Sylvia Mulinge who is accused of killing a minor, through drunk driving, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of MTN Uganda.
Mulinge who was the Chief Customer Officer at the Telco will take up the post, effective September 2022.
“Sylvia Mulinge becomes MTN Uganda CEO, joining from Safaricom, where she served as Chief Consumer Business Officer for the Group. A seasoned executive, she brings with her a passion for transforming customers’ lives using technology,” South Africa’s MTN Group said.
Despite her success in growing the departments of enterprise and fixed data at Safaricom, she was mired by accusations of stifling innovation.
Most innovators accuse her of being behind their woes.
‘Mulinge would listen to a concept, then with a brush of a hand say, ‘That can’t work’. But later the invention would have its name change and fronted as coming from Safaricom,’ one inventor said.
The most open case of intellectual property theft is that between Safaricom and Transcend Media Group which we covered here.
Ms Mulinge joined Safaricom in 2006, rising through the ranks to chief customer officer in 2018. She took her current role in July 2021.
In 2018, Tanzania authorities denied her a permit to work in the country.
She had been appointed the CEO of Vodacom Tanzania.
“Vodacom Tanzania can confirm that it has received notice from the Labour Commissioner declining a work permit application for Sylvia Mulinge as CEO of Vodacom Tanzania,” it said in a statement
Cold case
The drunk driving case is now a cold one despite the penalty for such being spending time behind bars.
The bribe-taking Kenyan Judiciary bungled the case and the family of young Mary Etale.
The accident happened along the Southern Bypass near Kibra and the Langata Police Station booked it but later many officers were transferred.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) once mentioned the case coming up to court but that was immediately followed by a huge silence.
As she takes her role in Uganda, Mulinge was not a good person; we just hope that Ugandan inventors will not have their inventions ripped off from them without compensation.
Lucille Aveva, whose duties and responsibilities are similar to Sylvia Mulige’s should not walk in her footsteps.
