UPDATE 2-Kenya's Safaricom names Ndegwa as chief after three-month search

(Adds analyst comment, biographical details on new CEO, writes
through)

By Omar Mohammed

NAIROBI, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Kenya's top telecoms operator
Safaricom named Peter Ndegwa as chief executive,
ending a three-month search for a leader following the death of
long-time head Bob Collymore.

Ndegwa's appointment becomes effective on April 1, 2020,
said Safaricom which has been led by former chief executive
Michael Joseph on an interim basis since Collymore's death in
July.

Ndegwa, a Kenyan, joins from brewer Diageo, where he
has served since July 2018 as managing director of the company's
continental European business.

The Kenyan government, which owns 35% of Safaricom, had
insisted that a local be picked to succeed Collymore.

Ndegwa is "the best qualified in terms of experience and
maturity," Joseph, a dual Kenyan-American national, told
Reuters.

Safaricom controls about 62% of Kenya's mobile market, with
30 million subscribers. The company, 35% owned by South Africa's
Vodacom and 5% by Britain's Vodafone, grew
under Collymore's leadership into East Africa's most profitable
company with an $11 billion valuation.

Prior to his current role at Diageo, he served for three
years as chief executive of Guinness Nigeria, Diageo's largest
single business in Africa in terms of turnover and employees.

Before that he was CEO of Diageo in Accra for nearly four
years, according to his Linkedin profile.

He began his career in the drinks industry at Kenya's East
African Breweries (EABL), spending nearly eight years there and
rising to the position of group finance director. The brewer is
controlled by Diageo.

"Peter Ndegwa has done really well in the Diageo
subsidiaries he has worked in," said Eric Musau, head of
research at Standard Investment Bank in Nairobi. "Our initial
sense is that he has the reputation to manage a company the size
of Safaricom."

Before joining EABL he worked for 11 years at accounting
firm PwC. He has an MBA from the London Business School having
studied economics at the University of Nairobi.
(Reporting by Omar Mohammed
Additional reporting by Duncan Miriri
Editing by Maggie Fick and David Holmes)