[kictanet] 3 Media houses protest Majanja's Digital Migration Ruling

Mon Dec 30 19:32:24 EAT 2013

Indeed Wambua, across the border is Tanzania a consortium comprising two local media firms had to sell off 49% equity to foreign investors after it was unable to raise the required capital even after wining the licence. This means the company now can no longer be called local in the strict sense.

Its all good sounding to root for Kenyan companies, but the reality is you cannot apply this fully across the board. Its for this reason you see our leaders working to attract foreign investment. This is not to say they don't value Kenyan investors.

As for the licence in question, the issue was never about foreign or local investors; they simply lost the bid alongside other firms - both local and foreign. Its like arguing that examiners at a local college need to ensure local students don't fail their exams as foreign ones pass!

Can somebody tell us why local media are not willing to team up with another local media at Signet? Aside from those in court how many other players who fit local media description are not supporting their suit? Isn't it clear here we are dealing more with another issue than just the local media clamour. Who is more local than KBC?

From: Wambua, Christopher
Sent: Monday, December 30, 2013 06:50 PM
To: S.M. Muraya <murigi.muraya at gmail.com>; Walubengo J <jwalu at yahoo.com>
Cc: Consumer and Public Affairs; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Subject: Re: [kictanet] 3 Media houses protest Majanja's Digital Migration Ruling

Muraya

I did not in anyway suggest that Kenya firms are generally unable to prepare bids that can win licence tenders. My comments were only specific to the 2nd signal distribution licence.

Having said that, I wish to state here that there are many Kenyan firms that have been awarded licences in the ICT sector. The media firms for which you are passionately arguing their case are indeed our licensees. And many other local firms have been licensed in other market segments.

I also wish to add that there is no law or policy that hinders local firms from participating in the local ICT sector. As you may recall, at the initial stages of sector liberalisation, the ceiling for foreign ownership in local ICT firms was 30%.  Indeed, Safaricom and Airtel initially enjoyed 70% local shareholding. The initial ICT sector policy guidelines described ICT as a strategic sector of the economy in which local participation should be encouraged.

However, the government soon came to terms with the reality that telecoms infrastructure roll out required immense resources and subsequently reviewed the ceiling to 60 percent and ultimately to 30%

You will recall that the licensing process for the Second National Operator (SNO) collapsed due to the inability of the local partner to raise its part of the bid licence fee.  As a result, the government further reviewed the minimum amount of  shareholding in local ICT firms  to 20%, and gave foreign firms that win ICT  tender licences a three-year period within which to comply with this policy requirement.

Despite the reduction,  local ICT firms can still bid and win ICT licence tenders.

Wambua

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

From: S.M. Muraya
Sent: Monday, 30 December 2013 14:23 PM
To: Walubengo J
Cc: Consumer and Public Affairs; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] 3 Media houses protest Majanja's Digital Migration Ruling

Point is... we have contracted/licensed foreigners to control .KE Info Infrastructure, as if it is like outsourcing Road Construction.

Expected Response: "Kenyan firms do not know how to respond to tenders... cannot write essays/proposals well.."

It follows persons who look down on their fellow Kenyans/Africans cannot build market oriented Kenyan/African firms.

Political brokers/foreign firms do better in winning government contracts than in serving the markets they seek to exploit (not benefit).

They often hire evil parties to run interference/propaganda against local initiatives, on lists such as this - sometimes using pseudo names.

Which laws/existing contracts ensure local capacity and talent is developed? www. Links/Transparency will be appreciated.

No patriot can argue against foreign investments which bring manufacturing plants/knowledge to benefit our nation and region.

We oppose one way tickets/contracts for foreigners (in cahoots with public officials) to ignore local initiatives/investments.

Think about it, foreigners can easily run away, unlike the Kenyan with dark skin who has to beg for a VISA to enter developed nations.

What do we end up with for favoring foreigners (fronted by public officials who favored them)?
Anglo Leasing..Ghosts in some far away land.. we cannot prosecute for failing to deliver forensic labs and information systems/services.

At least the Kenyan firm can be shamed in court for not delivering services... even the Judges are corrupted by the .co.ke<http://co.ke>.

********

Way forward... .GO.KE<http://GO.KE>, favors Signet and keeps the offer "OPEN" to interested local firms to buy shares in Signet.

These KENYAN firms are likely to already develop, localize and demonstrate technical capacity.

Equipment can be sourced from China, S,Korea, or Japan, but, the usage of that equipment to distribute/broadcast digital signals must be done by a Kenyan firm/entity.

