The exit of Mr. Tony Mwangi is key in part three of this article as it reveals all the under dealings and exposes the gaps within the Unaitas Board of Directors.
In late 2017, the former CEO, Mr. Tony Mwangi who had been at the organization for close to 17 years announced that he would retire in 2018. Though the exact date and month were kept under wraps, details have emerged of how the machinations on succession politics that would hitherto initiate the downtrod of Unaitas came to light.
It is worth to note that it had been rumoured that Mr. Tony Mwangi had been engaging in underhand dealings that led to the loss of money from the organization due t fraudulent and corrupt means.
Around March 2018, Tony announced to a few friends that he would be proceeding on retirement come October 2018. The exit of Mr. Mwangi, therefore, led to the following;
- Succession politics
- The imminent exit of Tony led to the start of succession battles pitying 3 front-runners namely Peter Njuguna, Nyaga Thagichu and the least expected Martin Muhoho who apparently never showed any interest in the position. But this disguise by Muhoho was a clear-cut strategy to outdo the other front-runners, as will be seen in a few.
- It is believed that Muhoho immediately undertook a campaign leave and declared to the board that he was resigning due to what he termed as irreconcilable differences with Tony. Through this scheme, the board selected representatives to ‘sweet talk’ Muhoho and reconsider his resignation. But apparently, Muhoho was aware of a strategy by the Board that Tony’s successor would be appointed from staff outside Unaitas. This would see him eligible for an appointment since at that time he would not be a staff of Unaitas.
- Now that it emerged that Tony’s successor would emerge from amongst the senior management staff, the team that was hurriedly convened by the board to ‘sweet talk’ Muhoho sprung into action and managed to ‘convince’ him to rescind his decision of resigning.
- Immediately, Tony and Muhoho embarked on a mudslinging mission to malign the two front-runners in the eyes of the board members with the following allegations.
Martin Muhoho, Unaitas CEO
- Peter Njuguna:
The board was made to believe that Peter Njuguna was and is a spy who is being used by the competition to siphon information regarding the growth of Unaitas. In specific, he was accused of leaking critical strategic information to Co-operative bank a key Unaitas competitor. According to the allegations, Njuguna’s role was to pass critical information to the competitor to ensure that Unaitas did not transform into a bank. Why would Co-operative bank be interested in Unaitas remaining as a Sacco? Simple, Unaitas banks at Co-operative bank and would therefore lose a major customer if the business would be eliminated. Sacco’s are not allowed to transact in Forex and are also not clearing houses meaning that all cheques would have to pass through a bank for them to be cleared. In this regard, Co-operative bank that gets the bulk of the transaction business and ABC were the major banks used for this purpose. So why would a co-operative bank let Unaitas become a bank and just lose the business just like that?
So this narrative was enough to paint Peter black and therefore his quest of becoming the CEO was quickly flashed down the drain even if it did not hold any water.
- Nyaga Thagichu
On the other hand, tony and Martin managed to simply brand Nyaga as a thief. It was that simple. The allegation perpetuated by the two (Martin & Tony) was that Nyaga was a key ally of the board chairman. Actually, the right word and which was commonly dangled among the board corridors as well as management was that Nyaga was the chairman’s eye in the organization and the chairman consequently was Nyaga’s eye in the board. This relationship saw Nyaga branded as a thief who through procurement deals managed to ‘steal’ on behalf of the chairman. By fuelling this propaganda, the two, Martin & Tony again managed to successfully convince the board that Nyaga cannot be trusted with the position of the CEO.
- It should be noted however that from the above allegations against Nyaga and Peter, no concrete evidence or properly constituted investigations were conducted to ascertain them. Instead, the allegations since they were levelled by Tony, who was by then the CEO, could not lie and hence the information was picked as gospel truth. With this Martin & Tony managed to convince the board that the two were definitely ‘unfit’ to serve in the position of the CEO.
- This then gave Martin (By the way, he has always been branded as incompetent by his peers at the Senior Management table and has always been challenged to show his track record which there has been none) an upper hand in the succession battle.
