This archive report was first published on 14 December 2019.
On December 14, 2019, the Communication Authority of Kenya (CAK) conditionally approved the proposed merger between Telkom and Airtel, handing Safaricom a significant victory.
The approval came with conditions that largely favor Safaricom's market position, including a ban on the merged entity from entering any other sale transactions for the next five years, except for the provision of a distressed peer operator.
Additionally, Telkom's 900 megahertz (MHz) and 1800 MHz licenses will revert to the government upon the expiry of the license term.
The merged entity is also expected to honor all its existing contractual terms with government entities and miss out on preferential treatment in accessing shared telecommunications infrastructure.
Furthermore, Airtel and Telkom are required to retain at least 349 staff from the current pool of 674, with Telkom ordered to keep a minimum of 114 staff members.
These conditions align with Safaricom's own demands, which it had outlined in a letter to the CAK earlier in the year.
On September 4, Safaricom's management had demanded the immediate clearance of a net total of Ksh.1.3 billion for the provision of various services that accrue back to the two operators.
Moreover, Safaricom sought to see the rebalancing of frequency allocations in a manner consistent with market share, as the market leader noted that the higher allocation of spectrum to Telkom-Airtel was against their lesser share of mobile subscriptions.
Ironically, market leader Safaricom has its roots as an understudy, having been relaunched in the early 2000s as a partnership between the United Kingdom-based Vodafone and the then Telkom Kenya.
