Telcom executives grilled
Chief executives of four mobile phone companies cut an unusual sight in Nairobi on Tuesday, when they appeared before city police stations for questioning over alleged use of unregistered lines by their network subscribers.
Telkom’s Kenya CEO Mickael Ghossein, Safaricom boss Bob Collymore, Airtel’s Shivan Bhargava and yuMobile’s country manager Madhur Taneja visited the police stations following summons by police Inspector General, David Kimaiyo.
They later addressed a press conference at a Nairobi hotel where they confirmed their visit and gave their accounts of what their companies had done in regard to unregistered SIM cards.
Mr Ghossein, Mr Collymore and Mr Bhargava confirmed they appeared before the police and CID offices on Monday and Tuesday morning and recorded statements.
Mr Taneja said he had not been approached by investigating authority and echoed his colleagues saying unregistered lines are also not active under the yuMobile network.
“We should point out that we have disconnected nearly 4 million SIM cards since February,” Mr Collymore told journalists adding that in their statements, they confirmed they strictly adhere to the CCK regulations.
Earlier in the morning, Mr Collymore arrived at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters in Mazingira and was questioned until 11am.
His statement was taken by the officer in charge of the Investigations Bureau (IB) Mohammed Amin.
Mr Bhargava also reported to the Makadara CID boss William Nangulu for interrogation.
Mr Nangulu said that he had been summoned for interrogation over SIM card registration and after the interrogation his statement was then taken. He was accompanied by two of the company lawyers.
“He cooperated and his statement taken. We have thus initiated investigations,” said Mr Nangulu.
While reading a joint statement on behalf of the bosses during the media briefing Safaricom’s Corporate Affairs Director Nzioka Waita said they were “extremely displeasured” in the manner the issue was handled.