At the height of the KenCell - Safaricom turf wars in the early 2,000s, Safaricom rode on its "per-second" billing mantra when KenCell, now Airtel, charged by the minute even for unused time. But it was KenCell's billboard jabs that stole the show. One ad in its corporate pink colour read Connected and in Safaricom green read Congested. Both words, one below the other, shared a single bigger font sized first letter C to help viewers get the message faster. The rush for Safaricom lines had overwhelmed its network to KenCell's advantage.
Those wars were often fought below the belt and in time, Safaricom prevailed and soon set its eyes on the financial sector where a novel money transfer innovation helped it subdue all the players into a collaborative submission—Stockholm syndrome style. Every player had its services augmented via Safaricom links. And as West Africans would say to East Africans, "if it's football, spot on means under de bar and in rugby, it is over de bar". Safaricom kept scoring big in whichever game it played.
Today, Safaricom, indisputably, is the Jonah Lomu of the Kenyan economy and has hitherto effortlessly swathed opponents like flies, Lomu-style, and leaving them winded in its wake. The money printing company, De la Rue saw its business dwindle as Kenya's dependency on physical currency notes waned in M-pesa's wake. And they've now exited the market all together for a myriad of reasons but largely contributed by the telco's innovations.
Complaints by financial sector players at the time were dismissed by Safaricom as the fear of fair competition and vain efforts to punish innovation. (Author's paraphrase)
Safaricom is a subsidiary of the British company Vodafone and its new rival, Starlink is American. The stage is now set for an Anglo-American fight. Early indications are that Starlink comes into the fight thickly steel panted, hence rendering hits at it below the belt nearly inconsequential and guaranteeing self-sought injuries for rivals fighting it for life or market share.
And for good reasons, Safaricom must tread carefully because Starlink is backed by the world's richest man. The regulators are disinterested in their complaints today in much the same way they never entertained the groans from those who sought protection from the telco's disruptive forays in years gone by. There is certainly a new sheriff in town. He hasn't been around long enough but knows the terrain well enough via his satellites positioned way beyond any competitor's reach. It now is a consumer's delightful moment and a warning shot to all the big boys out there. No dominance is permanent or incontestable.
Students of monopolistic trends tell us that when an entity commands 50% or more of market share, service levels drop because shareholders want to enjoy their returns having vanquished or subdued competition to safe levels. In comparison, industries where rivals command no more than 35% market share invest more in service delivery to attract more customers. Will Starlink help infuse the service mojo into Kenya or will it buy Safaricom and send all the tropical juice to America? I dunno.
But as with Africa, one thing is for sure. The dalliances with the West took a graduated sequence that began with the arrival of free spirited maverick adventurers who in turn attracted religious missionaries that eventually, prepared the way for European-led colonisation. And as Mzee Jomo Kenyatta wrote, "when they arrived, they had the Bible and we had the land, then they asked that we shut our eyes to pray, and when we opened our eyes, we had the Bible in our hands and they had the land". One prayed and the other preyed.
Let us be careful what we pray for, this isn't the time to shut our eyes. All these big players have the DNAs of all their forebears. Is Africa rising or raising the world? Again, I dunno. What I know is that this is a case study in the making.
But make no mistake, I support free enterprise. Everyone is free to set up shop. They did so in China and after a while, Chinese grit, fortitude and visionary leadership within their talismanic ranks took the Western bull by the horns, product by product, and rose to become a world power in all fronts. Use your sun bathing time to craft world beating strategies.