2. The decoy strategy
- To ensure that Martin sails through smoothly without letting people know, a group of three board members namely James Kinoro, Michael Mureithi & Gabriel Mugo embarked on a decoy strategy to create confusion among the front runners to the position of the CEO
- To ensure success, Kinoro and Mureithi managed to ‘befriend’ Nyaga and succeeded in hoodwinking him that the position of the CEO is for his taking. The strategy was to convince the chairman that Nyaga was their choice. Since the chairman and Nyaga were closely knit, they easily and happily fell into the trap laid by the two board members. On separate occasions, the two board members met Nyaga and assured him of their support when the time comes. Nyaga knowing how influential the two were at the board level fell prey and sat pretty waiting for the hour and time. They managed to pull his decoy till the last day.
- On the other hand, Gabriel embarked on a mission to hoodwink peter. It is rumoured that Gabriel teamed up with another board member Peter Kamangara to hoodwink peter into believing that the position of CEO was his for the taking. Actually, the narrative that was sold to Peter was that he was god-sent to Unaitas. This gave Peter comfort and assurance that the coveted seat for the Unaitas CEO was his for the taking. And with that comfort, he too sat pretty waiting for the hour and time of the appointment.
3. The day of reckoning (Dooms Day)
- The day of reckoning finally came. August 9th 2018 was D-day. This was the day when the King would be announced. Three days prior, and wanting just to be sure, Martin undertook a final trip to ascertain whether their plans were in top gear. He did this by engaging separately different persons of interest to just listen and ‘pledge’ loyalty and support to the two contenders. The message only differed depending on who he met whether they were allies of Peter or Nyaga. In short, when he met Nyaga’s allies, Martin convincingly demonstrated how he is looking forward to Nyaga’s appointment and vice versa when he met Peter’s allies.
- But the truth of the matter is that Martin being a sly character since his days at Unaitas, managed to utilize this trait effectively and successfully and again easily managed to hoodwink his competitors. His main objective for this sly behaviour was also to seek information that would help him retain his front-runner position. Of course, once again he wanted to get more last-minute incriminating information that he would use as a final nail to Nyaga’s and Peter’s coffins.
- The day of reckoning is August 9th 2018. The board members converge and in what was to be a brief agenda to declare a CEO turned around and shock hit the chairman who all along was hoodwinked to believe that his choice of CEO (Nyaga) would carry the day.
- The chairman did not see this coming. According to sources that were at the meeting, the board eventually took a vote and the results came as a surprise to Chairman and his team. Wait a minute, did the chairman even have a team in the first place? The results of the vote will answer this question. Nyaga the chairman’s choice got 2/9 votes. Martin got 7/9 votes. So did the chairman have a team on the board in the first place? Your guess is as good as mine. Peter’s number of votes was obvious. He walked away with zero. Yes, no one on the board even considered him. So disappointing at some point, sources at the Unaitas head office at Cardinal Otunga Plaza’s second floor intimated that Peter shed a tear upon receiving the board’s verdict.
4.. It is our time to eat
The August bombshell was a hard-hitting announcement that indeed, little-known Martin, who in the eyes of everyone was not even in the race for the CEO’s position, was installed.
Immediately word spread to the entire organization like a bushfire creating mixed reactions among the staff members. What followed was a series of activities that would hitherto reveal so much behind-the-scenes machinations that were taking place at that time. The following are just but a few;
5… Irrational transfers
How can transfers be termed irrational?
- Staff were arbitrarily transferred to new positions. The transfers according to inside sources were aimed at achieving one purpose and goal, to humiliate the chairman and show him that he has no say in the organization. Indeed they had demonstrated that he was a nobody by maliciously targeting everyone that was believed to be allied with him. True to the saying that if you want to eat a frog, then choose the one that is fat and juicy. This saw the gang of winners who were thirsty and baying for the blood of chairman allies wielding machetes and wailing war songs. Of course, their biggest arsenal which was displayed and successfully utilized during the August 9th meeting was non-other than the numbers. In politics, numbers count. Here it was 7 Vs. 2 that was dangled on the face of anyone who seemed to be protesting on anything. Back to the transfers, and the fat juicy frog story. The first target was Nyaga who not only the board wanted to humiliate the chairman but also emerged that for a long time a clique of the board members have been baying for his blood.
