Sacked KBC boss admits making multi-billion error in payment offer

Samuel Maina, the sacked acting Managing Director (MD) of the state-owned Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), now says he made an error in the offer to settle a long-running dispute with Channel 2 of Dubai.

Maina, who was earlier on Tuesday sacked, says that the letter he sent out to London-based law firm Denton quoted the wrong currency of the settlement offer.

The MD had apparently offered USD five billion (Ksh.769.5 billion) to Channel 2, instead of the Ksh.5 billion as instructed by the parent ministry.

Maina has since offered an apology to the ministry, noting what he terms as a "grievious misrepresentation of the figure quoted, and withdrawn the letter with the USD figures"

In a rejoinder on Tuesday, ICT CS  Eliud Owalo ordered the termination of Maina's contract and institution of disciplinary action against him "for committing the government of the republic of Kenya to pay Ksh.5 billion without seeking the concurrence of the Ministry, National Treasury and the office of the Attorney General and Department of Justice in total disregard of earlier instructions."

The communication from the CS is the latest in a series of correspondence between the Ministry, the Solicitor General and the PS in the same ministry over the attempts to come to an out-of-court settlement with Channel 2 corporation, which had sued the state broadcaster for improperly terminating a contract entered between the two entities, where channel 2 was meant to have provided content for KBC Metro TV.

Previous correspondence between the aforementioned parties indicate that the "government had agreed to offer Channel 2 a total of Ksh.5 billion as the final settlement.