Former Public Service Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria has stepped into the debate over the proposed sale of Safaricom shares, arguing that the conversation is missing the real problem. Responding to remarks by MP Ndindi Nyoro, Kuria said the focus should not be on Safaricom but on the deeper structural weaknesses within Kenya’s equities market.
Kuria questioned why most companies listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange remain significantly undervalued, pointing to Safaricom’s own decline — from a valuation of KSh45 three years ago to about KSh34 today — despite the company’s fundamentals remaining largely unchanged.
He highlighted chronic illiquidity across “virtually all counters”, noting that the NSE still has only 62 listed firms despite being in existence for 71 years. Kuria added that the market has seen little transformation since he first worked on the trading floor 33 years ago.
“The elephant in the room is that our capital markets need a lot of work. Safaricom is not the issue,” he said.
