NITF ICT Forum: Minister Under Fire for Sacking CCK Board

[Charles Lewis]

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Minister Under Fire for Sacking CCK Board

http://allafrica.com/stories/200503080708.html	
The East African Standard (Nairobi)
March 9, 2005

Alari Alare
Nairobi

The Government's decision to sack the Communication Commission of Kenya
(CCK) board has thrown the industry into disarray.

This means that at the moment, no licence can be issued, no dispute can
be settled and no regulatory intervention can take place.

CCK staff yesterday refused to comment on the board's sacking by
Information and Communications minister Raphael Tuju on Monday evening.

The sector's umbrella body, Telecommunications Service Providers
Association of Kenya (Tespok), criticised the move and said a vacuum had
been created due to lack of communication by the Government on how
affairs within the sector should be managed.

Tespok chairman Joseph Mucheru said Tuju's move was a blow to Kenya's
economy.

"Over 100 companies await processing of their licences in order to
establish business, employ Kenyans and bring communications facilities
and services to the economy.

This has all been cut short by interference from the very Government
that committed itself to economic reforms, improved employment and
support for private sector driven development", said Mucheru.

Speaking during the opening of the Second National ICT Convention in
Nairobi yesterday, Mucheru said the chairman of the African ISP
Association, W Stucke, had lamented that Tuju's action would scare off
investors in the continent.

"Now watch investments in Africa as a whole, not just Kenya, wither up
and blow away in the wind".

Mucheru said Tuju's action could only be construed as intrusive and
short-sighted.

"The action can only be construed as obstructive and diversionary since
it comes in the midst of the on going liberalisation of the sector".

Tespok commended the sacked board and CCK's director general Sammy
Kirui who was sent on compulsory leave on Monday.

"The immediate former board of directors and the director general had
successfully managed Kenya's transition into a competition framework",
said Mucheru.

Kirui is also the current chairman of the International
Telecommunications Union Council that oversees telecommunications
worldwide.

"This is due to recognition by the international community of CCK's
outstanding efforts to reform Kenya's regulatory environment from one of
the worst in the world to the current status where we are being emulated
by countries such as South Africa because of our exemplary and
progressive regulations", said Mucheru.

Mucheru also said Kirui had a security of tenure under the Kenya
Communications Act of 1998 "and his removal from active duty without any
explanation begs the question as to whether the Government really
respects the law".

He said the appointment of an acting Director-General from a
Ministerial department raises questions of sincerity on the Government
side in providing an independent regulator as mandated by the law.

The disbandment of the board came only a day after reports that a
powerful cartel was interfering with CCK operations.

But sources had earlier indicated to The Standard that there was a
disagreement between Tuju and the CCK board over the minister's move to
cancel a GSM licence issued to Econet Wireless Kenya.

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Kenya telecoms in flux after regulators fired
Tue March 8, 2005 4:26 PM GMT+02:00
http://www.reuters.co.za/locales/c_newsArticle.jsp;:422dbe68:37d3dde29193a9b8?type=businessNews&localeKey=en_ZA&storyID=7839537


By George Obulutsa

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's abrupt dissolution of its telecoms
regulatory board infuriated companies on Tuesday, which said the
disruption might further delay long-awaited liberalization and
discourage new investment.

Information and Technology Minister Raphael Tuju dissolved the board of
the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) on Monday, saying in a
statement only that he had ordered "investigations into various issues
that have come to the attention of the ministry".

The former board had moved toward speeding up the freeing of the
sector, but experts say it had been frustrated by government officials
keen to protect state-owned, loss-maker Telkom Kenya.

"It was quite shocking that this thing happened. The board that was
disbanded was very much into opening up the sector in terms of being
able to get new players to come into the market," said Robert Kariuki
Mugo, technical director at Internet service provider UUNET Kenya.

A new board may not be as in favour of opening up the market, Mugo
said.

The government in July removed Telkom's monopoly over international
gateways and Internet networks, but the licensing of new players has
dragged, which has frustrated Kenyans tired of hefty phone bills and
unreliable, slow Internet service.

Industry sources said the dispute between the board and Tuju was
triggered by a commission order to Telkom Kenya to reconnect an Internet
company that offered cheap international calls, which undercut the state
company's high prices.