- If for a second we can look at who is Nyaga and why his blood was being sought after. Remember Top Chama Show and Judge Nyaga? Immediately after the show ended, rumours were milled and churned that the show made Nyaga famous. Of course, Nyaga stood out among all three judges. He was firm, and fair and demonstrated no nonsense during the show. What earned him the limelight was the fact that he spoke his mind without fear or favour. Away from the show, Nyaga’s personality is a straight character that speaks his mind and is devoid of malice. Those we spoke to and who worked with Nyaga for many years described him as a person who finds comfort in speaking his mind and telling it as it is. Now whatever he says whether you liked it or not is entirely up to you. In fact, that was your call to take. But it will appear silly and petty for some board members and the then-CEO to say that the limelight he enjoyed during the show was the cause of his persecution. Far from it. But how would the board then put their dislike of Nyaga across? What narrative would the ‘aggrieved’ parties paint Nyaga being that he is also likeable by a majority of staff? But of course, two proverbs will answer this in finality. One, if you want to kill a dog, give it a bad name. Two, if a hyena wants to eat one of its own, accuse it of smelling like sheep. The easiest narrative was that Nyaga ‘benefited’ from the procurement of Top Chama Season show. And to further cement the theory, it was quickly rumoured that indeed one of the directors of the agency, which produced the show, was actually Nyaga’s girlfriend.
- The allegations were silly and laughable. They weren’t proven and the fact that the lies were repeated over and over, it somehow stuck to the minds of some board members who somehow bought the narrative. It is worth noting that a thorough audit was conducted on the procurement of the show and the process was given a clean bill of health. The reason why the audit outcome was genuine was that it was conducted at a time when a new fiery auditor had been appointed to the senior management position. First the new auditor Mr. Edwin Njeru wanted opportunities to make a mark and start bagging his Bonga points (Read fame). Why was Edwin so eager to comb and get to the bottom of the Top Chama show season 2 audit? It is worth noting that just before he started this audit, he had successfully managed to bring down two Mugumo trees, which were deeply rooted in Unaitas. Edwin had successfully filed cases against Mr. Jadiel Kinyua and Harun Mwirigi. Having slain the two giants, Edwin’s thirst for more blood was unexplainable, he yearned for more and how lucky was he to land another Mugumo target in the name of Nyaga, but was he lucky? To cut the long story short, Edwin did not manage to find fault in the case and slowly coiled his tail back to his desk.
- The owners of the dog were angry, how now? How could Edwin not find fault in Nyaga? Taking you back to the times before August 9th and now that Nyaga was to be painted black completely, several audits were commissioned against him with a major one touching on the procurement of a Medical insurance firm. It is believed that Nyaga could not escape on this one and therefore this would be one painful kick in the butt to detach him from the organization. But was it? Again Edwin failed to nail Nyaga on this and this earned Edwin the wrath of the dog handlers. Edwin henceforth became a marked man. Mark this word Marked man as will be shown. Back to the illegal transfers, Nyaga now who seemed to have 9 lives was quickly and hurriedly deployed to head the marketing function. He promptly declined. But again put yourself on Nyaga’s hoes, how on earth can you embark on a new career during your sunset days at the organization? What I mean is that Nyaga is a career Human Resource professional who has been in HR all his life at Unaitas. So what is the logic of sending him to marketing, Isn’t he too old to start enrolling in marketing schools? Ideally, he was being set up for failure Period. In order to give more details on the irrational transfers, let’s pause for a moment on Nyaga’s story, as this also will be revisited in a few.