Regards

Murigi / Stanley Muraya

"Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city." Prov 16:32

On Mon, Dec 30, 2013 at 10:35 AM, Walubengo J <jwalu at yahoo.com<mailto:jwalu at yahoo.com>> wrote:
@Ngigi, @Ndemo,

this is the hard-talk that keeps me coming back to KICTAnet :-)

my 2pence is that this war is NOT about digital migration - given that both Government and Media houses agree on that.  This was is about who controls the digital signal distribution (licence).  Its sort of a chicken and egg problem in that the current digital signal distributors (Signet/PANG) dont have "local" content but have the license to distribute.  While the current local content guys (media houses) have the content but lack the digital license to distribute.

A license without content is like a gun without a bullet.  A bullet without a gun is of no use either.  Who will blink first?

Afrosinema continues :-)

walu.

--------------------------------------------
On Mon, 12/30/13, Ngigi Waithaka <ngigi at at.co.ke<mailto:ngigi at at.co.ke>> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [kictanet] 3 Media houses protest Majanja's Digital Migration Ruling
 To: jwalu at yahoo.com<mailto:jwalu at yahoo.com>
 Cc: "Consumer and Public Affairs" <cpa at cck.go.ke<mailto:cpa at cck.go.ke>>, "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke<mailto:kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>>
 Date: Monday, December 30, 2013, 9:32 AM

 Daktari,
 Having looked at your comments,  I would want
 to think the comparisons you have picked do not quite cut
 it.
 Fact, we currently have firms in Kenya apart
 from KBC who have a reliable analogue transmission network
 across the entire country and so far they have delivered on
 this.
 To upgrade this transmission network to pump
 out Digital Signals, instead of the Analogue is not rocket
 science. It can be done easily and would reuse such existing
 infrastrucure such as sites, masts, backup generators,
 logistics & security etc

 To say or assume that these firms could *not*
 provide a Digital Solution if asked to,  simply does not
 add up. Not when they have 60% of what you need and the
 remaining parts e.g multiplexers, antennas are off-the-shelf
 parts.

 Second, to compare these firms to Mobitelea is
 really pushing it. Here you are talking of firms that have
 demostrated capacity in building & maintaining their own
 infrastructure and that are employing Kenyans to maintain
 and operate them.

 These are not politically connected individuals
 who have nothing else to offer apart from access to high
 places.
 These are solid Kenyan companies.
 Thirdly, this case cannot even be remotely
 compared to KPTC where competition had to be introduced to
 kickstart our Telco Sector. In this case you are actually
 consolidating the *infrastructure* industry to a single
 vendor not liberating it.

 You are going from more than 10 firms each with
 own transmission infrastrucure to two firms, one of which
 (KBC) as you have correctly indicated doesn't cut it.

 So infact you have consolidated our entire
 transmission industry into a single company, and then given
 that to the Chinese!
 If there is something that smells Mobitelea.
 That is it!
 Fourth you mention the China Telcom partnering
 up with Apple iPhone as an example of how countries
 sometimes partner with firms outside their own. But you fail
 to mention they never went to Apple as their first point of
 call. They first partnered up with Lenovo, HTC, Huawei
 (solid Chines firms) before the call to Cupertino was
 made.

 You take care of your own first before you go
 taking care of others. That's what smart countries &
 leadership does.
 Lastly,  please let us differentiate btn the
 Infrastructure issues and Digital Migration issues.
 On Digital migration,  we are headed there and
 there is not much support for Media firms on this. Wapende
 wasipende!
 However,  on denying them the deal to build
 the Digital Infrastructure is very questionable and on the
 very least points to a certain 'Mobitelea' type
 deal, exactly what you say we ought to have avoided.

 But then again, This is Kenya. Where the
 impossible happens.
 Waithaka Ngigi
 Alliance Technologies

 Nairobi, Kenya
 www.A1.io<http://www.A1.io>
 On 29 Dec 2013 21:36,
 "Bitange Ndemo" <bitange at jambo.co.ke<mailto:bitange at jambo.co.ke>>
 wrote:

 Kivuva,

 Iam a supporter of building local capacities but whichever
 way CCK would

 have given out the license, there was going to be criticism.
  CCK wanted

 someone capable of putting up infrastructure after we
 discovered Signet

 was taking too long and Government did not have money.  The
 financial bid

 for all the local firms did not measure up to what CCK had
 requested.

 You realize CCK has gone through this journey before and
 were hit hard

 when policy requirement needed 70 percent local
 participation, we got

 Mobitelea.  Every policy pronouncement has some wheeler
 dealers behind

 singing patriotism.  World over what is needed is the
 ability to provide

 the solution.  You read the other day that China Telcom was
 partnering

 with I-Phone yet China is the greatest producer of mobile
 handsets.  There

 comes a time when we must accept partnerships that will help
 us build

 capacity.  We provided that opportunity in Signet but it
 was declined.

