenya and that is why we are bringing service closer to them,” said Mr Awendo.

Speaking at Nation Kisumu office, Mr Awendo said that many people who wish to do business in the region have been unable to do so due to lack funds.

“We will be targeting people who have business ideas but lack funds to execute those ideas in Western Kenya due to devolving of funds to the grassroots,” the chief executive officer said.

InvesteQ general manager Allan Ogendo said the firm provides working capital, structured finance and other financial products that an SME may require to grow.

BECOMING ASSERTIVE IS MORE THAN FINDING THE RIGHT WORDS TO SAY

The foundation for effective assertion is your own thinking. Your thinking can either block you from being assertive or help you become more assertive. When you are in the process of developing a new assertive pattern, you will want to develop new ways of thinking as well as new ways of saying things. Here are some examples of ways of thinking that block and help you.

“Blockers”
I badly need this person’s approval.
I must never hurt anyone’s feelings.
I’d be a selfish person if I asked for what I want.
I couldn’t stand any scenes.
 
“Helpers
I would like this person's approval, but I could live without it.
It is unfortunate that someone’s feelings may be mildly hurt.
It is part of the Judeo-Christian ethic to think of myself as well as others.
While it would not be pleasant to have a confrontation, I could certainly stand it.

Kenya’s Constitution Passage May Draw Investment

Kenya probably will approve a new constitution tomorrow in a test of whether East Africa’s biggest economy can avoid the bloodshed that marred previous votes and restore its reputation as a stable investment haven.

The referendum will usher in changes that include devolving presidential powers and making land distribution more equitable. Those issues were at the root of post-election clashes in 2008 that left 1,500 people dead and forced 300,000 to flee their homes. The violence cost the economy an estimated $1 billion.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said in June the U.S. administration backs the new constitution and predicted that approval would draw record foreign investment. Centum Investment Co., Kenya’s only publicly traded investment company, agrees.

“If it’s a yes, I think it will have an immediate impact on reducing the perception of political risk in Kenya,” Centum Chief Executive Officer James Mworia said in an interview in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital. Centum has stakes in the Kenyan unit of Detroit-based General Motors Co. and Kenya Commercial Bank Ltd., according to its website.

Ethnic fighting pitting the Kalenjin and Luo communities against the Kikuyu people broke out in the aftermath of presidential elections in December 2007 that were disputed by supporters of President Mwai Kibaki and his main opponent, Raila Odinga. Kibaki and Odinga signed a power-sharing peace accord two months later that promised changes to the constitution. Both leaders publicly support the new draft.

Slower Growth

Kenya’s economic growth rate dropped to 1.7 percent in 2008 from 7.1 percent a year earlier as a result of the violence. Revenue from the tourism industry, Kenya’s third-biggest source of foreign currency after horticulture and tea, and which accounts for about 13 percent of gross domestic product, was slashed by over a third in the same year.

As many as 64,000 security forces will be deployed across the country to safeguard the referendum, the Independent Interim Electoral Commission said today. There have been isolated incidents of violence before the poll, including a June 13 grenade attack at a prayer rally opposing the constitution in which five people were killed.

“This is the most significant vote ahead of 2012, and given the outcome of the last time Kenyans went to the polls, everyone is looking for the smooth passage,” Razia Khan, Africa analyst at London-based Standard Chartered Plc, said in a phone interview. Kenya holds its next general election in 2012.

President Kibaki urged voters to turn out in large numbers.

“Security has been stepped up in all parts of the country,” Kibaki said in a broadcast on the state-run Kenya Broadcasting Corp. today. “Tomorrow let us go out and vote peacefully.”

Majority Support

At least 68 percent of Kenyans back the proposed changes to the constitution, according to a poll last week by market- research company TNS Research International. About 25 percent said they will reject the document, according to the poll, which had a margin of error of 2.45 percentage points.

Approval of the changes may prevent violence at subsequent elections because the new constitution tackles issues at the core of conflict in Kenya, said Omweri Angima, program officer at the Nairobi-based Center for Multiparty Democracy.

“Power will be shared broadly, empowering people and doing away with tribal kingpins who create mischief,” Angima said. “Land, devolution, dispute-resolution mechanisms: These are affirmative clauses that will give people hope and make them feel it’s not necessary to engage in violence.”

The new constitution may also curb corruption, the 600- member Kenya Association of Manufacturers said in an advertisement in the Daily Nation on July 28.

‘Bribes’

“Many businesses have suffered in the hands of public servants who use their offices to extract bribes,” the industry group said. “The proposed constitution largely reflects the design of a more accountable government.”

Proposed changes include handing powers to Kenya’s 47 counties, such as responsibility for basic health services, agriculture, county roads and water. Public finances and authority over land would be audited by independent bodies to boost accountability. Lawmakers would have to vote to approve the president’s choice of Cabinet ministers and judges.

Maximum leases on land would be reduced, retroactively, to 99 years from 999 years, making ownership accessible to more Kenyans, and property handed out by politicians to their supporters will become public land. The majority of Kenyans are subsistence farmers.

Election violence often erupts in areas such as the Rift Valley, the tea-growing region where ethnic groups disagree over ancestral land rights, said Odenda Lumumba, coordinator of the Kenya Land Alliance. Reconciling differences over property distribution may help to resolve these decades-old disputes.

Hot Spots

“Central Kenya, Rift Valley; these have always been perpetual hot spots and will remain volatile until changes to the land laws,” Lumumba said.

