In Kenya, the Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) as ICT regulator has given satellite landing rights to 10 companies, one of them being Starlink. Starlink’s entry into Kenya last year was relatively smooth if compared to other countries like South Africa, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Democratic Republic of Congo.
On August 15th 2023, at Eldoret State Lodge in Uasin Gishu County, President William Ruto and Karibu Connect, a partner company authorized by Starlink to resell its products and services in Kenya held a meeting. It is in this meeting that the president announced he had waived the 30 percent cap on local ownership required for a foreign company to invest in Kenya.
With the goal of fostering economic growth and social progress, he called upon investors and partners to help him make high-speed internet accessible to all corners of the country.
“In addition to fibre connectivity, new emerging connectivity solutions such as satellite will be considered,” said president Ruto.
This meeting was a month after Starlink had officially started retailing its hardware kits and services to Kenya. Since then, the number of satellite internet subscribers has reached 4808, growing by 10 times in less than a year.
Safaricom Demands
Now Safaricom, the dominant telecom firm in the country, has come out crying to the industry regulator. Part of what Safaricom wants is going back to the rules that the President of Kenya waived a year ago. Ironic that a technology company wants to revert to regulations of the past.
In a letter written by its acting Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Fred Waithaka, Safaricom wrote, “We propose that the CA instead consider mandating the Satellite service providers to only operate in Kenya subject to such providers establishing an agreement with an existing local licensee,”
Starlink normally works directly with customers for their orders, billing, and support. With the backing of Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, and his KES 30.6 trillion net worth, Starlink has significant financial capacity to pursue its ambitions.
READ: How to become an ISP in Kenya
It could just be the telco feeling the threat of a company with the muscle to take it on. Safaricom did partner with AST Mobile to offer satellite internet to Kenyans. However, AST mobile which meets Safaricom’s “local licensee” demands has only 3 satellite’s in orbit.
For contrast, SpaceX operates by far the largest constellation by satellite count and mass after launching more than 4,000 Starlinks in four years. Today, Starlink has been able to get 6,146 working satellites into orbit. In the past for example, Safaricom has opposed the merger of Airtel Kenya and Telkom Kenya citing debt repayment and rebalancing of frequencies allocation.
Starlink offers speeds of over 100 mbps to clients. This perhaps is why Kenyans who can afford the services want to move. Local Kenyan internet service providers (ISP) are not doing a good job.
As Kenya’s biggest ISP, Safaricom should be wary that the country’s internet speed was ranked 172nd in the world and 22nd in Africa. The country’s average download speed of (13.69 mbps) is way below the global average of 55.58 mbps. Further, for fixed internet connection, Safaricom was not even the best ISP in the country according to nPerf research.
Lessons From Zimbabwe and South Africa
Governments often learn from each other and the Safaricom request may just be an underhand move by Government of Kenya (GoK) itself. In Zimbabwe, Starlink was already in operation before the government requested it shuts down its roaming services.
Later this year, the Zimbabwean government did grant Starlink a licence, an announcement made by the Country’s president himself. However, the licence came with a compromise, the American firm had to partner with a local Zimbabwean firm, IMC Communications.
This was a huge deviation from its direct business model. Take note, IMC Communications is linked to Wickell Chivayo. Chivayo was convicted of fraud in 2004 and sentenced to five years in a maximum-security prison in Zimbabwe. Notably, Chivayo is believed to have close ties to Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the person who broke the licence news.
For Kenyans, perhaps more eye raising is, Chivayo was at the center of a picture that had President Mnangagwa and President Ruto flanking him. This was during a meeting of the three at the sideline of a trade expo.
In South Africa, current Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) regulations capture best what Safaricom wants. The Electronic Communications Act requires that all telecoms’ licensees be 30% owned by black people.
“An Individual Licensee must have a minimum of 30% of its ownership equity held by black people, determined using the flow through principle,” ICASA regulations state.
It is widely speculated that Starlink is yet to launch in Elon Musk’s home nation because of this clause.
Does GOK want Content Control?
Local ownership often goes beyond the merits of having a Kenyan company as part of operations. As the Zimbabwean compromise shows, cronies with close ties to government are often the ones to benefit. In addition, the local partner will have to profit from the agreement, which could raise Starlink’s prices for end-users. Starlink prices in Kenya are already proving too high for most Kenyans.
Further, its hard for a government to control a global behemoth like Starlink, they can however, control the local partner. Industry analysts suggest that African regulators are wary of Starlink’s ability to bypass existing content regulation frameworks. This has been a recurring theme of concern for African governments since the rise of the internet and, in particular, social media.
Because Starlink’s satellites operate without physical infrastructure or official presence in African countries, it’s impossible to shut down internet access. Additionally, governments cannot hold Starlink accountable for content transmitted through its signals.
It is quite telling that Safaricom is making this request after the recent youth led protests that heavily relied on technology and the internet. Even more ominous is that the request is made soon after the country suffered the first internet shutdown moments after youthful protestors stormed the national assembly chambers. Safaricom’s letter does allude to the “risks” and “harm” Starlink poses.
In addressing the CA, Safaricom writes “Safaricom kindly requests the Communications Authority of Kenya to carefully assess the risks of granting independent licenses to Satellite service providers and the consequent harm it may cause to Kenya,”
One has to wonder why a telco should be concerned with the security of a country. Kenya has various security agencies including National Kenya Computer Incident Response Team – Coordination Centre (National KE-CIRT/CC). The multi-agency team is responsible for the national coordination of cyber security which is domiciled within the CA.
Ideally, Safaricom should be focussed on securing its network. Safaricom dismissed 33 members of staff due to fraud in the last financial year. In the last 4 financial years, it represented the highest number of dismissals. It also faces numerous cases of Sim swap fraud.
Risk posed is also disingenuous considering Telkom Kenya was sold to UAE firm ICA, a company who’s ownership is obscure. Telkom has always been majority owned by foreign actors for most part of the last 2 decades despite managing strategic GoK assets.
Kenya Internet Shutdown
The telco with the biggest subscriber base in Kenya came under heaviest criticism after shutting down its internet. At the time, the company claimed there was issue with undersea cables, something yet to be collaborated by its undersea internet partners. The company has also had to deny allegations it shares customer data with state agencies abducting Kenyans.
READ: Kenyans Call For Boycott Against Safaricom Following Internet Outage
Kenya is not new to content control demand, the government has been holding discussions with TikTok over the same. Further, the social media company is now mandated to submit a report to GoK on a quartely basis.
With the letter is written by Safaricom, given recent events, could there be a GoK hand? Could the government be rethinking its open hands approach to Starlink. Remember, the Government of Kenya owns 35 per cent of Safaricom. Knowing that truth will always out, we keep our eyes on other markets to try and understand what Safaricom is trying to achieve.
