Comments on: Kenya’s Tech Regulation Conundrum

By: Rop Kiplagat

Rop Kiplagat — Sat, 29 May 2010 07:31:25 +0000

Let competition thrive. Government has no business.

By: Rop Kiplagat

Rop Kiplagat — Sat, 29 May 2010 07:29:42 +0000

Business are out to make profits. When you make profits due to your innovative products and marketing, you should not be punished. Celtel (the parent Zain company) beagan operations earlier than Safaricom and for the first few months it had more customers but were swloly edged out. So where was the dominance issue not coming up then?

By: Louis

Louis — Fri, 28 May 2010 08:30:00 +0000

the past 2 days the newspapers in kenya have been like Safaricom informercials. But what really strikes me is that the same PS who is cancelled the rules was there at the AGM of Safaricom, the PORK was at Safaricom’s recent product launch then few days later the new rules were recinded.

So at the end of the day who is supposed to look out for the consumer if the PORK himself and he’s ministers and and permanent secretary are beneficiaries of Safaricoms largese.

I’m not suggesting money is changing hands but im just saying if Safaricom calls you to sit at there product launch and you are the PORK or the permanent secretary clearly you have at that moment in time everything else is secondary in importance. So clearly Safaricom is benefitting from undue influence.

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Banking%20via%20phone%20made%20possible%20/-/1056/920928/-/egk5rtz/-/index.html

By: Kobby Owusu

Kobby Owusu — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:05:01 +0000

I think Ghana has a similar problem where incubents ‘abuse’ their position with unfair practices and usually go unpunished. This week Glo through unofficial channels complained about sabotage and other unfair trade paractices in the telecom market in Ghana.

So far both the NCA and the communication minsitry seem to be more concerned about not looking bad rather than trying to investigate and punish any culprits involved. In fact I believe if conclusive evidence shows no sabotage but just Glo’s own inabaility to execute quickly enough to launch, then they should be the ones punsihed as their comments hurt Ghana.

I am sure Kenyan and Ghanaian professionals in a lot of sectors will fill up pages trading ‘war stories’ about unfair paractices by incumbents in all sectors.

Sadly regulators usually dance to the tune of these large incumbents. Its time for regulators around Africa to show who is BOSS!!!