Safaricom to sue Porting Access Kenya

BY JACKSON OKOTH

Safaricom has authorised its lawyers to sue Porting Access Kenya Ltd – administrators of the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) – for what it calls defamation and economic sabotage.

"We shall do all in our power to protect our interests and the overall reputation of Safaricom, which has been painstakingly built over the years," said Nzioka Waita, Safaricom’s Corporate Affairs Director.

The mobile phone operator is also demanding completion of the audit that Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) began after complaints about the technical hitches affecting portability.

The company also appealed to the CCK to review the role of Porting XS BV of The Netherlands and its local partner, Porting Access, in the administration of MNP.

"We believe they have lost the moral and legal legitimacy to position themselves as an honest and impartial broker of porting," Waita added.

He spoke on Tuesday during a press briefing at the firm’s headquarters.

Publicity campaign

In the last few weeks, the local mobile telephony industry has been absorbed in a vicious publicity campaign with fingers pointing to each other after MNP ran into technical hitches.

Porting Access BV has since admitted that it has been having technical challenges due to unstable connectivity.

Safaricom has in turn accused Porting Access of abdicating its role as a neutral clearinghouse for the MNP process, by siding with its rivals.

"Safaricom is inclined to believe that Porting Access, which acts as the custodian of the porting database, has abdicated its role as a neutral clearing house for the MNP process in Kenya," said Nzioka.