Some Kenyans don’t believe that, once approved, the new constitution will be implemented, International Centre for Policy and Conflict Executive Director Ndung’u Wainaina said by phone from Nairobi.

Obstacles to implementation may include a lack of government manpower and financial resources, he said. “There must be drafting of roadmaps to enact a huge amount of laws. Our parliament is known to be slow at that.”

This week’s referendum comes against a backdrop of increasing tension between Kenya’s Muslims and Christians, adding to the mix of regional and ethnic divisions that stoked the violence in 2007, Bethuel Kiplagat, chairman of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission, said on July 15.

Christian Opposition

Christian religious groups oppose a proposal in the new constitution that permits women whose lives are endangered to end a pregnancy, already written in the penal code, and another clause, in the existing charter, that recognizes Islamic laws on inheritance, marriage and divorce.

“We warn that it will bring in unethical, un-African and un-Godly lifestyles,” John Cardinal Njue, Archbishop of Nairobi and Chairman of the Kenya Episcopal Conference, along with 25 pastors in Kenya, said in a statement in the Daily Nation on July 31. “There is concern that the rights of the family and the parents have not been properly defended; that there is still an opening for gay marriages.”

Kenyan political leaders have promised a new charter for almost 20 years to replace one dating back to independence from Britain in 1963.

About 150 international observers will join 4,612 local monitors in observing the vote by 12.7 million registered voters, Independent Interim Electoral Commission Chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan said on July 28. The expectation is that Kenyans will keep the peace, he said.

“We expect to have a peaceful referendum,” Hassan told reporters today in Nairobi. “We will not go there again,” he said, referring to post-election violence in 2008.

The final results of the referendum should be known within 48 hours after polling stations close while provisional numbers will be published much earlier, Hassan said. Voting starts at 6 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m. tomorrow, he said.

Shopping takes a rest as Kenyans go out to vote

Mr Vimal Shah former chairman of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers says employers must give their staff time off to vote.

Most businesses are closed Wednesday across the country as Kenyans decide on the fate of the proposed new constitution.

With President Kibaki declaring Wednesday a public holiday, government operations are definitely unavailable as public servants take part in the referendum by both voting and providing other essential services like security.

On its part, the business community said it felt it was their duty to facilitate their employees to exercise their democratic rights by voting during the referendum by not operating on Wednesday.

Their democratic rights

“We had recommended that all people be allowed to go and exercise their democratic right,” Mr Vimal Shah, former chairman of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers told the Daily Nation.

“Even those discharging essential services will operate in shifts so that they can vote in turns,” said Mr Shah who is also the Bidco Oil Refineries chief executive.

“It is a duty for them to close because it is a presidential decree that today is a public holiday and the referendum is a matter of national importance,” Central Organisation of Trade Unions Francis Atwoli said.

In his characteristic abrasive manner he, however, said some businesses had not given their employees a break to vote before returning to work.

“They are breaching a presidential decree and the government should take action against them,” said the trade unionist.

For those who like utilising the holiday period to do their shopping, today will find their alternatives limited with most supermarkets closed throughout the day.

Uchumi Supermarkets was the first to announce on Thursday last week that it will remain closed.

“We cannot afford to inconvenience our staff, suppliers and customers in their quest to exercise their democratic right,” said Uchumi Supermarket chief executive, Mr Jonathan Ciano.

“That is why we felt it was our duty not only to close for one day, but also alert them well in advance,” he said.

Nakumatt Supermarkets followed suit by placing an advertisement in the daily newspapers on Wednesday, informing its suppliers and shoppers of the closure.

“All branches will remain closed on Wednesday August 4, 2010,” the supermarkets chain said in the advert.

The giant retailer, which has branches in most of the major towns in Kenya, said its 24-hour outlets close on Wednesday at 6am before opening like all others on Thursday August 5 at 8.30am.

Others like Tuskys, Ukwala and Naivas supermarkets are also not operating on Wednesday.

High turnout for Kenyan constitution referendum

Kenyans voted in droves in a referendum on a new constitution Wednesday, a poll seen as a test of democracy after disputed 2007 elections and one that could reshape the politics of east Africa's largest economy.

The constitutional changes are seen as important to avoid a repeat of the post-election tribal bloodshed in early 2008 that killed 1,300 people and took the country of about 40 million people to the brink of anarchy.
They address the corruption, political patronage, land grabbing and tribalism which have plagued Kenya since it won independence in 1963. The changes allow for greater checks on presidential powers, more devolution to grassroots administrations and an increase in civil liberties.
There were long queues at polling stations across the country, especially in the Rift Valley centres of Eldoret and Nakuru that were at the epicentre of the post-election violence.
Most Kenyans are expected to vote in favour of the new constitution, according to surveys. If the law fails, Kenya would revert to the current constitution bequeathed by former colonial power Britain.
William Ruto, a cabinet minister based in the Rift Valley who is leading "No" campaigners angry with clauses related to land ownership, said he would accept the outcome.

"This is a historic moment in our country and I'm sure Kenyans will make the right decision," he told reporters in his constituency. "Everyone has an obligation to accept the decision of the people of Kenya."
A previous attempt to change the constitution through a referendum in 2005 failed. To be adopted, the law requires a majority of 50 percent plus one vote of the ballot cast nationally and at least 25 percent of the votes in five of Kenya's eight provinces.

http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE6730EN20100804?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0