KARIBU KENYA - UNON - the United Nations Office at Nairobi

International Airport. There are approximately 230 airstrips around Kenya,
including well-maintained dirt strips in most of the national parks and
reserves. More information and tickets are available from Bunson Travel,
which has a dedicated office at Gigiri (624988), or from one of the major
Nairobi travel agencies (see Chapter 10).
Communications
The liberalisation of Kenya’s telecommunications sector began in 1998 with the
dissolution of the old Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Company.
However, despite the creation of several digital exchanges and the beginnings
of a new customer-oriented business ethic, acquiring and running a fixed telephone
line in Kenya remains fraught with problems. Today, Nairobians who
need to get in touch quickly tend to go the mobile route, with efficient services
offered by the country’s first two mobile network operators, Safaricom and
Kencell, and a third, led by Econet of Zimbabwe, due to roll out in 2004.
Most UN staffers, however, can remain in blissful ignorance of the
communications hurdles that surround them.The UN is blessed with its own
digital exchange at the UN Gigiri Complex, which – contrary to what some
employees may initially believe – is one of the best in the country. All UN
employees with their own telephone extension located at the Gigiri Complex
are also entitled to greatly discounted rates for telephoning overseas. Calls cost
about $0.19 a minute to Europe and the United States, and $0.47 a minute
to anywhere else in the world.
For residential services, most Nairobians will want to get a working fixed
line, if only to escape the still-overpriced mobile charges. Despite the poor
maintenance and ancient equipment that still plagues many fixed line owners,
in Nairobi the future is looking brighter. As well as the arrival of a second
national operator due to join Telkom Kenya in 2005, a number of ‘local loop
operators’ are also due in town, providing new exchanges and wireless ‘loops’
for the next generation of fixed line users. Best of all, the competition in the
fixed line and mobile sectors is destined to dramatically lower the prices of
both.
Kenya’s two mobile network operators, Safaricom and Kencell, have so
far registered 2 million and 1 million users respectively, and have rapidly
improved their services in recent years, heralding a new era of mobile Internet
access and extensive international roaming, as well as a security network to
bar stolen phones. The two networks already cover most of the population
46 • KARIBU KENYA