Why William Ruto is at crossroads over sale of public assets

Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury and Economic Planning John Mbadi.[FILE,Standard]

The planned partial sale of the state’s stake in Safaricom has kicked up a storm on the government’s ambitious but controversial plan to sell what many Kenyans consider as strategic national assets.

Critics have sounded the alarm, arguing that transferring the 15 per cent stake to Vodacom, the South African telco owned by Vodafone, would severely compromise national sovereignty over critical digital infrastructure, data protection and the national payment system.