NAIROBI – Safaricom expects to sign a government contract to build a high-tech national security network for the Kenya Police in a fortnight, Chief Executive Officer Bob Collymore has said. Mr Collymore revealed that his team was finalising negotiations with the government and the company would begin work in 45 counties thereafter.
Phase one of the project, which covers Nairobi and Mombasa counties, is almost complete, he said. “All the critical issues have been hammered. We expect that within the next two weeks we should sign the contract paving way for us to begin laying the infrastructure,” he said.
He attributed the delay to politics around the decision by the government to single source Safaricom for the project was questioned. However, in July a Parliamentary committee and the Public Procurement Oversight Authority gave the deal a clean bill of health. Safaricom is expected to build operation centres across the 47 counties, install ultra-high definition CCTV cameras and LTE base stations as well as video conferencing facilities while offering Internet connection to police stations. Police officers will also be supplied with walkie-talkies with face recognition capabilities linked to a national register database.
Mr Collymore also announced that the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK), the industry regulator, had also cleared the last hurdle paving the way for Safaricom to take over Yu mobile’s infrastructure and incorporate its 150 employees to its payroll. Safaricom and Airtel jointly bought the struggling company for Sh8 billion from its parent company, India’s Essar Telecom.
Mr Collymore said the acquisition was expected to further improve its network quality and coverage. He spoke at the company head office when he announced its half year results in which the country’s biggest telco posted Sh14.7 billion net profit, representing a 30.64% jump from the same time last year.
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