Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (KPTC) was a government company that provided

telecommunication Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...

and postal services across

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

. In 1999, the KPTC was separated into three separate entities - Telkom Kenya, Kenya Postal Corporation and the Communication Commission of Kenya,(CCK) the licensing and regulatory authority of the government."Kenya Telecom Corporation Winds Up." Africa News Service 29 June 1999: 1008180u1681. Business Insights: Global. Web. 3 Mar. 2014.

History

From 1948 to 1977, postal service in Kenya,

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

and

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

was provided by the East African Posts and Telecommunications Corporation. The dissolution of the first

East African Community The East African Community (EAC) is an intergovernmental organisation composed of seven countries in the Great Lakes region of East Africa: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United Republic of Tanzania, the Republics of Kenya, Burundi, ...

since that era forced Kenya to establish its own monopoly communications company, KPTC. New government economic policies in the mid 1990s were developed and adopted, supported by the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster globa ...

(IMF) and

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

. Recommendations of that process included separation of the postal and telecommunication operations. An IMF loan arrangement also depended on privatisation of KPTC, but IMF suspended this in July 1997 over reported concerns of government corruption. Controversy over IMF telecommunications privatisation policies continued. KPTC's Board of Directors was terminated by the Kenyan government in February 1999 prior to an IMF visit to the country. In 1999, the corporation was broken up into three entities: #

Telkom Kenya Telkom Kenya is an integrated telecommunications provider in Kenya. It was previously a part of the Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (KPTC) which was the sole provider of both postal and telecommunication services. The company was ...

providing telecommunications services, #

Postal Corporation of Kenya The Postal Corporation of Kenya is the company responsible for postal service in Kenya. It is also known as Posta Kenya. Kenyan post system was formerly part of the Kenya Post & Telecommunication Corporation (KP&TC), which was split into Posta, ...

to offer postal services, #

Communications Commission of Kenya The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) is the regulatory authority for the ICT (Information, Communications and Technology) industry in Kenya with responsibilities in telecommunications, e-commerce, broadcasting and postal/courier services. ...

(CCK), a separate national regulatory authority.

Service provision and quality

Telephone service quality in Kenya remained problematic at times. Official waiting lists of customers seeking telephone service increased almost fourfold to almost 79 000 between 1977 and 1983, but had been reduced to less than 50 000 by 1986. These waiting lists only applied to areas where telephone service is available. In 2003, years after the division of KPTC, CCK Board Chairman Peter Kariuki noted the total number of people remaining to be connected to telephone service in Kenya stood at 7 million. Emerging private mobile telephone companies provide service capacity, but remained too expensive for many citizens.

References

External links

Business America: Kenya's telecommunications market is opening up to U.S. suppliers
24 October 1988

week of 25 February 1999 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kenya Posts And Telecommunications Corporation Telecommunications companies established in 1977 Telecommunications companies of Kenya Technology companies disestablished in 1999 Postal system of Kenya 1977 establishments in Kenya 1999 disestablishments in Kenya