Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa is a man of many secrets, soon after taking over from Michael Joseph and he for sure is working to revive the populace favorite worst firm.
The man who landed the plum Safaricom CEO position has dual citizenship. A reliable source well conversant with happenings at the leading mobile service provider board of directors and top management told a local tabloid.
Upon discovery Ndegwa is a British citizen; the staff has baptized him the name “Duke of Safarishire”.
PN, as he is known among professional colleagues, holds British citizenship at the same time a Kenyan. Now, this is one reason why the Killer director Sylvia Mulinge calls him an outsider.
Dual citizenship or dual nationality is allowed in the United Kingdom. Former Attorney General Charles Njonjo who Britons refer to as a Sir Charles Njonjo or ‘The Duke of Kabeteshire‘ had dual citizenship.
Even though the Kenyan Government was fronting for a local CEO, a source revealed that the dual citizenship played a key role in Ndegwa landing the slot against favourite insiders who are referred to as locals.
To bamboozle the Kenyan government that an African and Kenyan to be precise had landed the slot, Ndegwa was appointed. Vodacom knows that PN is a Briton who can denounce his Kenyan citizenship if pushed to the wall. You can use former IEBC commissioner Dr Roselyn Okombe as the case study. In fact, sources reveal that Peter Ndegwa has not invested much in Kenya but in the UK.
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.
Kenyan Bulletin understands that that was the legal base in an agreement that Safaricom signed agreeing not to challenge the appointment of new CEO in Court.
Peter Ndegwa 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.
In fact, Peter Ndegwa by virtue of being a UK citizen is the reason behind landing plum Executive positions in other UK controlled multinational 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 ”, a source revealed.
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 (EABL), a British entity owned by Diageo outlet based in Nairobi as strategy director.
According to Weekly Citizen, 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 (CFC), 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.
Peter Ndegwa Beaten
It was while in West African capitals the hidden social side of Ndegwa was noticed. His secret love for beauties 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.
Safaricom Succession Wars
Ndegwa was appointed 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 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 Boyz 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 share-holder meeting in 2017 where it was agreed a Kenyan to take over. In fact, during the said interviews, Ndegwa did not apply.
Kenya government owns 35 percent, Vodacom 35 percent and vodafone with five percent.
Like Ndegwa, Joseph whom he took over from, in acting capacity is a dual American and Kenyan national. Collymore was married to a Kenyan. He was a Guyana-born British businessman.
