NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 4 -The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) welcomes the announcement by the Cabinet Secretary for Interior and Coordination of National Government Fred Matiang’i on the classification of infrastructure in the telecommunications sector and other key sectors in the economy as critical infrastructure.
It is worth noting that in the telecommunications sector, the infrastructure that has been declared critical spans across, data/voice communication, Internet connectivity, domain and Internet Protocol (IP) management, as well as data and information management.
This timely and important development will now see greater efforts devoted towards the protection, preservation and management of such infrastructure. For the last four years, about 25 masts have been destroyed, mostly in Northern Kenya costing over KSh.200 million in repair and restoration of services.
Twelve (12) of the destroyed masts were in Mandera County, while others were in Garissa and Wajir Counties.
Operators have also been incurring millions of shillings in insurance costs for the sites, which are considered high risk due to the persistent threat of vandalism. Vandalism of ICT infrastructure not only denies consumers much-needed services, but also leads to losses arising from disruption of services in other sectors that rely on ICTs, as well as essential Government services.
The designation of critical infrastructure gives investors in the sector the confidence to continually improve their infrastructure and service delivery, knowing that their systems and equipment are safe.
As we laud this important step, we are aware that more needs to be done, and as such, the Authority will work with all stakeholders to progress the agenda on the protection of critical infrastructure to the next level.