 When you focus on coverage to offer essential service, you
 look at

 capability as demonstrated in the financials.

 For many years we protected KPTC as a critical
 infrastructure but what we

 ended up with was poverty en masse.  Our people would not
 afford

 telephony.  Ever since we liberalized the communications
 sector, it is now

 contributing more than 5 percent to the economy up from zero
 percent.  It

 is dangerous to focus on one aspect of migration
 infrastructure.  If each

 of the broadcaster is given multiplexing ability, they will
 hoard the

 spectrum and shut out new entrants just when the creative
 economy is

 trying to pick up.  The current Media is simply trying to
 protect its own

 interests considering the fact that we have new hard working
 Kenyans

 entering the broadcast arena. Why would we be supportive of
 oligopolistic

 practices when the industry is opening up to more players?

 Court or no court Migration will take place and new business
 models will

 emerge.  This is where we need to focus our attention.
  The delaying

 tactics you are seeing is to disenfranchise more than 100
 new broadcasters

 that are born and bred in this country.  I said before and
 would state

 here that not even Signet or PANG would build a sustainable
 business model

 without serious content aggregation strategy considering the
 fact that

 technology changes every 3 years.

 Ndemo.

 > Ali, I'm afraid many listers are not getting your
 argument, that of

 > auctioning our critical resources to foreigners.

 >

 > Many of us have been dragged into taking sides either
 for the

 > government (CCK), or the local media houses. If we
 divorce them from

 > this debate, maybe we will be more objective.

 >

 > Let me digress, we have enough coal in Kitui to setup a
 powerplant

 > that can propell Kenya to vision 2030 and stop relying
 on poor

 > rainfall and other unreliable renewable energy like
 geothermal. But

 > what did we do with the coal? We auctioned it to the
 Chinese "who need

 > the power more than us." That is the same thing
 happening to our

 > spectrum resources.

 >

 > Forget about procurement laws and let's think about
 economics that

 > will build the country without taking sides. Is it
 better to give the

 > frequency distribution to a local firm, and keep local
 dollars local,

 > or is it better to have that capital flight to China?
 We should even

 > give the third licence FREE to a consortium of local
 firms than

 > auction it for a Billion dollars to a foreigner.

 >

 > Are we a nation that has lost national pride?

 >

 > Remember CCK cannot have an objective stand on this
 since Wambua has

 > to respond with the official government position, and I
 cannot fault

 > him for that. Only civil society can take the high
 moral ground and do

 > what is good for Kenya. Advocate for our critical
 resources, airwaves,

 > minerals, tourism, ... to be controlled by locals.

 >

 > Dr. Ndemo is the economist on the list. Can he teach us
 why developed

 > economies work so hard to support their industries,
 while Kenya works

 > extra hard to support foreign economies? What are the
 repercussions on

 > future generations?

 >

 > Anybody who cannot get this argument is beyond
 uncolonization.

 >

 > --

 > ______________________

 > Mwendwa Kivuva, Nairobi, Kenya

 > twitter.com/lordmwesh<http://twitter.com/lordmwesh>

 > kenya.or.ke<http://kenya.or.ke> | The Kenya we
 know

 >

 > _______________________________________________

 > kictanet mailing list

 > kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke<mailto:kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>

 > https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet

 >

 > Unsubscribe or change your options at

 > https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/bitange%40jambo.co.ke

 >

 > The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a
 multi-stakeholder platform

 > for people and institutions interested and involved in
 ICT policy and

 > regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for
 reform in the ICT

 > sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled
 growth and

 > development.

 >

 > KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of
 acceptable behaviors

 > online that you follow in real life: respect
 people's times and bandwidth,

 > share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or
 personalize, respect privacy, do

 > not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.

 >

 _______________________________________________

 kictanet mailing list

 kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke<mailto:kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>

 https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet

 Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/ngigi%40at.co.ke

 The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a
 multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions
 interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The
 network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
 sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth
 and development.

 KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable
 behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect
 people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't
 flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam,
 do not market your wares or qualifications.

 -----Inline Attachment Follows-----

 _______________________________________________
 kictanet mailing list
 kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke<mailto:kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
 https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet

 Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/jwalu%40yahoo.com

 The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a
 multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions
 interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The
 network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
 sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth
 and development.

 KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable
 behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect
 people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame
 or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do
 not market your wares or qualifications.

_______________________________________________
kictanet mailing list
kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke<mailto:kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet

Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/murigi.muraya%40gmail.com

The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.

KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/pipermail/kictanet/attachments/20131230/199f06cd/attachment.htm>