- Remember the title up there it is our time to eat? This is the justification: The most significant transfers occurred in key operational areas at HQ and branch levels. At HQ, the procurement team comprising of Isaac Korir who by then had been acting head after his former immediate head Abudho Khoyowa commonly known as Abu, went AWOL. But why did Abu go AWOL? Keep it here. So Isaac and his colleague Nancy Nduati were hurriedly hounded out of the procurement office and deployed to the Gatundu branch as a Branch Operations Officer and Operations officer respectively. What was the basis of the transfer, simple if a hyena wants to eat his children, accuse them of smelling like sheep. Again unsubstantiated allegations of cartels led by procurement staff were dangled among the handlers and of course like the other narratives it passed smoothly like a hot knife placed on butter. In their place, Grace Kimani a career bank staff who was brought from the credit section where she was holding brief as the head of credit admin was appointed the head of procurement. Another career accountant Felix Kahora was appointed to procurement to assist Grace. Grace and Felix have never stepped into procurement class and the only induction they undertook was adopting the Public Procurement Act 2007 regulations and using it as a reference in all their operations.
- This shows that the department is literally and practically run by the book. The question would therefore be what was the motivation of appointing two non-procurement staff to run such a critical and highly regulated department? Meanwhile, Korir seemed to have learned from the best, his boss, because he too went AWOL upon the expiry of his given time at the procurement office. He has never come back since and has since moved on to pursue other personal interests.
Former Unaitas CEO Tonny Mwangi
- Another significant transfer was for Edwin Njeru. We will take quite a while here to fully grasp Edwin’s story. Remember his woes started when he failed to nail Nyaga in several unsuccessful reports against him. Sources close to Edwin and of course the puppeteer Tony (Keep it here to understand why Tony suddenly is being referred to as a puppeteer) confided that these failed attempts earned Edwin the wrath of board members who were keen on pushing out Nyaga out of Unaitas. But a more outrageous reason was that while Edwin had failed to nail Nyaga, successfully managed to slay Harun. But what was the issue here? Harun was a born Muranga man. It is said that Harun hailed from the same village with 3 or 4 board members and how shameful that Harun fell under their watch. On the other hand, Edwin and Nyaga hail from Kirinyaga County, ill let you to quickly add one plus one on the assumption that was made. Yes, you got it right. That is what was assumed. The affected board members gathered venom against Edwin and immediately launched attacks at him. It was a cold war. If we can ask ourselves a question, can a hawker nail a professional thief where the Director of Criminal Intelligence (DCI) has failed? I’ll leave you to answer that question.
- Now, Edwin started getting board emissaries to voluntarily resign or be sacked from guess who? Wrong! Tony himself. Tony tried to lure Edwin with a rope and slowly and meticulously tried to convince him to put it around his neck, climb a stool then kick the stool promising him that he would see a miracle after that. With the rope in his hands, Edwin thought real hard. Why would he need a rope, a tree and a stool for him to witness a miracle? Put yourself in Edwin’s shoes, he is being told that he has to witness a miracle whether he likes it or not. Anyway, to fill you in on the story, Tony tried to convince Edwin to resign because the board did not like him. So the coolest way to save his skin was to resign so that he could access all his ‘benefits’. But Edwin had not committed any crime. Upon receiving the news, Edwin retreated home to think carefully about the ‘proposal’ being dangled by Tony. I guess what ran through his mind was how can he be handed a sword so easily and then the best thing he could do is land on it. The following day, he went back to the puppeteer oops Tony, to relay his verdict on his ‘proposal’. “Initiate my exit”. That was Edwin’s verdict to Tony.
- Sources close to Edwin and Tony confided that Edwin told Tony that he had looked at his contract and read it together with the HR Policy and has since found no reason to resign. Indeed his point to Tony was that he has done nothing wrong. And to further cement his decision Edwin asked Tony if the best way Tony would satisfy the demands of the board was to simply sack him. And with that Edwin handed the rope and the stool back to Tony. Tony was taken aback by the reasoning. He did not expect it at all. Tony had to go back to the drawing board. He had missed a critical target. But why did Tony want Edwin and the whole lot of the procurement team out of Unaitas? (Keep it here ). Back to the transfers, Edwin was swiftly removed from Internal Audit and deployed to the head of Finance.
- Another transfer was that of Rosemary Karanja from Finance and Strategy to Recoveries. Recoveries is a unit under the Credit section. It was hived off to perhaps give Rosemary a soft landing, just maybe.
Facts, myths and misconceptions on the downfall of Unaitas SACCO – part 2 of 7
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