Inside the titanic battle for the soul of Safaricom

Safaricom remains the National Treasury's biggest corporate cash cow at a time the country is struggling to grow revenues. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

The Kenyan government and two dominant and deep-pocketed foreign shareholder groups at East Africa's most profitable company, Safaricom, are set to lock horns over the control of the giant telco's board.

Safaricom, which is partly owned by South Africa's Vodacom and Britain's Vodafone, is expected to pick a new chairman following the exit of veteran corporate banker John Ngumi from the telco's board of directors and consequently as the chairman of the board last month.