The only surviving Nakumatt supermarket outlet in the Lakeside city of Kisumu has been closed.
The outlet positioned along Kisumu-Nairobi Highway was closed officially on Tuesday, leaving 32 employees crying for unpaid salaries.
Addressing the media at the Nakumatt Mega City branch, the supermarket Chief Supervisor Michael Ochieng said that last Thursday when they came to work as usual they were told not to open the supermarket for any client.
“What has shocked us is that last Thursday we came here early in the morning but we were ordered not to open for clients, what made us start asking for our pay,” said Ochieng.
Ochieng said the company management in Nairobi has held his salary after he was accused of talking to the press about the supermarket’s woes, asking the media and government to intervene so that he can get his pay.
He also noted that they have sought help from the labour officer in Kisumu who has already summoned the management and ordered them to pay their workers before closing down completely.
In protest of their wages and arrears amounting to Sh2 million, the 32 workers at the store stopped carting away of products to Nairobi until the management clears with them. The standoff between workers and the management saw police officers from Kisumu called in to have the packed goods loaded into the trucks but that did not bear any fruit as workers stayed put, saying no product will leave the premise until they are paid.
Mildred Atieno who has worked for Nakumatt for 22 years revealed that they were issued with the notice about the intended closure but what shocked her is how the management hurried their dismissal as the notice indicated that their contract would expire in January 2020.
“I have been working for Nakumatt for 22 years but now the supermarket is closing. On Thursday we came to work but we were stopped and told the shop is being closed, our problem is the contract was to go till January 2020,” she noted.
Atieno noted that when the other Nakumatt outlets were closed the workers were not paid for eight months, thus made them travel to Nairobi to ask for their pay plus arrears.
The 32 workers now want the government to intervene. However, the management declined to address the media as they were held up in a meeting with police officers on the way forward.