This archive report was first published on 4 September 2019.
On September 3, 2019, Telkom Kenya's Managing Director Mugo Kibati held a press briefing in Nairobi to address concerns raised by Safaricom over the proposed merger with Airtel Kenya.
Telkom Kenya has dismissed Safaricom's attempt to stop its proposed merger with Airtel Kenya, saying the telco has no grounds to do so. According to Kibati, the merger is the only way to sustain the business, establish competitive pricing, and innovation in the telecoms sector.
“We have no quarrel at all with our colleagues at Safaricom. We are simply trying to restructure and improve our own business and for the good of the industry,” said Mr Kibati.
However, Safaricom Chief Executive Michael Joseph had written to the industry regulator Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) seeking to halt the merger between Telkom and Airtel. Joseph stated that Safaricom had concerns about the merger, but declined to elaborate, citing a confidential nature of the issues.
Telkom's Kibati warned that further delay to the approval of the proposed transaction could find Kenya staring at the potential reversion of the telco sector into a monopoly, posing systemic risks, price increases, and innovation inertia.
On February 1, 2019, Telkom and Airtel Kenya announced plans to merge their mobile, enterprise, and carrier business units into a new joint entity, with the Communications Authority of Kenya issuing a conditional approval in May 2019.
