Business
Court Rescues Tangaza From KRA
Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has been barred from interfering with operations of software firm Our Open Market Ltd which runs payments services for Mobile Pay Limited (MPL) commonly known as Tangaza.
In a Tuesday High Court ruling, Lady Justice Janet Mulwa instructed lawyers representing CBK and MPL owners to file their respective submissions before November 8, when the case will be heard.
The ruling gave temporary reprieve to the firm whose offices were raided on October 26, 2021 by officials from CBK, revoking its licence in the process on regulatory breaches.
While revoking the firm’s license last week, CBK accused the firm of repeatedly violating the NPS (National Payments System) law and regulation saying it had failed to submit tax compliance reports including audited financial reports as required by the regulator.
Funds safe
“MPL has persistently failed to discharge its statutory obligations, among others, non-submission of audited annual Financial Accounts of the Trust Fund (Tangaza Trust) and MPL, non-submission of annual systems security audit report, and non-submission of quarterly reports for CBK’s oversight,” argued CBK, saying the firm was putting customer funds at risk.
The firm’s chief executive yesterday refuted claims at a media briefing, saying customer funds are safe.
“We wish to bring to the attention of the general public that contrary to CBK press release indicating that customer funds may be at risk, and that public trust could be eroded.
No customer funds were exposed to any risk and all customer funds have always been available and safe since 2011, and no complaints of any nature were raised with them by our customers,” said the firm’s Chief executive Oscar Ikinu while addressing journalists.
Abiding by the law
MPL is the smallest of the four mobile Payments Service Providers in Kenya – PSPs, with less than 0.01 per cent of total mobile money subscribers which described last week’s actions as “procedural and without compliance of the law.”
The firm said CBK forcefully took control of data centres, software systems, computers, and equipment operated by affiliate companies Mobile Pay Limited, Our Open Market Limited and Creative World Architects.
“We hope that the Central Bank will abide by the rule of law and comply with the high court orders as served,” the CEO said.
Kenya Insights allows guest blogging, if you want to be published on Kenya’s most authoritative and accurate blog, have an expose, news TIPS, story angles, human interest stories, drop us an email on [email protected] or via Telegram
Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa’s Tenure Controversially Extended: A Record Defined by Apologies, Denials and Corporate Opacity
THE FUEL CABAL: How Mohamed Jaffer, a KPC Insider, and a Ministry Official Are Alleged to Have Manufactured Kenya’s Worst Petroleum Crisis in Three Years, While Kenyans Burned
Sugar Empire in the Dock: How Kibos’s Mombasa Refinery Landed 1,481 Phantom Tonnes at the Port — and Why Nine Government Agencies Are Now Watching Its Every Move
G-to-G Deal Fails To Cushion Kenyans As Country Stares At Adulterated Fuel After Hiked Prices
Getting Away With It: How Kenya’s Most Politically Connected Fuel Company Gulf Energy Is Pocketing Billions While Rival Firms Face Public Wrath
The Great Vanishing Act: Odinga Family Moves Be Energy Millions to Secret Tax Haven
Kenyan Motorists Stare At Possible Engine Damage And Heavy Losses As Report Confirms Substandard Fuel In Circulation
Best Betting Sites in Kenya for 2026
How Safaricom Could Sell You Out To KRA
A Case That Refuses To Die: EABL Stake Sale Faces Fresh Challenge After Temporary Reprieve
Forged Legacy: How Kaplan and Stratton’s Peter Gachuhi Is Accused of Faking a Top AG’s Will as State Claims Damning Evidence
THE HANDSHAKE THAT BECAME A NOOSE: How Tuju’s Alleged Intimate Access to EADB’s Yeda Apopo Produced a Sh294 Million Deal With No Written Contract, and Why That Trust Destroyed an Empire
Sold And Abandoned: How Diageo and Asahi Are Locking Kenya’s EABL Minority Shareholders Out Of East Africa’s Biggest Corporate Heist
Poison at the Pump: How Kenya’s Fuel Marking System May Be Exposing Millions to Cancer-Causing Chemicals
How Firm Linked To Mombasa Tycoon Jaffer Was Allowed To Import Fuel At Bloated Price And Set To Make Billions In Profits From Iranian War Crisis In Kenya
THE ZAKHEM-ECOBANK MACHINE: How Kenya’s Courts Were Weaponised to Drain a State Corporation of Over KES 78 Billion
The Teflon Company: How Gulf Energy’s Insiders Built Billions on Kenya’s Fuel, and Walked Away Clean
Inside Details Of Sh78 Billion Fraud in KPC’s Mombasa-Nairobi Line 5 Pipeline Project That Has Continued To Bleed The Country
The Debt They Would Not Pay: How Standard Group Ducked Sh50 Million In Regulatory Fee For Years, Then Called It A Witch-Hunt
Men Linked to Akasha Drug Dynasty Charged With Death Threats and Assault at Nairobi Nightclub
-
Business2 weeks agoPoison at the Pump: How Kenya’s Fuel Marking System May Be Exposing Millions to Cancer-Causing Chemicals
-
Investigations2 weeks agoTHE ZAKHEM-ECOBANK MACHINE: How Kenya’s Courts Were Weaponised to Drain a State Corporation of Over KES 78 Billion
-
Investigations1 week agoThe Teflon Company: How Gulf Energy’s Insiders Built Billions on Kenya’s Fuel, and Walked Away Clean
-
Investigations1 week agoInside Details Of Sh78 Billion Fraud in KPC’s Mombasa-Nairobi Line 5 Pipeline Project That Has Continued To Bleed The Country
-
News1 week agoMombasa Lawyer Exposed In Sh600 Million Alleged Double-Dealing Diani Property Transaction
-
Business1 week agoWattanga Fired Over Incompetence in Tech, Insiders Say
-
Investigations2 weeks agoWho Architected the Ksh 4.8 Billion Fuel Scandal? Two CSs Now Caught in the Storm
-
News1 week agoThe Lawyer at the Centre of Kenya’s State Machine: Eric Gumbo, the AG’s Bypassed Office, and the Half-Billion-Shilling Question