@Ali I might be wrong bt did the govt not already practice some aspect of protectionism by awarding KBC the license without subjecting it to a tender process? Believe it or not KBC is owned by the Kenyan public n whether it underperforms or not is a different kettle of soup altogether. Plus KBC insists tht Signet is actually an independent subsidiary with its own independent human resource n management n with a different mandate from that of KBC thus as such will actually perform much better than everyone is forecasting. On free markets, its not true to keep saying tht it only applies in Africa, Ofcom usually holds public auctions of licences where the bottom line is cash, the one with the deepest pocket wins. Sky Mobile always wins n yet its Australian/American!
Ps. N why are the media houses fighting the migration anyways? Even if we let them be, the world will be migrating by 2015 so who will they fight then? N it's abt time someone reminded the Kenyan media that they're really not as powerful as they seem to think, they're beginning to lose battles from all fronts. In judicial courts, at the president's court, even on social media. I didn't read that many flattering reactions to their ill informed broadcast boycott. N they're perpetrating a lot of misrepresentation of facts. After the ruling, The Standard carried a front page story with the title 'KTN, NTV n Citizen to be switched off' like the three have been singled out. The question now is whether the 'critical issues' that they claim have not been addressed are in the interests of private capital or the Kenyan public?