Kenya’s high court has blocked a decision by a Kenyan minister to cancel a licence given last month to Econet Wireless International of South Africa to provide the third mobile phone services in the country, a court official said on Wednesday.
Econet Wireless International, which won a tender in September 2003 and was officially handed a licence to start operations as the third services provider on November 10, moved to court on Tuesday after Information Minister Raphael Tuju cancelled the licence on Saturday. He ordered that money paid by the group be refunded and a new tender advertised.
Justice Mohamed Ibrahim on Tuesday suspended the minister’s order and gave Econet 21 days to file an updated application.
”Tuju usurped the powers of the CCK in cancelling the licence,” Econet lawyer Njoroge Regeru argued, insisting that such a decision was vested only on the Communications Council of Kenya (CCK).
The lawyer also pointed out that Econet Wireless had spent $15-million to obtain the licence and invested heavily in staff appointments, and was also in the process of getting a licence to operate in Papua New Guinea, which was now threatened.
Econet’s bid, from which South Africa’s Altech group had stepped down before the attribution of the licence, is locally partnered by Rapsel, Kenya National Federation of Cooperatives and Corporate Africa.
The saga started on November 24 when the CCK wrote to Econet Wireless International asking the firm to honour the promissory note it guaranteed for its local partners on the payment of $12-million. The deadline was not met.
There are currently two service providers in Kenya: Safaricom, a joint venture between British group Vodafone and the state-owned Telkom Kenya, and Celtel, operated by Dutch group Celtel International and a Kenyan partner, Sameer Group. – Sapa-AFP