A planned sale by the Kenyan government of a 15% stake in Safaricom to South Africa’s Vodacom Group remains on hold after the high court in Nairobi extended a freeze on the deal, pending the outcome of a constitutional challenge.
A three-judge bench – appointed by chief justice Martha Koome and made up of justices Francis Gikonyo, Roselyne Aburili and Tabitha Ouya – on Monday barred the country’s national treasury as well as Safaricom and Vodacom from acting on the transaction until a constitutional petition against it has been heard and decided.
According to Nairobi technology publication Tech-ish, the ruling keeps in place interim orders first imposed on 23 March.
In granting the freeze, the bench said the petition raised weighty constitutional questions that warranted a full hearing. The shares being divested were “not private holdings in the ordinary commercial sense” but public assets held by the state on the people’s behalf, the judges reportedly said.
The delay carries a heavy fiscal cost. Business Daily reported that the freeze has held up a payout to the treasury of about KSh244.5-billion – roughly R31-billion – made up of KSh204.3-billion for the shares, priced at KSh34 each, and a KSh40.2-billion advance dividend backed by the state’s remaining 20% holding. The money is earmarked for a national infrastructure fund. The paper added that the bench had also rejected the state’s warning that freezing the deal would rattle investors.
Constitutional scrutiny
The petition was filed by a group of Kenyans, among them Tony Gachoka and Fredrick Ogola, while opposition leader Kalonzo Musyoka has separately asked the court to halt the sale, Capital FM reported. Petitioners argue the stake has been undervalued and that handing control of a company holding sensitive financial and communications data – notably through the M-Pesa mobile money service – to a foreign buyer demands deeper constitutional scrutiny.
The deal had already been approved by Kenya’s parliament and competition regulators. Alongside the purchase from the state, Vodacom is buying a further 5% of Safaricom from its own parent, Vodafone Group, at the same KSh34/share. Once both transactions close, the deals would lift Vodacom’s effective interest in Safaricom to 55%, handing it majority control.
Read: Pressure builds on Vodacom’s South African mobile business
On an 11 May earnings call, Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub said the company was “a little bit in the court’s hands”, adding that if the orders were not lifted the case could run for several more months.
Asked for comment on the court’s decision, a Vodacom spokesman said via e-mail that the company “remains confident in the strategic rationale of the transaction and believes the proposed increase in our shareholding in Safaricom would support long-term investment, innovation and digital inclusion across the region”.
“Our long-term strategic partnership with Safaricom remains firmly intact. The relationship extends well beyond the proposed transaction and continues to include collaboration across connectivity, mobile financial services, digital infrastructure and innovation,” the spokesman said. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media
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