Some employees of the troubled Tuskys Supermarket chain in Nakuru have called for the establishment of an independent regulator to monitor growth and control expansion of retail outlets in Kenya.
Tuskys Nakuru Branch manager Mr. Samuel Ikonya said thousands of lives have been ruined after the collapse of retail enterprises in Kenya due to the ‘ruthless and competitive nature of the business’.
“What is happening at Tuskys is now a familiar script in the country’s retail sector. We are only left with this outlet in Nakuru after closing our flagship Magic branch. We are now operating with skeleton staff after hundreds were laid off,” he said.
“No new supplies of goods are coming in against a background of creditors who include suppliers, landlords and banks demanding to be paid their dues running into millions of shillings,” stated Mr. Ikonya.
While wading into the debate on troubled retail sector recently, Governor Lee Kinyanjui had noted that due to lack of regulation, the sector’s landscape was in a sorry state and the situation has seen giants such as Nakumatt and Uchumi wiped out of the market while Tuskys was fighting for survival.
“The role of a structured retail outlet is critical for the distribution of local goods both locally and regionally as when Nakumatt closed shop in Tanzania, our exports to that country dipped significantly,” noted governor Kinyanjui.
“As we continue to witness the replacement of local retails with foreign chains, it must not be lost on us that the priority of any retail chain is to act as a marketing point for products from its mother country,” stated the governor in an interview.
For 47 year old Tuskys employee Jotham Nandwa, nothing could lift the gloom. Not even the reassuring words from his boss Mr. Ikonya that all shall be well.
“The few of us remaining on the staff list still show up at work every single day with hope that things will get better. We now work for a pittance. For the last six months, we have not received our salaries yet we have school fees obligations and mouths to feed,” Nandwa said.
“It is a double tragedy for some of my colleagues who thought they had found a new lease of life here after they were laid off by their previous employer-Nakumatt, which went under two years ago,” Nandwa reminisces ruefully.
For 28 year old Anne Gitonga who had leased space at the once giant retail outlet to […]
