The Competition Authority of Kenya has refuted recommendations proposed by the Communication Authority of Kenya (CAK), on price capping of Safaricom’s charges and dominance allegations.
The watch dog came into the defense of the Telco which has a 67 per cent market share saying that the company had in no way abused its dominance in the market.
“It is important to highlight that dominance is not an illegality. What is an illegality is the abuse of dominance position. The intervention of a regulator should be informed by abuse of dominance position.” Wang’ombe Kariuki Director General Competition Authority of Kenya
Mr. Wang’ombe adds that it would be impulsive to impose regulatory intervention and that all efforts should be aimed at supporting and increasing consumer welfare and at no time should regulatory intervention have an object of deepening private shareholders gains.
Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore who appeared before the parliamentary committee this week said this.
Mr. Wang’ombe emphasized that said there was need for all regulators to work together to improve the sector.
“I request this committee to come up with a way of compelling the regulators to work together for the betterment of this sector. It might not be easy for only one regulator to regulate this sector. This issue is more of personal relationship,” he added.
Sharing of Transmission sites and agent networks as recommended by CAK
The Communications Authority report recommends that Safaricom should be required to offer access to its transmission sites to its competitors in areas they have little to no coverage.
CAK also calls for sharing of mobile network to other market players where users can easily access services such as depositing money and cash withdrawals.
