[kictanet] Kenya: Consumers furious over high internet prices

Thu Sep 10 11:54:55 EAT 2009

Onyango,
On a point of clarification - though I do not work for KICTANET or KENIC -
on EAI-GF I noticed that Vincent had sent an email to Skunkworks, Kenya
Internet Users lists and also had the same published in the print media.
There were non-IT guys in the forum and they were contributing just  as
anybody else. So why the fuss?
My argument will still be where is the so-called Consumer Rights body? Why
didn't they attend the EAI-GF, for instance?
I'm just short of understanding why should we just breath with fire online
and fail to do the same when an opportunity is created?

2009/9/10 Onyango Hatari <onyango at inbox.com>

>
> Sammy
>
> Thanks alot for the insight. I agree with you on many points but I chose to
> be blunt because all the time Michael Joseph has been talking its been about
> Kenyans and their peculiar habits and if you have attended any press
> conference you will know how Michael Joseph takes it personally. Michael
> Joseph should know that Kenyans and Kenyan Internet consumers are two
> different things because not all Kenyans use Safaricom Internet service and
> thats why we will respond to him personally the moment he becomes arrogant
> and feelingless.
>
> On EA IGF. KICTANET decided on many issues which locks out stakeholders.
> Who is the major stakeholders and dependants on the internet in Kenya? Did
> we see Mashada owners and administrators invited, Skunkworks, Young
> Professionals, BidiiAfrica, Mama Mikes, Kenya Imagine, Home Boyz, NYC IV,
> babatoto.com, and many others who depends on the internet and even those
> who understand more about internet issues and have more stake and not the
> usual Nation Media, Safaricom and Capital FM.
>
> The moment we discriminate with invitation then you create an opportunity
> for rebelion and people dont view you well. We want to see the young people
> operating various social media invited and take the podium as main speakers
> and then we get the government and private sector also to respond. Otherwise
> I dont need to attend the EA IGF because let me tell you that it will never
> unite and you will never have one voice with teh current discriminating
> attitude from KICTANET and the government
>
> About recession, no ISP who is refusing to lower cost is talking about
> recession. None. We want them to give us figures and the losses they are
> making or see themselves make when they lower the costs.
>
> Nobody will seperate personality from issues as long as personality
> generalise and attack population when face with issues
>
> OH
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> *From:* sam.gatere at gmail.com
> *Sent:* Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:30:15 +0300
> *To:* onyango at inbox.com
> *Subject:* Re: [kictanet] Kenya: Consumers furious over high internet
> prices
>
> woooooo drama! Bwana Hatari let me start by saying pole sana! you
> definately are very unhappy Internet consumer! however in the same breath a
> seperation of issues is important. MJ is not Safaricom and Safaricom is not
> MJ. In my humble opinion I would like to imagine that both (MJ and
> Safaricom) are independent enties in as viwed by the goverment and by the
> law. So the more approriate entity to lash out to would be Safaricom and Not
> MJ.
>
> On another point just this week the EA-IGF was on for three days at the
> Jacaranda Hotel, the details of this forum were made public on this forum
> and this forum was possibly one of the best places to voice this concerns
> about the ICT related issues form pricing to QoS (quality of Service) Dr.
> Ndemo among other, Members of parliament both Kenyan and from the East
> African region were present. If Bwana Hatari's sentiments were raised in
> this forum on Day one I assure someone would have given them a good ear.
> Another important thing that came out was that we need a strong consumer
> Advocacy group that has a "face" and we can deal with this issues head on! I
> have not heard any one Bash AccessKenya For example with their "double your
> bandwidth for the same price" campaign... This basically shows they still
> want to charge the same despite enjoying low BULK bandwidth cost. KDN or
> UUNet (I stand to be corrected) annoucned a 90% reduction on bandwidth from
> $5000 for 1Mb to little over $500 for the same.
>
> The other thing we may want to define is what is cheap or affordable
> Internet access? with the way things are now I doubt any telco or ISP will
> lower their rates remember they to are in this to make money and also
> consider that the global community is in recession. Some for example
> safaricom are a 20% stakeholder in the Teams cable which was a capital
> intensive venture!  They guys who ought to be bashed really in my view are
> the media houses and news content developers if they do not give news that
> shows that there is a big Internet market in the country who will want to
> lower their prices in light of all the competition?
>
> In my humble projection I do not foresee drastic price drops due to the
> landing of two fibre cables in the cost. There is just not enough
> competition. Maybe by March 2010 when EASSy lands and the Lion2 from Reunion
> Islands we shall see more serious competition. Also we need to understand
> the Last Mile solution also determines your final access cost! Maybe just
> maybe innovations such as that seen with triple play operator ZUKU might
> just be what will make Broadband Connectivity more accessible and possible
> more affordable!
>
> A seperation of the issues, personalities and corporations is essential
> then we may start to see some reasonable results.
>
>
> Kind Regards
>
>
> SammyG
>
> On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 10:01 AM, Onyango Hatari <onyango at inbox.com>wrote:
>
> What MJ is displaying is arrogance which is being permitted by Dr Ndemo.
> The arrogance where a poor investor can come to our country, borrow money
> from our banks and then after getting rich close shop the same day like GTV
> without anyone questioning.
>
> The arrogance where Michael Joseph can be brought here by the British
> masters and then forced upon us and after being rich buy guns and start
> sponsoring Kenyans like its happening in Isiolo where Lewa owners where MJ
> is a big owner of land is sponsoring violence and killing and maiming
> Kenyans and then we say that we have tribalism in Kenya.
>
> Tribalism is being fuelled by racist and arrogant people like Michael
> Joseph and if its hard to see how Michael Joseph who in January was just
> waxing lyrical how much we will save on Fibre Optics is now arrogant to teh
> core then we need to review our stakes.
>
> We dont need such cheap arrogance and Michael Joseph must be told so. How
> can you unilaterally decide without involving shareholders that tehy must
> get money through Mpesa? How can you just see Kenyans as people who eat and
> do nothing for the company while they gave yuo teh capital to expand?
>
> Lets be realistic here. this is arrogance and impunity to teh core and we
> must face it headon. Alex, ukitaka backup you got me. We will continue
> highlighting this until it sinks in the head of everybody taht we have
> Hyenas masquerading as mother Teresa
>
> Internet cost must go down and we support those fighting for this in
> facebook, and through other social media
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: alexgakuru.lists at gmail.com
> > Sent: Wed, 9 Sep 2009 15:57:54 +0300
> > To: onyango at inbox.com
> > Subject: Re: [kictanet] Kenya: Consumers furious over high internet
> > prices
> >
> > Prejudged you is not at all correct
> >
> > You were on local media news days ago on this issue. I immediately
> > asked you to react to my letter which you chose not to citing away on
> > travel, and busy with business. As of today, when I asked you when
> > specifically you would respond, you reverted with a two-word email
> > "Next week".
> >
> > You see, our advocacy for quality, affordable, fairly-priced
> > communication is not dependent on any service providers schedules or
> > their ability to respond, via email,  to our requests for
> > information.
> >
> > And in any case, we have the right to state our position regardless
> > and I am very sure that you can respond well via various media.
> >
> > regards,
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 3:47 PM, Michael Joseph<MJoseph at safaricom.co.ke>
> > wrote:
> >> I see you have prejudged us
> >>
> >> Regards
> >>
> >> Michael
> >> CEO
> >> Safaricom
> >>
> >> On 9 Sep 2009, at 15:35, "Gakuru Alex" <alexgakuru.lists at gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>> <http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/410/16/39787.html>
> >>>
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Sent from Nairobi, Kenya
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