Uchumi: What is the role of External Auditors

In the last Uchumi AGM, there was a heated discussion with some minority shareholders on one side and the board on the other regarding the continuation of Pricewaterhousecoopers as external auditors of the company. The shareholders argued that that PWC did not raise a red flag when Uchumi was going under. This issue was not clearly resolved with the board promising to take the views of the shareholders into consideration.

This question cannot be more relevant than today. The CMA should consult widely and seek to enact a law to define the roles of auditors and other parties on matters of corporate governance.

In the US, Arthur Anderson the former largest accounting firm is no longer in business after being convicted of obstructing justice in the Enron case

Uchumi: class action suit for kirubi, pwc necessary

I watched a frustrated John Masterten Smith read a statement announcing Uchumi's closure on 1st June 2006. Lots of investors were taken to the cleaners in one feel swoop. Its notetworthy that some major shreholders who really are responsible for the failed expansion notably Chris Kirubi and ICDCI had long exited the chain. Am convinced that these guys intentionally took the chain to the cleaners so as to buy it later in an 'auction'. they should not be left alone to play around with investors money otherwise people will lose confidence in our financial markets.

Unfortunately, we do not have sufficient laws dealing with this kind of securtities fraud or insider trading as have other developed markets. The only option left now is for shareholders to come together and launch a class action suit against the auditors who have kept mum all the years and the likes of Kirubi. This has been sucessfully done in countries like the US where a tobbaco giant was sued by sick smokers and pharmaceuitcals were sued for side effects of their drugs.

Recently in the US there has been a battery of activity on such cases where executives of energy giant, Enron (Jeff Skilling and Ken Ray) and Technology firm, Worldcom (Bernie Ebbers) were all convicted of fraud or misleading ionvestors. Martha Stewart recently completed her prison term after being convicted for insider trading. http://money.cnn.com/news/specials/enron/
http://money.cnn.com/2002/06/25/news/worldcom/index.htm

Why is KPLC Up like this, Hell Not Again!!!!!

am not happy that KPLC is going up by the day. i had wanted it remain depressed till i can raise funds to buy substantial volume!!

Is KPLC the next big thing at NSE?

Is KPLC the next big thing at NSE?
I got this feeling that KPLC is the next big thin at the bourse: its likely to double money for investors in 12 months. My reasons are simple.
First, there is a dire shortage of counters on which one can now put their money. Bank stocks are generally to be avoided and so are Merali associated companies for reasons discussed recently on banakelele's blog. As such the high liquidity in the market after the kengen refund will find its way to the counter.
Second, the appoinment of a canadian firm to run the company will bring in professionalism the entity and bring down system loses which eat up almost 20% of the production.
Third, the growth in the economy has compounded the demand for power across all sectors, with better management, the copmany is likely to grow revenues by over 10% annually in the medium term.
Fourth, KPLC paid dividends last year surprising many anyalysts who expected them to conserve cash for internal use. by so doing they set a dividend trend which they must keep this year. thios will work well towards price appreciation since this is a largely dividend driven market.