Dear all,

I have been quite intrigued by the negotiations between GoK and France Telecom over their Telkom acquisition that were covered nicely consistently by the East African in recent weeks.

The latest instalment here:
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/How%20the%20French%20got%20their%20way%20in%20battle%20for%20Telkom%20Kenya/-/2558/942312/-/gktealz/-/index.html

The article states that GoK and France Telecom have come to an agreements under which

GoK will pay the USD10m fee for the 3G license for Telkom - in that context, I'd be curious to know if CCk will refund USD15m to Safaricom as, from what I understand, they had initially promised to do if the license fee will be lowered from its initial USD25m?
GoK will clear overdue bills to Telkom, contributions to the pension fund, overdue payment to KBC: no issue with these since it appears fair enough that GoK clears liabilities that precede the privatisation (never mind the question why GoK/parastatals have been let to accumulate such obligations in the first place).
Telkom to manage and control GoK's 20% stake in TEAMS.

France Telecom to be granted an exclusive operational and maintenance contract for the government-owned, multimillion-dollar nationwide optic fibre network. Since we had all these elaborate discussions recently in the context of the new tariff regulations regarding competition and level playing field, I wonder how this helps to create a level playing field?

I haven't read much from GoK/CCK/Min of Information on this so far, so first of all, I'd be curious to know how much of the East African coverage is accurate, and if not, what the facts are - if the PS Information is reading along?

And then I'd be interested to hear opinions on how this will affect the competitive landscape. Anyone thoughts?

Have a good day and keep warm :)

Andrea