Safaricom is a telecommunications behemoth by any standard, and it leads the way in may respects. It has become such an integral part of our day to day lives that we never stop to think about what it means to have Safaricom in our lives. The bulk of those with mobile phones communicate on the Safaricom network. The bulk of those who go online using smart devices such as tablets, phablets or smartphones do so on the Safaricom network. The bulk of those who use mobile money transfer services, do so on Safaricom's MPesa platform. So it is no surprise that Safaricom leads the way, once more, in transparency as its CEO, Bob Collymore, reveals the details of his wealth.
Safaricom does business with the Government of Kenya, the least not being the multi-billion shilling surveillance network it is building for the Government. Safaricom would like to keep doing business with the Government and Mr Collymore is attuned to the value of symbolic gestures. He is under no obligation to declare what his salary, remuneration or benefits are, but it demonstrates that he has very little t hide when it comes to his management of the affairs of Kenya's most valuable company and in its relations with the Government. The same cannot be said of some of the other billion-shilling companies or their billionaire CEOs. The recent revelations surrounding the Eurobond and the National Youth Service stand in stark contrast to Mr Collymore and Safaricom.
I believe, however, that what Mr Collymore has done is more than being symbolic; it is a signal to the rest of the business community that Mr Collymore intends to play it straight when it comes to his company's affairs and its relations with the Government. The company's largest shareholders is Vodafone, a London-headquartered global telecommunications behemoth which operates in a strictly regulated business environment, and neither the Vodafone CEO nor Mr Collymore would wish to jeopardise their reputations because Kenya's business environment is "dynamic," to say the least.
Some of us sneered when the Kenya Private Sector Alliance, KEPSA, proposed a bribery Bill to the President as a way for the private sector/business community to contribute to the President's war on corruption. Our reasons were founded mostly on the fear that legislation only seemed to encourage greater graft. What Mr Collymore demonstrates is that even in the absence of specific legislation, it is possible for the business community to contribute to the war on corruption by simply embracing as much transparency as they can get away with. Mr Collymore is announcing to the world, and Kenyans in particular, that his fortune has not been made through rent-seeking or dubious contacts with public officials. His wealth is the just reward of a CEO just doing his job.
It is striking that despite the many years he has spent in Kenya running the company, Mr Collymore is yet to be infected by the hubris and arrogance that infects Kenya's rich and powerful. Some of us may envy his toys - the helicopter and the supercar - but none of us hold him in contempt the way we hold some of our most celebrated and lionised business magnates. The causes he has championed outside of a fat bottom line have revealed a man who understands that life is not just about fat bank accounts; for example, the Safaricom Foundation's mission statement is to build communities and transform lives, and I believe this down to leadership like Mr Collymore's and his predecessor, the inimitable Michael Joseph. It is seen in the struggle the company undergoes when it wishes to keep sports sponsorship free of the thuggery prevalent in sports associations offices. If only Safaricom and Mr Collymore had like-minded partners in the business community.
Sadly, Safaricom is the rare company that somehow manages to operate within the law in a very hostile regulatory environment where rent-seeking bureaucrats seem to come out of the shadows at every turn and "well-connected" CEOs seem to live for the opportunity to make a killing from the Consolidated Fund without remorse or shame. Mr Collymore, unwittingly perhaps, exposes his fellow CEOs for the remorseless sharks and their businesses for the scams they are. I just hope he keeps an even head, doesn't take Kenyan citizenship so that he can become an MP or something. If he really wants to hold elected office in Kenya, he should become an MCA; he'd do more good there.
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