FKF Demands Forces Safaricom to Cancel Sakata Ball Season 3

Thursday, May 31st 2012…Leading integrated communications service provider Safaricom Limited has announced the cancellation of the launch of its eagerly anticipated Safaricom Sakata Ball Season 3 which was scheduled to take place on Thursday 31st May, 2012.

This follows a last minute move by the national football governing body, Football Kenya Federation (FKF) to impose new requirements on the running of the event through a letter to event organizers dated 30th May 2012. In its letter to Safaricom, the FKF demanded to be paid 20% of the total sponsorship cost of the Sakata Ball tournament as administration fees half of which was to be paid prior to its launch, failing which it would disown the event.

Expressing disappointment over the turn of events, Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore stated, "We have been holding discussions with FKF for the last four months and we have written commitments from them expressing their support for this event and our contribution to local football development generally including the possibility of sponsoring FKF leagues in future. It is therefore a painful decision for us to cancel the launch, but a necessary one in the context of the unreasonable demands that have been placed on us."

The Safaricom Sakata Ball Challenge was first launched in 2010 as a boys' only tournament. In 2011, the tournament incorporated girls' teams becoming the only football youth tournament in the country to do so. During the same year, Safaricom Limited entered into a partnership with the UNICEF sponsored National Youth Talent Academy. Today, ex-Sakata players comprise 90% of the U 20 girls' football team while others like Abdi Malik have played for both the U-20 team and Harambee Stars.

TEAMS Cable Cut Repairs Completed On 17th May 2012

MOMBASA, 17th May 2012... Repair works on the TEAMS (The East African Marine Systems) Cable that was damaged on 26th April 2012 have now been completed. The cable cut which occurred at the Kenyan coast damaged a crucial link for the bulk of internet and international voice traffic in the region.

The repair works were successfully completed by a team of experts from France Telecom Marine Services at 4:00pm on 17th May 2012.

Commenting on the repairs work, TEAMS General Manager Joel Tanui said, "This second cut was due to the multiple damages inflicted on the TEAMS undersea cable by a port dredging ship in February this year. In this instance we had to engage professional divers to ensure that all the damaged portions of the cable were properly replaced. In order to reduce the down time of the cable the TEAMS Cable consortium constituting both the Kenyan shareholders and UAE's Etisalat made a decision to secure an cable repair ship from France Telecom Marine Services, as all the cable ships for our undersea maintenance company E-Marine were tied up with the repairs of other damaged cables (EASSY, EIG, SMW3,). The repair cable ship arrived in Mombasa on 12th May 2012 and started the repair work the following day".

TEAMS Board Chairman, Bob Collymore said, "We are deeply grateful for the patience that our shareholders and customers have shown during this time. The TEAMS board is now considering taking additional measures to guarantee the stability of the cable system by splitting the cable in the deep sea so as to have two separate landing points that will serve to mitigate the risks associated with the current Mombasa landing point. "

It is estimated that the repairs of the cable, including costs for temporary traffic restoration via other cables during the TEAMS cable outage is about USD 3 Million (Ksh250 Million), excluding loss of business as a result of heavily constrained bandwidth supply to contracted customers.

A landmark public-private partnership, TEAMS is the premier undersea cable system serving the entire East African region. Besides the Government of Kenya, the other shareholders in the TEAMS consortium include Safaricom, Jamii Telecom, Wananchi Group, Essar Kenya, Kenya Data Networks, Access Kenya, Telkom Orange and Bandwidth & Cloud Services.

Safaricom Business Customers Experiencing Data Outage

May 9th 2012…Leading Integrated Communications service provider Safaricom Limited this afternoon announced that it was experiencing a major enterprise data service outage.

The outage which commenced yesterday evening has been traced to a technical fault in the routing systems. The company has advised customers that its engineers are currently working with its technology partners to restore services.

The enterprise data service outage affects primarily Safaricom's business customers nationwide who rely on fixed data services either on fibre optic or WiMax for their connectivity requirements.

Safaricom CEO, Bob Collymore while regretting the outage assured affected customers that, "all our efforts are currently focused on ensuring that the services are back up and running in the shortest time possible." Safaricom clarified that the enterprise data outage does not affect its mobile data users on 3G mobile handsets and modems in any way.

