If there’s one person hated most by mainstream private media houses, it is Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) Director General Francis Wangusi, seen as the barrier to fair play in digital migration.
That’s why signals coming from CA that Mr Wangusi could be headed for the exit is juicy news for media houses – especially Nation Media, Royal Media Services and Standard Group – whose TV stations fought what looked like a losing battle for a major stake in digital signal distribution.
The Communications regulator has, in addition, sent Mr Wangusi on leave and yesterday advertised his position, a strong indication that he has fallen out of favour and may not get a second term. Mr Wangusi has helmed the Communications Authority of Kenya for three years. He took over from Charles Njoroge in 2012.
Mr Wangusi was in the limelight recently when the CA forcibly switched off analogue signals despite a request from broadcasters for an extension of the deadline. This led to a TV blackout for close to two weeks, which cost media houses hundreds of millions of shillings in lost revenues.
It is said that Mr Wangusi, whose contract expires on August 21, had requested for an extension of his contract but the boarded favours a fresh recruitment in line with the Kenya Information and Communication Amendment (KICA) Act, 2013, which requires the position to be filled competitively.
The Kenya Information and Communication Amendment Act 2013 that gave birth to the CA empowers the board to hire the director-general as opposed to the previous Act that bestowed the power on the ICT minister, who executed the mandate by picking one of three names submitted to him.
The old law also allowed the board to extend the tenure of a director- general who has served his first term and achieved 70% threshold during appraisal. Under the new law, the director- general serves for a term of four years renewable once.
