Group Moves To Have Mary Wambui Kicked Out As CA Board Chair
The consumer protection group on Monday, December 16 cited conflict of interest as the key reason behind their petition to have Wambui kicked out from her current post.
Viral Tea Ke Writer 
The Consumers Federation of Kenya (COFEK) has explained why it has moved to court seeking the ouster of Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) board chairperson Mary Wambui Mungai
The consumer protection group on Monday, December 16 cited conflict of interest as the key reason behind their petition to have Wambui kicked out from her current post.
"The Respondents have, and continue to, grossly violate constitutional and statutory dictates on integrity in leadership to the detriment of the public interests of the Kenyan people and in defilement of the sanctity of leadership as a public trust," COFEK revealed in a statement.
"Despite clear, express and unambiguous constitutional and statutory provisions on conflict of interests in leadership, the Respondents have openly caused and influenced the awarding of the government’s ‘Digital Super-Highway Project’, contracts, to entities directly linked to the 1stRespondent, a Public Officer and chairperson of the 2nd Respondent-the entity responsible for the Digital Super-highway project."
Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) headquarters in Nairobi. /FILE
The Digital Super-Highway Project is a project approved by President William Ruto's Cabinet for the benefit of Kenyans. The project aims to strengthen the country’s ICT infrastructure by increasing the network coverage across the country as well as reducing the cost of internet connectivity and enhancing the delivery of e-government services, health services, agricultural services and financial services.
The project is set to bring the internet closer to Kenyans through 100,000 Kilometers of fibre cables, 25,000 public hotspots, 1,450 Digital Village Smart Hubs and Studios, three data centres and data protection and cyber security management, all of which are expected to be set up should the project be properly and effectively implemented.
The financing of the project is sourced from the Universal Service Fund, a fund which is managed by the Communications Authority of Kenya, with the project set to be implemented in two phases. The first phase, according to COFEK, was apportioned a total of Ksh5 billion and the second phase was apportioned Ksh10 billion from the Universal Service Fund.
COFEK specified that companies associated with the businesswoman and her family received tenders for the Digital Super-Highway Project.
"Part of clause 3.1 of the tender documents provided that ‘Public employees and their close relatives (spouses, children, brothers, sisters and uncles and aunts) are not eligible to participate in the tenders’. Similarly, clause 3.2 disqualified public officers and/or their relatives or entities. Clause 3.3 further in detail disqualified those with a conflict of interest from the tender," read the statement in part.
"Despite these clear, express and unambiguous provisions, as supplemented by constitutional and statutory dictates, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Respondent caused the awarded of the tender to among others, entities which have a direct link to the 1st Respondent- the Chairperson of the Communications Authority of Kenya."
COFEK claimed that Nightigale Enterprises Limited linked to the daughter changed its name to Nighitigale (E.A) Limited and shareholding before receiving tenders for the project. According to the consumer protection unit, the company received six tenders amounting to millions of shillings.
"The alteration of Nightingale (E.A) Limited shareholding structure to omit the 1st Respondent’s daughter only happened in the period after submission of the bids for the Digital Super Highway tender but before the award of the contract.
"Therefore, beyond peradventure, the only logical conclusion is that the changes to the shareholding structure were engineered to conceal the real beneficial owners set to benefit following the company’s winning the tenders for the Digital Super-Highway project," read the statement in part.
Neither Wambui nor CA had yet to officially respond to COFEK's allegations by the time of publishing this story. She was appointed by President William Ruto to chair the CA board in December 2022 following the resignation of Gilbert Kibe.
Before her appointment, Wambui was fully focused on business but in 2022 she came into the limelight following her arrest saga in a Ksh2.2 billion tax evasion case.
Wambui also played a key part in popularising President Ruto's candidature where he floored Azimio candidate Raila Odinga.
