When Sylvia Mulinge was appointed as the new managing director for Vodacom Tanzania effective June 1st this year, Bob Collymore was quick to update Kenyans, maybe to brag how his products were shinning all over the world.
But now, there is no word from Bob Collymore, after the power girl was denied a work permit by the Tanzanian authorities. Word has it that Kenya has sent lobbyists to Tanzania to save Safaricom and Kenyans the shame of one of their own being denied a work permit. Whether that succeeds or not, Sylvia Mulinge is damaged goods.
Safaricom has never given society any good product. Those that read the Safaricom KPMG corruption report, saw the corporate dirt and how Safaricom and its entire management is rotten, beyond help.
A good example is Steve Chege, the Safaricom corporate affairs director that has made millions from the Nyakundi Vs Safaricom cases. Any time Safaricom is in trouble, he smiles all the way to the bank since he colludes with law firms to mint money from Safaricom. This is a matter that needs an independent investigation by the corrupt Safaricom board. All cases in court should be audited and it will be a shocker.
Well, Sylvia Mulinge has never been far from controversy and what that is happening to her can be regarded to as Karma, which all of you know is a bitch.
Flash-Back
Peter Arina was the General Manager of Consumer business and was popularly referred to as Number two of Safaricom. But his departure from Safaricom surprised many.
Peter Arina was frogmarched from the Safaricom premises by security like a dog after Sylvia Mulinge and Rita Okuthe cooked a scandal ( Of course genuine- But who is clean in Saf?) and handed it over to Vodafone Group for action. Vodafone executives in the UK agreed to force changes through the current CEO, the Guyana Immigrant, Bob Collymore.
And that is how Peter Arina was edged out. Peter Arina later Joined East African Cables but resigned this year over integrity and many scandals. Before Joining Safaricom, Mr Arina used to work for Unilever. One day we will tell you the story behind Arina’s forceful eviction from Safaricom by security…
Moving forward, Sylvia Mulinge was accused of murdering a minor. The crisis mushroomed from a high-speed road crash that resulted to the death of a poor minor resident in the slums of Kibera adjacent to the Southern bypass in Nairobi caused by a sleek vehicle driven by Mulinge. The vehicle, a top of the range Toyota Prado KBU 483M, had/still has Safaricom Ltd registered as its legal owners.
Mrs Sylvia Wairimu Mulinge, then Safaricom’s Director for Consumer Business, was involved in the fatal accident allegedly caused by reckless drunk driving resulting in the death of young Mary Kusa Etale who was a minor living with her parents in Kibera. Mrs Mulinge, in conspiracy with her bosses, then went ahead and kept the crash secret contrary to Vodafone’s strict Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) policy.
The accident was itself a bold violation of a core section of Vodafone’s “Absolute Rules” on OHS which demands that employees must “never exceed speed limits or travel at speeds that are dangerous for the type of road, vehicle, or conditions”. Eyewitnesses claim Mrs Mulinge was speeding while overtaking a stationary truck at the time of the accident which happened in an area known as “Raila Village” which is known to have high pedestrian traffic. She was drunk and staggering at the time.
The scandalous Safaricom top duo then went as far as attempting to bribe the parents of the deceased through an out of court settlement with a paltry offer Kenya shillings 950,000/- which betrayed the value they attached to the late Mary’s life.
To make matter worse, correspondence prepared by lawyers acting for the deceased family suggest Mrs Mulinge and Mr. Collymore of illegally influencing law enforcement officials to avoid thorough investigations as to the cause and circumstances of the fatal accident.
The editor of this site, using social media tools and the internet, managed to push the then Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko to review this case, leading to an order being issued demanding the arrest of Mulinge. But mulinge managed to influence the system, bribing judges and her case dying. We will keep reminding the no-nonsense Noordin Haji to re-open the case.
Apart from the murder saga, Sylvia Mulinge was mentioned many times in the Safaricom KPMG report that exposed the rot within Kenya’s most corrupt company, Safaricom. The scandal involved a company called Fibre Space LTD and Miss Mulinge.
Fibre Space Ltd was single sourced by Safaricom to roll out a system for electronic payments in the transport sector. This is the project known as the cashless payment system for matatus in Nairobi. KPMG established that there was no request for proposal (RFP) issued nor vendor selection (tendering process) done for this partnership. During this same period, KPMG also established that Fibre Space was actually having discussions with the head of the business unit Sylvia Mulinge. To the shocking surprise of the auditors, accountability documents related to this contract seem to have disappeared into thin air after payments were made to Fibre Space for a total of USD 6.46 million living Safaricom with a dead stock of unusable cards.
The Safaricom Power Girl Sylvia Mulinge might have dug her own grave.
We have been reliably informed that there is serious lobbying to have Mulinge get a work permit but it doesn’t matter even if she gets it or not.
He downfall is nigh…
