Hi Nyakundi,
This is in relation to #SlaveryInKenya series on your blog. It’s a long email but bear with me.
I was working in a flower farm called Flower City Kenya in Machakos county along Garissa Road, it’s owned by 3 Indians, one is a silent parnter, among the two, one is the chairman/financer whom we call Mzee and the other one is the CEO.
When I begun working there in 2017 the working environment was conducive because a higher % of senior managers were Africans and the two bosses worked well with us.
In 2018 Mzee decided to hire an Indian guy called Kishan Bhatt, for the position of procurement manager, a position which he couldn’t manage and because he was friends with Mzee his title was changed to HOD of all departments. Which didn’t make sence because everything went well with or without his presence.
Now this guy, am not sure about his job description but all he did from 8 am to 5 pm was view YouTube videos, listen to Indian songs on loud speaker, changing the Wi-Fi password (if you had something official to do online you’d have to ask for the password akuje akuweke, gives you 30min then changes it again), and send emails to staff to demoralize them.
After he was employed he began looking for petty mistakes among the staff he found so that they could get fired and get the chance to bring in people he knew. At some point we even thought that all departments would be headed by an Indian.
One example was the HR, a young lady, I don’t know at what point they crossed each other but this guy did everything in his power to have her fired then he brought in a guy he knew so that he could control him. The guy would pick fights with other managers in the office infront of all the staff and the HR never did anything because he was afraid of him.
This guy made working there a living hell, he used to demine the casual labourers ati coz they smelled of sweat.
We had a staff bus for carrying managers but the company begun having financial issues so our salaries were always delayed. Now these casuals were paid Ksh.9k a month so pesa zikischeleweshwa wnaumia sana (if salary delays, they suffer a lot). The HR (a different one coz the Indian’s HR quit after the boss wanted to fire everyone who was brought in by that guy juu he was brought in as a spy for Mzee) said that until our money came they could be using the bus with us.
They were quite a number.
At one time the bus was full and the only available sit was next to this guy, one casual went and sat there and that Kishan guy told him to get up he doesn’t want him sitting next to him, the guy had to squat between the sits. So sad.
Another instance was if he found a non indian sitting where he usually sat he’d tell you to get out in the most rude way possible.
He used to go and sit with other senior managers and bring up conversations where the boss was the topic then record the others while they were talking then forward it to the boss, so that they would get in trouble and get fired, luckily it never happened.
Some few months later the company’s financial status continued deteriorating until we were told to stay at home and wait for our money, that was in April 2019. I heard Kishan resigned and moved to Embu to open up a small shop.
Now when I heard this I said we serve a living God, coz this guy made working there a living hell and he was paid 100k + just to sit his fat ass down and watch YouTube, now he’s in debt and has gone back to humble beginings.
