Liquid Telecom loses Bid for Kenya Under-Sea Cable License

Tier-1 telco, Liquid (formerly KDN), has lost a bid to acquire a submarine cable landing license after the Communications Tribunal threw out its appeal against an earlier decision by the Communications Authority to deny it the license.

Liquid, part of a pan-African group, had applied for the SLCC license to terminate a cable originating from Pakistan and co-owned by a subsidiary of Chinese Huawei group.

The Communications and Media Appeals Tribunal, in denying its appeal, found that Liquid filed the appeal months later than the law required and that the same seemed to be an afterthought.

The Tribunal chair Rosemary Wacera Kuria, found that Liquid did not provide sufficient reasons for not filing the appeal on time and that it had initiated other license applications before it decided to file the appeal.

Kenya has three SCLL holders: Seacom, TEAMS and EASSY. Mr. Stephen Kiptinness, representing Liquid, was unable to convince the tribunal that the company would suffer any commercial loss nor that the matter would result in injustice.

Faith Wamuyu, counsel for the Authority, had argued that Liquid, by delaying to file its appeal, was misusing the court process.

Multichoice Talent Factory Recruiting Trainees Filmmakers

Multichoice has announced that it is recruiting film and TV trainees from east, west and southern Africa, for its Multichoice Talent Factory training programme.

The Film and TV training programme which was launched in 2018, has so far trained 120 students transforming them into skilled industry professionals.

The applications for the 2022 class will close on 30th June, 2021.

"The call is open to all emerging filmmakers with either some industry experience or a relevant post-school qualification in film to apply for this exciting opportunity to hone their television and film production skills," Multichoice said in a statement.

MTF has four academies in Africa: Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia and South Africa. 

Like previous years, all 60 students alongside select members of the public will get to participate in the MTF Masterclasses, which are powered by various industry partners including Dolby, CBS Justice and Jasco Broadcast Solutions offering AVID software masterclasses to name a few.

 

The illustrious New York Film Academy of Visual and Performing Arts (NYFA) continues its commitment as an MTF Masterclasses partner and to award its annual 8 weeks NYFA Scholarship at the Academy in New York to the top performing student from each region.