Safaricom

Nicholas Biwott does not own and has never had any interest or beneficial interest in any shares of Safaricom. Until June 2008 Safaricom was owned by Vodafone Kenya Ltd (40 percent) and Telkom Kenya Ltd (60 percent). This is publicly available information.

– Biwotts Lawyer

KROLL ON BIWOTT – SHARES IN SAFARICOM
Kroll alleged that Nicholas Biwott, along with Charles Field-Marsham (Biwott’s son-in-law) and Gideon Moi, owned 40 percent of the shares in Kenya’s largest telecommunications company, Safaricom Kenya, with the remaining 60% owned by “Posta”, the Kenyan Post Office.

DID KROLL GET IT RIGHT?

Biwott’s lawyer said: Nicholas Biwott does not own and has never had any interest or beneficial interest in any shares of Safaricom.

Until June 2008 Safaricom was owned by Vodafone Kenya Ltd (40 percent) and Telkom Kenya Ltd (60 percent). This is publicly available information.

THE SOURCE INVESTIGATES…

The Source assumes that the Kenya Kroll Report intended to refer to Safaricom Ltd which was incorporated in Kenya on 3 April 1997, according to the company history detailed on its website.

Media reports indicate that Safaricom Ltd was 60 percent owned by the Government of Kenya and 40 percent owned by Vodafone Kenya Ltd from May 2000. The company’s online profile indicates that the 60 percent that was owned by the state was held by Telkom Kenya Ltd, a state corporation (not ‘Posta’), until 20 December 2007 when a percentage of Telkom Kenya’s shares were floated on the Nairobi Stock Exchange in 2008.

Kroll’s sources were thus inaccurate even in matters of government shareholdings. Given that Kroll’s client was the Government of Kenya with whom they would be expected to coordinate witness statements it raises the question of why this fundamental error was not corrected.

The Source has found no evidence to suggest that the company was ever controlled by the Kenya Post Office or that the trio of Biwott, Field-Marsham and Moi held the remaining 40 percent stake instead of Vodafone.

Nicholas Biwott denied having any interests in Safaricom in a public statement reported in The Daily Nation on 2 September 2007.