Phone price wars healthy, says Raila

Mobile phone firms price wars will not be interfered with, Prime Minister Raila Odinga told Parliament on Wednesday.

The PM termed the price wars healthy competition. “We have no intention of interfering with this competition,” the PM stated.

Responding to a question by Yatta MP Charles Kilonzo, Mr Odinga said:

“If Airtel can afford to bring their prices down, Safaricom can also afford it. The time has come for Safaricom to face competition,” the PM stated.

Next week, the PM will meet with all operators over the connectivity issues.

“This is with the view of levelling the playing field. The Government responsibility will be to regulate for a healthy competition,” he said.

Responding to concern raised by Garsen MP Mr Danson Mungatana, he said Safaricom should be able to retain its staff even with lowered tariff using the huge profits it has made in the past.

“They have been used to making billions and billions of shillings in profits for years because it pays its workers peanuts,” he stated.

The House heard that Safaricom, Airtel, Yu and Orange have paid Sh99.2 billion in taxes to the Government over the last five years.

Safaricom paid 85.8 per cent of total revenues followed by Airtel, Telekom Kenya and Yu.

Safaricom has 15.7 million, Airtel, 1.9 million, Yu, 1.36 million, Telekom GSM, 832,000 subscribers.