Costly fees hindering internet spread in counties, says minister

There are fears that exorbitant way leave fees being charged on broadband service providers by counties could affect faster spread of internet across the county.

For the last two days, Information and communication technology Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i has been in discussion with county executives in charge of the sector to try to convince them to support infrastructure development for faster penetration of internet in the country.

“Moving the fibre across the country has been a matter of concern. As national government we ask ourselves: what policy sacrifices do we have to make to ensure there is a connection in all counties?” the minister posed.

The meeting at Fairmont Mt Kenya Safari Club in Nanyuki happened on a day when Laikipia County government stopped a multi-million shilling project by Jamii Telecom Limited of laying a fibre-optic cable around the town.

The County government demanded to be paid Sh600 for every metre excavated by the firm forcing it to leave the work midway.

Dr Matiang’i said it was the responsibility of county governments to provide the last mile connection to enable Kenyans access to internet.

The minister said there was need to harmonise policies that are supportive to infrastructure development as the county governments were not charging a uniform way leave fee.

He said the national government would work with counties to ensure effective implementation of the ICT master plan across the country since it is a critical enabler for all the Vision 2030 programmes.

The national broadband strategy was launched a month ago and it is intended to support the deployment of ICT in various economic and governance services, the minister said.

But he said the way leave fee was becoming a big challenge in the counties which would call for serious discussions between the national and county governments.

The minister said the national government would not dictate to the counties as they have responsibilities and laws that they must observe.

“But we want to have a conversation with them and try to make them understand the benefits accrued from a supportive environment so that we can grow infrastructure. If we levy heavy fee we are going to affect the movement of infrastructure,” Dr Matiang’i said.

Since the country had embraced devolution all that the national government could was build consensus in policy implementation, share knowledge and persuade the county governments.