Features

The issue of shareholding in Safaricom came up again when a member accused Telkom of negligence. The chairman of the Public Investiments Committee, Mr Justin Muturi, said Telkom was negligent in the controversial transfer of 10 per cent of Safaricom shares to "a shadowy company".

The Siakago MP said the firm was registered in a "tiny island" on a day that members questioned the real owners of Mobitelea during debate on a Public Investment Committee report tabled in Parliament in August.

Muturi said it was a statutory requirement for Telkom, which is a majority shareholder of Safaricom, to seek the information from its partner shareholder Vodafone (K) Limited, who he claimed had admitted to selling the shares to the company.

He said the shareholder’s agreement between Telkom and Vodafone signed on January 25, 1999, clearly spelt out the obligations of both parties while offloading their respective shares. Telkom and Vodafone held 70 per cent and 30 per cent shares respectively in one of the most profitable companies in the country.

Before disposal of shares, Muturi said, a party had to give a notice in writing to the other partner and was obliged to disclose the identity of the purchasers. Muturi read a letter by a senior official of Vodafone admitting that the firm had sold its 10 per cent stake to Mobitelea.

But Muturi said there was a contradiction in the claim by Vodafone that it had ceded its 10 per cent stake to Mobitelea for their "valued advice" and yet Mobitelea was formed five months after the share agreement was signed in January, 1999. The PIC chairman said there had been "deliberate efforts to mislead the committee" in its investigations.

The committee accused Baringo Central MP, Mr Gideon Moi, of interfering with its work.

PIC member Wafula Wamunyinyi and Muturi claimed Gideon had stormed a coastal hotel tried to influence their decision over the Safaricon shareholding. Kacheliba MP Samuel Poghisio protested that it was wrong to name Gideon who was not in the chambers. But temporay deputy Speaker, Maoka Maore, declined to order Wamunyinyi to withdraw the name.