Michael Joseph says appointment as interim Safaricom CEO temporary as board looks into other people

Michael Joseph explains why he was appointed as interim Safaricom CEO

Mumbi Mutuko

July 3, 2019 8:03 AM

Safaricom's headache to appoint new CEO

Safaricom interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Michael Joseph

Michael Joseph addressed questions as to why he was appointed as the interim Safaricom CEO following the demise of Bob Collymore.

Social media was abuzz with Twitter users wondering why Mr Joseph, who was Mr Collymore's predecessor, took up the position.

Mr Joseph explained that he was selected because officials currently serving in various senior capacities at the company are not ready to fill in Collymore’s shoes at the moment.

He stated: “at this point, we (board) thought that none of them was ready for this role today.”

Safaricom interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Michael Joseph Pulse Live Kenya

Temporary appointment

The interim CEO was speaking during an interview on K24 where he pointed out that he was only appointed on a caretaker basis.

Mr Joseph also noted that he was coming into an all too familiar position hence is well capable of steering the company in the right path.

"...now I’m just looking after it for a while, like a grandparent looking after the grandchild, until we appoint somebody else,” Mr Joseph stated.

“It’s not something new for me, I’m not having to start afresh, I’m well prepared for the role, but I must emphasise it is temporary,” he added.

Stalling search for Safaricom CEO

He further revealed that the search for Collymore's successor began 18 months ago but stalled due to demands and pressure from various corners.

Safaricom PLC interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Michael Joseph Pulse Live Kenya

“It was a worldwide search, including people in Kenya. And eventually, we came to a very short list, we came to a decision but we didn’t execute it because there was a concern as to whether the successor to Bob should be a Kenyan or not,” Mr Joseph said.

He added, “And because there was some question about that, we decided to put it on hold for a while, and that’s why we asked Bob to stay for another year while we thought about how we could do it."

Michael also praised Collymore saying he embraced his role as CEO when he was appointed 10 years ago and took it to another level.

Mumbi Mutuko