(NDIMA/IFEX) – Officials of the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) have raided Reuters offices and confiscated satellite communications equipment. The CCK officials, who were accompanied by Criminal Investigations Department (CID) officers, descended on the Reuters offices in Nairobi on Friday 22 September 2000 at about 10:00 a.m. (local time). The officers said they were disabling […]
(NDIMA/IFEX) – Officials of the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) have raided Reuters offices and confiscated satellite communications equipment.
The CCK officials, who were accompanied by Criminal Investigations Department (CID) officers, descended on the Reuters offices in Nairobi on Friday 22 September 2000 at about 10:00 a.m. (local time). The officers said they were disabling the media house “for operating satellite services without a permit.” The satellite communication equipment had been leased to Reuters by Telkom Kenya.
The permanent secretary of the Ministry of Transport and Communication, Titus Niakuni, is said to have held a crisis meeting with CCK officials and Reuters managers on 22 September. The meeting was attended by CCK Director-General Samuel Chepkonga and Telkom Kenya Ltd Managing Director Augustine Cheserem.
The satellite communications equipment was set to earn the government US$6 million a year. The facility had been tested for three weeks and operated for the same period before it was disconnected.
Reuters Bureau Chief David Fox said that CCK had ordered that the equipment be switched off. He said Telkom Kenya had been ordered to stop providing services to Reuters and wondered if the recent official launch of the facility by Information and Transport and Communications Minister Musalia Mudavadi was illegal. He stated that CCK may have been misled into thinking that Reuters is an independent satellite user. The CCK team confiscated modern satellite equipment, an SCC control modem and axial cables.
A statement from CCK, signed on behalf of Director General Chepkonga by Assistant Corporate Affairs Manager C. Wambua, accused Reuters of owning and operating a Satellite Earth Station
without a licence. The statement said CCK had restored services to Reuters on condition they submit the equipment for type approval and transfer the service ownership to Telkom Kenya, who by law have a five-year exclusivity. CCK has also demanded that the frequency for the satellite uplink be sought from the CCK by the same date.
