<html>
<head>
<style><!--
.hmmessage P
{
margin:0px;
padding:0px
}
body.hmmessage
{
font-size: 10pt;
font-family:Tahoma
}
--></style></head>
<body class='hmmessage'><div dir='ltr'>
<p class="newstype" style="margin-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; text-transform: uppercase; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-image: url(http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/image/view/-/539614/data/85/-/10r7mmuz/-/ico_file.png); font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; background-position: 0px 2px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">IN SUMMARY</p><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; "><ul style="font-size: 11px; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; "><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">In the past couple of years, the President has intervened in the matter of mobile telephone call costs in a manner that is not only surprising, but also suspect.</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">In the matter of Mobile Termination Rates, he acted in a most unconventional manner -- wading deep into the work of an agency that is more than four levels below his office.</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">The intervention, whatever its merits, has been done in a most irregular manner and in direct contravention of the law that guides the operations of the telecoms sector regulator -- the CCK. High level intervention in the operations and decision-making processes of an independent agency does set a bad precedent.</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">It is not clear why the President chose to use his private secretary to communicate to a State agency. Moreover, to demand that a fresh study of the impact of the new termination rates be done and the report taken to him for consideration amounts to gross violation of the regulator’s mandate.</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">To the best of our knowledge, the CCK has a credible pool of telecoms experts and Mr Kibaki has no expertise in matters telecoms. Neither is Prime Minister Raila Odinga in the frequencies administration matter into which he has waded with similar edicts.</li></ul><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Opinion+++Analysis/Kibaki+and+Raila+must+stop+meddling+in+CCK+s+work/-/539548/1489696/-/k01bft/-/index.html">http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Opinion+++Analysis/Kibaki+and+Raila+must+stop+meddling+in+CCK+s+work/-/539548/1489696/-/k01bft/-/index.html</a>
</div></div> </div></body>
</html>