Radio Frequency Spectrum: Spectrum is a scarce public resource that can go to waste if not used optimally. It will, therefore, be managed in line with public policy objectives, with a view to making it available to all users under equitable, transparent, specific and clear conditions. The Government will from time to time review plans for the use of specific frequency bands to ensure optimal utilisation of the frequency spectrum. The use of frequency bands will maintain a balance between the public and private interest and in the event of conflict, public interest will prevail. In planning and allocating radio frequency spectrum as well as developing policies, laws and regulations relating to spectrum, Kenya will take into account the outcomes of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) World Radiocommunication Conferences (WRCs). Use of the radio frequency spectrum should contribute to the promotion of national interests, development and diversity, including increasing the amount of spectrum available for assignment, improving sharing conditions among different radio communication services and increasing the number of licences dedicated to community services. 1. To enhance public safety, security and emergency preparedness, spectrum fees may be waived for provision of ICT services in unserved and under-served areas and public institutions that provide critical lifeline support services. The institutions may also include those that provide critical public services such as national security, public safety and emergency services. Such institutions will be determined by the ICT regulator; 2. A Wireless Broadband Spectrum policy will be developed to promote the acceleration of uptake of Broadband services as enshrined in the National Broadband Strategy; and 3. Measures outlined in the National Broadband Strategy will be taken to ascertain that: Broadband penetration reaches a critical mass nationally for its impact to be felt in the economy;  Universal access to broadband is affordable;  Capacity and skills are developed for optimal and effective use of broadband services by end users; Ministry of ICT, Kenya  Supply-side skills are developed so that Kenyans can exploit economic and innovative potential of broadband. 6.2.4 Rules The Government recognises that the ICT ecosystem is complex, fragile and not understood with mathematical precision, and that transformative innovations are emergent and dependent to some degree on serendipity and a web of interrelated stakeholders who interact unpredictably. In this policy, Government is careful not to weigh in with a blunt instrument and damage one part of the ecosystem while trying to promote another part. Policy Actions: This policy recognises four principal motivational instruments, which we call policy actions. Policy actions can communicate, regulate, incentivise, or demonstrate: Communication: The policy can communicate government positions, articulate priority areas, and disseminate best practices Regulation: The government has the mandate and obligation to regulate and arbitrate the use of limited resources, enhance competition, promulgate and enforce anti-trust legislation, establish and maintain standards, and create a level playing field for all actors. Incentives: Create incentives to push or pull the private sector in certain directions using taxation, challenges, and investment of public funds in R&D, internal and foreign demand creation and other mechanisms. Demonstrate: The government can invest in forward looking activities that do not have immediate commercial value to demonstrate technology, processes and viability. Competition This policy considers competition in two perspectives, encouraging healthy competition within the ICT sector in Kenya, and making Kenyan products globally competitive. These are not mutually exclusive goals, by ensuring that the market competition in Kenya is intense, we can ensure that bad products, services and ideas die quickly and that good ideas, products and services survive and improve. In brief, it should be that if a product is good enough to survive in Kenya, then it is world class and conversely, that if it is not world class it will not long survive in Kenya. The need for intense competition must be balanced with the need to prevent distortion of the market by the emergence of monopolies and anti-competitive 25/37 November-2019