News
Title: ODM leaders back in court over Safaricom sale
Date: 2007-11-01
ODM is putting up yet another fight to stop the Government from selling 25 per cent of its shares in Safaricom mobile phone company. Three party leaders have gone to the Court of Appeal, seeking to reverse a High Court decision dismissing their attempt to block the sale of shares to the public. Secretary General, Prof Anyang Nyongo, treasurer, Mr Omingo Magara, and immediate former Wundanyi MP, Mr Mwandawiro Mghanga, claim Mr Justice Joseph Nyamu erred by considering matters that were not before him. Last month, the party sought to stop the sale until the Privatisation Act, enacted two years ago, comes into force. The sale of the Sh34 billion shares had been factored in the Budget read in June by Finance minister, Mr Amos Kimunya. Nyamu ruled that no illegality on the part of the Government had been proved to warrant cancellation of the sale. He said the application had failed to include Telkom Kenya in the suit, yet the parastatal owns majority shares in Safaricom. The applicants have faulted the judge for declining to allow them to challenge Kimunya's acts. "The ruling is riddled with fundamental inconsistencies, inter alia, that no leave could be granted as the party, Telkom Kenya, whose actions and decisions were sought to be impunged had not been joined yet another time held that decisions sought to be impunged were those of the Government, which were not amendable to judicial review," they argue. Nyamu also erred by holding that the decision to privatise Safaricom was a Cabinet decision and could not be challenged in court, they say. ODM leaders claim the judge shifted obligations and blamed them for the delay in setting a date for the commencement of the Privatisation Act 2005, while that was the mischief they had sought to deal with in the suit. They say Nyamu "blindly accepted contested explanations tendered on behalf of the Finance minister of his attempts to operationalise the Act, wholly overlooking the unexplained delay between the period the Act was passed and his ostensible belated attempts."
Title: ODM leaders back in court over Safaricom sale
Date: 2007-11-01
ODM is putting up yet another fight to stop the Government from selling 25 per cent of its shares in Safaricom mobile phone company. Three party leaders have gone to the Court of Appeal, seeking to reverse a High Court decision dismissing their attempt to block the sale of shares to the public. Secretary General, Prof Anyang Nyongo, treasurer, Mr Omingo Magara, and immediate former Wundanyi MP, Mr Mwandawiro Mghanga, claim Mr Justice Joseph Nyamu erred by considering matters that were not before him. Last month, the party sought to stop the sale until the Privatisation Act, enacted two years ago, comes into force. The sale of the Sh34 billion shares had been factored in the Budget read in June by Finance minister, Mr Amos Kimunya. Nyamu ruled that no illegality on the part of the Government had been proved to warrant cancellation of the sale. He said the application had failed to include Telkom Kenya in the suit, yet the parastatal owns majority shares in Safaricom. The applicants have faulted the judge for declining to allow them to challenge Kimunya's acts. "The ruling is riddled with fundamental inconsistencies, inter alia, that no leave could be granted as the party, Telkom Kenya, whose actions and decisions were sought to be impunged had not been joined yet another time held that decisions sought to be impunged were those of the Government, which were not amendable to judicial review," they argue. Nyamu also erred by holding that the decision to privatise Safaricom was a Cabinet decision and could not be challenged in court, they say. ODM leaders claim the judge shifted obligations and blamed them for the delay in setting a date for the commencement of the Privatisation Act 2005, while that was the mischief they had sought to deal with in the suit. They say Nyamu "blindly accepted contested explanations tendered on behalf of the Finance minister of his attempts to operationalise the Act, wholly overlooking the unexplained delay between the period the Act was passed and his ostensible belated attempts."
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