Telkom Kenya’s towers have been deactivated once again, this time due to a failure to meet site leasing fee obligations with American Towers Corporation (ATC).
The shutdown has resulted in disruptions to Telkom's network services. Reports suggest that Telkom owes ATC approximately KSH 3.5 billion. This isn't the first instance of Telkom towers being taken offline. Since the end of January, the company has grappled with network interruptions. In June of this year, Mugo Kibati, chief executive officer of Telkom Kenya Limited, issued a statement acknowledging the service outages after public outcry.
Eliud Owalo, Cabinet Secretary for Information, Communication, and Digital Economy, commented on the matter, stating, "We are in a situation where Telkom is unable to pay."
Currently, Telkom is actively seeking an investor to tackle its KSH 7.2 billion debt, with the alternative option of seeking financial assistance from public coffers via the National Treasury.