Kenya's High Court has ruled that the government's sale of a 15% stake in Safaricom to Vodacom was unconstitutional, and ordered the stake returned to the state, TechCabal reports. That could leave Kenya, already short of cash, having to refund about $1.9 billion it received.
How it got here
In July, Vodacom completed the R35 billion ($2.1 billion) purchase of an additional 20% of Safaricom from the Kenyan government and Vodafone International, a deal it had pursued since December 2025. It took Vodacom to 55% and majority control. Before that, it spent months on competition reviews and fought a court order that had temporarily stopped the deal, until the Court of Appeal lifted it in June.
What happens now
Vodacom says it will appeal and ask the courts to pause the order while the case is heard. For now it still controls Safaricom, but that control depends on the next ruling.
The stakes are high. Safaricom is East Africa's biggest mobile network and runs M-PESA. In the year to March 2025 it earned KES 388.7 billion ($3 billion) in revenue and KES 69.8 billion ($540 million) in profit, according to TechCabal.
