Kenya's High Court nullifies Vodacom's Safaricom stake acquisition; both parties and government to appeal
Kenya's High Court ruling voiding Vodacom's multi-billion-dollar Safaricom stake acquisition has drawn formal responses from both companies, with the Kenyan government and Vodacom each announcing plans to appeal the decision. The parallel appeals keep the landmark ownership and governance dispute live, resetting the timeline on what had been one of East Africa's largest recent corporate transactions.
Safaricom: the appeal that makes $1.9 billion technically unreturnable
The High Court declined to suspend its own ruling. That detail matters more than the appeals themselves.
With no stay in place, the order to reverse the deal is live — but the government has already spent the KES 244.5 billion ($1.9 billion) it received. Refunding that, should Vodacom lose on appeal, isn't a legal abstraction; it's a hole in a Treasury already stretched across a $39 billion infrastructure pipeline.
So both sides will appeal, the deal sits in limbo, and the real pressure point is time. Every month this drags is a month Vodacom has nominally held 55% of Safaricom with a court saying it shouldn't. Unwinding that cleanly gets harder, not easier.
4 sources
- Safaricom, Vodacom respond after High Court nullifies stake sale · techtrendske.co.ke · T2
- Court Voids Vodacom’s Sh204bn Safaricom Stake Deal · cioafrica.co · T2
- Kenya to appeal ruling that unwound Vodacom’s Safaricom deal · techcentral.co.za · T2
- Kenya: South Africa's Vodacom to Appeal Ruling Invalidating Safaricom Stake Sale · allafrica.com · T3