Companies

Shoprite, Carrefour deals spark row among owners of anti-employee fraud firm

super

Shoppers at a supermarket in Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The owners of Hipora Business Solutions East Africa Ltd, a logistics consultancy that specialises in guarding against staff fraud, are engaged in a fight over multi-million shilling contracts with two leading supermarkets.

John Wanjohi has moved to court seeking to stop his co-directors from kicking him out of the firm, arguing that their plan is to wind up the company and start a new one to take over the Carrefour and Shoprite contracts. He claims that he is the one who won the two retailers as clients and he is pleading with the court for protection.

“The respondents intend to register a company in Kenya to compete with the interested party and take over Shoprite and Carrefour who are clients procured by the applicant,” says Mr Wanjoi in the court documents.

He has listed Joram Gatei and his South Africans co-shareholders Johann De Jager and Mr Tshepo Monnanyana as respondents.

The directors in May wrote to Mr Wanjohi giving him 21 days to explain why he should not be removed as the managing director due to abuse of executive powers and sidelining other directors.

They further said due to his failure to adhere to recommendations by the directors the firm has suffered big losses. But in his defence, Mr Wanjohi says the firm had been making profits but in the past one year, the collapse of Nakumatt and Uchumi #ticker:UCHM supermarkets who were clients had affected it adversely.