Sarah and Simon Kabu, owners of Bonfire Adventures
Bonfire Adventures often jumps on trending ‘celebs’ to sponsor them to a destination for public relations.
Sometimes, the company has been met with a major complaint about lies that they told a client and it has often culminated into bad online publicity, like in the case of Dr Stellah Bosire, which the company handled through sponsoring a hashtag.
A few days ago, cnyakundi.com learnt about the company’s little-known mischievous ways.
A former staff laid bare the slavery and extortion happening inside the company, where staff members are penalised for each and every ‘mistake’ they do. The ‘mistakes’ are things like lateness, not picking calls (even when they are off-duty), clients complaining online.
The pressure of working long hours has led to burn-outs that has forced some staff to resign from the firm.
“We work long hours, without food, without any overtime pay. When you burn out, you are taken to the hospital. Most often you’ll find yourself better off at the hospital than at the company. I noticed that every time I felt sick and took leave, I got better at home even without medicine, but as soon as I came back, I got sick again,” said a former staff who spoke to cnyakundi.com
Some former staff who quit are now being asked to pay back the money that was used to pay their hospital bills. It is a gestapo that Sarah and Simon Kabu are running.
“I never signed any agreements anywhere, I was sick the whole year wakajitolea kunisaidia and how can you dai mtu pesa ya hospital bill as an employer nkt”, said a former staffer.
She continues, “I was sick a whole year juu ya pressure at the job. When I was at work nagonjeka when on leave bila pressure niko poa. I slept in the office 3 consecutive nights without going home doing SGR (ticketing) for the whole company with no benefit or extra pay so that I met the deadlines. I never showered or changed until my husband came to spend the night with me in the office helping me sort the tickets, after that my sickness started. I broke down due to their pressure and fatigue and since then my life has never been the same again. All along, I thought they were assisting with the bills willingly because they knew they were the source of my sickness, I never suspected that it was cheap publicity. Many people have left bonfire just because of the pressure; no longer a conducive working environment. My house is full of hospital files just because of their pressure. Now I have my own small company and they have known and 3 weeks after resignation ndio wananikujia na madeni to pull me down”.
Bonfire Adventures did not immediately respond to these allegations.
There is so much I can tell but let me fight for my rights first. As an employer according to labor laws they are even the ones to compensate me because they made me sick with they gave me all that pressure, they gave me a sickness I never had and I will continue suffering yet my health can’t be the same again.
Many people are just there because they don’t have a way out at the moment but those people are evil.
Would you dare ask for employment here, giving the experience you have read here?
They are refusing to pay tour consultants the basic salary they are paying now of Sh25,000. Last month, they delayed salaries and they paid around 15th.
With this pandemic if you don’t hit a target of Sh100k profit you don’t get the Sh25k basic and you get paid 25% of that commission.
Can you imagine if a person is paying a transport of Sh7k and taking lunch and you pay them 25% of 50k profit if that’s what they sold. How are you meant to pay bills or even have energy to work?
Before Covid started, we were to reach targets of minimum Sh600k profit per month per tour consultant. We were 70 consultants, so do the math of the minimum profit yet there are those who made even Sh3million profit per month, yet they are paying peanuts now, top branch managers and tour consultants resigned after Covid because that’s pure inhumanity that after all the pressures we used to get and all the money we brought in they sent us away on unpaid leave since April.
Working at bonfire in this era is like living in prison the only thing that is different is you go home.
They penalize over anything and everything.
Ukichelewa penalty client akipost complain online penalty
If you fail to clear quotes on time penalty, if you fail to meet deadlines penalty, it is penalties all over, which makes one not proud working there.
If you don’t pick your phone or uko mteja client apige simu aseme uko mteja that’s a penalty yet it might be at your place electricity is gone and you are in pure blackout. If you don’t pick your phone hata after office hours’ penalty 🙆♀️🙆♀️🙆♀️yaani ni kaa mtu ako jela.
If you are with your husband or wife doing your marital stuff are you supposed to disrupt in the middle just because your phone is ringing????
Simon and Sarah Kabu penalised their staff even for missed calls when they are off-duty. Who does that? Slavery in Kenya must end
Costs per penalty
If all the Bonfire clients knew how much people are penalized just by posting a complain they wouldn’t post.
Online complain post is Sh5k
Lateness penalty is Sh3k
Not picking calls Sh1k
Delaying a quote Sh1k per number of days you have delayed.
Everything calls for penalties yet they pocket the penalty money.
We complained over the lateness penalty as many people resigned due to penalties and pressures, and now they changed to 3 warning letters.
Lateness means even getting late by 1 minute.
What hurts me most are the late hours I spent in the office in 2018 from November to December and from February 2019 till the sickness started.
I used to work till 2 am in the morning and the 2 nights I spent there all sorting SGR tickets for the company for Easter and December holidays with no overtime, with no food the company didn’t even buy me dinner for the nights I spent there, it was all from my pocket. I could not go home because I was under pressure to finish the SGR ticketing on time, mtu mmoja doing ticketing (for SGR) for the whole company sorting all the tickets.
Slavedriver Simon Kabu
After they saw my husband had come to spend 1 night in the office with me they told him that’s good if me and posted on our office WhatsApp pages that they will give us a free holiday to Zanzibar for the good work, Simon personally texted my hubby on the holiday but till today hatujui Zanzibar inakaa aje. When I went to his office last year to ask him about the holiday he said they didn’t promise us a holiday.
I lost everything last year friends had to even form a WhatsApp group to help me with rent and manage other things as I was totally in depression after the many admissions. My life will never be the same again.
Ni sad Sana. Whole of last year I totally made zero na wako hapa wakiniambia I pay Sh412k and 14days. Please help me fight for justice. They can’t restore my health which they ruined but I can get justice.
I am running my company online from the house with support from friends and clients juu sijamake for enough for an office yet, and they want me to pay them.
Haki nikikumbuka there is a day I almost died and my family had to be called urgently at Mater Hospital and the doctors at the hospital had to sedate me coz I was in so much pain I wanted my life to end.
I even removed my hospital gown nikae naked nione kaa uchungu itapungua😭😭😭😭
Not to forget, Bonfire has no professional HR Who can air out employees issues the Assistant Manager who came in as a guest relations officer is the one who they control to do what they want done or said.
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