Court Issues Warrant For The Arrest Of Safaricom CEO Ndegwa And Other Senior Officials

A Nairobi Court has issued warrant for the arrest of senior officials of the country’s largest telcos Safaricom including chief executive officer Peter Ndegwa over the failure to pay a litigant more than Sh7 million.

Milimani Commercial Senior Principal Magistrate H. Nyakweba said in a ruling that the corporate veil should be lifted so that the directors can be punished for declining to comply with a court order.

The court said the directors of Safaricom should be arrested and presented before court for sentencing soonest but not later than January 10.

“In the upshot, I allow application dated 3rd November,2022 as prayed. As a result , I issue a warrant arrest against all directors of Safaricom PLC. Upon arrest , directors be arraigned before me for sentencing as soon as will be reasonably practical and in the eventnot later than 10th January,2023,” Magistrate Nyakweba.

Safaricom PLC operated Invesco Assurance account through Paybill 980100 as per the court order.

The company is the Garnishee holding the money on behalf of Invesco and Emphantus Mbogo Njuki, the complaint in the case, has been trying to get his compensation by compelling Safaricom to release the money.

Those to be arrested include the CEO Ndegwa and directors Dilip Pal, Christopher Kirugia, Winifred Ouko, Raisibe Morathi , Sitholizwe Mdalalose , Rose Ogega , Francesco Bianco and former CEO Michael Joseph.

The said the telcos has refused to comply with a court order and they should therefore be punished.

Njuki Through lawyer Morris Mugendi urged the court to punish the directors by jailing them for a term not exceeding six months or as the court may deem fit attaching their assets to compensate him for the loss suffered.

Njuki told the court that Safaricom PLC was duly served with a Garnishee order absolute on 4th October this year for the release Sh 7.7 million.

The order, he said, was served to the company through email but the organisation has failed and ignored to adhere with the order.

“For this reason, the directors of Safaricom are therefore in contempt of court ,” Njuki told the court.

“A Garnishee order obsolete do issue against Safaricom limited directing that all monies belonging to INVESCO Assurance company the judgement debtor herein held. The admitted amount to the extent of Sh.5,778,887.24 as well as accrued interests and costs of these Garnishee proceedings ,” stated the said order.

He added that Safaricom PLC conduct has completely denied him the fruits of Garnishee absolute.