Matiang’i ordered to name digital firm owners within 7 days

Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) director-general Francis Wangusi has seven days to unmask the shadowy personalities behind the Chinese broadcast signal distributor Pan African Group (PANG).

The Senate committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights issued the directive after it interrogated Mr Wangusi alongside Information and Communications Technology (ICT) secretary Fred Matiang’i over the stalemate that has left over 90 per cent of Kenyan TV viewers in darkness for two weeks.

“We will need to sit as a committee and make recommendations to the Senate and I am, therefore, asking the regulator to furnish us with the shareholding composition of PANG in the next seven days,” Busia Senator Amos Wako, who chairs the committee told the CA.

Mr Wangusi said they had already written to PANG asking for the shareholding details and expect to have them within three days.

Asked who would bear the huge losses the three broadcasters — NTV, KTN and Citizen TV are incurring after they were switched off — Mr Matiang’i said the government was ready to listen to the media houses and protect their businesses, as long as they follow the rule of law.

“From the conversation I have had with the media owners and with you now, what I can say is that both parties are quite convincing. However, the big question is, how can Kenyans get information as quickly as possible?” Mr Wako asked.

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Mombasa senator Hassan Omar asked the ICT secretary to soften his stand on digital migration, saying his hardline stand that the government cannot go back to analogue signal will only prolong the stalemate.

“You need to allow some window of interaction. There is no need to attend committee meetings if you have already made up your mind,” Mr Omar said.  

Earlier in the day, Mr Wangusi had said the authority was waiting for the KTN, NTV and Citizen consortium — Africa Digital Network (ADN), no relation to the African Digital Network — to provide it with a tax compliance certificate from the Kenya Revenue Authority and a shareholding structure from the registrar of companies before it could reinstate the self-provisioning licence it suspended one month ago.

“We will only lift the suspension of the licence after confirming that ADN is owned by the three entities and have a certificate of tax compliance,” Mr Wangusi said.   

Kenyan registry records show that a company called Excel Magic International Ltd owns 6.7 per cent of the PANG issued shares in the local subsidiary PANG Kenya.

The company is registered in the British Virgin Islands, a popular tax secrecy jurisdiction, allowing its true owners to remain anonymous.