[kictanet] Kenya: Consumers furious over high internet prices

Thu Sep 10 11:55:02 EAT 2009

Interesting debate....
I am an Internet user, NYC IV member, partner for change who was invited to
EA IGF through these lists. I do agree that there are a lot of consumer
issues and for sure we need a strong civil society movement to lobby. But
why did you not come to the EA IGF? Those of us who were there stood up and
asked the questions. Shall we always complain as users or shall we attend
whatever fora there are and make our contributions?  Shall we ever even meet
face to face as the consumer/users movement or shall we keep hiding behind
the online discussions to complain insistently?
Stand and be counted!

Bomu

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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-- 
Grace L.N. Mutung'u (Bomu)
+254721898732
+254736091242
Kenya
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