The dark side of Safaricom new CEO Ndegwa – Weekly Citizen

Peter Ndegwa, the man who landed the plum Safaricom CEO position has dual citizenship, Weekly Citizen has learnt from a reliable source well conversant with happenings at the leading mobile service provider board of directors and top management. PN as he is known among professional colleagues holds a British citizenship at the same time a Kenyan one. Dual citizenship or dual nationality is allowed in United Kingdom. It means one can be a British citizen and also a citizen of other countries. Prominent Kenyan who also holds British citizenship is former Attorney General Charles Njonjo who refers himself as a Sir Charles Njonjo or “The Duke of Kabeteshire”. Upon discovery Ndegwa is a British citizen, the staff has baptised him the name “Duke of Safarishire”. Our source revealed that the dual citizenship played a key role in Ndegwa landing the slot against favourite insiders who are referred to as locals. The locals performed well during interviews but the Safaricom real foreign owners were not comfortable in having a local despite the push by the Kenyan government. To hoodwink the Kenyan government that an African and Kenyan had landed the slot, Ndegwa was appointed. They know he is a Briton who can denounce his Kenyan citizenship if pushed to the wall. Infact, sources reveal, Ndegwa has not invested much in Kenya but in UK. Legal discussions were on the table as Ndegwa was named CEO. First the directors agreed that the appointment will not be challenged in court. The current Kenyan constitution allows for dual citizenship. It states, a Kenyan citizen who acquires citizenship of any other country after August 27 2010 does not lose Kenyan citizenship. In fact, Weekly Citizen has information Ndegwa by virtue of being a UK citizen is the reason behind landing plum executive positions in other UK controlled international firms. “Britons cannot allow a person with no links in the country to be in charge of huge investment and PN discovered it early, hence with his impressive CV decided to be one of them,” revealed our source. He was appointed by Safaricom to replace the late Bob Collymore as the CEO. The Safaricom PLC board of directors appointed him effective April 1 2020. He heads Kenya and East Africa region. Until landing the Safaricom CEO slot, he was managing Director of Diageo Continental, Europe. The firm is a British multinational alcoholic beverages company operating in Europe, Russia and North Africa.
In 1996, Ndegwa was with global consulting firm PWC as a consultant to London under the firm’s talent development. It was during the period he applied to be a British citizen. After his MBA at London School of Economics, he was back in Kenya in 2002 working on corporate advisory assignments. In 2004, he joined East Africa Breweries, a British entity owned by Diageo outlet based in Nairobi as strategy director. Weekly Citizen has information Ndegwa while at EABL, was used by Britons to fight Keroche Breweries that was established in 1997. At EABL, he served as group chief finance officer, group strategy director, sales director and an executive director of the board. His assignment by his foreign masters was to tame the growth of Keroche at all costs. The senator beer, affordable beer to counter Keroche products was his breakthrough. It became one of the most successful innovations by Diageo. Sources at EABL then claim, Ndegwa was at the right position at the firm when senator was introduced and was not even involved by virtue of having no beer production background. He took credit and
was to land be CEO in Guinness subsidiaries in Nigeria and Ghana all linked to Diageo UK. It was while in West African capitals the hiddenr social side of Ndegwa was noticed. His secret love for beuties in tight skirts or tight trousers almost landed him in trouble after competing with a Nigerian man over a beauty. The Nigerian man could not control his bitterness and went physical. What happened afterwards is history but the situation was nasty at the social joint. Ndegwa was named Safaricom CEO when succession wars had taken centre stage following Collymore’s death. The ministry of Information and Communication cabinet secretary Joe Mucheru was pushing for a Kenyan CEO.

By then, the board had appointed founding chief executive officer Michael Joseph to act. Initially, interviews for

Michael Joseph

Collymore replacement before his death had been contacted while the late was sick. Forces involved did not agree on the person to take over hence Collymore tenure was to be extended for one year thus dying in office. During the controversial interviews, Kenya Commercial Bank CEO Joshua Oigara a member of late Collymore Boys club was favoured as a local. But foreign owners wanted one of their own. The Kenyan government objected. It ended with Collymore one year extension term. The state move was based on an agreement adopted during shareholder meeting in 2017 where it was agreed a Kenyan take over. In fact, during the said interviews, Ndegwa did not apply. Kenya government owns 35 percent, Vodacom 35pc and Vodafone with 5pc. Like Ndegwa, Joseph whom he took over in acting capacity is a dual American and Kenyan national. Collymore was married to a Kenyan. He was a Guyanese born British businessman. Ever since he took over, Ndegwa has been holding secret meetings with three top managers at Safaricom raising eyebrows what he is up to. The move has sent panic among the so-called Collymore orphans.

The Late Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore

The orphans were instrumental in running daily activities as Collymore was sick. They could decide what to be done, who to be sacked and other managerial duties. One targeted face although enjoying influence among the board of directors is Sateesh Kamath, chief finance officer and executive board member. He acted as CEO when Collymore was indisposed. Then we have Sylvia Mulinge, the woman said to have been a darling to Collymore and was even being groomed to succeed him as CEO, a first Kenyan woman CEO if the deal succeeded. Not spared is Joseph Ogutu, the chief special projects officer who was locked out of CEO post on tribal and on employment basis. Ogutu was preferred to act after Collymore death but instead, Michael Joseph was picked. Ogutu’s mistake is that he is a Luo like ODM leader Raila Odinga, the person who called on Kenyans boycott Safaricom services after 2017 polls. Ogutu is at his twilight days at Safaricom. One person whose future hangs in balance if what we hear from insiders is anything to go by is Sylvia Mulinge. To haunt Sylvia is a plot to revive an accident case in Nairobi that saw a minor die in the slums of Kibera adjacent to the Southern bypass. Sylvia was on a wheel of Toyota Prado KBU 483M with Safaricom Ltd registered as its legal owners. It is said, Mulinge with Colllymore kept the crash secret contrary to Vodafone’s strict Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) policy. Lawyers acting for the deceased wrote a protest letter to the Directorate of Public Prosecution on the matter. The letter was copied to the Inspector General of Police and the Independent Police Oversight Authority.

Sylvia Mulinge

Ndegwa is being put on presure to revive the file and disciplinary action taken against Sylvia now Collymore has joined the dead minor in the other world. Careless driving iso a serious infringement of one of the core values for Vodafone PLC which, as part of its OHS, maintains a strict zero tolerance to loss of life or injury related to Vodafone operations or by any of its more than 100,000 employees worldwide. Bribery claims to compromise the family of the minor and illegally influencing law enforcement officials to avoid thorough investigations as to the cause and circumstances of the fatal accident are being raised. The forces pushing Sylvia case revival include Stephen Chege chief corporate affairs Officer who argues,the incident has tainted Safaricom in public eyes. Then we have Nicholas Mulila, chief corparate security officer whose office was deeply involved in the investigations with the final verdict being, Sylvia is guilty and needs to have resigned but instead using her charms had Collymore create a powerful position of chief customer officer after failing to land the top Vodacom position in Tanzania as a fall back deal after being appointed by the late Bob. The plot is to have Rito Okuthe replace Mulinge in the powerful slot of chief customer officer. Okuthe hold chief enterprise business office. However, others want Debrah Mallowah, chief business development officer be appointed. According to sources, Sylvia’s position is second in command at the firm management after that of CEO. By last week after we exposed power struggles at Safaricom, meetings were held to establish the source behind our article that send shivers across. Mulinge was linked to be the source with others claiming, bitter Luos at the blue chip establishment. Further, others even involved a section of the board of directors who were opposed to Ndegwa appointment.