"I think CCK has unwittingly stepped into a snake's nest and they are
bearing the brunt of it," said Brian Longwe, a director of the
Telecommunications Service Providers Association of Kenya.

STROKE OF A PEN

"We really fail to understand how, with the stroke of a pen, our entire
sector has been thrown into total chaos and anarchy," he added.

The telecoms sector is one of the fastest-growing industries in the
country, with two mobile phone companies and a third on the way and 4
million subscribers from a population of 31 million. CCK says the sector
earns around 50 billion shillings annually.

The investors who are needed to modernize Kenya's telecoms
infrastructure may shy away because of the minister's decision.

"This to us speaks of the highest level of government interference.
Right now there are over 100 licences that are pending before the
commission. They cannot be processed because there is no board to do
so," Longwe said.

It is not the first time Tuju has stepped into the liberalization
fray.

Last year he cancelled the licence of Kenya's third mobile phone
operator, Econet Wireless, over a dispute between its shareholders, and
a Kenyan court promptly restored the licence. He also cancelled a tender
on a second national operator, citing irregularities and causing
controversy.

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Telkom is Ordered to Restore ISP Connectivity

http://allafrica.com/stories/200503071551.html
The East African Standard (Nairobi)
March 8, 2005
Alari Alare
Nairobi

The Government has added its voice to the regulator's order to Telkom
Kenya to immediately restore connectivity to ISP Kenya Limited.

Information and Communications permanent secretary James Rege said it
was wrong for the corporation to take the law into its own hands.
http://www.oracle.com/go/?&Src=3188850&Act=19 

Instead, he said, it should report any disagreements with its clients
to the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK).

"It is CCK who should direct any disconnection of service.

If Telkom felt that the service provider was not acting within
provisions of their agreement, they should have reported the matter to
the regulator", said Rege.

He was responding to questions from journalists during the opening of
the Association of Regulators of Information and Communications in
Eastern and Southern Africa (ARICEA) workshop at a Nairobi hotel.

Rege's sentiments come a week after the CCK instructed Telkom Kenya to
restore a high capacity E1 telephone line that allowed Sema calling card
holders to make international calls at an affordable rate.

CCK director general Sammy Kirui said that like any service provider,
Telkom does not enforce the law. "Enforcement of the law is the work of
a regulator".

The workshop will discuss wide-ranging subjects relating to policy
guidelines on consumer protection, key performance indicators,
numbering, e-strategy and a model postal bill.postal bill.

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Tuju, Tell Us More On CCK
http://allafrica.com/stories/200503080820.html
		
The Nation (Nairobi)
EDITORIAL
March 9, 2005
Nairobi

Minister Raphael Tuju on Tuesday dissolved the Communications
Commission of Kenya board and sent its director on leave. He did not
have the courtesy to explain.

But the decision by the Information and Communications minister came a
few days after a court ruled that the Government was liable for the
Econet wireless fiasco. Therefore, one view has it that Mr Tuju's action
may be linked to it.

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here.
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But who did right and who did wrong is not the point here. Rather, it
is that, unlike the civil service, Kenyans who work in regulatory and
executive agencies seem to have little protection against political
whims.

This is an anomaly. Executive agencies all over the world are given
some level of autonomy from the Government partly to protect them from
the arbitrary political actions.

In practice, it seems that, in Kenya, the opposite is the case. In
exercising their oversight functions over the various commissions and
authorities, the ministers enjoy too much power to do as they please.

The effect is not always undesirable. Abuses have occurred and, often,
those sacked have often been incompetent or corrupt.

But, in many cases, sackings have been unfair to the individual
victims, affecting, moreover, some of the most qualified and most
effective cadres.

Even if they are reinstated, their reputations will have been damaged.
If not, their replacements have frequently raised eyebrows, to say the
very least.

For these reasons, we believe that a more public and transparent review
mechanism should be worked out - probably an independent agency - to
govern dismissals and appointments and ensure an interview process that
is always aboveboard.

It is also hypocritical for political leaders to seek to exclude
themselves from the same standards of behaviour they claim to demand
from other public servants.

When ministers are accused of corruption, or when their actions lead to
losses of public funds or national embarrassment, they refuse to resign
or apologise.

They cannot claim justice for themselves and, at the same time, deny it
to other Kenyans. Mr Tuju must explain to Kenyans why he sacked the
team.

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Charley Lewis

LINK Centre

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