President William Ruto has dismissed criticism from Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro regarding the government's plan to divest from Safaricom, calling the opposition's stance political conmanship and intellectual deceit.
Speaking on Friday, January 23, President Ruto defended his administration's approach to privatization, emphasizing that the strategy is aimed at transforming Kenya rather than serving political interests ahead of the next election.
The President was responding to concerns raised by MP Nyoro. The legislator argued that the country risks losing billions of shillings by bypassing a competitive international bidding process in the Safaricom share sale.
President Ruto outlined an ambitious plan to raise 5 trillion shillings, asserting that the funds will be mobilized by next year to finance development projects across the country.
"This is not about politics. This is not about the next election. This is about transforming Kenya," Ruto stated.
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The President explained that the government expects to raise 110 billion shillings from the Kenya Pipeline Initial Public Offering (IPO) within the next month, and an additional 240 billion shillings from the Safaricom divestiture.
Combined, these transactions would generate approximately 350 billion shillings, which the government plans to leverage to secure between 3.5 and 4 trillion shillings for infrastructure and development projects.
The President criticized those questioning the valuation process for the Safaricom shares, stating that public listed companies are valued transparently through capital markets and stock exchanges, not through backroom negotiations or committees.
"Any public listed company, the tested, proven, transparent valuation is done by the capital markets. It's done at the exchange. It's not done in boardrooms or by committees," Ruto stated.
MP Nyoro had earlier noted that each of the 6 billion Safaricom shares being sold to Vodafone should be priced at 45 shillings per share rather than the proposed 34 shillings.
"We should not be discussing anything below Ksh.45 per share, but we have been held hostage by the buyer that we are now running out of breath," Nyoro argued.
The Kiharu legislator also raised concerns about an alleged 80-billion-shilling loss initiated by the Communications Authority through a controversial waiver on license renewal, claiming that 40 billion shillings was lost on a single license due to discounts approved by management before the board convened.
Nyoro further alleged that private entities stand to benefit from the multibillion-shilling transactional costs associated with the Safaricom divestiture.
