US President Donald Trump. FILE PHOTO | NMG Kenya will resist pressure to push Safaricom to cut its contract with China’s Huawei in the roll out of the country’s fifth generation (5G) network.
Joe Mucheru, the Cabinet Secretary for ICT, told the Business Daily Monday that Kenya wouldn’t stop the 5G rollout amid tensions between the US and China over Huawei’s involvement.
“I have not seen any letter or document about stopping the project and we cannot stop even if we are asked to do so. We are an independent country,” Mr Mucheru told the Business Daily in the sidelines of a digital police occurrence book launch in Nairobi.
“Again, the government does not deal with vendors. It’s the service providers who will decide who to work with”.
The US has been urging its European allies and others not to use Huawei, one of Safaricom’s network vendors along with Nokia, citing security concerns.
Last month, Britain announced it was reversing the decision to let Huawei participate in its 5G network following pressure from the US.
It ordered a ban on the Chinese firm’s equipment from its fifth generation networks by the end of 2027.
Safaricom said it will this year launch Kenya’s first 5G mobile Internet services, targeting major urban centres, making it the first operator to offer commercial and superfast services in the region.
The firm had completed testing and trials for the upgraded network as it seeks to capitalise on burgeoning mobile Internet use in the country.
The network has been built by Huawei, which Washington has accused of working at the behest of Beijing.
The US says that global security and personal data will be at risk if the Chinese company dominates development of the world’s fifth-generation internet.Huawei rejects the US campaign and has called on Washington to produce more evidence to prove the risks purportedly posed by the company.Tensions between world’s two largest economies have grown on a range of fronts in recent weeks, including the coronavirus, trade, and Beijing’s clampdown in Hong Kong.Involving Huawei in Safaricom’s 5G network could emerge in talks on a free trade agreement between the US and Kenya, analysts said.“We will have conditions just like what we have seen the likes of the UK being pressured to block supplies from countries that the US does not consider to be friendly,” said James Shikwati, the director of Inter Region Economic Network (IREN)—a policy think-tank.“So if the United Kingdom has been arm-twisted […]