A trusted source at Carrefour Kenya has unearthed the dark side of the business franchise linked to the Majid Al Futtaim Group.
At the centre of the controversy is French Country Manager Mr. Franck Moreau, whose stewardship threatens to sink the chain of supermarket stores.
The explosive submission forwarded to this blog on 1 Oct 2022 exposes the mistreatment of staff, racial discrimination, violation of the Data Protection Act and favouritism of expatriates.
Dear Cyprian,
Please find below the subject matter, kindly highlight but please protect my identity.
Thanks in advance for providing such a platform to expose these types of issues.
Kindly highlight this to let Kenyans know what is happening at Majid Al Futtaim Retail Carrefour Kenya supermarkets under the stewardship of one French Country Manager Mr. Franck Moreau.
(I) Violation of Data Protection Act
The company does not adhere to the Data Protection Act.
Early this year through one of his staff who is an ex-police officer, Mr. Franck Moreau enlisted the help of one corrupt DCI officer at Parklands Police Station to help them in accessing the personal M-PESA statements of their staff and suppliers in their quest of falsely framing some targeted staff for allegedly receiving ‘bribes’ from suppliers.
The corrupted DCI officer went ahead to swear a false affidavit at Milimani Law Courts that he was investigating a fraud case even without having recorded any statements from the alleged ‘culprits’ then this affidavit was used to legally access the targeted staff and suppliers’ MPESA statement from Safaricom.
As per news in the Business Daily Africa of 1st September 2022, one ex-staff has already sued for the violation and more will follow soon.
The main reason for this witch hunt is that the Country Manager is so racist that he does not want to have a local Kenyan rise to the level of Store General Manager in charge of a hypermarket.
Carrefour has 8 hypermarkets and 9 supermarkets locally.
He hatched a plan to get rid of all Kenyan Store Managers in charge of supermarkets then, whose next level was to rise to Store Managers in charge of hypermarkets by verbally forcing them to resign.
Three of them obliged and left but those who decided to stay put were framed for various ‘misconducts’ one of them being receiving money from suppliers by illegally accessing their personal M-PESA statements and those of suppliers without their consent.
(II) Favouritism of expatriates
By ensuring that he gets rid of the more experienced Supermarkets Store Managers (who were under-studies of the expatriate Hypermarket Store Managers) he either makes a special request for extension of the expired work permits of the old expatriates or applies for new work permits for new expatriates from the Middle East and thus ensuring that no Kenyan rises to the Hypermarket position as per his plan.
Hypermarket branch manager job is not rocket science that we need expatriates given preference over locals.
We have had Tuskys, Uchumi, Nakumatt and Shoprite managed by locals before and we have other existing big successful chains like Naivas and Quickmart being managed by indigenous Kenyans.
It is important to note that Carrefour has operated in Kenya for 7 years now but still has ‘expatriate kasumba’ in their management, which always feel that no Kenyan is worth holding some ‘coveted’ positions even though so many Kenyans in their employment have the qualifications and experience required.
Carrefour Kenya as an entity is a Data Controller and Data Processor as well and handles data collected from their customers under their Customer Loyalty Program and also Suppliers’ data through Supply Contracts signed with them.
With this kind of attitude, the public needs to know that the same way they access data from their staff and supplier could be the same way they would access customers’ data and share or use it inappropriately.
(III) Mistreatment and racial discrimination
The racism issue in MAF Carrefour Kenya has been highlighted in the media including on your blog severally, but it never improves since it stems from the Company’s top leader Mr Franck Moreau himself assisted by Mr Dominique Coloumbel – GM (Merchandise & Sourcing) and Ms Aurelie Boucher (Area Manager) who insult even very junior staff under their watch racially.
The most unfortunate thing is that the Country Human Resource Manager Mrs Roselyn Osimbo is emasculated and instead of advising the top management against the violations she either plays along or aids the violation to safeguard her position.
There is also the company’s anonymous complaints reporting hotline and email but unfortunately, even when a genuine concern is reported it is brought back to the Country Manager and if the culprit is an individual that supports his oppressive leadership style he will always stifle the investigation and victimize the person who reported.
A good example of this is the case of one Mr Michael Mbugi former Financial Controller – Two Rivers branch, who was stripped naked of his shirt ( which is staff uniform) in the office by Mr. Houssem Naccache – then Store General Manager – Two Rivers and dismissed in November 2019.
The report was sent to the Complaints reporting office, but Michael was never given a hearing and instead Mr. Naccache was transferred to Carrefour Nairobi Mega in the same capacity and 3 months later was transferred to Uganda and promoted to Area Manager.
Michael did not have any alternative recourse to justice since as per the attached “POLICE CASES MEMO” no staff member is allowed to report any injustice to the police while in employment.
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Open in new tab This policy is aimed at protecting the violators, who are mostly expatriates and have the support of top management.
The work environment in Carrefour Kenya has been made so toxic that there has been a mass exodus of staff in the last 15 months due to oppression and discrimination.
Company policies are administered on racial grounds.
For instance, a violation that would attract a dismissal for a Kenyan employee would either be overlooked or a light warning if it were an expatriate since they are deemed to be so important to be let go.
Racial discrimination is perpetrated by top Carrefour Kenya management against their Kenyan staff but no one will raise a finger.
The outside world will only realize it when a customer (an outsider) becomes a victim of this abuse, as happened in the case of ‘old beautiful white lady vs a Kenyan lady’ at the Carrefour Hub Store in Karen in October 2017.
(IV) Working Hours
The company’s management also does not respect contractual agreements on staff working hours.
This particularly affects cashiers, floor supervisors and junior managers who work excess hours and are never compensated for the overtime.
During busy shopping periods like on weekends or holidays the mentioned cadres of staff will normally work beyond normal hours since the company has really cut down on staff numbers to save costs but when they raise the issue of compensation they are threatened with dire consequences by the management and are always reminded that so many Kenyans are jobless, and they can be easily replaced.
