Jails beckons for Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa and eight directors for disobeying court order

Notorious Telco Safaricom's CEO and its directors risk facing jail time after a Magistrate's court issued a warrant of arrest against the telecommunications top officials for disobeying a court order.

Those to be arrested include the CEO Peter Ndegwa and directors Dilip Pal, Christopher Kirugia, Winifred Ouko, Raisibe Morathi, Sitholizwe Mdalalose, Rose Ogega, Francesco Bianco and former CEO Michael Joseph for failing to pay a litigant kshs 7million as ordered by a Court.

In the ruling, Senior Principal Magistrate Henry Nyakweba stated that the corporate veil should be lifted so that the directors can be punished for declining to comply with the court order requiring them to pay Emphantus Njuki.

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

“In the upshot, I allow the application dated 3rd November 2022 as prayed. As a result, I issue a warrant of arrest against all directors of Safaricom PLC. Upon arrest, directors are arraigned before me for sentencing as soon as will be reasonably practical and in the event not later than 10th January 2023,” He ruled.

Safaricom PLC operated the Invesco Assurance account through Paybill 980100 as per the court order. The company is the Garnishee holding the money on behalf of Invesco and, the complaint in the case has been trying to get his compensation by compelling Safaricom to release the money.

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

Through lawyer Morris Mugendi Njuki 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 of Sh 7.7 million.

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