KENYA · TELECOMS
Key Facts
- What is happening Kenya’s High Court let Safaricom join Jamii Telecommunications’ challenge to the regulator’s 2025 spectrum fee schedule.
- Why it matters Spectrum fees are a core running cost for every mobile network, and this schedule is under challenge.
- The numbers The judgment is dated 16 October 2026; the schedule was due to take effect on 1 July 2025.
- Who is who Safaricom runs M-Pesa; Jamii Telecommunications is the challenger; the Communications Authority is Kenya’s telecoms regulator.
- What to watch The appeals tribunal can now hear Jamii’s challenge with Safaricom as a party; no fee ruling yet.
- What it means for you No fee changes today; the ruling decides who may argue, not what operators pay.
A Kenyan court has opened the door for the country’s best-known mobile company to argue in a fee case. The fees themselves remain undecided.
Kenya’s High Court has allowed Safaricom, the operator of the M-Pesa mobile-money service, to join a legal challenge to new spectrum fees. The judgment is dated Friday, 16 October 2026.
For US readers, the case shows how Kenya’s regulator prices the radio frequencies that carry calls and data. It decides who may argue, not what operators pay.
What the Court Decided
Justice John Anuro allowed Safaricom’s appeal against a ruling of the Communications and Multimedia Appeals Tribunal. That tribunal is the specialist body that hears challenges to decisions of Kenya’s telecoms regulator.
The tribunal had declined to join Safaricom in a ruling delivered on 25 July 2025. The High Court set that ruling aside and joined Safaricom as an interested party, a party with a stake in the case.
The order also sets terms on how Safaricom may take part. Each side bears its own costs.
The Fee Dispute Behind the Case
The Communications Authority of Kenya, the state telecoms regulator, issued a Frequency Spectrum Fee Schedule 2025. It sets annual spectrum licence fees and was due to take effect on 1 July 2025.
Spectrum is the set of radio frequencies that carry mobile calls and data. Operators pay the state each year to use it.
Jamii Telecommunications Limited, a Kenyan telecoms licensee, appealed to the tribunal in case E002 of 2025. It argues that the schedule unfairly favours the dominant operator.
The tribunal treated the application as urgent. It suspended the authority’s letter implementing the fees.
Why Safaricom Wanted In
Safaricom’s motion to join the tribunal case is dated 30 May 2025. The court noted it is not in dispute that Safaricom is a licensed telecoms operator.
Safaricom argued that the tribunal had erred in refusing to join it, and the High Court agreed. The judgment adds that Safaricom’s interest in the dispute goes further than its status as a licensed operator.
What It Means for You
The ruling does not change any fee today. It lets a Nairobi-listed operator argue inside a case that will shape what mobile networks pay the state.
Spectrum fees are a running cost for every network, so the final schedule matters to investors in Kenyan telecoms. No change to mobile prices has been announced; see Airtel Kenya 5G Deal Costs US$65 Million for a recent spectrum purchase.
Related Rio Times coverage includes Safaricom Refunds M-Pesa Customers. More coverage sits on the Kenya hub.
What Is Not Known
The fee amounts in the 2025 schedule are not stated in the court record available to us. The court record available to us also does not say how the schedule changes the way fees are charged.
Whether the Communications Authority will appeal is not known. Safaricom’s own position on the schedule has not been published.
What Comes Next
The appeals tribunal can now hear Jamii’s challenge with Safaricom as a party. The High Court order does not decide whether the fee schedule is lawful.
Any new hearing dates would come from the tribunal. Until it rules, the fee dispute stays open.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did the court decide about Safaricom?
On 16 October 2026 the High Court let Safaricom join a challenge to the 2025 spectrum fee schedule. It set aside a tribunal ruling of 25 July 2025 that had declined.
What is spectrum?
Spectrum is the set of radio frequencies that carry mobile calls and data. Operators pay the state annual licence fees to use it.
Does the ruling change what Safaricom pays?
It does not, because the judgment decides who may take part in the tribunal case. It does not decide whether the 2025 fee schedule is lawful.
Who are Jamii Telecommunications and the Communications Authority?
Jamii is a Kenyan telecoms licensee that challenged the schedule. The Communications Authority is the state regulator that issued it.
Sources: High Court of Kenya, Safaricom Plc v Communications Authority of Kenya & another, Commercial Appeal E226 of 2025, [2026] KEHC 16311 (KLR), judgment of 16 October 2026 (Kenya Law); Communications Authority of Kenya, licence application forms and fees (all accessed 1 November 2026).
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief