Registrar declines to release owners of IPPs behind high cost of electricity
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Registrar of business registration declines to release owners of IPPs behind high cost of electricity citing data protection breach
Registrar of business registration declines to release owners of IPPs behind high cost of electricity citing data protection breach.
The director general of Business Registration Service (BRS) has declined to divulge personal information of owners of Independent Power Producers (IPPs) publicly citing a breach of the Data Protection Act.
Appearing before the National Assembly Committee of Energy probing the high cost of electricity, Kenneth Gathuma told the lawmakers he can only give the information to the committee for writing its final report but not for discussion in public.
While Mr. Gathuma claimed he could name the directors at MPs’ request, he declined to provide other information like ID or phone numbers.
“The IDs and telephone numbers can be provided but in a confidential manner that the committee can use when it retreats to write its report but not in public,” Mr Gathuma told MPs
The registrar on Thursday provided a list of directors of some IPPs but MPs termed the information as inadequate.
The committee chaired by Mwala MP Vincent Musyoka said they need the information to put faces of individuals to names of people owning the IPPs so that they are not accused of targeting the wrong person when writing the report.
“A name is just a name, anyone can deny that it does not belong to him but when we have the supporting documents, then we know we are interrogating the right person,” Mr Musyoka said.
The additional information, according to Nyatike MP Tom Odege, would aid the committee in identifying some people who appear to be direct beneficial owners of more than one company.
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He cited Suleiman Said Shahbal who is a director and beneficial owner in both Noora Power Limited and Gulf Power Limited and Francis Koome Njogu who is also listed as director and beneficial owner in the same companies.
Even though the registrar listed directors for some IPPs, according to Ruiru MP Simon King’ara, they don’t actually own any shares, indicating that the real owners of the shares are other people
Mr Gathuma also failed to provide a list of beneficial owners of foreign-owned IPPs, asking MPs to seek the help of the Attorney General in getting the information.
He told the MPs that some countries don’t provide beneficial owners of the companies, except through the Attorney General’s list of directors of beneficial owners.
“The office of the Attorney General with the recommendation of this committee can write to those jurisdictions to get the information needed through the mutual legal assistant mechanism,” Mr Gathuma said.
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