Telkom Kenya will sack a total of 575 employees. This is a move to allow the company to merge with Airtel.
According to their CEO Mugo Kibati, Telkom will discontinue their business when they merge with Airtel.
A memo by Kibati indicates that the employees will be sacked to pave way for a merging.
“Telkom Kenya must terminate the employees that are currently deployed to serve in these functions. Other employees who provide administrative and/or support services are also likely to be impacted,” the memo reads.
The two companies announced that they will be merging back in February.
The Communications Workers Union has been notified about the impending sacking of Telkom employees.
Terminations letters have already been sent to those who will be sacked.
This plan is to provide strong competition to telecommunication giant, Safaricom PLC.
Both Telkom and Airtel have a total of 23 per cent of Kenya’s 41 million mobile subscribers. On the other hand, Safaricom has a total of 71.9 per cent subscribes from the total Kenyan population.
Safaricom leads the two firms in terms of revenue generated.
Telkom will retain only 225 of its staff to continue working after the merger.