MPs to probe Sh6bn Telkom Kenya buyout from Helios

Lawmakers have scheduled an inquiry into the suspected irregular payments made by the National Treasury to buy back Telkom Kenya from Helios Investments Ltd days before last year’s general election.

The committee on Finance and National Planning seeks to establish the circumstances under which the National Treasury paid out Sh6 billion in a huff to facilitate the exit of the Mauritius-based entity.

The National Assembly committee, chaired by Kuria Kimani (Molo MP), seeks to establish if the law was followed in the disbursement of the money under Article 223 of the Constitution.

The Finance committee successfully petitioned its Budget counterpart in the National Assembly to reject the payment, whose approval was sought in the first supplementary estimates released this January.

With the House declining to approve the payments in plenary, the committee is seeking to step in to ascertain if taxpayers lost money through the transaction.

MP Kimani said the probe would also extend to public funds that were diverted to non-priorities and in contravention of Article 223 of the Constitution.

“They should only have one remedy, refund government funds. Article 223 has been a subject of abuse over the years and especially during transition,” the MP said.

He added, “We must tighten the provision of this law and send a lesson to these plunders of public funds.”

Article 223 of the Constitution allows the national government to spend money that has not been appropriated by the National Assembly.

This would be if the amount appropriated for any purpose under the Appropriations Act is insufficient or a need [ideally an emergency] has arisen for expenditure. 

The approval for any spending under this Article should, however, be sought within two months after the first withdrawal of the said cash.

If the House is not scheduled for sitting as the case with the Helios transaction, the approval was to be sought within two weeks after it sat next.

However, in this case, the approval was only sought through Supplementary Estimates I for the 2022-23 financial year submitted to the House on January 31, 2023.

This was approximately four months after the transaction, which sparked a heated political discourse, took place.

The inquiry is slated for next week to ascertain how the disbursement was approved, effected, used, and whether the necessary conditions for such disbursement as provided under the Article and subsidiary laws were followed.

The committee will also be seeking to get information on when Jamhuri Holding Limited was incorporated in Kenya and its shareholding.

MPs are also keen to find out when Helios Investment Partners, through Jamhuri Holding Limited (JHL), became a shareholder in Telkom Kenya.

The lawmakers, the Star has further established, want to know the shareholding at the time the entity exited the national telco.

MPs also want to know whether the proper statutory approvals were granted in the acquisition of Telkom Kenya shares by Jamhuri.

The Communication Authority of Kenya and the Capital Markets Authority are required to grant the said approvals or be part of the process.

Lawmakers further want to know if the company – Jamhuri Holdings, paid the requisite taxes and fees to the Kenya Revenue Authority during its entry into and exit from Telkom.

Also on the MPs’ focus is whether the National Treasury, then under CS Ukur Yatani and PS Julius Muia, and the Controller of Budget undertook due diligence in the transaction.

The committee has listed, among others, the Attorney General, Telkom managers, and Jamhuri Holding Ltd management to appear before it.

Also scheduled to appear to aid the inquiry is the Communication Authority of Kenya, the Capital Markets Authority and the Kenya Revenue Authority.

The Budget committee also sought a probe into payments of Sh4 billion for maize subsidy and Sh2.8 billion paid for the improvement of the ‘all-weather’ Lamu-Ijara-Garissa road probed.

The Agriculture committee is set to investigate the maize subsidy payments while the Roads Committee will look into the Ijara project payments.