[kictanet] [isoc_ke] Should Safaricom be broken up as 'recommended' by Airtel?

[Walubengo J]

@Mwendwa - u mention some 2010 regulations on competition published by the Ministry of ICT.  Not seen these regulations but I would be worried that the ministry of ICT is now publishing regulation - something that is the mandate of the Regulator.  Ministry should stick to policy.  

Either way, the Law (as in the Constitution and the Acts are superior to the Regulations and so in case of conflict I would expect the latter to override)

As for breaking up Safcom, I have always proposed we should given its giant state - even the might of MTN, Equity, Airtel combined will barely scratch its dominant position.  The question is not so much that they have "earned" this position through hard work and innovation, the question is about creating backup positions for ourselves as a country.  

Think about it, if MPESA broke down today for more than 2hrs today, we might have street riots. This is good for Safaricom but not good for Kenyan stability -unless and until we have a reliable alternative of MPESA with similar magnitude we are literally a social bomb waiting to be triggered.  Indeed if I was a foreign army wishing to attack Kenya, I will not target the barracks or statehouse, I will target MPESA.
Our success is has become our biggest liability and we must face that fact and begin to think around it constructively. Airtel is secondary in this conversation if you asked me. We should have had  it on own volition.

walu.
      From: Mwendwa Kivuva via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
 To: jwalu at yahoo.com 
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> 
 Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2015 5:04 PM
 Subject: Re: [kictanet] [isoc_ke] Should Safaricom be broken up as 'recommended' by Airtel?
   



On 18 February 2015 at 15:22, WANGARI KABIRU via isoc <isoc at lists.my.co.ke> wrote:

“The Kenya Information and Communications Act section 84W gives the Communications Authority of Kenya powers to declare a service provider to be dominant if their market share is at least 50 per cent of the relevant gross market segment,” Mr Matiang’i noted. 


Wangare, you have murdered the law, and read it out of context. 
"The current regulation on competition, published by the ICT ministry in 2010, equates dominance to abuse of the market. The regulator says this makes it difficult to declare a licensee dominant considering that the threshold of proof of abuse is very high."
______________________
Mwendwa Kivuva, Nairobi, Kenya

"There are some men who lift the age they inhabit, till all men walk on higher ground in that lifetime." - Maxwell Anderson


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