A few weeks ago, Uchumi, Kenya's second-largest supermarket chain, shut its doors. There were a number of factors why. Mainly, they were billions of Kenya shillings in debt and saw no way out of that tunnel. Bad decisions on the part of high-level management were the reason.Many were outraged - particularly those who lost their jobs. My outrage (trivial in comparison) was that lines at our local supermarket are now longer than ever. (That chain, Nakumatt, certainly is triumphant in the situation. Curiously I saw no reflection of this in the many newspaper articles I read about it.)
The main difference between Enron and Uchumi is that Enron's demise was because men at the top willfully did bad things. Uchumi's top guys may have done their harm with a bit less awareness of the depth of their mistakes.
So yes, it was yet another case of a few being selfish in their decision-making and affecting an entire country.
Once again, I created the picture via imagechef.com.
4 comments:
What does Uchumi mean?
"Uchumi" is the name of the formerly second largest supermarket chain here. I'm not sure if it actually means something in Swahili.
And thanks for the compliments, Chris!
'uchumi' is kiswahili for 'economy' its the name that was given to the retail chain that has been in operation here since the seventies.
Thanks Gathinga!
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