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 <otieno.barrack@gmail.com> 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, <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> 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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