A total of 175 employees from the exiting yuMobile will be absorbed by rivals Safaricom and Airtel as part of the buyout by the two telecoms that is expected to be sealed this week.

According to the Business Daily, 150 out of the 197 yuMobile employees will be taken to Safaricom while Airtel will take 25.22 employees will however not be absorbed and will instead be paid to retire.

Early this year, employees from yuMobile filed a case in court seeking to stop sale of the telecom until their fate is known.

“The transaction is now almost coming into a conclusion. No deal has been signed yet but we expect this to be done either on Monday or Tuesday,” said a source privy to the negotiations.

On Friday, Safaricom announced plans to pay a sum of Sh6.9 billion to YU Mobile for the company’s assets, including frequency spectrum, transmission towers and IT equipment an effort seen as a step towards accommodating their growing subscriber base.

Rival Airtel on the other hand will pay Sh4 billion for yuMobile’s subscribers and the operating licence, meaning Airtel will have two Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) licences.

The three companies parties will notify the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) after the agreement.

“The authority is in agreement with your request to take over ‘Essar Numbering Ranges’ in order for the migrating Essar’s subscribers to retain their numbers,” Francis Wangusi, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) director-general said in an approval letter to Airtel.

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