Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore today held an unusual press briefing in his office board room to defend himself against fraud allegations at the leading mobile services operator. This follows a series of allegations leveled by controversial blogger Cyprian Nyakundi, which link Collymore and several other parties to fraudulent activities.
On Friday, May 6th, Nyakundi had written on his blog that the CEO’s career was on the line, citing a private forensic report prepared by KPMG that mentions his name.
It is not clear how the blogger came into the possession of the document which was termed private and confidential. A petitioner, Michael Ngugi alludes to the report saying that Kenya’s biggest company is riddled with discrepancies, fraud, governance malpractices among other accusations.
Speaking today, Mr Collymore acknowledged the report but told journalists that it was incomplete and could not be relied on:
“The draft report cannot be relied on, yes I know about the report because I commissioned it myself- but we cannot make conclusions from a report that is not the final copy, at this point the report which was unlawfully released implicates innocent people for malicious reasons,” Collymore said.
The unlawfully released report, Collymore said, was seemingly a vendetta pushed by a disgruntled business person who was likely to have missed a Safaricom tender in times past.
“I stand in integrity, I was the first CEO to declare personal wealth because I believe in transparency and integrity. I do not involve myself in corrupt activities and I’m saddened by the allegations leveled against my person and the company as a whole,” Collymore added.
Safaricom said it was going to sue perpetrators once the police completed the investigation. “Leaking private documents of Kenyan companies is unlawful and unethical, we shall get to the root of the whole issue once the police complete investigations. The originator of the said report shall be prosecuted in a court of law, “ Collymore revealed.
Safaricom was in 2015 embroiled in a law suit with Cyprian Nyakundi that saw the court block the blogger from posting on his portal, defamatory articles about Safaricom. The injunction does not however stop the blogger from writing about the company or its employees. (additional reporting by Tuko.co.ke)
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