For more information, contact: Victoria Kaigai, Head of Corporate Communications, Safaricom Limited Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Follow Us On Twitter : @SafaricomLtd

Thursday, May 31st 2012…Leading integrated communications service provider Safaricom Limited has announced the cancellation of the launch of its eagerly anticipated Safaricom Sakata Ball Season 3 which was scheduled to take place on Thursday 31st May, 2012.

This follows a last minute move by the national football governing body, Football Kenya Federation (FKF) to impose new requirements on the running of the event through a letter to event organizers dated 30th May 2012. In its letter to Safaricom, the FKF demanded to be paid 20% of the total sponsorship cost of the Sakata Ball tournament as administration fees half of which was to be paid prior to its launch, failing which it would disown the event.

Expressing disappointment over the turn of events, Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore stated, "We have been holding discussions with FKF for the last four months and we have written commitments from them expressing their support for this event and our contribution to local football development generally including the possibility of sponsoring FKF leagues in future. It is therefore a painful decision for us to cancel the launch, but a necessary one in the context of the unreasonable demands that have been placed on us."

The Safaricom Sakata Ball Challenge was first launched in 2010 as a boys' only tournament. In 2011, the tournament incorporated girls' teams becoming the only football youth tournament in the country to do so. During the same year, Safaricom Limited entered into a partnership with the UNICEF sponsored National Youth Talent Academy. Today, ex-Sakata players comprise 90% of the U 20 girls' football team while others like Abdi Malik have played for both the U-20 team and Harambee Stars.

TEAMS Cable Cut Repairs Completed On 17th May 2012

MOMBASA, 17th May 2012... Repair works on the TEAMS (The East African Marine Systems) Cable that was damaged on 26th April 2012 have now been completed. The cable cut which occurred at the Kenyan coast damaged a crucial link for the bulk of internet and international voice traffic in the region.

The repair works were successfully completed by a team of experts from France Telecom Marine Services at 4:00pm on 17th May 2012.

Commenting on the repairs work, TEAMS General Manager Joel Tanui said, "This second cut was due to the multiple damages inflicted on the TEAMS undersea cable by a port dredging ship in February this year. In this instance we had to engage professional divers to ensure that all the damaged portions of the cable were properly replaced. In order to reduce the down time of the cable the TEAMS Cable consortium constituting both the Kenyan shareholders and UAE's Etisalat made a decision to secure an cable repair ship from France Telecom Marine Services, as all the cable ships for our undersea maintenance company E-Marine were tied up with the repairs of other damaged cables (EASSY, EIG, SMW3,). The repair cable ship arrived in Mombasa on 12th May 2012 and started the repair work the following day".

TEAMS Board Chairman, Bob Collymore said, "We are deeply grateful for the patience that our shareholders and customers have shown during this time. The TEAMS board is now considering taking additional measures to guarantee the stability of the cable system by splitting the cable in the deep sea so as to have two separate landing points that will serve to mitigate the risks associated with the current Mombasa landing point. "

It is estimated that the repairs of the cable, including costs for temporary traffic restoration via other cables during the TEAMS cable outage is about USD 3 Million (Ksh250 Million), excluding loss of business as a result of heavily constrained bandwidth supply to contracted customers.

A landmark public-private partnership, TEAMS is the premier undersea cable system serving the entire East African region. Besides the Government of Kenya, the other shareholders in the TEAMS consortium include Safaricom, Jamii Telecom, Wananchi Group, Essar Kenya, Kenya Data Networks, Access Kenya, Telkom Orange and Bandwidth & Cloud Services.

Safaricom Business Customers Experiencing Data Outage

May 9th 2012…Leading Integrated Communications service provider Safaricom Limited this afternoon announced that it was experiencing a major enterprise data service outage.

The outage which commenced yesterday evening has been traced to a technical fault in the routing systems. The company has advised customers that its engineers are currently working with its technology partners to restore services.

The enterprise data service outage affects primarily Safaricom's business customers nationwide who rely on fixed data services either on fibre optic or WiMax for their connectivity requirements.

Safaricom CEO, Bob Collymore while regretting the outage assured affected customers that, "all our efforts are currently focused on ensuring that the services are back up and running in the shortest time possible." Safaricom clarified that the enterprise data outage does not affect its mobile data users on 3G mobile handsets and modems in any way.

For more information, contact: Victoria Kaigai, Head of Corporate Communications, Safaricom Limited Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Follow Us On Twitter : @SafaricomLtd