Safaricom chair defends $800mn health contract amid conflict of interest

The chair of Safaricom, Adil Khawaja, has defended the telco’s involvement in an $800 million government contract to digitise the country’s health systems.

This is even as opposition politicians alleged a conflict of interest over his law firm Dentons HHM’s role in the deal.

Safaricom, Kenya’s most profitable public company, has spent much of this week promoting the Integrated Healthcare Technology System (IHTS) that it won in a consortium. The Safaricom-led consortium includes Konvergenz Network Solutions and Apeiro Limited, a firm linked to Indian businessman Gautam Adani through an Abu Dhabi-based Holdco.

While Khawaja maintains that the project was conceived before he became Safaricom’s board chair, critics and opposition politicians have pointed at his law firm’s representation of Konvergenz and his close relationship with President William Ruto as a potential conflict of interest.

“We gave some preliminary advice to Konvergenz. They are a big technology firm that has done many successful large projects. This project was started by former President Uhuru Kenyatta and it is only now that we are seeing its implementation,” Khawaja told Daily Nation, a local daily.

Safaricom, which owns a 22.56% stake in the consortium, will provide network support for the project, while Apeiro Limited (59.55%) and Konvergenz (17.89%) will develop the platform. The system will link all health facilities in the country and store medical data.

Dentons HHM is also Adani Group’s lawyer in a high court case challenging the Indian conglomerate’s bid for big-ticket projects including the 30-year Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) concession and construction of high-voltage transmission lines.

Khawaja said his law firm has over 10 years of experience in public-private partnerships (PPPs) which the Kenyan government has resorted to as mounting public debt cut spending on health, new roads, power lines, railways and airports.

However, critics have questioned the opacity of the PPP process, arguing that such projects should be subjected to a competitive process.

On Sunday, Safaricom CEO, Peter Ndegwa, also defended the project, saying it will help the country strengthen its health systems. This was even as critics questioned the track record of Apeiro Limited and Konvergenz Network Solutions in handling such projects.

“We see technology as a tool for empowerment and transformation. This initiative represents a significant step in advancing our ambitions as a purpose-led technology company,” Ndegwa said in a statement.

Source:techfocus24.com