Mobitelea Ventures Limited

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Mobitelea Ventures is the name of a shadowy company [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]that owns 12.5% of the shares of the Vodafone Kenya Ltd, itself a 40% shareholder of Safaricom, the largest mobile phone company in Kenya. Mobitelea Ventures shareholders are hidden by nominee companies through Guernsey and the Cayman Islands.

Safaricom is 60% owned by the Govt of Kenya and it has plans to sell of a stake in Safaricom to the public through an IPO. Such an IPO would also provide the owners of Mobitelea a valuation of their shareholding. The timeline for Mobiltelea is such that it arouses suspicion in the manner in which the stake was acquired at the beginning of 2000, when Kenya was governed by Daniel arap Moi.

A recent report by Kroll Associates places the ownership of Mobitelea Ventures in 3 hands: Nicholas Kipyator Biwott (a powerful minister in the regime of Moi), his son-in-law, Canadian born Charles Field-Marsham and Gideon Moi (the youngest son of Daniel arap Moi).

The veracity of the claim by Kroll is subject to enquiry. Although the nature of the shareholding has not been resolved, the government of Kenya has gone ahead to sell 25% of its 60% shareholding through an IPO. This has raised speculation on that the government sympathises with the Mobitelea owners.

Documents obtained by the Guardian show Mobitelea was registered in Guernsey on June 18, 1999 - several months after Vodafone had struck a preliminary deal with the Kenyan government.[6]

Mobitelea's real owners are hidden behind two nominee firms, Guernsey-registered Mercator Nominees Ltd and Mercator Trustees Ltd. The directors are named as Anson Ltd and Cabot Ltd, based in Anguilla and Antigua.


[edit] References

  1. ^ "Revealed: Mystery firm secretly owns 5pc of Safaricom shares", The EastAfrican, 2006-11-20. Retrieved on 2007-10-09. 
  2. ^ "Investigation into Vodafone's mystery partner in Kenya", The Daily Telegraph, 2007-02-17. Retrieved on 2007-10-09. 
  3. ^ "UK's fraud office to probe Vodafone", Business Daily Africa, 2007-03-08. Retrieved on 2007-10-09. 
  4. ^ "SFO looks into Vodafone partner", The Sunday Telegraph, 2007-03-19. Retrieved on 2007-10-09. 
  5. ^ "Kenya watchdog probes Safaricom ownership", Reuters, 2007-03-19. Retrieved on 2007-10-09. 
  6. ^ "Kenyan inquiry into Vodafone's mystery partner", The Guardian, 2007-02-16. Retrieved on 2007-10-09. 

[edit] Sources