Editor's Review

Omtatah noted that he had taken the authority to court over the new mobile termination rates (MTR).

Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah has sued the Communications Authority of Kenya over inflated call rates.

In a statement posted on Friday, May 3, Omtatah noted that he had taken the authority to court over the new mobile termination rates (MTR).

The lawmaker argued that the government has set the new termination rate at Ksh0.41 per minute which has made call rates costly.

In his suit, Omtatah wants the court to quash the order and bring down the rates to Ksh0.06 per minute as recommended by the Cost Study Report.

File image of Senator Okiya Omtatah. 

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"It is a matter of public knowledge that the cost of making phone calls in Kenya is inflated by the high mobile termination rates (MTR) charged by telephony service providers for facilitating calls across rival networks," Omtatah stated.

"Mobile termination rates (MTR) set by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) last November is arbitrary and the highest in the region," he added.

The regulator set the MTR at Ksh0.41 per minute on November 17, 2023 but the legislator argues that the new rates, although a reduction from the previous Ksh0.58 per minute, is seven times more than the Ksh0.06 recommended by the consultants hired by CA, Omtatah explained in his suit.

He now wants the court to quash the new inflated rates to allow Kenyans to make calls at low and affordable rates.