The war against cable vandals went a notch higher when Telekom Kenya introduced a new dress code for technicians working on sites. The new Orange branded uniforms will be critical in tightening the noose around people practising the vice since security agents will easily be able to identify legitimate Telekom Kenya technicians working on site.Telkom Chief Executive Officer Mickael Ghossein confirmed that the firm had retained a large workforce of security agents and enlisted the assistance of several neighbourhood groups to assist in the process of policing.
“It became necessary for us to heighten the fight against vandalism criminals by giving our field technicians a uniform identity that will identify them when they are at work, thereby giving the vandals less space to operate in”, said Ghossein.
He noted that the company had invested in the new dress code as it was critical for the fight to preserve its telecommunication infrastructure. Ghossein explained the firm was nearing completion of  a nationwide switch upgrade exercise.

“By the end of t this month we will have completed the process”, he said.
The switch upgrade is necessary following a recent adoption of an intelligent converged network coupled by Telkom Kenya’s appointment to and commercialize the National Optical Fibre Backbone Infrastructure (NOFBI) by the government which in all enables the firm to deliver fast, reliable and affordable voice data services to all Kenyans across the country.

“This is an exercise that is very critical to the modernization of our fixed line service, which remains very close to people hearts”, he noted.
He pointed out that the security and safety of the telecommunications infrastructure was at the core of national security and announced that the firm had established a joint task force with the police and other stakeholders.

“Top of our agenda is to ensure that the government criminalizes cable vandalism and institutes harsher penalties for the crime. We will also be seeking other punishments that we hope will serve as deterrents to potential criminals”, said Ghossein.