I absolutely concur with the Minister. The mobitelea stake is not up for sale so they are in no way an obstacle to the sales continuation. Okay lets say The owners of Mobitelea are X and Y so what? what happens next probe how they got it and they are asked to give it back or what? As a Kenyan how do i (or you) stand to benefit? you have a chance to have 0.0001 % or more legally take it. I am.

This is the most stupid defence I have heard from Mr. Kimunya's cronies. If i was buying a part of a company (shares), I would want to know who co-owns the company with me. It is my right to inquire and be told! This is even more so if the company was government owned, or partly government owned. Last time I checked, the government was not waking up early to go to work or driving in Nairobi traffic; Kenyan tax payers were! Mr. Kimunya should address issues concerning his ministerial docket e.g why 2 brokerage firms have failed and what charges he has brought forth against these thieves, and why 2 more firms are on the verge of collapse!

This halobaloo of mobitelea gives an insight of how the grand government will work. Instead of doing what is beneficial to kenyans they will engage with endless side shows. The facts are kenya government owns 60% shares, Vodafone plc owns 40%. Vodafone plc was arm twisted Moi and the kalenjin elite and ceeded 10% share of the company to them. Remember for you to start a company in kenya those days you were required either give a kick back or incoporate them in your company. That is what vodafone did. The party in this saga who should be complainig is vodafone and not kenyans. I think vodafone consists of other companies inside it and that is legal. The only kenya government claim can make is to ask vodafone why it did not sell those shares to the government as per the agreement where by each party and pre-emptive rights againist the other. Vodafone will also say that you are selling shares to another party (kenyans) instead of selling to us first. Lets get down to real issues which can move this country forward.

You failed to understandard that the government owns a majority of shares (60%) in Safaricom and is offloading 25% of the same and thus seizing a majority control in this company. This shares are being sold to Kenyans (read East Africans). There is no difference between Kenyans and the Kenyan government: the later is a custodian of the former's property! It is besides the point how 10% of Safaricom was obtained. We know who owns Vodafone. You can check its ownership in the European Union Listings. We don't know who co-owns 10% of OUR Safaricom. We demand to know. What is there to hide? If its Moi, some of us don't want to co-own anything with him and his cronies, but have a right to buy into Kenyan shares. We are Kenyans First!

These shadow people own almost every company in kenya. This deal of safaricom was done way back in 1998 or 1999. It was between vodafone plc and vodafone kenya ltd so the best people to know who the indviduals behind this mobitelea thing are is vodafone plc. Suppose mobitelea sold their stake to another company or even back to vodafone will you still want to know them? We buy shares we dispose them we can buy them again. The kanu regime was very smart in these things there was no law broken thats why i am saying lets get on with it. The more it delays the government will start borrowing from the domestic market and that will push up interest rates affecting everybody in the process. After we know who these individuals are or were then what next.

Very childish argument while economy/people are suffering. Who care who owns what- anyone business/people can own/dispose shares/stocks-maybe my california pension owns these shares-so what.

Opposition/govt should be focusing in developing the country instead of distractions.

the very first thing the Kibaki adminstration should do is to be transparent, lets have a new government before such major sale be undertaken. The safaricom issue is one of the major reason we had resent election crisis. Mr. President and Mr. Finance minister kenyans wants some questions to be addressed before this sale. We want to know all the players in Safaricom sale. Something is not right the way Mr. Kimunya is handling the sale.

rev. Oriri Cleveland Ohio

I have bought many shares from countless counters and disposed them. What would the information of where i bought them, sold them, of which i dont know to whom i sold to help you? Let tackle the real issues that is - The government needs to raise money to run it affairs and they have decided to sell shares to kenyans themselves. The gray area i would like addressed is about the shares reserved for foregn entities. Sell locally first then if kenyans are unable to exhaust them then sell to eastafricans then you can consider the others.

I do no think the Kenyan people know what they are getting into. 1st: A monopoly is being created 2nd: class c shares have high fees 3rd: you are putting into the wrong hands 4th: an offshore account big flag The goal is to trap as many people as they can and use them later to create a monopoly that destroys the competition. The Kenyan people should wake up, the little money that the common mwanainchi has to buy shares will not prove a good return, only the rich can make a good return on their money, the 5 ksh says it all. Someone in Kenya should open a school to teach wanainchi about the stock market. This is the better investment here.

How much do you have to invest to get 0.0001% of ksh 5 billion company ask the minister that?

I WISH TO ADVICE ALL WHO ARE INTERESTED IN BUYING THIS SHARES THAT THERE IS NOTHING TO FEAR BUT FEAR ITSELF. THE BEST THING IS TO ENTER INTO THIS DEAL KNOWING THAT YOU HAVE PREPARED YOURSELF TO SUCCESSFULLY WEATHER ANY STORM THAT DOES COME BY DEVELOPING THE RIGHT MENTAL ATTITUDE . REFER TO THE STORM RIGHTLY TERMED "THE GREAT DEPRESSION", WHICH FIRST STRUCK IN OCTOBER 1929-TO US ECONOMY(REF TO THE SUCCESS SYSTEM THAT NEVER FAILS BY W.CLEMENT STONEPART III PG 104-AN EVENTFUL JOURNEY).WHAT'S THE EFFECT OF MARKET CRASH TO YOUR INVESTMENT? PLEASE PREPARE FIRST TO MEET THE EMERGENCIES OF LIFE WITH THE RIGHT MENTAL ATTITUDE AND COMPASSION FOR YOUR MENTAL FRAITIES,FEAR,HOPELSSNESS AND DEFEAT BEFORE YOU MAKE A MOVE. LASTLY NOTE THAT 79 YRS LATER US IS STILL LEARNIG FROM THAT EXPERIENCE- PAOLSON PROPOSES FINANCIAL OVERHAUL By Martin Crutsinger AP Economist Writer Yahoo News