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The Daily Savannah

Tuesday, 13 October 2026 Edition Nº 41

The Communications Authority opens its draft rulebook for satellite operators to comment until 6 November, Kenya gets an IMF review date but still no new programme, and WhatsApp's username privacy feature runs into a businesses-need-your-number problem.

Featured · Policy

The CA wants your comments on how satellite operators get licensed in Kenya

The draft Satellite Frequency Licensing Framework, 2026 sets out which licences and frequency authorisations a company needs to run satellite services — geostationary and non-geostationary systems, including low Earth orbit constellations, plus earth stations and the CA's work on satellite filings and coordination. Landing Rights Authorisation comes first and almost every route needs it. Gateway earth stations need an International Gateway Systems and Services licence; user terminals can need landing rights, a Network Facility Provider or Application Service Provider licence, and a Communications Equipment Distributor licence; VSATs need a VSAT licence with the operator holding valid landing rights; land-based ESIMs need an Application Service Provider licence and type-approved terminals; foreign-registered aircraft and ships need CA authorisation and landing rights. Every authorisation carries an annual frequency utilisation fee, though no amount is given. All equipment needs CA type approval, and licensed services must keep a record of every terminal on their network, with locations, and file periodic returns. The CA says more non-geostationary systems sharing bands with geostationary and terrestrial services raise interference risk, and wants frequency monitoring to help. Comments are due by email by 6 November on the CA's template, with reasons, evidence, a practical alternative, who you represent and the question number cited. Ten questions are posed, and the draft largely treats GSO and NGSO systems alike — so operators wanting different treatment must argue for it now, since changes after finalisation will be harder to win. It affects satellite operators, ISPs, broadcasters, equipment importers and distributors, and anyone relying on satellite for backhaul, remote areas, or maritime and aviation links. The article names no company.

Source: Techweez

Nairobi's skyline by day — the CA's draft satellite licensing framework is open for comment until 6 November
POLICY

Treasury says an IMF review mission is due in December — a new programme is still unresolved

Kenya expects an Article IV consultation mission in Nairobi in early December, announced by the Treasury on 12 October. It is a review of the economy and policies, not a loan approval; the last completed Article IV Board consultation was in January 2024. Kenya asked for a new programme in March 2025 after abandoning the ninth review of its US$3.6 billion arrangements, which expired the following month, and IMF teams visiting in late 2025 and early 2026 did not secure a successor deal. At the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok, Treasury CS John Mbadi met US Treasury's Eric Meyer on progress toward publishing the IMF's Governance Diagnostic Report — publication needs Kenya's consent — alongside US remittances and possible US Treasury help on digital assets. No agreements beyond the mission timetable were reported. Mbadi also met Africa50 on a KSh40.4 billion, 30-year transmission concession covering 180 km Lessos–Loosuk and 72 km Kibos–Kakamega–Musaga lines.

The Kenyan Wall Street

PLATFORMS

Some WhatsApp users are deleting their usernames and going back to phone numbers

Usernames let people chat without sharing a phone number; someone who has not saved your number sees only the handle. The trade-off is reachability: deleting the username makes your number visible again to anyone who has not saved it, while keeping it means a business can message you on WhatsApp but cannot call or text you using only a username. Techweez says there is no clear evidence large numbers are deleting them and treats it as a debate, not a measured trend. For businesses, matching chats to customer records gets harder where they relied on numbers; Meta's answer is Business-scoped User IDs, though firms still have no number for contact outside the app, and customers decide whether to share one. The article has no Kenya data or discussion, but the privacy-versus-reachability choice applies directly to any Kenyan business that sells and supports customers over WhatsApp.

Techweez

AI

Getty Images plans a prepackaged Chapter 11 as AI disrupts stock photography

A story from outside Kenya with a direct lesson for content businesses. Getty, carrying about US$2.1 billion of debt at 30 June after its US$3.7 billion Shutterstock merger collapsed over a UK condition to sell Shutterstock's editorial arm, plans to exit by end-2026 as a private company, with about US$143 million of debtor-in-possession financing from Koch Equity Development and roughly US$100 million of debt converting to equity. Operations and staff are said to be unaffected. Its iStock arm faces declining demand, and annual subscribers fell from 321,000 to 241,000, which the CFO attributed to a deliberate exit from low-value acquisition channels. Getty bets on editorial, projecting growth from US$369 million to US$400 million by 2029; the open question is whether real-event photography can grow while AI images are cheap.

Techweez

6 Novdeadline for comments on the CA's draft satellite framework
US$3.6bnKenya's previous IMF arrangements, which expired in April 2025
KSh40.4bnLessos–Loosuk and Kibos–Musaga transmission concession with Africa50
241,000Getty annual subscribers, down from 321,000
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