The fall of AKAMBA Bus

mzeiya

mzeiya

Elder Lister


The company was doing well and making millions of shillings daily in bookings. They were even assembling their own buses. During the 2010 Fifa World Cup in South Africa, some of their buses ferried football fans to the event. Akamba was a big brand until the founder died.

The company’s woes began immediately when Mr. Sherali Hassanali Nathoo died in 2000 and his son Karim Sherali Nathoo took over. He wasn’t conversant with the business. He would storm booking offices and demand cash. The company made millions of shillings daily.

With this habit, he encouraged workers who handled cash to steal since no one would ask questions if it was reported that the boss took the money. Remittance to the company started going down. Rogue staff started stealing spare parts and branch managers created their own receipts.

Procurement officers became overnight millionaires. All these undertakings were taking a huge toll on the company’s financial health and by late 2010, there were already signs that the company was going under.

Wrangles began at the board level, the company failed to pay employees and suppliers, buses started experiencing mechanical problems leaving passengers stranded on the road and eventually, auctioneers came knocking.

Before things went south, directors had not been in talking terms for weeks forcing managers to suspend commuter services after relations with creditors became sour. Frequent mechanical failures on the road started affecting the company’s image.

At some point, a bus would leave Nairobi only to get stuck at Nakuru or Kericho because it did not have enough fuel. Drivers had gotten to the point of asking passengers to contribute money to buy enough fuel to get them to their destinations.

By this time, failure to pay suppliers due to looting had eroded trust and firms that had been supplying fuel to the company in wholesale stopped. In 2011, auctioneers started going after the company’s properties.

By 2012, the damage that had been done on the company’s financial health, public image and employee trust was irreparable and had made the road so bumpy that it had to close shop.

PS
 
From TBT archives
The Akamba Public Road Services
The company was started between the mid and the late 1950s by Sherali Hassanali Nathoo who was a member of the economically and professionally vibrant Ismaili community of Machakos. The company’s first national headquarter was in Machakos town which was in the middle of a lucrative route linking Nairobi city and Kitui town. The main contribution of the Akamba in the colonial economy was skilled labour in industries and government positions in various parts of the colony and the East Afrcan region. It seems the initial and major intention of the company was to provide transport between home and workplaces for these workers and their families. Soon the company’s reach went beyond the Kamba clientele and became a sort of national road carrier that was spearheaded by an elite fleet of buses known as “inter-city coaches” that were powered by British-made Leyland-engines. In line with its phenomenal growth, the company moved its heard quarter to Nairobi the capital city of Kenya. Thereafter, many more hubs were opened in key urban centres in East Africa as the company extended its service to all major parts of the region.
The reason for growth could be attributed to the bus service founder’s intuitive leadership, keeping to schedules and having a highly-rated road safety record. The company also operated a secure and reliable parcel courier service that rivaled that of the then monolithic government-owned Postal Corporation. The gradual post-independence decline of the once-dominant train passenger services of the Kenya-Uganda Railways also helped the company’s growth. The company’s success can also be attributed to its workers. The bedrock of the bus company’s staff was young Kamba men who filled most of the clerical, engineering, driving and ticketing operation positions. Truly, the bus company was a cultural ambassador to the Kamba nation whereby the distinct yellow body and large “Akamba” logo with the trademark athlete bearing a javelin was seen in all parts of the region, to the extent that the yellow colour came to be stereotypically associated with the Kamba community.
Starting in the 2000s, the company started to face a myriad of challenges. The death of the founder in the year 2000 pushed the company closer to the brink of collapse. It was reported that there were squabbles and ineptitude on the part of the heirs. It seems there was poor succession management and it was only the trust the company had built over the years that kept it going while in fact it was an economic shell. Further, the declining road infrastructure and security situation had a heavy toll on the company. The deteriorating road condition in its traditional routes started to bear a heavy toll on the vehicles and it became difficult to maintain vehicles while sustaining the low prices the company was well known for. Further, newer companies whose buses had more powerful engines such as the Japanese-made Isuzu and Swedish manufactured Scania, sleeker designs and other amenities came in to offer stiff competition. The final collapse came in the year 2006 when creditors accompanied by auctioneers descended on the company’s numerous assets around east Africa.
The giant of Ukambani fell and many livelihoods were lost. Local family-owned businesses can learn from this chronicle to try improve generational business leadership succession.
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Shida ni bonobos want their kids to enjoy a pampered and luxurious life in compensation for what they did not have while growing up.

This breeds a generation of lazy, pompous and self centered brats. Look at your kids today and tell us if they are not any of these..... (rhetorical) pia ni sawa kuwatetea but who are we kidding really?

Immerse your children in your activities early in life or else sell off that business uwapatie cash mtu ajipange.
 
Give your children a good education, then let them fend for themselves. Turn your big business into a publicly traded company and appoint professionals to run it. Give excess money to charity. If you want, set up a family trust for your kids separate from your businesses. Microsoft is doing well without Bill Gates' family involvement.

If billionaires here and in the country follow this script it may be more beneficial for the economy
 
Masgwembe said:
Shida ni bonobos want their kids to enjoy a pampered and luxurious life in compensation for what they did not have while growing up.

This breeds a generation of lazy, pompous and self centered brats. Look at your kids today and tell us if they are not any of these..... (rhetorical) pia ni sawa kuwatetea but who are we kidding really?

Immerse your children in your activities early in life or else sell off that business uwapatie cash mtu ajipange.
Click to expand...


Copied: “Hard times create strong men. Strong men create easy times. Easy times create weak men and weak men create hard times."
 
Budspencer said:
Akina @Bada Lingam know how to induct their kids into their business empires vizuri sana. They even marry within their families ndio mali isipotee. How they avoid congenital malformations on their subsequent generations ndio sijui.
Click to expand...
stories from within the closed estates in Ngara and Downtown, say that the have deformations/malformations and are well hidden from the public eye.

but it might be a small price to pay considering how their empires move from generation to generation.
 
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