KICA Amendments: Universal Service Fund use and reporting

Hi Kivuva,

10 percent is too much. Since i dont have a good background of how the 10%
was arrived at, i proposed it be reduced to 5 %. The other 5 % can go to
Capacity Building and R and D. On a separate note, i guess parliament only
has money for waheshimiwas to visit the constituency 😉 i bet the budget
is not enough for Capacity Building.

On Thu, 24 Oct 2019, 11:32 pm Mwendwa Kivuva, <[email protected]>
wrote:

> Thank you Barrack,
>
> In another thread, you said \”part of the USF funds ( i propose 5 %)
> should be used for Capacity Building and Research for members of parliament
> and other key stakeholders on emerging issues such as OTTs. This will
> support Private Sector and Civil Society efforts. Academia can benefit from
> the fund to do Research.\”
>
> Why would you propose the USF to be raided, while Parliament has its own
> budget?
>
> See my response inline, for your other initial remarks.
>
>
>
>
> On Thursday, 24 October 2019, Barrack Otieno <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>> Dear Kivuva,
>>
>> I think only 5% should be used to fund other objectives of the fund 10 %
>> for miscelleanous in a budget is extraneous. There are many interests
>> salivating for the fund as we have observed in the recent past. The
>> objective of the USF is very clear and the fund should be used to fullfill
>> this fund. CA has whole department that can address quality control issues
>> hence we don\’t need to legislate this. I think Parliament should not be
>> misused by selfish interests.
>>
>>
> This is a very good observation, let QoS issues be budgeted and handled
> within main CA budget. But how do you arrive at the 5% to fund other
> objectives? You can imagine 5% of Ksh10B is Ksh500m.
>
>
>
>
>> Regards
>>
>> On Thu, 24 Oct 2019, 4:38 pm Mwendwa Kivuva via kictanet, <
>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> This is a continuation of the discusion on the proposed amendment of
>>> KICA.
>>>
>>> The new amendments to KICA proposed by Hon. Elisha Odhiambo, MP,
>>> published on March 15th, 2019, seeks to substitute sub-section (2) of
>>> section 84J that deals with Universal Service Fund (USF), with
>>> Communications Authority (CA) mandated to provide annual reports to
>>> parliament on the utilisation of the USF.
>>>
>>> (2) The object and purpose of the Fund shall be to
>>> a) promote the availability of quality of service at just, reasonable
>>> and affordable rates for all consumers;
>>> b) increase nationwide access to advanced telecommunications services;
>>> c) advance the availability of such services to all consumers, including
>>> those in low income, and rural areas;
>>> d) increase access to telecommunications and advanced services in
>>> schools, libraries and rural health care facilities;
>>> e) provide equitable and non-discriminatory contribution from all
>>> providers of telecommunications services to the fund supporting universal
>>> service programs; and
>>> f) support capacity building and promote innovation in information and
>>> communications technology services.
>>>
>>> (5) The USF shall be utilised by the Commission as follows
>>> a) 6% shall be used for ensuring the availability of telecommunications
>>> services to all consumers, including those in low income and rural areas;
>>> b) 20% shall be used for increasing access to telecommunications and
>>> advanced services in schools, libraries, and rural health care facilities.
>>> c)10% shall be used for furthering the other objectives of the Fund as
>>> the Commission may determine.
>>>
>>> The rationale of the bill is to prescribe how the USF is used and make
>>> it mandatory for CA to report annually on its usage.
>>>
>>> What are your thoughts on this new amendment? Does it cover all
>>> use-cases for USF e.g courier and news services? Are there other
>>> considerations you would want to be included in the bill?
>>>
>>> Warm Regards
>>> ______________________
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>>
>
> —
> ______________________
> Mwendwa Kivuva, Nairobi, Kenya
> www.linkedin.com/in/mwendwa-kivuva
>

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