Mogoi Ayienda (pictured) who worked in SportPesa;s customer relations department says upon arriving home on Wednesday night, she broke into tears before her five-year-old daughter, whom she can no longer confidently assure all is well/CFM – JOSEPH MURAYA
NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 3 – Hours after SportPesa Chief Executive Officer Ronald Karauri broke the news of firing all the employees on Wednesday, many staff are still in disbelief in the face of a bleak future, having been reduced to mere statistics of Kenyans in the unemployed bracket.
Their story is of pain, fear of tomorrow and hope where there is none.
A three-month stalemate between their employer and government on the renewal of their betting license and the proposed increase in taxes ended in the closure of the giant sports betting firm in Kenya and expulsion of all the 400 workers.
We caught up in Mogoi Ayienda at the SportPesa offices along Nairobi’s Valley Road on Thursday, a once vibrant Chancery House now almost a ghost office.
Ayienda says upon arrival at her home on Wednesday night, she broke into tears before her five-year-old daughter, whom she can no longer confidently assure all is well.
What about her nanny? What about her school fees? What about rent?
A train of questions run through her mind, as tears rolled down her cheeks. Reality had hit home.
“I did not know what to do,” fighting tears, Ayienda said, posed for a few minutes as if in deep thoughts and added “I honestly broke down because that’s when it hits home. That is when it hits home that this might not be our life starting very soon and this might not be how we are looking into life.”
Like any other person in a financially stable job would, she did not have a ‘fall back’ plan.
“My job was supposed to be there. Our company has been doing well and our salaries are paid on time and our employer was amazing,” she said.
The three-month storm between the firm and government was just a passing storm, she thought to herself, but not one that would sweep her job away.
Her story is shared among all the SportPesa employees, but she says it is not over, if President Uhuru Kenyatta intervenes and saves her job, so that she can secure a future for her daughter, if not so, guarantee her of a home every time she returns home from school.
“President Kenyatta, my prayer is, our jobs, our livelihoods are in your hands, please save our jobs for us, save our children, siblings, parents, it is all in your hands. We are counting on you,” in a voice loaded with raw emotions, she pleaded.
Her colleague, Tom Bwana, is another staff set to hit the tarmac end of this month if the status quo remains and cannot be able to face his 11-month-old baby, who knows nothing about being employed or not.
While he knew the future was bumpy at least for the last 3 months, Bwana never imagined his boss will ever summon them in one room in a dark evening, to announce their exit, with only memories to hold onto.
“There is one thing that is very difficult. Seeing, nearly four hundred people bundled in a room and waiting for their boss to come break the bad news to them,” with a heavy voice, Bwana said.
And that was the situation some 24 hours ago when colleagues joined for a last meeting together.
“Something should have been done ages ago, something should be done even now, to avert this,” he said.
“It is not just SportPesa, it is entirely the working class of this country. We are striving to create jobs and we still have people in school, studying to get a better future by having jobs.”
Bwana was is the partnership department where he used to deal with branding while Ayienda was in the customer service department.
Betin, another betting firm, fired all their employees in September and closed shop.
How did it all start?
The two firms were among 27 betting firms which were barred from conducting business in Kenya after their licenses were revoked following taxation row in mid-July.
The Government would cripple their business through the blockage of payment systems.
And from the onset, SportPesa termed the move by Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) as “malicious, ill-intended and one that violates an existing court order.”
Their site, sportpesa.co.ke, was on Thursday evening not accessible.
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