Nairobi — The Government is reluctant to disclose the owners of Mobitelea Ventures, the shadowy company behind a 12.5 per cent ownership of Safaricom.
The Minister for Finance, Mr Amos Kimunya, said the Government would not investigate the owners of Mobitelea despite pressure to do so by ODM and non-governmental organisations.
"Vodafone Kenya is a private company. I can only order an investigation whenever there are suspicions regarding the way the shares were acquired," Kimunya said.
"I am only in charge of the 60 per cent stake that is owned by the Government in Safaricom and that is what we are planning to sell," he added.
He explained that the Government had agreed to off-load 25 per cent, which is a slice of its 60 per cent stake at the mobile phone service company. The sale will be opened this Friday and should fetch the Government Sh60 billion once the deal is concluded.
The minister directed queries regarding the ownership of Mobitelea to Vodafone Kenya, the company that is said to own the remaining 40 per cent at Safaricom.
Although he knew that Mobitelea existed and owned its shares through Vodafone Kenya, Kimunya ruled out investigation into the deal that silently allowed the latter to be one of the key player in the country's biggest initial public offer.
He said: "Vodafone is the company that should tell Kenyans who the owners of Mobitelea are."
He added: "I am not in charge of that company and you cannot force anyone to confess that he knows who is Mobitelea. They are not shareholders of Safaricom."
Kimunya's comments come in the wake of a growing demand that the real owners of Mobitelea be disclosed days before the Government starts the sale of Safaricom.
Comments 1 to 5 of 10 Post a comment
I absolutely concur with the Minister. The mobitelea stake is not up for sale so they are in no way an obstacle to the sales continuation. Okay lets say The owners of Mobitelea are X and Y so what? what happens next probe how they got it and they are asked to give it back or what? As a Kenyan how do i (or you) stand to benefit? you have a chance to have 0.0001 % or more legally take it. I am.
This is the most stupid defence I have heard from Mr. Kimunya's cronies. If i was buying a part of a company (shares), I would want to know who co-owns the company with me. It is my right to inquire and be told! This is even more so if the company was government owned, or partly government owned. Last time I checked, the government was not waking up early to go to work or driving in Nairobi traffic; Kenyan tax payers were! Mr. Kimunya should address issues concerning his ministerial docket e.g why 2 brokerage firms have failed and what charges he has brought forth against these thieves, and why 2 more firms are on the verge of collapse!
This halobaloo of mobitelea gives an insight of how the grand government will work. Instead of doing what is beneficial to kenyans they will engage with endless side shows. The facts are kenya government owns 60% shares, Vodafone plc owns 40%. Vodafone plc was arm twisted Moi and the kalenjin elite and ceeded 10% share of the company to them. Remember for you to start a company in kenya those days you were required either give a kick back or incoporate them in your company. That is what vodafone did. The party in this saga who should be complainig is vodafone and not kenyans. I think vodafone consists of other companies inside it and that is legal. The only kenya government claim can make is to ask vodafone why it did not sell those shares to the government as per the agreement where by each party and pre-emptive rights againist the other. Vodafone will also say that you are selling shares to another party (kenyans) instead of selling to us first. Lets get down to real issues which can move this country forward.
You failed to understandard that the government owns a majority of shares (60%) in Safaricom and is offloading 25% of the same and thus seizing a majority control in this company. This shares are being sold to Kenyans (read East Africans). There is no difference between Kenyans and the Kenyan government: the later is a custodian of the former's property! It is besides the point how 10% of Safaricom was obtained. We know who owns Vodafone. You can check its ownership in the European Union Listings. We don't know who co-owns 10% of OUR Safaricom. We demand to know. What is there to hide? If its Moi, some of us don't want to co-own anything with him and his cronies, but have a right to buy into Kenyan shares. We are Kenyans First!
These shadow people own almost every company in kenya. This deal of safaricom was done way back in 1998 or 1999. It was between vodafone plc and vodafone kenya ltd so the best people to know who the indviduals behind this mobitelea thing are is vodafone plc. Suppose mobitelea sold their stake to another company or even back to vodafone will you still want to know them? We buy shares we dispose them we can buy them again. The kanu regime was very smart in these things there was no law broken thats why i am saying lets get on with it. The more it delays the government will start borrowing from the domestic market and that will push up interest rates affecting everybody in the process. After we know who these individuals are or were then what next.
See All Comments