Kenya’s Safaricom has slashed its call rates by up to 75% in the wake of a decline of its market share and profit-taking in that country.

The company’s promotion, called 'Wakenya Tuongee', is expected to run until 23 of August 2012.

Kenyan mobile operators have intensified competition by unveiling a variety of price cut offers to woo customers, in what could spark off another price war in the country.

In 2010 a price war initiated by Airtel broke out among Kenyan operators, which ignited a fall in industry revenues with leading operator Safaricom shedding its market share from 78% in March 2010 to 65% in March 2012.

Bob Collymore, chief executive, Safaricom, said the promotion could encourage customers to speak for more minutes.

With the popularity of social media and increased access to the internet, research has shown that majority of customers talk for less than two minutes, further weakening revenues from voice, he added.

All four mobile operators, Safaricom, Airtel Kenya, Telkom Kenya (Orange), Essar Telecom (YU) are offering special tariffs to boost subscribers.

Safaricom's customers who make calls for more than three minutes are planned to be charged at less than $1 per minute.