IDG News Service —
After much haggling, the minister in charge of information and communication, Samuel Poghisio, has appointed Charles Kinyanjui Njoroge as the director general of the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK).
Njoroge, who was CCK's director of Competition, Tariffs and Market Analysis, was touted as the heir-apparent after John Waweru left three months ago.
The appointment was delayed after three names were forwarded to the minister by a consultancy firm and political considerations took precedence, delaying the appointment. Njoroge was among the three candidates, together with John Omo, the director of legal affairs at CCK, and Nashon Owayo, a former manager at Telkom Kenya.
Njoroge was said to have scored highly during interviews with the consultancy firm. He has a master's degree in economics and a postgraduate certificate in telecommunications regulation, and has worked in the ICT industry for 25 years.
In his previous post, Njoroge was in charge of economic regulation, policy formulation, market analysis, price regulation, access, funding and statistics. He has also chaired the Commission's tender subcommittee, a position he held from 2005 to 2007, and was a member of the main tender committee.
The director general's main task will be to oversee the unified licensing regime, which has yet to take effect; the infrastructure sharing policy; and the number portability system, which is much awaited, given that two new mobile-phone providers will roll out services by the end of the year.
