14 November 2007
editorial
Nairobi — For the better part of three decades, Telkom Kenya and its predecessor, the Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporation, were easily some of the most mismanaged public institutions in the country.
Small wonder, then, that even after a few years of restructuring and corporate cultural retooling, Telkom still remains a business laggard in public and investor eyes.
In its portfolio is a mind-boggling Sh60 billion in State-guaranteed bad loans that should have been paid yesterday. In the midst of all this, even after retrenching thousands of largely unemployable workers, the parastatal is yet to get back on its feet.
Curiously, despite an outcry by the Bretton Woods institutions and the private sector, only the need to attract a strategic investor hastened the reorganisation process. On Monday, it was announced that 51 per cent of Telkom was on the block, with four short-listed suitors at hand to snap it up.
Though it takes a wildly imaginative mind to believe Telkom would have turned around and repaid the debt in our lifetime, fundamental issues need to be addressed before we tie the debt albatross on the necks of future generations.
First, we need to ask whether anyone criminally profited from the land-line monopoly. Answers are readily available in Public Investment Committee reports dating years back.
Second, has the State done enough to recover any public assets squandered at the KPLC?
The answer is no. The Government can go ahead and sign away Sh60 billion, but it must clearly state where the money went.
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