Uchumi supermarkets has reportedly closed all their branches and has been suspended from trading at the NSE.
Pole to all those who had bought shares for the one time largest supermarket(mwananchi supermarket) .You know am begining to wonder why they brand all non performing 'stuff' as 'mwananchi'? they branded KBS the same name and now Kengen(God forbid)
If i remember the basics in my finance class,when a company goes under the corporate rules and ethics dictate that the lenders are paid first then the creditors(those in the supply chain)and LASTLY the ordinary share holders share the residue,hell knows on what ratio-basis.
Uchumi was indebted to a tune of more than 600 million shillings to KCB and the PTA banks and whenn you factor the creditors into the equation, the owings shoot to over 1.2 billion shillings!
so it seems that its going to be quite a while before the creditors (banks and suppliers) are cleared before the ordinary share holders are compensated(if they ever will).
They will tell you that 'weep not child' but i say YES YES weep. your money is as good as lost!!!
i am one of the victims!!!

allow me to weep please.

Wa Kihia
I sympathize with you. I can understand the investors predicaments, but what annoys me is that there were some peopel who knew something was cooking and then kept it as a well guarded secret instead of advising the vulnerable wananchi's accordingly. The following is a 'cut n paste' from today's nation

'"The Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation (ICDC), Kenya Wine Agencies and ICDC Investment gave up some of their rights to new investors during the rights issue. ICDCI baled out completely.

Businessman Naushad Merali’s Sameer Group early this year snapped up 10 per cent of the stake before they quickly pulled out. It was reported that the Uchumi board had refused to grant him the number of board seats he wanted.

How comes ICDCI, KWAL and Merali made the right decision at the right time? Is there no reason to suspect insider trading somewhere?

Pole tena Wa Kihia. i weep with you, and the other wananchi.

nyumba

Please check the Daily nation cartoon today '5th june 06'.

Fat cats will always be fat cats.

Thayu nyumba

atiriri kariuki wa kariuki, ni kambuni waagite ugithii kugura Uchumi, you hadnt heard them saying penye ICDC hapakosi losses.
anyway, weep weep muthee, ndukamake, cia arume ciuragira kuingi.

Wamung'ere,
Do not blame Kariuki and others for such a move. I am a victim too and maintain that the powers that were deliberately withheld very vital information from the investors (the wananchi). Uchumi traded even on May 31st, a day before it folded!
What annoys me more is that I had written to my broker in January to dispose of my shares and your guess is as good as mine, I lost as they hadn't implemented my request by June! (clicks mouths twice)

ngunjiri kai broker waku ari uriku?
you should lodge a complain to the CMA and NSE.had you signed a sale order? do you have a copy?.
just take those to CMA or NSE.CMA offices are at Reinsurance plaza.If you have those documents,the cma will rule (9/10) that the ****** broker compensates you and will also be disciplined......thats how it is,

it was actually suspicious that prior to the colapse, there was some fishy sudden trading of shares. how can the trading be at a low of 1000, today, then the next day it shoots to milions. someone knew the company was colapsing. i think someone should sue. Wakuru, you need to lodge a complain, some not so reliable sources tell me that your share sale order should not exceed a month. its already past

The last Uchumi boss was a S. African, and there are South African investors interested in Uchumi. Am I smelling a rat here, or am I such a conspiracy theorists? I did not lose shares, but my loyalty is to the Kenyan investors, as they say "Iri Gikuyu itiri Ukabi"

And a certain "wise" man sold over 1 million shares hours before it was declared insolvent!! How cruel can someone be. It's alleged s/he had inside information and needs to be investigated.
Wamung'ere, thanks, I will sure lodge a complaint because surely this was very unfair to have delayed to implement my request for 5 months. And I am shifting base from that broker!

Hope to see Uchumi up and running soon. But those who brought it down should be as Murungaru put it: Wasakwe, Watwangwe na Wabwagwe! They should be put in jail and the keys thrown to the Atlantic!

Washindwe!

Now that Uchumi has re-opened, is there any reason to smile? or do we keep our fingers crossed until it moves from ICU to HDU.

My hope is that now that the dirty tricks of Tusker Matress and Nakumatt have been exposed, Uchumi stands a chance in a fair playing field.

I did my own 'spot check" and realised Kenyan's confidence in Uchumi is slowly creeping back, which is a good thing. The shops so far opened are well stocked, they are busy and it seems the suppliers are confident of Uchumi. They have also introduced the "smart card" concept where with each purchase you earn points which you can redeem later. It is called the "U Card". They are also in partnership with other business interests that reward points for every purchase. I have the card and have this resolve to always shop at Uchumi.
Tujenge Uchumi yetu. Mimi ninaijenga.

Ngunjiri

i think people need tell us more, from my research this is what i gather about the man,
Who is Chris Kirubi? What sort of a person is he? (This is a significant question because character is essential for anybody running a public institution, let alone the chairman of the board). How did he make his current fortune? What was his role in the collapse of Uchumi?

I have deliberately put these questions together because they are related.

It is amazing what short memories Kenyans have. I will not make any claims or wild allegations but will instead present a few facts.

Chris Kirubi did not inherit his fortune. During the coffee boom 1975/1976 when many Kenyans made millions smuggling coffee from chaotic Uganda at a time when Brazilian coffee had been heavily hit by frost thus pushing world coffee prices to an all time high, Chris Kirubi was a mere employee of a parastatal transport company known as Kenatco.

Without making any wild allegations, before the coffee boom Mr Kirubu was a penniless ordinary employee of Kenatco. After the coffee boom, he emerged an extremely wealthy man. He used his connections and friendships made during the coffee boom to clean up and enhance his image. Foreign companies coming into Kenya looking to appoint a director with their ear to the ground and good reliable powerful contacts had turned to Chris Kirubi in increasing numbers and in no time at all he was "Mr Clean". Meanwhile this shrewd unschooled man picked up all he could from the many boardroom appearances he made, the rest as they say is history and today he is one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the land. But now it seems that his past is rapidly catching up with him.

The key question to ask here, is what were Mr Kirubi's priorities and loyalties when he was appointed chairman of the board at Uchumi? Were they to further enhance the well-being of this public company or was it to consolidate his own personal interests?

The government should instigate a full enquiry into the circumstances that led to the collapse of Uchumi and we will see to who's door step most of the blame leads. This is serious matter because Uchumi was not somebody’s family business.

This blogger's policy is never to make wild unsubstantiated claims that cannot be proved and in the instances when I cannot resist the temptation of doing so, I label them as such. However the truth is that whilst we may laugh and look down on small retails traders and dukawallas, the truth is that there is no corporate sector that calls for more specialist knowledge than the retail business (an MBA only, is the worst possible qualification for a supermarket CEO to have - just ask Nakumatt). Reading the biography of Sam Walton and Walmart will make this truth come out very clearly for anybody. Inspite of Sam Walton’s vision and genius, the great American supermarket chain was in deep debt for many years.

My bet is that it will be found that Uchumi Spermarkets was thrown to the wolves, that is a group of people struggling to be the ones to gain the most personally from this national asset and non of them had the faintest idea of what the business was all about.

This blogger hereby joins the growing list of Kenyans asking that the government step in and halt the collapse of Uchumi.

My suggestion is that the man who understands this company more than any other Kenyan I know, Suresh Shah be re-appointed managing director and that the government gives the supermarket chain a soft loan to get things going again, even as a full public enquiry is instituted.