Kenya's telecommunication firms Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom fined Sh311 million for poor services

Kenya’s telecommunication giant, Safaricom, alongside two other telecommunication small firms have been fined Sh311 million over poor services.

Communication Authority of Kenya penalized Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom for not meeting service standards for the 2015/16 financial year.

In a statement on Friday, the authority reported that Safaricom scored 62.5 per cent, while Airtel and Telkom scored 75 per cent each.

"The authority issued the licensees with warning notices for non-compliance and also fined them a sum equivalent to 0.15 per cent of their individual latest financial returns for the period prior to June 30 2017." assistant director Rachel Alwala said.

A mobile operator is rated compliant when it attains this mark in the evaluation of key performance indicators.

Ms. Alwala however noted that the industry had improved from the 62.5 per cent average for the previous period to 70 per cent.

Telkom was the best performer with full compliance in four regions - Nairobi, Central, Nyanza and Western.

Airtel came second with full compliance in Nyanza, Western and Nairobi while Safaricom was last with full compliance in Coast and Nyanza.

The authority reported that all three operators failed to meet the call completion target; the total number of calls that end successfully after being set up.

The target is 95 per cent. Airtel attained 93.3 per cent, Telkom 93.1 per cent and Safaricom 91.8 per cent.

On dropped calls, operators are to achieve rates of less than two per cent.

Telkom was the best performer in this area with 1.5 per cent while Airtel followed with 1.2 per cent. Safaricom did not meet the target with a rating of 2.8 per cent.