Court Documents Detail How Safaricom Stole Blaze Idea, Corruptly Awarded Contract to Saracen

Inside: How Safaricom Stole Blaze Idea

Safaricom’s promotional product for young people, Blaze, sparked a storm after claiming that the idea was stolen from one of the country’s leading consultancies.
The current legal dispute involves Transcend Media Group as the plaintiff and eight defendants, including Safaricom, Saracen Media Kenya, and Fieldstone Helms Limited.
In this case, Transcend Media claimed they were the originators of the Blaze idea, which was submitted to the telecom giant in February 2016.
Transcend claims that in January 2016, Safaricom invited bidders to bid through a “Request for Proposal (RFP) for Safaricom ATL/BTL Creative and Digital Services,” which required bidders to design and submit a communication strategy, develop creative execution targeting youth segments.

On February 12, 2016, Transcend submitted application documents for the title and creative concepts Tribe Digital, Hack it, Next Nation, and Safcom 2.0 through Safaricom’s online portal S-Hub.
On February 17, 2016, Transcend presented Safaricom’s evaluation team, which conducted due diligence on invited bidders at their offices in the second phase of the bid.
“After successfully passing the evaluation phase, Plaintiff was invited to make a final presentation before the 1st Defendant Executive Committee on March 2, 2016,” part of the court filing said.

A snippet of the invitation from Safaricom to Transcend Media. image courtsey

Agencies shortlisted for the final stage include Transcend Media Group Limited, Brainwave Communications, Saracen Media Limited, 5ive Limited, and Bean Limited (as a consortium). On April 15, 2016, Safaricom formally notified Transcend directors via conference call that the company had not won the bid and that they were not authorized to announce the successful bidder or provide reasons why Transcend did not win the bid.
However, in May 2016, Transcend was informed that Saracen Media Limited had won the bid on April 4, 2016, although their proposal did not include 5ive Limited, a former consortium member.
Through Saracen Media Limited, Safaricom has started a youth-targeted campaign called “Blaze Kenya” through Saracen Media.
According to Transcend, Blaze Kenya copied from their Next Nation concept, “adopted in style, presentation, and layout.”
“The plaintiff claims that he later discovered that the defendant’s ‘ Blaze Kenya’ campaign was carried out jointly by Saracen Media Limited and a company called Fieldstone Helms Limited. A search of the company revealed that the company’s directors included Thomas Orman Ga and his wife, Susan Wanji Wyaki,” court documents show.

In a separate investigation in a different case, email communications between March 16, 2016, and April 15, 2016, obtained through forensic searches, indicated that Safaricom had engaged in a fraudulent bid for Saracen Media Limited and executed creative. There was a conspiracy among the defendants of Digital Strategy to acquire Transcend’s copyrighted works.

Safaricom has worked with Saracen Media Limited to force the resignation of four Transcend employees, Thomas Omanga, Timla Tieng, Brian Oyugi, and Christine Muchendu, to run the “Blaze Kenya” campaign for Safaricom during the bidding process.
“Working with Saracen Media Limited and plaintiff’s partners Thomas Omanga, Timla Tieng, Brian Oyugi and Christine Muchendu to use plaintiff’s copyrighted work to launch 1st defendant’s marketing platform called ‘Blaze Kenya’ campaign creation”, read court documents.
“In direct collusion with Saracen Media Limited, the first defendant actively orchestrated the resignations of Thomas Omanga, Timla Tieng, Brian Oyugi and Christine Muchendu.”
Some employees were even doubled their salaries to make them available “instantly.”

A snippet of court documents quoting the email conversations. Image courtesy

The four worked with the Saracens through another company; Fieldstone Helms Ltd. Fieldstone Helms will be a creative agency providing strategy, client management, and innovative services. On the other hand, Saracen Media Ltd will act as a media agency providing digital media distribution, media planning, and buying.
According to email conversations seen by the author, Saracen wanted to fix the problem as early as March 18, 2016, after closing the deal. At the time, the bidding process was still ongoing.
In an email from George Wanjohi to Sammy Thuo and Lenny Nganga dated March 18, 2018, Saracen admitted that it did not take on the creative elements of the project. This may be the reason for poaching Transcend Media employees.

How Safaricom Stole Blaze Idea

According to the letters we have, the recruited “team” held several meetings with Safaricom representatives. Further discussions with Saracens media took place in their offices.
Transcend is now seeking 208 million Kenyan shillings in compensation for employment fees lost by Blaze’s activities over the two-year contract period.
Transcend also regretted the loss of 288 million Kenyan shillings in agency fees and commissions for the Blaze campaign, based on an annual budget of 800 million Kenyan shillings.
The company also cited a lost bid cost of KSh 19,560,240.
Transcend Media seeks compensation of at least KSh 1.6 billion for tender-related damages and losses.
Transcend also wants Safaricom and Saracen Media to stop running the campaign.

Source Kahawatungu.com