It is alleged that Bolloré undercharged election publicity work to win public contracts in Africa.
The holding in custody on Tuesday and charging of French billionaire businessman Vincent Bolloré for alleged corruption is likely to receive attention in Kenya given the hundreds of millions his firm has been investing in the local logistics business.
It is alleged that his company undercharged election publicity work to win public contracts in Africa.
His Havas advertising agency allegedly provided discounted communications advice to Guinean President Alpha Condé and Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé Eyadéma at election time in return for the Bolloré Africa Logistics company being given licences to operate container ports in Conakry and Lomé.
His holding company the Bolloré Group has denied any irregularities.
The Paris-headquartered Bolloré Group operates in Kenya as Bolloré Transport & Logistics Kenya Ltd and was previously called SDV Transami. Bollore was recently in the news after hauling 108 containers from Mombasa through the SGR—which it pledged to support.
It announced two years ago plans to invest Sh2.2 billion (€20 million) to create a new logistics hub in Nairobi as part of its Kenyan expansion effort.
The French firm had said the ongoing infrastructure developments in Kenya influenced its decision to build a Sh2 billion logistics hub in the country.
Jason Reynard, Bolloré Transport & Logistics CEO East Africa Region and Jean-Pascal Naud, Kenya country manager, had said the investments portend a brighter future for the global firm locally.
“Currently we run the MCT inland container freight station which has been operational for 12 years and the East African Commercial & Shipping and Socopao, where our agencies represent many shipping lines that call at Mombasa port,” Mr Reynard had said.
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