[kictanet] Is Telkom Kenya insolvent and should the Government bail it out? Again?

Tue Jun 4 18:47:46 EAT 2013

Not so simple…  

Telkom Kenya (at some point between 2006/2007), was East Africa's largest company by assets…  

Even if Orange was shortchanged by 300M USD, there are still significant real estate holdings (all the telephone exchanges - the land they have  etc etc).  

These are assets which were bought with public cash. It's a tricky situation where the government either throws good money after what is potentially a bad investment or the government lets Telkom die (with a significant investment of our tax money)… Simply letting the organization go, might cost the country more in terms of asset loss…  

On Tuesday, June 4, 2013 at 9:54 AM, Adam Nelson wrote:
> IMHO, the easy solution is for the government to divest its share and let the market take care of the rest.  Landlines and fixed data connections no longer require government support and if the company fails, it's not a big problem since Telkom is not a critical resource (unlike KPLC).
>  
> ---
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>  
>  
> On Tue, Jun 4, 2013 at 8:57 AM, Barrack Otieno <otieno.barrack at gmail.com (mailto:otieno.barrack at gmail.com)> wrote:
> > Ali,
> >  
> > I think Telkoms problems are deliberate, there is no way such an institution can be crippled without a deliberate move and sheer ignorance this is where we call for accountability, there must be someone smiling somewhere over its misfortunes. Sometimes Business is common sense, you reap what you sow, we need to know who was the sower in this case?, what was sowed and who reaped where because public money was pumped into this organization. We also need to have a public audit of its asset base and what really transpired when the organization was downsizing.
> >  
> > Best Regards
> >  
> >  
> > On Tue, Jun 4, 2013 at 8:29 AM, Ali Hussein <ali at hussein.me.ke (mailto:ali at hussein.me.ke)> wrote:
> > > Listers
> > >  
> > > The trials and tribulations of Telkom Kenya are a sad chapter in the country's road towards actualization of Vision 2030.  
> > >  
> > > What actually ails Telkom Kenya?  
> > >  
> > > What is the real reason behind its inability to leverage on its legacy systems to re-invent its business model?
> > >  
> > > Is one of the problems the fact that the Government shackled it with a nondescript, pedestrian workforce steeped in Moi era  non-performance ethos?    
> > >  
> > > Are there forces beyond the powers of the Management of Telkom Kenya (like Mpesa maybe?) that has made it so irrelevant in the scheme of things?  
> > >  
> > > In my humble opinion this has been a failed exercise in privatization.   
> > >  
> > > What did we do right in the Government divestiture of Safaricom in comparison to Telkom Kenya?  
> > >  
> > > http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Taxpayers-face-Sh6bn-bill-in-foul-share-deal/-/1056/1870526/-/item/0/-/ign3ff/-/index.htmlu  
> > >  
> > > Ali Hussein
> > > CEO | 3mice interactive media Ltd
> > > Principal | Telemedia Africa Ltd
> > >  
> > >  
> > > +254 713 601113
> > >  
> > > "The future belongs to him who knows how to wait." - Russian Proverb  
> > >  
> > > Sent from my iPad
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> >  
> > --  
> > Barrack O. Otieno
> > +254721325277
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> > http://www.otienobarrack.me.ke/  
> >  
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Regards,

Phares Kariuki

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