[kictanet] Malaysia/Policy Clarifications

[mwananchi at hushmail.com]

Many thanks to PS Ndemo for his responses in answering the numerous 
issues raised despite the determined attempts of some list members 
to prevent that from happening.

PS Ndemo says he does not understand how the transaction was done 
yet he went ahead to somehow sign documents and commit the 
Government. This level of transparency is commendable as there are 
few in government who would give their honest assessment of such a 
matter.

There is a very short and simple chronology to the facts on the 
transaction. 

1. April 13, 2006 - Justice Ibrahim Mohammed in Case 1640/2004 in 
the High Court of Kenya rules that the Econet licence remains 
cancelled as ordered by the Minister for Information and 
Communications. The case had been filed by Econet against the 
Government and CCK in an attempt to reverse the cancellation of the 
Econet licence by the Minister.  
   http://rapidshare.com/files/152947988/final_court_ruling.pdf
   
2. July 20, 2007 - PS Ndemo signs a "settlement agreement" 
purporting to settle case 1640 which the Government had already won 
through the High Court's ruling upholding the Minister's 
cancellation of the licence.
   
The Government had already won the case! Econet was ordered to pay 
the Government and taxpayers costs and the court upheld the 
cancellation of the licence! There was nothing left to settle other 
than for Econet to meet its obligation of paying Tax Payers legal 
costs!

The second case which was filed personally against the Minister 
became moot, academic and died a natural death following the 
ruling. In any case Econet was unable to raise the US$15 million 
security it was ordered to deposit with the court in the case 
against the Minister.

The cover of "sub judice" does not hold when cases have already 
reached their logical conclusion and there are no ongoing cases.

The facts are simple:

- There were no cases to be settled against the Government, the 
Government won its case fair and square against Econet.
  
- The "settlement" appears to have been a public relations stunt 
aimed at keeping from public notice Justice Mohammed's ruling.

- The Government faced no liability contrary to PS Ndemo's 
statements following the rulings in favour of GK.

- Econet was liable to the Government and thus Taxpayers per the 
Judge's ruling and not as PS Ndemo inaccurately claims.
  
- Econet having failed to meet its licence obligations stood to 
legally and correctly loose any monies it had paid to the 
Government without the Government incurring any liability.
  
The Government won its case square and fair in court but PS Ndemo 
is misleading Wananchi that the Government was going to loose long 
after the case had already concluded. 

We are simply requesting the Government to treat all scams in the 
same commendable way the PS has taken on the Postapay and satellite 
crooks without engaging in selective justice. 

Regards, 

Peterson

On Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:59:23 +0000 Bill Kagai <billkagai at gmail.com> 
wrote:
>Daktari,
>This response is a clear sign of top notch leadership.
>Thx for clarifying for those of us who were in the dark.
>
>
>On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 8:07 PM, <bitange at jambo.co.ke> wrote:
>
>> Dear All,
>> I am in Malaysia.  This country's development is awesome.  Their
>> e-applications are indeed something we all aught to learn from.  
>You can
>> see the positive energy to move their country out of poverty in 
>their
>> eyes.  We must find ways to emulate these people and move away 
>from self
>> interest that is tearing our country apart.
>>
>> Prior to my travel here, I made some statements regarding local 
>ownership
>> of ICT investments with the aim of reviewing our policy.  This 
>is what I
>> am employed to do and I am still consulting with stakeholders to 
>see how
>> to advance the policy change.   Specifically, I argued as 
>follows:
>> •       The drop in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in our 
>sector is as a
>> result
>> of rigid policy on ownership of investments;
>> •       We must work toward attracting FDI if we have to sort 
>out
>> unemployment
>> of our youth which has reached crisis levels;
>> •       Large ICT multinationals have requested exemptions to 
>this policy
>> and
>> would rather have the local ownership through the stock market;
>> •       That those who have in the past purported to have the 
>capacity to
>> raise
>> sufficient local capital have failed and cannot raise new 
>capital thus
>> compromising the competitiveness of these firms;
>> •       Protectionism leads to poor service and uncompetitive 
>environment;
>> •       The problem of local equity participation can be 
>summarized by the
>> experience we went through during the search for the SNO – 
>promises of
>> non-existent funds and extortionism;
>> •       The absence of local equity participation in some 
>foreign banks did
>> not
>> stop Equity Bank from growing phenomenally;
>> •       There is no threat to domination from foreigners since 
>local firms
>> have
>> made great strides to eventually partner with multinationals 
>from points
>> of strength (read KDN/Altech; Safaricom/Onecom partnerships) and 
>it is
>> encouraging to see other local firms such as Access, Jamii, 
>Wananchi etc
>> coming up strongly that we don't need to require multinationals 
>to seek
>> for partners up front at the expense of our unemployed youths; 
>and
>> •       My liberalist economic approach is what in my view would 
>make our
>> country considering that some decisions we made along the same 
>lines have
>> greatly impacted all our lives.
>> Take for example the liberalization of International Gateways.  
>There were
>> threats to our lives that we could not survive to see the 
>benefits.  These
>> were threats made by those who benefited from illegal 
>terminations of
>> calls through Telkom Network leading to losses in excess of one 
>billion
>> shillings per year.  I am surprised that this move pains some 
>people to
>> date when we are enjoying lower tariffs with a more efficient 
>Telkom.  I
>> have no regrets on Telkom reforms at all and I am sure you all 
>know that I
>> never run from any responsibility.
>>
>> The Libyan matter has never been an issue before considering the 
>fact that
>> this are standard MOUs that we sign regularly whenever we market 
>Kenya out
>> there as an investment destination.  Yes I signed the MOU and 
>the two ICT
>> items in the MOU, that is, Telkom Kenya and Teams never went to 
>Libyans
>> since they lost in the bid process and rejected by local 
>investors
>> respectively.  In the same MOU were Energy items and of course 
>Grand
>> Regency but MOUs are not sale agreements.  We sign lots of these 
>MOUs and
>> even today here in Malaysia I have had to sign two.  These are 
>public
>> documents accessible to any Kenyan and there is nothing to hide 
>in the
>> course of serving our country.
>>
>> I have never in my life met Moi and as far as I am concerned I 
>have never
>> crossed his path either in his business or himself as a person.  
>The
>> decision to extricate the Government from the Econet saga in my 
>view saved
>> the tax payers a great deal of money.  I was not there when this 
>matter
>> started and I still do not understand the whole transaction but 
>it makes
>> great sense to remove the Government from any liability.  If 
>such a
>> decision did not favour anybody, then the courts can settle and 
>in any
>> case, this matter is still sub judice.
>>
>> Back to policy.  If you have noted, we are launching an average 
>of two ICT
>> firms per a week.  Large BPO multinationals have told me to my 
>face that
>> until we sort out the local ownership issue, they are going 
>elsewhere.
>> These are firms that employ in excess of 30,000 BPO agents.  
>Investment in
>> the sector runs into billions of shillings which people like 
>myself cannot
>> even dream of raising even 1% (and this is true for many of us 
>in Kenya).
>> Do we let such opportunities slip by because we want to be 
>nationalists?
>>
>> Regards
>>
>>
>> Ndemo.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------
>> This message has been scanned for viruses and
>> dangerous content by Jambo MailScanner, and is
>> believed to be clean.
>> ---------------------------------------------
>> "easy access to the world"
>>
>>

--
Click here to learn more about nursing jobs.
http://tagline.hushmail.com/fc/Ioyw6h4eKMGXhTQTmbf6gMPaKpzEItCperpbR6uzYlGPBRacUzi1JI/