Kenya’s National Assembly on Tuesday approved the sale of a 15 per cent government stake in Safaricom PLC to South Africa’s Vodacom Group, paving the way for the National Treasury to receive Ksh.240 billion in total proceeds.
The House adopted the joint report of the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning and the Public Debt and Privatisation Committee through an acclamation vote, with the effective completion date set for April 1, 2026, or a later date once all regulatory approvals and preconditions in the Share Purchase Agreement are satisfied.
The transaction, valued at Ksh.204.3 billion, will raise Vodacom’s shareholding in Safaricom from 40 per cent to 55 per cent, giving the South African telecoms group majority control of the company. In addition to the share sale proceeds, the government will receive an upfront payment of Ksh.40.2 billion from Vodacom in lieu of future dividends on its residual 20 per cent stake, bringing total gross inflows to an estimated Ksh.244 billion.
The sale, priced at Ksh.34 per share, represents a premium of 23.6 per cent above the six-month volume-weighted average price as of December 2025. The government plans to offload approximately six billion shares, reducing its stake from 35 per cent to 20 per cent. All proceeds are to be deposited into the National Infrastructure Fund, earmarked for roads, energy, water, airports and other development projects.
The vote was not without controversy. Suba South MP Caroli Omondi raised a point of order, drawing attention to an active court case challenging the proposed transaction. Speaker Moses Wetang’ula dismissed the objection, ruling that Parliament is not party to the court proceedings and cannot be barred from executing its constitutional mandate.
Parliament attached six binding conditions to its approval. These include executing the transaction through the NSE Block Trading Platform, depositing all proceeds into the National Infrastructure Fund, a prohibition on acquisition-related redundancies, and preserving Safaricom’s shared prosperity business model which supports dealers, agents and business partners, for a period of ten years.
The government will retain two seats on the Safaricom board to safeguard national interests, ensure continuity in governance, and preserve Kenya’s digital heritage. Safaricom will also retain a Kenyan chairperson and independent directors, while Vodacom has committed to continued support for the Safaricom Foundation.
Regulatory clearance is still pending from several bodies. The Central Bank of Kenya was still assessing Vodacom’s fitness as a controlling shareholder, governance arrangements post-transaction, ring-fencing of Ksh.250 billion in customer funds, and cross-border supervisory arrangements. The Competition Authority of Kenya had also not yet been formally notified of the transaction at the time of the parliamentary vote. The COMESA Competition Commission, however, had already given the green light, finding that the transaction would not harm competition in Kenya or the wider region.
Kenya’s public debt currently stands at Ksh.12 trillion, and the Finance Committee noted that mounting interest payments and a heavy wage bill have left only Ksh.29.8 billion available for development expenditure in the current financial year. This, it said, was a fiscal squeeze that gave the divestiture added urgency.
The deal now awaits final sign-off from the remaining regulators before the Treasury can execute the transaction on the Nairobi Securities Exchange.
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