Safaricom shares sale: Petitioners urge court to declare gov't transaction unconstitutional

In submissions filed before the Constitutional and Human Rights Division of the High Court, the petitioners led by Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka and Lempaa Suyiaka told the court that the National Treasury has no constitutional authority to raise revenue through the sale of public assets, insisting that the Constitution only permits the national government to raise revenue through taxation, charges and borrowing.

The case was filed by Tony Gachoka, Prof. Fredrick Onyango Ogola, Paul Maina Mugo and Samuel Kahara Macharia, who are seeking orders to stop the government's plan to divest its 15 per cent shareholding in Safaricom in favour of the Vodacom Group.

The petitioners have urged the court to find that the proposed transaction would reduce the Government of Kenya's stake in Safaricom from 35 per cent to 20 per cent while increasing Vodacom's effective control to about 55 per cent, effectively handing majority control of Kenya's largest telecommunications company to a foreign-linked entity.

They further urged the court to recognise that Safaricom is not merely a telecommunications company but a strategic national infrastructure platform that supports critical government functions, including digital payments, public service delivery and the transmission of election results.

The petitioners have also urged the court to find that the proposed sale price of Ksh.34 per share substantially undervalues the government's stake and could result in a public loss running into billions of shillings.

They maintain that the proposed transfer of effective control over Safaricom raises issues of national sovereignty, public trust, national security, data governance and competition policy and therefore cannot be treated as an ordinary commercial transaction.

The petitioners have asked the High Court to find that the intended sale violates several provisions of the Constitution, including Articles 1, 10, 35, 73, 75, 201, 227, 232 and 238, and to grant orders stopping the transaction.