Mr John Ngumi is not your typical celebrity entrepreneur of financial expert. He is often a laidback corporate number cruncher who was shoved into the limelight through political appointments during the President Uhuru Kenyatta regime.

It is understood that the story of the scandal, in which the government paid Ksh6.09 billion few days to the 9th August 2022 general elections, ran afoul a section of the senior Nation Media leadership.

The 60% stake was acquired from Helios for Ksh6.09 billion and means the company is now fully state-owned. The deal values Telkom Kenya at Ksh10 billion.

The diversification plan aimed at opening up new revenue streams was disclosed in its latest annual report. At the moment, KPLC leverages its 4,000-kilometre power transmission and distribution network to lease fibre optic cables across the country to ISPs.

This decision paves the way for the merger which, according to Telkom, stalled because of the EACC investigations. The stalling increased the risk of of Airtel walking away from the deal.

Kibati cites red tape as major reason for Telkom pulling out of the merger deal