PHOTO CAPTION: Andrew Omollo, David Maraguri and Sylvia Agani; key staff who have exited CFAO Motors Kenya citing constant intimidation by toxic MD Arvinder Reel
Eight months ago, this blog embarked on a series of articles unearthing the dirty mess at CFAO Motors (formerly Toyota Kenya).
It all began with an explosive e-mail where staff raised a list of grievances that they asked to be immediately addressed in order to mitigate the growingly toxic working environment under the stewardship of CFAO Motors Kenya Managing Director Arvinder Reel and Chief Operations Manager Joshua Anya.
The complaints ranged from mistreatment, nepotism, tribalism, exclusion, stifled career growth and constant intimidation.
For instance, Mr Arvinder is rumoured to have illegally enlisted members of his extended family to the company’s payroll, which did not go down well with the rest of the workforce that failed to understand why the Singhs enjoyed a much higher salary despite hardly reaching university level.
On the other hand, Mr Anya was felt to have a vendetta against certain communities like the Kikuyu whom he has declared his number one enemy at Toyota Kenya.
Ever since he took charge, all Kikuyus working in the Spare Parts department were sacked from the warehouse on what colleagues term as made-up charges.
By the eighth part of our series, the CFAO Group launched an internal investigation into the corrupt and rogue senior administration led by Managing Director (MD) Arvinder Singh Reel and Chief Operations Officer Joshua Anya.
Guided by submissions anonymously presented by disgruntled employees, the inquiry into the organization’s internal operations sought to extensively probe the allegations with the aim of taking appropriate legal action against all implicated parties.
It also sought to understand how Indian suppliers linked to Mr Arvinder Reel are offered disposed Toyota Kenya vehicles at throwaway prices.
For the entire month of April 2022, a panic-gripped Mr Arvinder Reel was often seen profusely sweating in his office upon the realization that CFAO executives are not only looking into claims of staff mistreatment but also embezzlement of funds and gross misconduct.
One of the items that raised eyebrows among the top hierarchy included the construction of the Sh500m CFAO showroom in Kisumu where a huge chunk of the project money is suspected to have gone into people’s pockets.
It is alleged that some of the building works have been granted to a company closely linked to a member of Mr Arvinder Reel’s wealthy family.
Sadly, as expected, the probe left Mr Singh and his accomplices unscathed.
According to our multiple trusted insiders within the firm, ever since then, things have gotten so bad at CFAO Motors Kenya that some key company executives recently absconded her roles in search of greener pastures elsewhere, including competitor firms.
Sylvia Agani, formerly the Nanyuki Branch Manager, resigned after sighting high levels of toxicity from Arvinder and Risk Manager, Margaret Guandaru Guandaru.
She has since joined Scania Kenya.
The General Manager of Loxea Limited, also under the CFAO group, Mr Andrew Omollo also resigned sighting frustrations and threats from Arvinder.
David Muraguri, a Parts Supervisor at Central Parts Store also resigned and joined a competitor, Isuzu Kenya.
As our series of unearthing dirt at CFAO Motors proceeds, we encourage more employees at the company to fearlessly come out and unearth deeper details of what is happening at their workplace.
This, we hope, will help trigger action from relevant authorities who are rumoured to be already pocketed by the suspects.
Their mouths are too full to speak, but ours are not.
We shall be keenly following this developing story with a view to publishing subsequent updates on how things pan out at the company.
Would you like to get published on this Popular Blog? You can now email Cyprian Nyakundi any breaking news, Exposes, story ideas, human interest articles or interesting videos on: hello@cnyakundi.com. Videos and pictures can be sent to +254 710 280 973 on WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram.
