The Grand Regency Scandal broke loose in June 2008. The Central Bank of Kenya was alleged to have secretly sold a luxury hotel in Nairobi to an unidentified group of Libyan investors for more than 4 billion Kenyan Shillings way below the appraised market value. The then Finance Minister Amos Kimunya had negotiated the sale, and was censured in a near-unanimous motion by the Parliament of Kenyan, though he vehemently denied the charges.
This follows on the heels of the Safaricom IPO, overseen by Kimunya, which has been alternatively praised and questioned for possible corruption in the execution of the sale. Safaricom was and still is the largest mobile phone service provider in Kenya. Having operated with a near-government monopoly for many years. The government of Kenya sold its 50% stake in Safaricom in the IPO.
